CHAPTER 102: CHAPTER 102: APOCALYPSE, I AM NOT THE HOLY MOTHER 8

Lin Shuangshuang circled the supermarket several times but couldn’t find anything to start a fire for cooking. However, she did spot dozens of instant self-heating hot pots. Since lighting a fire wasn’t an option, she hoped the self-heating hot pot would be hot enough.

After washing half of the mantis eggs with mineral water, she threw the vegetables from the self-heating hot pot aside, filled it with mantis eggs, added mineral water, placed it on the heat pack, and covered it. Lin Shuangshuang opened eight self-heating hot pots in a row just to cook all the mantis eggs.

The heat pack of this self-heating hot pot was surprisingly hotter than Lin Shuangshuang expected. It even boiled the mineral water, making a continuous bubbling sound, and as the water boiled, the mantis eggs emitted a tempting aroma.

The aroma roused Doumi, who had been napping at Lin Shuangshuang’s feet. The cat’s tail twitched as it meowed coquettishly at Lin Shuangshuang, begging for food.

In the past, boiled insect eggs and roasted insect meat were always Doumi’s favorites. There wasn’t much choice back then, as Lin Shuangshuang didn’t have the time to get Doumi its favorite fish. Thinking about it, she felt she owed Doumi a lot.

The boiled insect eggs had a faint, fresh fragrance and tasted delicious. Not only did Lin Shuangshuang and Doumi enjoy a feast, but even Mi Lu, who had initially been hesitant about eating mantis eggs, after forcing herself to eat one, forgot her reservations and devoured them!

After eating, Lin Shuangshuang cooked the remaining mantis eggs to save time for the next meal. Satisfied and full, Doumi rubbed against Lin Shuangshuang’s hand with its back and nudged its head against her leg, its round eyes fixed on Lin Shuangshuang’s backpack.

Lin Shuangshuang, in perfect sync with Doumi, immediately understood the intention. Doumi wanted to help lighten Lin Shuangshuang’s backpack burden.

Lin Shuangshuang couldn’t bear to let Doumi carry the backpack. However, as Doumi persisted, she thought for a moment, went to the supermarket, found a soft, lightweight small bag, and with a flurry of stitching, transformed it into something fit for Doumi to carry. She then packed the freshly cooked mantis eggs into it for Doumi to carry.

Doumi strutted in circles with the small bag, feeling comfortable enough, and contentedly returned to rub against Lin Shuangshuang’s leg.

With a full stomach, Lin Shuangshuang instructed Mi Lu to strap on her backpack, and they headed straight for the city’s largest outdoor gear store. The bustling city had already changed dramatically; although plants hadn’t yet evolved to move, they had grown enormous. Original moss had become as tall as grass, and the previously short grass had grown to half a person’s height. The once tall weeds now resembled small trees in thickness.

Original street and landscaping trees had evolved into towering giants, often over a dozen meters tall and even up to dozens of meters was common. The paved surfaces of roads had been torn up by tree and grass roots, exposing fertile soil.

Chaos was everywhere. Grasshoppers, crickets, and mantises were rarely seen in the city, but mosquitoes, flies, cockroaches, and swarms of mutated ants were everywhere! Flies, mosquitoes, cockroaches, and ants were the biggest threats to humans in the apocalypse!

Of these, flies and cockroaches were the most disgusting; these two were mostly dirty, and nobody wanted to eat them even in the apocalypse. Mosquitoes sucked blood and weren’t strictly dirty, but they were very deadly. Other insects might take a chunk of flesh, but a mosquito bite would drain all one’s blood, leaving only a husk.

Ants, however, were undisputedly the number one threat due to their massive power! It’s well-known that ants are among the strongest creatures in the world!

Even before evolving, ants could easily lift objects hundreds of times their body weight; an ant could easily drag away a larva. This might not seem remarkable until you consider how many times larger a larva is than an ant, revealing the true extent of an ant’s strength!

Fortunately, evolved ants still lived in colonies but hunted either alone or in small groups. Their strength, though not as exaggerated, still allowed them to lift objects ten times their weight!

Just imagine how formidable a human-sized ant with such strength would be. And with their sheer numbers, encountering a lone hunting ant was one thing, but several ants hunting together was a sheer disaster!

If these animals, plants, and insects hadn’t evolved in a way that they still preyed on each other, humans would find no way to survive; from being the apex predator, they had fallen into a harsh food chain cycle.

Humans were akin to Alice stumbling into a wonderland, bewildered by the beautiful yet perilous evolved world.

Unfortunately, the apocalypse was no wonderland but a brutal natural ecosystem chain, where humanity could only struggle to survive, either to be drowned or to climb back to the top of the food chain and reclaim dominance.

No one knew how the apocalypse started; all they knew was that one morning, the world suddenly changed, or rather, the planet began evolving. As the spirit of all beings, humanity became the last to know and lagged far behind all other creatures in this evolution.

Of course, such grand matters were not what Lin Shuangshuang needed to ponder now. At the moment, she was with Mi Lu and Doumi, navigating a city turned into a primordial jungle.

Their pace was not fast. Lin Shuangshuang, having inner strength and adapted to the evolved world, moved at a fair speed. But Mi Lu was merely an ordinary person with not-so-great physical fitness, making slow progress on the high tree roots.

Doumi, however, was bouncing around happily, very excited about the environment. Jumping up and down without a moment’s rest, it pounced at any insect it encountered, causing them to scatter, thereby saving Lin Shuangshuang the trouble of having to clear the way.

Many houses had not yet been toppled by the tree and plant roots, allowing humans places to hide. Thus, no one could be seen on the path or in the newly appeared giant jungle, making it seem as though only Lin Shuangshuang and Mi Lu were left in the world.

But such peaceful hideouts wouldn’t last for long. Ten days later, as plants began to truly evolve, half of human structures would suddenly collapse, sparing only those of exceptional quality or with scarce surrounding vegetation.

With shrinking hideouts, humans would be forced to face this transformed world and the harsh reality of becoming prey in the food chain.

Before reaching the outdoor gear store, Lin Shuangshuang happened to pass a weapons shop owned by an ancient weapons enthusiast. It was quite famous in the city, attracting many antique weapons fans for custom replicas.

Seeing this shop suddenly reminded Lin Shuangshuang of something she had long forgotten!