Published: February 12, 2025
Blood Nest, this is the name of a small town after the apocalypse.
The meaning is quite understandable; it is dirty, chaotic, and poor. Due to the weather, it may not look particularly ugly, but a lingering fishy smell has gradually formed. Once the wind on the ice field weakens, the odor spreads throughout the town.
As for "Nest"... it’s also easy to understand. A dirty and chaotic place, isn’t it a nest?
Yet, despite this kind of place, there are still nearly ten thousand people living here.
This is because there are not only seven roulette divisions in the town and within a ten-kilometer radius, with levels ranging from two to eight, but it is also situated behind an ice lake and before a mountain range, unaffected by ice storms. The ice lake and the mountains behind it provide plenty of mutated life forms for these evolvers to hunt.
Compared to the land-based life forms that lurk in the ice and snow of the high mountains, more people from Blood Nest prefer to make a living on the ice lake because it is filled with many fish and shrimp with a relatively high evolution level, yet they are not very intelligent.
At the same level, they are much easier to deal with.
For instance, there is a specialty in this ice lake called the turtle fish, which is not a turtle but a fifth-level mutated life form covered with a hard shell that grows to about one meter. It has sharp and strong teeth and possesses the ability to spit ice arrows. More importantly, it is a social creature; beneath this ice lake, there are at least five schools of turtle fish, each with over ten thousand individuals, with countless others scattered around.
Among the medium-level life forms in the ice lake, they are the dominant species.
However, these dominant fish are very gluttonous, especially having an unusual craving for the blood and flesh of land-based life forms.
Thus, the evolvers in Blood Nest exploit this habit by breaking through the ice layer on the lake and using special fishing rods to catch them. If the location is chosen correctly, the material grade is high, the hooks are sturdy, the teammates cooperate well, and with a bit of luck, one can catch seven or eight or even ten fish in a single day.
These delicious, high-quality cold-water fish provide ample energy and warmth, making them one of the best foods in the icy plains. The half-armor they wear serves as excellent material for manufacturing battle armor. Other materials such as fish spines and teeth are also rare resources.
Of course, there are also magic crystals.
In a single day, collecting enough magic crystals to spin a roulette is itself very appealing.
So, it’s no wonder that evolvers from Blood Nest are more willing to come to this vast ice lake to fish.
It is the diverse life in the ice lake that nurtures the nearly ten thousand evolvers here.
On this day, just like countless other days, as soon as dawn broke, evolvers started to emerge from the not-so-tall city walls of Blood Nest and made their way to the expansive ice lake to fish.
At this time, the temperature was still very low; compared to Black Dragon City, it was at least ten degrees colder here. The evolvers were bundled up tightly to fend off the harsh cold that they would never encounter in peaceful times.
It is no surprise that these people came out early; although the ice lake is vast, there are only a few optimal spots for catching turtle fish. If they arrive late, the places will be occupied by others.
Among the more than ten evolvers, half of them were wearing sleds, while the others were sitting in sledges pulled by two evolved-level three mutated dogs, speeding across the lake's surface.
Soon, after an hour of scouting, they found a large active school of turtle fish and began to break through the thick ice layer.
"This seems to be where Kafka's team was yesterday. Just one night, and the ice layer is over a meter thick. What kind of weather is this!" an evolver complained while pulling out a spiral drill from the ice layer.
He was speaking in Chinese.