True Apocalypse Game

Looking at the rubble before him, Shen Feng wasn’t discouraged. Instead, he carefully compared it to the architectural model in Jingwei’s memory.

Although only a faint outline of the former building remained, this had to be Arthur Seldon’s home.

When the super-tsunami arrived and the sea level rose rapidly, a civilian home like this, located in the suburbs, collapsing into a pile of rubble while still retaining its basic outline was already quite remarkable.

’Time to start the search. Let’s see if I can find anything new under these broken walls and layers of rubble and silt.’

Shen Feng pressed a button, and two mechanical arms extended from the sides of the Submersible. They began to clear away the rubble and silt, hoping to find some clues.

Soon, broken pieces of concrete and brick were moved aside, revealing a layer of wreckage and fragments underneath.

Among the debris were the faint outlines of a sofa and bed, now just bare frames. There were also shards of window glass, broken electronic screens, home appliances that disintegrated at the slightest touch, various household items, and even a crushed car.

These items were a testament to the warm home that once stood here.

Soon, Shen Feng had cleared the living area and garage. Beneath a collapsed iron gate, he discovered three white skeletons, huddled tightly together and shattered.

It was Arthur Seldon and his family.

In the Water World Apocalypse, it seemed he hadn’t had time to become radical or crazed before he and his family were swallowed and buried by the sea.

Shen Feng maneuvered the mechanical arms to gently dig a grave. He placed the skeletons of Arthur Seldon’s family inside, covered the grave with the iron gate, and then released his Thought Field, trying to sense the unique electromagnetic fluctuations of Nanomechanical Insects.

But after scanning the entire ruin, he felt nothing. It seemed to be just an ordinary pile of rubble.

Jingwei’s voice sounded again.

"Xiaofeng, a house with this layout would typically have a basement, probably right under the garage."

Shen Feng nodded. He maneuvered the Submersible’s mechanical arms to move the car’s rusted wreckage, and sure enough, an entrance was revealed.

Without hesitation, he went to the Submersible’s decompression chamber, pressed a button, and swam out with the influx of seawater toward the basement entrance.

The immense pressure of the deep sea had long ago warped the metal door. Shen Feng swam through a gap, using the light cast from the Submersible behind him to see everything inside the basement.

Twisted and broken pieces of experimental equipment were scattered everywhere. He could vaguely make out what looked like machines for microscopic sculpting and energy transfer devices.

Clearly, this was where this world’s Arthur Seldon had manufactured the Nanomechanical Insects.

’Thank goodness! This world is just as I deduced—Arthur Seldon was also creating Nanomechanical Insects!’

’Judging by this equipment, he must have only been in the early stages of manufacturing. They hadn’t reached their mature form.’

’Otherwise, Arthur Seldon wouldn’t have died so tragically.’

As these thoughts raced through his mind, Shen Feng quickly searched the basement.

There was only one core piece of equipment for manufacturing Nanomechanical Insects: the silicon-based culture chamber. If he could find it, he could determine how far this world’s Arthur Seldon had progressed.

𝓯𝙧𝓮𝓮𝒘𝓮𝙗𝙣𝒐𝒗𝒆𝓵.𝓬𝓸𝒎

Soon, amid a pile of scrap metal in the center of the basement, Shen Feng found a small cylinder. It looked like a metal test tube, but it was the core piece of equipment—the culture chamber for the Nanomechanical Insects.

After searching a bit more and finding nothing but equipment utterly ruined by the water pressure, Shen Feng returned to the Submersible.

The Nanomechanical Insect culture chamber was designed to be extremely sturdy and hadn’t been completely destroyed by the water pressure.

Shen Feng forcefully twisted open the culture chamber and looked inside, his expression turning to disappointment.

It was empty.

There was nothing inside.

But then he noticed something. He quickly inverted the culture chamber over his palm and tapped it gently. A tiny pinch of nearly invisible gray dust fell into his hand.

’This is it! The Nanomechanical Insects!’

These Nanomechanical Insects showed no reaction, remaining unresponsive to his brainwaves. They were clearly damaged.

Or perhaps, after so long without power, they had simply turned into ordinary dust.

Shen Feng, however, treated the dust as a treasure, carefully returning it to the culture chamber and sealing it tightly.

He knew these were likely failed products from the first few generations, but with his understanding of the Nanomechanical Cluster, he was confident that if he could just activate them, a few cycles of consumption and modification would be enough to create perfect Nanomechanical Insects.

’All I need now is a set of energy-awakening equipment!’

Of course, there was nothing like that in the submerged ruins of San Francisco.

It was a technology that likely didn’t even exist in the remnants of human civilization.

And yet, a smile of anticipation spread across Shen Feng’s face.

There was, in fact, a place that had such energy-awakening equipment: the one mentioned in the data, the foremost of the fortress laboratories in the far East—the Red Fortress Laboratory!

According to the information he now had, the Red Fortress Laboratory was supposed to be the most advanced laboratory of the Salvation Army, and perhaps the entire world—the technological backbone of humanity’s war against the World Beasts.

As long as he could find the Red Fortress Laboratory, activating the Nanomechanical Insects wouldn’t be difficult.

At this thought, Shen Feng raised his hand and activated the Signal Tracker for the Super Giant War Armor. The thirty-three glowing dots on it were striking, but the most eye-catching was the second-closest one.

That dot was exceptionally bright, suggesting the Super Giant War Armor it represented wasn’t too severely damaged.

War Armor No. 29, the Steel Glory.

It was also the location of the so-called Holy Corpse Market, where Witch Tower and the others were headed.

The sail warship, the *Hope*, should be there.

’If I want to cross a Pacific Ocean that’s much wider than before and head east to find the Red Fortress Laboratory, I’ll need a big ship.’

The Submersible could travel for hundreds, even thousands of kilometers, but it needed to be recharged in a laboratory. Away from a lab, it was basically a single-use vehicle.

’The top priority now is to get the sail warship back. While I’m at it, I can gather some intel on the Red Fortress Laboratory and Beast Gold at the Holy Corpse Market.’

GROWL... A noise rumbled from his stomach, and Shen Feng suddenly felt a pang of hunger.

After checking the Submersible’s remaining energy, Shen Feng pondered for a moment, then piloted it back to the Fortress-3 laboratory. He started recharging the submersible and began to eat.

’By my calculations, at the sail warship’s speed, it hasn’t reached the Steel Glory Saint Corpse Market yet. It would be useless for me to go now.’

’I might as well stay here and study the Super Giant War Armor’s internal systems, just in case.’

「Five days later.」

The Submersible left Fortress-3 Laboratory once again. Following the path on the Signal Tracker, it headed toward the legendary Super Giant War Armor—the Steel Glory.

...

On this day, the Steel Glory Saint Corpse Market was celebrating a momentous occasion.

The famous Minstrel, Mr. Witch Tower, had arrived from afar. He led a crew of brave followers, piloting a colossal ship of unprecedented scale—like something out of ancient legend—and docked at the pier of the Glorious Holy Corpse.

Rumor had it they had entered the legendary Fog Sea, a place from which none returned, defeated a group of wicked Purification Cultists, and even escaped unscathed from the presence of a powerful World Beast.

Their journey itself was the stuff of legend.

The entire population of the Holy Corpse Market flocked to the docks to see the legendary behemoth, marveling at the powerful weapons on its deck.

Seeing the well-dressed townsfolk gaze up at them with envy, the sailors aboard the ship swelled with pride.

After all, this was the Holy Corpse Market, a place countless people dreamed of living. For its residents to now look upon them with such reverence—how could they not be proud!

Meanwhile, in the high council chamber of the Steel Glory Saint Corpse Market, Witch Tower was frowning, his voice stern as he spoke to the blonde, blue-eyed woman before him:

"Ivanka, the *Hope* belongs to Mr. Shen! Not even the Minstrel Council has the right to forcibly requisition this sail warship! What’s more, you don’t speak for the Minstrel Council!"