Sun Hang broke off a small piece of compressed biscuit and threw it towards Nuer. Nuer’s hands trembled and he failed to catch it; the biscuit fell to the ground, instantly collecting plenty of sand particles.
But Nuer quickly picked up the biscuit, wiped off the sand with his hand, and hurriedly stuffed it into his mouth.
At the moment his taste buds touched the food, Nuer’s eyes suddenly widened, round and large.
This impact was no less than the dimensional blow of braised beef noodles/Longjiang pig’s trotter rice to the soldiers of Shu Han. In those few seconds, Nuer’s brain directly fell into a state of crash. (Reference: "If Zhuge Liang provided unlimited instant noodles/Longjiang pig’s trotter rice, would the Northern Expedition succeed?")
After swallowing that small piece of compressed biscuit completely, Nuer’s breathing suddenly became incredibly rapid, and he stared fiercely at the remaining biscuit in Sun Hang’s hand.
Yet the lingering pain in his body allowed him to retain a final shred of sanity, stopping him from directly pouncing in a struggle. Instead, he stutteringly pleaded with Sun Hang: "Can... can you give me... give me a bit more?"
Seeing Nuer’s reaction, Sun Hang couldn’t help but flip over the packaging of the compressed biscuit for a look—he wondered, this thing’s ingredient list didn’t contain any illicit substances, so why was the other’s reaction so strong?
It seems these remnants truly haven’t tasted anything decent...
"If you can answer all my questions," Sun Hang took out an entire box of compressed biscuits directly from his backpack, "These are all yours."
Nuer swallowed his saliva, and after intense mental conflict for several seconds, he chose to surrender.
"What do you want to ask?"
"Where is your settlement located?"
"... The coffin of the envoy." Nuer replied.
"Where is that?"
Sun Hang spent a good ten minutes, even resorting to using mind-reading abilities, before managing to understand from Nuer what this so-called "coffin of the envoy" was.
To put it bluntly, it’s the remains of a Sinking Sand Giant Worm.
Sinking Sand Giant Worms are not immortal. Each worm has a lifespan of about seventy years. In the final stages of life, its body will sink into the depths of the Desert Sea and bury itself with yellow sand.
But unlike most bizarre creatures, the remains of a Sinking Sand Giant Worm do not completely disappear after death, instead leaving behind a remarkably hard shell.
The remains of Sinking Sand Giant Worms, sunk deep within the Desert Sea, resemble massive underground pipes, which the remnants use as natural shelters—the worms are so enormous that a five-thousand-person remnant settlement can only occupy a tiny part of the remains.
Near where the Sinking Sand Giant Worm chooses its burial ground, there is often abundant underground water—this water, filtered through gravel, has already reached drinkable standards, and within the worm’s remains, bodies of water like underground lakes and hidden rivers might appear.
This reminded Sun Hang of a saying.
"When a whale falls, the world feeds."
If there were an oasis within this Desert Sea, it would likely be the remains of the Sinking Sand Giant Worms, which created the Desert Sea with their own hands.
According to Nuer, the remains he resides in harbors at least three remnant settlements. However, differences in belief exist between settlements, so interactions are rare... Even when there are interactions, they are filled with hostile friction rather than goodwill exchanges.
And when Sun Hang asked how the remnants survive in this barren land and what the purpose of collecting Sinking Sand Giant Worm secretions was, Nuer provided an astonishing yet, upon close reflection, curiously reasonable answer.
On this land, every pregnant woman has her unborn child subjected to a divination by the Priest, determining the child’s future fate...
These children are divided into two categories—one is called "the blessed," normal humans like Nuer; the other, "the cursed," are born malformed, losing human shape as they grow old, eventually becoming large and hideous monstrous creatures.
Upon hearing this, Sun Hang had imagined the remnant settlements might expel or kill these "cursed ones," but in reality, the cursed ones are the most important resource sustaining the entire remnant settlement...
Yes, "resources."
The cursed ones are not expelled nor directly killed; they are kept in fixed areas by other remnants... And hunters like Nuer collect the secretions of Sinking Sand Giant Worms as food for the cursed ones.
This feed has a high "feed-to-meat ratio." A bagful can increase a cursed one’s weight by dozens or even hundreds of kilograms.
In return, the cursed ones contribute everything they have, providing the settlement with necessities for survival.
Bones, leather... and flesh and blood.
Sun Hang instantly understood where the leather and bones used to make sand ships came from... Judging by the thickness of the main mast, if the longest bone of a cursed one were the femur, similar to humans, the cursed one’s body must be at least twenty meters tall.
"So, your food... is the cursed ones’..." Sun Hang sized up Nuer, who almost choked on a compressed biscuit, and couldn’t help but confirm with him again, "... meat?"
Nuer swallowed hard the food in his throat, drank some water, and strongly nodded to Sun Hang.
He suddenly felt these remnants could neither be considered ordinary humans nor infected ones—they might be a special existence positioned between ordinary humans and infected ones.
Their current state of survival might exactly align with the world longed for by those online who insist on harmonious coexistence between humans and anomalies.
As for whether it was really longed for, Sun Hang didn’t know. After all, many people espouse ideals while their hearts chase profits... Sun Hang didn’t have time to discern if they genuinely wanted harmonious coexistence or if they were exploiting the slogan for personal gain.
Getting back to the point, Sun Hang believed remnants like Nuer probably evolved into new species for adapting to the Surrendered Area environment.
They certainly carry anomaly memes—the blessed (referring to normal humans) give birth to the cursed (referring to infected or human anomaly-formed anomalies), yet the blessed can safely consume the cursed one’s flesh... These things already indicate the blessed and cursed are actually the same species.
Only the meme in their bodies becomes like a genetic trait—the meme is latent in the blessed, while in the cursed it becomes dominant.