Changes in the forest.
Arther and his team were completely isolated from the outside world the moment they lost the network. Hence they also didn't know about the changes happening outside this dense forest. Ony Arther had an idea of those things.
As they kept moving forward the forest kept getting denser and denser, while the road conditions have deteriorated to a certain extent. It has been two hours since they passed through the area of bone trees, and from that moment Arther was on complete alert and has also ordered others to be ready with the weapons. According to Arther's previous planning, they should have been able to reach the warehouse by 3:00 in the afternoon.
But now it seemed that it might take longer than that. According to the information Arther had received from the internet this road was built in order to facilitate reaching the warehouse by the government. And was also built considering the wartime conditions and easy transportation. According to the information the system has hacked, an area of a 200km radius around the warehouse was completely isolated and there was no specified road, only the personnel allocated there knew of the way to reach the warehouse through the forest. This way was also identified by Arther with the help of the system.
But now he was facing a major issue with this, according to the information, the way led through the forest was cleared out by the military stationed near the warehouse, it was regularly cleared out by them. But now he has observed an abnormal change in the forest. Everyone else in the MCV thought that they were moving deeper in the forest hence it was getting denser, if it was anyone else they will also have the same thought.
The structure of every forest and tree is such that it acts as a natural maze. The topography, low lighting, and other phenomena can create a natural illusion that can lead the person out of the path. The military has built the warehouse here considering these things. It is very difficult to notice any change in the forest easily. This was also the issue for Arther and others for now.
It took Arther a long time and the wake-up call from bone trees to notice this change. After observing the surrounding for some time Arther confirmed his guess, the forest was changing, plants and trees were growing rapidly. In the time of a night and half-day most of the topography Arther knew about this forest must have changed. This was also shown from the decreasing road condition. In few places, the plants have broken the borders of the road and have started growing on the soil path.
If the conditions here are so difficult Arther was worrying thinking about what might happen when the road ends. Though he had a general idea of the direction they needed to go if for some reason the military personnel stationed in the warehouse are not able to clean up the trees and the path is blocked they will have to waste a lot of time here.
As he kept thinking about this many conjectures were thought by Arther. But he can't get to any conclusion unless and until they reach there.
As he kept driving he was forced to reduce the speed of the MCV to a large extent, what made him serious though was not this but the rapidly flashing damage value of the MCV.
When the MCV is scratched by ordinary branches and leaves it didn't have any signs even on its body color. But now as the trees and plants have evolved it was enough to show the apocalypse's severity.
Most of the things in the apocalypse due to unknown reasons had the tendency to evolve and mutate to increase their combat power and survival rate.
The small grass shoots on the roadside had grown to half-human height while the edges were shining with a glimmer of sharpness just like a sharp knife. The trees had their roots grow deeper, trunks got thicker, taller, and stronger. The leaves gained sharpness in the edges, few grew long pointed thorns. The flowers grew wider and more beautiful as if attracting everyone's attention, but this beauty hid the poisons inside. The air in certain areas of the forest was contaminated by these poisonous gases become a no-mans zone, on the ground the thick roots of the trees can be seen spreading in various directions. Everything that was observed carefully showed obvious signs of mutation and evolution. As this change kept progressing the sunlight didn't have any place to penetrate the forest resulting in darkness, fall in temperature, etc.
Seeing these gradual changes even Arther who has experienced the apocalypse once was shocked. Such a thing shows the miracles that can happen in the apocalypse. This huge forest which once was a place for human enjoyment had become a completely no man's land. If not for the system and the MCV even Arther didn't have the confidence of entering and leaving this forest casually.
Now Arhter knew why even after the increase in the human powerhouse and technological weapons human's still failed to defeat the beast kingdoms. This forest can be considered as a natural barrier defending the beast kingdoms and also a vast source of resources for their steady progress. Even with IQ an EQ lower than human the beast was a major force ruling on the planet in the apocalypse.
Knowing and seeing all this Arther was not scared but was even more motivated to fulfill his ambitions, one day he might conquer this forest and then he can enjoy the benefits hidden inside this forest. With this positive mindset, he kept driving carefully to keep the damage on the MCV as minimum as possible. Until now the lower part of the MCV and the tires showed the most damage of 4% and 6% respectively. Even though he had tried his best to modify the tires they were still far from the standard reinforced ones, currently, he can only reduce the air pressure in the tires a little bit and decrease the driving speed.