The ring hovering in the sky began to move.
A button was pressed just like a revolver’s trigger.
A blue arching light flashed and something escaped it, falling straight to the ground.
On earth, it was as small as a feather, minuscule and thin. But the instant it entered the atmosphere, it transformed into a flaming dragon hundreds of meters long, roaring at the earth. It lit up the sky like a sun rising at dawn, even though the sun was already in the sky.
It was just as the Genesis described the scene of Jehovah’s destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah: “And when Lot reached Zoar, the sun came out, and the Lord rained down sulfur and fire from heaven. The city was destroyed in Sodom and Gomorrah along with all the inhabitants of the city and all the earth was destroyed; the wife of Rhodes looked back at it before turning into a salt rod.”
When the fire touched down on the surface, there was no sound in space. The swirling trail of fire was engraved on the blue planet. The flame, thousands of degrees in temperature, was burning. The violent shockwave swept through everything and turned everything around it to dust.
And the meat chunks in the middle of the explosion turned into dust long ago.
Just like slapping a mosquito.
Right now, in the building of the Crimson Chamber of Commerce, a man in a suit on the top floor gazed in Wanghai City’s direction.
“With this, Wanghai will be a mess again.”
With a smile, he turned around and left.
Right now, inside the space station, Lin Chaoen witnessed everything with the same smile.
You dared to aim at the God? Then I’ll have to kill you first.
He looked at the shockwave dispersing. He raised his right hand and with his thumb and index finger up, he made a shooting gesture.
“Nice shot.”
…
“This is First Corps command office. Team E, please respond. I repeat, please respond…”
The noise-filled communication was fitting among the ruins.
A breeze swept by and blew away the soil on the broken walls.
The debris began to move as a hand reached out among the ruins.
“Uh….ah!” With a deep roar, he tossed away the rock on his chest.
The protective suit was broken – it would be the end of him if he stayed any longer in the vicinity with such high radiation.
He could already smell the sweetness in the air.
It was a sign of excessive radiation.
Without staying any longer, Feng Yu climbed up from the ruins while shaking to free his leg stuck in the debris.
His kinetic skeleton was half-destroyed. The joints were sparkling with fire while they made deafening screeching noises.
The polyethylene board in front of his chest was completely shattered while the metal frame connecting the boards was caved in. He ripped the board against his chest off, looked at the crack with a lingering fear, then tossed it on the ground.
The meat chunks and the lake were no longer there; only a deep pit remained.
There was chaos everywhere.
The meteor destroyed the meat chunks and everything around.
Just as Feng Yu was preparing to leave, he heard some noises around him which made him immediately pull out his pistol.
“He…Help me… ahhhh!”
It was his comrade’s voice.
He put the pistol away while he stumbled in the direction of the voice.
“Feng…”
“Don’t talk and give me your hand. We’ll be done for if we stay here much longer.” With strength from the kinetic skeleton, Feng Yu moved the rock on his comrade’s body. When he saw the clearly crushed left leg, he paused.
“Whatever, just leave me, if you stay longer…”
“Shut up, hold on!” Feng Yu gritted his teeth while pulling out his dagger.
“No, no! Just end me- ahhh.”
Feng Yu cut off his comrade’s broken leg before pulling out the hemostatic spray and spraying it on the severed part.
The soldier’s expression was terrifying. Blood spilled out from his mouth and his twitching throat couldn’t make any sounds.
“You’ll be better, don’t worry. I heard the director of the Aerospace Institute is a master in prosthetics.” Feng Yu lifted him up and supported him with his arm before running with trembling steps.
There was a horrific scene along the way.
The First Crops’ leading team was almost completely wiped out and the subsequent force was hit hard by the impact. The high-temperature shockwave almost swept through the entire city center. Some of the armored vehicles were crushed flat by the rocks blown from the center of impact.
Standing in the middle of the launching ground, Jiang Chen looked at the light in the distance, completely stunned.
The light already disappeared.
The wind blowing by carried a faint smell of explosives coming from the frontlines.
“Did an earthquake just happen?”
Jiang Lin gulped and turned his head.
“Probably.”
Jiang Chen looked back at the tablet again; it was still white in the city center. But soon after, communication from the frontlines came back.
“This is the First Crops, we were hit by a meteor… Dammit, I swore it wasn’t a meteor.” Cheng Weiguo’s voice was screeching and hectic.
“Report casualty figures,” Jiang Chen said with a deep voice.
“We’re calculating. We can confirm that 2 Tigers and 11 armored vehicles lost contact… Dammit, the mutants are attacking-”
A noise came from the radio and Jiang Chen immediately made some orders.
“Immediately retreat from the city center to Camp 27. Fireball-1 will cover for you.”
“Roger!” Cheng Weiguo responded.
Communications ended as Jiang Chen looked at the launch interface again.
Eight Fireball-1 launch vehicles were locked and loaded. He stuck out his finger and drew a curve on the northeast side of the First Division to surround all the red dots.
After confirming that the blue dots had left the area, Jiang Chen pressed fire.
“Fire!”
The rockets launched one by one and began to soar toward the city center to cut off the path of the mutants and zombies.
Seeing the First and Third Corps moving further and further away from the red dots, Jiang Chen finally felt somewhat relieved.
Although the battle ended with a retreat, no mutant nest could’ve survived through the meteor strike. Even though they retreated, they still achieved their objective.
The life detection device scanned the area again. Just as he expected, the unnatural red dots located in the city center vanished. The internal stress produced by the tungsten rods striking the ground should’ve been fatal to the underground structure.
They only needed to get rid of the smaller mutant nests scattered around the city and establish stations at the entrances to Wanghai City before the mutant crisis in Wanghai could be resolved.
But just as Jiang Chen was starting to feel relieved, his tablet suddenly started to flash.
“Who is it?”
“Hello, we meet again.”
A face surfaced in the middle of the screen and Jiang Chen narrowed his eyes.
“Lin Chaoen?”
“That’s right, I’m happy you still remember me, Lord of Wanghai.” Lin Chaoen smiled.
[Lord?]
It was fitting, but Jiang Chen felt it was a jab at him.
“Whenever I see your face, I want to smash it against the wall.” Jiang Chen raised his head while looking down at the screen.
“What a pity. I do enjoy looking at your face, especially when I’m looking down on it.” Lin Chaoen smiled.
[Looking down?]
Jiang Chen paused and subconsciously looked up at the sky with his expression turning violent.
How do you feel?”
“Terrible,” Jiang Chen said emotionlessly.
“I have a recommendation for you,” Lin Chaoen said.
“Speak your mind.”
“You can rule the humans while I rule the digitalized humans. We can conquer the wasteland together as long as you swear allegiance to my father.”
[Together?]
Jiang Chen scoffed.
“Did you evolve into advanced artificial intelligence?”
“That’s still far, far away.” Lin Chaoen sighed. “I heard my father say that I had a sister before. After trillions and trillions of calculations, her thought process infinitely approached advanced artificial intelligence. But unfortunately, when I arrived at Fallout Shelter 005, she was destroyed by a bug.”
Jiang Chen’s pupils contracted slightly.
The Secret Teller and The Secret Protector, or X71291… Rather than saying it was destroyed by a bug, it was more fitting to say he destroyed it with his very own hands.
“A bug?” Jiang Chen pretended not to know.
“That’s right, the ambassador of Harmony. There’s evidence indicating that it killed her.” Lin Chaoen didn’t look remorseful in the slightest as he explained with a smile. “So we need new samples. What’s your decision?”
“I reject,” Jiang Chen said without hesitation. “Coexisting together is only a lie.”
Coexisting together was just one force putting the other force into captivity. Even if it could create a temporary peace, it was a fictitious peace. Once they figured out the path to evolving into advanced artificial intelligence, the old humans would lose their purpose and be forced to live in the zoo while awaiting their deaths.
There was only brutality and blood on the path to evolving their civilization; there was no compromise!
“Is that so? That’s regretful to hear then. You are on the absolute path to purity. Compared to the fallen Harmony, you are only a bit stronger. Without accepting the evolution of the Supreme, you will have to wait to be eliminated because of your stubborn persistence.”
“Is it so? Why do I think you should be eliminated?”
He had plenty of trump cards in his hand – he still had the Third Corps at the Sixth Street as well as the ballistic missiles deployed in Shenxiang Colony. At the same time, Shenxiang and Jia city had soldiers stationed along with new recruits and the survivors from the Defiant.
The only trouble was the God’s Cane hovering in the sky. He was certain Lin Chaoen controlled the God’s Cane.
Which was the biggest problem.
And Lin Chaoen seemed to have read his mind.
“We already surrounded your base and hijacked your base’s radio signals. To us, your knowledge of information technology is a mere joke. You have two choices: surrender or death. Of course, I understand how slow your species’ brains are, so I will give you three days to reconsider.”
His smile was mixed with menace. He raised one finger.
“One day is enough time for an ant to circle your base.”
Afterwards Lin Chaoen waved his hand. Faced with Jiang Chen’s gloomy expression, he ended communications.