“Although I don’t quite understand what you are talking about, it sounds very reasonable.
Zhang Daniu pondered for a moment. He clenched his fists and waved them. “Alright. Since it’s for the peace of Earth and the universe tomorrow, I’ll set a small goal first and strive to get 10 million words first! I can’t. After hearing your words, I feel that a sacred sense of mission is surging in my chest. Many inspirations and ideas are popping up. I think I can still write. No, I can still write!”
“That can wait.”
The grey mist lady glanced at Li Yao and Zhang Daniu. “Why don’t the two of you follow me and study tomorrow’s escape route?”
The grey mist lady brought them to a fully-enclosed warehouse on the eleventh floor.
It seemed to be a heavily guarded treasury. The gate was made of alloy and half a meter thick. A giant wheel was used to open and close it.
A lot of suspected weapons were stored in the warehouse. They were said to be ‘suspected’ because they were not guns that Li Yao had seen on TV or in movies. Instead, they were the kind of guns that could fire lasers when they were pulled the trigger.
Hum. Hum hum!
When the grey mist lady threw a weapon that looked like a torch to Li Yao, Li Yao played with it for a long time. When he pressed the switch on the weapon, the torch suddenly emitted a weird sound. Then, a crimson pillar of light suddenly appeared and turned the torch from a ‘lighter’ into a ‘sunlight’.
“This is—”
Li Yao was greatly shocked. He could clearly feel the heat and the scent of destruction from the ‘sun lamps’. They seemed familiar, as if he had seen similar… fantasy weapons in a movie.
“Be careful. Such light swords boast tremendous energy. If you fall to the ground, you might burn through the floor and fall to the floor below.”
“Logically speaking,” the grey mist lady said, “this is the top-secret weapon warehouse of the Ark Foundation. Every weapon stored inside is a priceless treasure. Some of them were even preserved from the previous reincarnation to the previous one after all the trouble. You are not allowed to use them at will. But right now, the situation is urgent. In order to return to the Ark as quickly as possible, we don’t have much time to spare.”
“Reserved from… the previous reincarnation?”
Li Yao pondered over the grey mist lady’s words. It sounded like, other than ‘memories and information’ that could possibly escape ‘reboot’, even the items themselves could possibly escape reincarnation and be left with countless generations.
Of course, from a different point of view, matter and energy could be transformed into each other in the first place. The so-called matter was merely the condensation and manifestation of energy in a certain way, which was the information itself.
Everything was information. As long as the information could pass through countless cycles without perishing, it was possible to keep the item for thousands of years.
He was going to ask more questions about how to keep the materials in the ‘reboot’ of the Ark Foundation, when the grey mist lady projected a giant screen on the white wall in front of them, showing them the news around the world.
In the twenty-four to forty-eight hours of Li Yao’s coma, the entire world was affected by the super catastrophe. The order of human society had been disrupted.
In Japan, a super earthquake of incalculable intensity struck the Edo Bay again. Not only was the population of more than ten million people affected, the top three metropolises in the world were also flooded. The entire Guan Dong region was shivering in the storm and tsunami.
According to the preliminary analysis of the global earthquake experts, the intensity of the earthquake was even higher than the 9.5-magnitude earthquake near the coast of Chile. It was the first earthquake in the history of mankind.
In the videos posted by the news media and the netizens, it could be seen that the prosperous city, which had been brightly lit and packed with people two days ago, had turned into a lifeless cemetery. The skyscrapers had turned into messy tombstones. The explosions resulting from the leakage of natural gas tubes were like dim phosphorescence flowing out of bones. The seawater was savaging the flooded streets like ferocious animals. Millions of people had been soaked into white, swollen balls and became food for the fish and shrimps.
On the satellite map, the islands of Fusang, which used to be in the shape of a crescent moon, seemed to have been bitten by an enormous beast from the east, while the tusks made of tsunamis and storms were still tearing the flesh and blood in the hinterland of the islands unscrupulously. The tragedies that had been foretold in the legendary novel ‘The Islands Sink’, written by the famous writer of science fiction in the old days, were unfolding slowly and unstoppably in front of everyone.
“The super earthquake seems to have activated hundreds of dormant volcanoes all over the islands. Many of them are showing signs of eruption. If hundreds of volcanoes erupt at the same time and another earthquake of the same scale or even stronger takes place, it is not unimaginable that the islands will sink.
The grey mist lady said solemnly, “Japan is a country with a highly developed fantasy culture. There are a lot of ‘observers’. Therefore, the will of the planet has been monitoring them closely. Every time the planet is rebooted, Japan is always the first to suffer natural disasters and man-made disasters. Its capital city has been hit countless times.
“The Ark Foundation has quite a few members there, too. It’s a pity that the local order has gone out of control. Most of the flights have been suspended. Even the flights in the middle of the flight have been affected by lightning and thunderstorms. They were forced to return and were even shot down. It will be… difficult for them to escape.”
A few videos, a few pictures, and the reports of major news media around the world outlined the horror of the apocalypse.
The frivolous look on Li Yao and Zhang Daniu’s faces was gone, too. Their expressions were solemn.
The entire world was an inseparable whole. If the end of the world really came, no country would be able to survive alone.
Even though they did not care that the Fusang Islands had completely sunk, it was impossible for such earthshaking changes to not affect the East Asia Continent. Judging from the trend of development, it did not seem strange that an active volcano would suddenly appear in the most stable part of the country tomorrow.
“Not only are the Fusang Islands under threat of sinking, the people on the other side of the Pacific Ocean are also experiencing hurricanes, storms, tsunamis, earthquakes, and volcanic eruptions beyond the limits of normal range.
The grey mist lady showed a series of pictures to Li Yao and Zhang Daniu. They were the cities of the world’s strongest countries that had been drowned by floods and storms, the hurricanes that were savaging and swallowing the plains of the western hemisphere, and a magnificent volcano that was spurting intense black smoke and gradually waking up.
“This is ‘Red Stone Volcano’, the largest dormant volcano in North America in the center of the Red Stone National Park.
The grey mist lady said, “However, since yesterday, the word ‘hibernation’ is no longer applicable to it. You can see clearly how terrifying the smoke it releases is. It simply covers hundreds of square kilometers of the sky. This is just the commotion before it completely awakens.
“Scientists have predicted the consequences of a complete eruption of the Red Stone Volcano. The volcano will hibernate for six to seven hundred thousand years. Every eruption will bring catastrophe to the entire continent and even the entire western hemisphere. The magma and volcanic debris will sweep across thousands of square kilometers and raze everything in their way to the ground. It is even possible that the volcanic ash will cover an area of millions of square kilometers and turn the entire North American continent into a dead zone where there will be no sunlight. It is even possible that the entire world will fall into a new glacial era.
“But that was just the outcome of the ‘normal state’. God knows how terrifying the Red Stone Volcano eruption will be when the will of the planet interferes.
Li Yao and Zhang Daniu were silent. The two of them quickly browsed through the news websites and forums.
It could be clearly seen that, other than the Fusang Islands and the North American Continent, all kinds of super catastrophes had taken place in Asia, Europe, and even Africa and Oceania. In some places, tsunamis had raised walls of water dozens of meters high and swallowed the coastal towns one after another. In some places, thunderstorm zones tens of thousands of kilometers in radius had appeared, which looked like terrifying forests made of lightning. In other places, cracks thousands of meters deep had appeared because of the earthquake. New canyons were cracking at a visible speed.
In the information era, natural disasters dealt ten times more damage to the human heart than in the past.
Although the natural disasters caused the network paralysis in many places, a lot of terrifying information was still transmitted out and turned into ‘panic plagues’. Many countries were on the verge of losing control.
Reading to this point, Li Yao vaguely understood why Red Pole had set up the nest of the resistance organization on a super tank.
The super tankers were lone islands that were naturally cut off from the rest of the world. As long as they were sailing in the deep sea, they could conceal themselves in special ways and avoid the interference of natural disasters. The so-called tsunamis and giant waves often only existed in the continental shelf where the seawater was relatively shallow. To raise a catastrophe that could destroy the super tankers thousands of meters deep in the middle of the ocean would consume astronomical energy.
“We didn’t expect that the natural disasters would be so intense in only two days. But it is even more indicative of the enemy’s panic and weakness and your importance.
The grey mist lady said, “At present, basic social order is still maintained here. Parts of the highway have already been sealed, but a few rail lines leading to the border are still operating. Tomorrow at 6 o’clock, we will take the train to the border. After crossing the border, we will be met by more companions.”
“This is Uncle Hui. ‘Seven Gods’. This is ‘Sparda’. This is ‘Ghost Cat’. Together with me and Li Yao, it shouldn’t be a problem for us to escort Zhang Daniu, right?”
The grey mist lady introduced the other few awakeners to Li Yao.
Among them, the awakened one whose nickname was ‘Sparta’ had a powerful aura similar to that of Uncle Hui. He was one of the two ultimate awakeners who had come to the aid of Jiang Nan City. In addition, the Lady of the Grey Mist was also a ultimate awakener. Perhaps there was also a monster named Li Yao. And the young girl named ‘Ghost Cat’ seemed to possess an extremely special ability. Although the number of people in this escort team was not large, their combat strength was absolutely formidable.
