Xyrin Empire
Chapter 544: The Real Disaster Begins Now

Chapter 544: Chapter 544: The Real Disaster Begins Now

Elite—this word is truly fraught with contradictions. In theory, so-called elites are the crème de la crème of humanity, the kind who shine no matter where they’re thrown, possessing a dazzling halo wherever they are placed. They believe themselves to be the sharpest minds among all, and most of the time, others think so too.

But then again, although elites aren’t exactly low-maintenance, in the face of the apocalypse, these high-maintenance types really do tend to burn through resources at an alarming rate.

Right now, I’m standing in front of a lineup of the highest oil burners.

Some president, some minister, some big entrepreneur, some top leader, some military and political head honcho—those dug up from the underground sanctuaries are mostly this sort. Of course, the average Joe never had the chance to enter those sanctuaries. Well, not all these elite types are annoying; those who were commendably smart had already been sent to the nearest refugee zone. Most of them do have some basic decency, considering their lofty positions. The rest, though, are trouble with a capital T, and as twofold as they come—I truly wonder how they climbed to their ranks with what seems like a single-digit IQ.

Luckily, this bunch of fatheads is few in number, less than thirty, which suggests that human civilization in the world of "Academy Apocalypse" was quite satisfactory before its downfall.

"Alright, I hear you have some special requests that have, let’s say, greatly angered my... my sister." After some thought, I decided to refer to the grumpy-faced doll on my shoulder as my sister, because I couldn’t guarantee that calling it a "doll" or a "pet" wouldn’t make the thing bury me alive, feather duster in hand.

"Hmph!" Mercury Lamp snorted in displeasure, kicking my shoulder a couple of times with her little foot, but she didn’t go berserk, tacitly accepting this temporary identity.

With the perseverance to grind an iron rod into a needle, Chairman Sir here has the courage to tame!

"Firstly, on behalf of humanity, I thank you for your rescue, friend from another world. You will forever be our friends, and hopefully, in the future—"

The speaker was the one with the biggest head among them, the very epitome of bloated and greasy, smooth-faced. Just by his looks, he seemed like the kind of successful person who’s got a bunch of uncles in senior leadership and a swarm of nephews in subordinate functionaries. He perfectly embodied the speech habits expected of someone in his position: speaking on behalf of humanity as soon as he opened his mouth.

Dammit, humanity is almost wiped out, and you’re still not letting go, representing what now! If even twenty-seven of those 270,000 people know you, I’d bestow upon you the honorary title of Mr. Know-It-All!

"I don’t like beating around the bush," I interrupted the slick talk of this high-maintenance elite, "What was it you were demanding?"

"Well," the elite, not accustomed to being cut off so rudely, paused awkwardly. However, years of perfecting the art of playing dumb in any unexpected situation allowed him to keep up his high-fat smile, "We were the leadership before the catastrophe struck humanity. We have vast experience in managing human societies. We just had a meeting and concluded that the now-collapsed human society urgently needs a new order, a new leadership system, naturally to be taken on by us. We hope you will assist us by segregating the currently mixed human population according to our methods. Perhaps your civilization that has already achieved unification might not understand our concerns, but the complexity of human society—"

"Moreover, in our doctrine, it is inappropriate to mingle with heretics like—"

"We are at war with Country D, and even with the apocalypse upon us, we must continue our Holy War to the end!"

"Humans should be led by humans. We appreciate your help, but human society must maintain its independence and sovereignty!"

"What a bore..."

Without any attempt to hide it, I yawned to the sky, completely bereft of any desire to know more about this bunch of high-consumption luminaries.

Turns out they were just a group obsessed with their own power, clinging to religious zeal or full of nationalist paranoia. And here I thought they were just a bunch of common idiots. I gave them too much credit.

I must admit, during peaceful times—relative to the apocalypse, that is—these zealots might be hailed as national heroes, outstanding politicians, or warriors for racial supremacy because of their smooth-talking. But in the current situation, these guys are just fools.

They would only lead to the complete annihilation of the last of human society. I had no doubt that the turbaned Holy War uncle would start a riot among the remaining 270,000 Earthlings if he got his wish, even if he and his national enemies are down to their last few hundred offsprings. And about the fellow who claims to be the top leader, perhaps he wants us to help him set up a new government? Or is he planning to carve out a position directly from the Imperial leadership ranks?

"Fools, your social system is finished, and all of you former elites are now worthless."

"Isolate these people separately, they’re an eyesore—You can choose to fast, sit in silence, chant slogans, or march on your own in your private isolation zones, but don’t disrupt our normal work." Dropping that line, I turned to leave, immediately followed by the outraged protests from the high fuel consumers: "This is a contempt for human rights!" "You have no right to interfere in the internal affairs of humanity!" "Give humanity’s freedom back to humanity!" "Conspiracy! All of this is a conspiracy by you invaders!"

"Ah, I forgot to mention something," I abruptly stopped, turned back with a mischievous smile, and said, "About twenty-four hours ago, we repealed all of Earth’s laws and regulations, from the United Nations Charter to the Neighborhood Civility Code, according to the freshly minted (two minutes ago) ’Cosmic High-Level Civilization Rescue Method.’ This place now operates under the Imperial Code, and according to the code, I, as the Leader, have the right to exterminate your race anytime, anywhere. So—be careful, don’t let the civilization of Earth perish because of your foolish words."

"Hmph, if it were me, I would have killed all these dummies by now. They’re as useless as trash!" After leaving a bunch of big shots to be dealt with by the Imperial Soldiers, I walked away from the refugee zone with the Mercury Lamp, which had nearly become a shoulder ornament, grumbling non-stop on my shoulder.

"What’s with the temper?" I asked, surprised at the Mercury Lamp’s anger. Those were just a bunch of self-righteous idiots, what’s there to be so mad about?

"Some bastard actually thought I was a synthetic doll made by aliens!" The Mercury Lamp said indignantly, "And some sleazy guy tried to tease me with a cat toy! If it weren’t for your damned soldiers holding me back, I would have killed them all already!"

A... cat toy?! Wow, which audacious soul came up with such an idea?

"There, there, it’s just a bunch of pitiful folks whose country and family are gone." I rubbed the Mercury Lamp’s soft, shiny silver hair as it abruptly shook its head away ungraciously. "And besides—you think I would let those scum interfere with the rebuilding of human civilization? Those who’ve been pampered by their superior lifestyles so much that they’ve become complacent and would only be a drag, are better off gone."

"Ah?"

"The darkness and ruthlessness of a ruler are not something an innocent little girl like you could understand." I looked up at the sky and revealed a profoundly visionary demeanor.

"Hmph, not bad," the Mercury Lamp kicked my arm twice in disapproval, "What excuse are you going to use to execute them? Many refugees have seen these people’s presence. Wouldn’t it cause panic if they suddenly disappeared? Aren’t many refugees already quite scared of your Imperial Soldiers and those odd Protos Natives?"

Ah? This thing can actually ponder such profound questions?

"No need to worry, during such times, humans no longer have the energy to worry about others," I said nonchalantly, "Didn’t I say that they were isolated separately? Just push their entire habitat module into Venus’s orbit and turn off the power. It should be quite thrilling..."

By the third day afternoon, the global refugee search officially came to an end.

Imperial high-tech probes, along with New Eden Federation’s Marine Corps Soldiers and Dark Templar have turned the whole Earth upside down. Eventually, Earth’s post-Doomsday population crystallized at a chilling figure: 287,355 people.

The intelligence species that once dominated the planet, boasting a population of 7 billion, spreading civilization across Earth, now only had 287,355 people left. The numbers were cold, as cold as reality itself.

I don’t know how Lola managed it, but regardless, these refugees are now relatively stable. While there’s no expectation for a scene of unity and high spirits to restore the light of civilization, at least there’s no longer that air of extreme, desperate sadness among them. Well, that’s already pretty good. After all, these last 287,355 people have nearly all lost their own friends and family. And even now, each gaunt, unfamiliar face they see is a stranger, the brilliance of humanity is over, and now is the first toll of the long night to come. That they can welcome all this with calm, is already not bad.

I’ve also made a decision about the placement of these 287,355 refugees, certainly not to bring them back to Shadow City, or even back to our Plane—Dingdang would have bitten me to death for sure. In fact, I’ve helped establish a Colonial City for the human refugees near the equator on Mars in this Plane.

Well, it’s just a matter of transporting a Colonial Ecosystem Ball from inside the Imperial Admiral to the surface of Mars. Real pre-fitted commodity housing, ready to move in. That thing was designed for colonization, and Bubbles had modified it to some extent before we left Shadow City to make it more suitable for dense habitation—it was originally to accommodate Qianqian’s ambition for a spacious three-bedroom suite but now it’s just right to settle these 287,355 refugees.

Of course, it will be quite crowded...

Several builders had already begun work on the surface of Mars, controlled remotely by Bubbles personally from Shadow City, expanding a large area of low-level colonial zones around the Mars Sanctuary—the colonization ball. These refugees would be given ample living space and... a new home reminiscent of an ACG theme park.

I left the environmental transformation of Mars to the servile armies of the New Eden Federation; humans who had been struggling to survive on Kepulu for many years were more expert in this area than the Xyrin People.

Then, the final task was... purification.

"EOP-03 locking system has been disengaged, core reaction initiated, ready to release at any moment."

This emotionless mechanical broadcast suddenly echoed throughout the Imperial Admiral and every ship in the United Fleet. At the same time, the isolation doors in the various refugee zones were dropping one by one.

Huge holographic projections appeared in the vast areas above the ships’ interiors, displaying an Earth marred by scars and a series of refuge ships leaving the planet, returning to the fleet formation—these images presented a unified perspective, all transmitted directly from the Imperial Admiral.

Suddenly, a dazzling white light ball appeared below these projected images, then slowly moved towards Earth and adjusted its trajectory to enter an orbital state.

"EOP-03 has been released, entering orbit, ready to attack at any moment."

"Hey! What the hell is this? Chen, what are you trying to do!?"

Hurrying from their living quarters, out of breath, came Kazuo Komuro and his group. I noticed Du Dao Kazuko trailing behind them, offering me an apologetic expression at this moment.

This girl... how could she leave me with such a mess at this time? Couldn’t she have said something earlier to give them a buffer?

Given a certain special identity, Kazuo Komuro’s activities near the bridge were always condoned by me, and it seemed that the Imperial Soldiers had not stopped them this time, which somewhat troubled me.

"Simple, to purify this planet."

I pointed to the giant blue planet in the holography, where a glaring white little light ball was slowly orbiting overhead—this "slowly" being relative, as a one-hour orbit would have broken the second cosmic velocity and disappeared without EOP-03’s high-powered thrusters and coordinate engines.

"Purify...?" Kazuo Komuro blinked and repeated the beautiful term that, in many literary works, equates to "the eradication of humanity." "You want to destroy Earth!?"

"Would you prefer to leave it to continue harming humanity?" I knew it was not the time to be friendly, but why was I feeling this slight irritation at taking the opposing stance? "Dead bodies, according to our detection, aren’t caused by any virus but are likely related to some energy. This ’Abyss’ energy has been wreaking havoc on countless worlds for billions of years, and since the break from our mother star, we’ve been locked in a struggle with it. The danger of the Abyss is beyond your imagination. I even suspect its involvement in the frequent disasters on Earth. Although human refugees have left Earth, this energy still exists and is growing stronger. Today it might transform people into dead bodies through steel and concrete bunkers, and tomorrow it might cross outer space to wipe out humanity in the new sanctuary. Thus, Earth must be purified—this is the only way to destroy that energy."

My words were stern and righteous, but I still felt a bit uneasy internally.

Although that was the conjecture, and Earth’s current state did indeed resemble that of Abyss contamination, neither the Abyss-specific detection devices on the Imperial Admiral nor my own spiritual power had been able to detect any Abyss reaction from the planet. There had only been a fleeting energy release from deep within the Earth’s core and some undecipherable energy emitted from several crustal fractures.

Protos’ Phoenix Fighters had roamed the storm clouds above South America for two days and nights, gathering a bunch of inexplicable feedback signals. Two well-trained Ghost Agents had watched a volcanic vent for twenty-four hours, returning with heads full of ash and 20G of gibberish data. Even our dispatched Xyrin Agents came back empty-handed; they nearly pierced through the mantle but still couldn’t detect anything deep within the core.

The only valuable information was the presence of an unusually strong non-physical barrier deep in the mantle, closely protecting the core, thwarting our best Imperial Agents.

If we had had ample time, perhaps we could have slowly analyzed what that barrier was. But now, the growing unease and Lin Xue’s reminders were closing in on me simultaneously, making it impossible for me to wait any longer.

Regardless of what had infested the Earth from within, taking the initiative to strike was currently the most optimal strategy, and whether a specialized EOP-03 designed to deal with the Earth’s crust could actually harm that thing in the Earth’s core was still an unknown. Perhaps, it could only force "it" to show itself ahead of time.

Kazuo Komuro and his companions, of course, did not know the complex situation at hand, but they had already deduced from my expression that Earth’s destruction seemed inevitable.

Despair, anger, helplessness—all sorts of expressions merged together. At this moment, the left side of Kazuo Komuro’s face bore the character for egg, and his right, the character for pain—sorry, it’s not the time for jokes.

"It’s time for mankind to learn to let go," I patted Kazuo Komuro’s shoulder, "Take a good look at this scene. Humans have never gazed upon their homeland where they grew as they are now. At least, as it faces destruction, give it a farewell."

At that moment, I felt as if I was possessed by someone else, even though I had spent thirty minutes yesterday coming up with that line for just this second...

It was then that a piercing alarm suddenly filled the command bridge.

"Highest level warning! Highest level warning! The target planet is undergoing violent collapse, detection of Abyss Gate formation. Repeat, the target planet is undergoing violent collapse, detection of the Abyss Gate formation; threat level calculation in progress... Fatal threat, fatal threat! A suspected highly polymerized state of the Abyss Gate!"

Instantly, the entire United Fleet was broadcasting this alarm. The refugees, who had been calm for just one day, were once again thrown into chaos amidst the panic. The alarm sounding throughout the alien ships made them wonder whether even these powerful space fortresses would succumb, as Lola Stewart, who was comforting the refugees with her followers, even had to use a group soothing magic to prevent a situation from spiraling out of control.

"Stay calm, everyone please stay calm. This ship is under the strictest protection..." Lola Stewart calmly reassured the agitated refugees, while casting her blue eyes toward the distant command center, "Oh Lord, what on earth is happening... Why even the Xyrin Apostles are so tense..."

"What... what the hell is going on?!"

The sudden change panicked Kazuo Komuro and his group, and even the usually ultra-calm Du Dao Kazuko cast an anxious glance this way. What frightened them most now was not dead bodies or the world’s end, but the fact that even the Xyrin Apostles, powerful enough to reverse the apocalyptic tide, were bracing for action as if facing a formidable enemy—just what scale of threat was it?

"The Abyss, didn’t you hear? It’s the Abyss that has appeared... Tch, where the hell was that thing hiding before, how could it suddenly appear?!"

I spoke hurriedly, adjusting the series of holographic projections in front of me to various angles. Earth, which was crumbling to pieces, was clearly visible before my eyes. Unprecedented thunderstorms were wreaking havoc in the atmosphere; bright flashes were covering the earth’s surface like colossal snowflakes; enormous fires were spreading in every corner of the blue planet, even visible from outer space as a dim red glow; a tsunami, an unprecedentedly massive tsunami, was swallowing up all the coastal areas of the continents. The boundary line between the blue and brown on Earth’s image was in turmoil due to the massive tsunami. I could not imagine how terrifying this scene visible even from outer space would be at the surface. Minutes later, the earthquakes began.

No, not an earthquake, the Earth’s crust was disintegrating! At first, it was just minute cracks that were barely distinguishable. But when they suddenly extended and expanded into bright red lines of light, I realized the entire planet was falling apart!

Some ultimate form of energy had gone out of control, tearing apart this poor vessel of life from the inside. The Abyss had finally bared its gruesome fangs.

And yet, I still couldn’t fathom where this previously unseen formidable Abyss Energy had been hiding! The Earth’s crust? The mantle? Or perhaps, the core?

Impossible! My spiritual power could penetrate the Endless Void, and even if the barrier deep within the mantle had stopped the Imperial Agents, it could not prevent my sensing of the energy within. There was no Abyss there, absolutely none, but... it had now appeared just like that.

"Is what you’re saying... all true..." Kazuo Komuro watched his familiar homeland crumbling under a mysterious and terrifying force, muttering with a pale face, "What on earth is that thing..."

"Get them off the bridge," I pressed hard against the railing of the command bridge, without looking back, and ordered, "Activate Space Transmission, and transport these refugees in batches to the Ecological Colonization Ball we positioned on the surface of Mars..."

Fortunately amongst the misfortune, we had landed a Colonization Ecological Ball on Mars’ surface the day before. Now these refugees, who were completely without fighting capability and might even be a burden, could evacuate to a safe area ahead of time, because I dared not guarantee that Earth’s last 280,000 survivors wouldn’t be affected while fighting against the Abyss Energy here...

"I’m not leaving!"

A clear and firm voice suddenly rang out, interrupting my command. (To be continued, for further developments please visit www.qidian.com. More Chapters are available on the site, support the author, support original reading!)