Little Ice Age

"I admit I was wrong about the Golden-Eyed One."

Academician Li Yanhuang sighed, stating his view in a hard tone.

After watching the footage of Ma Ran dodging bullets, he had clearly and profoundly realized one thing...

The world had changed. Using old, fixed notions to define things would only lead to arrogance and prejudice.

What kind of person was Ma Ran?

A shut-in obsessed with fantasies. Before entering the Zhaofu Well Secret Base, he could go months without leaving the house, hardly ever exercised, and was probably less capable in a fight than a goose.

But now?

He had only undergone Yan Anqing's specialized training for a short time, yet he had already reached the point of dodging bullets...

Just recalling the footage he had watched made Li Yanhuang feel a chill run through his entire body.

The times were different.

A few decades ago, on a battlefield, shooting someone or being shot at was perfectly normal.

But why did Yan Anqing, who had been born in peacetime, dare fire at an innocent person without restraint?

And why could Ma Ran dodge bullets?

One fact after another that defied conventional logic shook Academician Li Yanhuang's worldview and soul.

"Knowing one's mistakes and correcting them is the greatest virtue."

Academician Zhao Hongyun, beside him, smiled as he smoothed things over. "Not everyone possesses the quality of self-reflection."

Li Yanhuang raised his white brows and snapped, "Enough. Stop feeding me that nonsense!"

"What we need to discuss is what exactly we should do over the next few years!"

"Didn't the Qingxiang Section predict that the next few years would bring a new Little Ice Age? What does the appearance of the Golden-Eyed One have to do with this climatic shift, and how should we handle it?"

The so-called "Little Ice Age" referred to a difficult period in which Earth's temperatures dropped sharply, causing massive crop failures, severe social unrest, and a drastic population decline.

In ancient China, only the unfortunate Ming dynasty had encountered such a natural disaster.

Severe droughts and floods came one after another in summer, while winter was bitterly cold...

Who could possibly withstand that?

When facing the immense power of nature, Human Society could never be too cautious.

As Old Li spoke, the smiles gradually faded from everyone's faces, and a shadow appeared in their eyes.

Don't be fooled by the fact that this was already the twenty-first century. Technology might be advanced, but humanity's strength remained limited in the face of natural disasters.

Earthquakes, Iron Fist, volcanic eruptions, solar flare storms...

If Earth so much as gave a little shake, Human Society would suffer untold devastation.

"We must properly coordinate every level of the work and ensure that nothing goes wrong at any stage."

An aged, stoop-shouldered man in a Zhongshan suit spoke with a resolute expression. "The more critical the moment, the more vigilant we must be! Our positions represent not only honor, but responsibility!"

Li Yanhuang snorted. "Old Liu, you always like saying this kind of correct but useless nonsense. Can you offer any constructive suggestions?"

Academician Zhao Hongyun, seated beside him, smiled and interrupted. "Speaking of which, I have great confidence in our national fortune. We won't be as unlucky as Zhu Youjian."

Zhu Youjian was the famous Emperor Chongzhen, the ruler of the late Ming dynasty and a very diligent monarch.

Unfortunately, his vision was too narrow and his resolve insufficient. He was indecisive when facing problems and trusted the treacherous Donglin faction too readily, allowing corrupt officials to run rampant. The ministers grew fat with wealth while the emperor alone remained poor. With the treasury empty and the Little Ice Age upon him, he wanted to provide disaster relief to the people, but lacked the means.

The people could not survive, so Emperor Chongzhen naturally could not remain emperor either. Li Zicheng, the deliveryman who led the peasant uprising, merely happened to be in the right place at the right time. Even without Li Zicheng, there would have been Zhang Zicheng, Wang Zicheng, or Chu Zicheng.

After Academician Zhao Hongyun mentioned the words "national fortune," the expressions of the many elderly men became strange.

In the past, no one had really accepted Old Zhao's theory. But the events of recent days truly felt profoundly mysterious, impossible to explain with science or logic.

"I had intended to bring this up myself. Since you've mentioned it, I can save my breath."

Li Yanhuang's expression hardened as he said solemnly, "Besides Yan Anqing, we should establish several more Star Scientists. You all know what the atmosphere on the internet is like these days. A personality cult is unacceptable."

According to the Information Section, that brat Yan Anqing had actually been watching movies and bingeing anime online just now!

Old Li had nearly stormed out of the meeting to lecture Yan Anqing.

"The current problem is that no one can compete with Yan Anqing."

"If he loses his motivation, becomes dispirited, and stops making progress, never producing another research result, then he'll become a joke."

Everyone took Li Yanhuang's proposal quite seriously.

After all, a single piece of evidence proved nothing!

If they promoted another scientist recognized and respected by the people, could that person, like Yan Anqing, efficiently produce scientific research results under the blessing of "national fortune," something akin to the manifestation of Earth's collective consciousness?

After a heated discussion, they arrived at four candidates.

Xie Zhe, Shang Yin, Qu Li, and Luo Jiashi.

The new "Star Scientist" would emerge from among these four.

So who should they choose?

That question did not trouble them for long.

To put it bluntly, among these four genius young scientists, only Qu Li was somewhat normal.

Shang Yin was a madman who shouted all day long that the Solar System would be destroyed in ten years.

Oh, by now, there were only about nine years left.

He had long since lost his former high spirits and spent every day and night wasting energy on research projects that no one else could understand.

If this guy were thrown into a psychiatric hospital, there was a ninety percent chance he would never get out...

Because of his foul mouth and rock-bottom emotional intelligence, Xie Zhe had offended nearly every colleague in the capital.

According to Academician Liu Shijun, he did not seem to have changed much during his time "tempering himself" at the Modu base.

If they wasted resources on Xie Zhe and spent months painstakingly building him up, one ill-timed remark from him could probably turn all the efforts of the Xuanhe Section comrades to dust.

Luo Jiashi, from Modu, was even more fanatically biased toward women over men. The flaws in his personality were no lighter than those of the other two.

Academician Liu Shijun, who had flown in from Modu Yanjike, opened his mouth as if he wanted to say a few words for Luo Jiashi.

But after thinking it over, he ultimately remained silent.

Young people had their own competition. If he casually interfered, he might only make things worse.

The discussion finally reached a conclusion.

Qu Li became the final lucky winner.

Cafeteria.

Yan Anqing kept his head down and ate furiously.

Beef offal noodles, grilled live fish, braised pork knuckle, crystal soup dumplings, stir-fried vegetables over rice, bobo chicken, wide noodles with fatty lamb, spicy potstickers, sweet-and-sour plum pork, pan-fried dumplings, sesame paste, tofu skin wrapped around fried dough sticks...

After implanting Limitless Cell into his body, Yan Anqing used the Copy Paste function to directly reach the current pinnacle of Earth's individual strength—the level of Yu Hongyi.

Simply put, he had reached the peak of the first rank.

The superpowered cells, with an infection rate of 10%, granted Yan Anqing abundant energy and physical strength. They also required him to consume far more food than before to maintain normal functioning and avoid degeneration and atrophy.

Although Yan Anqing could have directly replaced them through the Copy Paste function with Limitless Cell from the database that were at full energy, he did not do so.

His suddenly increased appetite could lay the groundwork for his future mutations, making the changes seem less abrupt.

Yes.

That was the main reason.

It was absolutely not because he craved delicious food.

"Ha..."

Yan Anqing scraped up the last bit of sauce from his plate with his chopsticks, a satisfied flush appearing on his face.

The cafeteria chefs were truly skilled. They excelled at cuisines from every region, with perfect color, aroma, and flavor, making people look forward to every meal.

"You're just jealous! And you won't admit it! How shameless can you be? Do you even know what Yan Anqing's research results actually mean?"

A heated argument suddenly broke out nearby...