Ninety-six years.
For the vast majority of ordinary people, that might already have been longer than a lifetime. For the Present Realm, it was merely a fleeting instant.
In the original theoretical design, the Doomsday Clock would begin operating and counting down once the Present Realm entered its period of decline, reaching its end after more than ten thousand years.
Unfortunately, the Present Realm, which had suffered countless wounds even before the Astronomical Society was born, had never been given the chance to function normally. From the very first day of its existence, it had entered its calculation state.
Until now.
It witnessed time's increase and decrease, its passage and reversal, hovering time and again at the brink of doom.
Then, once again, it announced humanity's end.
Only such a brief span of time remained.
No one doubted it.
The Continuance Institute had poured immense effort and technology into it, using it to measure the Present Realm and sparing no expense to ensure its absolute precision and reliability.
But even more regrettably, what it calculated was the time remaining before the "entire Present Realm" was completely annihilated into nothingness.
In other words, destruction would arrive before then.
According to the Continuance Institute's subsequent analysis, if no changes were made and they merely patched things up and delayed the inevitable, then forty years from now, the veneer of peace would no longer be able to conceal reality.
Before that, more and more signs would emerge throughout the Present Realm, including but not limited to increased depth, frequent natural disasters, and even large-scale aberrations.
During this process, the Three Pillars would gradually lose their capacity to bear the burden, suffering irreversible damage.
And after forty-five years had passed, the Present Realm would gradually lose its gravity, no longer able to sustain the