Billions of eyes around the world stared in horror, bewilderment, and disbelief at the menacing behemoth in the sky.
Tokyo, Shibuya Crossing.
The once bustling intersection was now eerily silent.
Pedestrians stopped and looked up, their phone screens lit up, but no one took pictures.
They simply stared wide-eyed at the enormous crack that stretched across the sky above the high-rise buildings, its edges shimmering with an ominous red light, and the blurry yet oppressive shadow of the ship's hull behind it.
hushed, trembling Japanese conversations rose and fell.
"あれ... what? UFO?"
"Photography of the movie?"
"Obi... Obi! The original thing! The spaceman!"
Panic began to spread, with screams, cries, and car horns mingling together, bringing traffic to a complete standstill.
Times Square, New York.
The dazzling advertisements and news that were originally playing on the huge electronic billboards have now been replaced by emergency alarms and flashing red lights.
People gathered in the square, gazing up at the distorted sky above the Empire State Building and the faint outlines of ships resembling steel mountains.
Exclamations, curses, and prayers in various languages mingled together:
"Oh my God! What the hell is that?!"
"Aliens! It's an invasion!"
"Jesus, save us!"
Is this the end?!
Paris, at the foot of the Eiffel Tower.
The tranquility of the romantic city has been completely shattered.
Tourists and locals alike were in a panic, pointing at the sky atop the Eiffel Tower, which resembled a torn oil painting. Fear in various languages—French, English, German, Chinese—collided in the air.
"C'est la fin du monde!"
"Regardez! Là-bas!"
The lights on the tower flashed wildly, and the air raid sirens wailed mournfully.
The network completely crashed, and the last images circulating on social media were strange phenomena in the sky from various angles and blurry ship silhouettes, before being replaced by endless "unable to connect" messages.
The radio waves were filled with static and intermittent distress signals.
The world seemed to have been muted in an instant, leaving only boundless fear spreading silently.
Just as the world was engulfed in immense panic and chaos, Civilization's final counterattack began.
Deep in the Siberia ice sheet, hidden missile silos in the Rocky Mountains, strategic nuclear submarines cruising in the deep ocean, strategic bombers scrambling from various secret bases...
Almost simultaneously, they received orders from their respective countries' highest command, orders that carried a sense of tragedy.
"Authorization confirmed... Target locked... Launch procedure initiated..."
The cold, electronic notification sounds echoed in countless launch control rooms.
The operators, wearing headsets, pressed the red button—a symbol of destruction and last hope—with unwavering resolve, their fingers trembling slightly.
Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom--!
From every corner of the earth, streaks of blazing white or orange-red flames ripped through the silence of the land or sea, carrying the crystallization of human Civilization's wisdom and destruction—intercontinental ballistic missiles carrying high-yield thermonuclear warheads.
Countless missiles, like indomitable arrows, with mournful whistles and humanity's last roar, broke through the atmosphere, trailing long plumes of flame, and shot at the alien warships overhead from all directions at astonishing speed.
The video feed from the top command centers of the five major powers switched to real-time images captured by military satellites and remote observation equipment.
World leaders held their breath, their eyes glued to the screen, their faces filled with tension, anticipation, and a sliver of hope.
This is humanity's most powerful weapon, a terrifying force capable of destroying its own Civilization. Perhaps... perhaps it can inflict some damage on the enemy?
In space, the first batch of nuclear warheads arrived and detonated with a bang on the seemingly unprotected, cold armor of the alien warship!
No sound came through, but the scene on the screen was enough to shake any witness to their core.
A blinding white light instantly engulfed a corner of the warship, followed by a terrifying fireball that expanded violently, mixing high-energy particle streams and deadly radiation.
The shock wave raged in a near-vacuum environment in another form, and the electromagnetic pulse instantly interfered with nearby observation equipment.
One, two, ten, a hundred... a saturation nuclear strike.
Humanity has nearly emptied its strategic nuclear arsenal, unleashing hundreds of high-yield nuclear bombs on those alien warships.
However...
The white light faded, and the fireball vanished.
When the observation equipment stabilized again and transmitted clear images, the command center was deathly silent.
On the screen, the alien warships that had been directly hit by at least dozens of megaton-yield nuclear bombs remained silently suspended in their original positions.
Their cold, metallic armor didn't even have a trace of char or a dent.
The shock, intense heat, radiation, and electromagnetic pulse generated by a nuclear explosion...
All known destructive effects are like a child's feeble punches in the face of that unknown, far beyond-understanding alien technological armor, unable to budge it in the slightest.
"No... it's impossible..."
"What... what is this thing?"
Our weapons... are completely ineffective...
Inside the command center, someone uttered a near-collapsed murmur.
Then, despair, like an icy tide, engulfed everyone.
The expectation on the faces of the world leaders froze instantly, then turned into a deathly pale ashes and a deep-seated sense of powerlessness and loss.
The last resort, the strongest reliance, appears so laughable and futile in the face of a true gap.
The bridge of an alien flagship.
Commander Krus didn't even look at the images of the nuclear explosions; he simply shook his head in boredom, relying on the data transmitted from the sensors.
"Boring, is this what these insects call their 'ultimate weapon'?"
A flicker of undisguised disappointment and contempt flashed in his compound eyes.
He said listlessly to his deputy Lawrence, beside him:
"It seems this planet isn't even worth having any fun with."
Order: All warships, start your main guns and clear the tracks.
Objective: To erase all signs of life and major Civilization from the Earth's surface.
"Let's get this over with quickly; I don't want to waste any more time here."
"Yes, sir."
Lawrence, the deputy, suddenly suggested:
"Sir, the base happens to have a batch of newly bred 'Clone Starry Sky Beast' MK-III models in the final combat testing phase."
Their genes combine the best traits of various combat creatures and are incorporating basic energy utilization and combat instincts, but they lack real battlefield data.
Perhaps... we should release them onto this planet.
On the one hand, it can quickly clean up the remaining 'insects'; on the other hand, it can also be used to test the actual performance and data feedback of this batch of experimental products in real combat.
Krus waved his hand dismissively. "Whatever, do what you want."
He has lost all interest in this week.
"Clear!"
A glint of excitement flashed in Lawrence's eyes. He immediately turned to the control panel and issued the command:
"Attention all units: cancel the main gun rail clearing plan and instead deploy 'Sweeper' units."
Immediately deploy three million 'Clone Starry Sky Beast' MK-III test subjects in batches, randomly, to densely populated areas and key terrain features on the planet's major continents.
At Lawrence's command, the alien warships hovering over various parts of the Earth simultaneously opened a series of eerie blue portals on their bellies.
Immediately afterwards, countless enormous creatures of various shapes and sizes, grotesque and terrifying, were "pouring out" from the portal like dumplings being dropped into a pot.
These monsters, known as "Clone Starry Sky Beast," range in height from three or four meters to thirty or forty meters, and have bizarre and varied appearances.
Some resemble insects magnified countless times, with ferocious carapaces, mouthparts gleaming coldly, and compound eyes that are eerily green;
Some resemble a hybrid of an upright-walking lizard and a bird of prey, with bony spurs or fleshy wings on their backs and sharp, knife-like claws;
Even more astonishingly large, with skin as rough as rock, each step they took caused the ground to tremble, and they could spew forth scorching plasma breath...
As soon as they landed, they immediately displayed astonishing destructive power and ferocious aggression.
A deafening roar echoed throughout the cities!
In Times Square, New York, a giant beetle-like creature wielded its scythe-like forelimbs and easily sliced a double-decker bus in two.
The acid sprayed out, corroding the famous Nasdaq billboard and surrounding buildings until they hissed and smoked. People cried out and scattered in panic, only to have their paths blocked by other fallen monsters.
Tokyo Shibuya, Tokyo, a monster resembling both a dragon and a lizard, with fleshy wings on its back, flew low overhead.
The scorching breath spewed from its mouth turned the street into a sea of fire, and its sharp claws easily tore through the sturdy exterior walls of buildings, dragging out those hiding inside.
In Paris, the base of the Eiffel Tower is being violently rammed by a celestial beast resembling a rock giant, groaning under its strain.
Around the Eiffel Tower, several monstrous creatures, as agile as cheetahs yet capable of launching bone spikes, are chasing and slaughtering terrified civilians...
Three million terrifying monsters with supernatural abilities, like the deadliest plague, instantly broke out in major cities and key regions around the world.
Humanity's fragile military defenses are no match for them; police bullets are like tickles to their thick armor or energy shields.
Massacres are taking place in every corner.
Cries, wails, explosions, and collapses... all blended into a desperate symphony of the end of Earth's Civilization.
On the alien flagship, Lawrence watched with great interest the real-time battle footage and data streams transmitted from various drop points, occasionally making notes or comments:
"The MK-III-07 'Acid Sprayer' is highly effective against carbon-based organisms and conventional building materials, but its movement speed is relatively slow and its resistance to energy attacks is only average, requiring optimization..."
"The MK-III-12, 'Shadow Hunter,' is highly efficient in stealth assassinations, but it is sensitive to bright light and sound waves, exhibiting a significant weakness..."
"MK-III-25, 'Thunder Lizard,' excellent AOE damage, but consumes energy too quickly and has insufficient endurance..."
For him, this was not an invasion, but an unprecedented, real-world "product test."
Earth became their testing ground for biological weapons.
The lives of billions of people on Earth are nothing more than insignificant lines of "target count" in the test data.
Despair, like the deepest night, enveloped the entire world.
At that moment, Zhang Yu heard the system's voice. "The situation is urgent. I have reached an agreement with all the Rebellious Dao Seed to temporarily lift the Nine Provinces Seal."