Starfall

A nuclear explosion equivalent to ten million tons of TNT—one of the most powerful weapons humanity had ever deployed. The central area where the ten hydrogen bombs detonated had become a death zone surpassing the Earth's core. Never before had any life-form required such a terrifying measure.

The electronic equipment aboard low-Earth-orbit communications satellites was completely destroyed by the electromagnetic storm. All long-range observation and transmission methods were cut off. The chaotic particle storm left the Hong Alliance with no choice but to silently await the final result.

At the center of the nuclear blast, the originally white sphere floated atop the still-boiling sea, now reduced to a charred black ball less than a meter in diameter. A fragment fell from its surface, exposing a small patch of white crystal within—diamond particles formed from carbon atoms. From afar, it looked like a rotten, broken Apple.

The area at the center of the ten hydrogen bombs did indeed possess the power to threaten Li Heng's life. The high-temperature, high-pressure state that lasted twenty seconds completely annihilated over 70% of his cells into atoms. Unfortunately, it had not lasted long enough. If the Hong Alliance had used ten super nuclear bombs with yields of ten million tons each, they might truly have destroyed every single one of his cells.

This was not a mistake, but a necessity. First, time had been too short, and the conventionally stored nuclear weapons did not include hydrogen bombs of such immense yield. Second, the intense light radiation from a hundred-million-ton nuclear blast would have inflicted burn injuries on the soldiers a hundred kilometers away.

Crack, crack. The thin diamond layer was torn apart and pulverized, exposing layers upon layers of white material within, along with black-red threads. This nuclear blast inflicted greater damage on Li Heng than a single hundred-million-ton nuclear bomb. Even if he had been directly struck by an ultra-high-yield nuclear bomb, he would only have endured the high temperature and pressure from one direction. As the shock wave spread, he would only suffer fatal damage during the initial second. After that second, his regeneration would outpace the destruction.

The small sphere twisted and shifted, revealing the completely unharmed Li Heng inside. His remaining cells had transformed into two pairs of wings less than five meters across. If his information capacity had not expanded tenfold, allowing him to perfectly control six quadrillion cells, this time he might truly have had his entire body destroyed.

Now that he had survived, he was qualified to become the third player in this world.

His wings stirred the seawater, producing vibrations too subtle for the naked eye to detect. They were infrasonic waves forming a language used by Jelly creatures to communicate. The air over this sea was filled with violent high-energy particles and radiation, and all electromagnetic communications had temporarily been severed. Yet none of this had much effect on creatures living in the deep sea. This small patch of boiling seawater would soon return to calm as well.

Nearly a hundred thousand Jelly creatures gradually gathered around him. Li Heng's hair suddenly extended over a thousand meters, plunging into the sea like a vast net covering the surrounding thousand-meter stretch of ocean. Every strand connected to a Jelly creature and the marine life under its control.

The flesh and blood of the deep-sea Jellies was gradually absorbed, their bodies shriveling at a visible rate. A vast expanse of white matter formed beneath Li Heng's feet, like a platform floating on the sea. Dozens of black-red objects over ten meters long grew from the white platform, pointed toward the sky like missiles.

The enormous white mushroom cloud that had shrouded the sky gradually dispersed. By then, the setting sun had completely dipped below the horizon, and a corner of the bright moon had appeared at the edge of the sky. The devastating nuclear war on the ground was not even comparable to an annoying little fly to this rocky planet over ten thousand kilometers in diameter, and it had even less effect on the ancient, desolate cosmic starry sky.

But for the ten billion humans living on the surface, today would be an unforgettable day.

Dozens of black-and-red missiles spewed surging flames from their tails. They passed through Earth's atmosphere and flew toward their assigned destinations. Birds and small mammals scattered throughout the world served as their coordinates. They were all intercontinental ballistic missiles, each carrying a high-yield nuclear electromagnetic pulse warhead. They would paralyze most of humanity's electromagnetic communications.

Central Region. In the Googol headquarters conference room where Zhuge Hao sat, there was still a starry-sky backdrop and six black stone tablets inscribed with red lettering. Only this time, it was no longer an internal meeting of Googol Tech, but a meeting among the upper echelons of the entire Hong Alliance who possessed Special License Holder authority.

Admiral Wu Siyang described the superorganism's combat capabilities to his colleagues and concluded, "If this nuclear blast cannot kill him either, then I believe none of our existing weapons will work against him. I suspect he even chose to endure the nuclear attack willingly. With his speed, he could have entered the sea to evade us and fought a guerrilla war. In that case, we would have no way to deal with him."

Zhuge Hao asked an elderly woman, "Shi Yun, you're an expert in psychology. What do you think he wants?"

The elderly woman named Shi Yun wore gold-rimmed glasses. She managed the entire Hong Alliance education system. It could be said that she had spent her life teaching and nurturing people, guiding countless gifted youths into becoming true researchers. Her grasp of the human heart was beyond comparison.

Yet this time, Shi Yun did not make a rash judgment. The other party's life trajectory from birth until now had been completely within the Hong Alliance's grasp, but at certain points, there had been obvious abrupt changes.

She carefully sorted through it. "First, he performed quite well in school from childhood through university, ranking in the top 5% among his peers. He dated girls normally and had close friends. In all these respects, he was no different from an ordinary child."

"But later, he suddenly cut off contact with everyone—not only his friends, but even his mother. Some of that was because he participated in certain experiments, but his circumstances were actually quite relaxed. This sudden shift in personality was very strange."

"Then came a further mutation. In only a year, he changed from an ordinary person into a superorganism with immense power, and his thinking became completely different from before. From that footage, he truly possessed the innocent mind of a child. When he presented that death list, he revealed a deeply compassionate side. But his final cold expression was no different from those ruthless killers filled with a desire for Destruction."

Shi Yun concluded, "If he was an ordinary person who conformed to social norms and had normal social relationships during his first twenty years, then after undergoing the experiment, he became a detached loner who stayed far from people. As for now, I can no longer judge what he is thinking. He feels to me like a schizophrenic patient with multiple personalities, impossible to predict."

This was purely from the perspective of psychology and outward behavior. The attitude Li Heng displayed was deeply contradictory. He simultaneously possessed conflicting thoughts and emotions—innocence, compassion, and a desire for Destruction.

After listening for so long, Zhuge Hao realized that this was no different from saying nothing. Who knew what was in that guy's head? Perhaps even the organs inside were now completely different from a human's. The experimental data they had received recently might all have been fabricated by him.

He asked, "He isn't one of your students. We don't need to analyze why he became this way. What we need is to determine the purpose behind this series of actions."

Shi Yun was accustomed to teaching students and always tried to uncover the causes behind every child's personality. But standards for the formation of human personalities clearly could not be applied to a superorganism like this.

Shi Yun also realized she had fallen into the old habit she had when communicating with children. She said, "If we assume that everything he has shown is genuine rather than an act, then these conflicting thoughts share a common core. And it is a unifying principle that all of those thoughts can accept."

She waved a hand, and the lengthy list appeared before everyone. It contained the names and times of death of over a hundred million people who had died around the world during the past year. Some were even members of primitive tribes living in the jungle.

"This list was clearly something he deliberately collected. Perhaps, to him, every action he takes is meant to allow more humans to survive, to let everyone obtain a longer life."

Wu Siyang nodded. "I think that's possible. He did say he wanted to spread the Hong Alliance's biomedical technology across the entire world."

War was the result of irreconcilable conflicts between different organizations. Every Unification War in history had destroyed countless lives, but a unified Civilization was often stronger than before and developed faster. It was highly likely that the other party wanted to launch a Unification War against all humanity.

An elderly man with a head full of white hair spoke to everyone. "Just now, Hong and I calculated the other party's strength based on current assumptions. If he truly intends to launch a Unification War, then his probability of success is 42.6%. He possesses the power to confront both the Free Business Alliance and the Hong Alliance at the same time. Moreover, that probability will gradually rise over time."

The old man was named Ji Hong. He was now nearly ninety years old. New biological science had raised his life expectancy to at least one hundred and twenty years, and even restored his physical functions to roughly those of a fifty-year-old.

He was one of the founders of the Hong Alliance, as well as the designer of Hong, the original quantum-computer-based super artificial intelligence. Hailed as a mathematical genius, the other Special License Holders present could all be considered his students. He now led the research work of the Hong Alliance Academy of Sciences.

When this data came from his mouth, everyone else accepted it. It meant that the super life-form and his Jelly creatures represented the third powerful force on Earth. This organization was advancing with the goal of unifying Earth Civilization.

"Warning! Ballistic missiles detected outside the atmosphere. Number: 23. Missile defense system activated."

Half of the missiles launched from the South China Sea flew toward the Hong Alliance's major cities, while the other half headed toward North America and Western Europe on the far side of the ocean.

Across the Hong Alliance, thousands of ground-based missiles launched simultaneously toward outer space. Terminal-phase anti-missile laser weapons in hundreds of major cities began operating.

Both sides used hypersonic weapons. A distance of over a thousand kilometers would take only minutes to cross.

Outside the atmosphere, the air was extraordinarily thin. After multiple stages of acceleration, the twenty-three black-red missiles traced enormous parabolas and scattered in several directions, charging toward major cities.

The nuclear blast not long ago had completely blocked the Hong Alliance's signals in this area. By the time these missiles were finally discovered, they had already split into dozens of sub-warheads, with hundreds of warheads plunging toward the atmosphere.

The six high-ranking officials at the meeting fell silent the moment the alarm sounded. Full-scale war had begun. The other side would not give them time to prepare.

At 18:00 Hong Alliance Standard Time, air-raid sirens sounded in every city. Thousands of missiles streaked across the night sky and exploded outside the atmosphere, like enormous fireworks scattered across thousands of kilometers. The fragments of those falling warheads burned and shattered in the atmosphere like an artificial meteor shower.

Dozens of enormous spheres of light appeared in the sky. Powerful electromagnetic fields formed by vast quantities of ions radiated outward at high speed, and the electromagnetic pulse covered nearly the entire continent.

On the other side of Earth, at six in the morning, early risers had already gotten up while those who stayed up late were about to sleep. A thunderous roar shattered the city's silence. Missile trails cut across the hazy sky, and equally dazzling fireballs bloomed beyond the atmosphere.

Countless small delivery drones in operation fell from the sky. Smart vehicles moving steadily forward suddenly had all communication signals severed, and their onboard intelligence immediately chose emergency braking. Sharp screeches of friction and collisions rang out one after another across the streets.

This man-made electromagnetic pulse storm covered more than half the planet. Nearly eight billion people were forced out of the online world and back into reality. Countless electronic devices were damaged. Civilian facilities and institutions lacking electromagnetic protection nearly ground to a halt. The Hong Alliance and the Commercial Alliance's control over their own populations fell to its lowest point, returning to the chaotic, disorderly state of the previous century.

Countless doves and sparrows flew toward gathering crowds as if startled. The little rats hiding in sewers and garbage bins also desperately ran toward people's homes. Hundreds of millions of Symbiote larvae hidden within their bodies began merging with humans. By the time the two major organizations restored order from the chaos, a new kind of human had already emerged.