Old Acquaintance

Lin Yi's gaze rested on the phone screen.

The screen was silently playing a video that had clearly been filmed by a passerby on a mobile phone, the footage shaking violently.

The location appeared to be the capital of Su Province, where Helu City was located—a central plaza in Lanjing City—and the background featured that famous, cloud-piercing landmark, Zifeng Tower.

Yet at this moment, an impossibly massive, dark purple giant snake was coiled around the top of this landmark.

Just the half of its body protruding from the clouds was enough to evoke images of the World Serpent from mythology.

The giant snake raised its hideous head high, and as it flicked its barb-covered tongue, a thick, lava-like torrent of crimson flame erupted forth!

The camera zoomed in frantically, shaking, as several armed helicopters circling the giant snake attacked desperately with machine guns and rockets, like moths to a flame.

However, the machine gun rounds, capable of tearing through tanks, merely sparked against the giant snake's dark, scale-covered body.

Just then, a rocket whistled through the air and struck the snake's body, the flames of the explosion swallowing it instantly.

A second later, as the smoke cleared, the spot where the giant snake had been hit showed only slightly scorched scales; not even its skin had been broken!

The giant snake seemed to have been provoked; it snapped its jaws open, and a more terrifying pillar of fire swept out. A helicopter that failed to dodge was instantly engulfed in flames, disintegrating in mid-air like a paper toy before exploding into a mass of burning wreckage.

Chen Yu looked up at Lin Yi, noticing his tightly furrowed brows, then glanced at the claw marks that had nearly shredded Lin Yi's armor. He pursed his lips, ultimately saying nothing, and merely swiped the screen with trembling fingers.

The scene changed.

This time, it was a view of the sky shot from the ground.

Two fighter jets were engaged in a low-altitude dogfight with a giant eagle whose wingspan blotted out the sun, its entire body covered in feathers with a blue-black metallic sheen. The giant eagle was as fast as lightning, its wingtips flashing with sharp, cold light.

Just then, a missile trailing a plume of smoke whistled in from afar—likely a beyond-visual-range strike launched by other aircraft or ground forces—and it looked as if it were about to hit the giant eagle!

However, the giant eagle suddenly opened its beak, and a blinding, air-distorting blue-white bolt of lightning shot out, intercepting the missile with precision.

Boom!

The missile exploded in mid-air.

Almost simultaneously, the giant eagle performed an inconceivable, sharp-turning dive, its razor-sharp wings grazing the wings of the fighter jets.

The fighter jet wings were severed instantly, as if a hot knife were cutting through butter. The unbalanced aircraft tumbled, trailing thick smoke and fire as it plummeted into the distance.

Chen Yu tapped the screen without a word, and the footage switched again.

This time, it was the vast ocean.

The person filming appeared to be on a destroyer or frigate of the Amerikan Nation, as they were filming an aircraft carrier flying the Amerikan flag.

Yet this ultimate power, a symbol of human maritime hegemony, was currently like a leaf in a raging storm.

An unimaginably massive, squid-like Abyss Beast, covered in suckers and hideous mouthparts, was using its thick tentacles—each comparable to a skyscraper—to tightly coil around the hull of the carrier. The ship's guns and missiles hit it like a mere tickle.

As the giant steel ship emitted a heart-wrenching groan, the massive hull was actually flipped over by those terrifying tentacles, and countless carrier-based aircraft and personnel fell into the sea like ants.

"This isn't even the most exaggerated part. Brother Yi, look at this. Is it... is God punishing us?"

As Chen Yu spoke, he swiped his finger, and a highly impactful video appeared on the phone screen.

The background of the video seemed to be a range of snow-capped mountains, likely filmed by a mountaineer.

Amidst the clouds, a slender, powerful-looking Eastern dragon was winding and coiling. Its body was not covered in scales, but rather a layer of flowing, azure thunder-energy shielding. Countless tiny electric arcs danced and crackled across the surface of the shield.

More than a dozen fighter jets, having likely exhausted their missiles, were circling the dragon and attacking frantically with machine guns.

The chains of fire from the machine guns and the smoke-trailing, beyond-visual-range missiles bombarded the blue shield as densely as holiday fireworks.

However, every attack, the moment it touched the shield, was like a stone dropped into the ocean; it merely stirred up weak ripples of energy before being completely annihilated, unable to reach even a single scale of the dragon.

Just then, the person filming the video seemed to have noticed something, and the camera zoomed sharply toward the distant horizon.

A massive missile, trailing a long plume of smoke and moving at astonishing speed, was tearing through the sky, whistling toward the dragon in the air with the force of a thunderbolt. Its unique trajectory and speed identified it as a ballistic missile!

Boom!

The missile struck the dragon with precision, and a giant fireball, a thousand times brighter than the sun, erupted high in the sky!

A terrifying shockwave expanded instantly, completely shredding and pushing away the surrounding clouds. The intense flash even caused the phone screen to overexpose instantly, turning into a patch of stark white.

A few seconds later, the bright light faded, and the image returned.

High in the sky, the massive fireball and smoke from the explosion were slowly spreading and dissipating.

And in the center of that smoke...

The dragon covered in the blue thunder shield was completely unscathed!

It even stretched its body elegantly, as if it had just been brushed by a gentle breeze.

The surface of the shield still shimmered with blue light, and the electric arcs still crackled and danced; not even the slightest ripple seemed to have appeared.

The dragon lowered its head slightly. It seemed to have grown bored; it swiped its claw through the void, and as a blue ripple burst forth and expanded, the surrounding fighter jets were instantly swept by the wave and exploded in mid-air simultaneously!

The video ended abruptly there.

"They're all 'old acquaintances'..."

Lin Yi's expression was grave, and he sighed inwardly.

"Even tactical nukes are useless. Brother Yi, look at these too. We're all going to die soon, aren't we?"

Chen Yu didn't even look up, muttering under his breath while continuously scrolling through his phone.

On the streets, packs of Corrosive Abyssal Wolves tore into the fleeing crowds, the acid spraying from their tails corroding vehicles and walls alike.

Inside the subway station, Abyss Beasts—humanoid in shape but with skin like rock and scorching steam venting from their joints—smashed through the turnstiles with massive stone fists, charging into the terrified throngs.

In the city park, a deformed giant dog with multiple heads spat out toxic mist and ice shards, locked in a fierce battle with a small squad of police; light weaponry had little effect on its hide.

Lin Yi stopped watching the videos. He had seen too much of this in his past life; instead, he keenly sensed that Chen Yu's state was off.

"Enough!"

"Yu! That's enough!"

Lin Yi grabbed Chen Yu's hand, stopping him from scrolling further. At the same time, he scanned his surroundings and noticed that most people looked ashen-faced and dazed. He couldn't help but raise his voice slightly, speaking in a deep, steady tone:

"Everyone, listen to me! It's not time to despair yet! The authorities still have high-yield nuclear weapons they haven't used."

"Besides, I just killed two monsters outside, and they... they left behind something very special!"