[Earth Era, January 24, 2012] [Western Calendar, Tuesday] [Xia Calendar, Xinmao Year, second day of the first lunar month. Auspicious for marriage, opening a business, trading, travel, moving the sacred flame, burial, and donning mourning clothes. Inauspicious for praying for blessings]
Within the Safe Zone, pedestrians still came and went along the streets, but the vitality of days past was gone.
Every face wore a cold, bleak expression, without a trace of New Year joy.
Even where voices could be heard in conversation, a sense of silence still pervaded.
In the dozen or so years since the apocalypse descended, yesterday had been the most despairing day of all.
Every senior United Government official in War Readiness Zone 931 had fallen in battle.
Qian Wendao, Secretary-General of the United Government, had died at his post.
Hundreds of thousands of people in War Readiness Zone 937 had been slaughtered to the last.
What was more,
the Invaders had not cut off the live broadcast from War Readiness Zone 937. Before everyone's eyes, they had killed every last person, swept up the bodies packed across the square, and brazenly left the Eighth Domain.
The Invaders' expressions had remained calm throughout.
Killing people and collecting their corpses had been like a group of arrogant elites plucking a few wildflowers as they passed through a meadow.
Something perfectly natural, not worth mentioning.
Beyond that, another piece of news had been drowned out by the horrific battlefield reports.
Qin Siyang, Minister of the Armaments Department and Commander of the Qin Character Legion, had died fighting the enemy.
He had been reduced to ashes, with no remains left behind.
Within a single day, two of the Safe Zone's most iconic figures had perished, one after the other.
Although the enemy had left, their next invasion