Shengdun Underground City, Command Center.
That soul-shaking pressure still hung over everyone's heads.
Human adaptability was astonishing.
Especially when "adapting" was tied to "staying alive."
Although the first wave of pressure had left them shaken and panicked, it had still been bearable.
But the second wave had forced more than half of them flat onto the floor.
Several minutes passed. Once people realized that this terrifying pressure, though suffocating, would not kill them outright, their survival instincts slowly began to overcome their fear.
"Get up, all of you!"
Bracing himself against the command console, veins bulging, Jieshibang roared at the roomful of limp staff.
"Will crouching on the floor keep you alive?"
"Get up! Get back to work!"
His own legs were trembling too. The pressure was like an invisible mountain bearing down relentlessly on everyone's minds.
But he knew that if even he fell, Shengdun would be finished.
He believed a politician's greatest ability was to keep their back straight even in the depths of despair, doing everything they could and should to fight for a sliver of possibility.
Under Jieshibang's almost crazed berating, the Command Center staff began struggling up from the floor, bracing themselves against their desks and returning to their seats.
Some were shaking, and some had pounding heads, but at least they were moving again.
"Good..." Jieshibang held his forehead, gasping for breath.
Just then, a technician seated at a monitoring terminal suddenly cried out:
"S-sir, this is bad!"
Drenched in sweat, the technician stared at the fluctuating waveforms on the screen, his face deathly pale.
"The seismic waves... their frequency and intensity are climbing sharply!"
"The fighting's getting fiercer?!" Jieshibang whipped his head around.
"N-no, it's right above us!"
The technician's voice shook:
"There are massive numbers of explosions on the surface directly overhead!"