The whole world was stunned!
The deaths of all the survivors in Mysterious Zone 15 and the earthquake in the North Sea had occurred just ten minutes apart.
One coincidence could be called a coincidence; two meant there had to be a connection!
Besides, at least a billion people had been attacked by the eerie laughter coming from the mirage.
That spine-chilling laughter was already beyond the scope of human scientific understanding. Once someone fell under its control, escape was almost impossible.
If the "mirage" had not blurred of its own accord, casualties this time might have reached ten figures!
Mass panic set in. Pedestrian traffic dwindled sharply, and many factories halted production.
Even active combat zones temporarily ceased exchanging fire.
The powerful earthquake had completely crippled networks across Europe. Only satellite networks remained usable.
"Professor, has the apocalypse arrived?"
"The earthquake destroyed everything here. I can still feel tremors. I'm terrified. Someone, please save me."
"Was that laughter coming from a monster?"
"Where does humanity go from here?"
When rivers of blood might truly flow and they themselves could be caught up in it, even those who had treated everything as entertainment could no longer avoid panicking.
About half an hour later, the famous parapsychologist Peter Greer posted a new tweet: "God saved us. Without God's guidance, we would have been killed by the Demon!"
"But we are always accustomed to history spiraling upward, and have never considered history spiraling downward."
"The Archean Eon lasted 2.1 billion years, and the Sinian Period of the Proterozoic Eon lasted 1.83 billion years; then came the Paleozoic Era: the Cambrian Period, 70 million years; the Ordovician Period, 60 million years; the Silurian Period, 40 million years; the Devonian Period, 50 million years; the Carboniferous Period, 6.5 million years; and the Permian Period, 55 million years. Then the Mesozoic Era began: the Triassic Period, 35 million years; the Jurassic Period, 58 million years; and the Cretaceous Period, 70 million years. Then came the Cenozoic Era: the Tertiary Period, 64.5 million years, and the Quaternary Period, 2.5 million years."
"Then humanity appeared. The time we have existed is equivalent to the final minute of a twenty-four-hour day. We know so little about this world."
"This is the kind of creature we are. For convenience's sake, we never consider the other side of a problem when trying to solve it; we always play by conventional rules and dislike considering exceptional circumstances. Unless something tragic happens, we remain stuck in our ways, unwilling to change. The moment we escape a passive position, we immediately return to the vicious cycle of clinging to outdated ways."
"Has the apocalypse arrived? No, not yet. The revelation is not over."
"Will we unite amid disaster? No. The footsteps of war are drawing near. It is knocking at my door."
Those words silenced many people online. They wanted to lash out, but could find nothing to say.
Habitable land kept shrinking. No one knew what would happen in the future.
Within Great Xia, the machinery of state sprang into full operation as quickly as possible, suppressing most images of Mirage 15 to reduce the chances of that "laughter" appearing again.
Experts were urgently mobilized to discuss the chain reactions caused by the North Sea earthquake.
At six that evening, several important announcements played over the loudspeakers in the shelter where Wang Fumin, the overweight driver, was staying.
"To maintain world peace, promote international **, and resolve international problems of an economic, social, cultural, or humanitarian nature, the Great Xia Ministry of National Defense has announced that it will ** thirty million over the next five years."
"All eligible young people aged eighteen to forty who wish to join the * may register online through the national ** website. Medical examinations will officially begin within a week."
"For love and peace, they're going crazy with **, huh? Thirty million?!" With a shriveled cigarette dangling from his lips, Wang Fumin was startled by the number.
"What else could it be? That laughter today scared the big shots out of their wits."
"Maybe we really are going to war."
Wang Fumin himself had naturally been terrified by what happened that day. Who wouldn't be shaken by something science could not explain?
...Nothing had happened. All was well.
The female news anchor continued in a measured voice.
In this era of incessant natural disasters and man-made calamities, it was necessary to strengthen the armed forces.
The second news item followed.
"The Suiren Plan has been announced, with 130 million workers to be recruited. Over the next ten years, we expect to build 128 inland industrial cities, 300 supersized shelters, and 1,600 medium-sized shelters in the Western Region, along with 70,000 new dams and 11,600 water-storage lakes. We will build new Jiangnan Water Towns in the Western Region."
"The primary challenges of the future dictate that we must remain grounded in reality, placing research into supernatural phenomena at the center of our efforts to protect people's lives and property."
"We need to perpetuate our species and survive the difficult future ahead. Thus, this plan has been given the code name 'Suiren.'"
Wang Fumin's face turned deathly pale. Many others in the shelter also began talking in small groups after hearing the news.
The Suiren Plan alone required 130 million workers. Adding their families and all kinds of service personnel meant that three hundred to five hundred million people nationwide would have to serve this enormous undertaking. Its scale was staggering!
Lu Tuyu stared at his phone screen and murmured with a smile, "Too bad the country will only need bricklayers from now on. Programmers like us will have to switch careers and haul bricks."
"If I run into some monster, it won't even need to be very strong. If it dares attack me, I'll dare to die."
"It's not quite that bad."
Wang Fumin pulled the crumpled cigarette from his pocket. Unable to bear lighting it, he took a few unlit drags. "Look at that young guy in Mysterious Zone 16. Isn't he fighting crabs every day, scraping out a miserable living? Whenever I see how pitiful he looks, without even anyone to talk to, treating a coconut as his wife, I somehow feel a little better."
"You're not wrong. Why does having someone worse off than us suddenly make us feel happy...? Something about that seems wrong." Playing with his phone, Lu Tuyu cursed under his breath. "Has that message in a bottle of yours arrived yet? Can it still come back? If that guy dies, we might all die too!"
"Arrived, my ass!" Wang Fumin looked up at the ceiling, beginning to question everything. "How many days has it been since I sent it? Is it really going to take years? I wish I could add more to that letter."
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