The world changed faster than anyone imagined.
The experts' deciphering efforts were not going smoothly, and civilian life had changed just as dramatically.
In the blink of an eye, a year had passed since Wang Fumin and Lu Tuyu joined the military...
It had taken them only ten short months or so to go from struggling to adjust to gradually growing accustomed to their new lives.
There was no denying that humans were highly adaptable creatures. A year ago, they had still been worrying about mortgage payments, healthcare, and education. Now, most people had become manual laborers. Even if they resented it, they had to put up with it and settle for cursing the heavens.
"I thought we were coming here to shoot guns. Turns out we still couldn't escape a life of hauling bricks..."
Whenever this came up, Lu Tuyu could not help pouring out his grievances.
In all that time, he had only handled a gun twice. Because he was nearsighted, half his shots had missed the target during one noisy round of shooting practice. After that, he never got another chance to practice. Every day, he served here as a militiaman... or, in more familiar terms, a reservist!
To maintain world peace, the number of active-duty troops had rapidly expanded from two million the previous year to twenty million now-a tenfold increase.
Every neighboring country was frantically recruiting soldiers. Border clashes were constant, and some medium-sized countries had already begun producing nuclear weapons. International rules? Who cared about those anymore? The shadow of a third world war hung over humanity.
Rapidly increasing troop numbers was relatively easy, but manufacturing weapons and equipment was not. With markets collapsing and transportation paralyzed, military factories were operating at only about half their peak capacity.
What could they do when there