Inside the containment facility.
Tong Wenshi was still standing on the stage when he suddenly discovered that his surroundings had changed drastically. The boundless grassland had given way to an indoor space. For a moment, he stood rooted to the spot, unsure what to do.
The pregnant women below also started in alarm, looking around uneasily.
The sudden change in their surroundings exceeded everyone's imagination.
No one had imagined that, simply by sitting in a chair and doing nothing, they would suddenly disappear from the grassland.
"Quiet, there's no need to panic. We're very safe now!"
Zhang Tianyuan walked onto the stage with a decidedly down-to-earth handheld megaphone and began directing everyone.
The advance team members who had returned with them below the stage had already experienced one crossing. Knowing that they were back home now, they took the opportunity to reassure the pregnant women around them and tell them not to be nervous.
The panic came quickly and went just as quickly.
Everyone soon sat down again, and Zhang Tianyuan on the stage undoubtedly became their pillar of support.
"Everyone, just now, we passed through the Spacetime Tunnel and arrived in the peaceful spacetime Director Tong told you about.
"You'll be able to give birth here in peace. There's no KV Virus here, and no monsters either. All supplies are available as normal. Whatever you need, you can ask the nursing staff, and they'll accommodate you within reason..."
Zhang Tianyuan held everyone's attention on the stage.
Tong Wenshi quietly stepped away from the speaking platform and surveyed his surroundings.
He was now in an indoor plaza with glass windows all around. The staff hurrying over wore full white protective suits, and the people said to be virologists were communicating with them through the glass...
The distinctive smell of disinfectant filled the air, slightly pungent but reassuring.
Walking up to the soundproof glass, Tong Wenshi stared at the staff outside as they stared back. Looking at those unfamiliar yet concerned faces, he suddenly smiled.
Parallel spacetimes were actually real!
He had really made it here!
Zhang Tianyuan had finished speaking and settled all the pregnant women down. He called Tong Wenshi back to his side, and the group recorded a video in the center of the plaza.
Then he opened the Spacetime Tunnel again and sent it back to the grassland along with the video camera.
This was to let the people in Legend World know they were safe, and to make Bai Xu and the others' work over there easier.
Afterward, vaccinated medical staff came in from outside wearing protective suits and began making arrangements.
When the containment facility was first built, they had considered the
possibility of bringing people back from Legend World, so the facility contained a large number of isolation wards and testing rooms.
These areas connected to the plaza and likewise met P4 biosafety standards.
Tong Wenshi and the others were immersed from head to toe in ozonated water for preliminary disinfection, then taken to the wards.
First, they would undergo detailed examinations and receive the KV Vaccine as appropriate to eliminate any KV Virus they might be carrying.
Second, they would remain under observation and undergo continuous full-body disinfection, eliminating any possibility of carrying the virus before leaving the containment facility.
Zhang Tianyuan and the others received the same treatment.
Only this could ensure that the KV Virus would not spread to the world of "2012."
The difference was that Zhang Tianyuan was much busier than Tong Wenshi.
He had barely entered his ward when the telephone beside the bed rang.
It was a call from the senior leadership of "2012," who were still on their way over by car.
After exchanging greetings, the person on the other end cautiously asked, "President Zhang, we'd like to learn more about the specific situation in that parallel spacetime."
Zhang Tianyuan concealed nothing.
"We were already too late when we arrived. The apocalyptic event in that spacetime had happened more than six months earlier. The KV Virus had spread completely, and there are probably very few people left worldwide."
"We searched for two months before finally finding the main group whose evacuation the authorities had organized, but there were only forty thousand people there."
Sharp breaths were drawn!
Every one of the senior leaders in the car on the other end was horrified.
"Out of 1.3 billion people, only forty thousand are left?" They could not believe it and wanted to confirm it again.
"Not quite that bad," Zhang Tianyuan said. "It's just that only forty thousand could be gathered together. There may still be around a million survivors alive across the country."
Zhang Tianyuan took the opportunity to mention how he had still been able to find some survivors along the way.
But this did not lighten the senior leaders' mood.
Because this was still a grim answer.
Only a million people remained in the country, and only ten million worldwide...
What kind of human tragedy was this?
Such a situation fully deserved to be called the end of the world.
No words other than "the end of the world" could describe such devastation.
The apocalypse having actually occurred in another spacetime left the senior leaders feeling like foxes mourning a rabbit's death.
They must not forget.
According to Zhang Tianyuan's prediction, once 2012 arrived in their spacetime and the apocalyptic disaster began, they would not even have a million survivors left.
They would fare even worse then!
When the call ended, the senior
leaders immediately began reviewing the geological activity observation records transmitted back each day.
Over the past two months, they had not only stationed a scientific team in a copper mine in India; through scientific cooperation, their country had also gained access to sufficiently deep locations all around the globe.
The aim was to obtain scientific evidence of the impending apocalypse at the earliest possible moment.
Today's observation records from all locations still showed no anomalies.
This was good news, but also bad news.
It made them feel like condemned prisoners who did not know when they would be taken to the execution ground.
Abnormal activity in the Earth's core would be their spacetime's "execution order."
Even when their vehicles arrived, none of them could shake off this apprehension.
They went to see Zhang Tianyuan immediately, and after speaking with him through the glass,
they rushed on without pause to find Instructor Yin and the others who had returned with him, asking them to provide more details about their journey to the apocalyptic spacetime.
Deep down, they still clung to one last thread of hope-
Perhaps Zhang Tianyuan's account just now had been exaggerated.
But the result utterly dashed their hopes.
Instructor Yin recalled his experiences. "The overall order in that spacetime has completely collapsed. Humans have been driven out of the cities, and monsters roam the urban streets late at night. The survivors can only rely on daylight, cautiously entering the cities to obtain the supplies they need to survive..."
Wu Yisi said, "Almost all survivors of the apocalypse have serious psychological problems. Depression, irritability, self-destructive tendencies... The absence of order leaves them with an extreme lack of security. Everyone is highly sensitive, and they generally have varying degrees of fear of nighttime and dark environments."
The machine gunner described the various horrific sights he had seen while accompanying the advance team on supply searches.
Buildings were littered with remains that Darkseekers had fed on. When they went to the hospital to collect ambulances, the scenes inside were dozens of times more horrifying than those in shopping malls and other places. Many people had still been alive when the Darkseekers attacked them, and bloody handprints covered the walls...
These accounts almost drove the leadership to despair.
Yin Hongda and the others had brought back a great deal of visual material, which corroborated their accounts after it was disinfected and sent out.
After viewing it, everyone was so shocked that their bodies went weak, cold sweat beaded on their foreheads, and their stomachs churned relentlessly.
"So this was the apocalypse!"
The elderly man with the crew cut who had sat beside Zhang Tianyuan at the earlier meeting stroked the bloody photograph in his hand, as though he could reach across spacetime and touch those cold bones...