Inside the meeting room.
The crowd stared with slightly grave expressions at the enormous Light Gate stretching across the void on the screen.
Even without anything else, this Light Gate alone was enough to make them realize the seriousness of the problem.
After all, the former type of Light Gate is only a little over ten meters long.
This one, however, covers an area of over a hundred meters in radius.
Not to mention the gray fog that covered the entire island, and the dark brown, cracked ground.
As the video ended, a clean-cut-looking representative from Huadong City stood up and asked:
"Minister, is this Lanikai Island?"
In an instant, all eyes were focused on Minister Zhao Yonggang.
"Yes, that's right." Zhao Yonggang placed his hands on the table, his gaze slowly sweeping across the entire room.
"Perhaps it's because of Lanikai Island's unique spatial structure that it's more suitable as a starting point."
"It's also possible that the Darkwing Heavenly Spine Beast incident severely weakened the spatial barrier there, bringing it closer to the Ruins Realm."
"In short, Lanikai Island also became one of the Erosion Zone by this incident."
"Because of the Darkwing Heavenly Spine Beast incident, the Rice Country has been paying close attention to Lanikai Island, which is why Lanikai Island became the first Erosion Zone to be discovered."
"One of them?" Li Zhenguo, the representative from Huadong City, keenly caught the key phrase and pressed further, "You mean there's more than one such area?"
Shen Heng glanced at the short-haired middle-aged man who had asked the question, then turned his gaze to Zhao Yonggang.
"There are still several," Zhao Yonggang slowly straightened up and said, word by word, "There are more than twenty."
"What?!"
A suppressed gasp filled the conference room.
Everyone's pupils contracted slightly.
There are more than twenty islands as big as Lanikai Island?
Ignoring the commotion below, Zhao Yonggang continued:
"To date, a total of twenty-three Erosion Zone have been confirmed worldwide."
"Of these, eight are on the ocean, and the remaining fifteen are scattered across various continents."
"And there are three distributed within our Great Xia territory..."
He stated clearly:
"One is on the western plateau, one is on the northern grasslands, and the other is within our territorial waters."
Three?... Shen Heng tapped his finger lightly on the table.
"What will happen to this Erosion Zone? How is it different from a regular Light Gate? Or is it just a larger Light Gate?" asked the representative with the Dongyun City sign on the table.
"It's not just that simple," Zhao Yonggang explained, looking at everyone.
"First, let me explain what Erosion Zone is."
" The Erosion Zone Ruins Realm the area on Blue Star where substantial erosion has begun to occur."
"This erosion is like what you just saw—the hazy fog, the cracked earth."
"Although it looks somewhat similar to a regular Light Gate, it is actually quite different."
"This difference is mainly reflected in three points."
He held up one finger:
First, expansion.
"The size of a normal Light Gate is fixed, but the Light Gate in the Erosion Zone will slowly and continuously expand over time."
"At the same time, the eroded area of reality Light Gate is expanding even faster!"
"However, it's unclear whether it will expand indefinitely or have a limit."
Then, he raised his second finger:
Second, fixity and finiteness.
"Ordinary Light Gate appear randomly, unpredictably, and uncontrollably."
"Its form is somewhat similar to the overlapping forms of Calamity Beast we've encountered in the past, and it will continue to appear in the future."
"But the Erosion Zone are different; from the discovery of the first Erosion Zone to the twenty-three Erosion Zone we have today."
"Although these Erosion Zone were discovered gradually."
"But the Research Department discovered after investigation that they had all appeared after the previous incident."
"The last Erosion Zone was discovered three days ago."
"No new Erosion Zone has been found in the three days since then."
"This means that the number of Erosion Zone is likely fixed!"
At this point, Zhao Yonggang paused for a moment, his gaze slowly sweeping across the entire room, before finally speaking in a deep voice and raising his third finger:
"Third, and also the biggest difference..."
The conference room was so quiet you could hear a pin drop; everyone held their breath.
"Third, and also the biggest difference."
" The Calamity Beast within the Erosion Zone are able to freely enter and exit the Light Gate, and have demonstrated a certain degree of organization."
"Organization?!"
These three words resounded like thunder in the meeting hall.
Everyone's expression changed drastically, and their pupils contracted uncontrollably once again.
What they cared about was not the free entry and exit at the front, but the organized entry and exit at the back.
Dealing with scattered individuals is vastly different from dealing with organized groups!
Shen Heng stopped tapping the table.
The Supervision Bureau has been able to defuse crises time and again largely because of its superior organization, discipline, and cooperation, far exceeding that of the Calamity Beast.
What if the Calamity Beast also possessed similar abilities...?
Just thinking about it sends chills down my spine.
"What's the highest rank of the Calamity Beast that appeared over there?" a voice suddenly rang out.
Shen Heng glanced at the person who had asked the question; it was a relatively short but very muscular man.
After Shen Heng's previous questioning about the Light Gate, many people realized this crucial point.
Even if the Calamity Beast are organized, if they are all low-level, then the problem for humans won't be too serious.
However, Zhao Yonggang's next words plunged everyone's hearts into despair.
"Based on current intelligence, the most powerful Calamity Beast appearing in the Erosion Zone can reach the Sixth Tier."
Sixth Tier?... Everyone frowned involuntarily.
It should be noted that the strongest beings in the Great Xia are currently only at the Sixth Tier.
In other words, the Calamity Beast that emerged from the Erosion Zone have already reached the level of humanity's strongest combat power, and may even be stronger.
but...
Everyone looked up and saw the Light Gate behind Zhao Yonggang, which still covered an area of over a hundred meters.
It seems reasonable that only the Sixth Tier appears.
After all, the Darkwing Heavenly Spine Beast that appeared on Lanikai Island before was two to three hundred meters in size.
"So, the nuclear explosions happening all over the world, as mentioned online, were to eliminate the Calamity Beast emerging from the Erosion Zone?" Wang Hu had just asked the question, continued to inquire.
"Yes, that's right," Zhao Yonggang confirmed.
"But didn't it say there were a total of twenty-three Erosion Zone? The locations I saw online don't seem to be as many as twenty-three," Wang Hu pressed.
Zhao Yonggang said, "This is because the Calamity Beast didn't appear at the beginning; they only started appearing on the sixth day."