Now, the majority of people had been organized by Parker, gathering in the main conference room and several smaller preparation rooms leading from it, rather than being scattered in various offices as before.
There was an obvious advantage to this, which was that when people looked up, they could see many others, and most of them weren't that nervous, providing the best possible reassurance to everyone.
Parker also suggested that since rescue was definitely on the way, and although they would have some time off afterward, their work still needed to be completed. If they had any energy left, they might as well prepare the handover documents before the vacation to facilitate the next person taking over their responsibilities.
As soon as holidays were mentioned, the atmosphere inevitably brightened. Work on the space station was quite heavy, and a sufficiently long paid vacation was for everyone a time of relaxation. Some people had already begun to fantasize about where they would go for their holidays.
Of course, there were practical matters that unavoidably needed consideration, such as the handover documents. If one was going on vacation, it was crucial to get this right, otherwise, the achievements they had worked for could be handed over to a greenhorn, and everything could be a mess upon their return.
Many scholars who managed to work on the space station were unusually dedicated in this respect, even capable of retaining their composure when faced with "Mount Tai collapsing before their eyes," so quickly, the sound of busy typing once again filled the conference room as many refocused on their work.
Therefore, when Beck burst in, what he saw was a scene he completely failed to anticipate.
This did not look like the final hour before the space station was about to plummet to doom but rather resembled the self-study preparation phase of a global academic conference.
"There's a monster! There's a monster!" Beck shouted, waving his hands.
He had made sure that without his authorization, no one had the permission to go online; the people on the space station wouldn't see those so-called insider analyses of the special effects. Next, he had a big surprise prepared for them.
With a loud bang, the door, along with its frame, was shattered, hurling Beck out and causing him to land heavily on the ground, blood beginning to flow from his temple.
Along with a large section of the wall demolished, a colossal creature burst in. It had the inverted triangle physique of a tornado, flames ablaze on its upper half, and its lower half enshrouded in an unyielding fog. After smashing through the wall with a fist, it roared and charged towards the crowd.
Parker sprang up, staring intently at the monster, then bellowed, "Evacuate! Prepare to evacuate!!!"
Parker used the term "evacuate," not simply yelling "run," demonstrating his professionalism. Humans, to some extent, also follow the principle of Pavlov's dogs, that is, the famous theory of conditioned reflexes.
All personnel working on the space station underwent thorough disaster evacuation drills; during such exercises, no one would yell "run" at them. They would generally be instructed with "Prepare to evacuate!"
In such situations, if you yell "run," they would run instinctively, aimlessly, like headless flies, and in a conference room full of people, it would be nearly impossible to get out.
But if you yell "evacuate," then at least a third of those with decent mental composure would remember the procedure from the drills, knowing how to evacuate orderly through different safety exits.
Another third would follow the crowd; they might panic at first, but with the lead of those rational ones, halfway through, they would probably remember how to evacuate.
The final third would be completely petrified, but since the first two-thirds evacuated in an orderly fashion, some would get swept along with the crowd and escape. Those left frozen in place would eventually snap out of it, and by that time, with fewer people around, it wouldn't matter which door they chose to run through.
As Parker called for evacuation, he also reminded them how to evacuate, citing principles like proximity, door-holding, guiding, and side-by-side evacuation—it was as though a live evacuation drill lesson was being conducted on the spot.
Under the guidance of some relatively calm staff members, within five to six seconds, everyone had basically taken their places. Once the doors opened, they formed two lines and ran out. Without causing congestion, the room was cleared in just over twenty seconds.
At that moment, the monster's entrance animation wasn't even finished yet.
This wasn't according to the script at all!
Behind the monitors, Sophia was staring at the screen, dumbfounded. Through her headset, she said to Beck, "They've all run, boss, what do we do now?!"
"What do we do? Of course, we..."
Beck wanted to say of course they wouldn't continue, since their goal was to have enough people see the monster, to convince them spontaneously to prove its existence on the space station, verifying the official cover-up, and thereby facilitating their emergence as heroes later on.
Regardless of whether these people had run or not, Beck was confident that they had certainly seen the monster. In preparation for his subsequent heroic entrance, he had even played the martyr, just to make these people believe in the reality of the monster—otherwise, why would he be bleeding?
But since everyone had run away, there was no need to continue the performance, their goal had already been achieved, so they might as well...
Beck was about to turn around and signal for them to quit when out of the corner of his eye, he caught sight of a figure still sitting at their desk.
Shiller sat unmoved.
He was watching the monster with interest then confirmed a fact—Nick was genuinely blind. How could anyone think this thing was alive? Many of the fog's swirling patterns were obviously copy-pasted. How could it compare to the Gray Mist?
But his sitting down plunged the situation into an incredibly awkward state—there was just one person left. Should Beck act or not?
Continuing to act meant spending money on special effects equipment, which isn't cheap. In fact, the monster was unlike the flame and fog creatures Beck had previously conjured; it was an upgraded version he'd meticulously prepared for some time, demanding high technical hardware standards, and virtually burning money every second.
Moreover, the script didn't initially involve him physically confronting the monster, because he was still Beck, his superhero identity not yet revealed. He was supposed to maintain his composure, organize an evacuation, and display the traits of a leader unfazed by danger. Yet Parker had already snatched that role, leaving no one left to evacuate.
Now it was just a monster and him in the room. According to the setup, he couldn't defeat the monster, and there were no planned action scenes, so his only option would have been to run away in panic.
It would have been easier if there were absolutely no one else, but there was still someone watching. If he fled in panic and the other individual spread the word, what would become of his act?
But he couldn't just not act either. The person stood there stiffly as if rooted to the spot. If Beck turned off the machine and the monster vanished into thin air, even a fool would realize something was amiss. If the individual spoke out, the plan would be exposed all the same.
Shiller was curious to see what Beck would do. Surely, with all the preparation that had gone into this plan, he must have a contingency in place?
Yet Beck just stood there dumbfounded, staring at Shiller with a gloomy expression, as though blaming him for not running away.
Shiller stood up and sighed. He was about to say something when the door burst open with a bang, and Natasha rushed in, exclaiming, "Where's the monster?!"
Then, turning to see Shiller, her urgency seemed to spike as she hurried to his side and said, "Doctor, why are you still here? I knew I didn't see you in the crowd earlier. It's too dangerous here, let's get out quickly!"
Shiller glanced at Natasha and noticed she was winking at him. So Shiller also put on a relieved expression and said, "Sorry, that monster was so ferocious, I was a bit stunned. I'm glad you're here."
Then the two made a swift exit from the scene, leaving Beck standing there dumbstruck. He felt something was off but couldn't quite pinpoint what it was.
As soon as Shiller and Natasha stepped outside, Natasha complained, "Can't you put a little more effort into your acting? I haven't made such an expressive face in close to thirty years, and this is how you repay me?"
"Your acting is quite impressive, ma'am," Shiller said as he took off the badge hanging around his neck and shook it in his hand before speaking.
"I've got what you wanted ready." Natasha said. "What's your plan now?"
"Sometimes I do find certain classics a bit cloying," Shiller said with a light shake of his head. "Over and over the same old thing, no innovation, just sensory stimulation, vulgar and boring—like classic Hollywood blockbusters."
Natasha raised her eyebrows at him.
"But after seeing those short-video screenplays that just focus on gimmicks with no substantial content and full of plot holes, I think there's a reason why some Hollywood blockbusters are deemed classics."
"So?"
"We don't need any artistic scripts to deal with them. Let's just go with some classic popcorn movie clichés," Shiller said as they moved on.
Beck's team arrived at the scene to clean up the debris, but Beck remained still, his gaze fixated on an empty seat, emitting a look of hatred that sent chills down everyone else's spines.
If Beck wasn't mistaken, before turning away, Shiller had given him a look that was full of disdain.
The fury inside him was raging, an endless tide of anger and hatred nearly swallowing his heart.
But at that moment, the large screen in the conference room lit up, followed by every monitor in the offices, and all the screens throughout the space station.
"Greetings, Human race," a synthetic mechanical voice appeared on the screen, and the footage flickered a few times before settling on the angle of a camera in a room.
Beck suddenly turned, seeing at the center of the screen the hovering power engine for half the space station, with a row of black devices now visible beneath the engine's base.
"I am the space station's artificial intelligence butler; you may call me 'Friday.' What you see before you is the power engine that sustains this space station's flight."
"As participants in the design and construction of the space station, you can certainly tell that something extra is in this room. The black devices appearing in the center of the screen are—bombs."
As it finished speaking, a countdown of "30" appeared on a small screen in front of the black devices.
"In half an hour, the bombs will detonate. Without its power system, the space station is predicted to plummet to Earth and will directly obliterate the American Continent. You have 30 minutes."
"Now, Human race, let us say goodnight."