"The emergency power has been activated."
"The emergency internal communications channel has been activated."
"The emergency defenses have been activated."
"The ventilation system has been activated."
"The radiation defense windows have descended."
"All departments, please stand by."
In the corridor, amidst the chaotic footsteps and shouting, the broadcast system was turned on. It was no longer a robotic voice, but rather a human female one.
In the wake of the voice, muffled "clunk-clunk" sounds came continually from all directions. An Zhe looked at the connecting corridor once again. Ice-cold steel curtains had dropped abruptly, blocking all windows. It looked very thick—he recalled how Poet had said that once the magnetic field disappeared, the radiation and solar wind from the cosmos would immediately attack the earth's surface.
Thus, he knew that when Lu Feng pulled him away from the corridor just now, it was to leave the possible scope of the cosmic radiation—and as the construction from the era in which human science and technology were at their peaks, the thickness and special materials of the Main City's walls were able to defend against the radiation's assault.
After the lights of the United Front Center's building flickered madly, they lit steadily again, but the glow was now much weaker than before, displaying a feeble paleness.
The sound of a researcher dialing a number on his communicator came from the closest laboratory. He was too anxious, so his voice was very loud; it could be heard throughout the entire corridor.
"D1342 requesting an increase in power supply! The instruments cannot stop!"
A voice came from another laboratory as well. "D1343 requesting emergency power, otherwise valuable samples will be inactivated."
Who would answer their requests and whether or not they would be fulfilled, An Zhe didn't know. He looked in the direction of D1344 and unconsciously grabbed the edge of Lu Feng's sleeve.
Lu Feng looked down at him and said, "It's fine."
An Zhe nodded.
The announcements continued broadcasting.
"Would the persons in charge of the Equipment Center, City Defense Agency, Emergency Response Department, and Logistics Division please proceed to Conference Room 1 on the seventeenth floor of the United Front.
Please refrain from taking the elevators and use the passages to go upstairs and downstairs."
"Requesting the Lighthouse's Magnetic Field Observation Office to immediately contact the United Front Center."
"Requesting the Lighthouse's Magnetic Field Observation Office to immediately contact the United Front Center."
The announcement voice was turned up to the maximum volume, and the echoes reverberated in the corridor.
An Zhe looked at Lu Feng. "Are we going back to the Lighthouse?"
"I'll wait for orders." Lu Feng looked at the far end of the corridor, seeming to be contemplating something, then turned his gaze back to An Zhe. "Don't run around. Stick with me."
An Zhe said, "Okay."
Then the announcement said, "Would the persons in charge of the Command Post, Joint Staff Department, Trial Court, and Combat Center please proceed to the communication center on the fourteenth floor of the United Front. Please refrain from taking the elevators and use the passages to go upstairs and downstairs."
As An Zhe followed Lu Feng through the communication center's entrance, he heard voices inside.
"Northern Base to Underground City Base, please respond."
"Northern Base to Underground City Base, please respond."
"Northern Base to Underground City Base, please respond."
The dispatcher, wearing a pair of massive black headphones, was speaking.
In front of him, more than a dozen display screens were spread out, upon which curves and parameters jumped.
But in this communication channel, only he was talking. From the other side came nothing but empty electrical noises.
At the center of the hall was a middle-aged man in a black military uniform.
His facial features were cold and expression was dignified, and the symbol on his epaulettes indicated that he was a lieutenant general in the military.
Upon seeing Lu Feng enter, he gave a nod in their direction. "You've come."
There were some other soldiers who entered before and after Lu Feng.
Though their military ranks and the departments they belonged to differed, their expressions were identically cold and solemn.
The communication hall had chairs, so they dispersed and sat down. An Zhe quietly sat next to Lu Feng.
The lieutenant general answered a communication, and after a short thirty seconds, he hung up and said to the officers in the hall, "That was a notice from the Lighthouse's Magnetic Field Observation Office. Five minutes ago, the strength of the global magnetic field dropped to zero, but there were no abnormalities in the East Pole we are protecting.
"It's very clear that there was a major failure of the West Pole on the other side."
An Zhe listened to the lieutenant general's words. He knew the meaning the magnetic poles had to humans.
The magnetic field protected everything on Earth. Once it was lost, cosmic radiation and solar winds would enter without resistance. In the short term, it would bring severe drought to the entire world, and exposed humans would receive radiation, contract various malignant diseases, and then die or mutate.
And if there was a long-term lack of protection from the magnetic field, the entire planet's atmosphere would be dispersed by the solar winds, and then the world would turn into a desert of death.
And of the two magnetic poles humans made, one was in the Northern Base and the other was in the Underground City Base. The two of them jointly maintained a weak magnetic field that covered the whole world and were indivisible. As soon as something went wrong with one of them, the other one would lose its function as well.
There was no need for unnecessary communication between the two of them, either. Every night, the aurora appearing in the sky would tell the other, we still exist and are still safe.
Now the aurora was gone.
Just then, the worker troubleshooting the equipment nearby said, "Reporting.
The artificial magnetic field has disappeared, so the ionosphere is in chaos and short-wave communication is not feasible."
The lieutenant general frowned deeply. After three seconds of silence, he said, "At all costs, open the long-wave communication."
"Yes sir!"
In the era in which humans lost satellites and telecommunication, long-distance communication had become incomparably difficult, and only by using radio—short-wave radio communication through the atmosphere's ionosphere— could signals be transmitted. But the artificial magnetic field was weaker than the original geomagnetic field, after all. Communication was already very unstable, and now that the magnetic field completely disappeared and the ionosphere had become completely disordered, communication was even more difficult.
Long-wave communication was different. It was ground-based, using the earth and sea water as its medium. It was stable and reliable, but the activation cost was high, and only the most ancient code could be used to transmit messages.
It was also unidirectional, which meant that unless the other party also happened to activate long-wave communication at the same time, there would be no way to communicate.
The message was transmitted layer by layer, and at last, the communication center received a feedback message that the long-wave communication device had been activated.
The operator picked up the device. Codes with varying spacing and lengths made monotonous "beeps" as they were entered into the system in order, then uploaded to the communication channel.
"Northern Base to Underground City Base, please respond."
A long silence.
"The Underground City Base has the most perfect construction amongst the four human bases, so it's very difficult to imagine that it would encounter a catastrophe," an officer said. "If only it were just an equipment failure."
Just as he finished speaking, a piercing electrical noise suddenly came from the receiver!
With rustling sounds and scratching sounds, it was as chaotic as though it was coming from the boundless universe, yet it also resembled the dying breaths of a huge monster.
Everyone in the room stopped breathing until twenty-odd seconds had passed.
"Beep."
"Beep beep."
"Beep, beep—" The message sounded, and the operator's entire body trembled. He practically threw himself onto the workbench and swiftly took notes.
Five minutes later, the lieutenant general asked, "What did they say?"
The operator's face was pale and lips were trembling. He looked at the paper with the signal notes and said, "They said... The Underground City Base...
suffered an invasion of united xenogenics and suffered heavy losses. They're currently... resisting, and currently repairing the magnetic pole."
"The ammunition reserves are at less than one-fifth... Their thermonuclear weapon reserves are exhausted, and they have a shortage of soldiers.
Requesting..." He gritted his teeth. "Requesting support."
Silence.
Silence frequently meant facing a crucial choice.
To rescue, or not to rescue.
"Is it possible to still contact the Underground City?" A voice broke the silence.
"There are no more responses."
"The meeting in Conference Room 1 has ended. With existing resources, if guaranteeing the entire city's survival, we can hold out for three to ten days."
"And if not guaranteeing the entire city's survival?"
"If only guaranteeing the Twin Towers and Garden of Eden's resource supplies, we can hold out for fifteen to thirty days regardless of climate factors."
"Under extreme circumstances, if core personnel are transferred to the Garden of Eden's underground shelter, we can consider long-term survival."
"There's still a little hope."
Another beat of silence.
At last, someone said, "Do we save them or not?"
The lieutenant general looked around the room. After hearing the announcement to convene the meetings, An Zhe knew that the room was now filled with the highest-ranked officers from the Command Post, Staff Department, and Combat Center. Unlike the logistics and city defense personnel who were meeting in Conference Room 1, they all had to go to the frontlines.
It was just that even An Zhe knew how dangerous of a place the frontlines would be this time. What was it that could render the most perfectly-equipped human base and even the artificial magnetic pole unable to hold fast?
Perhaps by the time reinforcements arrived, it would have already become a dead city. Perhaps before they even reached their destination, the troops would crash their planes in the storm and fall to the earth or into the Pacific Ocean. Or perhaps after the Northern Base used its own armament reserves to help the Underground City Base, the next time xenogenics united to attack this place, it would've lost its ability to resist.
In the long silence, An Zhe heard Lu Feng say from next to him, "I'll go."
The lieutenant general looked at him for a long time.
"You're the best candidate," he said.
An Zhe looked at Lu Feng. He knew why the lieutenant general said Lu Feng was the best candidate.
In different regions on a continent, there were great differences between monsters. The Northern Base and Underground City Base were separated by the entire Pacific Ocean, so the monsters' habits and methods of fighting them may be entirely unknown.
Who could adapt the best to this kind of unknown?
Someone who often went into the Abyss. The monsters of the Abyss were both chaotic and frenzied, with practically all kinds of mutation types present.
Then another officer said, "I'm good at directing large-scale joint operations.
I apply to go."
"AR137's captain," Lu Feng said. "Dispatcher, please inquire if he will voluntarily go."
"Mr. Hubbard agreed to go."
The meeting adjourned, and upon leaving, the lieutenant general called Lu Feng back.
"Who will take on the Trial Court's work?"
"My adjutant."
"Is he capable?"
"Yes."
After exiting, Seraing walked over. The Trial Court's work area was in this exact building. He said in a low voice, "Colonel."
Lu Feng gave a flat response.
In the dim lighting, the rims of Seraing's eyes were slightly red. Lu Feng left, for he still had much to prepare.
Seraing had An Zhe stay in the Trial Court's office to rest. Midway there, An Zhe made an excuse to go out and climbed up to the thirteenth floor. The entrance to D1344 was still lit up, and inside were the sounds of researchers talking. They said there was no time left—precisely because there was no time left, they had to seize every moment in completing all their research. An Zhe lowered his head. His body as a mushroom was too fragile and soft, so he couldn't rashly charge in after all. He returned to the main hall on the first floor.
In the main hall, people came and went, and Seraing came to his side. Saying nothing, An Zhe quietly watched everything happen. The throngs of people that were busy and moving back and forth, the continually-playing announcements, the flashing lights and intermittent electricity supply. All of this happened very quickly. The fate of humankind was as changeable as the aurora in the sky.
At 11 p.m., the Equipment Center reported that their tasks were completed.
At midnight, the Logistics Division reported that their tasks were completed.
At 1 a.m., the PL1109 maintenance was completed, and the fighter plane formation set out.
Muffled rumbling came from afar. The ground command needed a wide field of vision, so the isolation walls rose, and scorching radiation and gusts of wind burst forth. Everyone backed up to the safe area in the depths of the main hall. A row of lights lit up in the distance, and An Zhe strove to look in that direction.
Wing and nose lights delineated the fighter planes' massive contours. Three PL1109 fighter planes, along with an entire flight formation, smoothly traveled over.
PL1109—An Zhe knew it. The masterpiece of human science and technology, it had a hull that blocked out all radiation and an independent navigation system that needed no guidance from the magnetic field. Humans had long ago predicted and prepared for the coming Era of Calamity, it was just that nobody knew exactly what the effects of these predictions and preparations would be.
And he also finally knew why the base's roads were all made to be so smooth, sturdy, and wide. The military base that was tightly linked to the city center, the massive buffer strips, the tarmacs and runways that were everywhere to be seen... The humans of a hundred years ago gave everything they had to build them. All of this was not because of beauty or regularity, but because everything about this human base's Main City was for responding to possible war.
Another gate opened, and a few officers in black combat uniforms walked out.
Amidst the handful of people, An Zhe saw Lu Feng with only a glance—this person's figure was imposing and upright, his figure neat and tidy. Unlike the lofty grace and coldness of the Trial Court's uniform, although the shape was similar, the combat uniform seemed more casual, which magnified his bastardly characteristic.
But tonight, An Zhe had no plans to call him a bastard. Lu Feng was a very good human.
Lu Feng walked over towards him, his original uniform coat draped over the crook of his arm, and Seraing accepted it.
"Follow Seraing. Don't run around," Lu Feng said as he looked at An Zhe.
Then he said to Seraing, "Keep an eye on him."
Clearly it was a very simple handful of words, but An Zhe felt that he heard a threat from them, as if once he ran around, he would suffer punishment.
Frowning, he looked up at this man.
Lu Feng reached out and tousled An Zhe's hair.
His gaze wasn't as cold or malicious as usual; An Zhe even thought that it was a bit gentle.
He'd had made up his mind to go to the Underground City Base on the other side of the world. An Zhe felt that he ought to say something, such as telling him to stay safe or to take care of himself... Those sorts of things.
He opened his mouth, then felt that the Colonel was probably accustomed to this kind of life. He seemed able to take care of everything, so there was no need to tell him.
In the end, An Zhe only said, "... I made mushroom soup tonight."
No matter how good the thermos was, having left it until now, it wouldn't be as tasty as when it was piping hot.
There was a slight smile in Lu Feng's eyes.
"Thank you," he said. "Make it for me again when I return."
That pair of eyes—those eyes with the same color as firefly glow in the deepest parts of the jungle—looked at An Zhe.
He seemed to lean down slightly, and for a moment, An Zhe felt that Lu Feng wanted to get close to him, but that feeling was fleeting.
"I may not be able to return," Lu Feng said, his voice slightly hoarse. "Take care of yourself."
An Zhe responded with an affirmative sound. He watched Lu Feng turn around and leave without looking back, walking into the makeshift boarding bridge.
How many times had he now watched Lu Feng's figure depart? He couldn't remember. He didn't know why this person was always able to constantly move forward. He could shoot his compatriots without the slightest hesitation and also sacrifice his own life at any given moment.
Outside, a sandstorm arrived with the great winds, and the night covered them, making the flying dust and grit seem like a boundless night fog—in precisely this boundless darkness and moonlight, the engines buzzed to life, and the pitch-black PL1109 fighter plane smoothly took off.
Its spread wings were like a massive bird. In An Zhe's sight, the further and higher it got, the smaller it became, turning into a black speck that was difficult to see before finally disappearing into the resplendent Milky Way that spanned across the skies.
There was a distant roar, which was a sonic boom, as the fighter planes accelerated again.
An Zhe couldn't find it at all anymore.
Everyone looked up at the boundless night sky. Within the hall, there was a respectful silence, and only after a long while did the people disperse.
An Zhe still stood there, and soft footsteps came from behind him. It was Seraing.
"Sometimes I'll think, why did the Colonel choose me as his successor?
What kind of characteristics and guidelines does he think an Arbiter should have?" Seraing said. "Now I think, contrary to what people believe, it's not coldness, but mercy."
"Humankind's interests take precedence over all else. It's not kindness to a single person, it's kindness to the fate of all of humankind. This is the source of unwavering conviction." Seraing's voice was very soft and slightly raspy. "I sincerely hope that the people a hundred years from now won't have to face everything we are currently facing, if humans still exist at that time."
An Zhe said nothing. He lifted his head to look at the star-studded night sky, a boundless resplendent sea.
Seraing draped the military coat over him.
"When the aurora lights up again, the Colonel will return."