"The Doomsday Rules are over. Should we go back?"
At the edge of the Birahan Desert, the members of the Children of Argan Tribe gathered together, watching the sparse crowds in the distance scatter and leave.
Everyone who had come to the desert had done so seeking refuge. Now that the Doomsday Rules were over and the plants no longer posed a threat to humans, those seeking shelter naturally wanted to leave this scorching, monotonous wasteland.
Compared to when they had first arrived in the days following the rule's announcement, far fewer people were leaving now. This showed that while everyone had come to take refuge, they hadn't managed to avoid conflict among themselves.
Take the Children of Argan Tribe, for example. If they hadn't used prophecy to ambush the Gang in advance, they would likely have been gunned down by stray bullets, and the tribe members would have been buried forever beneath the yellow sand, just like those vanished refugees.
However, precisely because the tribe had turned the tables and killed that Gang, placing their bodies where everyone could see them, no other group dared to provoke the tribe for the remainder of the Doomsday Rules.
Moreover, after looting the Gang's camp, the tribe's supplies combined with what they already had saw them safely through the Doomsday Rule period without any further casualties.
Now that the Doomsday Rules were over, watching other refugee groups depart one after another, the tribe members felt a sense of bewilderment, unsure where to go next.
Back to the Algan Grasslands?
But that vast grassland must surely be covered with countless weeds now. Unlike cities, where people would clear the weeds, who would bother with an uninhabited prairie?
With just a few dozen people in the tribe, clearing a large enough habitat would likely exhaust them to death, leaving them unable to rest for days.
But if they didn't go back to the grasslands...
Was this tribe, which had originally intended to break away from modern society, going to abandon its principles and reintegrate?
The tribe members were uncertain and looked to Camp Leader Jie, waiting for his decision.
Jie's expression was grim. His skin had darkened considerably from days under the sun compared to when he was on the grasslands. Having experienced over twenty days of desert life and a life-or-death battle, he had gained many insights.
Under everyone's gaze, Jie made his decision.
"Everyone, I've decided that we, the Children of Argan, will stay in the abandoned town at the edge of the desert."
The abandoned town...
Upon hearing this, the tribe members had mixed feelings, but no one voiced opposition.
This didn't violate the original intent of the tribe's founding, because that abandoned town had nothing to do with modernization. It was nothing more than a village that had seen little change in decades.
Moreover, it had been abandoned for several years, and the only power station and factory had long since shut down. If the tribe lived here, the only difference from the grasslands would be sleeping in mud houses instead of tents.
"I agree." Moon Key spoke up in support.
She didn't care where she stayed, because her core need was "peace and quiet."
Using the power of prophecy too often left her thoughts tangled and chaotic. At such times, the quieter and more isolated the place, the better, as it minimized the additional interference from people and things.
So whether it was the vast grasslands or the abandoned town at the desert's edge, it was all the same to her. Both could shield her from the troubles of modern technological life and crowds, allowing her to live peacefully and recuperate, so she could make precise prophecies when needed.
"Since the Moon Priestess agrees, that settles it!"
"Listen to the Camp Leader."
"On the grassland, we saw blue skies and white clouds every day. Now we have yellow sand and a small desert instead. That's not bad either. It has its own kind of beauty."
The tribe members voiced their support one after another.
Although life at the desert's edge was harsher than on the bountiful grasslands, the saying goes: "Live on the mountain, live off the mountain; live by the water, live off the water." People would always find a way to survive.
And so, the Children of Argan Tribe settled down in the abandoned town at the desert's edge. Afterwards, Moon Key contacted Adam, informing him of this development and also asking him to convey the tribe's gratitude to Guan Tong once more.
If Guan Tong hadn't come to the grasslands back then to rescue them, they would have long since become fertilizer for those plants. The Children of Argan would forever remember this life-saving grace and would repay it if given the chance.
...
September 18, the third day after the Doomsday Rules ended.
The Suroma Supreme Court held a hearing for the "Array Action Case." The process was remarkably fast, delivering a verdict in just about half an hour.
Joiessen was found guilty of multiple serious crimes, including intimidation and incitement, forging orders, hiring for murder, and crimes against humanity. He was sentenced to immediate execution by death.
Other subordinates closely associated with Joiessen and those who aided his crimes also received heavy sentences, all starting at thousands of years in prison.
When the court's verdict was announced, some of the others burst into tears, some argued vehemently, and some stated they would appeal.
These people knew full well that even if they got ten years, it was essentially no different from a death sentence in practical terms.
After all, this was the era of the Doomsday Rules. Who could survive multiple Doomsday Rules in a place like prison?
But the protests and even the appeals were futile. The judge stated that this case was unique, involving multiple countries, and under such special circumstances, it would not follow standard trial procedures. Thus, the first instance was the final instance.
Only Joiessen remained silent throughout, his face ashen as he passively accepted the judge's verdict.
The trial concluded in the morning, and the sentence was carried out in the afternoon. Such efficiency made people marvel that this didn't even seem like Suroma anymore.
People cheered, feeling that a great scourge had been removed from humanity as a whole. However, some felt that Suroma's haste inevitably raised suspicions that they wanted to silence Joiessen quickly to make this case an unassailable fait accompli.
But no matter what people thought, in the absence of evidence implicating any higher-ups in Suroma, the case came to a close with Joiessen's execution and the related individuals locked away in prison.
The day after the trial ended, Suroma officially announced that memory digitization experiments would be conducted in a few days. People's attention was immediately drawn to this, and discussion of the "Array Case" plummeted.
...
September 23, Beixing officially launched its manned rocket spaceship, "Tiangong One."
According to the explanation given at the press conference by Chen Shi, the Director of the Beixing Space Agency, Beixing's overall plan to build a survival base in Terra's orbit was called the "Tiangong Project."
The project was divided into three phases.
The first phase involved launching multiple spacecraft modules—core modules, laboratory modules, transport modules, and ecological modules—and assembling them in space to form a giant ecological survival base.
The second phase, after the space base was fully assembled, would involve dropping a large number of mining robots onto Terra to extract the planet's resources and supply the construction of long-range collection spacecraft.
The third phase would utilize the mineral resources of Terra and the orbital survival base, combined with the items and abilities of numerous Ascendants, to fully complete the construction of the long-range spacecraft. This spacecraft would be deployed next year to explore Meltstar.
The "Tiangong One" launched now was the core module of the first phase. It was first sent into Terra's orbit, and then the other various module compartments would be launched intensively over the following period to complete the assembly in the shortest possible time.
Compared to Suroma's memory digitization technology, the launch of Tiangong One garnered comparable attention.
Because many people felt that even if Suroma's technology succeeded, the number of beneficiaries would inevitably be limited.
The "Dialoguer" had said back then that memory digitization would consume massive resources. The energy supplying ten cities would only be enough for one person to succeed. When would ordinary people ever get to use this technology?
Even if nuclear power stations were built all over the world, the queue would still be far too long.
So, many people were still pinning their hopes on the unknown substances on Meltstar.
If they could really collect the "magnetic substrate" the Dialoguer had mentioned, enabling a breakthrough in humanity's fundamental base materials, then all fields of science and technology would experience explosive development.
At that point, perhaps the astronomical energy required for "memory digitization" could be easily supplied, directly solving the queuing problem in one fell swoop.
Or perhaps some other field would achieve a major breakthrough, giving humanity multiple ways to survive... What black technology human disciplines could churn out after a material breakthrough was completely unpredictable at this point.
So, with everyone eagerly looking forward to it, Tiangong One finally ignited and launched.
When Beixing officially announced the successful launch, people were overjoyed. Even non-Beixing citizens felt immensely excited, feeling that humanity had taken another step forward through its own efforts.
Perhaps this was the sense of pride that came from humanity's subjective initiative and hard work.
Even though the Fire Thief was powerful enough to crush humans like ants and torment them with various Doomsday Rules, humanity hadn't completely sunk into these rules, living like beasts just to survive. Instead, they continued to seek a way out through their own efforts, outside the Doomsday Rules.
This was indeed something worthy of pride for any member of the human race.
Even Guan Tong, who had been in a bad mood for the past few days, felt a surge of excitement when he saw the launch of the "Tiangong One" rocket through the live stream.
As someone who had been to space before, he knew it was a mysterious, profound, yet beautiful place. He hoped the project would go smoothly.
If Beixing really built a space survival base in Terra's orbit, it would mean a potential space home for all humans on Tianshui Star. This would bring a lot of peace of mind and alleviate the trapped-beast mentality of humanity confined to a single planet.
...
September 25, Guan Tong summoned the shelter in the rainforest outside Antu and let Coal Ball out.
He had been busy running around buying up Flowable Mind Power these past few days and had forgotten about Coal Ball for a while. Remembering today, he immediately decided to feed it the [Dragonblood Tree Heart] and see the enhancement effect.
To prevent Coal Ball from accidentally hurting anyone, he specifically chose to do this in the rainforest.
After the [Green Hell] Doomsday Rule ended, although plants had lost their aggressive nature towards humans, people's psychological shadows weren't so easily dispelled.
Therefore, aside from Guan Tong, no one else would bother coming to this rainforest. Here, he could safely let Coal Ball run wild.
When Coal Ball was let out of the shelter, it saw the forest and immediately tried to bolt in. Guan Tong quickly called out to stop it.
"Coal Ball, come here."
Its running footsteps faltered. It turned its head to look at Guan Tong a few times before reluctantly trudging over.
"What are you running into the forest for?" Guan Tong rubbed Coal Ball's fluffy big head. "Trying to hunt? Your prey was already eaten by the plants. Don't expect any for a while."
During the Doomsday Rules period, the animals in the forest were likely all absorbed by the plants. It was impossible to restore the original ecosystem in the short term. Guan Tong had to keep feeding Coal Ball canned food, adding a significant expense to his food budget.
"Come on, see if you like this."
Guan Tong took out the [Dragonblood Tree Heart] and placed it in his hand. As soon as he brought it to Coal Ball's mouth, it opened wide and swallowed it in one gulp.
Instantly, several streaks of dark brown light radiated from its pitch-black fur!