News of the Bandzhen nuclear explosion spread across the world within no time.
Everyone was utterly shocked, and governments of all nations released extremely serious condemnation statements almost in unison, stating that they were urgently deliberating on subsequent measures.
On this matter, even the small nations that had previously held ambiguous attitudes toward Suroma and secretly sided with it, such as Heilanja and Namelica, stood up openly and firmly to oppose Suroma.
This was all because the crime Bruce had committed this time was too great, leaving no angle whatsoever to justify his crimes against humanity.
In the past, nations had turned a blind eye because Bruce had mostly only tormented the Suromans, with fewer cases involving other countries.
That being the case, other nations had no better options beyond verbal condemnation.
Even Beixing did not want to proactively initiate war over another nation's affairs during the age of the Doomsday Rules.
But this time, Bruce had flattened Bandzhen, where Sakura Prayer's population was concentrated. Hundreds of thousands of people had not died to the Doomsday Rules, but rather to humanity's own nuclear weapons, resulting in what was essentially an extermination-level war. It was truly a profound tragedy.
It must be understood that against the backdrop of the Fire Thief's arrival and the Doomsday Rules wreaking havoc, humanity's "national consciousness" on Tianshui Star had been continuously weakening over time.
The more alien intelligent civilizations humanity encountered, the more pronounced this trend became.
Last year, when people discussed issues online, they would still specifically mention which country they were from. But this year, unless the matter was directly related to one's nation, very few people bothered to bring up their nationality at all.
Humanity was indeed a species that loved conflict, but when external enemies existed, people of ambition preferred human unity against outside threats over internal strife.
Now, in this current [Star Sea Admission] rule, the Fire Thief had directly mentioned that the gates to the real universe were opening, signifying that human civilization was about to enter the cosmic age.
This was practically telling humanity outright that the threats human civilization might face in the future were not limited to the Doomsday Rules, but also included malicious alien intelligent civilizations.
Against this backdrop, many people had already begun hoping that humanity could reform its national systems and jointly build a unified government, a true "Human Consortium," so that humanity's collective strength could be consolidated to welcome the cosmic age.
Yet right at this critical juncture, Bruce had acted against the tide of history and committed such a universally condemned act. One could only imagine the immense fury it would provoke.
And besides shock and anger, the dominant emotion many felt was fear.
This was especially true for the small nations. Their populations were larger than Sakura Prayer's, but they were all on the same order of magnitude, in the millions.
Their population distribution also resembled Sakura Prayer's, concentrated in just one or two, or two or three cities with relatively complete infrastructure.
So the question arose: what if one day an Ascendant that Bruce feared appeared in their country, or Bruce simply went mad and decided to drop large-yield nuclear bombs on them as well?
The outcome for these small nations would definitely be no better than Sakura Prayer's.
This led to all nations worldwide forming a united front this time, collectively opposing the Suroma under Bruce's rule.
If governments were reacting this way, the public's condemnation of Bruce was a hundredfold, a thousandfold more intense.
Originally, public discourse had been focused on the feasibility of a universal referendum regarding the Star Sea Court database query, but now it had been completely hijacked by the nuclear explosion incident.
Han Qiu, who styled himself as an Awakened One, was the first to release a video statement.
"Although as the fiancé of Big Sister Yishan, I deeply respect Mr. Bruce. But his actions this time are absolutely heinous and unforgivable. I hereby call on the international community to resolutely impose sanctions on him and bring him before the international court!"
In the video, Han Qiu spoke with righteous indignation, and the many Awakened Ones who believed he was the real deal flooded his video with supportive comments.
"As expected of Han Qiu, his moral compass is spot on!"
"No wonder he's the world's first Awakened One. Willing to step up and condemn his own father-in-law at a time like this, this act of putting righteousness above family ties truly deserves the title of a true gentleman. Thumbs up, thumbs up."
"I think that as an Awakened One, the international community should recognize Han Qiu's status and give him an official position."
"Upstairs +1. Awakened Ones are existences far more advanced than ordinary Ascendants. If our human civilization truly wants to form a unified government, I support Lord Han as the leader!"
"Are you people joking? Han Qiu is a wanted fugitive of Beixing's government. The warrant hasn't even been lifted yet. How could Beixing possibly support him?"
"Maybe it was a mistake, and the warrant might be revoked later. Wasn't that Andrew from Suroma also hailed as a hero before? Turned out to be a total fraud."
There were many comments under Han Qiu's video, which was hardly surprising given that he had been posting several short videos almost every day ever since he declared himself an Awakened One.
Most people didn't find this strange, and only a few sharp-eyed individuals could see that Han Qiu was deliberately trying to maintain his presence.
A man who had always stayed hidden behind the scenes, completely unknown in Ascendant circles, was now posting high-frequency face-reveal videos every day. To anyone paying attention, this was clearly a very purposeful move.
And Guan Tong, who had always been at the center of the public opinion storm, naturally wasn't going to be absent at a time like this either.
Even though he rarely appeared online, so many major events were closely tied to him that whether he spoke up or not, he couldn't escape the entanglement of public opinion.
Major influencers, wary of what had happened before, no longer dared to recklessly smear him, but ordinary people still discussed him freely.
Currently, many people across various platforms were blaming him for the Bandzhen incident, believing that besides Bruce, he too bore considerable responsibility.
"Back then, Suroma issued a Level Five Warrant demanding that Sakura Prayer hand over Shadow's accomplice Uenoshi, or else they would attack... If Guan Tong and his accomplices had left Bandzhen, those hundreds of thousands of Sakura Prayer citizens wouldn't have been blown up by nuclear bombs."
"Shadow shouldn't be staying in densely populated areas. He should go hide in the deep mountains and forests by himself, that way he wouldn't drag innocent people into his mess."
"Honestly, I think this was bound to happen sooner or later. With Shadow's personality of making enemies everywhere, plus Bruce the Mad King, those two going head-to-head was always going to spiral out of control sooner or later."
In the face of the raging public opinion, neither party publicly said anything.
Guan Tong issued no statement, and Bruce did not appear publicly to respond either. Only the Suroma government released a formulaic announcement.
The announcement stated that Suroma had already declared war on Sakura Prayer in advance, and since the two nations were in a state of war, a surprise attack was perfectly reasonable.
As for the inhumane nature of the large-scale nuclear attack, the announcement glossed over it, merely stating that it was an unavoidable decision made to quickly end the conflict and restore peace.
The effect of this announcement, which sidestepped the core issues, was predictable. The moment it was released, it was flooded with over a million floors of outrage, forcing the Suroma government to disable comments on the post.
For the next two or three days, this matter remained at the center of attention.
At the end of February, just before this rule period was about to conclude, a coalition of six nations, led by Beixing, the Xisiya Empire, and Lury, with all nations except Suroma participating, released a joint statement.
The content was simple and direct. The six nations unanimously stated that they could not accept Bruce's actions, and that effective immediately, they would form a provisional "Humanitarian Defense Alliance."
From the day of the alliance's founding, Suroma would be required to remove Bruce from all his positions within thirty days and hand him over to the alliance court for trial. Otherwise, the alliance would formally declare war on Suroma.
The moment this statement was released, the world was thrown into uproar.
Everyone knew that Bruce's grip on Suroma at this moment was unprecedented in the nation's centuries-long history. No one within the country could possibly limit his power, let alone remove him from all his positions.
This eight-nation alliance releasing such a statement was essentially no different from directly declaring formal war on Suroma a month in advance.
That meant the world war that humanity had always hoped would never break out during the Rule Period was still going to erupt in an unavoidable form...
And at this very moment, Guan Tong, one of the core figures accelerating the outbreak of this great war, was deep in a mountain valley in Pinglu City.
Inside the shelter, Shi Jingyi sat across from him.
"Ready?" she asked.
Guan Tong nodded slightly and opened the Authority interface on his Terminal Panel.
[Activate Deep Dive of Consciousness? Remaining uses: 1]
"Yes."