To Kuafu, the wise man of the Ape Race, the more he learned about humanity, the more fascinated and awestruck he became by its civilization.
When he began to read, the first thing he sought to understand was the nature of humanity’s most powerful weapon.
He quickly found his answer.
Nuclear weapons—strategic nuclear weapons, to be precise—had been the ultimate weapon of a human race already driven to extinction by the Petrification Disease.
The books’ descriptions, along with related photographs and images, depicted nuclear weapons as capable of world-ending destruction. A single strike could kill millions, even tens of millions, of people—they were veritable Demons unleashed upon the world.
Awestruck that humanity could create such cruel and terrifying weapons, Kuafu also began to search the world for any that might have been left behind.
He sought them not for use, but simply to gaze upon them—to witness the remnants of humanity’s former brutality and terror.
To his surprise, he found some of these terrifying weapons on the outskirts of the very ruins of the Capital City where he was based.
They were rows of enormous, military-green vehicles, each carrying a cylindrical object that resembled a log. Markings like "DF-26" and "DF-41" were stenciled on their surfaces.
With a single glance, Kuafu could sense the terrifying energy contained within those cylinders.
Despite the lack of human maintenance, which had left the missiles in a long-dormant state, the terrifying aura of the place had been enough to make Kuafu and his subordinates retreat hastily, vowing never to return.
He never imagined that the Savior would one day grace this world with his presence and specifically ask to be brought to this very place.
The base’s main gate stood open—left that way by Kuafu from his last visit.
While Kuafu and the Ape Cavalry watched with trepidation, Shen Feng had already spurred his horse into the base, pulling up before the rows of missile launchers.
The base was filled with human statues, entirely petrified. There were even statues inside the driver’s cabs of the missile launch vehicles.
It appeared to be a temporary base. When the Petrification Disease first broke out, the high command must have ordered this Rocket Force unit to the outskirts of the Capital City to calm the public.
But just after they arrived, the Petrification Disease erupted in full force.
Everyone, including these soldiers, was turned to stone overnight. All their efforts had been for nothing.
All that remained were these once-terrifying weapons of mass destruction, standing silent in the wilderness.
Shen Feng reined his horse to a stop before one of the missile launchers. Staring at the slightly dusty, military-green chassis, he felt a sense of familiarity.
He had previously acquired a nuclear-powered Dongfeng strategic missile launcher in a post-nuclear-war apocalypse, and it had played a crucial role during the Gray Tide apocalypse.
That very launcher was still stored in the basement of a small courtyard on the outskirts of Tai City, waiting for its next use.
A mercury-like flood of the Gray Tide streamed from his backpack, flowing across the ground toward the missile launchers.
Wherever the Gray Tide passed, it consumed the statues, various tanks, armored vehicles, and other weapons it encountered, using them to grow its mass. It soon enveloped the long-dormant missile launchers, devouring the petrified figures inside them as well.
In total, the base housed twenty missile launchers: ten for intercontinental ballistic missiles and ten for medium-range missiles.
With Jingwei’s help, Shen Feng quickly assessed the condition of the launchers. He immediately found them to be in excellent condition—a testament to the high quality of military-grade hardware. As long as power could be restored, they would be launch-ready after a few calibrations.
The launchers’ main computers were protected by passwords and other security measures, but for Jingwei, these were trivial obstacles.
Jingwei’s database already contained the complete specifications for these launchers. It swiftly directed the Gray Tide to repair minor faults, located and replaced the stored fuel, and started the vehicles’ engines.
In a little over ten minutes, the missiles, like sky-piercing blades, slowly erected themselves, pointing toward the heavens.
The sight left Kuafu and the assembled Brain Apes breathless, their hearts filled with a mixture of shock and awe.
The sight of the ever-shifting Gray Tide alone had sent shockwaves through the minds of the Brain Apes.
The most intelligent among them had believed their race, having inherited the old world’s civilization, was ready to replace humanity. But now, witnessing the Gray Tide under the Savior’s control, they understood. What they possessed was nothing compared to the true depth of human power!
The Brain Apes’ feelings toward Shen Feng were deeply conflicted. On the one hand, he was the Savior of their race. On the other, he was human, and they knew the old saying: ’Those not of our kind are sure to be of a different mind.’
But now, seeing the Gray Tide and the strategic nuclear missiles rising in a matter of minutes, any lingering doubts in their minds vanished completely.
They could not muster the slightest thought of resistance or defiance against the human youth before them; all they felt was a god-like reverence.
"Shen Feng, I’ve used terrain-matching guidance to lock onto several major cities in North America, Europe, and East Japan. These cities once had extremely high population densities, totaling hundreds of millions of people. The warheads are all megaton-class. The shockwaves alone should be able to obliterate hundreds of millions of statues. Shall I launch?"
Jingwei’s voice chimed in, a faint trace of excitement in its tone.
There was, after all, something uniquely satisfying about launching nuclear missiles.
Shen Feng replied, his face impassive.
"Launch."
The moment the word left his lips, the launchers before him erupted in furious plumes of fire. One by one, the strategic nuclear missiles shot into the sky, then scattered in all directions.
Their targets: New Delhi, Mumbai, New York, London, Tokyo, and other cities that once boasted populations in the tens of millions.
The dense clusters of statues in those cities were about to be annihilated by the most violent of shockwaves.
Out of a lingering affection for Huaxia, Shen Feng refrained from using nuclear weapons for a destructive strike on the cities there. After all, he had to leave the Brain Apes a habitable environment.
However, that didn’t mean he would spare the statue clusters in the region.
Back on the ground of the military base, the Gray Tide coalesced into figures of silver-gray Knights, who then turned and galloped toward the ruins of the Capital City.
Wherever these Gray Tide Knights passed, clumps of the Tide would slough off from their "hoof falls," writhing forward to pounce on and devour nearby statues.
The Gray Tide, fed by this consumption, grew larger and larger. Streams of it flowed toward the ruins of the Capital City, devouring the long-standing statues there. It continued to expand, surging onward toward the neighboring cities.
The Gray Tide’s rate of consumption was far slower than a nuclear bombardment, but it had the advantage of persistence. Every statue it consumed added to its mass, and bit by bit, it would grow.
After setting all this in motion, Shen Feng plopped down on a tire, pulled a bottle of water from his backpack, twisted it open, and took a long drink.
In about half an hour, he would know the results.