There was no calm before the storm; with the final day of the SIming Battle upon them, the whole world had fallen into a state of unease.

Russia, like a madman, concentrated all its transportation capacity to move large numbers of people by truck and rail to the Alskalisan Stargate in Siberia. The transfer landing zone on the other side of that Stargate had already established basic life-support devices that could effectively preserve clean oxygen and clean water.

Hundreds of millions of immigrants would temporarily stay in ten underground shelters, waiting for engineering machinery and squads of transcendents to open up more safe spaces underground and on the surface.

During this process, they had to learn to live in harmony with the native Alskalisans. The Alskalisans still had control of the Stargate, while Russia had the resources and technology.

The former provided shelter for the latter, and the latter provided assistance for the survival of the former. Both parties signed a long-term contract accepting the arena game certification.

As for America, they canceled the establishment of all overseas military bases, withdrew the vast majority of overseas troops, except for leaving a certain number of troops at a few Stargates,

and officially announced the end of the history of American overseas garrison troops since the Barbary War in July 1815.

In fact, before the SIming Battle, many American high-level officials still retained some kind of fantasy—they had invested massive amounts of manpower, material resources, and financial resources in analyzing the technology brought by the arena game in the past two years, and had indeed achieved a lot.

New building materials capable of constructing city skyscrapers; more powerful encrypted chips; individual exoskeletons; medical care robots; medical diagnostic robots; automatic surgical tables composed of smart machines; intelligent AIs capable of passing the Turing test; ultra-fast charging batteries; state-level air charging networks...

In the past, these technologies were groundbreaking and could trigger a global industrial revolution.

The wave of technology was booming, and cutting-edge scientific and technological papers were produced every day, even every hour.

However, even with the combined efforts of America's smartest brains, their speed in analyzing unknown technologies and applying new technologies could not keep up with the speed at which the arena game was expanding.

Mutations and disasters were untraceable, and the methods of transcendents were strange and unpredictable, making them impossible to defend against.

Ordinary troops had no effect against top transcendents, and overseas military bases and aircraft carrier formations could no longer guarantee America's global military hegemony.

The worst thing was that there were just too many Stargates. If there were only ten or twenty, with its nuclear arsenal and aircraft carrier formations, America could still fantasize about guarding the Stargates and acting as the guardian of humanity.

But when the number of detected Stargates exceeded double digits, and Stargates were activating every day, everyone knew that the collapse of Earth's order was only a matter of time, and it would be better to preserve limited forces.

Thus, the two-year carnival brought about by technological innovation and financial games on American soil finally came to an end.

The president in the White House delivered a television address, recalling the American embassies stationed in other countries, and urging all American citizens located overseas to evacuate in a timely manner.

The purpose of an ambassador was to facilitate diplomatic communication. Now that the national order had collapsed, there was no need for this position to exist.

They didn't even bother to throw the confidential documents in the embassies and military bases into the shredder for destruction, but simply discarded them in the embassies. After the personnel were evacuated, they simply blew up the buildings.

The important personnel of the embassies first took special planes back to the country, while the remaining low-status temporary workers and contract workers were stuck at the airport, waiting bitterly for international flights with refugees from other countries, hoping that the next plane could take them back home.

Although they themselves knew that the situation in America was not optimistic either.

The real tycoons had already bought tickets for "Noah's Ark" and moved their families to the Door World, while the rest had to squeeze into city skyscrapers, or even artificial villages at the foot of the city skyscrapers.

Even more pitiful were those countries without doors—Australia and Canada, two pro-American countries that had previously had a harmonious relationship with America, had their plans to merge into America directly rejected.

America didn't even want overseas direct interests like South Korea and Japan, let alone open its borders to receive refugees.

For South Korea, the feeling of being abandoned by its master was extremely painful. South Korea was poor in natural resources and relied on imports for its main industrial raw materials. With the gradual decline of international shipping routes, their proud automotive industry, shipbuilding industry, and electronics industry were rapidly declining at a visible rate.

Without international order, without international industrial chains, and even industrial production lines being replaced to some extent by transcendents, these small countries with specialized industries had no special value.

As for South Korea's cultural industry... it was already at this point. No matter how strong their cultural output ability was, what use could it be?

The South Korean leader勉力supported the country, confining the people to the two city skyscrapers of Seoul and Busan, taking advantage of the chaotic situation of America's large-scale abandonment of overseas interests,

and decisively hired the vice president of the League of Devil Scientists, Dirge, to summon an existence called the "Dark Devil,"

locking onto thousands of important figures in South Korea's major chaebols within three minutes.

Before the transcendents recruited by those chaebols could react, they were directly cursed to death.

This tragedy was called "The Night of the Long Knives." After successfully killing the stumbling blocks, the South Korean leader recruited senior transcendents within the government agencies and wiped out the chaebols' counterattack with thunderous force.

He then officially announced on television that South Korea had entered a state of military control, and anyone who obstructed it would be regarded as an enemy of the state and could be eliminated on the spot without trial.

Such a blatant act of massacring dissidents would undoubtedly be a staggering and shocking act of dictatorship and tyranny before the arena game,

comparable to Idi Amin of Uganda, Emperor Bokassa of Central Africa, and President Mobutu of Zaire.

But at this time, it could not stir up even the slightest ripple in the international community.

After脱离ing the semi-colonial system of the United States, South Korea was really just an insignificant small country, not even worth CNN reporters condescending to come and interview at risk.

In contrast, the situation in Japan was calmer, with no chaebol riots. Everyone lived in the Tokyo Ring City Skyscraper, listening to the television speech delivered by the Japanese Prime Minister.

The content of the speech was normal, nothing more than hoping that the people would remain calm in the face of the terrible environment, that there was still hope for the future, and so on.

The only two slightly strange points were that Japan would adopt a network firewall system, and ordinary people and even general private enterprises would not be able to connect to the international network.

At the same time, due to the repair of the water plant in the city skyscraper, the drinking water provided to the 140 million Japanese citizens in the next month would turn pink, but it would not affect normal drinking.

Such disturbances were happening all over the world.

In South America, the European Heavy Industry Group had achieved a phased victory and seized control of more city skyscrapers.

On the African continent, Voodoo and near-future biological laboratories coexisted. The former held Voodoo sacrifices, while the latter used biological genetic technology to conduct unethical biological experiments...

————

Inside the cabin of the Longqing cruise ship, Chichai closed her eyes, feeling the fragments of information flashing in the divine power network.

The chaotic and out-of-control international order provided more convenience for the Zerg to expand on Earth. Without the globally networked identity verification system, the Zerg's gene stealers could walk openly on the streets of human cities without being discovered.

With the help of gene stealers, Chichai could see scenes from all over the world.

A wanderer tribe that 脱离ed the United States was heading north toward Canada;

A scientist from Antarctica, because his family died in the chaotic situation, gave up hope of survival and tried to drive a snowmobile across the blockade line and into the Stargate, but was shot dead on the spot by the European Heavy Industry forces guarding the Antarctic Stargate;

In the western Indian Ocean, there seemed to be undersea mutations, and abnormally large sea beasts were constantly appearing—ironically, while international organizations were doing nothing, the Zerg, which was lurking in the trenches, had been silently cleaning up the mutated creatures in the world's oceans.

Was Earth finally going to embark on another path...

Chichai lowered her head, her eyes somewhat lost. Although it had been less than two years since she arrived in the modern era, she still felt that the tides of the times were changing too quickly.

It was as if the leisurely daily life of lying on the sofa with her phone, playing two games when she had nothing to do, scrolling through Weibo, and watching anime, all happened yesterday.

"Huff..."

Chichai slowly exhaled a mouthful of turbid air, walked to the cabin window, and looked out.

In the past two months, Liu Wudai and Mule's Ark plan could be said to have made rapid progress.

Large numbers of passenger ships and cruise ships were packaged and sold, and countless refugees were displaced. Wherever there was hope, they would go.

In this case, the Ark plan expanded to more than a hundred large ships, accommodating nearly 500,000 high-quality refugees—including scientists, engineers, and doctors.

The sight of more than a hundred ships anchored at sea was spectacular, with all the large ships chained together.

Below the ships were floating farms composed of special floating soil.

It was just like an artificial island.

Chichai listened to the clamorous voices coming from the sea breeze and couldn't help shaking her head. Compared to the refugees in other parts of the world, the refugees absorbed by the Ark plan were more... hopeful.

These hopes came partly from the majestic and powerful armed ships, partly from the transcendent security forces in the refugee community, partly from Liu Wudai and Mule's governance propaganda,

and partly from the Longqing cruise ship under Chichai's feet.

As long as Li Ang was on this ship, it would be one of the safest places in the world.

Step.

Li Ang's figure flashed out of the void and stepped on the floor of the cruise ship's cabin.

Chichai turned around, saw Li Ang's figure, and her restless heart finally calmed down. "You're back?"

"Yeah."

Li Ang turned his head and glanced at the clock on the cabin wall. There was only one hour left before the SIming Battle.

"Is everything ready?

The potions to restore spiritual power, the miniature and medium-sized life potions for the brainworms,

the foolproof hacking program for the near-future city background,

the massive amounts of materials needed for advanced alchemy,

the advanced space storage props that can hold living beings,

and the nanobots to repair the mecha..."

"Everything is ready."

Li Ang looked at Chichai's nervous face and smiled, handing two pieces of paper of different colors to Chichai.

"This is..."

"A script 탈离 ticket, and a super-long-distance directional teleportation scroll."

Li Ang said, "The SIming Battle may last for a few days. While I'm gone, keep these two pieces of paper safe, don't wander around, and stay within the protection of the Zerg.

If something happens that the Zerg can't solve, use the directional teleportation scroll—I've already spoken to Su Nisheng, you can go to the Special Affairs Bureau's Door World to take refuge."

"That script 탈离 ticket..."

Chichai opened her mouth, and immediately reacted—although the probability of being selected as a player in the Door World would be reduced, there was still a small possibility that Chichai would be conscripted as a player during Li Ang's disappearance, and the script 탈离 ticket was used in this situation.

"Hmm? You understand?"

Li Ang looked at Chichai's slightly changed face and smiled.

"I'm just too lazy to think, not stupid..."

Chichai was silent for a moment, only took the directional teleportation scroll, and didn't take the script 탈离 ticket. She raised her head and looked directly at Li Ang and said, "If I encounter a situation I can't solve, I will evacuate.

If I'm selected as a player... I'll wait for you to come back.

Anyway, as long as you're here, there's no problem."

Li Ang said helplessly, "I might be stuck there for a long time, or maybe..."

"If you never come back, and I'm selected as a player, then I'll accept the Zerg's transformation plan in the plan and become a Zerg Overlord."

Chichai looked directly into Li Ang's eyes and said softly, "I also know that I'm lazy and greedy, my mind is slow, I can't fight, I can't help, and I can only act stupid to make you happy all day long.

However, this kind of life is really happy,

so, you must come back alive."

"...Yeah."

Li Ang stared into Chichai's eyes and nodded. The two of them just stood in the cabin, watching the turbulent sea outside the window, quietly listening to the ticking of the clock, waiting for the time limit to arrive.

"Right."

Chichai looked out the window without turning her head, and asked in a deliberately relaxed tone, "Do you remember when we first met?"

"Hmm?"

Li Ang raised an eyebrow. "Why are you suddenly talking about this?"

"Just answer whether you remember or not."

"That time at Guhan Temple? Let me think. Well... I remember you almost strangled Little Knife, and then I roughly deduced the truth through the Guhan Temple account book and the traces in the temple. When I was rummaging through your bones, you popped out of the ground, wearing a... yellow dress?"

"Yeah, at that time you were still calm and composed and struck up a conversation with me, saying something like, 'Excuse me, are you gg or mm?' So corny."

"Corny is trendy, trendy is corny, the爷of Yin City is a 爷."

"Pfft, if I hadn't shown mercy at the time, you would have been strangled to death by me, okay?"

"If you strangled me to death, where would you find such a good host to feed? I was parasitized by you for seven days. If my firepower wasn't strong enough, I wouldn't have been frozen to death by you, you little ghost."

"Hmph, bragging again. I don't know who couldn't sleep every night because they were cold, wrapping three or five layers of thermal pads and still had a runny nose. In the last few days, I would secretly leave your body every night when you were sleeping, otherwise you would have been frozen to death by阴qi. And you said let me parasitize for seven days in exchange for your safety in Guhan Temple..."

Chichai described vividly the scene of Li Ang being frozen with a runny nose when she possessed him, but she didn't get a response for a long time. She turned her head suddenly, but found that Li Ang had disappeared from the spot.

Clatter.

Chichai placed her raised hand on the edge of the cabin舷window in a daze, and fell into silence alone.

【The Seeker · Li Risheng】

【Lv27. Experience Bar：】

【Strength：15】

【Agility：12】

【Intelligence：16】(Planning +1)

【Constitution：13】

【Perception：15】(Careful +1)(Bone Tracing +1)(Monocle of the Great Detective +2)(Planning +1)

【Charm：5】(Family Man +1)

【Equipment Bar：Clean Earplugs, Phase Boots, Mark of the God of Flesh and Swamp, Mirage Dragon's Red Mane Coat, Subordinate Master Ball, Monocle of the Great Detective, ftL Interstellar Pirate Sodium Ring, Anti-Dragon Crazy Helmet, Colt m1873 · Peacemaker, Shining Dice of Destiny, Mind Monkey, Ms. Wordsworth's Birthday Cake】

【Backpack Bar：Venom, Swiss Army Knife 300, Alchemist's Magic Box, Biological Motherboard, Automated Pet Feeder, Abyss Magic Mirror, Cthulhu Clay Figurine, Mental Power Manual Crystal·Advanced, Terminal Vending Machine】

【Skill Bar：Adrenaline Activation Method, Ripple Breathing Method, Debris Scattering, No One Can Defeat Me in My BGM, Drowning Assassination Technique, Reanimation of the Dead (Intermediate), Summoning·Terror Warhorse, Alchemy (Advanced), Ladder Cloud Vertical, Ten Finger Disintegration Technique, Bullet Instantaneous Body Technique, Mental Enchantment Spiritual Energy Level Seven, Generalized Survival Technique, Hawkeye Viewing Distance, Frivolous Masquerade Technique】

【Game Currency：】

【Spiritual Power Value：5200】

【Reason Value：2300】

【Swamp Divine Power：】