Apocalypse Forecast

Chapter 432 - 372: A Better Way_1

He had traveled about 410,000 miles south, across desolate plains, past collapsing mountains, and finally stepped onto a dried-up seabed.

The world was dark; besides Huai Shi's footsteps and the rumbling of the icebergs he pulled, there was no other sound.

In the silence, Huai Shi paused, looking around blankly.

"What's wrong?" the fox in the observation room inquired.

"I think I heard a voice." Huai Shi scratched the back of his head, sparks flying. "It's like someone is calling me…"

"…"

The fox was silent for a long time before saying, "I think it's because there's no one around to banter with you, so your ears are itching for it."

"I really heard it!"

"Alright, alright... I'll call the banter team to come to work, okay?"

"That's not what I meant..."

"I'll call for a few more, will that suffice?"

"Fine," Huai Shi nodded.

Too good to refuse.

Then he dismissed the whispers echoing at the edge of his hearing. Only the tip of his nose smarted a little, as if some tiny creature had kicked it. Huai Shi rubbed his nose, grinned, and continued dragging the icebergs through the frigid vacuum, disappearing into the distance.

「 」

Fu Yi gave up trying to communicate.

Is this lout a dog? He must be a dog... Everyone else turned into dogs; to think you were the only one who reverted to your original form!

With a spirit so tenacious she could remain cheerfully oblivious even at Doomsday, Fu Yi was at a loss for words, feeling only immense admiration.

She felt she must have become mist. At least, that's how it was at the beginning.

She swore she had genuinely planned to heed Huai Shi's words and prepare to leave. But just before leaving, as if by some strange impulse, a thought suddenly struck her: Ah, I think I still have that piece of Divine Body the cool old lady gave me in my storage space... Since I'm leaving anyway, why not use it?

Completely ignoring the cool old lady's cautious reminder and the warning that the success rate was only 30 percent, Fu Yi took out the Divine Body, activated it, and succeeded. It was quicker than she had expected.

That piece of Divine Body, rather than being some kind of bone, was more like a wisp of mist sealed within amber. It opened with just a slight pry.

Immediately after, it naturally fused with Fu Yi, causing her already transparent, tiny body to vanish completely.

Ultimately, Fu Yi completely disappeared from the Astronomical Society's observations.

In a way, she had indeed exited.

However, it seemed she hadn't exited to the outside. Instead, after losing her body, her Source Substance underwent a wondrous metamorphosis, and even the characteristics of a Spiritual Body vanished.

She had left the game, but the client hadn't closed. Instead, it had shifted her to an observer's perspective—no longer needing food, water, or even air.

Everyone's consciousness appeared like a shimmering bubble; she could effortlessly pass through them, observing the sparks that flared from each person's soul with their thoughts.

It even seemed she could subtly adjust the trajectory of those sparks... No one would notice a tiny hand stealthily meddling with their thoughts, causing them to imperceptibly overlook certain important matters.

And then Huai Shi nearly worked her to death. That bastard had swallowed the Source Substance of hundreds of thousands of Lizard Men in one go, evolving from Steel Garuru to Huai Shi's Urn.

It was like deshelling hundreds of thousands of crawfish at once, stripping all the Lizard Men's pain and despair from the core of Huai Shi's consciousness to prevent him from truly going mad. Fu Yi had never deshelled so many crawfish in her life and never wanted to see those wretched things again.

So, that bastard truly deserved to bear the Heaven Punishment meant for two.

Stubbornness always came at a price.

Exhausted, Fu Yi fell asleep, sinking into the dreams of hundreds of thousands of Lizard Men, like a fish returning to the ocean.

She felt a sense of exhilaration. It's as if this is my Domain, and reality is just another, larger dream outside of Dreamland.

Is this still a creature? Or are some creatures simply like this? She would sometimes ponder such things, but mostly, she just wandered aimlessly through dreams out of boredom, peeking at Huai Shi acting foolish through the Halo.

The subsequent events were largely uneventful. She jumped from one dream to another, finally arriving in a city that seemed tailor-made for her, where she once again found herself immersed in activity.

Instinctively, she used threads of Source Substance to connect one consciousness after another, forming a vast network. Eventually, she guided the Source Substance to flow through this invisible network, observing one bizarre silhouette after another emerge from this grand and intricate web, searching for some underlying principle at work within it.

[Prototype]. That was the insight that had surfaced in her consciousness.

Unlike that ignorant lout Huai Shi, Fu Yi was, after all, a good student. She had even delved a tiny bit into Prototype Theory, an esoteric philosophy almost entirely inaccessible to most students. At least she had some understanding.

Whether one called it a meme or a prototype, and regardless of the existence of self-consciousness, it was the subconscious summary intelligent life made in response to external stimuli. Just as all primitive murals depicted the sun in red, and death as invariably pitch-black and terrifying.

This was a shared understanding, a sympathy that needed no words, a tendency for human intellect and awareness to react to certain aspects of the world. This capability existed within every being's consciousness and, ultimately, flowed via the network into the expanse of mist where Fu Yi resided, forming the Sea of Subconsciousness, something that had previously existed only in theory and legend.

Fu Yi felt she had changed from a White Weasel into an otter. There wasn't much difference in appearance, but she still had to work hard to expand her living environment and stabilize this Sea of Mist to make herself a bit more comfortable.

Fortunately, time seemed to accelerate there. As long as she had a thought, she would naturally act on it, sparing her the exhaustion of repetitive work.

Not only that, but she also had to diligently avoid losing too much. After the Giant Beast departed, she intercepted a portion of the dissipating Source Substance, integrating it into the Sea of Mist she inhabited. If it was too far away, she was powerless. This extra power could create a few more Sublimators.

She had completely become like an old farmer tending her land, anxiously hoping her few acres of crops would grow quickly.

Fu Yi's heart filled with despair. She would have been better off exiting sooner; this endless overtime was just too much! Had she somehow offended that cool old lady without realizing it? Surely not? They had chatted quite pleasantly.

And so the days passed, one by one, in toil. Through Fu Yi's efforts, the place finally began to take some shape. Until one day, amid the increasingly frigid weather outside, she heard the fox's words.

"We need to leave this place," the fox said. "To search for the geothermal belt."

…

Fu Yi silently watched as the entire city stirred back to life, forcibly rousing itself, and embarked on an unknown journey, carrying the Sea of Silver with it.

Apart from the fox, only she knew. It was a lie. There was no geothermal belt at all. Regardless of whether this place was a planet, or if it even had a core and mantle, any lava would have long since cooled in this frigid environment. The world was already dead; how could one expect its lifeblood, the lava, to remain warm? Ahead of them lay only an endless road. A road without an end.

She sighed softly but didn't expose its lie. At least, the Sea of Silver, which once reflected reality and had thus become a cold expanse, now held a sliver of hope. As long as there was hope, it was ultimately a good thing.

But it's still so annoying! Fu Yi sighed and kicked Huai Shi hard. As usual, that lout didn't react at all...

Seeing his utterly carefree appearance infuriated Fu Yi. If I had known, I wouldn't have altered his memories! At least then he might have worried a little, instead of recklessly fooling around all day, nearly getting himself killed!

She returned to the thinning Sea of Silver and fell into a deep sleep once more.

「 」

In the metallic city's current dome, the fox encountered the Phoenix.

The latter was contemplating the endless darkness outside the porthole. Hearing the fox enter, it turned and asked, "When do you plan to tell them the truth?"

"What truth?" the fox asked calmly, feigning puzzlement.

"You know what I'm talking about," the Phoenix said. "You're not planning to keep them in the dark, are you?"

The fox gave it a glance and retorted, "Am I not just learning from you? It always seems you have a good reason for everything you do."

"But this is completely different, isn't it?" the Phoenix said earnestly. "Even if a lie is well-intentioned, deceiving someone into death is completely different from deceiving them into living. The former might at least find release, but the latter means prolonged suffering... Sometimes, death is far easier than living. You're now luring them to chase an unending hope, but one day, that dream and hope will shatter. When they find out that this world has no geothermal belt, what will you use to continue leading them forward?"

The fox sighed, taking off its hat to reveal its sparsely-haired head.

"Is there a better way?"

"I have one," the Phoenix stated firmly. "But you must follow my plan."

"Fine." The fox nodded.

Thirty minutes later, Behemoth's advance ground to a halt. Huai Shi turned back in confusion. "What's going on?"

"Meeting," the Phoenix said.

「 」

"First, some bad news."

During the impromptu emergency meeting, the Phoenix announced, "It's now minus 240 degrees. We probably won't make it before the geothermal belt naturally recedes... There's a 70 percent chance we'll come up empty."

"What?" Huai Shi was dumbfounded. "So I walked all this way for nothing?"

"Failed explorations pave the way for future success," the Phoenix said after a moment of silence. "I have a feasible suggestion—no, it should be called a command."

"As the current direct leader of all Explorers, and the highest-ranking Member of the Astronomical Association present, I demand your complete obedience," it bluntly told everyone. "Next, I will ignite myself."

Amidst everyone's shock and astonishment, the Phoenix declared to all present, "—I will become the new sun."

That was its solution.

「 」