Apocalypse Forecast

Chapter 519 449 Buffer Zone_1

Two days later, Huai Shi once again heard the sound of thunder.

This time, after lasting for two days, the distant rumbling grew increasingly louder, already lingering by his ear. Yet, when Huai Shi looked up, he couldn't see any clouds.

Strictly speaking, he did see clouds.

But something felt off.

That layer of pitch-black clouds seemed like a layer in Photoshop where the opacity had been adjusted, flickering so fleetingly in the Sky Dome above before swiftly disappearing.

A Reflection from the Mirage.

In recent days, as Huai Shi delved deeper, such abnormal phenomena had become more frequent. Besides the Phantoms, phenomena that interfered with reality had even appeared.

During the day yesterday, Huai Shi was startled awake from his dreams by the sound of an engine.

When he opened his eyes and crawled out of his tent, he saw that a highway had appeared before him, stretching from the end of the heat-billowing desert all the way to the faintly visible city in the distance. One car after another sped past. But soon, as if detecting Huai Shi's prying eyes, the highway rapidly vanished along with the distant city, leaving only a wrecked SUV stopped on a section of abandoned, cracked roadway. It was half-buried in gravel.

Yet, before Huai Shi went to sleep, there had been nothing there at all.

"What the hell is this?"

Huai Shi scratched his head, watching the thundercloud Phantom that flickered and disappeared in the sky once more, unable to figure out what exactly was happening.

This place is unmistakably Current Circumstances. Exceptionally stable abnormalities. There are no phenomena or signs of becoming like Hell, so why are all these messed-up things happening so frequently?

"Traces leftover from the past? Hard to say, after all, anything can happen here..." the Raven that had landed from the sky perched on Huai Shi's shoulder, "Once you scale the sand dune up ahead, you should be able to see it."

Huai Shi blankly raised his head, staring at the sand dune that seemed to tower beside him. He shook his head, set his backpack down, tied a rope to it, and began to climb upwards with effort.

If there had been a stable foothold, such a climb would have taken no effort at all, right? But if one wanted to walk steadily on top of the sand dunes, avoiding the dangerous quicksand areas and other things buried beneath, one could only use the skill from the Yu Step to forcibly distribute one's weight across each grain of sand. It wasn't difficult, but it was troublesome. Every step required a lot of effort.

By the time Huai Shi climbed the sand dune, he couldn't help but draw in several sharp breaths, dumbstruck. He even forgot to pull up the backpack below.

In front of him—at the location of the city Phantom from a few days ago—he finally saw the ruins that had been left behind.

They were riddled with wounds, broken walls, and destroyed remnants, severely ravaged by war. One could vaguely distinguish the remains of tanks and bombers, as well as the flags of Egypt and America, and even the contours of what had once been skyscrapers.

These had not been buried by the yellow sands because...

Huai Shi rubbed his eyes, finally certain that what he was seeing was not an illusion.

Everything before him... was floating in mid-air!

The entire city seemed to have been crudely lifted and thrown to the ground, then frozen in the moment of its disintegration. The scars of the past were sealed in a manner reminiscent of Amber.

Now, the once-colossal ruins hung high, slowly tumbling in the night wind, rising and falling weightlessly as if soaked in seawater.

Gravity here is abnormal.

Huai Shi turned around, grabbed his backpack, took an empty can from it, filled it with sand, and flung it forward with all his might.

After flying more than a hundred meters, the soaring can came to an abrupt halt, suspended in the air. Even the sand that spilled from the mouth of the can maintained its dispersed shape, frozen in place.

Even time isn't normal.

Huai Shi swallowed hard.

"What the hell is this?"

"It's a bug. Haven't you seen one before?" the Raven calmly preened her feathers. "This is Australia's biggest issue—not the drought, not the desolation, but a problem even the Astronomical Society can't fix... No, it should be said that those guys are doing it on purpose."

Huai Shi was incredulous. "Has Chalatustra's secret device gone out of control?"

"Not at all. In fact, the main reason for the Astronomical Society's existence is to ensure the operation of the three major seals, even if it consumes more than thirty percent of the world's resources every year to maintain their normal function."

The Raven replied, "But in Australia, the situation has changed... This entire continent is Chalatustra's buffer zone. You see? As Chalatustra severed all Secret Rituals and ushered in a new era, it is an entity constructed from the frameworks of hundreds of Creators. It holds immense Power that could replace the gods.

"Within it, five layers of Domain were built following a process that mimicked creation. Apart from the Eternal Territory at the core preserving the world's axis, there are also layers named according to definitions in Alchemy: Motion, Formation, Creation, and Emanation.

"If you go into further detail, there are seven stages, thirty-six heavens, ninety-one zones, and thousands of modules, each with its own function and unique meaning. The laws and data derived from them each moment are countless...

"Such a colossal system and such complex existences within it could never be absolutely flawless; there would inevitably be some parts that are difficult to manage. Those loopholes, bugs, and resulting dead-end cycles, once accumulated too much, could lead to an overflow in Chalatustra's Great Mystery Ceremony, and subsequently a fatal void... just like a computer."

Suddenly, the Raven asked, "What if the C drive is full?"

"Reinstall?" Huai Shi answered subconsciously, then immediately took a sharp intake of breath.

"Exactly. Reinstall."

The Raven's calm reply floored Huai Shi. "Isolate Current Circumstances, create a partition to save the important data, and then completely sink the entire Current Circumstances, letting it plummet into the Abyss... Then, on top of this, establish a new Current Circumstances. Most people probably won't even notice. Just close and open their eyes, and like magic, the world is completely transformed... This is the apocalyptic plan that's been whispered about inside the Astronomical Society, Huai Shi. Every few hundred years, there's always one or two such occurrences, heh."

She laughed softly with ambiguous meaning and said no more.

"Then... Australia?"

"Australia is simply a buffer zone prepared in advance to avoid frequent reloads of the secret device. After it was turned into a no-man's-land by Egypt and America, it was probably decided that since hardly anyone was left, they might as well make use of the waste... Of course, apart from this, it also serves the Fate of being disposable in times of need, but all of this is no longer your concern. After all, this place is still Current Circumstances; no matter how bad it gets, it's unlikely to spiral out of control." After a brief pause, the Raven carelessly dropped another bombshell. "After all, to ensure the stability of the buffer zone, the Existence Institute has moved its headquarters here, so it definitely won't be a problem."

"What the hell?!"

Huai Shi almost jumped in shock.

The Existence Institute? Its headquarters? Here? The fabled Headquarters of Existence Academy, whose location is a deep secret, is here?

Huai Shi felt that if this got out, his peculiar fanbase of mothers would be shocked for a whole year.

"Is this really something to be surprised about?" The Raven glanced at him puzzledly. "We passed by their doorstep just two days ago... Didn't you pee on a Cactus back then?"

Huai Shi's face instantly turned pale. "Why didn't you tell me?!"

"Telling you wouldn't have made any difference."

The Raven shook her head. "What's here is just a Reflection; it's true their headquarters' physical coordinates exist here, but that doesn't mean this is the exit. The entire Existence Institute is hidden using suspension technology, existing simultaneously in Current Circumstances, the Border, and the Abyss, with roads extending in all directions. If they don't want you to see them, you wouldn't spot a hair of them even if you're at their doorway. Relax, Fool. Just think of it as taking a stroll by the entrance of a government agency. Even if you were seen, so what? Are there going to be snipers aiming at your head?"

Huai Shi's expression twitched.

He finally understood why he had been feeling a chill down his spine the past few days.

That was the Existence Institute! The secretive organization that seals away who knows how many eerie things! The Existence Institute, whose door, once opened, would raise the distortion level of the entire Current Circumstances by sixty percent!

In the initial structure of the Astronomical Society, Utopia, the Jurisdiction Bureau, and the Existence Institute each had their distinct roles. If summarized based on the impact they cause, then Utopia's duty would be to pursue more Correction Values, while the Jurisdiction Bureau would be responsible for following closely behind to maintain the situation and ensure that these results do not slip away. Lastly, the Existence Institute would be tasked with lowering the distortion levels of the entire Current Circumstances, eliminating hidden dangers for the world.

Because of this, Utopia is considered aggressive, the Jurisdiction Bureau is seen as staid and conservative, and the Existence Institute shrouds itself in mystery, remaining mostly invisible. They rarely cooperate with the Jurisdiction Bureau and mostly act alone. Wherever they appear, the land is often left barren. If a situation is deemed dangerous to a certain extent, they might even pack up the entire area completely... and then find a convenient place to torch it all, eradicating it from Current Circumstances once and for all.

Just thinking about how he had boldly passed by such a dangerous department's doorstep made Huai Shi's legs tremble.

"Don't worry. I said 'doorstep,' but the real location of the Existence Institute is still dozens of layers of depth away; it's not such a simple place."

The Raven casually flapped her wings. "Rather than worrying about that, you'd better pay attention to what's right in front of you."

"Huh?"

Huai Shi was confused.

Following her gaze upwards, the boy looked towards the churning, roiling dark clouds in the far-off sky. "Isn't that just an illusion?"

"Although I once suspected it was a problem caused by some abnormal mechanism, I took a closer look just now... It seems that all you've seen thus far is nothing but a Mirage, just like the anomalies in the desert."

"So?" Huai Shi asked.

"If it's a Mirage, then it proves it's an optical refraction phenomenon... No need for me to repeat the stuff from a physics book for you, right?"

The Raven paused for a moment, then said helplessly, "In other words, the thunderclouds are real and have been growing stronger all this time, merging with the abnormal air currents and temperatures in Australia to form a super-sized natural disaster powerful enough to douse the entire desert."

"And then?" Huai Shi nodded.

"Then, it has now arrived right above your head." The Raven lifted her wings, observing her feathers, now damp from the thick moisture in the air, and nodded. "It should start any minute now... So, what are you waiting for?"

"Run, Fool!"

The Raven screeched in his ear,

"THE STORM IS COMING!!!"