Apocalypse Forecast

Chapter 881 - 706: Beacon

Late night, in the office.

"Beastification Traits Rights Protection Draft","Tanbo Inner Circle Population Census","Yingzhou Beastification Traits Community Survey Report","History and Key Files of the Drug Expulsion Alliance"...

Under the cold light, one secret file after another was casually thrown onto the table, stacked together.

Ai Qing closed her eyes and rubbed her swollen, painful eyes.

Truly felt the absurdity of this country from the heart...

Yingzhou, known for its openness and famous for its multiculturalism across its territory, is actually the most conservative and exclusive place.

Hurried travelers, dazzled by the beautiful scenery, have no time to notice the inner workings beneath the glamorous surface, instead praising its openness and civilized appearance.

But to those natives born and bred here, this country has never changed due to outsiders.

Even that General, the Ghost Duke from America, cannot reverse the deeply rooted concepts and thoughts already ingrained through tradition...

Indeed, it is difficult to say that Yingzhou, severely damaged seventy years ago, is a sovereign nation now, unable even to have a violent agency like the military.

Sublimators Organism·Deer’s Sing Hall and elite forces ’Seat’, exist only as gathering places for the Hua Clan and as the Emperor’s guard, unable to appear as formal institutions in the Jurisdiction Bureau’s meetings.

Even the name Hua Clan has long been abolished.

But that is just nominal disappearance; in reality, everyone is aware of how things go—

The once lofty Court Officials and Lords have just changed the way they continue to rule this country, selecting one tool person after another to stand at the forefront, bearing the public’s wrath.

While they themselves hide behind layers of intertwined equity, continuing to root their terrifying influence deeply into this land.

Various accumulated grievances have led to a situation here radically different from other countries, leading to all sorts of bizarre phenomena of unchecked growth under intentional or unintentional neglect by all parties.

Besides surface peace and tranquility, everywhere untouched by sunlight is a dance of demons. In some places, once night falls, they literally become lawless zones.

According to the Astronomical Society’s statistics, more than thirty percent of border smuggling cases transit from Yingzhou’s various borders to the Current Circumstances.

Meanwhile, this chaos and indulgence have brought Yingzhou enormous wealth, even stimulating investment and various fringe industries inversely.

With the large border extended from Kyoto—Huangquan Slope as the axis, Yingzhou has become Asia’s largest border hub and one of the largest border material circulation channels in the Current Circumstances.

At the same time, it has become one of the major gathering places for Beastified Characteristic Beings, with Tokyo, Osaka, and even Kyoto having ’Tanbo Inner Circle’, a ’mold’ despised by many bigwigs...

Hybrids unable to obtain legitimate status under sunlight thrust themselves into the darkness, existent in every corner of this class.

The subject formed under the initiative of five bosses, consists of five main societies where hybrids are the core, creating the Extreme Path Alliance.

Their influence practically covers every aspect of a hybrid’s life. A Beastified Characteristic Being born in Yingzhou interacts with them from birth, from unlicensed hospitals and underground doctors to education, dining, medicine, and even work...

Strictly speaking, no rigid subordinate relationship exists between Green Day and the five bosses; both parties are more akin to a deep alliance.

Green Day needs the influence of Current Circumstances, and the five bosses also need Green Day’s power support. Everyone knows that the other party is an indispensable and irreplaceable significant aid, so they continue to exist as one entity.

Ultimately, this behemoth named ’Drug Expulsion Alliance’ formed, along with organizations like the Russian Federation K Party, Triad, Earth Sky Fool Team, Iron King Party, Light Illumination Sect, creating Yingzhou’s Dark Side World, a unique system of cruelty within lawless zones.

Not only are hybrids plotting riots, but now, the hidden struggles throughout Kyoto have become increasingly intense.

Tracing all this turmoil back to its source, it becomes increasingly puzzling—fundamentally, it’s because Yingzhou’s Legislative Assembly proposed a ’draft to increase consumer tax’ two months ago!

As the population growth index declines annually, the society ages, pension reserves face enormous gaps, and low consumption trends prevail, relentless strikes have put the entire social system, glued together by harsh order suppression and high welfare standards, on the brink of collapse...

Simply put, the government is out of money.

To maintain the existence of the welfare system, raising taxes is imperative.

They can’t even bother to stave off poison by drinking it.

The affected industries will encompass the entire society, petrol, electricity, transportation, agriculture... everything able to produce and consume will be reevaluated in value.

When this draft was proposed two months ago, it already caused a huge uproar.

The resulting struggle has worsened, eventually becoming another contest between the Duke and the Wu Family. The natural contradiction lies between the Duke as the central government and the Wu Family who secretly divides the local territories.

And massive enterprises and societies fan the flames within, escalating the oppression and discrimination against hybrids.

If left untouched, in nine out of ten possibilities, hybrid riots will trigger and explode numerous hidden conflicts, afterward, due to its chaotic and uncontrollable destruction, suffer resistance and backlash from the entire Yingzhou... After everyone joins forces to crush the hybrids, divert social conflicts, public hatred, discard blame, gain substantial benefits, and profit immensely, it’s truly advantageous.

As for the death of a few hybrids, what does that count as?

In this light, the bizarre laissez-faire attitude and cold indifference shown by both sides toward this matter can be understood.

Let it escalate, the bigger, the better...

All is but a revelry before the feast begins, many are eager, with bated breath.

If this riot isn’t resolved and God City Future and its controlled technology aren’t completely annihilated, then Tanbo Inner Circle will likely turn into Hell.

Amid Ai Qing’s contemplation, a piercing sound suddenly echoed in the silent office.

A brief, sharp alarm.

From beside her, a fist-sized object resembling a counter.

Instantly, the number on the flipping indicator panel above changed from ’zero’ to ’one’.

Ai Qing’s expression froze for a moment in disbelief.

Has the signal beacon already been activated once in such a short time?

Soon, the dedicated phone line from the Decision Room rang.

The news from the Jurisdiction Bureau’s higher-ups confirmed her suspicions and cemented this bad news.

"Yes, I know, I’m looking for clues. Yes, we’ll hurry, please rest assured. I understand, I won’t let the resources of the empty floors be wasted..."

Ai Qing nodded, restraining her anxiety and calmly responding. Only after hanging up the call did she let out a long sigh.

"It seems there’s really not much time left..."

She swiped away unrelated documents on the screen, inspecting the most confidential records at the bottom—the familiar face in the photo displeased her from the bottom of her heart.

——Where the hell has this bastard gone?

Meanwhile, Huai Shi awoke from his dream with a start.

Without any warning, without any reason.

For some reason, a strange sense of tranquility arose in his heart, but after thinking about it for a long time, he couldn’t understand why.

He stared at the yellowing poster on the ceiling, quickly turning over to continue sleeping.

Yes, amid the snores and smelly feet of his roommates.

Tomorrow, at least find a place where I can really live... Anyway, the dirty money has to be handed over, might as well get a better place!

.

Similarly, in the deep night in Kyoto.

Outside the Tanbo District at the fire scene, the sirens of fire trucks faded into the night.

Columns of water shot up into the sky, extinguishing the last flicker of fire in the ruins and pouring onto the young man’s heart.

Chilling.

Yuan Zhao, who had originally jumped out of the car dragging his Trident, was ready for a grand fight, but gradually became disoriented in the wind.

The silent night breeze brought mocking screams from Ravens far away.

No epic three-hundred-round battle with a formidable enemy as imagined, no underlings submitting in worship, not even a thrilling venture into a tiger’s lair, nor dragon-tiger clashes; not to mention a hybrid little sister in fantasy praising Yuan Zhao for being awesome...

His mission objective, along with the entire house, had turned into burnt trash long ago...

"Hey, Sister Ye? Your divination must be problematic..."

Yuan Zhao tearfully called, "It’s not that I’m not doing my job, can’t we get a task in the Yang Realm? Don’t mention the Russian Federation louts, this damn place has burnt to ashes, there’s no clue left!"

"..."

On the other end of the call, Ye Xueya silently observed the star chart before her, her eyebrow slightly raised: the stellar trails over Kyoto suddenly showed a rupture?

Perhaps it was her observational error, but if not? Whatever the method, it indicated that Kyoto was murkier than she had imagined.

The job from Xuan Niao, as expected, wasn’t easy to accept.

She pinched her brows, her mood heavy.

"Come back first, Yuan Zhao, and get a good night’s sleep before dawn—"

Ye Xueya smiled, "Don’t you always complain that you haven’t seen any famous sights in Yingzhou? This time I’ll satisfy you."

"Hey! What are you planning again?" Yuan "Toolman" Zhao suddenly felt a little scared.

"Nothing, tomorrow, we’ll go meet the General..."

Before hanging up, Ye Xueya kindly reminded, "Remember to wear formal attire."

.

.

At eight o’clock the next morning, Huai Shi, woken by the knock on his door, hadn’t yet managed to go out and rent a place when he saw more than forty missed calls on his phone.

All from the higher-ups of the Fujimoto Group, accompanied by a slew of messages and impatient urgings—each demanding he return the call immediately or quickly get in touch.

But he had turned on Do Not Disturb mode before sleeping yesterday, missing all of them.

When the door opened, there stood Yamashita with a grim expression.

"What the heck are you doing? Why didn’t you answer the calls!"

"Uh..." Huai Shi awkwardly looked back at his phone, "It... had a heatstroke, coughing, no battery."

"Damn, you bastard!" Yamashita grabbed his collar and dragged him out, "There’s no time, hurry up! Come on, come on!"

"What’s going on?" Huai Shi looked at him, his face showing a sky-is-falling expression, unable to understand: "Is the police department coming to arrest us?"

Yamashita turned back to glare at him coldly.

He lowered his voice.

"Boss Fujimoto, he’s not going to make it."