[No signs of life.]
[Initiating second AED procedure]
Bzzzt!
Radiant lights flickered, inside another frozen chamber, Chu Yan’s face was pale, with blood still flowing from her mouth and nose, showing no signs of life.
Lin Xian sighed softly, attempting to stand but realizing his body was no longer listening to him, his head felt like it was splitting open. He could only let Viola drag him up from the ground and prop him against Chu Yan’s frozen chamber, his gaze turning to the ruined Dawn City.
"This is the Seventh Division of the garrison on West Street position, our anti-aircraft array’s power supply is cut off, ammunition exhausted! Repeat, ammunition exhausted!"
"Chen Weiguo, Zhao Gang, get your Fourth and Eleventh Divisions to the riverfront line in front of Wall No. 2 imdiately!"
"All special operations groups, assemble around Star Port and Central Tower, protect the City Ring!"
"dical teams urgently needed on Central Street, the injuries are severe here!"
"The convoy from Dawn Watcher Alliance and Steel Barrier was dispersed in the Upper South District, everyone retreat to the East District!"
"Don’t give up, the City Ring of Dawn City still shines!"
"Lin Xian, Lin Xian, can you hear ? Our train is surrounded, we need..."
"Lin Xian, where are you?"
"Captain Lin!"
The headset was full of chaotic voices, commands, shouts, roars, cries, pleas for help, human voices converging within radio frequencies, like a symphony from a desperate civilization etched onto a Sound Recording Stone.
16:45, the sky remained dark.
The Dark Tide hung eternally like a shadow over Dawn City.
Once a bustling and intelligent tropolis, Night City had beco a purgatory. The brilliant holographic canopies were long extinguished, replaced by rolling smoke like boiling asphalt—thick, suffocating, covering the entire sky. Rain drizzled for two days and two nights, and when the wind occasionally tore open the smoke, it revealed not blue sky, but blood-red storm clouds ford by burning dust reflecting distant yet unextinguished flas.
In the high sky, the debris of several downed airships hung between skyscrapers, steel cables snapped, hulls tilted, like giant beasts nailed to crosses.
By Wall No. 2, the direction of the Inner City District remained ablaze, artillery fire lighting up the canopy. The frontlines of Dawn City were split in two, with human lines continuously shrinking.
Beneath the rubble lay scattered young corpses; within the flas, immortal ashes burned.
Above the overcast clouds, thunder flashed, fire filled the sky, and the outline of a terrifying serpent in the clouds flickered in the lightning, its scale even surpassing Silent City.
All Abnormal Bodies were growing more frenzied, the darkness seemingly teeming with endless creatures crawling continuously from the three Star Abysses, devouring humanity and Dawn City.
In the distance, a corpse chaser, previously shattered by the Gray Mist’s upper body, now surging with black mist, had restored itself. Yet this ti, instead of heading towards Wall No. 2, it bore the artillery fire, striding towards the ruined building where Lin Xian was.
Boom, boom, each step shaking the ground, carrying an aura of impending destruction.
"Teacher Ye."
In the Double Star Tower’s command center, where Ye Lan had stood for a day and night, a weak voice ca through his headset.
"Lin Xian, where are you?" Ye Lan’s voice remained calm, an unwavering power seeped through his aged voice that anyone could feel.
"Teacher Ye, does the darkness feel fear?"
Listening to Lin Xian, Ye Lan responded, "We cannot comprehend a civilization using human thought. From a macrocosmic view, whether an ant or the apex predator in the food chain, survival crises plague everyone. This holds true for advanced and primitive civilizations alike."
"But our resistance seems insignificant before such civilization. Does it an we lack the power to resist?" Lin Xian inquired.
Ye Lan patiently replied, "The suspicion chain between civilizations is unbreakable, a fundantal axiom in cosmic sociology. Like Hunters lurking in the Dark Forest, every civilization considers others as threats—because survival is civilization’s primary need, and the universe’s total substance remains constant. Differences between high and low civilizations stem rely from the range of firepower, ants can’t fathom why humans destroy anthills, nor can we grasp why dark creatures destroy human civilization, but one thing is certain."
"What?"
"They can’t effectively or completely destroy us, at least not in the short term; or maybe they have so ulterior motive, but it clearly indicates they don’t possess a god-like understanding of us."
Listening to Ye Lan, Lin Xian, watching the advancing corpse chaser, weakly leaned against Chu Yan’s frozen chamber and responded.
"Makes sense..."
Lin Xian’s consciousness started to blur. He tried his best to keep his eyes open, witnessing Silent City burning high in the sky, Iron Guard Brigade’s sky battleship crashing down.
He saw above Double Star Tower, Iron Guard Brigade and garrison’s remaining fleets and soldiers successively protecting the shining City Ring.
He rembered the words said when bidding farewell to Chu Zhaonan.
"When I was young, I worked as a chanical engineer."
"I recall my first visit to Star City, seeing the City Ring, marveling at humanity’s greatness, creating such a dazzling chanical structure, a beautiful landmark capable not only of supporting air traffic but also sending signals to the Planet Device for space orbit positioning. Sadly, we’ll never witness such a marvel of civilization again."
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