NOVEL NEXT Chapter 344: Tripartite Meeting between Humans, Rize_2
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[My name is Lu Tiantian, and on this day, we welcomed the harsh era of ice and freezing fog.]
[The climate was so cold that the howling winds nearly froze one's fingers solid, and even the output of the nuclear power stations wasn't enough. Most of the electric power had to be used for sun lamps, farms, hospitals, and heating for the children.]
[To be honest, this was the first time our generation had encountered such a large crisis.]
[The first generation had grown old, and we, the second generation... had become the elders.]
[Elders, such a weighty word.]
[We had no enemies, or rather, our enemy was the invincible nature itself. The only thing we could do was pray that the natural world would recover soon.]
[We also realized that humans actually still had many, many areas that needed patching up.]
[Because of the energy shortage, the upper council passed several emergency resolutions, most of the animals would be slaughtered, to be made into warm clothing.]
[For those above Level Three, heating at night would in fact be reduced.]
[Moreover, the production efficiency of extraordinary resources has dropped, and the scant existing stocks must be provided to the children. All adults have been downgraded to D Level, and the children to C Level.]
[These two resolutions were somewhat against human nature, but they passed, unbelievably. I was originally thinking of using some methods, but it seems everyone's consciousness is higher than I imagined... May we get through this all soon.]
"Brother Tian, hurry up, it's time to go feed the birds!" A male voice came from the door.
"Coming, coming!" Lu Tiantian put down his icy steel pen and in a rush added another line.
[I love human civilization, I want to protect everything here!]
After all these years, he was still so childish.
Now that one of the great elders was missing, but the education system still had to be maintained. It was only possible for the outstanding youngsters of the second generation to take some time to lead the children.
The happiest thing for the little ones was going to Green Mountain to feed the birds.
Miss Conch and over a hundred of the second-generation youth, with more than a thousand children, headed to the mountains to experience nature.
The mountains now were wrapped in white snow, the whole world was indeed draped in a silvery white, the lake was covered with thick ice, strong enough to support tanks, but only a tiny area near the Tree of Life was radiating a subtle vitality.
Miss Conch smiled like a flower: "Children, say hello to Grandpa Big Tree, he's Dad Lu's pet."
"Hello, Grandpa Big Tree!!"
Lu Yuan:... (Then he tried hard to spread his branches, letting the children soak in a bit of Life Essence.)
The children waved their hands, scattering the millet, and the birds flocked over, competing for food.
Of course, these were all non-aggressive little birds, the real big birds had long been domesticated by those with animal affinities and would not appear here.
"Brother Tian, when will the weather get warmer?" asked a teenage girl, bundled up like a giant panda.
"It's probably going to take a few more years," Lu Tiantian sighed.
"Enduring it, enduring it, it seems like we've gotten used to it," said a companion, "These days, just soaking your feet when you get home feels like happiness."
"Where's Dad Lu?"
"Off fighting monsters."
"Brother Tian, when will the large puppets be ready? When will the nuclear fusion be figured out?" asked a bright little chubby kid.
"You're really concerned, grow up and work on these projects yourselves!" laughed Lu Tiantian.
"I'm studying the NS equations."
"That... it's quite difficult," Lu Tiantian patted the chubby kid on the head.
In the campus science museum, several critical technology developments had been added.
Human-shaped puppets and nuclear fusion were certainly of top priority, these were technologies of a third-level civilization, and very impressive!
"Beep," suddenly, Lu Yuan's phone sounded a notification, he glanced at it subconsciously and then suddenly froze.
The screen showed a line of text: [At 3:33:19 PM, a gamma-ray burst was detected coming from the far east, lasting 0.3 seconds, with the amount of energy released unknown.]
All the adults who received the message fell silent, their faces turning somewhat grim.
Gamma-ray burst!
What did that mean?
Early in the Ninth Epoch... the world descended into chaos.
Even the towering trees in front of us trembled slightly, releasing a cascade of snowflakes from their branches.
Only the children remained joyous, happily feeding the birds.
They were carefree.
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As expected by humanity, news of "Mid-Era" brought great shock to the various civilizations hiding in the Safe Zones!
Especially the Gamma Ray Burst... it was terrifying! Which powerful civilization had released it?
The Rize Civilization and the Human mother civilization quickly convened a joint council to intensely discuss the matter!
In the end, utilizing the Opium poppy communication method left behind by Lu Yuan, they managed to contact the "Human 18th Civilization."
Of course, since Lu Yuan was absent, it was Lu Tiantian from the Great Academy of Sciences, Old Cat, Miss Conch, and others from Sha Mo who collectively participated in this Dream communication.
"Friends, our speculation is quite simple," Old Cat stated solemnly, "First, it truly is the Mid-Era now, and the external weather is extremely harsh."
"This wave of volcanic eruptions has caused significant damage to the ecosystem. Weaker civilizations might simply freeze to death."
"Have you suffered disasters on your side too?" asked a lizard man leader.
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"Alas, we have been hit by disaster... It's barely bearable, but development has almost come to a halt. The temperature is minus fifty degrees, sometimes dropping to minus eighty degrees."
The Rize people and humans were each worrying whether they could survive this Antarctic-like cold.
The answer was difficult—without sufficient energy, many would freeze to death.
In contrast, the Human 18th Civilization, with its smaller population and abundance of resources, fared somewhat better.
Old Cat continued, "The second possibility is, 'God' might have made a misjudgment... here's the specific reasoning..."
"We happened to encounter this supervolcano that erupted, and we investigated it for a while."
"It was originally supposed to erupt in the Eighth Epoch, but some civilization intervened to delay it until the Ninth Epoch."
"This civilization was also quite tragic... They hoped to hide in the magma to survive the Epoch Disaster, but still, they failed."
He briefly mentioned some details about the World Furnace volcano, but deliberately left out the Mirage Cloud Dragon.
Old Cat sighed, "Here, we are more inclined to the second possibility, that it is still actually only the Early Epoch... but that's just a guess."
Humans and Rize people felt bewildered and astounded—dear lord, wherever you go, disasters erupt! How strong must a civilization be to hide in magma?
However, this information was critically important.
The lizard people of the Rize Civilization glanced outside the Safe Zone, where the world was indeed frozen cold, the climate at minus forty degrees Celsius, and a layer of frost covered the ground.
Even inside the Safe Zone, the temperature had dropped below zero degrees Celsius.
If they really dismantled the Safe Zone, there's no telling how many would freeze to death... As a race accustomed to a tropical environment, what warm-keeping equipment could they possibly have?
Meanwhile, outside the Human mother civilization's Safe Zone, the weather remained clear, and the climate was relatively normal.
This indicated that the disaster caused by the volcanic eruption only affected a small part of Pangu Continent.
"What does the Gamma Ray Burst mean then?"
The Gamma Ray Burst did not originate from the stars, but rather from a distant location to the east of the ground.
Nuclear bombs produce Gamma Ray Bursts that are usually extremely brief and intense, bursting for less than one-millionth of a second, yet this observed event lasted a whole 0.3 seconds!
This message was somewhat ambiguous—implying a civilization far stronger than humanity, after leaving the Safe Zone, had used a Technology Weapon much more powerful than a nuclear bomb.
"What did they encounter?"
"What triggered the war?"
People instinctively looked towards the Metal Communicator, their hearts racing with fear.
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