Chapter 345: The Sixth Year after the Disaster
"Mr. Cat, I wonder if there's something I should ask... How many Civilization Points do you have on your side?" Li Chunhong from Yunhai City asked.
"What do you mean?" Mr. Cat was slightly surprised.
"Although we are scattered far and wide and Extraordinary Resources are difficult to share, knowledge can be shared."
"At the relics of High-level Civilizations, knowledge can be exchanged. There's really no need for us three parties to exchange the same knowledge and wastefully consume the Rare Civilization Points."
"Once these points are spent, they can't be replenished, right?"
Li Chunhong's intention was simple, an alliance for offense and defense regarding knowledge. Find adventures on My Virtual Library Empire
To be honest, a human city doesn't have many points.
For example, the First Branch of humans, Yunhai City, has about six thousand Milestone Points.
They can't really compare to Green Grass City.
But there are 17 cities on the human side, including New York City, London, Barry, Lingbo City, East Gold City, which to varying degrees, have completed some Milestones.
If all cities are summed up, they have more than ten thousand points, which is actually not bad.
The Rize Civilization probably has more, definitely not less than ten thousand. (The exact amount has not been disclosed.)
Under Lu Yuan's care, both the human and Lize Cities are among the civilizations that have completed a larger number of Milestones, and thus have more than their own strength would suggest.
If it weren't for Lu Yuan's reminder, they would have to cut that in half, or even by two-thirds.
"That makes some sense. Mr. Cat, how many points do we have on our side?" Lu Tiantian asked.
Mr. Cat thought for a while. Lu Yuan had completed 12 first-place Milestones alone, plus some not first-place ones like "Tame Extraordinary Animals" and "Sealing God's Skill."
Adding in the achievements of the Sha Li Clan and the Mandala Empire, he estimated in his mind that it was approximately between 65 to 67 thousand.
Heaven has its virtues, and from this angle, the disparity "God" set up didn't seem as large as imagined.
"Not few, a bit more than theirs, but I don't know exactly. It should be at least 20,000 I guess."
Lu Tiantian's eyes flickered, "That amount is indeed not bad, which allows us to take a leading position. Future negotiations should be relatively easy."
"My point is to agree for now. If we can form an alliance for offense and defense, that would naturally be the best. If not, we don't really lose anything. Anyway, we don't even have a shadow of these High-level Civilization relics."
...
For the mother civilization of humanity and the Rize Civilization, having the little insider information provided by the Sky City side was somewhat of a mental comfort.
But for most civilizations without additional information, they had to rely on their own abilities.
In a certain Safe Zone, atop a kilometer-tall tower.
A group of octopus-shaped life forms were having a heated debate on the top floor.
This civilization was technologically powerful and socially stable, having completed 9 civilization Milestones, with 23,000 Civilization Points in hand!
And the fiercest topic of debate was, naturally: "Why has it suddenly become the Mid-Era? At this rate, wouldn't the Ninth Epoch only last two hundred years?"
"And what is 'God'?"
"Gamma Ray Burst... Which civilization suffered from it?"
They questioned the purpose of "God"...
They questioned the so-called "Milestone Reward" and "Civilization Points"!
"For now, we can assume that 'God' has a certain degree of goodwill. But out there, there must be existences full of malice."
"The civilizations primed for war are not weaker than ours."
"My friends, as the years outside have passed by nearly ninety years, it's about time for us to depart," the leading octopus-like Life Form initiated telepathy.
They were a race with innate mental transparency, able to share thoughts through brain waves, boasting incredibly high Racial Value!
In the material domain, they had climbed to an exceptionally powerful level.
But in the idealist field, they were still novices.
"Even if we have truly entered the Mid-Era now, we should be able to find a way to catch up."
"However, before that, we must choose to decode it... or to destroy it." The octopus-like creatures looked at a Metal Communicator.
How cautious are truly powerful civilizations?
How could they retain something of unknown origin?
...
There were also many other civilizations, neither high nor low.
They lacked powerful material technology and didn't have enough idealist resources to develop ideal technology.
Perhaps such civilizations are the true depiction of the Pangu Continent.
They didn't even comprehend what "Mid-Era" actually meant, only able to convene meeting after meeting, endlessly discussing and guessing what would happen if it truly reached the End of the Era.
"Regardless, we have to head toward the Pangu Continent and make ready for mobilization!"
"After the mobilization, a collective vote will be held to revoke the Safe Zone."
"Steel Civilization, never falling behind!" Some civilizations made their own determinations.
Some civilizations played it smart.
"*Like the sound of a snake's tongue flicking*" "I think we should wait a bit longer... If there are indeed many civilizations that have opened their Safe Zones, we should be able to observe their traces."
"If there's a large-scale war in the outside world, we'll have to wait a bit longer."
"I second the motion!"
"I second the motion!"
And for those civilizations in the disaster areas, the situation was simply terrible; they could only shrink away for the time being.
"Let's just wait until the volcano has settled down before we leave the Safe Zone."
"Agreed."
But they were determined to get out earlier, to build Sky City. After all, even hiding in the Safe Zone wouldn't spare them from a disaster that struck without warning.
Of course, there were also many other civilizations that didn't have much organizational capability; the chaos within their own ranks had yet to cease. This was normal since just under a year had passed in the Safe Zones compared to the outside world where drastic changes had taken place.
They were still forced to hide in their Safe Zones.
Each civilization made different choices...
At the beginning of the Ninth Epoch, due to an unprecedented volcanic eruption, the previously tranquil history was forcibly twisted.
Perhaps it was a good thing, or perhaps it was bad.
Frozen rivers, birds fleeing in panic, journeys paused...
The sun rising in the east and setting in the west, endlessly counting the years and months, but unable to calculate the choices of civilizations.
Who really knows the future?
Of course, for Lu Yuan, he was oblivious to so many chain reactions of the outside world civilizations.
He had eavesdropped on the "Alliance Meeting" for a while and discovered that even when he was not present, Green Grass City developed just the same, which made him quite melancholic.
"It's probably better to be a desireless and demanding tree..."
Recently, he had experienced both extremes of ice and fire, simultaneously joyful and anguished.
That Chaos Essence Stone, originally brimming with volcanic energy, now having swallowed most of the reserves of the Tree of Life and the Opium Poppy, what on earth would it become?
Lu Yuan was full of passion—Mythical Level seemed within arm's reach!
But unfortunately...
While nurturing this Divine Stone, he had invested no small amount of resources and always felt something was just a bit off.
It was as if the stone was only a hair's breadth away from the true "Mythical Life Fruit," the exact deficiency elusive and undefinable.
This made him anxious, tirelessly researching various documents.
Now, Green Grass Paradise held quite a comprehensive collection of materials, including information from the Source Fire Civilization, meticulously translated each day by scholars.
One could refine the self by studying stones from other hills; as a Third-level Civilization, Source Fire Civilization naturally had valuable insights to offer.
And then there was the "Great Gear Treasure"... It was truly like a divine scripture.
With nothing else to do, Lu Yuan spent every day diligently studying it, trying to glean whatever he could. He figured he might need to be in an inspiration state to understand some of it.
Time flew by in this manner.
Green Grass City continued its prolonged struggle against disaster; it must be said, the adaptability of the human species was quite remarkable.
At first, there were incidents like burst water pipes and massive deaths of plant species in greenhouses, among other accidents large and small.
But by the third year, as the construction of the cold-resistant frontlines was universally completed, people gradually accustomed themselves to the monotonous life of blizzards and volcanic ash every day.
By the fourth year, the adventurous young ones even discussed forming trekking groups to survey the nearby area—after all, they might catch some hibernating Extraordinary Creatures!
However, this plan was still vetoed by the council, as the benefits did not outweigh the risks!
Even if there were Extraordinary Creatures, they had to be located first. Searching the vast snowfields was akin to looking for a needle in a haystack.
Of course, considering that the spirit of adventure was indeed worth promoting, the government slightly relaxed the travel rights of the public. Especially since volcanic activity had become frequent recently and there were numerous hot springs underground, tourism was now limited to within 10 kilometers of a hot spring mountain near Sky City.
It was in the fifth year that the first "Large Puppet" was completely reconstructed. This technology, derived from the Source Fire Civilization, wasn't just a working robot, but also known as Metal Exoskeleton, or Power Armor.
In the Supernatural Era, Power Armor was still significant.
Flesh and blood were fragile, even under the protection of the Extraordinary Spark.
But with the Armor, a Level Three warrior could compete with a Level 5 Warrior! Armor that could keep up with human mobility was definitely an outstanding technology.
By the sixth year of the Volcanic Eruption, Lu Yuan's human body was finally nurtured, and becoming a person again felt pretty good—holding a girl, petting a dog, brewing a cup of tea, relaxing an entire afternoon...
However, he couldn't return to human society just yet, since everyone thought he was still taking refuge from the volcano!
At this moment, the weather turned slightly better, and the first ray of sunshine finally pierced through the thick volcanic clouds, shedding light upon the world.
It meant that the future wouldn't be as cold anymore.
On Conch's suggestion, Sky City promptly set sail, starting the search for Lu Yuan.
Thus, in the sixth year's fifth month, the entire city finally found the disheveled Commander Lu near the ruins that used to belong to the "Source Fire Civilization."