I live in the Martian wilderness!

Meanwhile, in Youzhou Fusion City, the National Space Flight Control Center.

The entire deep space exploration command hall was instantly ignited after less than half a minute of silence!

[Data received! Being sent to the supercomputer for decoding!]

[Decryption key verified! Starting to parse data packets!]

On the main screen in the center of the hall, a huge decoding progress bar was scrolling rapidly. Everyone held their breath, staring intently at it.

"Decoding complete!"

The progress bar disappeared, replaced not by complex telemetry data, nor by cold engineering code.

It's a picture.

An image full of noise, yet with incredibly clear content.

The background is an endless red wasteland and a desolate belt of rocks.

The foreground is a 2020 Mars rover covered in dust, but still recognizable by the five-star red flag.

Beside the Mars rover stood a soldier wearing the latest Xuanjia combat suit from 2047.

Behind them stood a towering Tissot engineering vehicle!

"Damn it..."

The entire hall fell silent, then erupted in a huge gasp.

Without further hesitation, the analyst slammed down the "Red One" button, which represented the highest level of emergency.

The piercing alarm blared through the sky.

Countless tightly closed doors were pushed open, and countless resting figures jumped out of bed.

Youzhou Fusion City, high-end school district housing in Zone C.

"How many times have I told you! L'Hôpital's Law! L'Hôpital's Law! Who gave you the right to try and calculate this?!"

"Since both the numerator and denominator are approaching zero, why don't you just take the derivative? You're 12 years old, how come you don't even have this basic understanding of limits?"

A middle-aged man with thick-rimmed glasses and messy hair was slamming his fist on the table and spitting as he tutored his son's math homework.

He is the top orbital dynamics expert at the Fifth Academy of Aerospace Science and Technology, a genius who can mentally calculate the Mars transfer orbit, but at this moment he is almost driven to collapse by a basic calculus lesson.

"Buzz—Buzz—Buzz—"

The black security cell phone that I always carry with me suddenly started vibrating at an extremely high frequency.

The middle-aged man's roar abruptly stopped.

His face, which had been flushed with anger, turned deathly pale in an instant, then transformed into a cold, military-like expression.

"Dad?" The son was startled by the sudden silence and looked at his father timidly.

The man didn't speak, but looked at his son intently, his eyes filled with complex emotions: "Son, do your homework yourself. Dad has to go to work."

……

Sanlitun, giant screen cinema.

In the dim light, the couple looked particularly out of place.

The man's hair was so greasy it looked like he hadn't washed it in three days, and he wore thick-rimmed glasses on his nose; everything about him screamed "dull and inflexible."

"Honey, let's get our marriage certificate next month, okay?" The girl hugged Liu Wei's arm, practically pressed herself against him, her voice sickeningly sweet.

Liu Wei shrank back sheepishly: "Xiaoya, you're kidding. You know I don't own a house or a car, and I'm not good-looking..."

"I don't care!" A barely perceptible glint flashed in Xiaoya's eyes, which was then replaced by an expression of admiration.

Just as Liu Wei was about to open his mouth, the smartwatch on his wrist suddenly emitted a pulse of electrical current!

"hiss--!"

Liu Wei suddenly stood up, his movement so forceful that he knocked over the Coca-Cola bottles of the audience in the front row.

"What's wrong, darling?" Xiaoya was startled, but her eyes sharpened instantly as she tried to glance at Liu Wei's watch screen.

Liu Wei instinctively covered the watch screen. "I'm sorry, Xiaoya. I have to go."

"Now? But the movie has only just started..." Xiaoya grabbed his sleeve, her voice tinged with coquettishness, "Tell me what's wrong."

Liu Wei, who was usually timid and submissive, suddenly shook off the goddess's hand, flipped over the chair, and ran towards the exit.

……

Sanya, Hainan, a private beach.

An elderly man with white hair was walking barefoot on the beach, holding a grouper he had just caught. This was the third day of his forced leave.

A guard in black rushed across the beach, his expression serious: "Old Wang! Top priority! The special plane is already on standby at Phoenix Airport. We have twenty minutes to get there."

The old academician loosened his grip, and the grouper splashed back into the sea.

He gazed at the deep northern night sky, thinking, "I need to find out the specifics on the plane!"

……

Half an hour later.

The Candle Dragon Project Command Center.

Hundreds of key experts in Beijing have rushed back through various green channels, their eyes still sharp even though they are disheveled.

Above the conference table, dozens of blue conference projections were also simultaneously launched, allowing experts from other parts of the country or even abroad to access the event via the quantum network.

The once quiet hall was now filled with suppressed and urgent discussions, and the air was thick with a sense of impending doom.

"Old Chen! What's going on? Level 1 combat readiness? The last time we activated this level was on the day of the 'sky change' last year, wasn't it?"

"I don't know! I was tutoring my child in calculus when I was brought here by a private car!"

"Could it be... that the Americans have finally decided the victor?"

A low voice rang out from the crowd, tinged with deep apprehension.

This statement was like a pebble thrown into a calm lake, and everyone instinctively looked at the world situation map on the wall.

Their gazes were drawn to the chaotic region marked in gray across the ocean—the North American continent.

"Very likely! I just saw on the internet that the 'California separatists' crossed the Potomac River yesterday and are said to have breached the last line of defense in Washington, D.C..."

"Not only that, the Lone Star Republic in Texas also took advantage of the chaos, cutting off all energy supplies to the East Coast. The United States is now in complete disarray."

"If that's the case... then could these lunatics have pressed that damn nuclear button in their final desperation?"

"I heard rumors last week about the use of tactical nuclear weapons along the Great Lakes defense line. If they really do drag the whole world down with them..."

"NASA has completely fallen apart in recent years; its budget has been entirely diverted to building unmanned bombers and urban warfare robots."

"If they actually drop a nuclear bomb... then this isn't space exploration, it's building a doomsday ark!"

Speculation about nuclear doomsday spread like a plague through the conference room.

After all, in this turbulent year of 2047, there is nothing but the brutal civil war that tore the former superpower to pieces.

It seems there is nothing that warrants China initiating an emergency recall of this level and scale.

"quiet!"

"Bang—"

With a command, the heavy explosion-proof door was pushed open, and Zhang Jianguo strode into the conference room.

His steps were heavy and powerful, his back like a majestic mountain peak, instantly suppressing the panic and gossip in everyone's hearts.

"Reporting to the Commander-in-Chief! Everyone is present! Please give your instructions!" a staff officer shouted, his voice serious.