I started by watching videos, and I chose 10,000 combat power.

The news of the conscription quickly topped the trending search lists on major platforms.

Immediately afterwards, the comment section became extremely lively.

"The age requirement is between 22 and 35, with a bachelor's degree in science or engineering. My educational background meets the requirements, but I just turned 35 three days ago. I wonder if I could have an extension?"

There are thousands of replies below this post, mostly saying things like, "That's such a pity, I happen to meet the requirements and am checking the location of recruitment stations," and "Me too, my birthday is just a few days away, I'm checking the location!"

Some people counted on their fingers how long it would take for them to turn 22, and after finishing, they posted a crying face emoji saying, "I still have three months left."

People who have just turned 35, those who studied humanities at 28, those who studied marketing at 22... everyone hopes to meet the requirements, but unfortunately, they are all very disappointed when they find out that they do not meet the requirements.

Those who met the requirements immediately checked the location of the nearest conscription station.

The next day, long queues formed at recruitment stations across the Dragon Kingdom as early as seven in the morning.

The streetlights were still on, and the procession had already snaked its way from the entrance of the conscription station to the other side of the road and turned into the alley next to it.

A man wearing a plaid shirt and jeans, with messy hair and dusty glasses.

He pulled out his graduation certificate and degree certificate from his backpack. The papers inside had several creases, which he had just found at the bottom of his trunk the night before.

His eyes were bloodshot, not from staying up all night playing games, but from carefully reviewing the conscription policy.

When he discovered that there were no requirements for nearsightedness in this recruitment, he was so excited that he tossed and turned in bed all night, unable to sleep.

Before dawn, he hurriedly rode a shared bicycle to queue up.

A 28-year-old woman stood in the middle of the line, wearing a light windbreaker, her hair tied in a ponytail, and carrying a plastic bag containing bread and bottled water.

She used to work as an engineer at a foreign company, with a good salary and little overtime. However, this morning, she sent a message to her supervisor: "I quit."

The supervisor immediately replied with a black man emoji and three question marks.

The supervisor then asked her about the specific situation and said that if it was one of her special days each month, she could come to the company to rest.

She didn't explain and simply turned off her phone.

They were not unaware of what they were about to face—it was a fleet of alien civilizations, whose ships were far more advanced than the one that had destroyed Israel's entire military force.

This is not child's play, nor is it a drill; it is a battle that could cost them their lives.

Even so, they still came.

Of course, outside the team, there were also some people who were extremely frustrated.

A man in his forties stood on the street opposite the conscription station, carrying a plastic bag containing steamed buns and soy milk. He stared at the long queue, stopped chewing halfway through a bun, and swallowed with a distinct gurgling sound.

"I was five years over the age limit, and they wouldn't let me go to school if I was five years over."

The woman selling pancakes next to him glanced at him and said, "You're five years over! I'm only one year and three hundred and forty-eight months over, and I didn't say anything."

The officer at the recruitment station stood at the entrance, holding a megaphone and shouting until his voice was almost hoarse.

"Please don't push! One at a time! Those who don't meet the requirements, please step back so as not to disrupt the normal order!"

When he called out for the third time, a young man poked his head out from the line and shouted at him, "I meet all the requirements, can I register first? I need to rush back to the company to resign from my job later, and I'm afraid my supervisor will find an excuse to deduct my salary if I'm late."

The officer brought the megaphone to his mouth and announced loudly, "Anyone who was delayed by queuing only needs to explain their situation to the company after completing registration. Any disputes that arise afterward will be handled and resolved by the military."

When the number of recruits reached two million, many queues were only halfway through.

Many people felt regretful, thinking to themselves: "If only I had known earlier, I would have lined up at dawn."

-

The Dragon Kingdom's command headquarters also issued another order.

The entire army promoted physical training techniques, and the original three-month basic training period for recruits was shortened to half a month. During these two weeks, subjects such as drills, physical fitness, shooting, and basic tactics had to be completed intensively, significantly increasing the intensity of training.

After basic training, the soldiers will proceed directly to body-refining training.

The General Staff's document clearly stated: "Due to the urgency of time, there is no time to proceed at the usual pace. We must adopt a method of training while fighting, and learning while preparing for war. We would rather fall on the training ground than on the battlefield."

-

After returning home, the representatives from the United States reported the meeting's proceedings to the president.

That afternoon, the president convened a meeting of senior officials in the White House's situation room.

On the long table in the conference room were the draft charter of the united government sent by the Dragon Kingdom and the document explaining the powers and responsibilities of the Security Council.

The Minister of Defense spoke first. He closed the folder and placed it on the table, the edge of the cover making a soft sound as it touched the solid wood tabletop.

"All military bases have been withdrawn. This is not a strategic adjustment, but rather to avoid miscalculation. Our bases are scattered throughout the planet, some located on the doorstep of the Dragon Nation, and others at key nodes on flight paths."

"Those bases were there to contain the Dragon Kingdom, but they're no longer necessary. Keeping them won't make us safer; on the contrary, it could make Luo Fei misunderstand that we're still carrying out operations in secret."

The Secretary of State did not object; she flipped through the thick list of bases in front of her.

"Returning to bases requires time and transportation support. The evacuation of naval vessels, marines, and air force personnel cannot be completed immediately by simply pressing a switch."

The defense minister proposed, "Then we'll evacuate in batches, but the first batch must be done as soon as possible."

The President's National Security Advisor spoke.

"The key is attitude. We need to let China know that the United States is not a threat to them. The Blue Star United Government is not the same platform we used to use to confront them in the Security Council. We can no longer use old thinking to deal with new problems. As for Luo Fei, a thousand words to him are not as effective as doing one tangible thing for him."

The president sat in the center of the long table, listened to everyone's speeches, and then said only one last thing: "Withdraw. Start from the areas surrounding China."

A high-level meeting of Japanese chicken was held that evening.

The meeting was held in a conference room on the basement floor of the Prime Minister's official residence, a room with no windows and no cell phone signal.

The Foreign Minister gave a full account of the situation inside the Kyoto conference hall, which had been filled with tens of thousands of people, including every detail of how Luo Fei had publicly refuted him.

He neither embellished the story nor concealed anything.

The Vice Minister of Defense pushed a document to the center of the table; the cover was printed with Japanese script: "Contingency Plan for Contact with Extraterrestrial Civilizations."

The document is short and poorly written because there is very little reference material available.

The core message: Once the Calda civilization's fleet arrives, proactively send representatives to make contact. Use Japan's technological capabilities and human resources as bargaining chips to gain the alien civilization's support.

The specifics of what they were supporting were not stated, but everyone knew that "support" meant helping "us" deal with Luo Fei and helping "us" regain our footing on Earth.

The Minister of Defense took the document from the middle of the table, flipped through two pages, didn't finish reading it, closed it, and placed it in front of him.

"We are not betraying Earth. We are finding a way for Japan to survive."

"China won't genuinely help us, the United States is unreliable, and Luo Fei sees us as a thorn in his side. If we don't rely on the power of aliens, Japan's status on Earth might be even lower than that of a dog on the street."

No one spoke inside.

The Prime Minister remained silent.

He sat at the head of the long table, his fingers twirling back and forth on the lid of his teacup, lost in thought.

After a long pause, he finally spoke: "Contact can proceed, but the relevant plans must never be known to the Dragon Kingdom. Until the situation becomes clear, Japan must outwardly cooperate fully with all the decisions of the Blue Star United Government."

"Experts who need to be sent should be sent, resources that need to be invested should be allocated, and the attitude that needs to be expressed should be made. We cannot allow anyone to find any fault or detect anything amiss."

Everyone nodded, because they all knew that there was no other way to go at the moment.

After the meeting, the "Contact Plan for Extraterrestrial Civilizations" was taken away by the Vice Minister of Defense and locked in a safe.

The combination to this safe was known only to two people—the Vice Minister and the Prime Minister. The combination wasn't written down on any paper, nor stored on their phones; it existed only in their minds.

-

It was late at night, but the lights were still on in the courtyard of Liuxi Village.

Chu Yue had already left, and Luo Fei stood alone in the center of the courtyard. The moonlight cast his long, thin shadow on the ground.

The leaves of the Spirit Gathering Grass swayed gently in the night breeze, and the downy hairs at the tips of the leaves shimmered with a silvery-white luster under the moonlight.

He took out his phone and checked the extraction progress report sent by Xiao Wan.

The ore processing is less than 5% complete, and europium purification is expected to be finished in three days. The extraction of other rare elements is also progressing simultaneously.

He put away his phone and looked up at the sky.

The moonlight was bright, and the croaking of frogs rose and fell in the distance.

In the distant sky, a fleet is traversing the dark interstellar space.

Less than a hundred days remain for Earth.

Time is like sand in an hourglass, flowing silently by, and no one can turn it back.