Tonight, Alice joins the hunt.

"We will meet again in the square three days later."

..........................................

Last month's perfect attendance record... died because it was 300 words short.

Overwhelmed with grief, I decided to place another order to console myself.

However, my reputation as the Nine Abyss is well-deserved; this wave, plus yesterday's, means I've lost three thousand yuan.

...I'm really going to start a new thread pretending I pulled the Princess _(:з」∠)_

Section Two: The Tranquil Earth

September 5th, 2054 AD, sunny. The sky was as clear and colorless as ever, and the temperature was a chilly -221 degrees Celsius, unsuitable for going out. At 5:14:51, which should have been noon, Aping did a final check on the underground city's central engine, and after confirming that it could last for a maximum of 45 minutes, he activated all the automatic control systems. Then he left the main control room, where only a faint electrical hum could be heard.

Aping once had a surname, but he threw it away. Fifteen years ago, when he allowed the rebels to bypass his post and storm the Earth's main control room, he had already discarded it. He might still remember the character, know how to write and pronounce it, but he didn't believe he was still entitled to keep the surname his father had given him on his name.

He was, after all, a traitor, and traitors should die silently like dust.

Moreover, that moment shouldn't be too far away now.

[5:19 PM.]

Aping glanced at his watch, noted the time, and then leisurely left along the emergency exit of the main control room. Because the power to the main exit had long been cut off, he had to take a longer route to reach the underground city's exit. But that didn't matter; taking a longer route had its advantages. At least it would allow him to take one last good look at this underground city where he was all alone.

A quiet, tranquil underground city.

Aping walked up the corridor, the faint creaking of the escalator due to lack of maintenance being the only noise in this quiet place. Through the bay windows on both sides, he could clearly see the numerous residential units arranged like a honeycomb. In a daze, he seemed to be able to hear the echoes of bustling voices again.

Fifteen years ago, when Earth was passing Jupiter and three astronomical units (450 million kilometers) from Saturn, a rebellion erupted. A small group, believing decades-old intelligence about a solar helium flash to be a century-old hoax, immediately gained the support of the majority. Whether the reasons were folly or simply weariness with the harsh, rationed life of living on a planet is unknown. But the final outcome was the same: a minority incited the majority, and the majority then launched a rebellion against the World Government.

The rebel offensive was swift. Since implementing the Wandering Earth project—establishing ten thousand planetary engines on the back of the Earth to propel it off its original orbit—the World Government's military had never turned its guns on the people. Their mission was to clear obstacles, eliminate troublesome asteroids and space debris, and maintain basic order. And when what they had always protected turned against them, their only choice was to silently endure.

War did break out, but it ended quickly. When the rebels stormed the core cockpit, the guards responsible for its defense even chose to surrender without a fight. They allowed those lunatics, or perhaps fanatics, to storm the innermost cockpit and wipe out some of the world's best scientists, planetary pilots, and administrators. And to protect the integrity of the core cockpit, the World Government did not mount a final resistance.

Naturally, the rebels had no intention of letting any of the former high-ranking officials live. They removed the nuclear batteries from the protective suits of the leaders. Then they drove everyone to the surface where the temperature was below minus one hundred degrees Celsius, leaving them to slowly and painfully die of hypothermia. Meanwhile, the perpetrators stood in safe, warm observation rooms, singing as they watched this group of the world's finest talents turn into permanent ice sculptures.

The best people are all dead, while a bunch of useless trash and unrecyclables have seized the power of discourse. When the distant sun, amidst the rebels' songs, suddenly transforms from a bright little point into a dim red giant that engulfs Mars, no matter how much the rebels and those who surrendered without a fight regret or weep, those who have been frozen into ice sculptures can never be brought back.

Waste is waste, garbage is garbage, and the foolish majority are destined to suffer the consequences.

After the sun died, a fool once said, 'At least some people are still alive.' He thought there was still hope as long as the majority of the remaining people were alive. But in reality, hope had dwindled to a mere glimmer after the rebels killed all the high-ranking government officials and shut down all the planetary engines, including the core propulsion engine.

Soon, the foolish majority completely extinguished this glimmer of hope.

With a 'ding,' the escalator came to a stop. Ah Ping stepped off the escalator, and the hundreds of cool-colored lights he had passed automatically went out for the last time. He tilted his head slightly, skillfully navigated a series of intricate paths, and then returned to his own apartment in the honeycomb-like residential complex.

It was quiet all around, so quiet that even the wind seemed to have stopped blowing. Perhaps the exhaust system had also stopped working. But that was irrelevant to A-Ping. He hadn't come here to breathe that stuffy air that had been circulating countless times—although three hours earlier, when his last companion, A-Yu, chose to jump into the decomposition pool in the recycling room, he was the only one left to enjoy the air in this entire underground city, he still felt that there was a stench of decay and ruin everywhere.

We must fulfill our final promise.

Aping pressed the 'meal delivery' button in the room and then quietly waited for the conveyor belt to deliver his breakfast to the appropriate place.

He exhaled softly, prepared his spoon, and his gaze inadvertently drifted to a portrait hanging on the wall. The portrait depicted a woman whose outline was barely discernible. The reason it was now only a silhouette was because, for the past few years, people had spat on it and thrown darts at it daily.

The woman's name was Cheng Xin, the second president of the Earth government elected after the rebels seized power. Of course, she was also the last. The foolish majority elected her, entrusted her with power, and ultimately, under her rule, extinguished the last glimmer of light in the world.

What did she do? Actually, she didn't do anything.

She simply abolished the strict rationing system inherited from her predecessor, who had abdicated due to illness. Then she distributed all the supplies in the warehouse fairly to everyone in need. Yes, everyone. Everyone received fair treatment. And the reason was simply that she saw a starving, orphaned child during a speech, and was moved by compassion.

This is what she said at the time—

'If we can't even guarantee that children have enough to eat, what is the point of our government? Every suffering person deserves fair treatment; we must never allow tragedy to happen before our eyes.'

After she finished speaking, the crowd chanted her name and cheered. Everyone believed that entrusting power to such a compassionate woman was the right decision they could have made. Even if one or two dissenting voices emerged from the crowd, they were quickly drowned out.

This sounds like a good policy, or at least it sounds like one.

If she had simply increased the benefits for the poor, it wouldn't have amounted to much; it would have merely increased the burden on farmland and the recycling system, making resources seem somewhat scarce before the policy was reversed. However, she was unwilling to increase the workload of farmers and workers. Instead, she adopted a different approach to achieve equality.

She abolished the extra rations for all researchers and senior engineers, demanding that they be treated the same as everyone else. Whether a farmer, a worker, an unemployed person, or a child still in school, their rations, under her will, were equal to those of the world's top scholars and experts. However, only the rations were equalized, not the workload. Thus, five months after her new policy was implemented, those highly educated individuals who had survived the collapse of the legitimate world government suffered heavy casualties.

They didn't starve to death; they were beaten to death. Cheng Xin demanded that these highly skilled individuals donate their accumulated supplies to those who weren't working or were simply lazy and idle. These former elites, of course, resisted. So those who had benefited from her policies swarmed in and robbed these intellectually capable elites of everything. Some died in the resistance, while others, lucky enough to survive, dragged their wounded bodies to work the next day.

Thus, in the third year of Cheng Xin's rule, the second rebellion, organized by intellectuals, broke out. The war lasted six years before finally ending in victory for Cheng Xin and her majority supporters. All the rebels received the same treatment as the legitimate world government—'forced to wear protective suits with their nuclear batteries removed and go to the surface to await their deaths'.

A satisfying ending. At least for the victors.

But after that, who will be able to start the main engine? Who will be able to maintain the damaged large machinery? Who will be able to get this planet, which is already floating in space, moving again?

No one possessed this ability, or rather, everyone who did was dead. The world's most advanced, and only, strong artificial intelligence had long since perished in the Jupiter Gravity Well event, turning to space dust along with the Navigator space station. And the remaining victors couldn't even find the operating manuals for the main control engine in the burned-out library.

Perhaps they could take their time to figure it out, but that would take time. However, dwindling resources and energy didn't give the survivors enough time. The remaining survivors could barely keep the active planetary engines from shutting down. And for those that had already shut down, no one could rebuild an ignition system.

Two years ago, there were 4,700 planetary engines in operation worldwide.

A year ago, that number was reduced to five hundred.

Six months ago, at thirty.

One month ago, seven.

Five days ago, number two.

And this is the last planetary engine still in operation for Aping. And he is the last person in the underground city attached to this engine.

With a 'click,' a partition opened, and a plate of synthetic food that A-Ping had been waiting for leisurely appeared on the table in front of him. The decomposition tank was the only valuable invention that emerged after the collapse of the rationing system. It could convert all recorded organic matter into edible synthetic food. And this was the main reason why A-Ping had been able to hold out until now.

He ate very quickly, basically swallowing everything without chewing. Although he no longer felt nauseous at the sight of such things as he did a few years ago, he still didn't particularly enjoy dealing with things whose raw materials were difficult to describe.

But there was no other way; after all, it was his comrade's last wish before he died. Having eaten this ration, everyone was one. And A-Ping, no longer just A-Ping, had something he wanted to do after the meal, something countless others also wanted to do.

He put on his protective suit and then shut off the nuclear battery. When the timer on the dial showed five minutes remaining, he boarded the elevator to the surface. As the elevator doors opened and a biting wind of minus 221 degrees Celsius rushed in, he felt an unexpected sense of peace.

Those people from fifteen years ago... that's probably how they died.

He stepped out of the elevator, and a tranquil world of intertwined blue and white came into view. The blue was solid oxygen, and the white was solid ice. When he looked up at the sky, what met his eyes was a dim sun the size of an orange against the dark sky.

The roar behind him faded with the approaching darkness, and the last planetary engine on Earth ceased operation. The cold seeped into his body through his protective suit. It hurt at first, but quickly subsided. He tried to take a few steps forward, but on the third step, he could no longer feel his feet.

Oh, so freezing to death isn't such a painful thing after all.

Ah Ping thought to himself, not only did he no longer feel cold, but he also felt a slight warmth in his chest and head. In a daze, he seemed to see a faint light flash by in the distance. He didn't pay attention, nor did he need to. Because a pre-programmed command had been triggered, his helmet suddenly opened under the control of a timed mechanism.

"Beijing time, six o'clock sharp." A soft female voice rang out from inside his protective suit. His body, frozen into dust, then withered and shattered under the vibration of the sound waves.

then.

September 5th, 2054, 6:00 AM.

The last living person on Earth passed away silently with the wind at dawn.

Section 3. Simple Response and Handling Plans

—Main Mission: Transport Earth to the Proxima Centauri system and ensure a stable ecosystem. Success rewards the entire Reincarnation Team with an A-rank side quest and 8000 reward points. Failure incurs no penalty.

After the teleportation ended, witnessing the desolate world of blue and white outside the God's protective shield, and the dim, orange sun of an unreasonable size in the distance, the members of the Central Continent Team exchanged bewildered glances and then fell into silence.

Xiao Honglu's prediction was correct; the teleportation did indeed occur after the original text ended. However, his prediction had a slight flaw: the human civilization of this world... might have very little left.

Alice reached out and gently touched the invisible edge within the protective shield of the main god. With her free hand, she made a gesture, casting a life-sustaining and warmth-preserving spell on the members of the team who had not yet reached the fourth or third tier limit. Her gaze, however, easily pierced through the shield, taking in numerous details in the outer area.

"The blue ice indicates that the oxygen has solidified. If this world still follows the general rules of physics, it means that the outer temperature is below -218 degrees Celsius. We are facing the sun, yet we do not see any plasma streams that would normally be emitted by any planetary engine in our field of vision. This can only prove that all planetary engines have been shut down, and the corresponding underground cities will also cease to function—unless the people of this world dig their bases directly into the asthenosphere and live off magma and geothermal energy, they should already be extinct."

"But in my knowledge, building a base in the asthenosphere is no easy task. If we could accomplish this level of engineering, there would be no need to shut down the planetary engines. Moreover, if the engines were shut down, what would become of human civilization wandering Earth? The sun, which has already entered the red giant phase, cannot provide a stable and sufficient amount of energy. Leaving Earth here would eventually turn this little rock into a completely frozen dead star."

She turned and glanced at her companions. The Supreme God hadn't assigned a single newcomer to this mission, indicating that the difficulty of this world was below the minimum standard for the Central Continent Team. Theoretically, this should be an easy and simple... but time-consuming mission. However, from another perspective, this might be considered the greatest reward of the mission.

"The Supreme God didn't set a time limit for completing the mission." Chu Xuan pushed up his glasses. "No time limit, mild punishment, and the distance from here to Proxima Centauri is 4.2 light-years. And if we want to take Earth there—whether we execute the original Wandering Earth plan or directly jump to the entire planet—it will take a considerable amount of time. Clearly, this is a trap, or rather a choice, set by the Supreme God in the main mission."

"【Transport to the Proxima Centauri Three-Star System】, the Supreme God mentioned this concept when issuing the mission. The deliberately emphasized phrase 'Three-Star System' in the sentence indicates that this world has already overlapped with the Trisolaran worldview. If we simply send this planet there, the time we spend will be minimized, and there will be no conflict with the Trisolarans there—they will not reject a habitable planet that, although frozen, has a fairly abundant reserve of various resources. There is even a high probability that they will cooperate with us to complete the second half of the mission and establish a stable ecosystem."

“But if we don’t simply bring a planet, but instead revive the civilization on that planet before taking them with us, then what awaits us is an interstellar war, right?” Zheng Zha, who had been squatting on the ground since the teleportation ended, reaching out to stroke the ground also separated by the God's shield, suddenly spoke up. “We have the ability to restart the civilization on this planet, just like we did not long ago in the Resident Evil world. Isn’t that right?”

Chu Xuan glanced at Alice, who nodded slightly.

"Yes, so these are two completely different routes."

"First, ignore the native civilization on this planet. We'll just fly over there. Since we don't need to consider the native civilization, we can use the simplest and most brutal method. Even cutting Earth into large pieces and installing warp drives from other planets in batches to jump over there, and then reassembling on the other side, is feasible. The consequence of this method is that we will basically not gain any benefits outside of the main storyline. However, the advantage is that we are unlikely to clash with the native forces of this world. Because we are a powerful force, it will be difficult for the native forces to confront us without sufficient benefits. If we take this route, we will stay in this world for no more than a year without suffering any damage."

"Second, we need to find a way to revive the planet's native civilization. Whether it's genetic reconstruction, summoning spirits, or any other method, it doesn't matter. We'll gain a lot of side quest rewards, but we'll also encounter a lot of enemies and astronomical problems. Because a planet inhabited by people can only be transported by safe and reliable means, it will slow down our progress and become a huge burden. The Trisolarans will inevitably become our enemies, and in the process of fighting, we are likely to provoke advanced civilizations in deep space. Taking this route, we may stay in this world for decades or even centuries. And in the battle with advanced civilizations, damage may be unavoidable."

"Is it possible to extend our stay in this world while choosing Route One?" Alice asked after Chu Xuan finished speaking. "At the same time, I can also try to revive Earth's civilization in a virtual world through a dimensional reduction. In this way, we can revive human civilization without having to clash with the native forces of this universe."

"The possibility is basically zero," Chu Xuan quickly replied. "I've studied the operating mechanism of the main god. In story worlds without a set return time, external threats replace the main god's time limit as the driving force for reincarnators to complete their tasks. The longer we stay in a world, the more likely we are to encounter accidents. Because we are, after all, outsiders, the world is destined to reject us from the beginning. And if we want to stay in a world long enough without being rejected, we have to accept the help of external forces."

"You should know very well, Alice. The current multiverse is a world where humanity is thriving, and the main gods have always been subtly biased towards humanity. If we want to stay here a little longer, we have to rely on the fortune of humanity, which is why choosing route two gives us the opportunity to stay here for a hundred years. In my judgment, the concept of 'humanity' in the multiverse doesn't seem to be open enough. Humans resurrected in the form of a virtual world... probably won't be considered human."

“…I see. What you said makes sense.” Alice nodded, and together with Chu Xuan, they turned their gaze to Zheng Zha. “What do you think we should choose, Captain?”

"Choose?" Zheng Zha lightly tapped the divine barrier beneath his feet, and a tangible ripple appeared at his fingertips. Through the frozen earth, he seemed to see countless tiny shadows wandering across the land, emitting silent and mournful screams.

“I won’t choose, because now is not the time.” Zheng Zha stood up and looked around. His gaze swept over his companions and also over the countless black peaks at the edge of the wasteland. He could clearly see every detail on the surface of the planetary engines that resembled mountains. It was easy to see that they had long been abandoned.

"I won't blindly favor the native civilization. Judging from the last part of the text, if they have already perished, it means they had their own way of dying. If there are still survivors among them, then whether they are still worth saving needs to be discussed. But regardless of whether they are or not, at present, the information we have is still too little. Although the data we have so far has already proven that Earth has become a dead star, there are still some limitations to observation with the naked eye."

“We need to gather more information and conduct a more detailed analysis. After all, although this world is not very difficult, Xiao Honglu, Margot Lloyd, and Chu Xuan, you have all pointed out the various risks and opportunities that may exist in this world. We are the Reincarnation Team, and taking risks is inevitable, but there is no need to take meaningless risks. So before we make a decision, we might as well make some arrangements that will not affect the final decision.”

He glanced at Chu Xuan and Alice again, his expression remaining impassive. Unsurprisingly, Chu Xuan remained calm. However, Alice, unusually, showed an approving and satisfied smile. Zheng Zha felt reassured and subtly raised his voice a degree or two.

"Based on our previous experience, the main god will initially send us to an area where we will not be interfered with by any external forces. Unless it is a team battle, or the native civilization becomes aware of the existence of the reincarnation team, we will be safe at the beginning. Therefore, based on this, I plan to make some arrangements."

"Chu Xuan, I want you to open the Tower of Babel world. In any case, the temperature of minus 220 degrees Celsius and an unexplored dead star are far too dangerous for reincarnators who have not reached the third tier or possess AA-level enhancements. Cheng Xiao, Luo Gandao, Zhang Heng, Ming Yanwei, you guys stay in the Tower of Babel world for a while. I have other tasks for you after the others' preliminary exploration results are available."

"Zhan Lan, Xiao Honglu, and Lingdian, you are responsible for protecting Chu Xuan and conducting reconnaissance outwards from our landing area. See if you can trigger a mission or find anything you deem valuable. The area I've designated for you is a circle with a radius of 500 kilometers starting from here. The area further outwards, from 500 kilometers to 1,000 kilometers, will be handled by Zhang Jie and Ba Wang."

"Norrege, I want you to go to the main control room of the Earth Engine. If it's operational, take control of it and build some engineering bunkers that you deem necessary. If it's broken, then please repair it as much as possible. At the same time, please try to find out the database there, or use the information magic you are familiar with to investigate. I want to know what exactly happened to human civilization in this world that led to this situation."

"Cirin, your mission is to survey the outer reaches of this planet. If you find any spaceships belonging to the native civilization, whether wreckage or traces of a jump, please notify us immediately. Of course, you can also track them yourself if you feel it's safe. But don't jump too far."

"Zhao Yingkong and Zhao Zhuikong, you two are in charge of scouting underground. Get a copy of the data on the Earth's tectonic plates and the mantle. If there are any survivors of native civilizations, protect them first. If not, try to explore the weak points and mass distribution in various underground areas. This will prepare us for any planetary dissection we may undertake later."

"Finally, it's me and Margot Royd. I'll go north, and you'll go south. We'll each be responsible for exploring the northern and southern hemispheres of the Earth, excluding this one-thousand-kilometer circle we're currently on. If we encounter any problems, we'll inform each other through the communication network first, and then decide whether to place or resolve them as appropriate. In short, we need to figure out everything that's happening on this planet as quickly as possible before we can respond."

"These are the general arrangements I, as the team leader, have made. As for routine matters such as launching satellites and establishing communication networks, I won't go into details. If anyone has any objections, please raise them now, and we can make some adjustments before we depart."

He looked around, but didn't receive a single objection. Everyone watched him quietly, and their eyes showed that they had no objection to Zheng Zha's arrangement.

That's good, it's a good start.

The next moment, the Tower of Babel world in Chu Xuan's hand unfolded, engulfing him and several others. At the same time, the outer protective shield of the main god also quietly disappeared. The air inside the shield was instantly sucked out, and then the extreme cold solidified the nitrogen and oxygen in the air.

The mission began, and everyone was ready. Those skilled in spatial manipulation vanished in a flash, while those who relied on physical strength burned a pale path through the sky with bursts of energy, quickly disappearing into the distance. In less than a second, only Xiao Honglu, Zhan Lan, and Lingdian remained standing. And after another second, only Zhan Lan and Xiao Honglu remained.