Chapter 278 An Unprecedented Sense of Crisis for All Humanity

Yellow District, Xueshi Town.

Before dawn, the rain had already been falling for half the night. The raindrops tapped softly on the steel roof of the black market square. Usually at this time, the air would be thick with the sounds of scrambling for goods, bidding wars, and haggling over prices. But today, an unusual silence hung over the entire square.

Everyone was looking up at the screen.

The high-level demon core acquisition order, the offensive magic weapon bounty list, and the relic team recruitment notice that were always displayed at the top of that huge holographic electronic screen were all removed overnight.

Instead, a new set of laws was introduced.

The signature was no longer just from the Green Zone Council, nor just from the Yellow Zone Hunters Association, but from a new name that no one had ever seen before—

[The Alliance Wartime Coordination Office.]

Article 1:

Effective immediately, all unnecessary attrition warfare outside the perimeter of defensive lines is suspended.

Article :

[Wartime resources will be allocated uniformly based on position, risk, and contribution, and priority will no longer be given according to the original yellow and green zone status.]

Below the third item is a series of new maximum bounties:

[We will prioritize acquiring any fragments, diagrams, and secret techniques related to city-protecting barriers, stabilizing ley lines, concealing auras, psionic shields, and ancient defensive formations.]

[Anyone skilled in civil engineering, array laying, psionic circuit maintenance, or battlefield medical evacuation should immediately report to their respective city defense zones.]

Those who participate in city defense projects will enjoy priority in medicine rations, family shelter eligibility, and wartime residency guarantees.

At the bottom of the screen, someone in the crowd finally muttered a curse.

"This is fucking changed..."

Old Ding stood at the front, a cigarette dangling from his mouth, but his eyes never left the screen.

Behind him, a young hunter couldn't help but ask, "Brother Ding, are we still taking on frontline clearing jobs?"

Old Ding flicked the cigarette butt into the rain, and it sizzled out on the ground.

"I'm not answering."

"At least for now, I won't take on those jobs where I risk my life to fight off beast tides and end up guarding mines and spirit veins for someone else."

He turned around and looked at his tattered squad.

"Sell all the armor-piercing rounds, high-explosive mines, and short-explosive agents on the vehicle. Exchange them for as many riot shields, concealment talismans, medkits, and small protective arrays as you can."

"The next battle won't be about who kills the most, but who lives the longest."

No one objected.

Because of this night, it wasn't just the rankings that changed.

The entire climate of Bloodstone Town was abruptly reversed. What used to be the most expensive items were explosive cultivation techniques, offensive magical artifacts, and demon blood enhancement injections; now, the most sought-after items have become protective array plates, sealing fragments, earth vein concealment techniques, prescriptions for stabilizing pseudo-spiritual roots, and anything that can help people survive a little longer during the catastrophe.

Even logistics jobs that are usually disliked for being "slow to make money and not very effective" have seen their prices rise accordingly.

Those who could repair formations, lay cables, rescue people, and build foundations for refuge layers all became highly sought-after overnight.

Bloodstone Town is just a microcosm.

The real change is happening simultaneously across the entire wasteland, the entire Alliance, all the cities, and the defenses.

Kyoto Alliance, the first fortress city.

At 7:00 a.m., the Supreme Council and the War Coordination Agency jointly issued a new military control order.

Above the city, the continuous rolling broadcasts are no longer about aristocratic auctions, spiritual competitions, and celebrity endorsements, but rather a series of cold, direct orders.

[The First Fortress City has entered a semi-wartime state.]

All non-essential, high-energy-consuming entertainment facilities are closed.

Industrial zones three through seven have shifted production to shield components, emergency array panels, military-grade exterior armor, and inhibitors.

The city-wide expansion of underground refuge areas and a second defensive perimeter has begun.

The central floating plaza, once used for auctions and banquets for powerful families, was demolished overnight and turned into an empty space. Dozens of heavy engineering mechs worked day and night, lifting and lowering giant stone pillars engraved with array patterns, driving them directly into the depths of the city's earth veins.

This is the new city defense base.

The holographic canopy and the GG sign on the skyline were also dismantled piece by piece. In their place were high-frequency jamming towers, spiritual pressure monitoring pillars, anti-air psionic turrets, and barrier amplification nodes.

The school is changing too.

Secondary schools and universities temporarily added courses such as first aid, evacuation, basic shield activation, and alien contamination identification. Courses that were originally considered unpopular, such as array maintenance, spiritual plant cultivation, and logistics operations, saw an increase in enrollment several times over.

Hospitals, pharmaceutical companies, and prosthetic body manufacturers were all pulled into a wartime mode. Life extension projects, high-end customization, and luxury bio-optimization were all suspended, and priority was given to supplying only hemostasis, pollution control, repair, and basic external devices.

The entire city felt as if it had been twisted hard.

Many things were not announced loudly.

But everyone sensed that order was beginning to change.

What truly ignited this change was a closed-door meeting at noon.

Inside the council chamber, the heads of several powerful families looked grim. Before them lay not a distribution table of benefits, but a new "Wartime Coordination and Allocation Regulations."

The first article of the regulations is extremely harsh:

[Critical wartime supplies, techniques, medicines, defensive artifacts, and shelter quotas will all be allocated according to war zone, position, risk, and contribution, and will no longer be sorted according to the original yellow and green zone status.]

"This is going to shake things up from the root."

A powerful family head stared at the regulations, his face extremely gloomy.

Wang Mingyuan sat opposite him, his eyes bloodshot from exhaustion.

"If the root is not touched, the person will die."

He threw a newly generated projection map on the table. The map was densely covered with defensive gaps, array weaknesses, and high-risk areas in major cities.

"If you still want to stick to the old rules of working your lives in the yellow zone, monopolizing the green zone, and giving priority to powerful families, then keep doing it. Wait until the main tide really comes down, and see whether your direct descendants die first or the group of people outside who built the city and constructed the formations for you."

No one said a word.

Because this time, they all knew in their hearts that things were no longer just a power struggle like before.

The ten-year period was something that was mentioned a long time ago.

The whole world knows it.

Knowing something is one thing, but actually being proven right by the photos taken at Nantianmen and the warnings in the three major historical sites is another.

Looking at the number "ten years" now, it is no longer a vague prediction.

Instead, it's a death line that's slowly approaching.

Ultimately, the regulation was shelved.

It's not because they suddenly had a change of heart.

Rather, it's because if things don't change, it's uncertain whether the term "clan aristocracy" will even remain in ten years.

At the same time, the boundary between the yellow and green zones, which had already begun to loosen, was finally breached for the first time.

The Ninth Supply Station on the Jianghuai Defense Line.

A long line of transport vehicles stood in the rain, loading and unloading a new batch of supplies.

In the past, these boxes would have clear quota markings: "Exclusively for Yellow Zone".

But now, all the boxes have been uniformly labeled with new logos.

[Wartime command and control.]

The crates were pushed off truck after truck and sent to temporary front-line positions, city fortifications, hunter guilds, medical stations, and construction teams.

A formation worker from the Yellow Zone squatted under the awning, his fingers trembling as he looked at the mid-level protective formation core in his hand, a core he had never had the chance to touch before.

"Did they really send it to us?"

A young monk from the Green Zone was helping him check the blueprints. Hearing this, he looked up at him, said nothing, and simply pushed another box of materials over.

"Don't just stand there, the third stronghold needs to be completed by tonight."

Neither of them spoke again.

But those few seconds were clearer than any slogan.

The old order is not completely dead.

But it has already begun to make way for something new.

The reaction in the yellow zone is much more direct than that in the green zone.

That evening, the large screen at the Bloodstone Town black market was updated again.

At the top of the new bounty list, there was something unexpected:

[Ongoing Recruitment: Teams of hunters with experience in exploring ruins will be assigned to the city's outer perimeter exploration team.]

[Higher priority than private heritage teams.]

[Battle merits, potions, protection status, and family protection eligibility are calculated simultaneously.]

In the past, many hunters in the yellow zone lived like dogs.

Today you're working for a powerful family, tomorrow you're guarding a mine for a wealthy tycoon; when you die, you're just a name on the black market screen that gets scrolled past.

But now, for the first time, someone has laid the most direct things out in the open.

I'm not working for anyone.

Instead, they risked their lives to secure a viable path to survival for themselves and their families.

As a result, many teams in the black market began to change their choices.

Some people stopped focusing on the most lucrative ruins and instead took on dangerous but stable exploration and escort missions; some sold their most treasured offensive magical artifacts and traded them for armor; and many more began desperately searching for those previously overlooked fragments of scrolls, earth magic, sealing techniques, and small array plates.

Because at this point, everyone can see it.

Strength is certainly important.

Before the bigger wave comes down, being able to hold out a little longer might be more valuable than killing anyone.

Meanwhile, an unusual quiet began to appear over the other side of the Ten Thousand Mountains.

Outside the defense line of Shu, no significant beast tides have appeared for several days.

Those high-level demonic beasts that used to frequently attack human barriers, gnaw at defenses, and force both sides to bleed seemed to have all retreated overnight.

The military initially thought it was a trap.

However, after the intelligence from all the lines of communication was gathered, it was discovered that it wasn't just humans who were retrieving the equipment.

The demon race is also collecting them.

They neither came to negotiate nor made any overtures.

They simply stopped those meaningless expenditures and began to retreat towards their ancestral lands, demon veins, and old cave dwellings deep in the mountains.

They've obviously started looking for things too.

As for what they found or understood, humanity does not yet know.

But this alone is enough to explain a lot.

When an even greater death looms over them, the humans and demons who were originally locked in combat will instinctively pull back.

It's not because of understanding.

It's not because of reconciliation.

It's just that if we keep fighting amongst ourselves, no one will live to see that day.

Above the nine heavens, the Heavenly Palace atop the clouds.

Gu Qing stood before the white jade railing, quietly watching the planet below that had begun to change course.

The city is roaring.

The factory is switching to other products.

The hunter is changing clothes.

Schools, hospitals, black markets, parliament, and the military are all being pushed forward by that ten-year deadline.

And that originally chaotic, turbid faith, which was more dependent on greed and desire, gradually settled down in the process.

Something harder started to appear inside.

live.

Gu Qing stared for a long time, her expression remaining calm.

This planet has finally begun to truly enter a state of war preparedness.

It's not for any particular powerful family, not for any particular mine, not for whoever gets to take advantage of the deepest part of the ruins first.

Rather, it was to preserve as many bones as possible before that much bigger thing truly came crashing down.

The wind blew from above, ruffling the hem of his clothes.

Gu Qing slightly raised his gaze, looking at the demonic energy that was beginning to gather deeper into the Ten Thousand Mountains, and his eyes finally paused for a moment.

"The person moved first."

"It's their turn too."