Chapter 444 Clearing the clouds and revealing the sun
“Exceeding the limit?!” Yang Qi’s eyes widened instantly.

As the person in charge of the entire plan, she knew very well what this meant.

“It’s going to explode, it’s really going to explode…” Song Yarong muttered to herself, and then as if she remembered something, she ran to the outside of the bridge in two steps, took out her mobile phone, turned on the camera, and aimed it at Chimera 17 in the distance.

“I’m going to die, I’m going to die, I’m going to die, I’m going to die…” Song Yarong muttered to herself as she turned on the live broadcast. “I’m going to die anyway, so I’m going to be the first person in the world to live broadcast a nuclear explosion at close range!”

At this moment, the cocoon shell on the surface of Chimera No. 17 has completely collapsed, and the whole body is emitting a strong light. From a distance, it looks like the sun has fallen to the ground. Even the sky of Tianfu City, which has not seen the sun for several months, is illuminated by this strong light.

……

Lao Yu is a taxi driver in Tianfu City. Because of the Eternal Night, he has been unemployed for several months. The only good news is that the landlord of his rental house lost contact shortly after the Eternal Night came. He does not have to worry about being kicked out by the landlord for overdue rent.

As far as Lao Yu knows, the landlord owns more than a dozen houses in this old neighborhood, but she does not live here.

The landlord’s family bought a luxurious villa in the suburbs west of the city. After the “earthquake” broke out in the west of the city some time ago, Lao Yu could no longer get through to the landlord on the phone.

Old Yu also thought that if the landlord died, he might be able to stay in this house forever… Although this is just a shabby house of more than 40 square meters located in the old city, with Old Yu’s income level, he would probably have to rent it out for more than ten years to be able to buy such a house.

Thinking about it this way, it seems that the arrival of eternal night is not entirely a bad thing.

Old Yu felt his pockets and found the shrunken cigarette box empty – he had smoked the last cigarette yesterday. He climbed down from the messy bed helplessly, walked to the kitchen in his slippers, and began to search through a pile of sacks with “disaster relief supplies” printed on them.

He remembered that there seemed to be two cans of luncheon meat among the supplies delivered by the neighborhood committee yesterday. He should have exchanged these for a pack of cigarettes from the old man who ran the tobacco, alcohol and grocery store upstairs… That guy had a lot of stock. Old Yu saw with his own eyes that when the whole city was under martial law, he went back and forth from his store to take several large bags of things and hid them at home. They were all those expensive cigarettes and alcohol.

During this period, almost everyone in this neighborhood had experienced hunger, but this old man not only did not starve, but he even gained a lot of weight in two months.

“Hey, I found it.” Under several bags of instant noodles and compressed biscuits, Lao Yu took out two tin cans with pitted surfaces.

Nearly half of the trademark and information on the can have been worn off, and one can only barely tell that it is the “Gold Medal Lunch Meat Can” produced by XX Meat Processing Factory.

Old Yu turned the can over, took a look at the expiration date, and couldn’t help but swear.

“Damn, this can of food has been expired for half a year…”

Although canned food can still be eaten half a year after its expiration, the old man might use this as an excuse to bargain and cut a pack of cigarettes into half a pack… The old man is shrewd and stingy, so he is definitely capable of doing such a thing.

“I hope that old man doesn’t notice the expiration date… With his presbyopia, if he doesn’t look carefully… Eh?”

Old Yu suddenly found that the dark kitchen seemed to be brighter… He clearly remembered that the kitchen light had broken down a month ago…

He turned off the mobile phone that he was using as a flashlight, and was shocked to find that the light was coming in from the window.

“What’s going on? Is that a Sheriff’s patrol car? Why the hell is it so bright?”

Old Yu pushed open the window with some confusion and stuck his head out.

He was stunned.

“It’s…it’s…it’s dawn?”

……

The brightness of Chimera No. 17 was still increasing, and Song Yarong could no longer open her eyes. Fortunately, her electronic prosthetic eye had a built-in light filtering function, allowing her to “see all” the changes of Chimera No. 17.

Yang Qi also walked onto the deck. She looked back at Tianfu City behind her… At this time, the darkness that had shrouded Tianfu City for several months had been completely dispelled by this strong light, and the whole city seemed to have returned to daytime.

“I’m afraid many people are about to cry with excitement…” Yang Qi thought to himself, “They thought that the eternal night had finally dissipated, but who could have guessed that this was a ray of light that symbolized destruction…”

Yang Qi let out a long sigh and sat down cross-legged on the ground. Even with her eyes closed, she could feel the strong light penetrating her thin eyelids and burning her retina.

“That’s good… at least, when their lives come to an end, their hearts are filled with joy and hope…” Yang Qi touched the special bracelet on her wrist – this is a symbol of her being the direct person in charge of Sun Hang, “Maybe Sun Hang… can survive?”

Can he survive? Yang Qi had no idea.

If Chimera No. 17 fully explodes, then the position where he is located will be the core of the explosion… No matter how strong Sun Hang is, he can’t withstand that level of impact, right?

Yang Qi suddenly felt a little regretful. She felt that she seemed to have something to say to Sun Hang, but now, she no longer had the chance to tell Sun Hang these words.

She took out her cell phone and wanted to record a voice message, but she soon realized that her cell phone would be reduced to ashes along with herself as Chimera 17 exploded. Unless she uploaded the recordings to the Internet and saved them, they would not be saved.

But Yang Qi didn’t want other people to hear these recordings. She only wanted one person to hear them.

“Forget it.” Yang Qi put down the phone resignedly.

But at this moment, the strong light released by Chimera No. 17 suddenly converged.

The cocoon, which was originally as bright as the sun, lost all its light in just a few seconds and turned into a huge rock standing in the wilderness.

“What’s going on?” Song Yarong was stunned. “The energy is exhausted? This is impossible, right?”

Yang Qi stood up quickly and opened her eyes.

The residual images of the strong light left on her retina were still shaking, but she could still see it clearly – Chimera No. 17 was indeed “extinguished”.

“The energy reaction has not disappeared!” The technician responsible for monitoring the status of Chimera 17 was still doing his duty until the last moment. “The energy reaction inside Chimera 17 has not only not disappeared, but it is getting stronger! The volume of Chimera 17 is shrinking rapidly! The density of the cocoon has increased significantly!”

“It’s still getting stronger?” Song Yarong’s expression froze. “I thought… I thought…”

“Detection shows that Chimera 17 seems to have experienced a collapse reaction!”

“Do you know the process of a supernova explosion?” Yang Qi said slowly, “When a star is nearing the end of its life cycle, it will use up all of its fuel, and its core will collapse. Then, it will eject all of its outer matter, turning it into the most gorgeous firework in the dark universe… And Chimera 17 is probably in the process of this collapse…”

“We still can’t escape death…” Song Yarong murmured.

……

Tianfu City, an old neighborhood.

The bright sky was once again covered by darkness, and the people who were cheering on the street suddenly became quiet. Everyone looked up at the sky, and Lao Yu was no exception.

“Damn it, what the hell is going on…” Old Yu took two deep breaths, cursed, and subconsciously reached out to take out a cigarette, but he only touched a flattened empty cigarette box.

“Eternal…Eternal Night is back again?” Someone knelt on the ground in frustration.

“It was bright just now! It was bright!” Someone shouted hysterically, grabbing the person next to him and shaking him vigorously, “You saw it too, right? You all saw it, right? It was bright just now, right? Everyone saw it!”

“Why oh why…when will this…when will this day end?!”

“I can’t stand it anymore! I can’t stand not seeing the sun anymore!” When people have been suppressed in a desperate environment for a long time, they occasionally see a glimmer of hope, but this glimmer of hope is quickly extinguished. The despair that comes again is often heavier and more suffocating than the initial despair.

This drastic emotional gap almost makes people collapse.

……

Aerial combat platform, “Garuda”.

“How much time do we have left?” Song Yarong asked Yang Qi.

“I don’t know.” Yang Qi shook her head. “Maybe a few minutes, maybe a few seconds, maybe immediately.”

“It’s fun to work with you.” Song Yarong extended her hand to Yang Qi. “If there is a next life, remember not to stay up so late. If I don’t take care of you, you will really die suddenly.”

“If I really died suddenly, I wouldn’t have to feel this kind of despair and powerlessness now.” Yang Qi said with a miserable smile.

“Tsk, this is a huge firework that ordinary people will never see in their lifetime. In the words of Mikina Fukada, it’s worth the price of admission even if it means death!”

“Is your phone still live streaming?”

“The live broadcast room has been closed.” Song Yarong said, “But there are still more than 100,000 people who saw the ‘little sun’ just now… Logically, the Tianshu Tower should have sent me a disciplinary notice by now, but I didn’t receive any news… I guess in their eyes, I’m already a dead person, right?”

“Do you have any regrets?”

“I have too many regrets,” Song Yarong said. “If Chimera 17 could allow me to express all my regrets before bombing, I think I could buy enough time for the people of the city to evacuate.”

“pity……”

Before Yang Qi could finish her words, a strong airflow suddenly swept over. Song Yarong was quick-witted and grabbed Yang Qi’s arm. At the same time, several hyphae shot into the deck, nailing her body to it.

A logistics staff member nearby was not so lucky and was blown away by the air flow – fortunately, he was not far from the edge of the deck and was still wearing a helmet, so he ended up just crashing heavily into the mount of a close-in defense gun.

“Look—Chimera!” Song Yarong shouted loudly.

Yang Qi opened her eyes and stared at Chimera No. 17 in the distance.

A crack appeared on the top of the giant cocoon, and a beam of light countless times stronger than before shot straight into the sky, piercing through the thick clouds like a sharp sword!
The light is spreading above the clouds, and the eternal night is dissipating bit by bit.

The clouds are gone and the rain is clear, and the color is bright.

Both Song Yarong and Yang Qi were stunned—not just them, but everyone who was paying attention to the battlefield was stunned.

Chimera No. 17 did not destroy Tianfu City, but instead blasted all the energy that had been compressed countless times towards Eternal Night!

Its daybreak.

This time, the sky really brightened.

……

Tianfu City, old neighborhood.

People on the street looked at the sky which was brightening again, and no one dared to speak.

They were afraid that any sound they made would cause the sky to change back to its original state.

Everyone held their breath at the same time.

Old Yu counted the time silently in his heart: “One second, two seconds… ten seconds… half a minute… one minute…”

“This… is this true this time?” a little fat man couldn’t help but speak out.

“Shut up!” Old Yu glared at him fiercely, “We are not blind!”

“Five minutes, five minutes already…” a young man said in a trembling voice, “Does anyone remember how long it lasted the last time it was daybreak?”

“It seems…it seems like only a few dozen seconds…” a middle-aged woman continued.

The man who had fallen to the ground earlier looked up at the clear sky, tears streaming down his face silently.

Old Yu sniffed hard. He felt his nose a little sore, and his eyes seemed a little sore as well.

“Damn it… it must be because I don’t have cigarettes…” Old Yu muttered in a low voice, “Who has cigarettes? Which big brother has cigarettes that can lend me a puff?”

“Here!” The old man who ran the tobacco, alcohol and grocery store threw a bag of snacks over.

Old Yu caught the cigarette in a hurry, tore open the package with trembling fingers, took out a cigarette from it and put it in his mouth… He didn’t even light it, just held the cigarette in his mouth and looked up at the sky.

“It’s been a long time since I last saw such a sky.” The old man came closer, “It feels like a century has passed.”

“I feel like the last time I saw the sun…” Old Yu said vaguely, “It was in my previous life…”

……

……

Aerial combat platform, “Garuda”.

“Report! The memetic reaction of Eternal Night has disappeared! Daylight has returned to the entire Shuzhou area!”

“Chimera Seventeen’s memetic response is rapidly weakening!”

……

“Yang Qi, why do I feel like I’m dreaming?” Song Yarong said, “Chimera No. 17, whom I regard as a great enemy… helped us to kill the Eternal Night that has enveloped Shuzhou for several months? Did the two monsters die together?”

Yang Qi stared blankly at the giant cocoon in the distance without saying anything.

“Yang Qi, can you slap me? Use some force. I really feel like I’m dreaming.”

“Pa!” A loud slap was heard, but Yang Qi slapped himself in the face.

“Hey…it hurts.”

(End of this chapter)