Apocalypse Forecast-Chapter 629 - 524 Cleanup_1
When the first syllable struck, a piercing, shrill noise suddenly exploded by his ear.
Then, everything in front of him vanished as if it were an illusion.
This included the frozen blood flowing from his mouth and nose, the dead ash covering his skin, and the abnormally twisted features—everything disappeared under the slash of that one sword.
The long, nightmarish haze finally ended.
Huai Shi remained seated, motionless, unchanged, as if everything he had experienced was just a fleeting dream.
Only on the screen directly in front of him, a straight crack silently emerged. Then, it neatly collapsed to both sides.
A sound of shattering followed.
Huai Shi finally broke into a sweat, unable to suppress violent gasps for air.
When he lifted his eyes, he saw Raymond standing at the ready, along with Andrea behind him—she had raised her hand, her fingertips wrapped in a faint warmth, teeth clenched, aiming at Huai Shi’s head.
He had been in a stupor for an entire hour.
He had been immobile, like a petrified stone, showing no reaction. Now that he finally showed signs of life, his colleagues were frightened—afraid that the man before them was no longer the Huai Shi they once knew.
"I swear—"
Huai Shi decisively opened his mouth and recited the oath of the Astronomical Society in their presence. Then, he took out the Astronomical Society’s Card and infused it with Source Substance.
A subtle golden glow rose from the metal emblem on the Card’s cover.
Verification complete.
If there was anything in this world that absolutely couldn’t be forged, it was the Astronomical Society’s identification, cross-verified simultaneously by three major seals.
Perhaps this was the biggest perk of being a lackey for the Astronomical Society—at least there’s no need to worry about being impersonated by something else.
"Mother of God, that scared me to death." Raymond discarded his Shackles and took a long breath.
Andrea wiped the sweat from her forehead and returned to her chair. "What on earth happened?"
After Huai Shi described the scene he had nearly hallucinated, Andrea and Raymond fell silent. They exchanged a glance, their expressions quickly turning grim.
"What’s wrong?"
"...The person you saw should be Condra Instructor," Andrea said dryly. "To my knowledge, he’s the manager of this temporary station."
Her expression darkened. "I was going to introduce you two, but it seems there’s no need now."
Huai Shi scratched his face. "It seems that Condra Instructor is quite welcoming to his new colleague." Where his hand had been, a residual itch and a hint of pain from the illusion lingered. He felt as if there were scales still on his face, but in reality, it was just a psychological aftereffect of what had just occurred.
Raymond silently replaced the monitor and, looking at the station outside that remained unchanged, suddenly asked, "Shall we keep waiting?"
"..."
Andrea fell silent for a while before speaking, "Wait."
Having said that, she stood up and headed to the rear cargo hold. "I’ll go check on the students, hope they’re all right."
Huai Shi shut his eyes and then quickly reopened them, his expression turning odd.
"That won’t be necessary," he coughed awkwardly. "They’ve already started playing the King’s Game... um, quite lively indeed."
The whole of the cargo truck, inside and out, was under the surveillance of his Legion.
And as the long wait dragged on and the students grew increasingly restless, the ever-prepared and notorious Little Nineteen took advantage of the edgy mood, smiling as he pulled out a deck of cards.
He flipped through the little notebook in his mind, prepared to jot down every classmate’s weak points and secrets...
Regardless, his actions considerably lightened the atmosphere, and everyone seemed quite happy—except for the few unlucky souls tortured by Truth or Dare.
He’d have to get Yuan Yuan to give Nineteen a good thrashing later.
They needed to teach that guy a lesson...
Meanwhile, he saw in the monitor—the sliver of sunlight falling through the crack in the sunshade quickly dimming and shifting.
He stood up involuntarily to look closer.
Time seemed to speed up.
In just a moment, the swift passage of time turned brilliance to decline, casting the dim glow of dusk.
Dusk had arrived.
At the same time, the whole silent world seemed to come alive.
The dead silence vanished.
Outside the station, rustling noises began, followed by a bellow in the distance. An enormous shadow spread its wings, sweeping over the sunshade above.
The decay and eeriness that pervaded every inch of the air rapidly receded, as if the whole world was being reborn atop this pockmarked ruin.
Even in the gaps of the platform outside the windows, several bugs the size of thumbs crawled out from the ground, spreading their wings and flying aimlessly around inside the station.
Huai Shi heard, from distant skies, the faint roar of propellers turning.
"This is Müller, August Müller. We received your signal, Tuna calling, please respond—repeat, this is August Müller, Tuna calling, please respond—"
A voice finally came through the cockpit’s intercom, amid bursts of static and rustling.
Only now did Huai Shi realize that the train he was on was called Tuna...
Soon, after the signal was confirmed and verified, Raymond responded, and a figure rappelled down, landing on the ground.
Then, a huge iron box followed.
The newcomer, draped in a heavy black garb that resembled protective gear, dragged the iron box straight into the station and, upon arrival, handed each of the three teachers an umbrella...
Yes, indeed, umbrellas.
It would be ridiculous to think of them as anything else.
"Take them for now; we’ll explain on the way." August was swift. After glancing at the obstructive sunshade above, he pulled out his walkie-talkie and said a few words. Accompanied by a roar, the massive sunshade crumbled and fell apart.
With countless steel tubes and support frames dropping, Huai Shi and the others finally caught a glimpse of the entire Town of Dusk’s sky.
A swath of orange-yellow.
It was as if someone had fashioned a cardboard shell, painted it uniformly, and then placed it directly overhead—utterly devoid of variation, its rigidity unsettling.
Amidst the hurricane, a massive ornithopter beat its sixteen wings, lowered its altitude, and dangled dozens of ropes. Other workers quickly completed the installation, securing it to the train.
"Take everything, take it all!" August urged loudly. "Not even a piece of iron should be left behind, and then get ready to destroy the platform."
"We have already seen Condra—" Andrea abruptly spoke up.
August started, then turned back in astonishment. His gaze swept over them, uncomprehending.
It was as if he was asking, how are you still alive?
Raymond and Andrea pointed towards Huai Shi.
Huai Shi shrugged.
"What on earth is going on here?" Andrea asked. "Why did Condra turn into that, and why is there not a single guard at the station? Where is the Iron Crystal Throne?"
"I have to say you’ve arrived too early." August’s expression grew complex. "As of now, aside from the Iron Crystal Throne, we no longer have any manpower maintaining the station—you have already seen Condra, right? Wandering outside the Iron Crystal Throne beyond Dusk hours will turn him into that ghostly figure... Time is pressing, Professor Andrea, we must go, quickly, quickly. If we’re five minutes later, we’ll miss the rotation and will have to detour to another unmanned outpost for the night."
He deftly stuffed several ropes into their hands. After speaking into his walkie-talkie, the gigantic ornithopter in the sky began to ascend rapidly, pulling the Tuna train into the sky.
Along with them.
Only now, as they crossed outside the perimeter wall, did Huai Shi see the full vista of the Town of Dusk.
He finally understood what August meant by ’rotation’.
Indeed, the entire Town of Dusk was rotating.
It was as if someone had haphazardly piled up a chaotic mess of buildings and then abandoned them, letting time wreak havoc for centuries.
As far as the eye could see, half was a jumbled city, and the other half was completely collapsed ruins.
The layered buildings and ruins were piled atop one another, from the outside in, almost forming a small hill.
Yet, despite being deserted for an unknown length of time, vast structures beneath these buildings still operated slowly. Huge chimneys constantly spewed thick smoke, and if one listened closely, a deep rumbling could be felt from within the earth.
Where the ground had cracked open, slowly turning steel structures beneath were revealed. Huge gears churned the rivers, causing surging torrents to sweep through.
And, like colossal vents, other areas continuously spewed terrifying hot winds, kicking up dust storms and hurricanes in the arid desert.
The entire Hell seemed like an out-of-control machine. Having broken free from any restraint, it operated wildly on its own, causing ceaseless chain reactions of topographical changes.
From its periphery inward, the out-of-control city was divided into a dozen or so concentric rings of varying sizes, each rotating clockwise or counterclockwise at its own erratic pace.
They all revolved around a central tower, itself engulfed by countless massive mechanical structures.
The apex of the tower shone like a sun, casting the twilight glow of dusk and illuminating everything.
When Dusk came, the city, which was usually dead, suddenly came to life. From afar, one could vaguely see countless large and small Alien Species swiftly crawling through the ruins. Some, noticing the ornithopters flying overhead, raised their heads to let out a series of shrill cries.
"See? Dusk is the safest time here; it’s also when these damned things are most active. We must move faster, otherwise, if we’re a bit late, the position of the Iron Crystal Throne might be moved to the other side of the city."
Following August’s words, the giant ornithopter rose into the sky. Like a bird laying an egg, it dropped an iron sphere onto the spot they had just vacated, then rapidly ascended, riding the hurricane into the distance. 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝐰𝚎𝕓𝐧𝚘𝘃𝗲𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝕞
When the iron sphere landed in the station, terrifying flames erupted skyward, engulfing everything.
Such a ruthless method of clearance truly astonished Huai Shi. Considering the station’s location was the easiest point of entry and exit from the outside world, destroying it so brutally seemed to cut off even their means of retreat.
However, when the surging flames dissipated, the charred remnants of the walls began to shake violently. As if time had reversed, in just a few moments, an identical station reappeared in the same spot.
Huai Shi even saw the figure of the Condra Instructor there.
He was standing at the doorway.
His rigid pupils, devoid of any light, stared straight at their departing figures. His swollen face twitched, his lips moved silently, as if welcoming them back, offering a chilling smile.
When Huai Shi blinked, the figure vanished, but a chilling horror still crawled up his spine.
"It seems the Great Grandmaster was right; the old methods of clearing are of no use." August gazed emotionlessly at the station he had built with his own hands. He quickly withdrew his gaze and said indifferently, "That place has been fully assimilated by Hell..."
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I rewrote the outline and couldn’t help but be moved to tears: Ah, farewell, my Abyss Plague, farewell, my Struggle of a Thousand Poisons...
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