“Sang Sang, can you free up some space in your house?”
On the eighth day of the torrential rain, Qin Sang received a call from Fa Ge.
“Are they arranging for people to move in?”
Qin Sang looked out at the downpour. A week had passed, and the rain showed no sign of letting up. It was as if the sky itself had shattered, with endless rainwater pouring down. People online were joking that it was the River of Heaven leaking.
But no matter how much people complained, the exceptionally heavy rain had continued for a full week. The drought caused by the earlier high temperatures had long since been resolved. In fact, there were now signs of a reversal.
For instance, some low-lying areas across the country had started to flood.
It was only then that Qin Sang noticed something unusual from the news.
The areas where people had been evacuated before the apocalypse were now the worst-hit by flooding. Meanwhile, the five major safe zones were experiencing only scattered flooding.
These five safe zones had supposedly been designated by experts. Qin Sang was genuinely curious about which experts had been so prescient.
But no amount of preparation would hold out for long if the rain never stopped.
Sure enough, Fa Ge had called to ask about her place.
It wasn’t just her—over the past couple of days, many places online had been tallying up buildings on higher ground. It seemed the authorities were preparing to relocate people from low-lying areas to higher elevations.
On the other end of the line, Fa Ge said directly: “No one’s being moved in for now. But the city is low-lying. According to estimates, if the rain doesn’t let up, people from the city will have to evacuate to our area in a couple of days.”
“We can free up at most one floor of our house.”
The floor they lived on and the top floor wouldn’t be given up for others.
“Alright, alright, I’m just taking a tally for now. What happens next depends on this rain. Ah, thank goodness the interstellar insects haven’t been causing trouble again. Otherwise, with this heavy rain, even going out would be a pain…”
Hearing this, Qin Sang wasn’t so optimistic.
Over the past week, there had been no activity from the spatial fissures. But Qin Sang didn’t see that as a good thing. When things go quiet, trouble is usually brewing.
She was sure the authorities were also on guard against a possible counterattack from the interstellar insects.
——
At the same time, the relevant leaders of the five major safe zones were indeed in a meeting. The agenda included not only the rainstorm but also the insect race on the other side of the spatial fissures.
“The Academy of Sciences is ready to launch a probe into the spatial fissures at any time.”
“We were worried before about a possible attack from the interstellar insects at any moment. But this storm seems to have held them back. Today is already the eighth day, and there’s been no movement from them. I think we can take advantage of the rain cover and launch the probe today.”
The attendees were discussing the timing of the probe launch.
This probe had been specially developed by the Academy of Sciences based on the corpses and energy cores of the interstellar insects. It was a miniature device designed to effectively evade detection by the insects.
The probe’s ultimate goal was to enter the spatial fissures and observe the situation on the other side.
It was also laying the groundwork for a future counteroffensive into the insect world.
If Qin Sang had known about this goal, she would have been impressed.
But for now, she had no idea the authorities were already planning a counterattack.
After hanging up with Fa Ge, Qin Sang thought for a moment and sent a message to Xu Lin, mentioning the village’s tally of available empty houses. Xu Lin usually stayed at the unit dormitory during work and stayed at Qin Sang’s place on days off. His own house had been empty since the apocalypse.
But Xu Lin didn’t reply right away. Seeing that, Qin Sang didn’t wait. She put down her phone and entered the space.
The moment she stepped in, she was nearly tackled by Little Tabby. Fortunately, Qin Sang was agile and dodged with practiced ease.
Why dodge? Simple—Little Tabby wasn’t so little anymore. After Qin Sang had signed the spirit beast contract with it last time, Little Tabby had grown like it was on growth hormones, changing day by day. In just a few days, it had gone from the size of an adult Corgi to a massive cat even bigger than a lion.
Every time Qin Sang saw it, she couldn’t help but exclaim in amazement.
Of course, such explosive growth came at a cost—her stockpile of energy cores was rapidly depleting.
However, after contracting with Little Tabby, Qin Sang’s Roast Goose Space had gained another landmass. This time, it was a mountainous forest with dense vegetation and towering trees. Little Tabby was living quite happily in this new area.
After pushing away the overly affectionate Little Tabby, Qin Sang went straight to Grandpa Goose.
“Still looking at your precious dragon egg?” Qin Sang walked over to find Grandpa Goose lying beside the egg.
The egg, once the size of a sago pearl, had now grown to the size of a pomelo. But it still showed none of the majesty befitting a dragon egg.
Grandpa Goose shot her a look. Heaven knows how she could see a glare from a goose’s eyes.
“This isn’t my precious dragon egg. Little Sang, you come in here every time just to provoke me. Are you finding life too easy?”
Qin Sang fired right back. After the two of them traded a few playful barbs, Qin Sang finally got to the point.
“The rain still hasn’t stopped. Normal…”
After listening to Qin Sang, Grandpa Goose said slowly.
Seeing his languid tone, Qin Sang knew he was being all mysterious again.
“Grandpa Goose, back then you kept secrets because you were afraid Blue Star’s energy would leak out and let the interstellar insects locate us. But now we’ve already been located—what else can’t you say?”
Grandpa Goose said irritably, “Because I don’t know how the world will turn out either! According to the previous simulations, humanity wouldn’t have entered the spirit beast era by now. Many people with jade spaces wouldn’t have died. With more people, more would survive the heat and the rain. But now, there are far fewer people. Add in the invasion of the interstellar insects—the entire planetary simulation has failed. What the future holds depends on you humans.”
Qin Sang didn’t hold out much hope for prophecies either. She asked directly about the ultimate vision: “Grandpa Goose, according to Blue Star’s optimal simulated path, will this world become a highly advanced spirit beast world in the future?”
Grandpa Goose nodded.
Just as she thought. Qin Sang sighed. After going through so many disasters, she had begun to sense that Blue Star was deliberately cultivating humanity. The purpose was simple—to strengthen humans so they could fight the interstellar insects and protect the planet.
But now, so many things had changed. Humanity’s current strength was nowhere near enough to contend with the interstellar insect race. The battles so far had only happened because the insects hadn’t gotten serious yet.
At that thought, Qin Sang couldn’t sit still.
She rushed out of the space and sent Xu Lin a few red exclamation marks.
This time, Xu Lin replied quickly: “Is something wrong?”
Qin Sang shook her head. “No, but it’s also kind of a big deal.” She then modified her guesses and Grandpa Goose’s words and relayed them to him.
“It’s all just my speculation—not necessarily entirely accurate. But the interstellar insects aren’t going to let things go that easily.”
Xu Lin was silent for a moment, then said, “Don’t worry. The leaders aren’t fools.”
He didn’t spell it out, but Qin Sang understood immediately. So the higher-ups really did have a lot of capable people.
After that, she brought up the village’s tally of available empty houses.
“I’ll talk to A Fa about that myself. But, Sang Sang.” Xu Lin paused for a moment before continuing: “From now on, I’ll have to rely on you to take me in.”
Qin Sang: “Hey, haven’t you always been relying on me?”
They chatted a bit more before hanging up.
Meanwhile, after ending the call, Xu Lin stared at the real-time footage being transmitted back to his computer screen.
In the torrential rain, where virtually nothing was visible, drones hovered at high altitude. Small probes were released from them, flying toward the countless spatial fissures in the sky.
“I hope this time we can get a glimpse into the insect world.” Xu Lin watched as small frames began popping up on his screen—each one showing real-time footage transmitted back by the probes.
Some probes were swept down by the rain before they could even get near the fissures. Others reached the outer edges, sending back images of deep, pitch-black abysses that looked chillingly profound. A few probes made it through smoothly, entering the spatial fissures themselves.
Strangest of all, during the entry process, the probes transmitted no signs of attack at all. This meant that the probes had passed through the spatial fissures without encountering any resistance.
That conclusion was immensely encouraging.
After the first success came the second, the third. When quality wasn’t enough, quantity would make up for it.
But as more probes were deployed, a discovery was made: the spatial fissures were packed with hidden interstellar insects. This finding prompted Huaguo to immediately notify other countries around the world.
Beyond that, one of the probes transmitted a fleeting image that raised suspicions. Unfortunately, the image vanished in an instant, and the probe’s signal was lost.
Leave a Reply