On the other side, in Shanghai's Pudong New District, at Apartment 301 on the 20th floor of Building A in Jinxiu Residential Complex, Li Tiang let out a sigh of relief as soon as he ended the phone call.
If he hadn't gained the support of his elder brother Li Dong—or if Li Dong hadn't believed him—his resignation would have been meaningless. All his plans and ideas would have fallen apart. He might even have been sent to a mental institution or forced to retrace the same doomed path from his memories, only to die again.
To be honest, Li Tiang wasn't sure whether he had been reborn or simply implanted with memories of the future.
If nothing unexpected happened, the apocalyptic disasters from his memories would arrive right on schedule.
Because Li Tiang had already tested it.
He had resigned five days ago and, based on his future memories, found that many events had already aligned perfectly with reality.
In his future memories, he had lived in the Shanghai Shelter, one of the top three underground shelters in Great Xia. Yet even as a senior researcher under heavy protection, he had still failed to escape death.
Moreover, in those memories, Great Xia—and even the entire Blue Planet—had taken extreme climate disasters seriously, but they had still underestimated them, leading to devastating losses.
The Shanghai Shelter where Li Tiang had lived collapsed in less than five years.
And that was a mega-shelter designed for millions.
As for what happened afterward, Li Tiang naturally didn't know—because he was already dead.
Just as Li Tiang was pondering how to proceed with his plans—
Click—
The sound of the door opening interrupted his thoughts.
"Yuanzhou, why did you call me back in such a hurry? Is something important going on?" The person who entered was a woman about 1.65 meters tall.
She was healthy, with a wheatish complexion and above-average looks, appearing to be around twenty-one or twenty-two years old. Her face was full of youthful vitality, giving off a sweet, delicate charm.
This was Li Tiang's girlfriend—the same woman who, in his future memories, had stayed with him until his last breath.
Her name was Song Weiwei.
Song Weiwei had majored in chemistry, one of the "four notorious academic pits" (biology, chemistry, environment, and materials science). A graduate of a top-tier university, her sharp intellect had allowed her to earn a Ph.D. and secure a teaching position. Currently, she was both a university lecturer and an overworked researcher.
The two families had already set a wedding date. If nothing unexpected happened, they would be married in a year.
But a year later, disaster struck—cataclysms, the apocalypse arrived.
They had only managed a simple wedding, one without any friends or family in attendance.
"I have something very important to tell you, Weiwei. Do you trust me?" Li Tiang looked at one of the most important women in his life and spoke with utmost seriousness.
"Of course I trust you. You're my fiancé, after all." Seeing how grave and earnest he was, Song Weiwei nodded without hesitation.
She even teased him a little.
"If you trust me, then quit your job as a university lecturer and come back to Guangnan Province with me."
"Alright, I'll go resign from the university later."
"You're not going to ask me why?" Li Tiang was taken aback by how readily she agreed.
After all, university lecturers were highly respected in society.
"I believe in you. I trust you completely. There must be a reason for this, and I'm sure you'll tell me when the time comes, without keeping anything from me," Song Weiwei said with a smile.
"Alright, I'll explain everything to you gradually."
After speaking, Li Tiang stepped forward and embraced Song Weiwei tightly.
Perhaps in his future memories, Li Tiang had been too desperate, too lonely—constantly witnessing death, hearing news of shelters falling and countless lives lost. At this moment, all he wanted was to hold the person before him and never let go.
Song Weiwei didn't resist, allowing him to embrace her. She could sense the turmoil raging within Li Tiang's heart.
"Now, let's pack our things. We'll return to Guangnan Province the day after tomorrow. I've already bought the train tickets."
"Mm."
...
Guangnan Province, Dongjiang City, a seven-story villa in the suburbs.
Over this period, Li Dong had already reached agreements with numerous factory owners and grain tycoons over the phone. All that remained was signing the contracts, after which the supplies would be delivered to the warehouses rented by the Li family.
"If what my brother said is true—that the apocalyptic disaster is coming—then since it hasn't arrived yet, perhaps I can seize the opportunity to make a fortune and use it to build a sturdier, more comfortable doomsday shelter," Li Dong mused, turning off his phone screen and gazing out the window.
Building a basic shelter would only cost a few million, or even tens of millions.
But those so-called shelters were not what Li Dong wanted.
To withstand the apocalyptic disaster, an underground shelter had to be vast and indestructible.
The sun slowly set, and the scorching outdoor temperature began to drop. Everything outside the window was tranquil, bathed in the glow of dusk, vibrant and full of life—nothing resembling an apocalypse.
Though Li Dong didn't know how long it would be until the disaster struck, he was certain it wouldn't happen immediately. Otherwise, his brother wouldn't have told him to prepare supplies like this.
Greed was the original sin. From a businessman's perspective, this was a feast.
Capital follows profit. With a ten percent profit, it is put to use everywhere.
With twenty percent, it grows active.
With fifty percent, it becomes daring.
For a hundred percent profit, it will trample all human laws.
And for three hundred percent, it will commit any crime, even at the risk of the gallows.
Anyone with a shred of cunning, if they learned of the impending apocalyptic disaster, would stop at nothing.
"Construction materials, food, sand, cement, steel, technology, energy, medicine, industrial machinery—once restrictions are imposed, prices will skyrocket. Even the Great Xia Nation, with its strongest control, won't be able to suppress it."
Li Dong pondered deeply.
When the restrictions came into effect, the currently booming commercial housing market would become the least necessary thing.
Who knew if the disaster would wipe out all life on the surface?
...
In Li Tiang's memories, on November 16, 2029, in the Western calendar—
The apocalyptic disaster arrived, plunging the world into the Glacial Wasteland Era.
Before this, Blue Star had already experienced several rounds of natural disasters far exceeding the norm—extreme heat, torrential rains, floods, terrifying wildfires lasting months, frequent global earthquakes above magnitude 7, volcanic eruptions, and tsunamis.
On November 16, 2029, according to the Western calendar of Blue Star, the first true wave of calamity struck—the Solar Flare Outburst. This devastating solar storm caused all of Blue Star's satellites, including communication satellites and space stations, to crash. During the Geomagnetic Storm, countless electronic components were destroyed.
For a time, communication across Blue Star was severed.
Although the three human superpowers on Blue Star restored communications as quickly as possible and urgently launched several new communication satellites, less than half a month later, humanity faced the second wave of calamity—meteorite impacts.
Meteorite impacts not only triggered fires but also, upon disintegration, released massive amounts of dust and debris into the atmosphere, setting off global volcanic eruptions, tsunamis, and major earthquakes.
Volcanic eruptions, in turn, spewed vast quantities of ash and gases into the atmosphere, blocking sunlight.
This was especially true for supervolcanoes, which released unprecedented amounts of ash and gases.
Coupled with the sun's anomalies, Blue Star turned into a snowball, entering the Glacial Wasteland Era.
The third wave of calamity was, naturally, the Glacial Wasteland Era.
Why call it the Glacial Wasteland?
Under the influence of the aforementioned disasters, some high-latitude regions experienced unprecedented extreme cold, with temperatures plummeting to -80 or -90 degrees Celsius. Even equatorial regions reached -30 to -40 degrees.
The North and South Poles of Blue Star broke records, dropping below -100 degrees Celsius, becoming true no-go zones for human life.
In such extreme cold, the surface soil froze completely, becoming too hard to cultivate—turning into wasteland. The layer of ice and snow on the surface was at least several meters thick.
During the Glacial Wasteland Era, the greatest dangers were the blizzards and ice fog, which severely limited humanity's ability to explore beyond their shelters.
These blizzards and ice fog might also be radioactive.
The few remaining humans struggled to survive in the frozen wasteland. Meanwhile, nuclear leaks and radioactive wastewater spills caused by the disasters led to the emergence of mutated Radiation Monsters among the creatures that survived in the permafrost.
Yet, in these extreme conditions, humans did not undergo the mutations or evolutions depicted in movies and novels.
Under radiation pollution and similar hazards, humans would only degenerate into monsters or dissolve entirely in high-radiation environments.
With frequent disasters, the Artificial Biochemical Virus mixed with existing bacteria and viruses, accelerating the evolutionary process and turning some organisms into highly infectious Zombie-like Monsters.
Humans bitten or scratched by these creatures would become infected.
Beyond this, however, Li Tiang's Shanghai Shelter also discovered other monsters—seemingly not native to Blue Star. It was unclear whether they were Alien Monsters brought by the meteorites.
Humanity remained frail in flesh and blood, so some chose the path of Mechanical Ascension.
The Shanghai Shelter where Li Tiang resided was ultimately overrun and destroyed by Zombie-like Monsters and other creatures.