Chapter 93: A World Fallen Silent

“Asteroid 2801 has completed its direct impact. Secondary effects are ongoing. Everyone must remain in rest areas or designated safe locations. Avoid non-essential movement.”

“Impact data recorded at the moment of collision matched predictions. Readings did not exceed Underground Refuge City contingency plans. Citizens need not worry excessively. Lingchuan Underground Shelter City currently operates soundly.”

The days following Asteroid 2801’s impact were difficult for everyone sheltering underground.

Even deep within Lingchuan Underground Shelter City, people could still feel violent tremors from time to time.

Though the Urban Intelligent System promptly reassured everyone that the shocks posed no serious threat to the city’s integrity,

actual bodily sensations combined with natural anxiety were things most people couldn’t easily control.

Statistics from the specialized Strong Artificial Intelligence subsystem managing the shelter cities showed

most occupants suffered uncontrollable anxiety during this period.

As disasters continued unfolding above,

a feeling of survival proved elusive.

“All occupants must adhere to scheduled routines. Proceed to designated dining areas for meals and hygiene activities during assigned times. Return to your personal rest areas afterward… The Urban Intelligent System will notify individuals of special arrangements.”

“…Persons in Sector 02, Avenue 016, Sub-Avenue 032, Alley 712 of Lingchuan Shelter City’s Residential Zone must follow Intelligent Machinery or the Urban Intelligent System’s guidance for immediate evacuation…”

“Water storage in Sector 03, Avenue 016, Residential Zone compromised. Partial water loss confirmed and contained.”

“…Reconnecting Lingchuan Shelter City with other Underground Refuge Cities and Lunar Surface settlements remains a high-priority effort. Communications restoration continues.”

“We will activate Intelligent Industrial Clusters for production once stability allows.”

“Currently, Asteroid 2801’s impact and resulting disasters have blocked all above-ground access routes. Intelligent Machinery are clearing obstructions…”

Lingchuan’s situation mirrored events in Underground Shelter Cities throughout Huaxia Nation.

Though tense and grim, operations progressed methodically.

When constructing these refuges, Negentropy Research Institute experts and the Senior Leader’s team had formulated exhaustive plans for post-impact crises.

Guided by Strong Artificial Intelligence, Intelligent Machinery now executed those established protocols.

First,

each Underground Refuge City needed three critical post-disaster actions:

Maintaining internal stability,

patching up shelter city damage,

and restoring communications between shelter cities and the Lunar Surface.

Equally urgent:

Determining ground conditions after the disaster,

mobilizing rescue teams from every shelter city to search for surface survivors,

and coordinating aid for the makeshift sub-surface spaces hastily dug in the final two months before the impact.

Without outside help, survivors in those temporary shelters wouldn’t last.

Crisis response hadn’t ended with the asteroid strike—

it was merely interrupted by it.

If survivors existed on the surface, Underground Refuge Cities would not abandon them to subsequent disasters.

Rescue was mandatory.

Each city also planned expansions once conditions stabilized,

aiming to shelter more people.

Yet all this hinged on one critical task:

Reopening paths between the Underground Refuge Cities and the wrecked surface world.

Even now, thick earth and bedrock severely limited most communication methods.

Underground communications equipment had been installed inside the shelter cities’ original above-ground access routes.

While clearing seemed straightforward for Intelligent Machinery,

ongoing disasters made it dangerous.

Even using revolutionary materials from Negentropy Research Institute,

reconstructed tunnels near the surface frequently snapped like twigs during violent geological shifts.

…

Ultimately, the fastest repair—Lingchuan Underground Shelter City’s tunnel—

still took four days amid endless tremors.

Once Lingchuan’s relocated Intelligent Industrial Cluster resumed production,

the newly manufactured machinery worked in massive numbers.

Bolstered by efficient new production, these machines steadily carved upward through nonstop earthquakes, finally restoring surface access.

Given the immense public focus within Lingchuan Underground Shelter City,

the very first return to the surface would be broadcast live.

…

“It’s working! It’s working! Is that light up ahead?”

“Just an illusion. The tunnel isn’t open yet. No light here.”

“It’s open! Truly open! Someone show me—what does the surface look like now?”

Nearly everyone in the shelter watched.

All awaited their first glimpse of the post-doomsday world.

Intelligent Machinery scouts emerged first, not humans.

Live feeds from several machines’ cameras projected the images for all to see.

Then,

as millions watched, the tunnel’s final obstructions crumbled.

Four days after the calamity,

the machines transmitted the surface back into view.

Those watching—still hopeful, perhaps refusing to wholly surrender—

fell utterly silent.

Everyone had imagined what they might see,

yet the stark reality proved far worse than feared.

Even mentally prepared,

few could reconcile the twisted landscape before them with familiar memories.

According to location tags on the feed,

this particular Intelligent Machinery stood near Lingchuan City’s outskirts,

its camera facing forward.

The towering buildings that should have gradually appeared, densely packed together, were now gone. Streets that should have looked open and deserted

were nowhere to be seen.

What everyone saw now was

a mountain.

A ridge rising abruptly from level ground, like a massive tomb,

covering everything once familiar.

No skyscrapers, no streets, no city—

just a dead, silent hill covered in scorched earth, utterly lifeless.

At this moment,

it was noon in the area where Lingchuan City once stood,

but clearly, no sun was visible in the sky.

Under the dim, gloomy light, thick and filthy rainwater kept falling ceaselessly.

The entire air was mixed with rain and hazy, ashen particles.

The ground, pooling with obviously impure rainwater, showed no soil,

only appearing coated like thick, cooled lava.

Meanwhile,

the world wasn’t quiet.

From near and far, dull, indescribable sounds kept being heard.

Along with the corrosive, toxic rain falling from above,

came other things—high-temperature, viscous matter like splashes from furnaces, and various chaotic, impossible-to-describe debris.

Farther off, right on this once-peaceful and bustling land,

several massive volcanoes continuously erupted,

volcanic material from deep underground spraying relentlessly into the sky

and cascading, flowing everywhere around.

After a long silence, or daze,

someone couldn’t help asking a seemingly silly question:

“What is this place?”

For the people inside the underground shelter city,

despite their anxiety and fear,

before truly seeing this devastation,

they lacked a genuine sense of reality about the surface,

like distant relatives lost—until seeing the body,

a daze lingered where nothing felt real.

But now, everything was nakedly, brutally laid before them all,

forcing everyone to accept the truth:

the apocalypse had occurred.

The entire world had turned to scorched earth; everything that once existed on the surface was ended,

erasing every trace of the past.

“…In a world like this, could anyone actually have survived on the surface?”

Someone pressed on, unable to resist asking.

The intelligent machinery carrying the live broadcast mission advanced further.

Yet, everything remained as desolate as seen from afar earlier—

almost no sign of life could be found on the surface,

neither animals nor surviving plants visible anywhere.

Meanwhile, other intelligent machinery swiftly collected additional data.

Currently,

the temperature at Lingchuan City’s former site had soared past 60°C, nearing 70°C.

Oxygen levels in the air were less than 10%, far too low to sustain large human populations.

Moreover, the entire atmosphere filled with toxic gases released by global volcanic activity and other catastrophic causes.

From the perspective of human civilization and most biological life,

it was an incredibly harsh environment.

At that moment,

intelligent drones, battling the fierce conditions, rose into the sky.

From a higher vantage point, the devastation became clearer.

Beyond just near Lingchuan,

the entire visible landscape from above had transformed dramatically.

Had it not been confirmed to be Lingchuan City in Qinzhou Province,

the sheer scale of geological change

would have obscured all traces of its former existence.

Farther across this wider range,

even more active volcanoes spewed material relentlessly.

These global eruptions were not brief but intensely ongoing.

…

Five days after the impact of Asteroid 2801,

as unprecedented, colossal tsunamis crashed against every coast and deep inland,

multiple underground shelter cities, beyond Lingchuan, had gradually cleared pathways to the surface,

reestablishing communication networks among the shelters.

Amid such a colossal apocalyptic disaster,

this progress marked an astonishingly swift recovery.

Simultaneously,

despite immense atmospheric interference,

shelter cities managed to restore contact with the lunar surface.

Exchanges detailing circumstances between shelters and with the lunar base began unfolding,

signaling humanity had largely passed the most critical phase

of this civilizational doomsday crisis.

Many people breathed temporary sighs of relief.

However,

however extensive and strategic,

the planning for these underground cities couldn’t shelter them entirely unscathed.

According to intelligence gathered

by the Strong Artificial Intelligence of the Brain Intelligence Project,

several underground shelters were critically damaged.

Others sustained injuries of varying degrees.

Of the approximately 1.8 billion people housed in these shelters,

over sixty million perished.

Conditions on the lunar surface remained comparatively stable.

Before Asteroid 2801 struck,

only about a thousand researchers remained stationed at the Lunar Base.

With the asteroid missing the moon,

researchers escaped harm.

Earth’s cascading disasters also inflicted minimal disruption there.

Outside the shelter cities and lunar base,

the worst affected were the temporary underground spaces finalized in the final two months before impact—

not true shelters,

but compromises rushed under apocalyptic urgency.

Suffering direct seismic and environmental shocks from the asteroid strike

and the ensuing cataclysms,

most incurred severe devastation.

As the shelters reconnected,

each immediately started manufacturing new intelligent machinery

and equipment

to dispatch towards all known underground spaces for rescue efforts.

Yet, whenever shelters finally cracked paths

to adjacent subterranean cavities,

the grim fact emerged:

of the four billion people crowded into those impromptu hollows,

a staggering half had already been lost.

Without speedy aid from other shelters, the cost would’ve been higher still.

Finally, the surface.

Those flimsy underground spaces,

though inadequate, still shielded some survivors.

But the surface…

As rescuers scoured for survivors amid the makeshift bunkers,

others scouted the apocalyptic landscape.

Sadly,

with almost all life forms—plants and animals alike—extinct above ground,

discovering surface survivors proved near impossible.

Those over two hundred million people remaining above when disaster struck

perished entirely.

In the vast devastation,

not even signs of their existence could be recovered.

According to the Artificial Intelligence of the Brain Intelligence Project,

a previously thriving global population of almost nine billion people—

after this apocalyptic crisis—

dwindled to two billion survivors.

Now,

as humanity slowly emerged from the shock of extinction,

waves of deep sorrow and haunting pain washed over them.

An unavoidable pall of grief settled across all underground shelters.

This doomsday event was undeniably a catastrophic disaster for human civilization—

a tragedy destined to leave a deep impression throughout human history.