Chapter 485 - 424: An Unmentionable Reason

Chapter 485: Chapter 424: An Unmentionable Reason

March 24th. Only about a week remained until the end of the current Rule.

Three weeks had passed, and people had gradually moved from their initial curiosity and fear of the Rule to a state of adaptation.

Humans are highly adaptable creatures, which is one of the reasons they stand at the top of the food chain.

After all, as long as one didn’t go out at night, avoided the internet, and stayed obediently indoors with some offline entertainment, they could eliminate 99% of the risk of encountering the Crimson Fear. The remaining 1% would only be encountered in cases of extreme misfortune.

As a result, attention on this Rule plummeted. Instead, retro-style radios and other audio-only devices experienced a small surge in popularity.

People still needed news, but they were afraid that watching TV or using smart devices to go online would lead to a Crimson Terra image being "shoved in their faces," just like what happened with that offline game that was maliciously compromised. This created a huge demand for "audio-only, video-free receivers."

The governments of every nation did their best to meet this demand. The North Star shelters also distributed radios and other audio-only devices, allowing people to stay informed about the latest developments.

Inside one of the shelters, a young man got out of bed and took his radio into the bathroom. He turned it on, tuned it to the "Daily Hot News" channel, and listened while brushing his teeth.

"Breaking news: The Human Federation’s joint forces base on the front lines in the Black Banner Country was attacked last night by a legion composed of a massive number of Parasites. The base sustained heavy damage, and the joint forces suffered numerous casualties..."

"PFFT!"

The young man sprayed a mouthful of toothpaste foam onto the mirror in front of him, which reflected his shocked expression.

"We now go to our detailed report..."

Following the news broadcast, the story quickly spread across the nation and around the world.

This was undoubtedly a heavy blow to many people, as all previous news about the joint forces had been of constant victory.

In the public’s mind, the large Parasite force that had announced the establishment of the so-called "Seri Divine Kingdom" had already been broken up, with only small pockets of them hiding deep in the mountains. Even if they couldn’t be completely annihilated right away, it was believed that with the passage of time and regional blockades, they would eventually die out from lack of food and supplies.

People had all but forgotten the threat of the Parasites. But now, these creatures had suddenly struck back, dealing a heavy blow to the joint forces’ base. It was truly unbelievable.

On the Ascender’s Home forums, related discussions were already flooding the boards.

These days, almost everyone who still dared to use a networked device visited this site, as everyone knew it was the safest.

Since the site administrator had announced that picture and video functions would be disabled during the Rule Stage, they would definitely be disabled. It wasn’t like some other social media apps that, despite announcing a text-only mode for the Rule Stage, were still hacked, resulting in images appearing.

When it was a matter of life and death, a single breach of that promise meant users would never trust them again. For this reason, the daily traffic to Ascender’s Home was astonishingly high.

"Everyone’s heard about the Parasite attack last night, right? I heard the scale was terrifying. At least ten thousand Parasites came pouring out of the deep mountains!"

"Under normal circumstances, even a hundred thousand Parasites couldn’t have heavily damaged the joint forces’ base. Their weaponry and firepower aren’t even on the same level. The Parasites used the power of the Crimson Fear’s Rule to wage asymmetrical warfare."

"I thought the Parasites were finished. I can’t believe they can still mobilize on such a large scale..."

"The Parasites will never be finished as long as their leader, the ’Prophet,’ is still alive. If you ask me, instead of carrying out a decapitation strike against the Fire Worship Cult, we should have taken out this Prophet first."

"The decapitation strike against the Fire Worship Cult actually failed... that’s inside info. But afterward, tens of thousands of their Cultists were eliminated, so they probably won’t be able to stir up much trouble in the short term."

"No matter how you look at it, the Parasites are the most dangerous! Don’t forget, they aren’t human! They’re monsters whose bodies have been taken over by spores!"

More than the Rules or the Cultists, the moment the news broke, people were undoubtedly most worried about the Parasites. Their level of concern even surpassed that for the Apocalypse Rules.

Even though many experts and scholars believed the Fire Thief possessed subjective will and wasn’t just some pre-programmed "Rule-issuing machine," most people still saw it as a "program" because the Fire Thief had never shown itself or communicated with humanity in any way outside of its Rules.

To humanity, no matter how terrifying a program was, it couldn’t compare to the horror of spore-monsters that take over human bodies. It’s like the difference between a missile and a venomous snake; the former is hundreds or thousands of times more destructive, yet more people are afraid of the latter.

The public’s anxiety over this matter was also magnified among the top echelons of every nation’s government.

The Human Federation convened an emergency remote meeting first thing in the morning.

The meeting began with a presentation on last night’s battle. However, due to the large number of Crimson Terra images that appeared on the battlefield, the current summary was presented entirely in text format.

After reviewing the data, the commissioners representing the various nations all sucked in a sharp breath.

"Total casualties exceeded nine thousand? It’s that serious?!"

"The joint forces’ forward base was almost completely destroyed, and even the front-line Commander was killed..."

"What’s more troublesome is that a large number of Parasite prisoners were rescued!" Commissioner Toravt of Sisiya said, his brow tightly furrowed. "This means the Parasites have recovered some of their effective strength."

One commissioner couldn’t help but slam his hand on the table. "We never should have adopted a policy of taking prisoners in the first place! All Parasites should be executed on the spot!"

"You can’t just say that. Didn’t we need Parasites for the ’Third Kind of Contact’ Rule? What if a future Rule has a similar use..."

"’What if,’ ’what if’—you yourself said ’what if’! We don’t know if your ’what if’ scenario will ever happen, but the greater threat they now pose to humanity has already happened! This is foolishness!"