Chapter 174 The Wandering Earth

“HATE CRUSADE! HATE CRUSADE! HATE CRUSADE!!”

The Psycho-Warriors kept chanting, and before long, their chanting had turned into a full-blown song. With every repetition, they grew louder and more excited.

Meanwhile, Space King was getting closer and closer to a complete mental breakdown.

What the hell did I do to deserve this?!

If I’d known things would turn out like this, I never would’ve created these Psycho-Warriors in the first place!!

He’d originally thought that soldiers immune to Chaos corruption, armed with overwhelming combat power, would make short work of those damned aliens and the forces of Chaos.

Instead, he’d somehow created the most unhinged, bloodthirsty maniacs in existence.

As long as their Holy Globules remained intact, they could keep implanting their memories into little boys and resurrecting themselves endlessly.

Their spacetime teleportation technology allowed them to travel effortlessly across the universe. Combine that with their absurd combat capabilities, and these lunatics had surpassed even Chaos itself.

To countless surviving alien species, the Psycho-Warriors had become a walking apocalypse!

I spent so much time collecting beautiful alien women and building my harem, and those bastards slaughtered every last one of them overnight!!

I already admitted defeat! I ran away! I hid in this godforsaken corner of the universe to live out my days as a farmer!

WHY CAN’T THEY JUST LEAVE ME ALONE?!

“Looks like you’ve got a lot on your mind.”

Vane could practically see the despair radiating off Space King.

“Outsider…” Space King’s voice was utterly lifeless. “Why? Why did you have to bring them here to find me?”

“Hiding won’t solve anything. Sooner or later, you’ve got to face reality.”

With that, Vane held out an invitation to the Desire Grand Prix.

“What’s this?” Space King asked, looking confused.

“An invitation to the Desire Grand Prix,” Vane explained. “Whoever wins the tournament gets a wish granted. Any wish.”

“Any wish?” Space King suddenly sounded interested.

“That’s right.” Vane nodded. “You could create an entire universe or travel to another one. Whatever you wish for, it’ll become reality.”

Space King fell silent, considering the offer.

Well, that does sound pretty interesting.

“And what would I have to give up to get something like that?”

“Nothing.”

Vane stuffed the invitation into Space King’s arms.

“All you have to do is participate.”

With Space King finally located, Vane’s conquest progress in the Psycho-Warrior Universe reached 100%.

He received the universe’s highest-level administrator privileges, along with its associated mods.

—

“Well, that was interesting.”

After absorbing the memories of the Psycho-Warrior Universe, Vane turned his attention to his next destination.

The Wandering Earth.

He began absorbing the memories of that universe as well.

Compared to the Psycho-Warrior Universe, the storyline of The Wandering Earth was even simpler.

The Sun was approaching a catastrophic helium flash that would eventually consume Earth.

To preserve human civilization, the United Earth Government launched the Wandering Earth Project.

The plan called for constructing more than ten thousand massive Earth Engines across the planet’s surface.

These engines would first bring Earth’s rotation to a halt, then propel the entire planet out of the Solar System toward Proxima Centauri, approximately 4.2 light-years away.

The journey would take 2,500 years.

During that time, humanity would have to survive in underground cities.

There was just one problem.

Earth had a population of more than seven billion people, but the underground cities could accommodate only 3.5 billion.

More than half of humanity had been abandoned.

By the time Vane arrived, Earth’s rotation had already stopped, and the planet was preparing to leave its original orbit.

The world had been divided into two distinct halves: one trapped in permanent daylight, the other in eternal darkness.

The daylight side was continuously exposed to the Sun, gradually turning the land into a barren desert.

The dark side, deprived of sunlight, suffered a relentless drop in temperature until everything became frozen.

Those abandoned on the surface faced constant threats from storms, tsunamis, and countless other disasters.

Like the animals and plants around them, they were struggling against extinction.

Vane’s initial conquest missions were straightforward.

Find a group of homeless, unlucky survivors, help them obtain food, and build them a shelter.

When Vane opened his eyes, he found himself standing in the middle of an endless wasteland.

The Sun hung low on the western horizon.

Yet it never set.

It simply remained there, bathing the desolate landscape in a hazy golden glow.

This was the boundary between eternal day and eternal night, the region most suitable for human habitation on Earth’s surface after its rotation had stopped.

Far off in the distance, several enormous blue-white pillars of light shot upward into the sky.

They pierced the darkness and disappeared into the clouds, resembling colossal columns holding up the heavens themselves.

Vane opened his minimap.

A convoy appeared on the display.

After checking its location and getting his bearings, he started walking toward it.

Several rust-covered heavy transport trucks had formed a defensive circle in the wasteland.

Their cargo compartments were packed with people.

Men, women, children, and the elderly were all crammed together, their faces pale and gaunt, their bodies wrapped in filthy, dark clothing.

The moment Vane approached, a mission notification appeared.

[Conquest Mission: Help the Refugees Obtain Food]

[The underground cities have limited capacity. More than half of humanity has been abandoned on the surface and left to die.]

[Countless people have perished from tsunamis, storms, starvation, and other disasters. Those who survived wander from place to place like stray dogs, desperately searching for somewhere they can live.]

[You have encountered a convoy of refugees fleeing for their lives. Help them build a shelter and escape their seemingly inevitable deaths.]

[Rewards:]

[Enchanted Alloy Pickaxe ×1]

[Hay Bale ×64]

[Agricultural Factory ×3]

[Hydroponics Factory ×3]

[Furnace Core ×1]

[EMC +1,500]

[Conquest Progress +1%]

[Energy Cube ×1]

[Title: Savior of the Suffering]

“Another newcomer?”

A middle-aged man with a scruffy beard jumped down from one of the trucks and approached Vane.

He wore a thick winter coat, with a handgun tucked into his belt.

Judging by his demeanor, he was probably the leader of the group.

“What’s your name? Where’d you come from?”

“Just call me Outsider.”

Vane casually gave him a name.

“I’m here to help you.”

“Outsider? That’s a strange name. Well, I’m Joe.”

The middle-aged man extended his hand.

“You said you’re here to help us. How exactly are you planning to do that? Can you find food? Medicine?”

Ever since Earth’s rotation had stopped, violent storms had swept across the continents, while enormous waves had devastated coastal cities.

Almost no factories remained operational.

Worse still, most of the available supplies had already been transferred to the underground cities.

People like them had no choice but to wander across the surface, scavenging whatever useful resources they could find.

“Let’s deal with the food problem first.”

Vane stepped aside, raised his fist, and started punching the ground.

“Is this guy crazy?”

Joe stared at him for a moment before shaking his head.

The other refugees looked equally confused.

But Vane paid them no attention.

Within a few minutes, he’d broken apart the ground and collected a sizable pile of blocks.

He converted the blocks into EMC, exchanged the EMC for hay bales, and then used a crafting table to turn the wheat into bread.

The entire process took only a few minutes.

Before the refugees could figure out what was happening, Vane had produced a generous supply of freshly baked, steaming bread.

“All right. This bread is yours.”

He tossed the bread onto a nearby table.

Joe and the other refugees stared in disbelief.

The warm, delicious aroma filled the air, making their mouths water uncontrollably.

Several people instinctively stepped forward, and the crowd began growing restless.

Sensing that things were about to get out of control, Joe drew his pistol and fired a shot into the sky.

BANG!

The gunshot instantly silenced the starving crowd.

“GET IN LINE! ANY MOTHERFUCKER WHO TRIES TO STEAL SOMETHING GETS A BULLET!”

Joe’s authority was enough to restore order.

The refugees formed a line and began collecting the bread Vane had provided.

Once everyone was behaving, Joe turned back to Vane.

“Sorry about that. My convoy picked these people up from different places. Some of them haven’t eaten in days.”

Vane barely heard him.

He was staring at a mission notification that only he could see.

His first mission had been completed.

He’d received the rewards, along with his second objective.

Build a shelter for the refugees.

“Seriously, thank you for helping us,” Joe continued. “Without you, a few people probably would’ve dropped dead tonight.”

He paused before adding quietly, “And ended up as somebody else’s dinner.”

When people became desperate enough from hunger, they stopped behaving like civilized human beings.

They became beasts.

And beasts wouldn’t hesitate to eat the corpses of their own kind.

Vane looked up at Joe.

“So, what are you planning to do next?”

“Planning?”

Joe gave a bitter laugh.

“What plans could we possibly have? We just take things one day at a time.”

“When our luck finally runs out, we’ll die somewhere on the road. And if we’re really unlucky, somebody will eat us afterward.”

He spoke with frightening calmness.

Death had become so common that he’d grown completely numb to it.

Vane turned toward the people waiting for food.

There were men with empty, lifeless eyes.

Children whose lips had turned purple from the cold.

Young mothers clutching infants tightly against their chests.

Every face seemed to carry the same message.

Just survive another day.