Chapter 185: Surging Undercurrents

Since the sky anomaly event, more than two months have passed.

These have been two peaceful months, so peaceful it is almost hard to believe.

Two years ago, spatial rifts appeared frequently across Earth, and alien creatures poured out from them; until two months ago, the number and variety of alien creatures on Earth reached their peak.

But after the sky anomaly, although spatial rifts still appear on Earth from time to time, both the number and power of alien creatures have greatly decreased.

Global information sharing has also made people no longer fear alien monsters; TV news specials almost every day educate people about alien creatures, introducing their habits, abilities, and weaknesses.

For each type of alien creature, the armed forces of various countries have designed different tactics; from the initial panic when facing alien creatures to now having planned strategies to avoid their strengths and attack their weaknesses, humans have accumulated more and more experience and become increasingly skilled.

Since alien creatures and Awakened were made public five months ago, people have gradually moved from initial fear to current familiarity.

In this short span of five months, many major events occurred: the Fire Demon's attack on Jin Shan, the Misty Town in Brazil, the projection of the British altar, the Void-Devouring Beast, and the worldwide disaster two months ago—the sky anomaly... Amid these frequent disasters, people have somewhat grown accustomed to the current world.

Humans are, after all, highly adaptable creatures.

But beneath the calm surface, some pessimistic tones are hidden; some predict the apocalypse is imminent, and this moment is merely the final calm before the darkness.

On a hidden forum, people are exchanging information.

"This is just an appetizer; do you really believe things will pass so simply?"

"Yes, alien creatures were never the problem; the real problem is Him—that Evil God. He has not appeared from beginning to end; He has not even made a move! What does He look like? What abilities does He have? Where is He? What are His weaknesses?... We know nothing about all of this!"

"Didn't scientists already theorize? They say He might be that legendary Dead Star, the culprit behind Earth's five mass extinctions! And now, it is simply humanity's turn, just like the nautilus and the dinosaurs; humans will become one of the species in the sixth mass extinction..."

"Dead Star! Omen of Destruction! Star of Annihilation! His orbit aligns with the solar system every thirty million years! Now, the solar system has once again aligned with His orbit! But the difference is, our human civilization is more advanced than the nautilus and the dinosaurs; we can conduct space colonization! Escape the solar system! Have you not followed the cutting edge of science? Various countries have poured massive funds into space colonization projects! What we should care about most now is—how to get a ticket to a spaceship!"

"Humanity is doomed! Doomed! Everyone will die! Humans, all species on Earth, will all perish! Hahahaha..."

The person making this post was clearly not in a normal mental state; within two minutes, the post was deleted by the moderator.

"Those who can truly board a spaceship are not only the ultra-wealthy and powerful, but also the Awakened! They are regarded as humanity's hope; if there is any chance of survival, it will surely be them! They are the source of the Evil God's followers! If possible, they would rather use us ordinary people as fuel to awaken their Lord! They are the enemies of us ordinary people!"

"Don't say that; during the sky anomaly disaster last time, those Awakened warriors also protected civilians, didn't they?"

"Most of the Awakened in the disaster were previously soldiers and police; I also admire and am grateful to them. But I have also seen some Awakened who used ordinary people as shields and meat shields; relying on their Awakened abilities, they could not defeat alien creatures, yet they bullied ordinary people! Look at this video! —"

Shortly after, he threw out a link; it was an edited video, with scenes occurring all over the world. Some scenes showed Awakened throwing ordinary people into danger to attract alien creatures; other scenes showed Awakened casually using superpowers to bully ordinary people. The selected scenes escalated from ordinary bullying to cruel and bloody violence, accompanied by intense and thrilling music, making viewers feel as if they were there, suddenly stirring up grief, indignation, and resentment—why do they have the right to treat us this way?

Within a short while, this video was clicked and downloaded nearly ten thousand times; countless people left comments under the video, some cursing angrily, some describing the privileges of Awakened they had heard about, and some personally recounting instances of being bullied by Awakened in their daily lives.

Of course, there were also different voices; for example, some Awakened posted comments themselves saying that after awakening, they did not bully ordinary people, but instead used their superpowers to help many people, yet they were besieged by a larger number of other netizens who were more emotionally agitated.

Some called him hypocritical and a liar; others believed he was just an exception, and that in daily life, most Awakened, after awakening, considered themselves privileged and superior, casually bullying others.

"But the leader of the Awakened, our savior, the God on Earth, Yang Yi, she saved us! She opposed the Awakened organization to protect the majority of ordinary people, and even broke the altar to resist the Evil God!"

"Who knows whether she did it to protect us? Or whether, after awakening the strongest superpower, she became arrogant and conceited, not even putting the Evil God in her eyes, and deliberately opposed the Evil God just to display her powerful, miracle-like strength?!"

Someone replied this way.

"Yes, I heard she grew up in poverty, raised amidst family abuse; such people are most prone to inferiority and arrogance. Suddenly gaining such immense power, becoming so arrogant as to look down on the entire world and universe, truly considering herself the God on Earth, is very possible..."

"What the poster above said makes sense; we can even go into conspiracy theory territory: was the last sky anomaly deliberately closed by her only after so many people died? After all, only in this way can she show her benevolence and importance to humanity; only in this way can she show her immense power! If she is truly that powerful, why did she not discover what Vered Davis did earlier? Why did she not resolve everything before the sky anomaly occurred? —after all, she possesses power that is almost omnipotent!"

"Right! During the sky anomaly, my parents and child died! I don't understand; she was clearly powerful enough to prevent everything from happening, so why did the disaster still occur?"

"During the last sky anomaly, did she really exert her full strength?"

Of course, these baseless speculations were immediately met with fierce opposition from Yang Yi's supporters; they presented facts and reasoned, explaining how difficult it was for Yang Yi to search the otherworld for the spatial device Vered Davis had hidden there, and how terrifying the numerous S-rank and Super S-rank alien creatures in the otherworld were.

"Do you forget how terrifying that S-rank alien creature above Detroit City was? It merely roared once at the rift entrance and destroyed half the city! And that S-rank alien creature above Jin City; it merely extended one giant claw and stirred up the thunderstorm across the entire sky! And in the otherworld, the alien creatures she encountered were even more terrifying than these, yet she showed no fear at all! And you, at this very moment, doubt her motives!"

"You are not worthy of her protection!"

"You, the followers of the Yishen Sect, are more fanatical than the Evil God's followers; you won't even allow us to discuss rationally? We are merely raising reasonable doubts!"

Within a short while, this hidden forum descended into a shouting match; both sides even investigated each other's IP addresses, phone numbers, and email addresses, leading to offline confrontations, which drew the attention of relevant authorities and resulted in the website being shut down.

But this website was not an isolated case; at the same time, similar scenes were playing out across the global internet.

The entire human society was filled with panic over the impending apocalypse, fear of the Evil God followers' evil methods, despair over the Evil God's power being too great to gaze upon directly, dissatisfaction with the growing gap between Awakened and ordinary humans and the privileges held by the Awakened, and the grief over losing loved ones after the sky anomaly; all of this immersed society in an atmosphere of turmoil, confusion, despair, and madness.

For safety, humans were forced to relocate entirely to cities; the towering walls, high-altitude protective nets, and dense crowds made the entire city resemble a large concentration camp, suffocating the oppressed people.

The influx of a large number of residents from outside the cities also caused urban overcrowding and widened the gap between rich and poor; the lower and middle classes saw no hope in real life and could only vent their emotions online, filling the entire online world with opposition and chaos.

In this invisible chaotic battle, ordinary humans were roughly divided into three groups: the pessimists, the radicals, and the moderates.

The moderates believe that Awakened are born among ordinary people; anyone can become Awakened, and the two are inseparable; they should not hate each other but should put aside prejudices and cooperate wholeheartedly. Moreover, Ms. Yang Yi, representing the Awakened, has clearly refused the Evil God followers' recruitment, refused to draw a line between Awakened and ordinary people, and declared that she will protect all humanity; this has greatly strengthened their confidence in the Awakened.

The pessimists believe this is the final calm before the darkness; humanity will sooner or later be exterminated by the Dead Star, which is the Evil God, just like the other species in Earth's five mass extinctions;

The radicals believe that the old and new humans cannot coexist peacefully; once the Awakened possess superpowers, they possess privileges; they have undergone a complete genetic transformation and have become another species; the more extreme ones even hate the Awakened, believing that the world's disasters were brought about by them.

Various forces are mixed on the internet; some want to fish in troubled waters, some intentionally guide the narrative, some deliberately push for division for profit, and others have ulterior motives; in short, in the more than two months since the sky anomaly, things seemed calm.

But beneath the calm surface, undercurrents have long been surging.