Chapter 131: Luo Ji's incantation takes effect, the snowfield project begins, and all realms are baffled!

The words "total annihilation" hung in the center of the sky like a tombstone.

The message stream in the interstellar chat channel froze for a full four seconds.

After four seconds, all channels burst simultaneously.

Land of Light, headquarters of the Space Garrison.

Ultraman's Father punched through the command console on Ultraman Plaza.

Both Ultraman Jack and Ultraman Ace were startled.

They had lived for tens of thousands of years and had never seen the squadron commander so angry.

"These Trisolarans!"

"They cry on the public screen about only wanting to survive! Begging for mercy while slaughtering a million human soldiers with a single probe!"

"Is this their way of surviving?!"

Sevik silently picked up his ice axe.

He turned his head, looking up at the sky.

"I'll give them one more chance."

"Just once."

Starfall Human Federation, flagship of the Fourth Fleet.

Marshal Sidney braced both hands on the edge of the tactical table, his ten fingers digging into the metal surface.

She lifted her head, eye sockets red, but her pupils held no tears—only ice.

"The entire fleet enters first-level combat readiness."

Her voice was tightly restrained, each word seeming to be squeezed out of a compressor,

"Notify the First through Seventh Fleets: all personnel on leave must return immediately."

The aide froze for a beat: "Marshal, the Trisolaran civilization isn't in our universe!"

"I don't care."

She slammed her right fist onto the table, leaving an imprint.

"If the sky offers any possibility of an interuniversal passage, I want the entire fleet moving at the first opportunity."

Immediately, a string of iron-blooded barrage comments scrolled across the public screen.

【Starfall Human Federation—Sidney Marshal】: Pretending to be pitiful on the public screen to gain sympathy while using a droplet to slaughter all life aboard three thousand warships. This is what some call "pitiful wanderers" worthy of sympathy!

【Starfall Human Federation—Sidney Marshal】: @Starfall Earth Federation—Marshal, are you still going to assign survival zones to the Trisolarans? Open your eyes and look at that river of fire! Every fragment floating in it was once a living person!

The Marshal of the Starfall Earth Federation quietly retracted his half-typed barrage comment and silently exited the public screen.

Cybertron, Decepticon Base.

Megatron sat motionless on the Iron Throne.

His crimson optical sensors did not flicker. His processor was not overclocked.

He simply stared at the screen, like a cast-iron sculpture.

Only after the image of the fire river froze completely did he speak.

Not to Arcee. Not to his subordinates.

To the public screen.

【Cybertron—Megatron】: @Naruto World—Uchiha Sasuke. Uchiha brat. Is this what you mean by "humans have grown strong enough not to need Luo Ji"? Three thousand ships, pierced by a single droplet like candied haws on a stick.

Naruto World.

Sasuke's face was expressionless.

His Sharingan slowly turned, etching every frame of the apocalyptic battle into memory.

He admitted this massacre was shocking enough. But it would not change his judgment.

【Naruto World—Uchiha Sasuke】: This only proves that human warships are scrap iron. What does that have to do with the Luo Ji you praise? Three thousand ships unable to stop a single droplet shows the incompetence of all human civilization—not something a wine-drinking wastrel can change.

Megatron smirked coldly.

【Cybertron—Megatron】: What's the rush? Keep watching.

Beast Armor World, the Xuanwu warship.

Huo Linfei slumped entirely in his seat.

Miaojun Zhèn was so shocked his jaw wouldn't close.

Huo Linfei's vocal cords trembled: "One…… just one droplet……"

He suddenly sat upright, voice rising: "Where is Professor Ding Yi?! The old man who last shouted 'Stupid kids, run fast'?!"

The sky gave him no answer.

That fire river itself was the answer.

Trisolaran Universe,

Earth,

The Manor.

Luo Ji's face had not a trace of color.

Shi Qiang stubbed out his cigarette.

That old oily face of his lost all expression for the first time.

The future, it turns out, is like this??

The manor was silent as a tomb.

Then.

The sky popped up a new image.

An observatory's alarm lit up. Red light spun wildly in the darkness.

A group of scientists crowded in front of the terminal, hands shaking, mouths trembling, their whole bodies trembling.

The sky curtain lens cut toward deep space.

187J3X1.

That star, whose coordinates Luo Ji had broadcast to the entire universe two centuries ago.

In the observation screen, the star's light curve showed violent abnormal fluctuations.

The next second, an extremely thin beam of light.

So thin it almost did not exist,

shot out from an unknown direction in deep space.

It pierced the star's core.

There was no supernova explosion like cosmic fireworks.

Only a collapse after being precisely "punctured."

The star's outer shell disintegrated layer by layer in gravitational imbalance.

The nuclear fire that had burned for billions of years, in the silence of the universe, was permanently extinguished.

The sky curtain projected cold text.

【Star 187J3X1, destroyed by a "light particle" fired by an unknown civilization.】

【Two centuries ago, the "spell" uttered by Wallfacer Luo Ji came true.】

The myriad realms fell silent.

Deeper and longer than the silence after the Doomsday Battle.

Because the Doomsday Battle destroyed only warships.

While these words destroyed everyone's cosmic view.

A human with no weapons, no fleet, relying on a string of coordinates and one broadcast, killed a star.

In the manor.

Shi Qiang's eyeballs almost popped out of their sockets.

"Luo little brother, your... your... that 'spell'... is it real?!"

Luo Ji opened his mouth, the sound in his throat hoarse beyond recognition.

"The dark forest... is real."

The sky curtain continued to advance.

The emergency meeting hall of the Planetary Defense Council.

The surviving human elite filled the room completely.

Every face bore two things: fear and regret.

At this moment, each of them regretted their previous arrogance, believing that with three thousand fleets humanity could crush the Trisolaran civilization, and thus had revoked Luo Ji's Wallfacer status.

Now it seems, truly laughable.

Some among them even still dreamed of living peacefully with the Trisolarans.

Golden subtitles appeared.

【Wallfacer Luo Ji, reappointed by the high ranks as humanity's sole Wallfacer.】

【This time, no one will laugh at him.】

【Luo Ji, regarded by humanity a second time as a savior.】

Cybertron Star, Decepticon Base.

Megatron rose from the Iron Throne.

His electronic mad laughter penetrated the entire base's metal walls, making even Starscream's joints tremble.

【Cybertron—Megatron】: Hahahaha! Uzumaki brat! Did you see that!

【Cybertron—Megatron】: That "spell" he sent out two hundred years ago! The star was destroyed! He used no weapons! He built no fleets! He merely threw a coordinate into the dark forest! The hunter in the dark fired for him!

【Cybertron—Megatron】: This is the true Wallfacer! This is the true picture of the dark forest in the Trisolaris universe! My guess was not wrong!

Dragon Ball World, King Kai's Planet.

Goku sprang up from the grass, his eyes shining like two stars.

"This Luo Ji, so awesome! He treated the entire universe as a weapon!"

King Kai wiped the cold sweat from his forehead:

"Goku, what are you excited about... this means that in that universe there are who-know-how-many civilizations capable of extinguishing stars with a flick of the wrist..."

One Piece World, Thousand Sunny Deck.

Robin gently closed the book in her hands.

"He has always known the answer. From the very beginning, he knew."

Armor Hero World.

Beimiao put down his coffee cup.

He said nothing.

He merely stared at Luo Ji's face on the sky curtain for a long time.

Then, he slowly undid the first button of his collar and leaned back against the sofa.

"Heh, just good luck."

"Who knows what it really is like."

Naruto World.

Sasuke stared at the sky curtain, his Sharingan slowly ceasing to spin.

Five seconds of silence.

【Naruto World—Uchiha Sasuke】: The star being destroyed only proves his theory is correct. But it doesn't change humanity's current situation.

The Trisolaran fleet is still en route, the water droplet still in the solar system. A correct theory, if it cannot be transformed into actual power, is worthless.

【Naruto World—Uchiha Sasuke】: So what if he's now a Wallfacer? Humanity, in desperation, is just grasping at straws.

Seeing this barrage, Megatron didn't laugh anymore.

The sky curtain froze at the moment Luo Ji stood in the center of the Council Hall.

The surrounding human elites looked at him with eyes completely different from two centuries ago.

No more contempt, no more mockery.

Only fear.

And beneath that fear, the last desperate hope of a all-or-nothing gamble.

The cold subtitles slowly appeared.

【Wallfacer Luo Ji, resuming control of humanity's fate.】

【But the water droplet still wanders in the solar system, having blocked the sun.】

【Humanity can no longer send any broadcasts into the universe.】

【His most deadly weapon, dark forest deterrence, has been completely sealed.】

The hearts of the myriad worlds rose to their throats.

The strongest weapon, the moment it was grasped, was locked away.

What's the difference between that and having no weapon?

However, the last line of text appeared.

【In the desperate blockade, Luo Ji proposed to the Council an engineering project that no one could understand.】

【The "Snow Project".】

The sky curtain brightened again from the darkness.

Luo Ji stood in a shabby underground command room.

Exposed pipes overhead dripped water, the air filled with the smell of rust.

Compared to the luxurious mountain manor of two centuries ago, this place feels like another world.

Before him hung a holographic star map.

The sun centered, the water droplet's patrol trajectory marked in red dashed lines, intersecting and interweaving to form an impenetrable net.

The sky curtain narration sounded.

【The water droplet blocks the sun. Humanity has lost the ability to broadcast into the universe. Dark forest deterrence has become a gun locked in a safe.】

【The gun is in hand, but the trigger cannot be pulled.】

The screen gave Luo Ji a side close-up.

His eye sockets were sunken, stubble grew on his chin, his whole person had become thinner.

That wrinkled old jacket on him contrasted starkly with the silk pajamas he wore back then.

But his gaze had changed.

No longer scattered, no longer wandering.

Those eyes fixed on the water droplet's trajectory on the star map, like a hunter staring at prey in a trap.

In the manor.

Luo Ji watched himself on the sky curtain, silent for a long time.

Shi Qiang held a cigarette, his voice muffled: "Snow Project... you ended up coming up with this?"

Luo Ji shook his head: "I haven't thought of it yet. But the me on the sky curtain obviously has."

The sky curtain continued to advance.

Before the holographic star map, Luo Ji turned around, facing a room full of human elites.

【"Snow Project."】

【"Deploy tens of thousands of nuclear bombs in batches in orbits around the sun, simultaneously releasing large amounts of special oil film substance."】

【"After the nuclear bombs detonate, the shockwave drives the oil film to spread, forming a vast dust cloud curtain around the sun."】

In the picture, a simulated animation unfolded. Tens of thousands of nuclear bombs were evenly distributed in the outer orbit around the sun.

At the moment of detonation, light swallowed everything, the oil film substance rapidly expanding under the push of the shockwave.

Finally, a thin but broad dust curtain formed around the sun.

When the water droplet passes through the dust curtain, it will leave clear motion traces on the curtain,

just like a bullet passing through a snowfield, leaving a trajectory.

Sky curtain subtitles supplemented.

【This is the "public purpose" of the Snow Project.】

【The oil film dust cloud can mark the water droplet's motion trajectory, allowing humanity to predict its attack path, serving as an early-warning radar.】

【The whole world only knows this layer.】

The last line of text remained on the screen for three more seconds before slowly fading away.

After a moment of silence, the myriad worlds chat channel was flooded with various analyses.

Marvel Universe.

Tony Stark stood before the holographic operating table.

He pulled up the simulation animation of the Snow Project, playing it back frame by frame three times.

"Early warning radar?"

Tony tapped the table, speaking extremely fast,

"Using nuclear bombs and oil film to give the water droplet a ballistic marker?"

"Technically it makes sense. The crushing defeat in the Doomsday Battle was precisely because humans could not predict the water droplet's trajectory at all."

"With this dust curtain, at least we can know several seconds in advance where the water droplet is heading."

He paused.

"But."

Tony's finger traced a circle in the air, enclosing the vast dust cloud surrounding the sun in the simulation animation.

"Tens of thousands of nuclear bombs. This scale is a bit excessive."

"If it's just for early warning, a few hundred would suffice."

"Throwing tens of thousands of nuclear bombs around the sun, this scale..."

He didn't finish.

JARVIS spoke for him.

"Sir, if tens of thousands of nuclear bombs were detonated simultaneously, the superimposed effect of their shockwaves and electromagnetic pulses would theoretically be sufficient to briefly disrupt the sun's magnetic field environment."

"Under such interference, the water droplet's trajectory could deviate by several seconds to tens of seconds."

Tony lifted his head.

"A window of several seconds to tens of seconds..."

He did not continue.

But his gaze changed.

Wandering Earth Universe, Navigator International Space Station.

Moss's pale blue light flowed rapidly across the surface of the spherical terminal.

"Mr. Liu Peiqiang, the stated purpose of the Snow Project has obvious resource redundancy."

Liu Peiqiang crossed his arms: "Where is the redundancy?"

"The oil film coverage needed for early warning requires only one-twelfth of the current plan's area."

"The number of nuclear bombs needed is only one-eighth of the current plan."

Moss's tone remained flat, but its conclusion was extremely sharp.

"This project has an undisclosed second purpose."

"But based on existing information, I cannot deduce its specific content."

Liu Peiqiang fell silent for three seconds.

"Wallfacers."

He said softly,

"The Wallfacers' plan was never meant to be understood by others.