Chapter 866

But fortunately, besides stabilizing reality, Reality Anchors could also stabilize the density of time radiation, keeping the time flow within a certain area consistent with the past.

And portable Reality Anchors could keep the difference within 20 times.

Thus, the 'Messenger Project' was born.

Human long-distance communication returned to primitive manual delivery, and those who shouldered this heavy responsibility were called 'Messengers'.

They carried portable anchors, shuttling between cities to exchange intelligence and post announcements, maximizing the timeliness of information.

…

"Huh? Time radiation? There's such a thing?"

"Nous: What is time radiation? Why haven't I heard of it?"

"Curious if time flows faster where time radiation density is higher, or where it's lower."

"Fine, after ionizing radiation and electromagnetic radiation that easily cause misunderstandings, now there's time radiation. Where should the pregnant woman downstairs hide now?"

"Hide in a universe without time radiation (immediate answer)."

…

"That's good."

Alice nodded slightly; since Christina knew what a Messenger was, the conversation now had a foundation.

"You can consider me a Messenger, but the cities I served are all gone. I have nowhere left to go."

Hearing this, Christina's curiosity was immediately piqued.

New New York hadn't received communications from other cities for a while.

"Have those cities been destroyed?" she probed.

"They have all turned into ruins."

Alice responded indifferently while flipping through the diary in her hand, as if discussing the weather or daily meals.

As the words fell, the two fell into a brief silence.

When the ventilation fan in the room malfunctioned, making a "click-clack" sound, Alice looked at Christina:

"On the contrary, New New York hasn't been destroyed yet, why did you come to the outer regions?"

Self-inflicted? But not entirely… Christina shook her head:

"…It hasn't been destroyed yet, but it's about the same as destroyed."

"After that endless rain came to an end, everything changed."

"Is that so?"

Alice was suddenly very interested in the current state of New New York; she quickly flipped the diary to the last part, hoping to find some answers between the lines.

【Humans are a species that loves the new and loathes the old.】

【When the rain that had lasted for decades finally stopped, the dark clouds pressing over the city suddenly dispersed, and people took off their raincoats and looked up in unison—that was a world I had never seen before.】

【I remember the sun was so bright back then, it felt really warm on my body.】

【At that time, we didn't know about the disaster that was stepping toward us. In those rare days, there were more birds.】

【And the musty smell that had hung over the city all day long finally faded away in the sunlight.】

【My parents took me and Tang Mi to the highest mountain on the edge of the city for the first time; they brought synthetic milk and bread, found a green meadow full of flowers, spread out a plastic blanket, and said we were having a picnic.】

【I think I will never forget that day.】

【Gradually, I don't know when it started, but the days grew colder.】

【Window glass began to frost over every morning, the green on the treetops quietly faded, and then the colorless, gray-white leaves fell one by one with the wind; that was the last autumn.】

【Some people still held onto hope, hoping to see autumn and the golden fallen leaves covering the earth, just as they had seen green in the darkest times before. My grandmother was among them; none of them got their wish.】

【Not long after, just as the scholars of York had predicted, the first snowflake fell, a cold wave began to attack our city, and the river water froze into ice.】

【All those who could still work were gathered to mine coal underground for heating.】

【However, the speed of coal consumption was far greater than the collection, then the sun dimmed, food became scarcer, and in those families without the ability to work, the elderly and children began to die.】

【One day, the unbearable protesters stormed the central Spire District.】

【They prepared weapons, some even brought guns, they posted flyers on both sides of the street saying the danger of the outer regions was just a lie, and they swore to let everyone be full and warm, swearing to blow up that tower.】

【Many people died, dark blood flowed onto the street, passed through the grates of the drains, and flowed into the huge pipes—I don't know where it would eventually flow.】

【And the Spire, that Spire still stood there coldly, like a giant that never rested, overlooking this aging winter city.】

…

Lines of the diary depicted a scroll of despair; when the apocalypse truly arrived, everything was sliding toward a worse situation, people could see no hope, and hell had descended.

When irrationality broke through the limits of rationality, it only took a little conspiracy theory and a few conspirators, and the foot that had been trying its best to step on the brake slammed onto the accelerator.

Even if Christina could go back, what she would see would either be a bandit stronghold or a dead ice city.

But this diary also awakened some bad memories for the audience.

Especially the players who had been tortured by a game nicknamed "Peasant Simulator".

"Is all this worth it?"

"When a city is going downhill, someone has to sit in the driver's seat and step on the accelerator."

"City Manager: Since everyone doesn't want to live anymore, then do whatever you want, let it be destroyed if it should be."

"Heaven creates all things to nourish man, man has nothing to repay heaven, kill, kill, kill, kill, kill!"

"…I think their way of handling it is quite good. Since there is a problem with heating, burn the whole city; since there is not enough food, lower the food standard, cannibalism isn't impossible."

"The manager of New New York is still too kind. The residents of the city actually still have the strength to rebel. Isn't it reasonable to raise the tax rate to 100%?"

"You are a bit extreme."

"You should be tattooed on the devil's back."

…

"Is it over? Your diary."

Christina shook her head:

"Actually no, but… I haven't had time to write the rest."

"What happened?"

Christina fell into silence once again.

She seemed to have returned there again, surrounded by the sound of fire burning, the sound of explosions, and messy footsteps.

"They are over there, don't let them run away!"

"Where did that little girl go? You two, go over there and look! The rest follow me!"

"Sister, your hand is still bleeding, wait here, I'll go find something to help you…"

"Come back, Tang Mi. They haven't gone far, they should still be around."

Well, perhaps she didn't have a home not long ago, but she always felt that her parents letting her take Tang Mi and run out first was just a temporary refuge.

When this storm passed, those thugs would realize that constant complaining wouldn't change anything, and the wilderness was colder than the worst places in the city.

By then, she should take Tang Mi home.

It's just… she lost Tang Mi.

Watching Christina's sorrow flow backward into a river again, Alice recalled the diary she had read and her situation of being alone, and quickly sorted out what happened.

"Alright," she said.

But who doesn't have a tragic past?

In this regard, she felt that she, who carried the 'Anomaly' prefix, was more tragic.

Seeing that Christina didn't want to communicate for the time being, she walked to a shelf not far away and rummaged through it, finding a black communication device shaped like a mobile phone.

She took out her authorization card, inserted it into the slot, and immediately, the dusty screen lit up with gray-white fluorescence.

"What is that?" the sad girl asked.

"Foundation communication equipment," Alice replied, not looking up, continuing to operate the extremely familiar device.

"I need to get online here, reconnect my personal data processor to the network, and download some of their data by the way."

"Although the Foundation disappeared long ago, the equipment they left behind is still operating normally."

"For a 'Time Walker', this data is essential for survival."

"So do you know where they went?" Christina asked.

This is one of the unsolved mysteries, often mentioned by frustrated and desperate adults along with why the world became like this.

They left behind so many relics that protected humanity, but disappeared inadvertently, no one knows their ending, and it's no different from a tramp dying in the rain.

"I don't know. They seemed to have disappeared inadvertently."

Seeing Alice extinguish the screen of the instrument and put away the card, Christina knew that the other party was probably going to continue the action. ===== CHAPTER 868 =====