Devouring World Dragon

Chapter 275 Three Days Before the End of the World

When Hasegawa stepped into the police station, he only saw one person, a handsome young man who was completely drunk.

"Fafachip has resigned."

The young man opened his blurry eyes, raised his glass as always, and laughed heartily.

On the side was a video message from a young girl. In the video, she looked very haggard, but still managed a forced smile.

"I'm sorry, I think... I really can't take it anymore. I really can't work these next few days. All I want to do now is go home and be with my sister, and spend these last three days in peace."

"Jerome, Garo, I hope you can have a happy last three days..."

Amidst the somber sounds, the video message disappeared, and finally, only two people remained in the entire police station.

Jerome hugged the bottle and tilted his head back to drink.

His cheeks were slightly flushed; heaven knows how much he had drunk to make an interstellar human so intoxicated.

Frustration, despair, numbness—this is an emotion that permeates the entire RimWorld. Needless to say, in a RimWorld where everyone possesses psychic powers, this negative emotion is felt by other humans. The despair of the 200 trillion humans in the RimWorld has reached a point where even the constant, day-and-night psychic soothing mist cannot suppress it.

Suicide, violence, indulgence...

These kinds of behaviors happen every moment around the world. In an entire administrative region with trillions of people, the security department only has two people left, which seems terrible. But some administrative regions had already completely collapsed and fallen into an apocalyptic state months ago.

The Empire is now struggling to maintain order, and its decline is evident throughout the galaxy. All that the Empire can rely on are its autonomous machines.

Hasegawa remained calm, while Jerome stared blankly at the bottle in his hand, remaining silent for a long time before glancing at Hasegawa and speaking.

"Would you like to go out for a walk with me?"

……

Within the vast city, the tracks and streets on the ground extend in all directions, like dragons and snakes slithering through the air; while above the city, the enormous anti-gravity city projects artificial light, making the city below appear as if it were daytime.

The towering buildings on the ground and the inverted buildings in the air, like opposing spears and halberds, create a strange and spectacular sight.

From here, you can't walk out of the city's boundaries at all, because it's just too big. More than a trillion people live in this huge urban cluster with an area of ​​40 square kilometers.

But this once bustling administrative district is now completely empty.

Apart from the two sheriffs who had just arrived, as far as the eye could see, there were only some autonomous machines still in operation in this vast city, and no other living things.

The air was thick with psionic spray, attempting to suppress the surging psionic tide, but even so, the two could still sense a faint aura of despair. Despair permeated the entire ringworld.

"Sir, please return to your room; these will be your last moments with your loved ones..."

At this moment, a wheel-like autonomous machine flew in front of the two and emitted a series of promotional statements in a mechanical voice.

The stay-at-home order was enforced two days ago, and except for a few people who go out for special reasons, the vast majority of people will no longer be allowed to leave their homes.

Although the self-regulating machines are currently behaving politely, if anyone violently resists, emergency measures will be immediately taken to forcibly repatriate them. Meanwhile, the self-regulating machines that were originally cleaning have already subtly surrounded them.

Faced with this situation, Jerome simply raised his hand.

An invisible wave of psionic energy emanated, triggering a special psionic key. The autonomous machine's command lights flashed a few times and emitted a mechanical sound again.

"Hello, Sheriff Jerome. You have been granted special access privileges. You will be free to move around for one hour after the key is triggered... Thank you for your cooperation."

After identifying the two individuals, the wheel-shaped autonomous machine automatically left, and the other autonomous machines resumed their previous actions.

On the deserted street, only two people remained once again.

"Is there anything you'd like to say?"

Hasegawa asked.

He realized that Jerome seemed a little off today, as if he had something to say.

Jerome shook his head, looking at the empty city before him with a complicated expression over and over again.

“A month ago, you asked me what my story was like, but I didn’t tell you. Are you interested in hearing it now?”

"I'm interested in hearing about it."

Jerome glanced at Hasegawa behind him.

"Then keep following me."

The ion engines beneath their feet emitted pale blue light, and then they flew towards their target at a hundred times the speed of sound...

A thin layer of energy shielded him from external impacts, while the city clusters beneath him formed blurry afterimages. The earth stretched and thinned rapidly in his vision, transforming into a series of shimmering illusions.

10公里，20公里，30公里……50公里……100公里……

After flying for several minutes and thousands of kilometers, the two finally stopped.

Beneath my feet lies a vast urban cluster, a sprawling urban cluster no less impressive than the TVIK-6395465 administrative district.

The dense high-rise buildings and the intricate road network... all testify to the past prosperity, but that is all in the past.

Today, all that remains is an endless expanse of urban ruins.

Strange, enormous plants entwine around the city, and unknown beasts roam freely. The massive floating cities have long since collapsed due to lack of maintenance, and in the distance lies the ruins of a huge floating city that crashed above the city.

Civilization and barbarism merge into one at this moment.

TVIK-6395056 is an administrative district with a similar number, but it was abandoned many years ago, and all the residents have long since left.

The area of ​​this urban ruins is so vast that it would take a year to walk from the center outwards. Yet, such a massive urban ruin has never been repaired, because there are far too many urban ruins like this on the Ringworld.

When a city is reduced to ruins, people won't bother to repair it; they'll only think about finding a new place to live.

Even though most of RimWorld has become wasteland, urban ruins, jungles, and no-man's-land, this remaining portion of RimWorld can still easily accommodate 200 trillion humans. Even though for over a thousand years, the entire RimWorld has been recklessly squandering the legacy of its ancestors, with almost no new construction, it simply cannot exhaust the enormous wealth left behind by the Golden Age.

In that early "Golden Age" of the RimWorld, humanity created so much glory that even as order continued to crumble, it was enough to benefit future generations for countless years to come.

“What magnificent ruins…but they are still ruins, aren’t they?”

Looking at the ruins, Jerome's lips twitched, revealing a mocking smile.

If this ring world, filled with ruins, is a vast ruin, then the humans living on it are undoubtedly people living within that vast ruin. Hasegawa closed her eyes, as if sensing something.

Amidst the ruins, scattered autonomous machines monotonously repeat messages such as "Abandoned area, do not inhabit." These machines have been advertising here for many years and seem poised to continue doing so, even as the apocalypse approaches in three days.

“About 20000 galactic years ago, one of my ancestors came to the Sumer system and participated in the construction of the earliest ring worlds…”

Jerome lit a cigarette with a blank expression, took a deep drag, and then exhaled a ring of smoke.

Instead of using psionic energy to speak, he opened his mouth to speak, a rare occurrence for him. Contrary to his handsome appearance, his voice was very hoarse and sounded very tired.

"Back then... there were no empires or republics yet. It was dominated by a Supreme Scientific Council composed of scholars. One of those scholars proposed an idea to build a ring world. Then various loosely organized human regimes got involved, sending a large number of humans and machines to participate in the construction. My ancestors were probably workers from one of those small regimes? Maybe."

“Building the ring world was a very, very long process. Before and since, no human has ever built such a massive project. So, my ancestor asked his friend, ‘How long do you think we’ll stay here?’ His friend shook his head. Then my ancestor understood and said to his friend, ‘I think we should settle down here.’”

"This is one of the few records left by my ancestors."

Jerome looked at the cigarette butt in his hand with a complicated expression, stubbed it out, and then lit another one.

"And so, a family was established..."

"After that, many, many years passed. The Supreme Scientific Council disappeared, the First Empire disappeared, and the Second Republic came into being. My family was on the verge of destruction many times due to the turmoil. On one occasion, my only descendant was stranded on a barbaric planet and almost became a complete savage, barely escaping with his life. It wasn't until the year 18741 of the Galactic Calendar that the Ring World was finally completed."

"That year, 15000 galactic years had passed since my ancestors arrived in the Sumor Galaxy."

As he spoke, he pointed downwards and said calmly.

“This area, and even this entire world, was built by our family over generations.”

"2787 generations. Counting me, from my unknown ancestor to the present, it has been a full 2787 generations. After the world was repaired, my family has been settling here ever since."

He raised his head, closed his eyes, and fell into memories, murmuring to himself.

“Sometimes, I really feel like our family is made up of dead people. My ancestors from two thousand generations ago have always lived among us. They never speak, but we know they've always been there. They've always been watching us quietly, watching us build the ring world, watching us build this TVIK-6395056 district…”

The closed eyes opened again.

In a daze, he seemed to see countless phantoms in front of him. The figures were men and women, old and young, but their appearances were unclear.

He knew that those were just illusions, illusions caused by the overwhelming weight of his family's long history, but he couldn't stop himself from looking, because he could see them, he could see the silent gaze of those figures.

Is it pity? Is it compassion? Is it concern? Is it harshness?

He didn't know; all he knew was that the eyes of his ancestors from over two thousand generations were watching him. They didn't speak, but they were watching him.

"They are there, they have always been there."

Before those eyes, the 2787th generation descendant of this family lowered his head helplessly and whispered.

"Then, 400 years ago, the TVIK-6395056 administrative district was abandoned..."

At my feet, on the once sturdy road surface, a few blades of grass swayed gently.

The lush green grass swayed carefree, as if it were a huge mockery, mocking him and this ancient family.

For some reason, he found these few blades of grass increasingly irritating. He gritted his teeth, a nameless anger welling up inside him.

He stomped on it suddenly, furiously, while cursing loudly.

"Useless! Useless! Useless! You're all a bunch of fucking useless! This administrative region is a joke! This Ringworld is a joke! Humanity is a joke! What the hell are we here for? What the hell are we here for? We're all useless! We can't do anything! We can't do anything!"

"..."

He stomped on the ground, cursed loudly, and sobbed all the while.

After a long while, he collapsed to the ground, exhausted, lying spread-eagled on the ground.

"Hasegara, my story is over. If you want me back at my post, give the order now."

As he spoke, he closed his eyes.

But after a long time, he still couldn't hear anything from Hasegawa.

Opening his eyes in confusion, he saw Hasegawa Karo operating something on her wristwatch.

"what are you doing?"

"Request that Sheriff Jerome (TVIK-6395465) be given a day off, after which he shall return to work."

The cold voice remained.

Then, Hasegawa looked at him.

"Tomorrow... I hope to see you again at the police station."

After saying that, the man turned and left.

Jerome's expression was complicated as he watched the departing figure.

"Do you hope... to see me again?"

……

"Our ancestor asked his friend, 'Are we about to create the world?' His friend replied, 'No, we are already creating the world.'"

—Stories of Our Ancestors

"Haha, so it seems I can become a creator god too?"

In space, the young worker raised his bottle of liquor and burst into laughter at his friend's reply.

In the distance, beside the blue giant star, countless machines are creating miracles.

……

TVIK-6395465 District, no incidents today.

There are 2 days left until the end of the world.

(End of this chapter)