Devouring World Dragon

Chapter 277 The Arrival of the "Stars"

银河历22525年环世界7月9日，末日历0年0月0日1时。

There is one hour left until the end of the world.

There were only two people in the police station, but they had nothing to do.

The final stay-at-home order has been issued, and almost everyone is unable to leave their homes, whether they like it or not. A large number of automated machines are undergoing final maintenance, which keeps Jerome and Hasegawa Garo inside the police station. However, no crime has occurred in the entire trillion-person district for six hours.

"I never imagined that on the day of the apocalypse, I would end up with a man."

The handsome young man sat reclining on the top floor of the police station, gazing at the ever-growing "star" above his head, and shook his head.

Above the floating islands and clouds, the blue giant star Somol, which had once stood high in the sky, bowed its head, for its "reign" had been replaced by that enormous star.

This "star" has now expanded to nearly twice the size of Sumor. In front of it, Sumor in the center of the sky appears small, and it is still expanding at an accelerating rate, which is already quite obvious.

When this "star" occupies the entire sky, the star will descend and destroy this magnificent ring world.

With the help of advanced prosthetic eyes, the young man was even able to see the dense clusters of tiny dots next to the "star." These tiny dots were actually unmanned warships, and these billions of unmanned warships were desperately trying to block the "star" in an attempt to slow it down by even a second.

Too many forces are trying to slow down the "stars," and countless sacrifices are made every moment. But like a mayfly trying to shake a giant tree, a tiny ant attempting to trip an elephant, all its efforts are in vain.

Inside the police station, Hasegawa Garo continues to diligently fulfill his duties, hoping to remain at his post even with only four hours left until the end of the world.

"Instead of just talking to myself there, I'd much rather you help me check on the situation in AGS-673."

Hasegawa's voice remained calm.

"What's there to see? It's just the same old sights. How many people in the entire world are still living outside their homes like us? Probably no more than a billion."

Jerome spoke nonchalantly, simply lying on the top floor, gazing at the slowly growing "star" in the sky.

Then the young man raised his hand and waved to the huge white "star".

"Hey, World Eater, how are you?"

The smiling young man was as carefree as ever, showing no signs of anything amiss.

Hasegawa Garo didn't make any further demands. Although he said that he would still go to work even if it was the end of the world, at this special moment, the man still showed some leniency and tacitly allowed Jerome to slack off.

He remained calm as he looked at the vast amount of information in front of him, with only occasional ripples occurring when a few people still outside requested guidance or assistance.

And at this time...

"Ok?"

He suddenly frowned.

“Jerome, go to YTC-3790... and take a look.”

"what happened?"

Hasegawa Gara did not answer, but instead pulled up the local surveillance footage. In the 3D image, a young girl was embracing a little girl, surrounded by a circle of autonomous machines.

Faced with these increasingly aggressive self-regulating machines, the girl looked helpless and cried out urgently.

"Galo! Galo, you saw it? Galo! Please, help us..."

……

Fafachip looked nervous. Faced with the surging autonomous machines around her, she could only call out the names of her former colleagues while raising the token in her hand.

"Stop! We have boat tickets! We are not leaving our home illegally, please let us leave."

The emanating psionic energy fluctuations continuously sent messages, hoping to stop these self-regulating machines.

But the autonomous machines remained unmoved and continued to surge forward, with hundreds of electronic voices speaking in unison.

"Citizen, you have been detected as unauthorized, therefore the stay-at-home order is being enforced. Please stop resisting... Citizen, you have been detected as unauthorized..."

The autonomous machines were quick; in just a few breaths, they had reached Fafachip's side, and some even reached out to the young woman. The young woman protected the little girl in her arms, her expression one of fear and helplessness.

But suddenly, the movements of the numerous autonomous machines froze, as if time had been frozen, and all the autonomous machines stopped.

The young girl looked at the suddenly stopped autonomous machines, as if she realized something, and shouted urgently into the empty space.

"Galo! Is that you? Can you hear me? Help us..."

"Stop shouting, our ears haven't even started to break down yet."

A lazy voice sounded.

Then, two people appeared beside the young girl, their engines emitting pale blue light. They were Hasegawa and Jerome, who had rushed over.

The handsome young man lowered his head and said with a half-smile.

"Fafachipu, I never expected to meet you in this apocalypse. Are you inviting me to dance with you in the afterlife?"

"Stop joking around now, Fafachipu. Tell me, is there any special situation?"

Hasegawa, who was standing to the side, gave a reprimand, and then spoke to the young woman.

Fafachip hurriedly held up the tokens in his hand: two physical ship tickets made of an unusual material.

“Galo, I have tickets! Tickets to other administrative planets. My sister and I are allowed to leave.”

Jerome, who had been smiling but not quite, opened his mouth wide.

"A ship ticket? A ship ticket? You must be joking..."

As of now, almost all the spaceships have been shut down, with only a few still making a final effort. In the past two days, not a single person in the entire TVIK-6395465 administrative district has had a ticket.

And now, two boat tickets have suddenly appeared here?

Garo ignored Jerome's shouting and calmly scanned the token in the girl's hand with his prosthetic eye. He then realized why the autonomous machine hadn't been dissuaded earlier.

While autonomous machines restrict the actions of most people, they don't affect those with tickets; they are granted a chance to survive. And the tickets are indeed real, but that doesn't mean the autonomous machines are broken.

The automated machinery did not malfunction; rather, it was because…

“I’m sorry, Fafachip, these two tickets were issued seven galactic years ago, and their last validity period was three galactic years ago. They have now expired, and according to the regulations, I cannot let you leave.”

With a hint of apology, Hasegawa said.

Yes, this is definitely a ticket, a genuine ticket, with a unique Imperial certificate of issuance, but the problem is that it's an old ticket from seven galactic years ago.

Fafachipu bit her lower lip, unwilling to believe that the two tickets she had unexpectedly found at home were useless, and pleaded bitterly.

"Please, Garo, help me; Jerome, help me."

But faced with the girl's plea and the little girl trembling in her arms, Hasegawa remained silent, but still shook her head slowly and firmly.

"I'm sorry, Fafachip, I can't help you. You know, even if I wanted to, I couldn't."

Yes, even if Hasegawa were truly willing, he couldn't help the two of them, and he himself couldn't board that final ship.

The air grew increasingly still.

The girl looked at the two people in front of her, and despair gradually crept into her heart.

But then, the handsome young man spoke.

"maybe."

The three looked at the young man, who scratched his head and then said.

"These two tickets are actually reserved for the two of you. Even though the tickets have expired, there should still be two vacant survival slots on the target administrative planet."

The great migration of the Ringworld actually began a long time ago. Although transporting a trillion humans every day would have been incredible for a pre-space civilization, it was not that difficult for the Empire.

But the real difficulty lies in the fact that there is no living space to accommodate them.

Given the Empire's capabilities, it wouldn't be impossible to move trillions of people away in a single day, provided there's enough living space. The problem is, the entire galaxy cannot accommodate these 300 trillion people.

The maximum number of people a typical administrative planet can support is only a trillion, but the entire Milky Way galaxy has only 7000 billion planets that are just enough for humans to live on. Most of these planets are not yet suitable for human habitation and are being transformed.

Even if all 7000 billion planets were filled, it would only barely accommodate 100 trillion humans, leaving 200 trillion humans unaccommodated.

At the beginning of the Great Migration, the Empire once sent away 4000 quadrillion humans in a single day, but in the end, it could only transport less than one trillion people a day, because humanity was desperately expanding to new planets and transforming old ones.

Without sufficient living space, even if people are transported out of the ring world, they will simply become frozen space corpses.

This means that every additional space available for living means one more person can survive.

If this is a designated ticket, then it means there should be two more spots available for survival.

A look of joy appeared on Fafachipu's face, but Hasegawa shook his head.

"But we don't have spaceships or long-distance teleportation, so we can't get them to the target administrative planet."

The young man hesitated for a moment, then spoke.

"perhaps……"

But at that moment, the once bright sky suddenly darkened, and a huge darkness spread out, enveloping the city.

Several people raised their heads and looked up.

A massive darkness rapidly spread across the sky, as if a huge hole had been torn in the sky, obscuring the blue giant star Sommer and everything else.

The immense darkness first obscured a small portion of the sky, then spread to cover most of it, eventually growing larger and larger until it enveloped the entire sky in endless darkness.

Then, the overwhelming darkness "slowly" fell downwards, its speed increasing until the mottled textures, resembling fine scales, became faintly visible. The immense darkness expanded within the retina, the details becoming clearer until finally only an unbelievably large, indescribable scale could be seen flitting by.

"boom……"

Suddenly, the ground beneath their feet flew up. Under the immense gravitational pull, the shattered earth, the people on it, and everything else on the ground were caught off guard and involuntarily fell towards the "sky".

TVIK-6395465 Administrative District, Last Day of the Calendar, "Stars" Descend.

(End of this chapter)