Those who face the wall, but are in the Nascent Soul stage.

Chapter 209 Shi Xiaoming, Zhang Yan, Shi Qiang

At 10 o'clock, at the entrance of the alley where hibernators gather, under a tin shed.

Shi Xiaoming waved his cigarette toward the grill: "Boss, another twenty skewers of fatty and lean meat, extra chili, and another skewer of grilled chives. Don't try to pass off grass as chives, I'm sick of eating grass."

"Okay, okay." The owner agreed, picked up a skewer of pure organic mutton, and oil sizzled and popped on the red-hot iron mesh, cumin and the aroma of meat flying all around.

In this era, beef and mutton were never in short supply. In places with lush grass, such as Eurasia and even Africa, there were herds of cattle and sheep raised to satisfy the appetites of the people of the Common Era.

"Modern people are so fussy. They complain that barbecue is too oily and salty, and they can't eat spicy food. They've been spoiled rotten. Wild boars can't eat fine bran." Shi Xiaoming tore off a layer of mutton from his teeth and chewed it angrily.

"In their eyes, we're the wild boars, unable to eat the fine chaff of their elaborate nutritional meals." The skinny man sitting opposite Shi Xiaoming unscrewed a beer and filled his own and Shi Xiaoming's glasses.

"What a load of bull! They just throw a bunch of vegetables, meat, and fruit into a blender, blend them into a paste, set the flavor, and gulp it down. Is that what you call eating? I'd rather be bent over on the ground and eat grass for the rest of my life."

"Old Shi, although, I don't recommend that you just stick your butt out in this society."

"Fuck your mother."

"Hehehehe." Zhang Yan was very happy after doing something so cheeky.

Zhang Yan, son of Zhang Weiming and grandson of Zhang Yuanchao. In the early years of the Crisis Era, Shi Xiaoming's fraud case, which lacked paternal supervision, was exposed when the United Nations declared escapism illegal. Zhang Yuanchao was one of the victims. After Zhang Yuanchao's family went bankrupt, facing an increasingly difficult situation, Zhang Yan also dropped out of school early to work.

During this period, Shi Xiaoming was sentenced to 16 years in prison. While serving his sentence, his father, Shi Qiang, was diagnosed with leukemia due to nuclear radiation and entered hibernation treatment. Luo Ji was entrusted by Shi Qiang to repay part of the embezzled funds, which shortened Shi Xiaoming's sentence.

After his release from prison, in the 34th year of the Crisis Era, Shi Xiaoming, with the financial support left by Luo Ji before his hibernation, founded "Gao Shen Company." He reunited with the adult Zhang Yan, reconciled with him, and they jointly operated a space building materials business. He gradually reformed himself and accumulated a certain amount of wealth.

In the 40th year of the Crisis Era, in order to avoid the impending economic downturn, the two jointly handed over 90% of their assets to implement the wealth liquefaction policy and hibernated in an Antarctic hibernation base. They awoke in the 180th year of the Crisis Era and have now lived in this era for 22 years, making them typical civilian hibernators.

Looking at the bustling night market before him, Zhang Yan sighed, "Old Shi, modern people value efficiency. They don't waste time cooking and eating. The time they save is either spent immersing themselves in the virtual world or engaging in various entertainment activities. Why would they bother studying food? Can eating compare to being an emperor or a god in a virtual world? Just you wait, when we hibernators die of old age, we'll never see this kind of lively atmosphere again!"

Shi Xiaoming unscrewed two bottles of ice-cold beer. "Let's get back to the basics. Let's beat the dinosaur first."

Zhang Yan: "Look at what you're saying, what if we can't win?"

Shi Xiaoming: "If I can't win, I'll die. Anyway, I don't want to go to Mercury to eke out a living. I might as well be eaten by the dinosaurs along with Earth."

Zhang Yan sighed, "You're quite open-minded."

"People in the Common Era are all easygoing, but those modern people who have enjoyed decades of good fortune are the ones who can't. Look at the mess they've made! The fleet is thinking about fighting, and the people below are starting to mess around. If it weren't for that guy from New York... what was he called again?"

“The Old Star Anchor Meeting,” Zhang Yan said.

"What a ridiculous name! Savior Cat Association? I'd rather have a Savior Dog Association!" The cap of the beer bottle in Shi Xiaoming's hand popped onto the ground with a "pop," and before it could even settle, it was snatched away by the robot vacuum cleaner beneath his feet.

Shi Xiaoming took a swig of ice-cold beer, tore off a mouthful of roasted meat, smeared all the chili oil from his hands onto the robot vacuum's head, and said:

"That Cat Association has organized several large-scale demonstrations against the modern lifestyle, which I think is great. The branch is full of people from the Republican era, and they spend all day promoting the spirit of our time. I think that's good, even though it's not very effective."

Zhang Yan also lit a cigarette. This cigarette was specially sold to hibernators; modern people basically don't smoke it. As he smoked, he said, "I'm not really interested in the old Star Anchor Society. I just find it hard to make money in this era... I'm really afraid of being poor, sigh."

Shi Xiaoming smiled strangely: "Speaking of which, Yanzi, how is your wife, your ex-wife, doing now?"

Zhang Yan immediately lost his temper.

"Don't mention her, I beg you, I'm scared just thinking about it. I was so happy to see this world full of handsome men and beautiful women after I was thawed. I finally found a modern beauty as my wife, but she turned out to be transgender and I couldn't even tell. I wanted to kill her. Luckily, we got divorced."

After Zhang Yan finished speaking in a panic, he looked around at the bustling night market and the men and women coming and going, and whispered, "People from the Gongyuan region make me feel at ease... I'm only forty now, which is considered just an adult here. If I'm going to find a wife again, I'll have to find someone from the Gongyuan region—but unfortunately there are too few people from the Gongyuan region, so it's not easy to find one. What about you? Aren't you planning to find one?"

"I'm not looking anymore."

Shi Xiaoming shook his head. His wife hadn't gone into hibernation; she had died in Crisis Era 84. His son, on the other hand, had come with him and was now in his twenties. He could leave the post-hoc tasks to his son. He just hoped his son wouldn't run into any ridiculous mess like Zhang Yan.

After the meat skewers were served, Shi Xiaoming picked up three skewers and bit into them at the same time, the fat and lean meat bursting with oil between his teeth. "So satisfying," Shi Xiaoming mumbled.

"Where's your dad? He's still frozen? If things don't get better soon, the dinosaurs will be at our door. Let's wake him up while we're still living a peaceful life and give him a few good days," Zhang Yan asked, leaning closer.

“My dad? Shi Qiang.” Shi Xiaoming shook his head: “My dad is probably ten years younger than me now. He’s just a little kid. Let him sleep. He’s the contact person for Luo Ji, the Wallfacer. If Luo Ji doesn’t wake up, he definitely won’t wake up either.”

Zhang Yan shook his head: "Sigh, still calling him a Wallfacer? There's only one Wallfacer in the whole world now." Zhang Yan shook his head: "Who among the young people these days knows Luo Ji, Hines, Diaz, and Taylor? These four were household names back in our day."

The shouts from the people playing drinking games at the next table suddenly rose, "Five champions—six six six—" making the tin roof of the canopy hum.

Shi Xiaoming pointed to the next table and grinned: "I love the spirit of the people at Gongyuan."

Zhang Yan: "Yes, it's better than being suffocated in the virtual world and dungeons."

Suddenly, rain began to fall outside the iron shed. The raindrops pattered on the iron sheets. The owner quickly pulled over a plastic sheet to cover the stove. However, someone soon realized that the rain seemed strange. Raindrops mixed with white mist rose up, and soon, beams of light intertwined in the mist to form a concrete picture.

"What the hell is this?" Shi Xiaoming said.

"Emergency broadcasting in this era is holographic projection," Zhang Yan replied.

Before everyone's eyes in the food street, a scene appeared in the sky with white mist as the background and lasers intertwining in colors. In the upper left corner of this huge scene, the CCTV-1 logo was very eye-catching.

On the lower left side of the top left corner of CCTV-1 is an icon labeled "Fleet International".

The figure of the spokesperson for the Solar System Fleet gradually solidified at the core of this holographic projection. His background was Jupiter, and everyone, including Shi Xiaoming, looked up at the live television broadcast that was delayed by three hours.

【Dear viewers, today is July 4th, Crisis Era 202. At the request of the United Government, Fleet International will launch a global broadcast to all of humanity:】

—At this moment, the 'Golden Fleet', consisting of 500 star-class warships and 2000 planetary warships, is passing overhead. The 'Golden Fleet' is an elite force drawn from the three major fleets of the Solar System Fleet. They are about to head to the Kuiper Belt front to launch an expedition against the Devouring Empire.

Now, the elite forces of the three major fleets that make up the 'Golden Fleet' are setting off from the lunar orbital gravity slingshot, circling the Earth along an equatorial gravitational orbit, and officially embarking on their expedition to the outer edge of the Kuiper Belt, witnessed by citizens of the united government of the seven continents.

This marks the first strategic counterattack launched by human civilization against a hostile civilization since the lifting of the Sophon blockade and the breakthrough in stellar-class warship technology.

According to the Solar System Fleet Command, the flagship of this "Golden Fleet" is the European Fleet flagship—the Paradox Engine. The fleet will maintain delayed communication using an electromagnetic wave communication network. The first phase of the voyage will last for six months, and it is expected to arrive at the current coordinates of the Devouring Empire in January of Crisis Era 203. At this moment, tens of millions of people are gathered in the Earth United Government Plaza to witness this historic moment.

Arriving at the United Government Plaza, we saw a highly emotional crowd. An elderly researcher from the Asian region was holding up a manuscript of "Dinosaur-Ant Symbiotic Civilization," passed down from his grandfather—he told us that his grandfather, Zhou Chang (King Wen of Zhou), had long ago predicted the existence of dinosaurs. Meanwhile, in Jupiter's orbit, the eagerly awaiting crew members and their families were bidding a final, remote farewell to the crew of the "Golden Fleet."

According to the technical parameters released by the fleet, all star-class warships are equipped with a four-in-one weapon strike system, and the shipborne ecological cycle system, including planetary warships, has been technically enhanced, which can maintain ecological operation for decades, sufficient to support the needs of this long-distance raid.

At the launch ceremony, Admiral Li Ahua, spokesperson for the Asian Fleet, emphasized: "This expedition against the Devouring Empire will accomplish its established strategic objectives, namely: to destroy the dinosaur warships on the outer edge of the Devouring Ring, to identify the main weaknesses of the Devouring Ring, and to make final preparations for the future solar system showdown."

At this moment, fellow human beings, look up! The light of the golden fleet is gradually becoming stars in the deep universe. This steel torrent, carrying the hopes of 100 billion people, after circling the Earth once, will cruise at 1% of the speed of light towards the doomsday ring that once terrified humanity. We firmly believe that this expedition will be the beginning of humanity's victory over the dinosaurs, a second victory even greater than the Battle of the Kuiper Belt!

After the impromptu live stream ended, a line of inconspicuous text scrolled quickly across the bottom of the screen.

—The Wallfacer Luo Qing will be heading to the front lines to fight—

...

"The barbecue's all cold, should we ask the owner to put it on the fire again?" Zhang Yan asked, clutching the half-eaten skewers of meat.

"What's the point of eating? I've lost my appetite. I'll call my son; he knows people at Fleet International. I'll find out what's going on and see if we can win this war. If not, I'm thinking of a way to wake my dad up early so he can enjoy a couple of days of peace. If I only wake him up when the earth is about to perish, then I'll be incredibly unfilial."

"Tsk, what happened to not caring?" After seeing Shi Xiaoming leave in a hurry, Zhang Yan took a big bite and finished the meat, then put the unfinished beer into a bag, paid the bill, and walked straight to his residence without paying attention to the rain.

Even if the earth were to explode tomorrow, life would still go on today.

(End of this chapter)