Extraterrestrial demons invaded; I laid the groundwork eight years in advance.

Shen Bai closed the window and looked at the large screen on the wall.

The monitoring data from the Eye of the Rhinoceros and Xiao Cheng is still scrolling in real time, but the rift signal has disappeared, and the previously densely packed red dots around the world have all turned gray—the rift has closed, and the energy fluctuations have returned to zero.

From around 2 a.m. until now, nearly five hours have passed, and all of the tens of thousands of cracks have been contained.

Shen Bai called out in his mind.

"Xiao Cheng, report on the post-battle situation."

"Master, information on all combat teams is being compiled." Xiao Cheng's voice sounded tired. "The Bureau's combat teams are withdrawing, and the Dawn teams are returning to their rest points one after another."

"Casualties," Shen Bai said, uttering only two words.

Xiao Cheng remained silent for a moment.

"According to the current casualty statistics, 257 official team members, 918 reserve team members, and 770 management bureau members were killed, totaling 1,945 people."

"In addition, there are 5,836 seriously injured and countless others with minor injuries. There were no civilian casualties."

One thousand nine hundred and forty-five people.

Shen Bai stood silently in place.

For a force of nearly 60,000 at Dawn, such a casualty ratio is a resounding victory. But behind every cold number lies a living, breathing human life, a family that can never be reunited, and a life that abruptly ended last night.

The weight pressed down on his chest, making him feel suffocated, as if he had swallowed a piece of red-hot iron.

As a member of the Dawn, he grieved for the victims; but as a prophet, he could not dwell on the past.

After a moment, he suppressed his frustration and continued to ask.

"Breakthrough situation."

"There are 731 people who have broken through to the second tier, and more than 9,200 people who have broken through to the first tier. The reserve members are at the sixth to ninth level of the Apprentice rank. The overall combat strength has increased by about two minor tiers compared to before the battle."

Shen Bai nodded slightly.

The current members of Dawn are primarily of blue aptitude. With the advancement of spiritual energy concentration, over seven hundred have broken through to the second tier, and over nine thousand have entered the first tier.

If this had happened before the war, this number would have been a source of comfort for anyone.

But Shen Bai didn't see numbers—he saw the people who were fighting desperately in front of the rift last night.

They survived, grew stronger, and gained the ability to face even stronger enemies. This was a stroke of luck amidst misfortune, but he wouldn't describe his feelings as "gratified."

He knew that these people would face third-tier, fourth-tier, and even stronger monsters in the future, and experience more life-and-death situations.

The only thing he could do was to ensure that more people lived to see that time.

In this battle, evolution points were applied over a thousand times, most of which were automatically executed by Xiao Cheng, while a few were selected by Shen Bai in real time.

When five battlefields are on the verge of collapse at the same time, and there are only enough evolution points for one last boost, which one should be boosted first?

Every choice is a judgment.

The standard for judgment is not who is closer or who is more seriously injured, but which line of defense is breached and will cause the biggest chain reaction.

  

Whose position is the most dangerous? Who has more ordinary people behind them? And who, once they fall, can never be replaced?

Xiao Cheng was calculating every second, and he was weighing every decision. There was no time to hesitate, and no right to regret.

This is his own battlefield.

It's not about simply slaying monsters in front of the rift, but about making the fastest possible decisions with your mind amidst hundreds of nodes on the verge of collapse.

His greatest weapon was never his cultivation level or his battle halberd, but rather his evolution points, everything he had accumulated over eight years of planning, and the heavy trust behind every green dot on the Apostle panel.

The morning light from the window fell on his shoulders, stretching his shadow long.

The team members called him the prophet and entrusted their hopes to him.

But Shen Bai knew that the word "prophet" was neither an honor nor a lofty title to him.

That is responsibility—the inescapable consequences of every choice, the silent "what if" behind the name of every victim.

If he had planned more meticulously, if the evolution points had been allocated more precisely, or if he had made a different decision at some point—would those people have been spared from death?

There is no answer to this question.

But as a prophet, he had to bear the full weight of it all.

Eight years ago, that summer, he sat in his old bedroom at Qingfeng Garden and saw the system panel for the first time. Only two paths lay before him:

Rule 1: Use evolution points to strengthen yourself, become the strongest person after the spiritual energy recovers, and live a life of solitude. No one will know of your existence, and no one will blame you. You can live better than anyone else in the apocalypse.

Article 2: Spend eight years transforming yourself from a soldier into a commander, turning one person into an army, and planting the seeds in the soil before anyone knows that the end is coming.

He chose the second path.

It wasn't because he was born great, but because he had done the simplest calculation—no matter how strong a person is, he can't stop a thousand directions.

He needs people, he needs thousands upon thousands of people willing to stand in front of the rift.

Group defense is far more efficient than individual heroism.

What he didn't expect was how heavy those numbers would become once they became names.

One thousand nine hundred and forty-five people—this number will forever be etched on his chest.

"Xiao Cheng, save a separate copy of the list of victims."

"Recorded, Master."

Shen Bai looked away and picked up his phone from the table.

A message from Shen Tian appeared on the screen: "Brother, have you seen the news? Lots of cracks appeared again yesterday. Are you alright?"

He replied, "It's nothing. I was working overtime last night and didn't check my phone. How's everything at home?"

send.

He opened Su Wan's chat window again, looked at her message from last night, "It's thundering outside, are you okay?", paused, and typed: "I'm fine. I was a bit busy last night and didn't check my phone. How are you doing?"

send.

He put his phone back on the table, screen down, the wood grain of the tabletop becoming clear in the morning light.

He sat down in the chair and leaned back, his cervical spine making a crisp sound.

Outside the window, the sunlight grew brighter and brighter.

Warm light spread throughout the city, over the blood-stained land, and over the members who had fought all night and were now curled up asleep in their temporary rest area.

Shen Bai closed his eyes.

He was thinking about what more he could do when the next battle came—how to save more lives and extinguish fewer lights.

Those who have passed away are gone, but it is because of their perseverance that more people can wait for the dawn.

The long night will come again, but he will stay here until every dawn.