Cataclysm: Undead Dragons and Zero Empire

In Lin Ziming's eyes, the planet in front of him gradually turned white, slowly and steadily.

Glaciers began to expand towards lower latitudes, like a silent white behemoth devouring the earth, freezing everything in their wake.

The forests that sprouted anew were covered in snow, losing their former lush greenery. As time went on, the forests near the equator would eventually be replaced by coniferous forests, and polar ecosystems would become the main feature of the continent.

The river had long since frozen over, the ice becoming increasingly solid and extending deeper into the riverbed until it was thick enough to support heavy vehicles. The roads built along the riverbanks gradually lost their purpose and were buried by heavy snow. In this way, the traces left by humans on the continent continued to disappear.

Solid water is everywhere, and hearing the sound of flowing water becomes a rare occurrence. Under the influence of this environment, perhaps the surviving humans will develop a new culture, linking flowing water with warmth and life, making it a unique symbol.

Beneath the ice, fish that never experienced a freezing period became part of the ice and snow, unable to migrate back to their former waters, thus becoming the last fishery resource that humans could obtain from rivers and lakes.

The ocean's ability to regulate temperature is spiraling out of control. The melting of glaciers and rising sea levels caused by the greenhouse effect are rapidly reversing. Huge icebergs are reappearing in the polar regions. Humans no longer need to feel sad about the icebergs that are often seen on shipping routes and even named after them, as the glaciers are now continuous and make a dull thud when they collide with each other, as if announcing the absolute dominance of winter.

In human settlements, people are wrapped in layers of clothing made in factories, with only their eyes showing through cold-weather masks. Yet, they still struggle to keep up with the gradually dropping temperatures. Their breath instantly condenses into white frost, forming a thin layer of ice on their masks.

Anticipating the coming of winter, humanity has been working tirelessly to build steam towers, which have been completed and put into use one after another, becoming the last lifeline of civilization.

Large quantities of coal were continuously fed into the boiler room of the steam tower. Workers, dressed in heat-resistant work clothes, worked tirelessly day and night in the high-temperature environment, filling the huge boiler with coal to feed its inexhaustible appetite.

Through pressurized combustion, the water flowing inside the boiler pipes is rapidly vaporized, generating enormous steam pressure. This steam is then directed to the power generation system, providing valuable electricity to the town.

In the past, exhaust gases from thermal power plants were always released into the atmosphere through cooling towers. However, now that heat has become the most precious resource, the construction of this system must take into account utilizing the exhaust gases and transferring heat to every corner of the town through complex pipelines.

Inside the control room of the steam tower, several staff members were intently watching the various parameters on the screen, including boiler pressure, core temperature, coal reserves, and heat output efficiency. They adjusted valves and switches from time to time to ensure that the boiler's combustion efficiency and steam pressure remained stable within a safe range and that an explosion would not occur.

"Very good, maintain this state, closely monitor the rate of coal consumption, and absolutely prevent any supply disruptions," the supervisor always repeated the same words, his brows never seeming to relax. His anxiety was understandable; the recent temperature continued to drop, like a snowball rolling downhill with no end in sight.

The load is increasing, and the rate of coal consumption is far exceeding expectations. As a result, the easy and comfortable situation when the steam tower was first put into use has changed to the current situation where the heat conduction center is running day and night, and even requires pressurization at each level, with constant monitoring of the pressure limit.

Heat is released continuously, flowing like blood to every corner of the town. These heating pipe networks cover the entire town, connecting every building to ensure that no place is left out.

To ensure that the heat could cover the entire town, the Death Cavalry's engineering team set up small heat transfer stations in various areas of the town, pressurizing and diverting the hot steam delivered from the steam tower to form independent heat radiation zones, ensuring that even the peripheral areas could obtain a warm environment.

The residential buildings are no longer individual households, but rather like multi-story tents, with everyone living together in the same building, sharing a heating system to save resources. The indoor temperature is never really warm, just enough to keep people alive and prevent frostbite. People still need to wear heavy clothes at home.

With more abundant heating in the factory, many workers preferred to spend the whole day in the workshop facing high-intensity labor rather than go home, because that way they wouldn't have to endure the torment of the cold.

The machines roared, and the once-advanced automated production lines were gone forever. The workers were busy producing the most urgently needed supplies, as if they were in the era of the Industrial Revolution. Thick winter clothing and high-calorie convenience foods were the most frequently produced items from the factory. Each item embodied people's hope for survival and was distributed to various corners of the town according to their work.

In order to maximize the existing productivity of human civilization, city laws have become increasingly stringent, from initially extending daily working hours to increasingly frequent emergency trains. Everyone needs to make unremitting efforts for the survival of the collective, to the point that even those who have been forced to have amputations and become disabled need to return to work.

It's as if human civilization has truly returned to the steam age. Children help out in the hospital, sew patches on adults' clothes, and occasionally crawl into narrow pipes to repair damaged valves, navigating through deadly steam.

The children need to return to school at night to receive education and pass on the precious knowledge accumulated by human civilization. At a young age, they have to learn to become qualified workers, engineers, and even researchers. The growth aspirations made in the classrooms before the disaster have become a reality.

Compared to adults, children are more receptive to new knowledge, and a greater proportion of them awaken psychic powers. If they are fortunate enough to become awakened, they will enter psychic training centers to learn how to control this dangerous talent.

In the foreseeable future, psychic energy will inevitably have an increasing influence on the course of human civilization... if human civilization survives into the future.

The trials of winter are far from over. The blizzards show no signs of stopping, as if they want to use up all the moisture circulating in the atmosphere. Every day before dawn, people carry lanterns and go out to work in groups, and the first thing they see is always the despairing scene of heavy snow.

In some remote towns, roads were blocked by snowfall, causing coal supply problems and forcing the towns to continuously deplete their reserves. This forced steam towers to reduce their output, resulting in a gradual drop in temperature and increasing threats to people's survival.

Under Howard's supreme command, the Death Knights had to brave blizzards to organize transport teams and set off with great difficulty to these remote towns, delivering precious coal and supplies.

All vehicles had to be heated and fitted with snow chains, and the soldiers carried sufficient supplies and weapons as they embarked on the dangerous transport route.

Heavy snowstorms are commonplace. The wind howls incessantly, visibility is extremely low, and the convoy struggles to move forward through the snow. The lead special vehicle clears a road like a bulldozer, revealing the long-buried road surface. The convoy behind follows the tire tracks, moving forward in the wind and snow like a line of ants marching along pheromones.

The snow, whipped up by the gale, came from all directions like giant white waves, constantly crashing against the vehicles and making dull thuds as it hit the windows.

"Captain, the road ahead is blocked by an avalanche!" a soldier reported anxiously through the communication device.

The officer in charge of the transport frowned as he looked at the snow-covered road ahead. They had been given a strict order: they had to deliver the coal on time, or the steam towers in those towns would soon be forced to shut down, and what awaited the people was the bitter cold of despair.

"Everyone, go clear the road," he ordered decisively. "Hurry up, we don't have much time!"

The soldiers sprang into action immediately, using only primitive tools like shovels to help the vehicles clear the way, as they cleared away rocks that had been swept up by the avalanche and were blocking the road.

The cold quickly made those working outdoors numb, but the soldiers gradually carved out a passable road through the blizzard.

These soldiers no longer advance through battlefields of internal human conflict amidst a hail of bullets, but instead fight against nature, for survival, and for the continuation of human civilization. This is a far more brutal battlefield, where miracles of hope are sought amidst despair.

On the moon, Lin Ziming's psionic projection silently overlooked everything, gazing at humanity's suffering and its indomitable spirit.

Winter has come, and spring may never arrive, but if we persevere, the vast universe still awaits humanity.