章 17: They Aren’t Ready

Yonka City; it was morning hours as the sun shone brightly, casting warm rays onto the city that now had a wild nature to it.

Kuoo!

A bus screeched to a halt, opening its doors as a group of children entered it, varying in age, all bright smiles. They wore neat, ironed clothes, expecting a bright future.

Among them was a child eight years old, blinking as he massaged the horn growing on his forehead, feeling mild pain at the roots. His horn was segmented into two, displaying that he was at Stage 2.

Just before he entered the bus, the kid raised his head, gazing at the massive dome covering his city, noticing greenish clouds hovering beyond, unable to penetrate through the barrier.

And when they came into contact, the clouds gradually dispersed as their power was absorbed by the barrier, fuelling it.

A hand patted his shoulder at this time; the kid turned around, gazing at his mother's confident smile, automatically beaming in response as he rushed into the bus, taking a seat beside his friend, happily chatting away as the bus moved.

His mother continued to wave at the bus until it vanished from view. Following that, she sighed, walking through the pavement as she greeted the passer-by, buying the morning newspaper that she looked at the headlines of, reading them slowly.

"World Corruption fell to an all-time low at 71 percent. And 99.8 percent of that is concentrated in the ocean while the remaining is within the clouds. The lands are mostly free from the corruption but the values might spike up any moment in the case of a natural disaster or other nature-related events."

She sighed in response upon reading the news, "It's not just the ocean…"

It had been two years since the apocalypse hit them. Thanks to the restless efforts of the Post-Apocalyptic Dispatch Society, the Aberrants on the land have been cleared out by now, with the corruption here mostly cured.

And as all the survivors had become Horned Humans, they awakened to various abilities, some of which allowed them to inspect the condition of the land, detect the varying concentration of corruption, etc.

Following that, with Felix taking the lead, as appointed by Rhizen, a world government had been established.

Those from the PADS only formed figurative members that the world government was answerable towards. Everything else was left to the natives to solve the issues in their world.

After all, excessive meddling would only lead to disaster.

But, that didn't mean they just dumped all the issues on the world government. Rhizen and others from PADS worked on first establishing the authoritative body, appointing key members that they felt were suitable before laying down all the necessary groundwork.

And among them was Yonka City, the city Felix originated from and the location where the worst of battles had transpired, now declared the world capital.

More than a million among the survivors gathered at the city that became the capital of the new world order.

And in a similar vein, other important cities too experienced an influx of survivors. With enough people in a place, things resumed, gradually regaining their original flow.

Of course, the society at the moment was pretty different from two years ago, with technologies being modified to adapt to their powers.

Among them, one of the institutional bodies that gained a strong voice was the Geographical Society. Its primary function was to detect the corruption in the world and map out the regions with its varying concentration.

And, the news published in the newspaper was from them.

The lady continued to read the article, "More than thirty percent of the remaining corruption is steadily heading towards the inner core of our planet. This is a plan by Apocalypse to ensure it doesn't get wiped out. The Mantle Protection Board declared data that the rate of corruption seepage through the mantle is around 0.08 percent per 48 hours and is on a continued rise."

"These are troubling times." She sighed, "Until the corruption is eradicated, we'll never recover from the effects of the Apocalypse."

She then exhaled a long breath, folding the paper neatly before stuffing it in her bag, entering a large complex where a monitor scanned her horn, resulting in a mechanical beep.

"Stage 5 Horned Human, Marine Commander Yanka, welcome to the Naval Zone."

"Marine Commander?" The surrounding Horned Humans—that had been sipping coffee while reading their respective news—raised their heads in response, hurriedly getting up as they saluted.

"At ease." The lady, named Yanka stated with an authoritative tone, watching everyone take a seat immediately in response, her demeanour vastly different from the gentle lady of before as she boarded her son on his school bus.

Slowly, Yanka walked through the establishment, passing by countless rooms before entering the room at the end, the only one with large double doors.

There stood a team of personnel, engaged in a flurry of discussion as they stared at a suit before them.

The moment she arrived, the room turned silent as everyone saluted her in response, "Marine Commander!"

"How's the progress?" Yanka asked curtly, eyeing the armour that was newly produced by their division.

"We've been going through all the knowledge and blueprints supplied by PADS. But, the armour designs used in the other worlds corroded in a matter of minutes due to the sheer concentration of corruption in our waters." The lead engineer said, pointing at a sample cylinder nearby that preserved a damaged armour.

It had melted at various places, worse than a piece of rag at the moment, "So, we've been working on improving the design. We've achieved some level of success…"

"How long will they last in the Yalore Sea?" Yanka asked, cutting off the lead engineer's long explanation.

"The bottommost depth of the seabed there is only 800 metres. Our latest armours would last three hours in the corruption concentration there. They'll remain functional for 17 hours if we only move in the region less than a hundred metres from the surface." The lead engineer stated.

"That's not enough." She muttered, "Two months. Make them functional in the Yalore Sea for at least 24 hours. Time is running short. The more we delay, the greater the quantity of corruption that would breach the crust and head towards our inner core."

"We're trying our best," The lead engineer smiled wryly, "Even the experts from PADS are struggling. Our world has the highest corruption rate so even their experience is lacking."

"That's precisely the reason we must hurry." She said, giving an ultimatum, "Two months. Request any amount of resources you need. Leave the rest to me."

"Yes, Marine Commander!" All the engineers saluted as she left the room, heading to the top of the building as she stopped before a room, knocking gently. Her back was straight as the authority she exuded until now vanished, mildly nervous even.

"Come in."

The moment she heard the voice, Yanka gulped, taking in a deep breath before entering the room, saluting as she said firmly, "Yanka reporting, Sir."

"Take a seat." Felix nodded, watching everyone that had gathered, glancing at Rhizen once before saying, "I've collated all the data that we obtained in regards to the ocean. The situation, to say the least, isn't optimal."

He switched on the projector, displaying the scene recorded by a probe that they sent into the depths of the ocean, revealing countless behemoths swimming around freely.

Even the smallest of these large-bodied creatures reached a length of ten metres. As for the larger ones…

"Tch!" Rhizen clicked his tongue, clenching his hand into a fist, "All the big ones are on the level of a Keras."

"Yes," Felix nodded, mildly paling in response as he continued, "If they continue at this pace, another Celas might be produced. And, I have never entered the ocean in my previous life, so everything regarding them is a blank slate in my memory."

The people seated here were all aware of the fact that their world had been rewinded by twenty years using Felix as the funnel to channel the power of time by the PADS.

That was why Felix could freely recount the details of everything that he had experienced in his first life. Honestly, it wasn't as if Rhizen was aware of the details regarding this world in the first place when he dived into it.

Only through Felix did he gradually come to know of the various details and made countermeasures accordingly.

And since Felix hadn't entered the ocean before, he was unaware of the horrors that were brewing in there.

Even those from the Geographical Society could only monitor the concentration, distribution, and movement of the corruption. They couldn't determine the quantity/quality of corruption within an Aberrant without scanning it on site.

"How is it possible to produce so many creatures on the level of a Keras while the corruption is sinking into the mantle and further below?" The Director of the Geographical Society stated in shock.

"The enemy we're facing is the Grade 3 System, Apocalypse." Rhizen said, "It had plunged countless worlds into a state of apocalypse and destroyed them all. Even if it's only a fragment of Apocalypse's power here, even if it's cut off from Apocalypse, it's still a power originating from it. So, we can't treat it lightly."

"Remember that it had already succeeded in destroying your world once. If we had arrived a couple of minutes late, then even Felix would have died, resulting in it succeeding by fully turning your world into its Host." Rhizen said.

"Yes…" The Geographical Society Director nodded, sweating buckets upon being berated by Rhizen.

Honestly, except Felix, everyone else instinctively shied away from Rhizen, feeling a natural sense of oppression, even though Rhizen didn't exude anything of the sort.

It generally stemmed from the fact that Rhizen was the one who had singlehandedly created Nacre and a variety of things. And, they could feel his presence in the abilities they wielded, hence feeling a formless pressure from him.

As for Felix, he was different as a hardened veteran. Moreover, as he had the same ability as Rhizen's signature ability, he didn't feel any pressure when talking to Rhizen.

Felix then looked at Yanka, "Marine Commander, what's the status of the marine armours?"

Yanka got up with a start, nervous as she announced, "They aren't ready sir."

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