True Apocalypse Game

The deep malice emanating from the tower sent a chill down everyone’s spine, making them feel an unprecedented sense of insignificance!

Everything they had cared about before—reputation, money, their future and fate, even their humanity—all became trivial in the face of this malice. All that remained was the certainty of their own destruction!

Even though they had repeatedly experienced the pain of being consumed by the Gray Tide in the doomsday world, the agony of being torn apart and devoured alive was now enough to drive them all to the brink of madness.

Then, after being devoured by the tower and suffering the terror of having their limbs torn apart, the Salvation Army Warriors were shocked to discover that it wasn’t over.

The game’s mission was still ongoing. Though their bodies were dead, their consciousness seemed to have been absorbed into the tower.

Then, a myriad of scenes flashed before their eyes.

Information from countless Parallel Cosmoses materialized before them.

A Cosmos filled with energy-based lifeforms; a Cosmos where a black hole consumed everything; a Cosmos occupied by terrifying, bizarre, and indescribable colossal beings; a Cosmos filled with the trails of starships; a Cosmos with only a single super-giant planet; a Cosmos where humans were bred and hunted by monsters; a Cosmos where silicon-based life controlled everything; and so on and so forth.

Aside from a few Cosmoses that radiated with various kinds of vitality—some passionate, some terrifying, some bizarre—the vast majority were simply black.

There was only darkness. No light, no heat. The Cosmos was completely dead, without a single shred of vitality left.

Even time itself had lost all meaning.

Only death was eternal.

At the same time, the Salvation Army Warriors also witnessed themselves and their families dying in various tragic circumstances within other Doomsday Worlds.

Dying from organ failure caused by nuclear radiation.

Dying from a viral infection that caused their bodies to rot.

Drowning in a raging flood.

Frozen into ice sculptures by a sudden, drastic drop in temperature.

Torn to shreds by rampaging machines.

...

The shock brought by these countless Parallel Cosmoses was overwhelming.

As some of the most intelligent people on the planet, the Salvation Army Warriors had theorized about the existence of Parallel Cosmoses. But to have it all truly displayed before their very eyes created a sense of shock that was completely beyond description.

Although they understood that these were just scenes from the "True Apocalypse Game" and not necessarily real events, they also knew that if the Commander wanted them to see it, then it must be real.

Seeing the vast number of dead Cosmoses, a question arose in many of their minds:

’Is Earth’s world next?’

’Is it our turn?’

Then, their perspective began to ascend infinitely higher and higher. Countless Parallel Cosmoses, stacked together like honeycomb bubbles, flashed past their eyes—endless, without limit—until everything before them blurred into a vast expanse of white.

"BEEP—"

The piercing sound of the virtual reality system shutting down rang out. Immediately after, the blood-red eyeball icon appeared before their eyes again, followed by a line of conspicuous, flashing, blood-red letters:

GAME OVER

GAME OVER

In the secret room behind the bookshelf in the Deputy Director’s office at the Federal Bureau of Investigation headquarters in Eagle Country, Sophie’s eyes flew open. She stared at her surroundings, still immersed in the sensation of death, her expression dazed, unsure of where she was.

After a full two seconds, her thoughts finally reconnected. She snatched the Virtual Reality Headset off her head and sat up in the game pod.

Beside her, Deputy Director Mick and Gerard also woke up and sat up with dazed expressions.

The three of them looked at each other, all still in a daze.

Sophie suddenly raised a hand and slapped herself hard across the face. Feeling the stinging pain, she tentatively asked Mick and Gerard:

"We... we’re out? We failed?"

Mick raised a hand and rubbed his wrinkled face, sighing as he spoke.

"Yes... we failed..."

Then he opened a hidden compartment in the game pod’s armrest and took out a half-smoked cigar. He examined its texture carefully before lighting it and taking a puff. Savoring the taste of the specially-made cigar, he nodded slowly and continued:

"That’s right... we’re out..."

"No..." Sophie collapsed back into the game pod, dejected. She pounded her head with her fists, finding it hard to accept this reality.

The entire Salvation Army—tens of thousands of elites representing all of humanity—had tried hundreds of methods but had failed to crack those damn giant towers. Their mission had just... failed.

And it was a total wipeout!

Having only recently become a Salvation Army Warrior, Sophie’s heart was still filled with the pride unique to a new recruit. This sense of honor made it difficult for her to accept such a large-scale failure.

Coupled with the lingering sensations of pain and death, and the final vision of those countless, terrifying Parallel Worlds, the mental shock to Sophie was simply too great. The immense stress caused her stomach to spasm. She shot to her feet, rushed to the trash can in the corner, and began to dry heave.

"Retch... retch..."

She felt as if she was trying to expel something from her body, but for the moment, she couldn’t succeed.

Mick and Gerard were not at all surprised by this scene and didn’t offer Sophie any gentlemanly comfort.

When they were first torn apart and consumed by the Gray Tide, their vomiting had been even more severe than Sophie’s.

Gerard pulled a cigarette from his suit pocket and lit it. He clutched at his own heart, which was still pounding wildly, and gestured with his chin toward Mick’s cigar.

"Deputy Director Mick, what is that?"

Mick laughed, flicked the ash from his cigar, and said:

"This is my ’True Gyroscope,’ so to speak. The game the Commander made is just too realistic. So every time I wake up from the True Apocalypse Game, I look at the cigar I left behind and savor its taste..."

He then winked at Gerard.

"The tobacco blend inside is my own creation. Only I know the taste, so no one can replicate it through the game system."

Gerard nodded, then shook his head and sighed.

"I can’t believe we were totally wiped out just like that. The Commander must be so disappointed... I don’t know what to do next... And that final vision of the Parallel Worlds... was it real?"

Mick stood up, stretched, and cracked his neck. "There’s nothing we can do..." he said.

"...it’s not the first time the Commander has been disappointed in us. It’s no big deal to admit we’re useless... but when we log back into the game in a day, we’ll have to play for keeps... As for that vision of the Parallel Worlds... what do you think?"

He turned his head to look at Gerard as he spoke.

Their eyes met, and they instantly understood that the other was utterly convinced of the existence of the Parallel Worlds. Nothing more needed to be said.

By now, Sophie had recovered from her stress-induced stomach spasms and approached the two men.

"Sirs, shouldn’t we be discussing what to do about those towers? And that terrifying consciousness that appeared at the end? We only have one day."

After dying in the game, players had to wait a full day before logging back on. This was the penalty for death in this doomsday mission.

While this one-day delay was a loss in terms of game progress, it also gave them an opportunity to find a strategy.

Mick nodded and led the way out of the secret room.

Gerard and Sophie followed close behind, ready to hold a strategy meeting.

But they all couldn’t help but glance back at the virtual reality equipment.

’Not being able to play the game really sucks...’

「Meanwhile, a few minutes earlier」

An angry "Mother Fucker!" rang out from the office of the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency.

Nick ripped off his Virtual Reality Headset, his eyes blazing with fury.

This anger wasn’t directed at anyone else, but at his own incompetence, mixed with the frustration of not being able to keep playing the game.

He had never imagined he would end a game mission in such a sorry state, practically kicked out of the game.

"FUCK!" Nick slammed his fist on the desk, then leaned back heavily in his chair, frowning and sulking.

But then, a smile appeared on his face, which quickly turned into a mischievous grin.

’It suddenly occurred to him that the Legion Commander from Hua Country and Pushkin from the Russian Federal Security Service were probably roaring with rage and cursing right now, too.’

’Maybe they even smashed a few glasses.’

’It was rather amusing to imagine that man losing his composure like that. A pity he couldn’t see it with his own eyes.’

Then he sighed again.

’So angry... We’re all just a bunch of useless trash, a pack of arrogant good-for-nothings...’

’The Commander... must be so disappointed, right?’

At this thought, Nick looked out the window, as if trying to meet the gaze of the Commander who was always watching them silently from the shadows. He was like a child who had done something wrong, terrified of disappointing a parent...

’But how in the world are we supposed to destroy that tower?’

With this in mind, Nick accessed the Central Intelligence Agency’s internal network and began searching through the sealed archives, hoping to find a viable solution.

...

In an office at the newly established "Tongchen Medical Research Center" in Hua Country, Li Tongchen had been awake for several minutes. He immediately began contacting his friends in the Salvation Army’s medical support units in the real world.

These individuals had already revealed their identities during the last Evil Spirit Virus outbreak, so they maintained frequent contact in the real world.

Now, they were preparing to hold an immediate video conference in the real world to discuss the issue of the Stone Statue Virus suppressing the Evil Spirit Virus.

But the very moment he connected the video call to Adrian, a physician at the University Hospital of Bordeaux, France, the man’s face appeared on the screen. He spoke rapidly in somewhat stiff Chinese:

"Tongchen, quick, look at the TV! The Arctic! Check the news about the Arctic! Quick, see if it’s the Stone Statue Virus!? Dammit, are those stone statues back!?"