Game: Civilization Paradise

He noticed a red warning post and clicked on it.

"Everyone, I am Captain Kakuul of Ocardo Sanctuary City. I’m sure you’ve all seen the video of someone finding a mechanical pillar in the wild and getting a bracelet. That video is real. But I must warn you, do not, under any circumstances, leave your Sanctuary City. This is no longer the world we knew! I’m in the outskirts of Ocardo Sanctuary City right now. There used to be a mountain here, but now it’s gone. In its place is a flat, featureless wasteland!"

"My god, that’s terrifying!"

"What on earth is happening?"

...

Countless comments popped up one after another.

Long Ming moved the mouse and closed the post.

Just then, another post was pinned to the top. The title was striking: TOP SECRET FOOTAGE OF SINFUL CITY.

After seeing the post, Long Ming clicked on it, and a video immediately started playing automatically.

The footage showed the magnificent Sinful City, then the camera began to zoom in frantically!

It was clearly a video secretly filmed from an extremely long distance.

As the camera zoomed in,

Long Ming saw the central mechanical pillar become clearer and clearer. The final shot froze on Sinful City’s Sin Abyss Plaza.

Sin Abyss Plaza was located in the central area of Sinful City. It was the Sinner City Lord’s private territory, and no one was allowed near it.

Soldiers could be seen surrounding Sin Abyss Plaza, lining up in an orderly fashion to receive their bracelets.

"Holy shit, you can really get the bracelets!"

"So damn sneaky!"

"We want to get them too!"

"Yeah."

....

Long Ming watched the video and read the comments, his expression growing more and more grim. ’If I’m not mistaken,’ he thought, ’tonight is going to be a sleepless night. The world might be about to change.’

BANG BANG~

Just then, the sound of gunshots came from outside.

Startled, Long Ming rushed to the window and looked out.

The gunshots were coming from far away and were widely scattered, suggesting they weren’t all from the same location.

Fortunately, they weren’t very frequent, and it fell quiet again after a short while.

RUMBLE~

At that moment, a massive roar echoed from the sky.

Jets and attack helicopters took off from Mountain City Mountain.

Long Ming sighed softly, returned to his computer desk, and continued scrolling through the forum posts.

BUZZ~

His phone screen lit up. Xiaoqi had tagged @everyone in the WeChat group again.

Long Ming picked up his phone and opened the WeChat group. He saw that Xiaoqi had posted a new announcement.

"Latest announcement: All members of the Star Wish Guild are on temporary leave. Await further instructions from the President. Additionally, everyone is to stay home. Do not go out unless absolutely necessary."

The group members saw the announcement and immediately began discussing it.

Cloud Fish: Hey guys, does anyone know what’s going on? Are those forum posts real or fake?

Johnny: Don’t ask me, my brain just crashed!

Zhou Hui: This world is going crazy!

Qin He: If it’s real, what’s going to happen next?

Shen Chu: Who the hell knows. We probably won’t find out until we get the bracelets.

Ning Yan: Bracelets? There’s a curfew, we can’t even get out the gates. And Mountain City Mountain is under lockdown.

Tang Ye: So what do we do? Protest?

...

Just then, Xiaoqi suddenly typed.

"Everyone, for the security of this WeChat group, I’m activating mute mode. Only admins will be able to speak. Sorry!"

"Don’t!"

Before Shen Chu and the others could finish typing,

the "Fifth Rat Rat Group" was muted.

Seeing this, Long Ming immediately sent a private message to Xiaoqi.

"Xiaoqi, do you know what’s going on?"

"I don’t know either. President Luoxue told me to implement temporary controls. It feels like the world is changing, and I’m panicking too."

Xiaoqi was also feeling extremely uneasy.

"Okay, I understand."

After replying to Xiaoqi, Long Ming got up, walked over to his bed, and lay down.

His brain was mush, but he still needed to rest. As the saying goes, you cross that bridge when you come to it.

Mountain City Mountain was under lockdown, and he couldn’t get a bracelet anyway. There was no point in worrying.

「The next morning.」

Noisy sounds came from outside the window.

Long Ming groggily opened his eyes, got out of bed, and pulled open the curtains.

The streets were filled with protesters. They held up banners and shouted.

"Open up the mechanical pillars!"

"We want bracelets! We want the truth!"

"We want to see the City Lord!"

...

Seeing this, Long Ming turned around, walked to his computer, and opened the Civilization Forum.

He browsed the latest posts.

He quickly got a grasp of the current situation. All the strange phenomena from yesterday were real.

The three major Sanctuary Cities and numerous smaller ones had all been moved to an unfamiliar world by an unknown power.

And that meteor shower wasn’t an ordinary one. What fell weren’t meteorites, but mechanical pillars.

These pillars were the same as the ones in the three major cities; you could get bracelets from them.

However, the three major cities were currently under strict lockdown.

The entire population was panicking and terrified by the sudden changes!

Just then, a citizen anonymously published a denouncement post on Civilization Paradise, with the spear pointed directly at Mountain City Mountain, Star Tower City, and Sinful City.

In the post, he detailed how the three major cities had long hidden the true function of the mechanical pillars, tricked the populace into entering Civilization Paradise, and ultimately caused the world to undergo this transformation, and so on.

These claims further fueled the public’s panic and dissatisfaction.

Therefore, as soon as the curfew was lifted in Mountain City Mountain, countless citizens took to the streets to protest.

Seeing this, Long Ming rubbed his temples with a headache.

....

「Mountain City Mountain, City Lord’s Mansion.」

Inside the luxurious hall, numerous administrative officials, drenched in sweat, gathered around Su Wanqiu, speaking with extreme anxiety.

"Miss Su, why hasn’t the City Lord come out yet? The situation on my end is critical!"

"That’s nothing! The garrison is about to lose control of the situation. It’s not just the people from the lower district making a scene; the people from the Upper City District are too. The entrance to the administrative building is completely blocked!"

...

"Everyone, I’ve already reported it. Please be a little more patient."

Su Wanqiu said, finding herself in a difficult position.

"We can’t wait!"

...

Everyone clamored.

Just as the situation was about to spiral out of control, Qian Ying walked in through the back door of the hall and barked in a cold voice,

"What’s all this noise! Don’t you know the City Lord is recuperating?"

The noisy hall instantly fell silent. The officials all looked at each other in dismay!

The lead administrator, Liu Bai, bracing himself, said,

"Lord Qian Ying, we don’t want to make a scene either, but the situation is about to get out of hand! The public outside is demanding an explanation, demanding we open access to the bracelets, and demanding to see the City Lord! We don’t have the authority to decide on any of these things!"

"If it’s getting out of hand, why don’t you suppress it? What’s the point of keeping you all around?"

Qian Ying rebuked everyone present, his expression dark.

Hearing this, the many administrative officials in the hall lowered their heads, not daring to make a sound.