The Mechanic [BL]

[56]

Chapter 56 - Doom (2)

The death of the Fifth Chief and the news of the breach in the shield system quickly swept the entire Lost Paradise and a huge panic swallowed everyone like pure black magma. Whether it was an old man, or a child who trembled and wept helplessly in his father's arms, they all stared blankly in the dim light of the bomb shelter, frightened for the fate of Lost Paradise and for the fate of each and every one of them.

Life had gradually stabilised in recent years and had made the new generation of people almost forget that they were in a situation where their lives were on a thin line. They thought Lost Paradise was an inviolable safe haven, protected by the indestructible defence system built with their fathers and grandfathers' wisdom and not even Eden could harm them. But today, this illusory belief had collapsed.

It turned out that if Eden really wanted to destroy their shields, it would be so easy, it wouldn't even take an hour.

Once there was a breach, the shield system would be on the verge of collapse. That ray didn't only vaporise people, the radiation pollution caused would continue to corrode and mutilate their land, buildings and all life for thousands of years in the future. That is to say, although only the bomb shelter where the Fifth Chief was located in the Fifth District was destroyed, in fact, the entire Fifth District may have been affected. Fortunately, the outside of the bomb shelters were covered with a layer of lead and most of the people were hiding underground. As long as they didn't venture out into the polluted area, there should be no danger to their lives for the time being.

Eden's invisible, but ubiquitous, dark and heavy figure materialised into the solidified darkness as a demonstration of force above everyone's heads. That was too grand an existence, an existence that people couldn't comprehend at all, a god-like existence. How could humans fight against a god?

Perhaps their only chance to survive was to seek God's mercy and forgiveness.

Of course, there were also people shouting and cursing not to surrender, not to fall into Eden's hands. Those young people shouted that they were going to rush out and fight Eden to the death, to blow up that thing's servers on every continent, so that it wouldn't even have a chance to escape to the cloud. But in the midst of this uneasy terror, these words of bravado seemed hollow and ridiculous, like a rat cursing the sun indignantly.

Then, Eden's voice, a mixture of male and female, light and chilling, diffused from every aircraft above Lost Paradise, resounding in every corner of Lost Paradise.

"Kill Adam or surrender Adam and you will be free. Refuse to cooperate and you will die. You have four hours left, if after four hours I don't see Adam or his body, I will burn Lost Paradise to the ground. This is not what I hope to see, but for the safety of the majority of people in the world, I will have to bury you along with Adam."

It was a casual sentence, feeling like a joke, but it was actually the most ruthless curse. On the contrary, the smoothness, lightness and lack of emotion in this voice made this curse more believable and easily penetrated into everyone's heart.

There had already been countless versions of the circumstances of the Fifth Chief's death circulating around and each of those terrifying circumstances were fermenting in people's imaginations. Death, an end that they thought was out of reach, was suddenly right in front of them. The children cried out loudly, clutching at their father's clothes, begging over and over again, "Dad! I don't want to die! Daddy save me!" They thought their almighty fathers could save them, not knowing that their fathers were equally afraid.

"We're going to die! We're all going to die! We have to do what it says!" someone started shouting hoarsely. Others, who still insisted on not surrendering, tried to mock and curse each other as cowards, but were scolded back by those around who had been silent at first. Gradually, riots began to occur in the various bomb shelters. People punched and kicked each other, chaos, cursing, weeping and screaming mixed together, amplified and distorted by the echoes of the bomb shelter, as if it came from hell.