Chapter 846
Eternal Night
Gabamuda stood in the starry waters of the Tongtian Pavilion, his mind already enveloped by layers upon layers of despair.
Just moments before, he was still feeling grateful for the 100,000 Dream Hunters that the Azure Civilization had gifted him.
The impact of the dark tide has not yet subsided, the home planet is still in imminent danger, and countless people are still struggling to survive under the threat of the monsters in the dark rift. Unexpectedly, an even more terrible natural disaster has appeared in the neighboring realm.
We've reached this point.
Fear becomes numb, and despair becomes calm.
A thought that bordered on self-abandonment quietly rose from the bottom of my heart.
Having too many lice is not a problem, nor is having too much debt.
Gabamuda took a deep breath and asked, "Miss Yang, what kind of disaster has occurred in the Cold Mountain Realm?"
Yang Wanyu's gaze shifted slightly, looking at the flowing starlight water at her feet, hesitating whether to reveal the truth.
After a brief silence, she sighed softly, "Uncle Wang, I didn't want to put any more pressure on you at this time."
Gabamuda shook his head and smiled wryly, "It's alright. If the disaster is destined to happen, the Ironfist Civilization will have to face it sooner or later."
Yang Wanyu nodded and said, "What has happened in the Cold Mountain Realm is not an ordinary natural disaster, but a terrible calamity called 'Eternal Night'."
"The civilized world affected by the eternal night will be plunged into boundless darkness. From then on, there will be no more daylight, no more day and night, and the whole world will be forever shrouded in darkness."
Gabamuda's pupils suddenly contracted.
As an observer of the Iron Fist civilization, he naturally understood what this meant.
When any civilization descends from the original universe into the primordial world, the laws of physics will undergo fundamental changes.
The alternation of day and night is no longer a simple astronomical phenomenon—it is not just day and night caused by the rotation and revolution of planets, but "the fundamental law of the world itself."
The planet has long since left its original cosmic space.
The sun and stars in the sky appear to be real, their light shining down on the earth, but in reality, they are merely illusions projected by the laws of nature.
No matter how powerful the probe is, or how long the journey, it will never truly reach those celestial bodies.
Now, the Azure Knight before him tells him that there is a natural disaster that can directly "alter the laws of day and night".
It can cause a world to lose its light forever.
This was the first time in all his years that he had heard of something so absurd, so terrifying, so despairing.
Yang Wanyu continued, “But the Eternal Night is not just about perpetual darkness.”
"When a civilized world is shrouded in eternal darkness for a period of time, a monster that belongs only to the darkness will emerge from the darkness—they are called 'Nether Beasts'."
"Nether beasts are born with a hatred for light. They never appear in areas with strong enough light. As long as there is a bright enough light source, they will retreat and dare not approach."
"but--"
Yang Wanyu changed the subject: "Anyone who enters a dark environment for more than a certain period of time, usually three to five minutes, and at most ten minutes,..."
"They will definitely be targeted by the Nether Beasts and then subjected to a frenzied attack, without exception."
"Faced with this situation, there are only two outcomes: either you enter an area with sufficiently strong light in time, or you are chased to death by the Nether Beast."
Gabamuda felt a chill run down his spine.
His lips moved, as if he wanted to ask a question about a specific detail.
But I didn't get a chance to ask.
Yang Wanyu seemed to have guessed what he was thinking and spoke up first: "You might think that by hiding in a sealed fortress and sealing off all the gaps, you can stop the Nether Beasts from coming in?"
Yang Wanyu gently shook her head, shattering his last shred of hope: "Doing this is completely useless."
"Even if you are in a completely sealed space without a single gap, as long as there is any dark corner inside that space, the Nether Beast can ignore all barriers and appear directly next to you."
She concluded, "Where darkness is, there it is."
Gabamuda felt a chill run from the soles of his feet to the top of his head.
Ignoring space and obstacles, this is no longer a monster, but a law-level hunter.
He swallowed hard and asked the question that terrified him most: "Miss Yang... just how strong are those Nether Beasts?"
Yang Wanyu replied, "The strength of the Nether Beasts is directly linked to the duration of the world's descent into the Nether Night."
"The longer a civilized world is plunged into eternal darkness, the stronger the demonic beasts that are born will be."
"In the short term, only low-level Nether Beasts have appeared, with the strongest being only a Warrior, so their threat is still limited..."
Gabamuda felt a tightness in his chest as he listened.
He didn't think at all that warrior-level Nether Beasts posed a "limited threat".
For ordinary people and low-level superpowered individuals, they can appear anytime, anywhere, making them a terrifying nightmare.
Imagine if an ordinary, civilized person lived in a precarious environment, where they could lose their life at any moment. Would such a civilization have a future?
of course not!
Once most ordinary people have died, even if the top experts are still alive, the civilized world is destined to perish.
Yang Wanyu's voice continued: "But in about five years, knight-level Nether Beasts will appear in large numbers."
Knight-level?
Or in large quantities?
Gabamuda's expression turned somewhat grim.
A single knight-level monster is enough to sweep through a city.
Ten knights are enough to pose a huge threat to an ordinary civilized world.
If they appear in large numbers, it is a force that civilization simply cannot withstand.
But Yang Wanyu's words were not yet finished: "Within the Cold Mountain Realm, a few civilized worlds have been trapped in eternal darkness for more than ten years."
Her voice was as light as the wind, yet as heavy as a mountain: "It is said that in some of these worlds, there have already been Venerable-level Netherworld Beasts."
Venerable level!!!
These three words, like a thunderclap, exploded in Gabamuda's mind.
The Venerable One is an existence that stands at the pinnacle of countless civilizations.
How could such a being become a monster in the dark night?
It was only a short ten years!
A world can transform from a place where ordinary natural disasters strike into a living hell where venerable monsters roam freely.
Gabamuda finally understood why the entire Cold Mountain Realm, and the Azure Civilization, regarded the Eternal Night as a "super natural disaster."
The world is in perpetual darkness; stepping into the darkness means death, hiding in a fortress also means death, and the monsters are getting stronger and stronger, rising from ordinary ferocious beasts all the way to the Venerable level.
This is no natural disaster; it is a catastrophe that leaves no way for any living being to survive.
In an environment of eternal darkness, all order would collapse.
Sunlight is no longer a necessity for life, but the only thing that allows us to survive.
But what's even more fatal is—
The technological level of countless civilizations was not particularly advanced to begin with.
Agricultural production and food cultivation are extremely dependent on natural light.
Agriculture will collapse completely once daylight and sunlight are lost.
For such a civilization, eternal darkness is not a disaster, but rather a matter of instantaneous annihilation.
To survive the eternal night, a civilization must meet two conditions simultaneously:
First, they possess "extremely advanced energy technology," capable of generating strong light on a long-term, stable, and large-scale basis, ignoring natural light, to illuminate the entire habitable area. Second, they possess "agricultural technology that eliminates the need for natural light," enabling them to continuously produce food in a completely artificial environment, sustaining the entire civilization.
Both are indispensable.
Unfortunately, neither of these conditions was met for the Ironfist Civilization.
This means that once the eternal night descends upon the world of Tekken, Tekken players will not even have the right to struggle.
I originally thought the Dark Tide Impact was the end of civilization, but now I realize the real end is yet to come.
Gabamuda's lips trembled slightly as he asked the question he feared most: "I want to know, will our realm, our world, be affected by the Eternal Night?"
Yang Wanyu's long eyelashes trembled slightly. She did not hide the truth: "My father once glimpsed the future through the River of Time, and the probability of the Eternal Night spreading from the Cold Mountain Realm to our place..."
She paused for a moment before giving her final answer: "More than 80%."
With an 80% probability, in the face of a civilization-level catastrophe, it is almost a certainty that it will happen.
It's almost equivalent to the countdown having already begun.
Gabamuda's face instantly turned extremely ugly.
It is a gray-white color that is a mixture of shock, fear, despair, and deathly silence.
He still harbored a tiny sliver of hope that if the Azure people were willing to do everything in their power to rescue him, Ironfist might be able to hold on.
But now, the eternal darkness has shattered this last glimmer of hope.
Once the Eternal Night spreads, the Azure Civilization itself must mobilize all its power to protect its homeland.
By then, where would the Canglan people have any spare strength to support a foreign civilization on the verge of extinction?
Destruction is inevitable.
Yang Wanyu felt a pang of pity seeing his ashen face.
But since the topic of Eternal Night had come up, she revealed all the information without reservation:
"According to the message sent back by my father, the situation in the Cold Mountain Realm has completely collapsed."
"Many civilizations that have long been shrouded in eternal darkness, or are about to be shrouded in it, have given up all illusions."
"They made a choice that no one wanted to make: abandoning their ancestral homeland, abandoning the solid barriers of the world, migrating as a whole, fleeing to those relatively less dangerous original lands."
Gabamuda's despair deepened once again.
He knew all too well what this meant.
Under normal circumstances, the mother world of a civilization possesses a naturally strong world barrier that can withstand the vast majority of external dangers, making it the safest and most stable sanctuary.
The primordial world was vast, chaotic, and dangerous.
There are no stable rules there, no complete barriers, monsters roam freely, danger lurks everywhere, and one could perish at any moment.
The safety of the mother world is hundreds or thousands of times greater than that of the original world.
But now, those civilizations would rather abandon their homeland and wander into the more dangerous primordial world.
This can only mean one thing—the Eternal Night is even more deadly than the most terrifying forbidden zone in the primordial world.
At this moment.
Gabamuda had completely lost all hope for the future of his civilization.
He suddenly realized that his visit to Yang Wanyu this time was a complete mistake.
Sometimes, not knowing the truth can bring more happiness.
Yang Wanyu gazed at the nearly collapsing Iron Fist Observer, her beautiful eyes filled with sympathy.
But there's no way around it; the path of Iron Fist civilization must ultimately be walked by the Iron Fist people themselves.
A long, deathly silence fell over the Tongtian Pavilion.
Only the waters of starlight flowed silently, shimmering with a faint light, reflecting the insurmountable chasm between the two civilizations.
I don't know how much time passed.
Gabamuda's eyes were empty and numb, yet they held a resolute determination: "Miss Yang, I'll ask you one last question."
Yang Wanyu nodded gently: "Go ahead."
Gabamuda took a deep breath and asked, word by word, "If...if the Ironfist Civilization ultimately abandons the Ironfist World, would the Azure Civilization...be willing to give us a safe haven?"
This was his last hope.
It was also the last resort for the entire Ironfist civilization.
Yang Wanyu's eyes remained calm, showing no surprise.
She had clearly thought about this issue beforehand and was already prepared for it.
She nodded immediately, giving the most affirmative answer: "Of course!"
Gabamuda's body trembled violently, and a faint glimmer of light finally rekindled in his eyes.
Yang Wanyu continued, her tone solemn and clear: "The Azure Civilization can create a World Island specifically for the Iron Fist Civilization."
Gabamda's eyes gleamed with joy: "I know that the World Island is a stable space independent of the civilized world, with rules, land, and energy cycles, but it is closely connected with the civilized world."
Yang Wanyu nodded and said, "Yes, after the Ironfist people withdraw from the Ironfist Civilization, they can relocate as a whole to rebuild their homes on World Island."
Gabamuda was filled with relief.
Ok!
Although they have moved to the world island of the Azure Civilization, the Ironfist people will become vassals of the Azure people.
But at least in dire circumstances, the Iron Fist clan still has one last way to survive.
At least, the flame of civilization will not be completely extinguished.
He never dared to hope that he could move directly to the mainland of Azure Star.
Because no mature and stable civilization would allow a large number of outsiders to directly flood into its home planet.
This will impact the world's will, causing it to decline and thus greatly weakening the power of the civilized world.
The fact that Azure was willing to give up a World Island is already an immense favor.
Just as a glimmer of hope ignited in the heart of the Iron Fist Observer, Yang Wanyu's next words dragged him back into the abyss.
"I must state in advance that the World Island has significant limitations in terms of area, resources, and carrying capacity."
Her expectation was tinged with a hint of reluctance: "This World Island can only hold a maximum of... 20 million Ironfist people."
Gabamuda's pupils contracted instantly, revealing obvious pain and struggle.
He stood there, silent for a full minute.
Finally, the Iron Fist Observer lowered his head slightly and uttered four words: "I understand."
Today, the Iron Fist civilization, despite numerous undercurrents and a sharp decline in population, still boasts over 1.8 billion people.
Eighteen billion people are vying for twenty million spots, meaning that only one out of ninety Ironfist people can migrate to the World Island.
This is too cruel!
The Starry Water of Tongtian Pavilion still flows quietly.
The dim light illuminated Gabamuda's lonely and tormented figure. (End of Chapter)