True Apocalypse Game

Li Chuhang’s diary came to an abrupt end here.

Though there were some disorganized entries that followed, they were all confessions about things he’d done in his life, as well as expressions of his fear of death.

These were likely written in the last few days of his life to relieve his mental stress.

From the looks of it, the city outside had once been shrouded by a cloud of radioactive dust, and Li Chuhang had starved to death right here.

Before he died, he had tried to eat the banknotes here to sate his hunger, but it was of no use.

’A pitiful man.’

Shen Feng read through the contents of the diary one more time before closing the book.

The cause of the nuclear war, as recorded in the diary, seemed to be the Crimean issue, which led the Bear Country to launch a direct nuclear strike against the Eagle Country.

Ultimately, the nuclear binding strategy of the world’s nuclear-armed nations was activated, triggering a global, apocalyptic nuclear war.

This "nuclear binding" was, in reality, a form of nuclear deterrence.

Specifically, it meant that the nuclear strike systems of the major nuclear powers targeted not just a specific enemy, but the Capital cities and important urban centers of every major country in the world.

The primary reason for this was that virtually no country could survive an initial nuclear strike intact; at best, it would be reduced to a third-rate nation.

To ensure one’s own nation wouldn’t be at a disadvantage in the ensuing global landscape, it was necessary to launch retaliatory strikes of equal magnitude against all other nations, dragging everyone down to the same level of ruin.

To put it bluntly, it was a deterrence system of mutual destruction built on a chain of suspicion.

No one knew for sure if the other side would pull them into mutual annihilation, but since they couldn’t guarantee they wouldn’t, the only option was to strike first and bring everyone down together.

However, Shen Feng felt there was something questionable about this version of the war’s origin.

He was somewhat familiar with the Crimean issue. It wasn’t a recent development but a historical problem stretching back hundreds, if not thousands, of years. The Bear Country had been entangled in it for a very long time; it made no sense for them to start a war with other major powers over it, much less initiate a direct nuclear strike.

The reactions of the other nuclear-armed countries were also far too extreme. If this world’s history was similar to his own Earth’s, it shouldn’t have been the Cold War era when the nuclear war broke out.

After all, the diary didn’t use the name "Soviet Union," but "Russia."

’The True Apocalypse Game didn’t issue a reward, which obviously means it doesn’t accept this vague explanation either.’

’Looks like I’ll have to find a settlement of ordinary people to get some answers...’

With that thought, he put the war diary into his backpack and walked outside.

Seeing Shen Feng leave, Firefly glanced at the corpse in the vault and hurriedly asked:

"Shen Feng, these treasures... you... you don’t want them?"

Shen Feng’s calm voice drifted back. "They’re yours."

Firefly’s eyes immediately lit up. She lunged toward Li Chuhang’s body, first pocketing the pen and dust-covered glasses, then stripping off his coat and shoes.

When she saw that the underwear beneath had stuck to the body, Firefly thought for a moment and decided against doing anything more.

She then pushed over a stack of banknotes, burying Li Chuhang’s body beneath them to form a small burial mound.

After grabbing another handful of cash, Firefly finally left, satisfied, and hurried to catch up with Shen Feng.

She also closed the vault door behind her.

She had carefully observed Shen Feng opening the door and had already figured out how to do it herself. Now she could come back and move all that "waste paper" out at her leisure.

Despite her hands being tied, she performed these actions with great dexterity. The way she looked at Shen Feng had also changed. Her initial wariness and fear had been replaced by a golden glint in her eyes.

This young man who had appeared out of nowhere was practically her God of Wealth.

The two mounted their horses and rode through the city ruins, heading in the direction Firefly had indicated.

According to her, it would only take one more day of travel to reach Nameless Town.

That evening, they arrived at a stretch of dilapidated highway.

Just as they were about to cross, the Geiger counter hanging on Shen Feng suddenly began to blare loudly!

Shen Feng frowned. ’Is that another radiation zone up ahead? Is Firefly lying to me?’

Just as he was about to question Firefly, two dim yellow beams of light pierced the darkness, rumbling toward them from down the highway.

The Geiger counter’s alarm grew increasingly shrill, its reading quickly jumping from over eighty to more than two hundred!

The behemoth behind the two beams of light rapidly closed in, sweeping past them at an incredible speed.

Shen Feng’s eyes widened. He stared at the monster that had charged out of the darkness, scarcely able to believe what he was seeing.

It was a tracked missile launcher. On its mottled, army-green chassis, two xenon headlights glowed in the dark like the eyes of a colossal beast.

On the beast’s back rested an intercontinental missile, one meter in diameter and over ten meters long!

The conspicuous designation "DF-36" was stenciled onto the missile’s body.

What shocked Shen Feng the most was what was inside the missile launcher’s cockpit: a skeleton, dressed in a military uniform and wearing a combat helmet!

There was no telling how long the driver had been dead, yet the missile launcher continued to travel across the radiation-shrouded land like a Ghost.

As the missile launcher passed by Shen Feng, the Geiger counter’s alarm began to shriek, the reading at one point hitting 400.

As the tracked launcher receded into the distance, the Geiger counter’s alarm quickly faded, eventually ceasing altogether as the vehicle’s shadow vanished into the darkness...

Firefly, however, had already dismounted and was prostrating herself in the dust, her face a mask of piety as she muttered something under her breath.

Once the launcher was gone, Shen Feng asked:

"What are you doing?"

Firefly scrambled up excitedly, her eyes full of reverence. She stared intently in the direction the missile launcher had gone and said:

"We’re so lucky! That was a messenger from the God of the East Wind! The legends say that if you meet one of his messengers, you should make a wish right away, and it will definitely come true! I just wished to the God of the East Wind that I’ll be reborn on this year’s Rebirth Day."

’God of the East Wind?’

’Rebirth Day?’

Shen Feng gazed deeply in the direction the missile launcher had disappeared, saying nothing.

Clearly, in the aftermath of the nuclear war, reverence for the Dongfeng-series strategic missiles had evolved into a form of religion.

The survivors had long forgotten what these things truly were, and had come to worship them as a modern-day Divine Spirit.

Time changes all things. Even strategic nuclear missiles could be deified.

’But why are there still missile launchers operating?’

’And it looked like it was performing evasive maneuvers, as if to avoid enemy detection.’

’Have the internal control units become fully automated?’

’Even if that’s the case, how are they maintained? What’s their power source?’

Shen Feng suddenly regretted not braving the radiation to take a look inside the cockpit.

After all, a few minutes in a 400-microsievert radiation field shouldn’t have been a major issue.

’Probably...’

Fortunately, since there were legends about the God of the East Wind, there should be more detailed information available in a regular settlement.

’I’ll have to wait until we get to Nameless Town to find out more.’

The night passed uneventfully. The next day, they continued on their way, and just before noon, they finally entered a small town filled with crumbling walls and ruins.

As they walked the town’s streets, they were flanked by dilapidated buildings. Fortunately, there was no radiation.

Firefly smiled and said, "Well, this is Nameless Town. It’s the biggest town around here. Lively, isn’t it?"

Shen Feng frowned, taking in the ruined buildings and their hollowed-out doors and windows.

There was no one.