Li Ang and Miss Chai took advantage of the night to swim to a coastal area of Yin City.
Miss Chai left the Qinge Armor and slipped into the Soul Pulling Coil, while Li Ang packed the Qinge Armor into his bag. In a dimly lit corner of the rocky coast, he changed into ordinary clothes, disguised his appearance, and then walked onto the coastal highway, looking like an ordinary citizen.
At that time, the whole city was brightly lit. The streets were crowded with vehicles and pedestrians. Every few intersections, one could see government officials and armored vehicles maintaining order by the roadside.
The officials were armed with weapons and wore radios and headsets. Some even stood on top of vehicles, directing the crowd through loudspeakers:
"Move to the right! To the right! Pass Qifu Road, then onto Xin Shi Road, and cross the over-ocean bridge!"
"Do not crowd! Evacuate in an orderly manner! Vehicles in the front, speed up!"
In addition, the large, colorful screens covering the surfaces of many skyscrapers also displayed images directing the residents' movement—presumably, these buildings had been requisitioned by the Special Affairs Bureau.
The measures taken by the authorities so far basically followed the "Superhuman Disaster Emergency Management Guide," jointly developed by the Special Affairs Bureau and other departments. All organizational command systems, work processes, operational mechanisms, and working principles had been discussed countless times in meetings, so the response was not panicked or unprepared.
Moreover, due to the deterrence of armed helicopters and armored vehicles, scarcely anyone tried to take advantage of the chaos to loot. Daring to cause trouble in front of glaring searchlights and the dark muzzles of guns was, as the saying goes, like going to the toilet with a lantern—courting death.
Li Ang mixed with the residents still evacuating to the periphery of Yin City, listening to the crowd's noisy, chaotic, anxious, and fearful discussions about the Mirage Dragon they had just seen, as well as the dark spot now appearing on the Moon.
If one had good eyesight, the dark spot could be vaguely discerned with the naked eye. With a telescope, it could be seen more clearly. Using a professional astronomical telescope, one could even see what looked like the vast outline of an ancient architectural complex on the lower left side of the Moon's surface...
Those two seem to be planning to settle on the Moon's surface? Li Ang thought, his face, like everyone else's, showing panic and helplessness. How arrogant... The video of the Mirage Dragon's ascension and the dark spot on the Moon. It's safe to say that after tonight, the 'global anomaly' conjecture will become established fact, impossible to conceal any longer.
The disclosure of the global anomaly would undoubtedly have a profound and significant impact on the social structure of human civilization.
Yet Li Ang felt neither the honor nor the excitement of witnessing the curtain rise on such an event, nor did he ponder the future direction of the world. He pulled out his phone, looked at the series of missed calls on the screen, and sighed deeply.
Li Ang dialed the number back, lowered his head, and using his normal voice, said, "Hello?"
Wang Congshan on the other end of the line took a long breath. "Hello," she said. "Where are you? Are you okay? Why didn't you answer your phone just now?"
"At the City East Emperor Hotel."
Li Ang replied with a wry smile, "Ran into some trouble just now, but it's all taken care of. Where are you?"
"My mom and I have reached the emergency shelter in the Southern Suburbs," Wang Congshan said, the background of her call somewhat noisy. "It seems my cousin made a call and got us prioritized into the shelter. What about you? Are you coming over? The tent allocated to our family has room for one more person..."
"No need, no need."
Li Ang mentally thanked Wei Linglan and declined, "You guys settle down there. I'm already heading towards the outskirts of the city... This time, there shouldn't be any major disaster."
The officials directing the citizen evacuation weren't overly panicked. There were no sounds of weaponry in the city, and no fire or smoke rose from Qianhua Road. This proved the situation there wasn't too dire.
Li Ang continued talking to Wang Congshan on the phone while also sending reassuring text messages to his current homeroom teacher, Tang Hanyi, and to Shi Qingsong. The school had sent inquiry messages to every student and their parents, and each homeroom teacher was calling the students' families one by one according to the list.
After sending the messages, Li Ang talked with Wang Congshan for nearly half an hour before citing his phone's dying battery as a reason to hang up.
Then, Li Ang, as an ordinary citizen, queued up and got on a vehicle heading to the outskirts of Yin City. Under the arrangement of official personnel, he settled into a tent within the suburban emergency shelter.
Like others, Li Ang registered his resident information, received emergency supplies, and spent the night in the tent.
This night was destined to be sleepless.
One could guess that during this difficult Mid-Autumn Festival night, every nation was stirred by the ascending Giant Dragon and the dark spot on the Moon. Aircraft carrier fleets steamed out of ports. Intercontinental missiles were poised to launch. Intelligence agencies worked frantically to collect information. Research departments delivered one experimental analysis report after another. Meetings in various conference rooms dragged on until it was pitch dark. The secure lines in private offices barely stopped dialing for a moment.
The fate of humanity teetered on the edge of destruction. The danger came not from Demon Prison, but from other nations. For instance, a certain uniquely shaped building in Arlington County, Virginia, in the United States, nearly mistook the Mirage Dragon for some secret superhuman weapon created by an Eastern country. The dark spot on the Moon, meanwhile, was suspected of being a space-based weapon capable of destroying the North American continental plate in one fell swoop.
Luckily, after communication, the major powers of Blue Star stopped the activation of their automated nuclear retaliation systems and shared relevant intelligence. They swiftly shifted the focus to how to announce to the world that "a global anomaly has already occurred."
The final result of the discussion was to truthfully disclose a portion of the Killing Field Game's contents to people all over the world through the United Nations Organization and to declare a global state of emergency.
Taking this ostensibly tranquil Mid-Autumn Festival night as a turning point, the destiny of Earth's humanity quietly, or rather crudely, took a new direction.