My Apocalypse Territory

Zhong Ping gritted his teeth and made up his mind, "I'll sign!"

The moment his finger touched the Golden Skin Book, the world spun around.

...

Looking up, he saw a grey, overcast sky.

In the distance, the high wall known as the "Eternal Wall" divided the world.

Outside the wall lay a barren wasteland teeming with monsters.

Inside the wall, there was peace and prosperity, hailed as the only pure land in the world.

"But it's an illusion."

Zabol looked at the Inner City, the true Royal Capital, and couldn't help shaking his head.

Indeed,

in the thirty years since the "Eternal Wall" was built, it had never been breached.

This wall, standing at one hundred thirty-five meters and constructed from countless rare materials engraved with innumerable rune arrays, was the masterpiece of two Grandmasters and dozens of Masters.

Masters of both Rune Studies and Array Study.

A Master of Manufacturing Science.

Together, they completed what was considered an impossible miracle.

The fierce Black Tide could only be kept outside this high wall.

Precisely because it had stood unscathed for thirty years, the nobles inside had grown accustomed to their comfortable lives.

No longer vigilant.

But Zabol, responsible for investigating the outside world, knew that the Grim Reaper's scythe was perpetually suspended above the Royal Capital.

Over the years, he had seen too many terrifying black beasts.

He had seen cities overwhelmed by the Black Tide.

Humanity's foothold was shrinking, and food was becoming scarcer.

"Even if the Royal Capital's circle is safe, how big is the entire Royal Capital's circle, after all?"

Music and dancing abounded, but that referred only to the nobles in the Inner City; the people in the Outer City were gaunt and starving, with countless dying of hunger each day.

Even they, fighting on the front lines and responsible for external investigations, had their scales repeatedly reduced due to financial issues.

Resources for cultivation were even scarcer.

A look of worry in Zabol's eyes.

The monsters outside were growing stronger, while humanity... it had been twelve years since the last Transcendent had been born.

The Royal Capital couldn't possibly remain peaceful forever.

He had reported all this, but Zabol, having little say, was snubbed by the decision-makers of the Royal Family for his concerns.

"Ah~"

With a long sigh, a ringing suddenly resounded in his mind.

"Desire to become stronger? Desire to see the world see daylight again?"

He was startled.

Quickly regaining his composure, he soon discovered additional information had appeared in his mind.

After pondering deeply, he coldly scoffed and dismissed it.

"You are so powerless, well aware of the looming crisis yet only able to watch helplessly."

"The dismal state of the lower levels, the inaction of the upper echelons, the dangers of the external world—what do you have to change all this?"

"Even the death of team members, you can't reverse; don't you want to change things?"

"If you truly disdain it all, why not decisively refuse, instead of procrastinating? Look into your heart!"

Bang!

The table before him shattered to pieces.

Zabol's clenched fist trembled.

He knew too well that time was running out. In another twenty or thirty years, the Royal Capital might well end up like other external cities, reduced to ruins and rubble.

After a struggle within himself, Zabol chose to sign the Contract, but he didn't leave immediately. Instead, he temporarily convened his deputies and several confidantes, and minutes later, disappeared from the room.

...

In another part of the Royal Capital,

the grassroots Potion Master Anzalek emerged from the laboratory with a grey complexion.

"The 34th failure..."

And he no longer had any extra materials.

Even the prestige of a Potion Master couldn't gain the nobles' support.

Which major noble in the city didn't have a Potion Master? Even among small nobles, when they needed potions, their first choice was still the Potion Pharmacists nurtured by the major nobles—after all, in terms of formulas, he might not even have as many as a single advanced pharmacist.

He could only make some common, low-profit potions to sell to ordinary Awakeners.

Barely maintaining his research.

Yet seeing no progress.

"Ding! Heavenly Thousand Worlds, Green Shadow City is online recruiting. As long as you have a heart that loves potions, we can offer you the best platform."

The ever-common sight of Master Anzalek, confined in his laboratory, was befuddled.

Immediately, a voice in his mind recited countless potion formulas.

The most infuriating part was, at the crucial moment, the formula description would abruptly end, switching to another formula.

So frustrating!

Worse than an author who leaves a cliffhanger!

Anzalek stretched out his slightly wrinkled hand, trembling, and touched the golden contract book.

...

Green Shadow, a tavern.

Tang Yu summoned ten new followers in one go, rounding out the numbers.

Two Transcendents, one Potion Master, one Cultivation Master, the remaining six, all at Awakening Tier Perfection, just one step from Transcendency, training them to Transcend wouldn't require many resources.

Having completed all this, he chose to delay summoning, then strolled out of the tavern.

Now, Green Shadow was a mature territory, and he was a prestigious Lord; greeting new followers was naturally not something he needed to do personally.

A few minutes later,

inside the tavern, ten radiances "just happened" to appear simultaneously.

An unnamed Perfection surveyed his surroundings, "A tavern? Looks pretty ordinary, we have those too... wait, the Source Qi concentration here is high!"

He exclaimed.

Then he suddenly sensed two oppressing presences beside him, turning his head, "Trans, Trans, Transcendent?!"

His voice couldn't help carrying a tone of awe.

They were just one step away, yet the gap between them and a Transcendent was like heaven and earth.

Without opportunities or luck, they might be stuck at their bottleneck until their hair whitens and they turn to dust.

The contract allowed them to see a possibility to break through to Transcendence.

Just the concentration of Source Qi here could increase their chances of breaking through by twenty percent.

After looking around, exchanging words,

among the ten, Zapol quickly recognized Master Anzalek; both were somewhat famous in the Royal Capital.

"Royal Capital? Eternal Wall? What are those? My world has no living people left!" Zhong Ping mumbled.

Zapol surprised, "Not a single one?"

"Maybe, at least, I looked for two years for a city like yours, a fixed congregation point, and found none."

This confirmed for Zapol that these individuals indeed came from different worlds.

Brought together by a mysterious mighty force, crossing mountains and seas.

Looking through the tavern window at the sky outside, so blue, an image from his memory from decades ago.

What kind of world was Green Shadow?

...

"Currently, Green Shadow City is home to millions of survivors, more than half of whom are Awakeners."

"This is the Castle District, that is the Cultivation Area, at the foot of the mountain is the Industrial Park... Oh, you ask about the bright light above? One word: 'day', two words: 'sun'."

"That's called 'Moonlight Waterfall,' which can temper Source Power, spectacular? Just average."

"What we're standing on is a Transmission Array, it can take us to distant corners in an instant."

Planing to resign as the Intelligence Minister, Grey Blade, who was supposed to be on vacation, was drafted.

Responsible for introducing Green Shadow's situation, history, and world overview to the newcomers.

The ten new followers, following Grey Blade for a tour around the territory, even those with stubborn characters, behaved.

Joking aside,

not to mention having signed the contract, the person before them was also a senior follower; just the Lord's ability to summon them across worlds made them realize they should diligently do their work.

Heard that Green Shadow had developed dozens of Dimension Worlds.

Heard that this world also faced similar disasters called Demon Tide, and Green Shadow had already confronted the controllers behind it, annihilating several strange-looking races.

Heard that just days ago, Green Shadow had slaughtered dozens of Transcendents.

Dozens!

Heard that now no Alien Races dared show up around Green Shadow!

Among the ten, Zapol, who had seen the most and was the strongest, couldn't clarify if the entire Royal Capital even had thirty human Transcendents.

Yet Green Shadow slaughtered them like pigs.

Such power undoubtedly gave them confidence.

The contract had stated, not a single detail was missed.

Completely resolving the issue of Black Tide wasn't impossible, after all.

After touring around, an itching-to-idle Grey Blade finally said:

"Zapol and Zhong Ping, you both can hold important positions within the Corps; both Masters can continue your research but need to cultivate enough talent for the Lord. As for the rest of you, your current mission is to break through to Transcendence."