Chapter 24: Chapter 024
[24/7 live streaming, believing that as long as people keep watching, they won't disappear...] [Some survival fanatics quit their jobs, hiding in bunkers built for nuclear war, starting their "post-World War III" life in advance] [The whole society is filled with an atmosphere of panic]
[But order hasn't collapsed, people still live as usual]
Ordinary people can't do anything, they can only live as usual.
If social order collapses, ordinary people will suffer the most, especially those living in cities who might even struggle to find food.
Wang Ran had already seen similar situations in previous simulations.
"It's been over half a year, this doomsday's incubation period is really long," Wang Ran pondered, "Or perhaps, this doomsday is just about people constantly disappearing, like a frog in slowly boiling water?" The frequency of disappearances kept increasing.
If the number of disappearances each year exceeds the net population growth, the human population will continuously decline.
As time passes, due to the decreasing population base, the net population growth will only get smaller and smaller, until there's only one person left on Earth, and then that person disappears too.
"This doomsday is really strange!"
A doomsday that destroys humanity doesn't necessarily have to be earth-shattering, it just needs to be covert enough.
This is what Wang Ran feared the most.
The time he had to deal with doomsday was limited. If he couldn't discover the root cause of doomsday early enough in this limited time and nip it in the bud, no matter how weak this doomsday was, it would eventually lead to human extinction or even the destruction of Earth.
"It's been over half a year, and still not a single clue. Will this simulation just end like this?" Wang Ran had a bad feeling, "Collective disappearance of humans?" What kind of doomsday was this?
[Day 234, nothing happened]
[Day 235, nothing happened]
[Day 236, nothing happened]
[...]
[...]
Time flew by in the simulator as Wang Ran wore a grave expression.
The Super Administration Bureau and Dawn Apostles still hadn't found the reason for the population disappearances, and during this process, their own members kept disappearing. By the eighth year, the Super Administration Bureau was empty.
The Dawn Apostles weren't doing much better. By the summer of the ninth year, Jiu, the last remaining member, also vanished.
The simulated Wang Ran became the lone commander.
The situation for ordinary people was even worse. At the beginning, the government still managed some affairs, but as the number and frequency of disappearances increased, the entire society from top to bottom became sluggish, and eventually, order collapsed as expected.
No food, no water, no medicine...
In some underdeveloped areas, it could be described as a disaster for all living things.
[Day 4,059, you suddenly can't contact Lin Ying] [You rush to her residence]
[You find a half-eaten lunch on the table, wooden chopsticks with rice grains stuck to them fallen on the floor] [You understand she has disappeared too]
"We weren't living together?" Wang Ran revealed a bitter smile, "Ten years have passed and we still haven't mended the rift from back then." Lin Ying came from a wealthy family and was proud at heart.
The simulated Wang Ran didn't go after her immediately when the incident happened that year, causing an unresolvable knot in her heart. After that, their relationship was given the cold shoulder, and there was no hope for them anymore.
[Day 5,120, you are intimate with Yiya when she suddenly looks bewildered and vanishes from your arms, leaving only her body warmth in the bed] Wang Ran silently clenched his fists.
This doomsday actually snatched his wife from his arms...
He hoped the source of this doomsday was an intelligent being, so that when he finally found it, he could give it a thorough "education".
The text in front of him scrolled down like a waterfall.
[...]
[...]
[Day 6,548, all humans except you have disappeared, you become the last human on Earth] [Simulation ends]
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