At 14:20 on May 22, 2030, Dai Bingcheng escaped a day after he fled.

The streets were deserted and there was no one to see. Only occasionally a few cars whistled by, and most of them were military vehicles. But the streets were clean and each stone slab was cleaned and shiny, demonstrating a strict discipline and order.

Dai Bingcheng lowered his hat and walked into a small supermarket on the street in his trench coat pocket. After the door was pushed open, the electronic sound sounded at the door: "Welcome". This sound scared him - because it was quiet inside and outside the small supermarket.

The boss at the supermarket door looked up at him and smiled depressedly: "What do you want?"

Dai Bingcheng looked at him carefully - this was an elderly man, who looked almost seventy years old. The age spots had climbed up to his neck, and the skin there was loose like a fur-fed chicken, with two layers of wrinkles piled up.

He thought to himself at the same age as me. But this idea made him feel unhappy. He is still not willing to accept the fact that he has been old for ten years when he wakes up.

He walked to the counter, swept the shelves next to him, looked at the things promoted at the counter, and finally picked up a bowl of instant noodles, a piece of bread, three red sausages, and some small packaged foods with high calorie.

After checking out, he turned around and looked at a plastic table and a few chairs in front of the window opposite the counter. In the past, the small convenience store in the Empire had such facilities - some customers would sit there to eat and chat after buying things at night. But now he didn't know if this was still there, so he took a few glances. He couldn't show any abnormality. Who knows if there is a spy who is doing nothing in a corner and is planning to check any suspicious person at any time?

Fortunately, he saw that a magazine on the plastic table had been turned down and had oil stains on it. The tabletop and stool surface were severely worn, and it was obvious that people often sat there.

So he felt relieved and asked, "Where is the hot water?"

The boss was slightly stunned and pointed to the side. Dai Bingcheng noticed the other party's expression, but he was not sure why. He hesitated for a moment, but walked over to pick up the water with the noodles bowl.

After receiving the water, he walked to the table with the bowl and sat down, tightly buckled the lid, and pulled out the heating paper under the plastic noodle bowl. Then a slight "guzzling" sound immediately sounded from the bowl. After more than ten seconds, he lifted the lid and a burst of heat came out. The noodles were ready to eat.

He peeled off three red sausages and put them in the hot soup. He began to attack the food.

The boss had originally returned to his depressed expression, but after seeing Dai Bingcheng's way of eating, which was not afraid of hot at all, he became interested. He looked at it for a while, sat on the chair behind the counter and touched his warm teacup, and said, "Oh. I really envy you, brother."

Dai Bingcheng swallowed the things in his mouth, turned his head to look at him, and smiled and said, "What's wrong?"

"I'm in good health." The boss smacked his lips and shook his head, "I can't do it. I'm older and can't use that kind of medicine anymore. I can't do it. Alas."

Dai Bingcheng realized that the other party was referring to the kind of potion that could transform ordinary people into abilities. From the boss's words, he got an important message - some elderly people could not bear the kind of potency and had not been converted. They were still ordinary people.

This is good news.

This seems to explain the boss’s change in expression just now - because he looks like he has a good appetite?

He wanted to inquire about something, but he hadn't figured out how to speak without a trace. Since the other party opened the topic first, he decided to go with the snake.

So Dai Bingcheng shook his head, "I'm not good anymore. I'm going to say that I'm over 60 years old this year... my hair is still dyed. Today I have time and want to see the old house I lived in before."

When he spoke, he made a little sad in his voice. This emotion could easily infect another elderly person. So the supermarket owner asked, "Old house? Where is this nearby?"

"Yes." Dai Bingcheng put the chopsticks on the bowl, "I used to live in front, Bei'an District. We moved that incident more than ten years ago, and we didn't know if it's still there."

The boss looked in the direction he pointed, holding the teacup in his hand and laughed: "That piece has basically not moved much since 15 years. Now there are few people, and that piece turns out to be the old city. Whoever goes there - they are all gathered in the city center. Your house should still be there."

"Ah." Dai Bingcheng nodded, "Then I'll go and have a look later. If I'm going to go to my son's side any later."

The boss smiled and didn't say anything again.

Dai Bingcheng picked up the chopsticks and solved the remaining things in a few strokes. In fact, the place he was going to is not Bei'an District, but the one that was even more north. But since Bei'an District has never been passive, the more remote places it will definitely be the same.

This means that his safe house is still there.

What is a safe house? It is your hiding place - only you or a very small number of trustworthy people know. You can put some legal or illegal weapons, some legal or illegal drugs, some stolen goods, and some stolen money in it - as long as you don't want to get it by anyone else, you can stuff it in.

Once something happens, you can hide in. You should be absolutely safe for a period of time and you can even launch a counterattack.

Dai Bingcheng was an executive when he was young, and at that time he had the habit of building a safe house for himself. Later, he was promoted step by step and continued to become an army general and a cabinet master. At this level, his security matters were subject to special departments, which were rigorous and efficient. Most people chose to trust such departments, but Dai Bingcheng's background and personality determined that he was more crisis-like than ordinary people.

So during his most glorious days, he built a safe house for himself in Yanjing.

With his status ten years ago, how "safe" is this carefully designed safe house?

That is, even ten years later, he still has confidence that as long as the city's buildings have not been completely demolished, his safe house will still be an extremely secret place.

This good news excited him. He threw the bowl into the trash can at the door, nodded to the boss, and pushed open the door.

After eating the first hot meal in the day and night, he felt his body full of strength again. He planned to go back to his nest and rest, and then launch a powerful counterattack on the unknown enemy hiding somewhere.

Dai Bingcheng walked along the road he remembered. Both the streets and the alleys were deserted, and it took a few minutes to see one or two people rushing to see. But even these people rushing to look serious, as if they were thinking about something extraordinary in their hearts. It seemed that everyone was working, and those people rushing to work were also on the way.

Dai Bingcheng didn't know how to evaluate the current situation... In fact, ten years ago, such a scene was part of his plan. Many people would die in chaos, and many people would die when the Empire and Southern Luzon took over those areas. The number of survivors in the end would not be large, nor even more than 600 million.

Six hundred million people have the resources of this entire planet!

To regulate these 600 million people with some strict and efficient system, concentrate all their efforts to do one thing - that will inevitably succeed.

Now he saw the result. But it was not his dominance, nor through his way. Even in the most difficult time, he had never considered "imperial system". However... how could Li Zhen, who seemed to be more mentally ill-fated than him, be able to do this step cruelly?

Dai Bingcheng sighed in his heart. He told himself that he must figure out this problem.

He walked through Bei'an District for one hour and thirty minutes, but it was not eye-catching during this period. However, just as he walked for nearly twenty minutes and was about to arrive at his destination, he heard a loud voice coming from the front.

He estimated that the number of people would not be less than 200. Most of them were young people. They were very excited. Occasionally mixed with rude greetings to the other's maternal relatives. He didn't know what was going on there, but knew that he could never be caught in. So Dai Bingcheng looked at the surrounding environment and planned to temporarily hide in an abandoned building next to him.

But just before he broke the door, the voices were approaching - a group of young people poured out from the street opposite.

This is an abandoned city. There shouldn’t be so many people or young people. What’s going on?

Now Dai Bingcheng can't hide anymore, because that's more eye-catching. He immediately sat on the steps in front of the building, looking like a passerby resting.

He narrowed his eyes and observed the people carefully.

It obviously belongs to two camps - one camp is wrapped in blue cloth strips on its shoulders, and the other camp is wearing nothing. It wears casual clothes of different styles, unlike soldiers or other groups with strict discipline.

But it must not be a bad society or a gangster. Because Dai Bingcheng observed that the young people were actually shouting slogans and waving their fists fiercely, just like the voter support group that used to cheer for the campaigners.

He heard them have two main slogans. The blue cloth strip shouted "Down with nihilism."

The other party shouted "Down with escape."

Interesting. Dai Bingcheng was keenly aware that the quarrel between the two groups might provide him with more information - bad teenagers would not shout any ideology in a group fight. It seemed that they had a dispute over a certain idea, and the thing involved in "ideology" must have something to do with the current government.

As for why he came here... Dai Bingcheng thought about it and felt that he had found an answer that was inseparable. Judging from his experiences this day, the current social order is extremely strict. In other words, if someone makes trouble in the city, he will inevitably be severely punished - not to mention "disputes" of this scale.

So I came here to "convene a fight"?

But why do we have to "contract a fight"? Why waste time on illusory things like "ism"? Dai Bingcheng had a vague idea in his mind, but he was not sure. Some radicals in the past also took to the streets for their own political ideas, but the young people in the past were not very interested in this kind of thing - what happened to the young people today?

He peeled a piece of chocolate and slowly put it into his mouth, intending to take a look.

However, in just a moment, the young people rushed out of the street - to the small square in front of the building where Dai Bingcheng was. It seemed that because the terrain was wide open, they thought they could "show off their strength", so their voices became more and more deafening. More than two hundred people combined, almost about to lift the zenith.

He heard a few useful words.

A girl wrapped in a blue cloth strip stood in front of that side, her right arm kept swinging forward like a gun, and once she shook it, she shouted a word. Blue veins were rising from her neck.

"The essence of nihilism is to escape through the whole process!"

"Try to passively self-salvation to escape the responsibility of being a member of mankind!"

“The resources on Earth are not as many as before!”

"Only by unifying your mind can you complete the immigration project at the lowest cost within ten years!"

"The way out for mankind is in the starry sky! It is not in your paradise!!"

"Resolutely defeat the Ascension Sect!!"

The girl seemed to be the leader of the blue cloth strip. Every time she shouted, there would be a shocking echo in the crowd behind her, and a forest made of fists, arms, and blue cloth strips appeared. When she said the last sentence, a higher cheer erupted in the crowd, even though Dai Bingcheng felt that her heart was trembling slightly.

He understood something.

"There are not as many resources on the earth as before" - this view was jointly "studyed" by him and Li Zhen. Ten years ago, they decided not to disclose Gaia's existence to people, but people still need to have a sense of urgency - because no one knows when the peak will appear and Gaia will wake up.

Therefore, they plan to tell people that humans were probably too optimistic about their own situation in the past - the oil, coal, nuclear raw materials and metal minerals on the earth will be consumed in the short term. If they cannot leave this planet as soon as possible, humans will be trapped here forever and lose the opportunity to touch the starry sky.

Of course, this cannot convince everyone. Because many experts know that this is nonsense. But as long as the civilians with relatively low education and scientific literacy believe it - their collective unconscious will drown out any rational voice.

As for the "Assassination Sect", Dai Bingcheng believed that it refers to the supporters of the "Assassination Plan". This surprised him slightly - is the assassination technology mentioned by Li Zhen really approaching maturity?

At this time, he heard the other party's fight back.

That side, that is, the leader of the "Ascension Sect" in the girl's mouth, was a tall boy. He widened his eyes angrily. He waved his arms to fight back without showing any weakness, and his cheeks were flushed red due to excitement, as if he was about to drip bleeding.

"The essence of immigration projects is shameful escape!"

"The essence of escapeism is stubborn pessimism!"

"The distinctive feature of pessimism is the rejection of a second evolution!"

"Only humans can conquer the universe by changing themselves!"

"The way out for mankind is in heaven! It's not on your Mars!"

"Spirit—running in the sky!!"

The last sentence seemed to detonate a bomb. If the performance of the blue cloth strip was just "excited", then the performance of the boy now is "crazy".

As soon as the words finished, almost everyone stretched out their arms to the sky, raised their faces and shouted together—

"Spirit. Runs in the sky!!"

Dai Bingcheng glared in surprise. Yes, it was "everyone". Not only the boys, but also the blue cloth strips raised their hands to the sky and repeated the same sentence. However, the blue side's voice was obviously lower. It seemed that they did not want to shout with the "enemy". However, that sentence seemed to have extremely important special significance, and even if they were reluctant, they had to do so.

Dai Bingcheng was really surprised. Not only was he surprised, but he even felt a little scared - because of the things that were shown by the children. In his era, how could such a thing have happened? In a word, there is such power?

Is this... a cult?!

What exactly does that sentence mean?

By this time, he had probably known why all this happened in front of him. These young people were indeed quarreling about two different ideas. But why did these young people care about this?
To be continued...