Chapter 1180: Chapter 179: Peace
Even though AIM had already used the [Electron Ghost] form many times in previous script tasks and battles, at this very moment, he felt mesmerized by his current powerful state.
His mind was unusually clear, and his thinking speed far exceeded that of ordinary people. This feeling, surpassing the sluggish flesh, was more addictive than all sensual stimuli in the world.
AIM took a deep breath and said, "The probability of the opponent using plundered nuclear bombs for an airburst over a city to cause population casualties has diminished. Next, let’s discuss the opponent’s other world-ending strategies."
The assembled Bugman elites seemed to recognize the situation and had no choice but to brainstorm and quickly discuss it.
"The usual methods for mass extinction within 15 hours, besides a nuclear explosion, include only a few natural disasters. Tidal waves, earthquakes, super typhoons, meteors..."
A tsunami expert stood up and said, "A tsunami is impossible. In most cases, tsunamis are caused by geological activities such as underwater earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. A level 6 tsunami disaster, the highest intensity, can cause level 3 damage to most reinforced concrete buildings in coastal cities, wash away farmland, destroy ships, and sweep away people.
In the fifteenth century, a tsunami caused by an underwater earthquake of magnitude 8.6 near Japan’s East Sea Island reached heights of 15-20 meters, resulting in over 40,000 deaths,
85,000 people died in the Messina tsunami at the end of the eighteenth century,
and the early twentieth century Indonesian tsunami caused 156,000 deaths.
An ultramassive tsunami does not cause more direct casualties than a nuclear airburst."
Someone frowned and asked, "What about stacked tsunamis triggered by consecutive earthquakes?"
The tsunami expert replied, "It’s the same. In the early 1960s, consecutive earthquakes occurred in the sea near Montecri, Chile, with a total of 225 times, 10 of which were above magnitude 7, and 3 greater than magnitude 8. The waves averaged 8 to 9 meters, with the highest at 25 meters, resulting in tens of thousands of deaths and disappearances, and two million people were left homeless — still less than a nuclear airburst.
Moreover, the energy required to cause such a level of earthquake is far higher than that of a single nuclear bomb.
In terms of cost-effectiveness, a tsunami is very low."
"The same goes for super typhoons."
A typhoon expert said, "Typhoons are essentially tropical cyclones. A super typhoon with an intensity greater than level 16 has an average wind speed of 51 meters per second near the lower center, capable of raising 14 meters of huge waves at sea and destroying houses and sweeping away vehicles on land.
But even a theoretically strongest typhoon with a wind speed of 160 m/s has direct destructive power that is still inferior to a large-yield nuclear airburst.
And that level of typhoon...is beyond human capability to generate."
Although these experts who study natural disasters track and study those disasters as very powerful, each one is a major hazard to the survival and development of Bugman civilization,
science is science; they must respect the facts in this setting.
"Man-made natural disasters..."
AIM quickly simulated it in his mind and found that even with the assistance of skill/consumable scrolls/consumable items, a high-level player with a spirit energy value of 5000 could not possibly create a theoretical level tsunami or typhoon.
The idea of dumping nuclear bombs into the sea to create a super tsunami is absolutely unrealistic and has no cost-effectiveness.
"Given the conditions, the biggest threat aside from nuclear bombs is earthquakes and meteors."
A seismologist said, "Earthquake zones are spread all over the world, and thousands of earthquakes occur daily, but the majority of them are of relatively low magnitude, making them undetectable in everyday life.
And high-magnitude earthquakes contain energy far exceeding that of nuclear explosions."
Another expert frowned and asked, "Well...is it possible to detonate a nuclear bomb underground to strike a weak spot on a tectonic plate?"
The seismologist glanced at him and said sternly, "Impossible. Even the world’s deepest Mariana Trench is thousands of kilometers away from weak spots on tectonic plates.
Such a deep distance, even if you tied 1000 nuclear bombs together and detonated them underwater, would only make a sound.
It wouldn’t even collapse an underwater canyon, let alone cause significant disturbance between two tectonic plates.
Unless the opponent has the capability to efficiently influence plate activity, meteors are the only possible means of achieving super destruction."
"Meteors, huh..."
AIM immediately searched the database and found no record of Li Rising possessing abilities related to meteors. However, another calamity-level player, Hoenhem, did demonstrate a meteor summoning spell in a script task.
"The meteor summoned by Hoenhem in that script task was approximately 20 meters in diameter, with a density of 1500 kilograms per cubic meter, a collision speed of 8 kilometers per second, and a collision angle of 45 degrees. Its energy before entering the atmosphere was about 2.01 times 10 to the 14th power joules, and the energy of the airburst post-entry was about 1.23 times 10 to the 14th power joules, equivalent to 29,000 tons of Trinitrotoluene, 1.3 times that of the ’Fat Man’ atomic bomb..."
After calculation, AIM immediately reached a conclusion, "The meteor summoning spell is indeed the optimal solution for destroying cities and causing large-scale extermination.
million years ago, a meteor about 10 kilometers in diameter was equivalent to 100 trillion tons of Trinitrotoluene, 50 billion Hiroshima bombs.
After impact, it instantly vaporized seawater, caused volcanic eruptions, created 200-meter monstrous waves, and generated globally-radiating shock waves over a hundred times, directly extincting dinosaurs. It created a crater 180 kilometers in diameter and 900 meters deep.
To wipe out 500 million Bugmen within 15 hours, you probably need a 5 km diameter meteor — equivalent to 1,744,000 Tsar Bomba thermonuclear detonations.
Or several small-diameter meteors, multiple bombardments..."
He immediately conducted a data simulation,
There were no meteors meeting the criteria in Earth’s outer space, so he could only assume Li Rising has a meteor summoning spell or a similar skill.
The mid-layer of the atmosphere is 50 km at the farthest from the ground, the thermosphere 483 km, and beyond that is the exosphere, the farthest at 1000 km. The low Earth orbit is 2000 kilometers.
If Li Rising were to deploy a 20-meter-class meteor, similar to Hoenhem’s, from a low Earth orbit, it would take approximately 250 seconds, around 4 minutes, to descend.
This timeframe theoretically allows for interception by intercontinental missiles, but it requires a rapid response, with a launch the moment Li Rising enters low Earth orbit.
Considering that the world’s most populous and densely populated Bugman countries are generally powerful, especially with the United States having a large number of land-based nuclear missile silos and missile vehicles deployed nationwide, it theoretically can intercept slower-flying meteors.
AIM’s mood immediately relaxed. He always advocated for reason and calculation.
People can lie and deceive, but numbers do not. As long as all variables can be calculated with cold numbers, the situation will not be out of control.
"Intercontinental missiles cannot intercept meteorites about 5 km in size. But there is a high probability Li Rising does not have such capabilities."
AIM made a decision, "Currently, the major disaster types to guard against are nuclear airburst and incoming meteors. Fortunately, the power of both is largely concentrated at the surface.
Thus, all residents of cities with populations over ten million at the city’s edge can leave the city on foot or with single-person transport.
Those on the city’s periphery should leave the city by vehicle.
Those in the city center should take shelter in underground facilities — parking lots, subway stations, subway tunnels, etc."
Theoretically, with the remaining two and a half hours, driving would be enough to travel a considerable distance, but AIM must consider city traffic issues.
The traffic conditions in these megacities are already far from ideal, with frequent congestion,
and peak hours cause even more severe traffic jams across the city.
If the residents of a megacity were to evacuate independently, it would inevitably cause city-wide gridlock, with everyone stranded on the surface with nowhere to escape. It would be better to have more people take shelter underground.
This is why AIM decided to convene the leaders of the Bugman civilization instead of doing it alone—because the Bugman civilization has a special ability, higher-level Bugmen can release pheromones to convey simple information to lower-level Bugmen.
Usually, this ability doesn’t serve much purpose.
The ranking of Bugmen is embedded in their genes, like an innate caste system,
which does not affect their adoption of human culture, allowing some Bugmen to attain social status through talent and effort.
But in this situation, the pheromone ability proves more useful, allowing AIM to command lower-level Bugmen to evacuate in a relatively orderly manner through high-level Bugmen.
Soon, millions of Bugmen on this planet began to move,
with large numbers leaving cities and heading into the depths of the land,
while those in large cities entered underground parking lots and subway tunnels.
The entire process was relatively orderly because AIM was only considering the next 18 hours.
Therefore, he directly ordered all city Bugmen to abandon personal property, instructing that no Bugman resident needed to bring rations, they could directly enter underground facilities—food and water were collectively provided by local departments.
Moreover, wary of Li Rising’s biological weapon capabilities, AIM ordered disaster emergency teams among the Bugmen to deliver gas masks, full-body protective suits, and other items from nearby factories directly to cities and into underground facilities, equipping as many Bugmen as possible.
In addition, they must guard against the possibility of psychic abilities released by Li Rising or something like the T-virus.
Every underground facility must have not only civilians but also armed personnel with live ammunition, wearing full protective suits.
If Bugmen create disturbances, or are transformed into biochemical monsters by the T-virus, then these armed personnel have the right to open fire directly, minimizing losses.
These are the emergency strategies employed by large cities, while in rural areas with sparse populations, due to the lack of public underground facilities, AIM can only instruct them to hide in their homes,
with dense populations in areas like factories and schools returning to their homes within 2.5 hours, awaiting orders.
If there are family-built shelters or cellars, they should also bring rations and water and hide inside.
After all preparations were completed, AIM in mid-air above Times Square in New York amplified the power output of the [Electron Ghost] form to its maximum,
his entire being levitated into the sky, with eyes turning a deep blue.
His will jumped and traversed among tens of thousands of public networks and confidential intranets simultaneously,
as flames erupted on Earth’s plains, forests, snowfields, ice sheets, and seabeds.
Those were missiles.
Thousands of missiles erupted from the surface, flying into the sky,
dragging long tails of smoke in the blue sky, heading towards deep space.
Second round.
Third round.
Fourth round.
...
AIM launched a large number of active missiles while platform operators busily moved, operating machinery to assist AIM in launching more missiles.
"Cleared 70% of the world’s active nuclear missiles ready for launch, leaving sufficient numbers in each area to intercept meteorites and pursue Li Rising’s active missiles.
If I were in the real world, shouldn’t I win a Nobel Peace Prize for this?"
AIM gazed at the sky, where dense dots of light shone like stars,
one of his thousand Divine Thoughts thought to itself.
He lowered his head, scanning the empty streets of New York, summoned the New York National Guard to assist the military, and brought in ten special vehicles loaded with missiles, parked in Times Square’s center.
The initial teleportation point for AIM was on the streets of Times Square, so placing missile vehicles here might perfectly intercept Li Rising as he teleports in.
To enhance effectiveness, AIM also arranged several consumable items around Times Square that could block space teleportation abilities and suppress player Spirit Energy—
Although he knew that the Killing Field Game System had granted him three hours of preparation, it was unlikely he would have the opportunity to preemptively prepare and snipe the opponent.
"What I arranged should be able to temporarily suppress the opponent for a period. If Li Rising actually teleports to Times Square, I won’t directly detonate nuclear weapons—on each missile vehicle, I’ve set up programs that delay detonation for ten minutes, even if I give detonation commands.
Additionally, I’ll display this delayed detonation setting directly on Times Square’s advertisement screens.
This signals to Li Rising that I am not aiming to kill him immediately.
This isn’t me being cowardly,
it’s just that the Battle of Fate is not just a battle between Earth players but also a conflict against otherworldly players.
There’s no reason for us to fight to the death in a small arena during the semi-final stage, right?
Even though the Killing Field Game might award special rewards to victors after some particularly spectacular battles, there’s no need for this."
One of AIM’s Divine Thoughts explained to itself,
while controlling the Times Square screen to display text explaining to Li Rising.
Peaceful cooperation, win-win.
After all preparations were made, AIM dispelled the National Guard and U.S. military units below, ended his [Electron Ghost] form, flew into the sky, splitting into ten figures that flew in different directions.
All images sped away, disappearing after fifty kilometers,
while the true AIM, now invisible, submerged into the waters east of the United States, sinking down, bypassing bewildered roaming fish, landing on the seabed.
His form shrank into a ball, concealed all signs, closed all Spirit Energy fluctuations, quietly awaiting Li Rising’s arrival.
Countdown, ten seconds.
Nine.
Eight.
Seven...
