Chapter 16: Radiation
“That was during the first cycle. I was still just an ordinary person at that time…”
Jiang Yang slowly recounted everything, from the first encounter with the apocalypse and death, discovering he had entered the cycle, then releasing the prophecy that caught the nation’s attention, all the way to arriving at Base No. 7 and carrying out a series of actions, until the apocalypse arrived once again—a complete account, without any embellishment and without any personal emotional bias.
He knew that those paying attention to this meeting certainly numbered more than just the visible participants.
In places he couldn’t see, perhaps hundreds of thousands, even millions of people were urgently taking action, verifying every word he said, comprehensively analyzing its credibility to form reference opinions for higher-level decision-making.
Perhaps a casual remark from him like “The braised cuttlefish egg soup at Lin Jiang Xian Restaurant tastes good” would prompt specialized investigators to rush to the scene, comprehensively analyzing the possibility of him having eaten that dish, simulating every detail of the process to find any possible flaws.
Jiang Yang knew that for such a major event, this situation was bound to occur.
If he were in a high position, he would make such an arrangement himself.
If Sun Changhe surprisingly hadn’t arranged for people to do this, he would instead be disappointed. Because that would mean the nation’s power wasn’t strong or precise enough, and a nation without sufficient power… how could it confront the apocalypse?
He recounted it all in detail. Of course, regarding that password, he only mentioned that such a password existed, without revealing its content.
The process was long and complex. When he finished recounting everything, more than 50 minutes had passed.
He looked at Sun Changhe: “Director Sun, you must be very curious about how I knew such core national secrets.”
“The reason is simple. In the previous cycle, which for me was less than two hours ago, you told me personally when the apocalypse arrived.”
On the screen, Sun Changhe closed his eyes, was silent for a few seconds, then opened them again: “There are now 3 minutes left until the earthquake time you prophesied. Everyone might as well wait a moment.”
“Have the seismograph station people arrived?”
“Report, my unit is in position.”
He nodded and said nothing more.
Time passed quietly amid the heaviness and tension; three minutes slipped by. That seismograph station staff member glanced at the data in front of him and suddenly stood up in shock.
“Report, my unit has just detected seismic activity at the corresponding coordinates. The specific magnitude and seismic source depth are still being analyzed… Analysis complete: magnitude 4.2, seismic source depth 15 kilometers!”
Jiang Yang saw that on the large screen, the many figures in the numerous windows all simultaneously showed expressions of shock.
The participants in this meeting were all outstanding figures in their respective fields. Even if they weren’t seismology experts, they still knew that short-term precise earthquake prediction was impossible.
And now this self-proclaimed prophet had done it, so what he said about rebirth and cycles…
Apocalypse!
An expert urgently pressed the speak button. After receiving permission, he eagerly said: “Even if you really have the ability to prophesy the future, that doesn’t necessarily prove the apocalypse will definitely come!”
Jiang Yang had heard an expert raise this question in the previous cycle as well.
In the previous life, the national-level final response plan was to temporarily not seek complete verification of this outcome, but directly assume the apocalypse was true and use that as the guiding principle for subsequent actions.
Until one second before the apocalypse truly arrived, from an absolute perspective, the national level never fully believed in the apocalypse.
And this life…
Sun Changhe raised his hand to interrupt him, speaking slowly yet firmly: “The apocalypse has truly arrived.”
“Because unless the apocalypse truly arrives, I wouldn’t receive authorization from the entire highest level, and I personally wouldn’t tell him that password.”
Jiang Yang was slightly stunned.
Only now did he realize that the purpose of that password wasn’t merely to allow him to contact the nation at the fastest speed and gain its trust.
Obtaining that password itself was a verification of whether the apocalypse would ultimately arrive.
Silently, the Sun Changhe of the previous life had passed information to the Sun Changhe of this life.
Hearing Sun Changhe’s words, that expert’s face turned pale, and he slumped back into his seat.
Jiang Yang knew he had probably earned a relatively high degree of trust from Sun Changhe, Professor Lu Zhaoming, Gu Changshan, and others.
Of course, it was merely their trust as “individuals,” not the trust of the entire national apparatus.
Just as Sun Changhe had told him in the previous life, it would take at least a day at the fastest.
This would be a process of repeated verification, repeated consideration, gathering information from all sides and angles, involving many people. Only after that would the national apparatus fully cooperate with him.
Of course, this was actually inconsequential. Because the early-stage work only needed the personal trust of Sun Changhe and others to be advanced ahead of time.
He solemnly took out that piece of paper and displayed it to all participants: “This is the intelligence network built with the strength of the entire nation in the previous cycle, the information collected at the moment the apocalypse arrived, brought back from the previous cycle via my cycle reset ability and my memory.”
“Now, Professor Lu Zhaoming, please help me interpret the meaning of this information.”
This piece of paper quickly became a high-definition scan and was sent to every expert. Thus, Jiang Yang clearly saw that almost all the experts, including Professor Lu Zhaoming, showed incredulity and shock on their faces.
In Jiang Yang’s mind surfaced the image of Professor Lu Zhaoming on the verge of death in the previous life, his expression almost one of dying with eyes wide open upon seeing this information.
“How is that possible? How is that possible?”
Professor Lu Zhaoming murmured, his body trembling slightly beyond his control.
Sun Changhe calmly said: “Professor Lu, please report the information you have interpreted from it.”
Lu Zhaoming took a deep breath and barely regained his calmness: “According to Comrade Jiang Yang, this is the list of highest-value anomalous information automatically screened by Arctic No. 4 Supercomputer after comprehensively integrating information from all directions and aspects.”
“This information includes two aspects: one, human body detection data; two, environmental detection data.”
“If this chart is real, then… we can already determine the cause of the world apocalypse.”
He said in a low voice: “Radiation sickness. Acute radiation sickness from a high dose, sufficient to cause death in a short time.”
Sun Changhe frowned slightly: “You’re saying what killed us all was radiation? No matter if hiding in underground bases or underwater, everyone… all died from radiation? Where did it come from?”
Lu Zhaoming murmured: “This is exactly the part I can’t believe.”
“Because this chart also clearly shows that the radiation intensity in the death environment was very low, so low that it wasn’t even enough to affect the human body.”
