Jianghe City.
Remotely controlling millions of independent mechanical units.
Within minutes.
Emergency reinforcement was carried out on a sprawling complex spanning over ten kilometers, which had been split into two.
The complexity of the project.
Caused the supercomputing center, where the Artificial Intelligence core was located at the Farmhouse Shelter.
To reach nearly 100% of its computational load and power consumption almost instantly.
Many tasks of lower importance.
Had their computational support significantly reduced at this moment.
Many ordinary residents at the Farmhouse Shelter.
Suddenly noticed.
That the smart assistants they had grown accustomed to in their daily lives and work were responding sluggishly.
Those related to work fared slightly better.
But for entertainment or minor everyday issues.
Not only were the responses delayed, but there was also a high probability of receiving no feedback at all.
While the residents of the Farmhouse Shelter were complaining about these minor inconveniences.
None of them knew.
That the source of their troubles.
The computational resources that had been diverted.
Were participating in a feat almost unprecedented in human history.
They were attempting to pull a city, located on the brink of an erupting volcano.
Back from the edge of complete disintegration.
And in the process, save nearly 20 million survivors still alive there.
"The Plantation, ordinary residential areas, activity zones, and most of the material distribution centers."
"Can be selectively abandoned."
"The priority is to ensure the safety of the population hubs at the stations, the actual material storage locations near the stations, and the core residential safety zones of the shelter."
"The safety of these three areas."
Using the holographic structural map of Zhenhai City Shelter.
Su Wu planned the focus of the next actions from the highest level.
Even though the entire Zhenhai City Shelter had been violently twisted and broken in half by the earthquakes and volcanic eruptions beneath it.
Large internal areas of the shelter.
Had shattered and disintegrated under immense pressure.
The remaining two parts were still massive entities comparable to cities.
For such a vast complex.
There was no need to cling to areas that no longer contained supplies or population.
As long as the safety of the three core areas could be ensured.
It would be enough to meet Su Wu's needs.
Under this premise.
The specific tasks that needed to be done became quite clear.
First, the power supply and ventilation pipelines had to be reconfigured.
Backup generators and oxygen production equipment had to be activated.
To ensure that the population hubs, primarily the stations and residential safety zones, had the most basic living conditions.
Next, most of the external interfaces of these three core areas had to be sealed.
And a sufficiently sturdy transfer passage had to be constructed between them and the exit station.
The difficulty of this task.
Mainly lay in the construction of the passage between the residential safety zone and the exit station.
Among the three core areas.
The temporary material storage point was right next to the exit station.
No passage needed to be built for direct transfer.
But the residential safety zone was at least 3 to 5 kilometers away from the exit station.
Substantial manpower and resources must be invested to ensure it is not easily destroyed by earthquakes and magma.
Then, large-scale medical assistance is needed for the survivors.
Although the recent disaster occurred in a short time.
The damage it caused was extremely severe.
Not only did the death toll exceed 5 million.
The number of injured, directly or indirectly, also approached 4 million.
These injured cannot be left unattended.
Otherwise, the longer they are delayed, the more severe their injuries will become, potentially leading to a large number of additional deaths.
Finally, the transfer of supplies also needs to be re-planned.
After the Zhenhai City shelter was split.
The residential safety zone located in the center.
Part of the outer wall, cast from alloy metal, was exposed and suspended in the fracture.
Directly subjected to the erosion of seawater and magma.
The other part was entirely located in the eastern half of the shelter.
This means that the majority of the surviving population in the shelter.
Are concentrated in the eastern side.
Their only way to leave Zhenhai City.
Is through the 4 exit stations on the eastern side.
While the remaining 3 stations located in the western half of the shelter.
After accommodating the original 1 million people staying at the stations.
Will not receive any additional population supplement and can only transport supplies.
"In this way."
"The original plan to fully transport the population has to be halted midway."
"Wanting to transfer everyone out of the Zhenhai City shelter will be delayed by several more hours."
This has no impact on Su Wu.
Whether transporting people or supplies, he can obtain similar benefits.
But for the survivors stranded in the Zhenhai City shelter, it is nothing short of a nightmare.
Reducing their chances of survival even further.
"On the bright side."
"The fuel storage warehouse was not severely damaged in this disaster."
"It, along with the undersea passage built for fuel transportation pipelines, remained intact in the sparsely populated western shelter."
"Preventing an explosion and fire that could have spread throughout the shelter."
In the next half hour.
Under nearly extreme construction conditions.
The split Zhenhai City shelter gradually stabilized again.
The abandoned uninhabited areas.
Shrank in volume bit by bit at an average rate of more than a dozen rooms collapsing per minute.
The exit stations and temporary supply warehouses, which were the focus of protection.
Had their edge walls all replaced with half-meter-thick rapid-setting cement.
Forming completely independent and enclosed areas.
Although the residential safety zone did not receive further reinforcement due to its already extremely strong defenses.
The corridors from its exits to the 4 stations in the eastern shelter.
Were also sealed with rapid-setting cement.
Forming an extremely resilient transportation network.
Allowing the population within the safety zone, after completing registration and preliminary security checks.
To enter the stations and queue up to leave.
Perhaps the misfortune was fully released in the disaster that caused over 5 million casualties at once.
No subsequent earthquakes or volcanic eruptions of the same intensity occurred.
After another continuous ten-plus hours of transfer.
The remaining population in the entire Zhenhai City shelter.
Was successfully transported to the coastal shelter near the coastline, more than 100 kilometers away.
At this point.
All ordinary humans had officially distanced themselves from the disaster that occurred in Zhenhai City.
Only a vast amount of supplies remained.
Along with the robot army attempting to transport as much as possible.
Near the coastline.
Linhai Shelter.
This massive shelter, which had accommodated 33 million people in just over ten hours.
From the inside out, showed no signs of overcrowding.
All arrivals were immediately.
Boarded onto the merchant convoy trains waiting outside, or scattered snow transport vehicles without the Icebound-class Land Battleship leading the way.
They were then transferred to other nearby, once-abandoned subsidiary shelters, from near to far.
When the last batch of residents from Zhenhai City.
Stepped off the trains.
From the vicinity of Linhai Shelter to the middle reaches of the Kuangjiang River Basin. Among thousands of shelters, large and small.
People from Zhenhai City had already settled in.
To protect the safety of over 30 million Zhenhai City residents scattered across nearly 10,000 square kilometers in different shelters.
The remaining 600,000 Spider Robots stationed at Linhai Shelter.
Along with other auxiliary robots.
Formed over ten thousand mobile patrol units.
Constantly patrolling the perimeters of these shelters.
Sixth-generation fighter jets equipped with Crystal Detectors.
Also intensified low-altitude reconnaissance.
On average, every ten minutes.
They would fly over a shelter.
Ensuring no Amethyst Crystal Entities were lurking nearby.
After the initial population settlement.
Su Wu began to sort and package the supplies delivered to Linhai Shelter.
Among them, the expensive and rare materials.
Were directly airlifted back to the farmhouse by 400 sixth-generation fighter jets and tens of thousands of Azure Sky-Class Transport Drones.
Valuable materials like copper and aluminum, which were abundant but still of high value.
Were transported via merchant convoy trains.
First to geologically stable points in the surrounding mountains, as calculated by Artificial Intelligence.
For short-term storage.
These materials, which had almost no special storage requirements.
Did not need to be stored in deep underground shelters.
They could simply be thrown into factories built in valleys and other areas less prone to surface storms.
By this stage.
There was no longer a need to gather too many merchant convoy trains by the seaside.
Under Su Wu's direction.
About 200 merchant convoy trains began transporting the mid-to-high-level management personnel of Zhenhai City.
Back to Jianghe City in batches.
Shifting his attention away from the now well-organized Linhai Shelter.
Su Wu was about to survey the geological activity around Zhenhai City once more.
When he suddenly received a private message from Song Hong of Changming City.
Asking if he had time.
To attend a Southeast Alliance meeting.
After pondering for a moment.
Feeling that his presence in Zhenhai City made little difference.
Su Wu accepted the meeting invitation.
A few minutes later, he put on a virtual projection helmet.
And connected to the meeting room.
The meeting location.
Was still the familiar round table hall.
But this time, among the participants.
There were no representatives from Zhenhai City.
"I heard the situation in Zhenhai City is quite severe, do you need our help?"
Seeing Su Wu online.
Song Hong was the first to speak to him.
"Not needed for now."
"All the people from Zhenhai City have already been relocated to the mainland."
"If there are no major unforeseen events."
"The subsequent relocation to Jianghe City should proceed smoothly."
Su Wu nodded at Song Hong, acknowledging his concern.
The other supercities of the Southeast Alliance.
Were all quite distant from Zhenhai City.
Even if they were willing.
The assistance they could provide would be minimal at best.
At most, it would just be a gesture of goodwill.
"When I received the report yesterday, I was shocked."
"I never expected an earthquake above magnitude 8 to occur in Zhenhai City."
"If there hadn't been preparations beforehand."
"The losses would have been immeasurable."
Seeing that Su Wu didn't seem to be lying.
Song Hong felt slightly relieved, but also a bit fearful for them.
"Actually, there were still significant losses."
"The intensity of the earthquake combined with the volcanic eruption."
"Directly split the entire Zhenhai City in half."
"Causing over 5 million casualties within minutes."
Su Wu revealed a bit of the truth.
After some thought, he decided to project the surveillance footage from that time.
Directly into the conference room.
The brutal scenes in the video.
Caused even the powerful leaders of the supercities present to slightly change their expressions.
You see.
Even during the initial stages of the apocalypse, when a super tsunami swept the coastal areas.
The actual number of casualties was only in the tens of millions.
And this was a global burden.
Accumulated over more than 20 hours.
In terms of impact.
It was far less shocking than the sight of millions dying within minutes.
"Even in such a situation, most people were still saved."
"It seems Chairman Ping's choice was not wrong."
After the initial shock.
Song Hong noticed the extraordinary construction efficiency of Su Wu's Spider Robots during the disaster, as well as the peculiar materials used.
A thoughtful expression flashed across his face.
However, he didn't press further.
He merely expressed some admiration for Ping Yuhan's decisive action in aligning with Su Wu.
If it were him, he wouldn't have been able to make such a quick decision to abandon everything.
And if he had hesitated for just a few more hours.
The outcome would have been completely different.
The tens of millions in Zhenhai City might not have even had a few hundred survivors.
After discussing the matter of Zhenhai City.
Knowing that Su Wu's time was more precious than theirs.
Song Hong quickly brought up the purpose of this meeting.
"Our intelligence department."
"Recently obtained an extremely important piece of information from the capital of Dongzhou."
"In the next 3 to 6 months."
"Throughout Dongzhou, except for the Western Wasteland Plateau."
"Especially the low-altitude plains south and east of Chongzhou."
"There is nearly a 100% probability of a large-scale disaster occurring."
"At that time, most shelters might not be able to withstand it."
"The estimated final death toll could be over 70%."
Song Hong projected a map of Dongzhou.
Different colors marked the intensity of the disaster in corresponding areas.
The most severe regions.
Were mostly in the provinces where the Southeast Alliance was located, with some in the north.
"Can we determine what type of disaster it will be?"
Su Wu asked.
"I don't know."
"We can only determine the approximate time, and that it will definitely happen."
Song Hong shook his head.
Then, with a tone tinged with anger, he said resentfully.
"No wonder they have always been reluctant to provide much support to the northern and our southeastern regions."
"They only think about transferring resources."
"It turns out they had already planned to abandon these areas."
(End of Chapter)