On the other side, the drunk man spun the alcohol bottle. He was very emotional as he shouted loudly, “Then we beg Godora! What can race honor do? Only staying alive is important! These leaders’ heads are all full of sh*t. Too many people died every time; my two younger brothers died in the army! All of this is useless, so we should get help from Godora. Why are we acting so tough! These Supers are useless. If they really were strong, the Catastrophe would be long gone!”

The drunk talked in a very disdainful and emotional tone, despising the Supers and the military for being too lousy, blaming and complaining with more and more vulgar language. This kind of action angered the other customers. Supers and the military were heroes to most of the civilians—any doubts or insults would cause an outrage.

“Everything you are enjoying now is because the heroes fought their lives for it. Who are you to talk!”

The drunk sneered and said, “This is what they should do—with ability comes responsibility. If not for the race’s cultivation, they would be ordinary people just like me.”

“People like you are so disgusting; you should be sent out the city!”

The drunk sneered again. “Even if the city’s defenses are broken through, I’m a civilian that will be prioritized in the evacuation. I won’t be the one dying anyway.”

“You don’t deserve to be protected!” The crowd became even more furious.

The argument became heated. Lerden sat at the bar counter, expressionless, like he did not hear it at all. He did not even bother to turn around and look.

At this time, a very young guy pounced at the drunk guy furiously and started a fight straight away. He pressed the drunk man to the floor and punched his face rapidly, with blood splashing onto the floor. The others saw that there were blood and hastily tried to pull the young guy acting on impulse away.

“Lana, calm down!”

“Stop punching, he’s going to die!”

Lana gave a few more punches before he finally stood up with hatred and got pulled aside. The drunk man was bleeding from his nose and mouth, unable to stand up after receiving a heavy beating. The other customers went to check, and luckily, the drunk man was just wounded. Then people blamed Lana for using too much force. Many people here were his neighbors, and Lana was a young man who hoped to enter the army—he was strong and muscular, an ideal recruit.

“You two, get the hell out of my shop,” Herlous yelled, “go home and calm down!”

Lana left unhappily, and the drunk man was carried away as well. Thus, that small farce had ended.

Han Xiao turned around, looked at Herlous, and said, “I’m Black Star. If you are interested in what I said, come find me, I can solve this problem.”

Then, Han Xiao called Lerden, and the two of them left the bar.

The unconcerned expression faded from Herlous’ face, turning a little serious. His eyes sparkled, and unlike his disguise, he was not really completely unconcerned about the future of the race.

He did not know if a mercenary who called himself Black Star was really a foreseer. Even if he was, it was possible that he had lied about the foresight to trick him into a trap. He definitely had a motive, but Herlous did not know what it was. Was he coming for him?

The bar door was pushed open again, and a tall man in a hood walked near the bar counter. “Give me a glass of beer.”

The man in the hood raised his head and showed his face.

Fernas!

Herlous was surprised. “You don’t drink.”

“Consider it a celebration of me coming back alive.” Fernas took Herlous’ glass and drank a mouth—it seemed that they were very close. If others knew the strongest grade B super of the race was this close to the boss of a small bar, they would definitely be shocked.

They were childhood playmates, so Herlous was way too familiar with this person. Almost every positive adjective could be used to describe Fernas—brave, honest, responsible, and many others. After the first disaster for the Sunils, Fernas became a mercenary to contribute to the race. Herlous actually always envied Fernas. From a young age, his short-lived older brother had kept talking about Fernas this, Fernas that. In his eyes, Fernas was ‘the kid next door’.

Although he did envy him a little, Herlous also respected Fernas. He knew that he definitely could not be as dedicated as Fernas. After his older brother died, Herlous lived an aimless life waiting for his death, completely unconcerned about his race. He knew that he was a lazy person—when his older brother was alive, he had always been scolded for not being hardworking. Many people felt he was just as talented as Fernas but wasted his life away. Now, Fernas was the guardian respected by the entire race, and he was just a nobody.

He knew Fernas. He was a very self-disciplined person who would not break the rules for anything. Thus, Herlous frowned and asked, “What really happened?”

“Brother, I can’t take it anymore. I’m preparing to leave.” Fernas gave a faint smile full of bitterness; Herlous had never seen such an expression on this resolute face.

Leave? Herlous was shocked.

“The universe has endless possibilities,” Fernas said. “Only when the past is cut off can one go forward. I don’t want to be held back by the race anymore. There are many warriors who have the same thought as me, so we will not return after this Catastrophe.

“We have protected the race long enough—many friends sacrificed themselves, and some people begged for our protection, yet they feel it’s a given. This is not our obligation, and there is no need to continue. We have done more than enough—maybe the race accepting help from Godora is the best ending. At least no one will die for nothing anymore.”

“Even you are giving up‽” Herlous was completely shocked. Suddenly, Han Xiao’s words appeared in his head. Is this the split that guy predicted? Then will our race have the future like he said, become a subsidiary of Godora and lose our heritage?

Herlous arranged the information and words to use, then told Fernas about Han Xiao’s foresight of the ending after Sunil accepted military help from Godora. Fernas shook his head after listening. Without any change in his eyes, he said, “Staying alive is the most important. As long as the people are alive, the ideals will not die.”

Is that really the case?

But the Fernas I know absolutely would not abandon our race.

You’re alive, but you have changed…

Herlous saw Fernas’ expression and knew that he had decided and was not going to be convinced. Having always seen Fernas as the noblest friend he had, his emotions were in turmoil. Now, he could never look at him the same way—it was like he became a stranger.

“Then why did you come to tell me this?” Herlous asked.

Fernas shook the bottle and said softly, “Honestly, I dislike you a lot. You have stronger powers than me, but you hide and accept our protection without hesitation… Never mind, let’s not talk about this. I just came to tell you about it. It’s up to you to continue to avoid everything or to stand up.”

Fernas pulled up his hood and left Herlous to dwell on that thought.

…

Since the seed was already planted, Han Xiao did not enter the city again. He stayed outside the city and carried out his battlefield repairs. Upon entering the mid-stage of the Catastrophe, the battlefield became more heated and tragic. All sorts of horrifying monsters charged forward one after another, and he could not continue to run across the battlefield with just his body—he wore his Amphiptere mechanical suit. Sometimes, when the place he was repairing had gaps, he had to become the backup to fill up the gap as well. Among the mercenaries, his strength was not too conspicuous, and the only reason the other mercenaries remembered him was because the Black Star Mercenary Group actively took on the forward reconnaissance mission. Many mercenaries felt Han Xiao was insane—when the forward reconnaissance team next changed shifts, his mercenary group would definitely suffer a huge loss.

A large number of soldiers died every day, and incomplete corpses were sent to the back line one after another to be identified. The defense camp also had many damaged weapons and carriers, so the defense was becoming harder and harder. Only the nine battleships in the sky stayed still and never fired. The Sunils had limited resources, and battleship energy was scarce. Only when the extremely strong monsters showed up during the last stage would the battleships join the fray. Furthermore, the Sunils’ battleships could only fly around the planet for three to four days at most. Other than guarding the sky, the most important use of these nine battleships was to make sure that they could transport the civilians away if the situation got out of hand, abandoning the city in order to escape. It was an emergency retreat route.

Eight days later, the city had a strange calm period. The alarm signifying the last stage of the Catastrophe sounded, and this time, everyone received breathing masks. Not just the logistics personnel, even some Supers entered refugee facilities.

Hoom!

An overwhelming hum of insect wings flapping appeared, and thick and black clouds swarmed over. These were all extremely aggressive small insects, concentrated like a wave.