Apocalypse: I Build A Doomsday Train Chapter 1217 - 470: Completing Suicide_2

His hand hesitated, mere centimeters from the crimson button, a tremor running through his finger as beads of sweat dripped from his brow.

"This can't be right! Launching five missiles? Are the Americans truly initiating nuclear war? It feels more like a training drill gone awry or a catastrophic system failure! But... what if it's not? What if this is their opening move?"

"Twenty-two minutes remain until protocol dictates immediate reporting!" a staff officer stated, standing sentinel beside him. "We must respond!"

All eyes turned to Petrov, the immense pressure he faced palpable to everyone in the room.

To retaliate would mean initiating war! An irreversible nuclear conflict guaranteeing mutual annihilation!

Billions would perish tonight, including everyone present. The nation itself could be erased from existence. No one could truly fathom such instantaneous destruction.

Time appeared to stand still, with only the relentlessly ticking red numbers marking the countdown.

The staff officer's voice cut through the tension once more: "Comrade Colonel! The readings are confirmed! Twenty-one minutes left! We must report!!"

Lin Xian observed the unfolding scene with quiet intensity. As an observer, he recognized this moment as a critical historical information crisis. He knew that the eventual confirmation from ground radar systems would reveal it as a misunderstanding, a false alarm destined to become an obscure online anecdote years later, too insignificant even for history books.

However, the outcome he envisioned did not materialize. Petrov suddenly shut his eyes, drew a ragged breath of the stale air, and then, under Lin Xian's watchful gaze, depressed the call button...

What!???

A low hum vibrated through Lin Xian's mind, as if his own thoughts had gone utterly blank in that instant.

Opening his eyes, Lin Xian felt his consciousness detach, rapidly ascending. It felt as though his very soul was taking flight, soaring past the underground missile warning center, emerging from the forest to pierce the dark, starless sky. A bone-chilling cold seeped into him, reminiscent of ancient prophecies foretelling the end of days.

As he climbed higher, he witnessed firsthand vast, desolate landscapes. Missile silo doors erupted open, and red-starred intercontinental ballistic missiles launched skyward, their fiery trails searing through the dim heavens.

Far off, the waters of the Baltic Sea churned. A nuclear submarine surfaced like some colossal leviathan, unleashing ballistic missiles that sliced through the clouds with a mournful whistle, their trajectories leaving faint, phosphorescent streaks.

Innumerable rockets ascended, burning like celestial diamonds, hurtling towards the heavens.

This deadly overture ignited the prelude to nuclear war. Across the globe, intense missile launches commenced simultaneously, targeting every corner of the planet.

In New York's towering skyscrapers, financiers abruptly looked up from their keyboards. An incandescent glare outside the windows consumed all perception; their gasps turned to dust as they slumped in their office chairs, shredded suits mingling with paper debris that swirled like a blizzard.

The comforting aroma of coffee had barely dispersed from London's morning cafes when pedestrians were fleeing in terror. Yet, the shockwave instantly reduced flesh to vapor. The entire metropolis crumbled into boiling ruins.

In Tokyo, millions slept soundly in the dead of night. Within an apartment sheltering four generations, a grandmother peacefully rested on the tatami, a child nestled in its parents' embrace. Unaware, they were obliterated by the explosions. Home and family alike vanished into nothingness amidst pillars of light as the entirety of Tokyo was engulfed by the destructive blooms fired from three directions, merging into a fiery inferno.

Nuclear payloads descended silently, transforming the land into desolate, scorched earth, with only rolling waves of heat radiating from the stellar fire. Panic proved a futile cacophony; tourists on California's beaches scattered with screams, only to collapse on sands melted by the blinding light.

Outside Moscow, factories fell eerily silent. Workers by their assembly lines, tools still in hand, were vaporized along with the steel by the extreme temperatures and radiation, leaving only charred skeletons slumped on the ground.

Suns ignited one by one above the cities, their dazzling radiance bleaching the horizons white.

Lin Xian felt his breath catch, as if reliving the night the Apocalypse dawned – destruction so swift that in a mere blink, the world ceased to be.

Then, as the intense light subsided, Lin Xian blinked. He looked again and found himself back within the tent. The spherical device projecting the holographic image still hovered in mid-air, a few words paused before him.

[Simulation of Humanity’s Fate Scenario 1 Concluded]

Inside the tent, Hua Xiaoling was no longer present. The tea on the table still retained a hint of warmth. An incredibly dense wave of dark energy fluctuated through the tent before swiftly vanishing. Lin Xian stood with a complex expression, observing the spherical device retract its projection and drift into his hand as he reached for it.

At that precise moment, the holographic screen of the Mechanical Heart suddenly appeared.

[Mechanical Source Points Successfully Converted +3000]

Lin Xian knitted his brows, feeling even more perplexed. The simulation of civilizations ending – what could it possibly mean? Was it trying to convey some kind of message to him? Humanity ending civilization through nuclear war, what profound significance did that hold? And why had he absorbed such a vast number of Mechanical Source Points???? Lin Xian gazed at the spherical device in his hand, momentarily stunned into inaction.

"Lin Xian!"

Suddenly, the tent flap was thrown open. Chen Sixuan, encased in Power Armor and wielding the Night Hunter, burst in. Upon seeing Lin Xian, she immediately inquired, "Are you alright?!"

Lin Xian looked around, his gaze searching. "Where is Hua Xiaoling?"

"She's gone. Vanished abruptly from my thermal radar. I didn't see how she departed." Chen Sixuan lifted her visor, observing Lin Xian's complicated expression, and inquired with a frown, "What did she show you? I found you standing there for twenty minutes."