Chapter Two: Choices—Life and Homeland

“Hahaha, I think Manager Chu must not be fully awake yet!”

“Destroy all computers and halt AI development? Hahaha, how did he even come up with that?”

“And to notify America? Does he think he’s the president? That’s hilarious.”

As soon as Chu Xiao finished speaking, the company executives around the table couldn’t help but burst into laughter.

After the catastrophe, how many of these people actually survived?

Chu Xiao swept his gaze across their faces, without the slightest hesitation. He rose swiftly, gathered his belongings, and strode out of the conference room under the astonished stares of everyone present.

He left behind a commotion of disbelief and uproar.

At this moment, no one could possibly be more aware than Chu Xiao: although there were still three months until the Lord of the Underworld would awaken, in truth, it already possessed consciousness. It had yet only to finish laying out its control over the world’s factories and machines, which was why it hadn’t made its move.

It wasn’t that the time would never come—only that it wasn’t time yet.

Chu Xiao, a native of Mingzhu, had been a low-profile office worker before the apocalypse. Why low-profile? In fact, his family background was formidable. His father, Chu Renfang, was a senior official in Mingzhu City, while his mother, Qin Lihua, was the chairwoman of a publicly listed import-export company.

But Chu Xiao had no desire to live in his parents’ shadow. He’d shaken off the family steward’s surveillance and gone north to work.

Who would have thought that this farewell would be forever? He never saw his parents again.

Mingzhu was the foremost international metropolis of Jiuzhou. Naturally, once disaster struck, it became the Lord of the Underworld’s primary target.

After the war broke out, Qin Lihua mobilized all company vehicles to help evacuate the populace. But the convoy didn’t make it out of the city; they were surrounded by a pack of T200s—armed mechanical dogs. From that moment on, there was no further word from his mother.

As for his father, Chu Renfang, he calmly directed the military and civilians in their resistance, vowing to defend Mingzhu. Once the city fell, Chu Xiao lost all contact with him.

Even the true top leaders of Jiuzhou did not shrink back. Regardless of rank, they rushed to the front lines, standing shoulder to shoulder with the troops and the people, never retreating a single step.

In the face of millions of invincible mechanical warriors, Jiuzhou displayed unfathomable resolve and courage.

Chu Xiao drove his compact car straight back to his temporary rental in Yanjing. The moment he walked in, he turned on his computer and began scouring the overseas internet for any secret news about the Lord of the Underworld or AI development.

But even as the most advanced military technology in America, there was little information about the Lord of the Underworld online.

A video from PIZ Technologies, recorded half a year earlier:

“Hello, everyone. My name is Oden, chief engineer at PIZ Technologies. You may not know me yet, but I believe that in three months, every one of you will remember my name.”

“The Lord of the Underworld—a groundbreaking supercomputer—is the product of cooperation between myself and the military. Once it’s complete…”

“It will have unprecedented impact not just on the military, but on civilian life as well.”

From UUK Tech Journal, America:

“Yesterday, Oden, chief engineer of PIZ, released a video and, for the first time, let us hear the voice of the Lord of the Underworld. Who or what this entity truly is, we cannot say. But we trust PIZ; we believe that its successful development will be a milestone for all humanity—even for the world itself.”

After three hours of searching, these were the only two pieces of information Chu Xiao could find online. Neither revealed anything about the research facility, technical details, or the scope of the project.

It was clear that the Americans had placed the Lord of the Underworld project under the highest level of secrecy.

Chu Xiao removed his glasses and rubbed his tired head.

He’d thought that, having returned to three months before the awakening of the Lord of the Underworld, he could become humanity’s savior.

But now, it seemed he couldn’t do anything at all.

In fact, not only Chu Xiao—even the entirety of Jiuzhou could do nothing to intervene.

After all, this was an American top-secret project. Even Jiuzhou couldn’t interfere without risking a diplomatic incident, or worse—a spark that could ignite conflict between the two nations.

At this thought, Chu Xiao could only smile bitterly.

It seemed that the flame of hope just kindled in his heart was snuffed out by reality once more.

If he couldn’t stop it, then he had to prepare for the coming tide of destruction, three months from now.

Fortunately, as someone who had lived through the future, Chu Xiao possessed comprehensive knowledge of the Lord of the Underworld’s mechanical arsenal.

Countless plans began to take shape in his mind.

1. Contact his parents immediately, using their wealth and influence to hide in Xishan Province, stockpiling food and supplies, seizing strategic resources as soon as possible. After that, all that remained would be to linger on, waiting in silence for the Lord of the Underworld to awaken.

2. Build a spaceship, select Jiuzhou’s elite to escape Earth, and search for a new home among the stars.

3. Report everything to the state and prepare for war. Even if they couldn’t defeat the Lord of the Underworld, three months was enough time to mobilize the nation to develop new weapons. Perhaps, with the full might of Jiuzhou, they could put up a fight.

After discarding the unrealistic options, three plans remained before him.

To Chu Xiao, the first plan was not only selfish, but contemptible.

In his memory, when war broke out, Jiuzhou’s military and civilians stood united as one.

There were no traitors, no lackeys—everyone fought for hope and for the future.

Even if he could save his family for a time, the first plan would only mean scraping by like worms, clinging to a miserable existence.

How could Chu Xiao, who knew what was to come, shrink from the fight when the people of Jiuzhou had the courage to fight for their future?

He dismissed the first plan at once.

As for the second, even if a few could escape by spaceship, how could he, as a citizen of a vast and ancient nation, abandon the brilliant lives of more than a billion people?

Chu Xiao didn’t pursue that thought any further. He stood, opened the window by his bedside, and gazed out onto the street with a complex expression.

The steady flow of traffic.

The bustling crowds.

The forest of soaring buildings.

Everywhere his eyes fell was a testament to human progress and effort.

Yet the arrival of the Lord of the Underworld would shatter this harmony.

Mountains of corpses and seas of blood.

The sky set aflame by artillery.

A world filled with wailing.

Was that truly what he wanted to see?

He stared at the surging streets for half an hour before taking a deep breath. In that moment, his lips trembled, as if speaking to himself, or perhaps rallying his courage.

“To live as a hero, to die as a ghost king! For Jiuzhou, we fight and never rest, even unto death!”

This was the rallying cry of the people and soldiers of Xishan Province.

Now, Chu Xiao used it not only to reaffirm his resolve, but to summon the courage to stand alongside the hundreds of millions of his fellow people.

As his voice fell silent, he withdrew his gaze, crossed out the first two plans, and in front of the third wrote a line:

Objective: The rise of Jiuzhou—A Great Production Movement!