Global Fog Survival

【Someone has stirred fate. When the countdown ends, the “miracle” known as “suffering” will return and descend upon this land.】

“‘The miracle of suffering’ will return and descend…”

Colin’s mood darkened slightly. The phrasing of the prompt was somewhat peculiar, referring to “suffering” as a “miracle.” What could be summarized with the two words “suffering”? It wasn’t referring to “sufferers,” “The Pain’s Bearer” “Ashes and Silver” or anything else… just the two words “suffering.”

“Could it be another divine descent?”

Colin recalled a revered name. If anything could embody all suffering, it would undoubtedly be… “The Mother of Suffering and Thorns.” This deity grants all miracles of suffering… All current “miracles” originate from this unknown high entity. Yet, she is also the most mysterious. Aside from the fact that the miracles of suffering stem from her, there is no information about her.

“Is she still alive?”

Colin remembered that at the end of the “Era of Suffering,” a cataclysm had erupted, turning everyone who didn’t become a skeleton into a mutant. After that, there were no further developments… He had always thought that this pinnacle of the “Era of Suffering” had died along with it. But now it seemed otherwise…

“It’s very likely that, like the ‘Night,’ she is in some special state, unable to easily arrive. But who has stirred the ripples of fate?”

【You realize that it is not you who has initiated this fateful event…】

Not me? Then who is it? Who is so bored as to stir up trouble? Is there not enough hassle already?

Colin felt a headache coming on. “I fear this might be like the ‘Night,’ which likely began its countdown long ago, but only now is revealing itself…”

He continued to activate the prompt, wanting to confirm the status of “The Mother of Suffering and Thorns,” to learn if she would descend. Unsurprisingly, Colin didn’t obtain any valuable information; everything he got was useless.

However, while the information wasn’t clear, it could be inferred that this task was indeed related to “The Mother of Suffering and Thorns.” Moreover, Colin sensed a high probability that it involved her return.

In that moment…

A flash of insight crossed Colin’s mind. Was this Kymino’s plan? Did he want these people to prevent the descent and return of “The Mother of Suffering and Thorns”? While Colin had roughly discerned the reasons for Kimino’s assistance, he still wasn’t clear on his more specific goals…

Now it seemed… the reasons were emerging?

“What will happen if we don’t go there?”

【You speculate that some past events may repeat, and history will return to its origin…】

The events that occurred in the past refer to the unknown disaster that caused the end of the Era of Suffering? Colin pondered, realizing that history contained many confusing contradictions, so he decided not to dwell on it further and to leave that for a time when he could acquire more information.

After all, there was still nearly half a year until the countdown ended.

Half a year is a very “long” time…

Given the current pace of development…

“By then, maybe the orbital cannon will have been developed.”

Colin muttered to himself, though he knew that was unlikely; he was just venting.

Right now, the real urgency was the “area quarantine” being lifted in three days. By then, who knows how many aberrations would take advantage of the situation…

What are the enemies like?

How many of them are there?

What is their strength?

He needed to prepare for all of these.

At that moment, Colin suddenly thought of something. Was there a “fog wall” between the areas?

He looked out the window.

At this moment, the outside world was as bright as day, with holy light hanging high above the entire island, casting pure, bright rays that illuminated every corner like a massive lampshade.

This level of illumination only served to provide some “light and fog dispersal” effects, without causing overly troublesome “holy light fervor.” However, it did give Colin a vague sense of the entire island’s layout.

Within the range Colin could sense, he didn’t feel the “fog wall” described by other survivors. Not even outside the island did he have a similar feeling…

Forget it… This thing isn’t particularly important right now.

As Colin returned to his awareness, he “looked” outside the island and found that it was still nighttime—an utterly ordinary night in the true sense.

“There’s only an hour until dawn…”

Colin began to feel an overwhelming sense of fatigue, hunger in his stomach, and a hollow feeling in his mind.

This was merely some physiological reactions.

What felt worse was a sense of… emptiness in his soul.

Colin inexplicably felt as if he could disappear at any moment.

Even though he knew that wouldn’t happen, there was just this strange sensation.

At that moment, the blood-red text in his mind that hadn’t faded changed again.

Soon, new content appeared in his mind.

【The system’s ‘chat channel,’ ‘trading market,’ and other functions are about to reopen.】

Colin gritted his teeth against fatigue to check: “Finally restored. It’s been shut down for so long. It seems the ‘Night’ had a significant impact on it, but just reopening is already quite good…”

At this moment, among the remaining territories, the survivors erupted in ecstatic voices upon seeing this message.

In the beginning, everyone had been separated unit by unit, relying solely on a chat channel to persist.

After all, humans are social animals…

However, the cheers suddenly came to an abrupt stop.

They realized they seemed to have celebrated too early.

【Due to the influence of the “unknown,” the ‘world channel’ within the ‘chat channel’ will be temporarily opened, only once a week on weekends…】

Oh no… Colin was also taken aback.

【Additionally, the ‘area channel,’ ‘personal channel,’ and other area chat functions will resume after dawn.】

【Moreover, collecting ten parchment scrolls from other survivors will allow this area to merge with other area channels…】

【When the overall integration progress between the various areas reaches fifty percent, the system will fully restore the ‘world channel’ function.】

“The system is trying to save itself?”

Upon seeing this long string of information, Colin immediately thought of this point, and he realized…

“Isn’t the parchment scroll itself a creation of the system? How could it not recover its own creations? Does it still need our help to establish connections?”

Though Colin had previously realized that the system’s situation was dire, he hadn’t expected it to be this bad, unable to even retrieve its own items…

【The ‘gift’ system will be completely canceled after dawn, reverting back to the ‘trading market,’ and will be opened once a week alongside the ‘world channel.’】

【Furthermore, to promote integration progress, a new task will soon be issued: ‘Civilization Reforging Plan’…】