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"Seven votes in favor, two against, one abstention!"

In the command room, the commander from the Hou Family announced the final result.

"Now, by resolution, shut down the Huaxi District!"

"Do we really have to do this?" the two men who had just voted against were clearly still reluctant: "The Huaxi District has gathered years of experimental data from our Huazhong, and the largest Zhu Xian project is also there. Once it’s shut down, do you know the consequences?"

"We might regress to an extremely exaggerated level, not to mention preserving our current position, we might even become the bottom of the five major districts..."

"However severe the losses, we must shut it down!

" Wu Qian interrupted the other party: "The intelligent emergency alarm won’t be wrong.

Once that thing came out, it slaughtered all the high-levels.

Unless you want to lead the surrender, what will happen if that thing gets out of Huaxi District—are you able to guarantee the consequences? "

"Wu Qian is right," another overweight man agreed: "What we in Huazhong lack the least are skilled engineers. Lost data can be estimated and restored, lost technology can also take time to recover, but if order collapses, it’s over. Whatever came out obviously doesn’t intend to follow order.

No matter how great the benefits, we cannot compromise! "

"But what about the Zhuxian World?" another person unwillingly said: "It’s the virtual world with the highest accommodation rate in Huazhong right now, its server is bound to Huaxi. Once it’s shut down, the loss for Huazhong will be immeasurable, and it will be very difficult for us to find a better substitute world. "

"No matter how difficult, we can always start from scratch in the future!" the one from the Hou Family also said coldly: "As long as order remains, everything can begin anew. Temporary setback is not an issue; haven’t we in Huazhong fallen behind before and still caught up?"

Upon hearing this, the two men glared in anger. Unlike those born into the Hou Family and similar clans, these two had risen to the position of major general from the middle class, and obviously saw things differently.

The current lead of Huazhong was earned by countless people through blood and sweat, a struggle of hundreds of thousands of years, bringing hardship to generations of common folk. Now that we’ve finally achieved so much, you’re telling me to start from scratch?

As if it were as simple as eating and drinking...

And with several hundred million people in the Huaxi District, home to Huazhong’s best engineering team, how long will it take to train so many excellent engineers again?

These people... only have their so-called order in their eyes. Order... isn’t it just about power in the end?

Order, as they control it, is called order. If it’s not under their control, then it isn’t order...

"Enough, no need to argue further!" the one from the Hou Family declared: "Sign the papers immediately, and initiate the shutdown procedure for Huaxi!"

A decision on the life and death of hundreds of millions was once again, with the vote of a few, put into the statute...

-----------------------------------

Such massive action obviously couldn’t be kept hidden. The moment Huaxi Pass was shut down, the internet forums exploded!

A post about the shutdown of the Huaxi Pass was deleted and re-deleted in the virtual forums. Even though the official channels tried to implement an information blackout immediately, they couldn’t suppress the brewing public uproar.

In countless encrypted forums, the topic was being hotly discussed!

"Huaxi Pass has been shut down!"

"Is that true? Am I dreaming? What happened? Is it the end of the world?"

"Who knows what mess the higher-ups have created? It’s just like that nuclear leak incident in the northwest back then.

At the time we knew nothing, and only later did we learn that it was because the higher-ups were taking risks to gather more energy, and that’s when they screwed up.

Now with such a large area as Huaxi being shut down, I fear the situation is far more serious than last time! "

"What could it be? How is this possible... I can’t even dare to think... I even wonder if I’m dreaming?"

"My god, thank goodness I’m on leave today, in the Eastern District!"

The rumors fermented quickly; the news spread through countless anonymous channels, almost viral in speed, with its impact growing wider.

First, the other four large districts of Digital City suspended operations, plunging into panic.

Shortly after, the disturbance impacted the areas outside the city.

The regions outside the city had the highest population density.

After reaching adulthood, most younger people spent their time there regardless of whether they passed their studies or not.

Their data was entered into a model of machinery, serving as the nuts and bolts of massive energy engineering projects.

Mining, refining, nuclear power operations, maintenance—the tasks meant for workers that once were performed by mortal flesh are now being carried out by so-called digital lives.

Today, this world that’s usually bustling with endless activity has come to a halt. Most people have received the message about the shutdown of Huaxi Pass, and they stopped their work, either staring blankly at the news or frantically asking around about the authenticity of the message.

The sound of discussions rose and fell, the peaceful and repetitive routine was finally broken on this day.

"Has the Huaxi District really... been shut down?"

At a mining site, a few old-fashioned Miner Robots sat in a circle, all discussing this matter.

No one came to rush the work today, and even the planner responsible for managing them reportedly rushed back to Digital City at the first opportunity, it’s said his family is in Huaxi District...

When this topic came up, several young workers fell into silence.

Huaxi District, one could say, is an area many ordinary Huazhong people aspire to live in, a dream place for young engineers.

Once you have a residence permit from there, you never have to do this dreary and boring work outside, you can always enjoy the resources of Digital City, without having to slave away all year just for a couple of days of splendor in the Digital City.

Now it seems, it may not be a bad thing, at least, they weren’t like those people in Huaxi, who all of a sudden, just lost everything...

"Have the people above gone mad?"

"I fear something terrible must have happened; this is serious." The old miner in charge of the mining area spoke up, "I’ve lived nearly a hundred years and never heard of Digital City experiencing a shutdown event."

"Could it be due to a lack of energy?"

"Are you joking?" The old miner scoffed, "Our Huazhong’s energy output is twice that of the North America District. Not enough energy up there? There’s enough energy even for showers... It’s just that we don’t get to enjoy it."

"Then what could be the reason?"

"How would I know? But I’m afraid it’s..." As he said this, the old miner’s voice suddenly stiffened, as if something had gotten stuck.

The people around looked at each other in confusion. Why stop speaking halfway through? Selling a teaser at a time like this?

But what everybody couldn’t see was that inside the mechanical body of that old miner, something they couldn’t even dare to imagine had happened.

Inside the machinery, the fellow affectionately referred to as Old Yu stared blankly ahead, although his appearance wasn’t old; he looked about the same as a seventeen-year-old, which is the unified age for all those who had not gone to the Virtual District, young and spirited.

The reason he was called Old Yu was that he had been in this mining area for seventy years, a veteran known by everyone around.

In this land, he had spent a full seventy years and had seen some strange events, but he had never seen the weird occurrences unfolding before him now.

He never imagined that someone could sneak into his machinery without him noticing...

"Who are you...?"

Had he encountered hackers?

Old Yu’s heart raced. He had heard some unpleasant rumors about hackers, but what he didn’t understand was, what was there to hack in an old-fashioned Miner Robot operator like himself?

And what was with the appearance of these two people?

An old man and a young person, dressed in... what seemed to be ancient attire?

"What is this place?" Wang Ye asked curiously, finding the surroundings rather novel.

"So we’ve reached outside of the city..." Tianji stood up, looked around, and suddenly smiled, "Luck is on our side..."

Old Yu stared blankly at these two individuals, feeling that... he had probably run into a big problem today...