Europe, Paris, a survivor point.
The Underground Cathedral of Our Lady of the Mary.
Hundreds of clergy stood blankly in the central hall of the church.
"God, please save your devout people," Cardinal Johnson prayed.
“God has abandoned us!” a clergyman cried out in despair.
“Shut up! You are blaspheming God!” Johnson rebuked the chaotic clergy.
"If God really exists, he wouldn't let us go through this suffering!" the clergy roared.
“But we can’t give up our faith…” Johnson said almost pleadingly.
If even clergy have lost their faith, what reason is there for ordinary people to believe in God?
"My lord! Go out into the world and see if humanity still has faith."
"Times have changed!"
"God is dead!"
The scene was out of control. Clergy members, dressed in their robes, danced in despair, tearing pages of their Bibles in a frenzy, scattering white scraps of paper into the air.
This is a scene straight out of hell.
"God! If you truly exist, please show your miracles and save your people!" Johnson knelt on the ground, weeping bitterly.
In the center of the church hall is a huge screen. When there is no signal, the screen is filled with snow. At this moment, the screen has received a video signal from the "Torch" satellite, and frame by frame of video is displayed in the center of the hall.
Silence.
Thump, thump, thump—
The hundreds of clergy who had just been going berserk in the church all knelt down, clasped their hands together, and prayed devoutly to the television screen.
"Halelujah—"
"Halelujah—"
Amen...
A cross appeared on the television screen, with a mannequin hanging on it. No matter how you looked at it, the mannequin was the image of Jesus, the "Son of God".
Before the cross, a man knelt there, and from his tearful expression, one could tell how devout he was.
This is a miracle from Mars!
Even 60 million kilometers away from Earth, in such a desolate and hopeless place, humanity has not given up its faith!
Not only at Notre-Dame Basilica in Paris, but also at this moment, the hearts of clergy around the world watching on television have been purified, and faith has returned to the hearts of every clergy member.
“Go,” Johnson stood up, waving his hand to the dark mass of kneeling clergy, issuing the command, “Go and tell the world the miracles you have witnessed! Tell them that God has not abandoned us!”
For the sake of their faith, devout clergy around the world braved dangers and walked to various survivor sites to preach.
Zhang Fan became a new doctrine in the hearts of mankind, representing the recurrence of miracles...
...
Wano Country, the human survival point in Kyoto.
Kazuo Yasuda, a history professor and current president of Waseda University, burned books at home. Flames leaped high in the center of the living room as he stared blankly at the scene.
"Darling, what are you doing!"
Mrs. Kangtian hurriedly brought in a basin of water and extinguished the fire in the living room.
"These books are your most precious collection. You never let me touch them. Why are you burning them now?" After extinguishing the flames, Mrs. Kangtian used her hands to sift through the ashes at the books that had not yet burned.
“Madam, this is meaningless.” Kazuo Yasuda shook his head, looking at his wife’s hands covered in black ash. “Human civilization has been extinguished; books are meaningless.”
“How could it be meaningless? Darling, don’t forget you are still our country’s new Minister of Education.” Mrs. Kang Tian held her husband’s hands tightly. “Today when I came back from the square, the children were all asking me when school would reopen. School requires books.”
Mrs. Kangtian was also the principal of an elementary school.
“Madam.” Kazuo Yasuda grasped his wife’s hands, his face streaked with tears. “The world is already like this. Do you think education still has any meaning? Do you think it still has any meaning for me to teach children history? Human history ended on that day.”
“Darling,” Mrs. Kang wiped away her husband’s tears, “I think you should take a look at this.”
Mrs. Kang Tian turned on the television.
On the television screen, a human is holding a book and trying to teach a gorilla to learn. The human also takes a piece of white paper and patiently writes on it in front of the gorilla, guiding its hand.
Kazuo Yasuda's eyes became bright and alert.
He knew it was footage from Mars, and he knew who the man in the footage was.
“Darling, even in that desperate situation, even when he was facing only a chimpanzee, he did not give up learning and education, and he still tried his best to pass on human civilization. What reason do we have to give up?”
"Madam, I was wrong." Kazuo Yasuda stood up, put on his coat, and prepared to go out.
"Darling, where are you going?"
"The Ministry of Education, I want to tell them that all schools will reopen starting tomorrow!"
...
Presidential Refuge in Comorado, United States.
The so-called "presidential refuge" is officially named "NORAD Base".
The base is located inside the Cheyenne Mountain in Comorado. Because the mountain itself is composed of granite and is reinforced with tens of meters of reinforced concrete, even a nuclear attack cannot damage it in the slightest.
The Minister of Defense, the Chief of the General Staff, the Air Force Commander, the Navy Commander... are all in the Presidential Office at this moment.
The president stared at the red button in front of him, remaining silent.
"Mr. President, we must strike first!"
"We have lost our nuclear deterrent capability, and 'they' could attack us at any time."
"The intelligence network has been disrupted, and we have no idea what kind of conspiracy 'they' might be plotting!"
"Perhaps 'they' have already taken action! You must make a decision immediately!"
"This is the most urgent moment, Mr. President!"
"..."
The president did not speak, his eyes fixed on the television screen in front of him.
On the television screen, Zhang Fan held a copy of "War and Peace," marked "war" with a big X, and "peace" with a big checkmark.
Then he wrote on the white paper:
Nowar!
For peace!
The camera gave a close-up shot of those two English sentences.
What are we doing...?
Meeting adjourned!
The president stood up, left a single sentence, and turned away without looking back, leaving a group of senior generals looking at each other, at a loss for what to do.
...
In India, Zhang Fan's portrait is displayed alongside that of Mahatma Gandhi.
In South America, Zhang Fan's image is printed on people's clothes alongside Che Guevara's.
Zhang Fan is a superstar all over the world.
After all, in this era of entertainment scarcity, Zhang Fan's Mars Live is the only, and the only, television program that people can watch.
This is the "Age of Heroes"!
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