Chapter 174 An Irresistible Game
Day 12 of the Highway Survival Game!
"Hmph!" At the same time, Hagiwara chuckled, his nonchalant demeanor filled with a strange and dangerous air, and said, "We're not exactly the kind of people who worry about the country and its people."
It's just that I discovered some issues with the game, which might require reducing the survivors' death rate, so I wanted to use my past reality to interfere with the game's future! I only care about the lives of Feng-chan and my family and friends; what do the lives of others matter?
"Some questions?" Gin's cold green eyes immediately swept over Hagiwara, Matsuda, and Scotland's calm faces, and he immediately understood: "You've already told this Public Security rat about this?"
"No! The correct way to put it is that it was thanks to Scotland's involvement that we realized some important issues in the game!" After Hagiwara smoothed things over, Matsuda realized that the person in front of him wasn't Kaze-chan, and he couldn't react to him the way he did to Kaze-chan.
Fortunately, he was quick-witted. His four years as a police officer had given him a broad perspective, and he also had an inexplicable aura of a mob boss, so he quickly adjusted his demeanor.
After making his aura appear dangerous, he took over the topic. He didn't exaggerate, but truthfully told Gin about the questions they had at the time and some possibilities that Scotland had deduced after learning about it.
Then he continued, "...Our speculation that the game might descend upon other parallel worlds and inflict devastating damage on those parallel planets, causing them to be brought into convergence with our planet's worldline may actually be true."
Although it's not yet clear what this 10-year gap means, I think even you would have similar thoughts after hearing about it, if there were more survivors among those captured.
Fewer other Earthlings might be captured, which means fewer Earthlings will die, preventing our Earth from ending up like those parallel Earths that are absorbed by other planets.
"It's even possible that parallel planets exist, and that these parallel planets were likely used as playgrounds by the game between 2014 and 2015. The more we know, the more complicated things related to the game seem to become." Hagiwara and the others hadn't mentioned this before.
Bourbon was hearing about the possibility of time looping within this year for the first time, and he frowned very realistically: "But you said that the rules announced in the game announcement would open a total of 1,000 regions, with 10,000 people in each region."
Even if a season consumes 10 million people, or even a month-long season consumes 10 million people, and players are recruited again the following month, the maximum population consumed on Earth would be 120 million.
Even if all 120 million of Earth's 8 billion inhabitants were young and strong from various countries around the world, it wouldn't be enough to severely damage Earth's human civilization to the point that Earth would weaken to the point of being absorbed by other parallel worlds.
"Of course we thought of that too, so we speculate that either the game rules on those parallel planets are different from here, or there will be more brutal gameplay in later seasons, causing severe destruction to the population of Earth, or Earth itself."
"The destruction of all life led to the convergence of world lines in parallel worlds. Of course, this speculation is based on the assumption that time loops are indeed caused by the convergence of world lines in other parallel planets," Matsuda added, omitting the missing information.
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Unbeknownst to them, upon hearing these previously unspoken speculations, Feng Xingshou paused, then exclaimed in surprise as if realizing something: "No way! Could it be because of Earth itself..."
"What are you thinking about, you little piglet?" Gin heard her fall silent as if she had suddenly thought of something, and knew that the little piglet he had raised lacked self-confidence.
Even if they have something in mind, they lack confidence and feel that their ideas are more likely to be wrong, so they often won't say what they're thinking. Instead, they'll just urge her to say it, since they know everything about the future.
He may have already deduced some key points based on this intelligence. Now he knows that although there are Darmo, Granwitt, and her, it seems that only she has thought of something. She reacts when they talk about things related to games and time, and what she thinks of is likely related to some information about the future...
As expected, upon hearing his question, Hagiwara, Matsuda, Bourbon, and Scotland all fell silent, waiting for Gin to relay what the Wind Guardian had said. They probably shared Gin's thoughts, believing that the Wind Guardian, possessing more information about the future, must have been thinking something very important when he overheard their conversation…
Feng Xing Shou, standing to the side, felt as if she were being stared at by everyone, even though she knew no one could see her. She quickly whispered what she had just thought of to her brother: "I just suddenly remembered the major event that happened two days before the game's arrival: the Yellowstone volcano eruption."
A month before the Yellowstone eruption, two major earthquakes of magnitude 7 or higher occurred in other countries on Earth, as well as the Nankai Trough earthquake in Japan, which led to the eruption of Mount Fuji and caused hundreds of thousands of deaths and injuries in Japan, among other geological disasters.
In fact, the Tonga volcano had an eruption in 2022. Although geological experts claimed on public channels that it was a natural geographical phenomenon and not that the earth had entered a period of volcanic activity, people privately discussed whether the earth had entered a period of volcanic activity.
In addition, I have previously watched some science programs produced by geological experts about the impact and consequences of various geological disasters on Earth. These programs mentioned that if the Yellowstone volcano were to erupt, it would create a mini ice age environment on Earth that would last for about 10 years.
Furthermore, it is speculated that acid rain formed from volcanic ash will become the norm during those 10 years, and that Earth's environment will also be affected by the magma that was ejected from the Yellowstone volcano and cooled in the atmosphere, and then, like a meteor shower, it will be thrown back to various parts of Earth by Earth's gravity.
The simulation results suggest that the planet would suffer immense damage, and the subsequent long-term acid rain would completely destroy the planet's natural environment, leading to a mass extinction event...
Previously, because of the psychological trauma caused by the silver bullet, I rarely mentioned natural disasters to them, since I felt that those things were always quite far away from me.
Since the side effects of the silver bullets didn't have such a significant impact on my life and work, I didn't pay much attention to those things until I heard what Darmo said just now, which reminded me that it might be related to natural disasters on Earth.
If Earth were to suffer a devastating blow and fall into a weakened state, it would be brought together by the timelines of other parallel Earths. I think this is quite likely, especially since that game did indeed start running two days after the Yellowstone eruption.
The game's theme is still survival in various natural disasters, so I wondered if other parallel planets experienced similar massive natural disasters in 2014-2015 as our planet in 2025.
The game's organizers felt that planets experiencing extreme natural disasters in real life were suitable as game backgrounds, so they created the game on those parallel planets..."
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“The piglet said…” Gin didn’t respond after hearing her words, but instead relayed them directly to the other people in the carriage.
Upon hearing Feng Xingshou's words, Hagiwara suddenly slapped his forehead: "I also knew about the Yellowstone volcano eruption, but I never thought it might be related to the arrival of the game."
"Tsk! So the reason why the disaster season in the first month of this game is an extreme rain and snow disaster is to simulate the Yellowstone volcano eruption, with volcanic ash covering the atmosphere and causing the early stage of the Little Ice Age?" Matsuda immediately realized.
It seemed like he had guessed a bit about the game's plot: "And the upgrade direction for our game vehicle is also to keep the vehicle's external size unchanged, expand the internal living space, and increase various vehicle performance features."
Especially the driving skills competition after the dungeon, which basically forces us to upgrade our vehicles to be more cold-resistant and frost-resistant. Also, the most important reward for upgrading vehicles that we didn't understand before is that it allows us to summon the vehicles to use in the real world.
However, the method to upgrade vehicles is to absorb and devour other survivors' vehicles. At the time, we said that it only summoned the vehicles for the duration of real-world use, which was not attractive to survivors at all. Who would go to such lengths to steal other survivors' vehicles for such a reward?
If we combine this with Feng Jiang's speculation, wouldn't it also solve our previous question? The most obvious disaster in the early stages of the Yellowstone volcano eruption was the drop in temperature, so the disaster season of this month is the drop in temperature, and vehicle upgrades are all related to cold protection.
So, next month or the month after, there might be an acid rain disaster season, and the acid resistance of vehicles will be improved. This way, when survivors summon vehicles in reality, they can live in relatively safe vehicles with their relatives and friends when the corresponding natural disasters occur.
The game organizers deliberately arranged for the survivors to play a month-long survival 'game' and then return to reality for a month to recuperate. This was to make the survivors aware of the drastic changes that were about to happen in reality, so that even if they knew the dangers of the game, they would still be aware of them.
In order to cope with the impending disaster, they must also follow the instructions of the game organizers, fight to the death with their own kind, and do their best to upgrade the star rating of their vehicles to extend the time they can summon vehicles in reality...
It seems the organizers of this terrible game are not only stingy and opportunistic, but also insidious, deliberately designing a game that survivors find irresistible, forcing them to play according to their expectations.
After he said those words, Hagiwara and Kazesei understood the information about vehicle star upgrades, but Scotland, Gin, and Bourbon, who hadn't heard them mention the details of vehicle star upgrades, could only understand the general idea and didn't know the specifics.
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