Doomsday Pillars

The attack of the monsters called Critter yesterday was another blow to the already suffering residents of Hong Kong Island.

Not long after the attack had occurred, Christina, Nam, and several earth realm fighters had gone to the sinkhole. The area around the hole had changed a lot. Every greenery had died and the ground was dried and cracked.

They had readied a crane and proceeded to go down the hole. They reached the bottom after 500 meters and found a giant wall. The material on this wall weren't anything like they had seen on Earth. It had an open crack that was about 10 meters high. They tried to shine light on it but all they saw was never-ending darkness. If they would take a guess, they believed the critters had spawned out of this wall.

Nam walked closer and tried to enter but there seemed to be an invisible wall preventing him. He tried to touch it and the bracelet in his hand again gave a message..

[Gate of the Abyss]

[Status - Open - stage 1]

He punched the invisible wall, some tried to fire their gun at it once but nothing they did was effective. It appeared to be a one-way path. So, Nam had asked the Hong Kong army with them to heavily guard the area. They had done so and placed dozens of machine guns and earth realm fighters ready to guard the entrance in case anything tries to come out.

Once again, the Doomsday Pillar seemed to have the answer regarding the Abyss Gate. 

This morning, Christina revisited the Doomsday Pillars with Ma Sing in tow. And the first thing she did was to take Ma Sing to the training hall.

[Ma Sing]

[Male - 12 years]

[Mortal Realm - level 9 - Initial Stage]

Christina handed over Ma Sing to Corrie and asked her to guide him with some physical training. Christina didn't want Ma Sing to take any spirit stones at the moment because this kid was still in his adolescence and might suffer negative rebounds to his physical development. So, Christina only allowed Corrie to watch his progress step by step.

"Welcome to the Firebirds, Ma Sing. You're the first male member," said Corrie with a big smile.

Ma Sing, however, was silent.

They had met each other before and had shown his cheerful attitude. But none of that had been shown by Ma Sing today. This once happy child had changed. Corrie didn't force it though because she had heard what he had gone through yesterday. She felt sympathy for the child.

After leaving Ma Sing at the training hall, Christina went to where Inspector Tang was. 

She arrived at one section of the main hall where Nam, Jennie, Chicken and Maxine were waiting. At that place, there were several white coats still writing, recording and discussing things they had found. 

"Sorry for the wait, everyone. Inspector Tang, what was it that you want to show us?" Christina asked.

"You're right one time. Take a look at this," Inspector Tang said, presenting the two body armor laid down on the table. Both of them were artifacts from the Doomsday Pillar. 

Christina raised her wrist and examined it with the bracelet in her hand.

[0089 -Leather armor]

[Medium armor - Tier 1]

[Weight 4.1 kilograms]

[Leather Armor]

[Medium Armor - Tier 2]

[Weight 4.1 kilograms]

"Inspector, how'd you also get a Tier 2 item?" Christina asked, dumbfounded. Could it be that the inspector also got a reward against Alpha Fenrir?

"I'll explain it to you in a bit, first I'd like to see the difference between the two."

Inspector Tang had an assistant come over and had him equip it to two earth realm participants that were on standby. After the two people stood in a corner, Inspector Tang whipped out a gun and shot the two participants in the chests. 

He was actually conducting a test between the two armors and the test results showed that the Tier 1 armor could withstand 3 shots from a gun before the participant got pushed on the ground on the 4th shot. Meanwhile, the Tier 2 armor withstood 10 shots before the same thing happened.

From the results of this test, the scientists concluded Tier 2 armors had 3 times the defensive power against the Tier 1. And upon closer inspection, these armors' defensive capability didn't come from its material. Rather, from an invisible repulsion-repelling engraved in the armors, protecting the wearer.

"Ohh, is that like some kind of force field just like in video games?" said Chicken, rubbing his hands in excitement. 

People had been used to Chicken's useless terms and references. But this time, he appeared to have the right idea. 

The scientist coughed a little and explained, "Yes. And like other objects from this pillar, it requires energy to activate it."

"Let me guess, spirit stone," Maxine exclaimed.

"Smaartt," Chicken replied with a sneer.

Maxine frowned, she wanted to say something but kept to herself after seeing Jennie's gaze.

"Fortunately, these armors are able to recharge by themselves as time passes. Still, if you need to activate its functions immediately, you may use spirit stones.

Spirit stones again. Truly, spirit stones would increasingly become the most valuable currency.

Next, the scientist explained the final differences between these two artifacts. "Tier 2 items require a bond with its wearer. You'll have to place a drop of your blood on the item to form a bond with it. In case you'd like to give up your ownership of the item, the current owner must mentally give up the bond."

How that worked was beyond the understanding of these scientists. In fact, force field technology was already a stretch even in this century. So, creating a technology using mental connection where they would be the only people able to use it was like in the realm of science fiction.

After explaining all the details regarding the two protective artifacts, Inspector Tang took over and said, "Now, I'll explain where I got this Tier 2 armor."

Inspector Tang led the others toward the main cube in this room and touched the engravings of the stone. Light then emerged and formed a large sphere. Blue oceans, green and brown lands appeared on the sphere and a moment later, the rest recognized what they were looking at. It was a view of the Earth. In that image, there were hundreds of green and red dots in different countries. Collectively, there were thousands of light points.

Inspector Tang said, "We have actually counted and there are a thousand green dots. As for the reds and blacks, we estimate the reds to be around thousands, and at least ten of thousands for the black."

Inspector Tang raised his wrist and did some motion. Then the image of the Earth focused on Hong Kong Island.

"The green dots are where these Doomsday Pillars stand. We can safely assume there are another 999 pillars that have descended on Earth. The red dot is at the exact location where the sinkhole appeared and where the critters seemed to have come out of. Yesterday, while exploring the area following the black dot, we managed to find this tier 2 protective artifact."

It wasn't difficult for people to draw conclusions from the information they had found. Nevertheless, finding out how all this worked wasn't easy. And even if they had information before the pillar fell and what was in store in it, it would still be very hard to believe it. But the fact was right in front of them. There was no way to deny it. 

"1,000 pillars. There are 1,000 of this structure scattered all over the earth?" Christina said underneath her breath.

Inspector Tang continued to explain that the protective artifact was found hidden under an old temple. And the bracelet they wear was the key to open it.

"Unfortunately, there is only one position of this green light in Hong Kong island. If you look at the map, the next closest location is in the middle of Hong Kong city and there is also across Lantau Island in the position of where the giant Buddha statue is."

Inspector Tang was eager to search for these artifacts but then he remembered what Colonel Chan had done. They didn't have Christina's ship any longer. If only they still had that battleship, they could search and collect these artifacts one by one.

The more Christina listened to Inspector Tang's explanation, the more questions appeared in her mind. "Inspector Tang, do we know yet why our world became like this? The Pillar seemed to be able to interact with us in some ways, but has anyone tried to ask the cube directly to know what they want from us?"

The inspector fell silent. A scientist tried to answer her question because they had indeed attempted to do just that, but all the cube had was information like a manual, instructions only.

The Doomsday Pillar's technology was above and beyond Earth's current technology, but they were sure there was no intellectual figure behind this cube, machine, or otherwise. Apart from the stone cubes, they also tried to study the carvings around the building. However, the bracelet refused to translate those carvings. A historian was somewhat familiar though with these writings as he had seen before in Earth's ancient writing, but he couldn't decipher it either. .

Inspector Tang then touched the cube once more and a new message came out. Everyone looked at the long figure of numbers that kept on decreasing. 

"This is the real reason I invited you guys over. We've found something that needs your input."

[33,436,800] [33,436,799] [33,436,788]

"Is that a countdown?" Christina asked. 

"Yes, right," Inspector Tang replied, nodding.

"That is in seconds. About... 400 days?" 

"Exactly 387 days," replied a scientist.

"I don't like countdowns. No countdowns were ever a good thing, fuxxx," said Chicken.

"What does this mean, Inspector?" Christina asked.

"We don't know either. But like Chicken said, it's better to assume that something bad will happen in 387 days even if we don't have enough information to back it up."

When they thought things couldn't be any worse from being stranded on this island, shortage of food, the threat of that hole, now the Pillar was probably telling them there would be another threat coming in 387 days, they really couldn't feel relaxed even for a second. 

"There is one more thing I need to show you," Inspector Tang said, breaking the silence.

"Is it another bad news?" asked Chicken.

Inspector Tang touched the cube stone again and another message came out.

[Doomsday Pillars 0144]

[Initial challenge has been successfully completed]

[Ready to open the staircase gate to the 1st floor?]

[Yes?]