Chapter 177 DOOM

The situation deteriorated rapidly.

First, ordinary working-class citizens began questioning the government.

Then middle-ranking technicians and engineers joined them.

Eventually, even some high-ranking officials began voicing their doubts.

People started questioning whether the Wandering Earth Project was legitimate.

Was the Sun really going to experience a helium flash?

Had the government fabricated the entire crisis to expand its authority?

Was the Wandering Earth Project nothing more than an excuse to establish a global dictatorship?

Before long, speakers began appearing in underground cities, delivering passionate speeches to angry crowds.

Some groups even started distributing weapons to ordinary citizens.

“Citizens! Earth has been betrayed! Our civilization has been betrayed!”

“We are the victims of a conspiracy so enormous, so horrifying, that even God himself would be shocked into unconsciousness!”

“The Sun is still the same Sun it’s always been!”

“It isn’t going to explode! It never has, it isn’t now, and it never will!”

“The Sun is a symbol of eternity!”

“Those shameless bastards fabricated this entire lie just so they could build their own dictatorial empire!”

“We must overthrow the United Earth Government!”

“We must put an end to this deception!”

Calls for rebellion spread like wildfire.

From one underground city to the next, the unrest grew increasingly difficult to contain.

And once the pressure reached its breaking point, the rebellion finally erupted.

Numerous underground cities declared independence from the United Earth Government and joined the rebel forces.

Others remained officially loyal, but their populations were already deeply divided.

The entire political system was beginning to fracture.

Back at the shelter, the growing crisis had finally reached Vane’s doorstep.

“Sir, which side are we going to support?”

Joe stood before Vane in the conference room, his voice filled with concern.

“The United Earth Government sent a delegation asking for help. The rebels sent people too.”

“Both sides want us to intervene.”

Vane tapped his fingers against the table, deep in thought.

In the original storyline, wasn’t the rebellion supposed to happen after Earth passed Jupiter?

Looks like the shelter’s existence triggered a butterfly effect and brought everything forward.

Still, the rebellion itself had been inevitable.

The shelter and the Sun were merely catalysts, not the underlying causes.

A grand narrative about preserving human civilization could suppress social tensions, but it couldn’t actually resolve them.

The public had become convinced that the United Earth Government wanted to establish a dictatorship controlling all of humanity.

They believed the supposedly impending helium flash was nothing more than a convenient lie.

As for what the government had done to make so many people willing to believe the rebels…

Well, that was another matter entirely.

Before Vane could decide how to handle the situation, a new mission notification appeared.

[Conquest Mission: Calm the Rebels’ Anger and Rebuild the United Earth Government]

[Public dissatisfaction with the United Earth Government has reached its peak. The Sun and the shelter are merely convenient excuses for people to express their long-standing resentment.]

[End the chaos and establish a new United Earth Government that will lead humanity toward the stars.]

[Rewards: Conquest Progress +20%, Title: The Rebuilder]

Vane’s conquest progress had already reached 80%.

Another 20% would bring it to 100%.

Once that happened, he could complete the conquest and return to the Minecraft Universe.

“Neither side.”

Vane leaned back lazily.

“We’ll mediate.”

Unlike some of the other universes he’d visited, The Wandering Earth didn’t have any particularly powerful bosses.

As a result, Vane hadn’t bothered crafting especially powerful weapons or armor.

Instead, he’d focused almost entirely on producing Iron Golems.

By now, the army of Iron Golems under his command was more than capable of crushing either the rebels or the government’s military forces.

Neither side stood a chance against him.

When the shelter proposed peace negotiations, both the rebel leader and the President of the United Earth Government agreed to attend, each bringing their own diplomatic delegation.

The entire conference would be broadcast live.

Across the planet, countless people tuned in to watch.

Everyone understood what was at stake.

If the negotiations failed, a full-scale war would almost certainly erupt.

And that was the last thing anyone wanted.

Unfortunately, the two sides had fundamentally different demands.

If they couldn’t reach an agreement, war might be the only option left.

Vane wasted no time getting to the point.

“The Sun really is going to experience a helium flash.”

He dropped the bombshell before anyone else could speak.

The expressions of the rebel delegates immediately changed.

Meanwhile, the government officials looked visibly excited.

Finally!

Someone was confirming what they’d been saying all along!

“However…”

Vane deliberately paused, then continued.

“Overthrowing the existing United Earth Government and replacing it with a new administration subject to public oversight is also absolutely necessary.”

“I object!”

The President immediately stood up.

“Everything the United Earth Government has done was for the preservation of human civilization! On what grounds should we be overthrown? We will never accept such unjust treatment!”

“For the preservation of human civilization?” Vane shrugged, casually throwing the President’s own argument back at him.

“Exactly. To calm the public’s anger and put an end to this chaos.”

“If you absolutely refuse to negotiate, that’s fine too. We can go to war.”

“But if that happens, the shelter will firmly support the rebels until the United Earth Government has been overthrown by force.”

He looked directly at the President.

“You were willing to sacrifice 3.5 billion people to preserve human civilization.”

“So now, to prevent a war, you can’t sacrifice the old government?”

“Or are you suggesting that you people are somehow more valuable than those 3.5 billion lives?”

The President’s face turned ugly.

So did the faces of every official sitting beside him.

Because there was simply no way to argue against that.

Sacrificing other people is fine, but sacrificing yourselves is suddenly unacceptable?

If they said something like that on a live broadcast, their own soldiers might turn against them on the spot.

“We support the proposal.”

The rebel leader immediately seized the opportunity.

“We are willing to accept the shelter’s guarantee that the solar helium flash is real.”

“However, the existing United Earth Government must be dismantled and rebuilt.”

“The new administration must operate under public supervision.”

“We will never tolerate a dictatorship!”

With the rebels openly accepting Vane’s proposal, the government officials found themselves backed into a corner.

They had no choice but to agree.

From there, the process became relatively straightforward.

Officials and powerful elites who had abused their privileges or wasted public resources were investigated and held accountable.

The old administrative structure was dismantled, and a new United Earth Government was established in its place.

Once everything was complete, Vane’s conquest progress finally reached 100%.

He received the universe’s highest-level administrator privileges and its associated mods.

And the very first thing he did with his newfound authority?

He took away the Sun.

Literally.

He removed the unstable Sun and replaced it with a stable star of exactly the same size.

Just like that, Earth no longer had any reason to continue wandering through space.

But Vane wasn’t finished.

He adjusted Earth’s orbit and restored its rotation, bringing an end to the existential crisis caused by the impending helium flash.

Then he constructed a portal connecting this universe to the Minecraft Universe’s platform.

With that portal in place, the people of The Wandering Earth could travel to other universes.

They could study advanced technologies, interact with entirely different civilizations, and even participate in the Desire Grand Prix.

Humanity’s future had suddenly become far brighter than anyone could have imagined.

“Not bad. Another happy ending.”

Vane nodded in satisfaction.

His only regret was that he hadn’t been able to save the innocent people who had died after Earth’s rotation was stopped.

With the memories of The Wandering Earth fully absorbed, he finally turned his attention toward the last universe on his list.

DOOM.

Compared to The Wandering Earth, the background story of the DOOM universe was even more straightforward.

A massive corporation known as the Union Aerospace Corporation, or UAC, had become obsessed with obtaining an unlimited source of energy.

To achieve this, the company secretly researched a technology known as Argent Energy, attempting to extract power directly from the dimension of Hell.

Unfortunately, their greed-driven experiments eventually opened a portal connecting the human world to Hell itself.

And naturally, that allowed armies of demons to invade.

When humanity found itself facing annihilation, one lone Marine stepped forward.

Driven by sheer rage and an unbreakable will, he continued fighting until he eventually transformed into the ultimate weapon designed for one purpose.

Slaughtering demons.

By the time Vane arrived in this universe, both the first and second demonic invasions had already been repelled.

The Doom Slayer had sealed himself inside Hell, severing its connection to the human world.

That should have been the end of it.

But humanity still refused to give up on Argent Energy.

Dr. Samuel Hayden ordered his people to venture into Hell and retrieve the sarcophagus containing the imprisoned Doom Slayer.

Then, in their infinite wisdom, they reopened a portal to Hell so they could continue extracting Argent Energy.

Unsurprisingly, they screwed everything up again.

The demons corrupted the scientists and security personnel, seized control of the portal, and launched yet another invasion of the human world.

“Holy shit…”

Vane hadn’t even finished absorbing the universe’s background memories, and he was already feeling exhausted.

Seriously, what the hell is wrong with humanity in the DOOM universe?

Do these idiots have some kind of death wish?!

Of course, he couldn’t blame them entirely.

The real problem was that Argent Energy was just too damn useful.

Its energy density was ridiculously high.

A tiny piece could supply enough electricity to power an entire major city for a full year.

And that was only the beginning.

Argent Energy could power advanced weapons and interstellar warships.

It could even grant people immortality and unimaginable power.