My Apocalypse System Arrives 10 Years Early

Chapter 523: Chapter 336: We Need the Mysterious Armored Man

In China, some coastal cities were also in a precarious position.

Average elevations: Jinmen, 3.3 meters; Yong City, 4.2 meters; Shanghai, 4.5 meters...

At Quanzhou Luojia Temple, the rising tide used to make it look like a magnificent Buddha Country floating on the sea. At low tide, it would stand starkly upon the rocks. But now, seawater had already surged into the temple, and the monks had evacuated long ago. If the sea level continued to rise, this ancient monastery might no longer be a celebrated landmark.

The news on television and online was filled with discussions about the rising sea levels.

Weather satellites showed that for some unknown reason, the temperature of the Antarctic Ice Sheet was extremely high, and the ice was melting at a rate visible to the naked eye.

One expert explained, ”The glaciers at the North and South Poles store 70% of the world’s fresh water. If they were to all melt, the sea level would rise by 66 meters.”

”Sixty-six meters? Good god. At that point, the entire urban area of the Imperial Capital would probably be flooded. The whole Yangtze River Middle and Lower Reaches Plain would be unrecognizable, Qi and Lu would be split into two large islands, Su Province would be almost entirely underwater, and of all the top-tier coastal cities, I guess only Shencheng City would survive.”

”Don’t panic. If it really rises by sixty-six meters, other countries won’t fare much better. Take the Beautiful Country, for example. Its economic centers are all concentrated on the coasts. The entire Gulf of Mexico, New York, Boston, and the eastern seaboard would be underwater.”

”When that happens, the African Continent will probably be the last one standing. Aside from parts of Kenya and Mozambique being submerged, most of Africa’s landmass won’t be affected.”

”Winner, my ass. If Africa is all that’s left, all the world powers will just gather there to carve up the territory. The African people wouldn’t get a say in running their own affairs.”

”What about Little Book? What I really want to know is, how many meters does the sea have to rise before they get flooded?”

Another user replied, ”Sorry to disappoint you, but their elevation is actually pretty high. Tokyo’s average elevation is 34.9 meters, and their other coastal cities and populated areas are over 20 meters above sea level. They’ll go under later than our coastal cities. Besides, they still have Mount Fuji, which is over 3,700 meters tall.”

”Over here, if the sea level rises by just ten meters, our eastern coast will be the first to go under. Countless top-tier and near-top-tier cities will become a boundless ocean—places like Hang City, Gusu, Shanghai, Hai Province, Qin Island, Jinmen, and Bin City... They’ll all turn into an ocean with nothing but the tops of skyscrapers showing.”

”If it rises to twenty meters, seawater will start pouring back up the Middle and Lower Yangtze River. Places like Jinling, Wuhu, Dandong, Qinhuangdao, Yuzhang, Jiujiang, and Anqing will begin to flood. Additionally, Yangcheng and Taipei will be mostly submerged.”

”And during all this, Little Book will still be perfectly fine.”

”That’s unacceptable. When the time comes, we’ll just give them a few DF-5Bs. Didn’t they say the name was romantic and that they quite liked it? They said it came from Xin Qiji’s ’The Green Jade Cup - Lantern Festival’: ’The east wind at night unleashes a thousand trees of flowers, and with a gust, brings down a shower of stars.’”

”Haha, actually, we just want the East Wind to overpower the West Wind. That’s a line the Instructor quoted from *Dream of the Red Chamber*: ’Either the East Wind prevails over the West Wind, or the West Wind prevails over the East Wind’!”

”But Little Book is located in a seismic zone. It’s being pushed by the Asian Continent’s tectonic plate and pulled by the receding Pacific Plate. Their islands are sliding toward the Mariana Trench, the deepest in the world. Statistics show they sink about ten centimeters per year on average. Even if they don’t get flooded this time, it’s only a matter of time before they sink completely.”

The entire country—no, the entire world—was discussing the ”rising sea levels.” It was a global hot topic. Even the elders in Li Family Village would idly gossip about it.

Fortunately, Li Family Village was located in Sichuan Province, with an average elevation of over two thousand meters and its lowest point at 188 meters. Even if the sea level rose by 66 meters, the village would not be flooded. It truly lived up to its name as a ”Celestial Country.”

...

Early September in Antarctica should have been the domain of polar nights and blizzards, but at this moment, the ice sheet was bathed in an eerie, dark red glow.

Two figures stood shoulder to shoulder on what remained of the ice sheet.

Li Xiang’s Giant Whale Saint Armor steamed with white mist in the frigid air, while Luo Feifei’s Abyssal Sea Royal Seal hovered above her palm. Its azure light patterns clashed with the waves of heat, creating a sizzling, scorching sound.

The ice beneath their feet was collapsing—not through normal glacial fracturing, but by vaporizing in large sections, as if being devoured by an invisible beast.

A torrent of heat spewed from a spatial rift that stretched for several kilometers. Within the rift churned a crimson vortex, offering faint glimpses of another world: mountains of lava, rivers of liquid fire, and a shadow so immense it defied description, squirming in the heat haze.

The waves of heat surged out, instantly turning the ice they touched to boiling water, which then evaporated a second later, leaving behind a honeycomb of scorched black pits.

A thought struck Li Xiang. He took out a Tier Six ”Profound Ice Armor” he had refined in the past and tossed it forward as a test.

He had refined this Profound Ice Armor from a type of Ore Core called ”Flood Dragon’s Tears,” which they had acquired while excavating a special Earth Vein on the ocean floor with Luo Feifei. Both its strength and melting point were exceptionally high; it merely looked like it was made of crystal-clear profound ice.

WHOOSH!

Propelled by his 700,000-jin Giant Power, the Profound Ice Armor shot toward the spatial rift like a cannonball. But unfortunately, the moment it neared the rift, it melted into liquid and dripped away.

At the same time, Li Xiang and Luo Feifei noticed purple-black arcs of electricity flashing at the edge of the spatial rift. The Antarctic blizzard was sucked in, only to be spat back out as a rain of fire.

Luo Feifei waved her hand, using the Royal Seal to erect a barrier of water. The fiery rain crashed against the curtain, exploding into a toxic, sulfurous mist.