"The large Jordan Dam, the medium-sized dams Aswan Dam, Kamin Dam, and Tula Dam have all suffered varying degrees of damage. The reason is that the pressure caused by high-intensity precipitation exceeds expectations. Please request for flood release!"
"The water level on the Lianke coastline has risen sharply. Three surrounding farms and a factory have been submerged to varying degrees. The Third City Defense Force is rushing to prepare for disaster relief!"
"The drainage equipment in the city has experienced rejection, and the water levels in six streets have risen too fast to be discharged."
"The standard floors below the third floor of Mink Street are flooded, and the water level continues to rise. The surrounding water control engineers have gone to help with drainage, but with little success!"
"Water pollution has occurred in Luma Street, and unknown germs have invaded. Please provide support from medical professionals!"
"Drainage on Murik Street is damaged and water levels are rising."
"Flood! Flood! Flooding occurred in Mink Street! Please help, please help!"
Within twenty minutes, countless bad news about the flood came one after another. Some Zhou Li answered, but most of them remained silent.
Gradually, the voices reporting the disaster subsided a lot. A feeling of despair began to spread in the city. Rising water levels, cloudy skies, and desperate cries. In this former pearl of Yingnan, people gradually realize that their brave men are not omnipotent, and they seem unable to resist natural disasters.
Those officials and soldiers also gradually became disappointed. Some chose to abandon their positions and began to prepare to go to refuge areas with their families. Some people still stick to their posts and are ready to sacrifice.
However, only two armies did not make any changes. The Templar Legion and the city defense army disappeared when the flood broke out. People no longer had the energy to guess whether the two armies were alive or dead, whether they fled or lost contact. Even Azi didn't know what Zhou Li's two direct armies were doing.
The wind was howling outside the window, the rain was pouring, and the dense rain curtain was so dense that it made people breathless. Zhou Li stared at the soldiers and civilians shouting on the street with a calm expression.
"what are you waiting for?"
Torea opened the door and said in a cold voice, "Are you going to wait until this city is destroyed by this rainstorm?"
"You've never come to me before."
Zhou Li did not answer directly. He withdrew his gaze, turned his head, and said lightly: "It's rare for you to come to me on your own initiative."
"You promised these people."
Torea's expression was frosty. She stood in front of Zhou Li without any hesitation or hesitation before, "You told them that you would bring happiness and equality to these people."
"Yes, I promised."
Zhou Li nodded, making no secret of his promise, "I said I would let them get through this plague safely."
"Heh, word play?"
Hearing this, Torea seemed to understand something. She smiled in disappointment. A rare look of ridicule appeared on her expression, "Are they still worthy of you, a brave man, to play word games? Indeed, floods are not a plague. .”
Zhou Li heard the mockery from Torea, and he smiled. He did not sneer or directly sneer at Torea like in the past. This time, he was surprisingly gentle.
"Remember the magic car problem?"
The rain curtain did not reduce anything. Zhou Li stood in the dim room and asked calmly: "Kill one person and save six others. Or let the magic car run over six people and let one person who should not die survive? What would you choose?"
"You said that when human lives are on the balance of the transaction, no matter what the choice, such behavior cannot be covered up with justice."
Staring into Zhou Li's eyes, Torea's voice was slightly trembling, "Is what you are doing now what you want?"
"I'll ask you again."
Without answering Torea's question, Zhou Li desperately wanted to smoke a cigarette at this time, but he couldn't smoke. He just pinched his eyebrows, and then said to Torea behind him: "If the magic car problem is not a The choice is between one person and six people, but a city, a country or even a world, what would you choose?"
"Will you save this city and then watch the world collapse, with the saved city unable to survive in the end? Or will you choose to abandon this city and save this vast world?"
When Zhou Li asked this question, Torea suddenly felt suffocated. She felt as if her chest was being pressed tightly by a huge boulder, her heart was being clenched by an invisible hand, and a great pressure was constantly eroding her nerves.
Between one person and six people, Torea could easily make the choice. She would think that that person was not the target of death. If she personally changed the trajectory of the vehicle and crushed him to death, she would be killing someone.
However, when one person and six people become a city and this world, everything is different.
There is no comparison between the city and the world, because the city is wrapped in the world. If the world collapses, even if the city escapes the first disaster, it will die together when the world collapses. But if the death of the city will save the world, Torea can't solve the problem with the answer to the magic car puzzle.
"Is there no other way?"
Time seems to be stretched out, very slowly, very slowly. Torea's voice was hoarse and she asked helplessly: "Can we just watch Jordan be destroyed?"
"Why do you care so much about this city?"
Casting his eyes on Tolea's face, Zhou Li asked with confusion: "You are not from this city-state at all, you are not even a creature of this world. Why do you care so much about them? It has nothing to do with you. Relevant people?"
"I…"
Torea was stunned, yes, why would she care about these people and this city-state? From the first day she came to this world, she was ready to destroy it. She has never been a messenger of justice. She deeply remembers what the goddess of life said to her when she appeared at the border of Magnum.
"You are a brave man...you should protect them."
After saying this, a look of self-deprecation appeared on Torea's face. She knew how feeble her words were. But she no longer knew what to say. A ghost from another world, a wandering ghost who was given a "disaster" by the gods and then temporarily changed, what qualifications did he have to let another person pay for someone who had nothing to do with him? Cities pay with their lives.
You are the devil, why should you care about them?
Without saying these words, Zhou Li just stared at the heavy rain outside the window silently. A solemn atmosphere filled the room with only two people. Torea wanted to say something, but she couldn't say anything. She could only stare at Zhou Li's back blankly, feeling the heavy weight of time pressing on her shoulders.
Suddenly, Zhou Li spoke.
"If I were just a brave man, I wouldn't care about the life or death of this group of people at all. Because I know that the gods who gave me this identity are just a bunch of idiots with bad intentions tattooed on their foreheads. I didn't give them any black marks. workers’ consciousness.”
Stretching out his hand, the black mist gradually dispersed in Zhou Li's hand. He closed his eyes and felt the heartbeat and pulse of the city.
"But I'm not just a hero here."
With his right hand clenched and his sword condensed, Zhou Li opened his eyes and opened his mouth. The sound was like a bell, resounding throughout the city.
"The people of Jordan have not yet reached the point of despair."
The soldiers who responded to the disaster heard it, the civilians heard it, and the aristocratic bureaucrats who went to the shelter heard it.
Jordan, heard that too.
"You call for the king, he is not here."
"You call upon the gods, and they never answer."
How did his words reach everyone’s ears?
Soon, Torea got the answer.
On the day Zhou Li took office as the great consul, he forcefully distributed a black paper to every family. This piece of paper is seen as a voucher for obtaining relief supplies.
Now, it is still a voucher, but it is no longer a voucher for disaster relief supplies.
This is the certificate to become a subject of the Black Emperor.
"Now, you are calling me, and I hear you."
Like a miraculous voice, it spread throughout every inch of Jordan. Everyone, everyone who owned black paper heard his voice.
That is the voice of a tyrant who walks in the dark.
But now, the voice was obviously full of conquest and violence, but people who heard it felt an inexplicable sense of stability. They don't need comfort, blessings or love now. Now they need a monarch who can lead them to break through this natural disaster.
Moreover, they can feel the tenderness contained in the darkness. It is a kind of blue, which makes people feel the gentleness of life. It is freedom, blissful tenderness.
"Pick up the contract that represents life."
The sound rang again, and people seemed to have gained some magic power and put down their work. They reached out, picked up the black paper beside them, and gathered together.
"Then, read it aloud."
Thunder roared, and countless thunder lights in the black clouds began to wreak havoc. The moment the sound sounded again, the rainstorm became even more terrifying. In an instant, every inch of the city was filled with water and thunder, making it suffocating.
But it was such suffocating despair that made those people whose nerves had already been tense and whose eyes were gradually filled with black completely give up their reason. They reached out and grasped at the last straw.
Thunder roared and rain caused disaster. The brief characters on the black paper are like the key to this disaster, constantly releasing a terrifying flood. It's as if even natural disasters want the black paper to be completely dyed black and keep people away from this disaster-laden paper. However, the natural disaster failed, he underestimated people's desire to survive. Also underestimated, Black Emperor.
Finally, the sound of reading sounded.
"The great king descended from the abyss."
"He is the ruler of disaster, tyranny, fear, and darkness. He is the conqueror of fear in the world. He is the supreme black emperor."
"I don't believe in gods, heaven and earth, or the past. We are willing to light the torch in the eternal night and follow the black emperor who controls the abyss to the foggy future."
"I will surrender to the supreme Black Emperor, and I will become the Black Emperor's most loyal subject."
The thunder stopped and the rain stopped.
As if time stopped, Jordan's pulse stopped beating.
Torrea, who had witnessed everything, stared blankly at Zhou Li in front of her. Obviously he was just standing in front of a glass window, but at this moment Zhou Li looked like a king patrolling the territory, with supreme majesty.
Eluma walked out from the side, holding the Brave One and the Book of Gaia in her arms. The former is the source of Zhou Li's power, while the latter is the source of the black paper.
That's right, those papers containing the Black Emperor's Laws come from the Book of Gaia.
"my king."
Walking to Zhou Li slowly and gracefully, Eluma put down the two books and gently held Zhou Li's left hand with her right hand. She stared at Zhou Li's side face, and her voice was as gentle as water: "It's time to do what we should do."
What is the right thing to do?
Torea was a little confused at this time, but soon she understood.
It is what a monarch should do to save his people.
So, how to save?
"The monarch naturally wants to give gifts to his subjects who are working hard to survive."
The sincere faith of tens of millions of people in desperate situations was enough to catapult Zhou Li into a god-given existence. However, Zhou Li did not absorb this power.
He chose to give these powers to his subjects.
"But the subjects of the Black Emperor should not expect salvation from others."
Power spreads from the network called "faith" and spreads within every Jordanian who prays to Zhouli. Soon, the power gathered by faith was rewarded by the monarch to his subjects.
"Go ahead and save yourself."
"Hope after despair is what you deserve."
People who finished their prayers stood up. As professionals but had been trapped in this city, people who had almost forgotten their profession found that they were no longer weak. The heavy rain in the sky was now like a feeble wail, and the thunder was just a bluff cry.
We are the subjects of the Black Emperor, what do you mean?
"You gave your power to them?"
Facing Torea's inquiry behind him, Zhou Li lowered the sword of power to the ground and said in a deep voice: "If you only have power, it's not enough."
"What I really give them is dignity and courage."
"Don't forget, 80% of the people in this city under your feet have occupations. Their spines have long been bent by the oppression of life. They just mechanically control the power in their bodies, repeating endlessly. Professional work.”
Clenching his hands and slowly releasing them, Zhou Li's voice was convincing and firm.
"What they need is never power. What they want is someone who is truly willing to give them dignity and let them save themselves."
When the first builder picked up the hammer, pushed open the locked door, came to the end of the street, raised the hammer, and struck the first hammer on the nearly abandoned flood control device, making a crisp buzzing sound, Lei The sound seemed to subside. Immediately afterwards, the calls for help and prayers began to disappear, but instead, people's roars of hope penetrated the sky.
"Jordan, no need for the gospel."
