Doomsday Wonderland

The air in the dining room seemed to freeze. After several tense seconds, Cyrus suddenly shot up from the table, moving so quickly that Lin Sanjiu didn't have time to react before he slammed Pete's shoulder onto the table with a resounding thud.

"Draw it," he said hoarsely. "Draw it, and let her see."

It was a sound tactic. If Lin Sanjiu drew the symbol for Pete to confirm, he could feign cooperation and simply agree to anything. Having Pete draw it himself was the only way to ensure the information was genuine.

Lin Sanjiu understood this but couldn't help glancing at Cyrus. In the short time she had known and reunited with him, she had never seen him look like this: as if all the paths before and behind him had disappeared, leaving only a single precarious stone beneath his feet, teetering on the brink of an abyss.

For Cyrus, the Shadow Hall must have felt like home, and now that home seemed to be slowly unraveling.

Within moments, the look vanished from his face, as if sheer willpower had restored his usual calm. He sat back down, his expression composed once more.

"Is... is this it?" Pete said uncertainly. "I'm not much of an artist... but the symbol's pretty simple."

He pushed a piece of paper to the center of the table.

Lin Sanjiu picked up the sheet, feeling Cyrus's intense gaze drilling into the side of her face. At first glance, the symbol looked nothing like what she had seen. But a small voice in her mind urged her to flip the paper upside down. When she did, it was identical to the emblem she had seen on the ship when she jumped, a perfect match.

She didn't say anything, but Cyrus already knew. He sat still in his chair, every inch of his muscles tense from his lips to his shoulders.

"When and where did you see this symbol?" Lin Sanjiu asked Pete.

"It was right before I was approved and about to secure the investment," Pete replied, visibly uneasy, as if he had stumbled into a mess he didn't fully understand. "It's strange, though. During the two rounds of meetings with the investors at the pitch, I never saw this symbol. But later... since I had to regularly report to the Shark Nexus, I once asked for extra support. The small delivery ship they sent had this symbol painted on it."

"But the main headquarters doesn't have it?" Cyrus interjected, his eyes lighting up.

Lin Sanjiu could tell what Cyrus was thinking—he had clung to a glimmer of hope. But Pete's next words quickly extinguished it.

"I don't know if you could call it the main headquarters... While the place where the investors were didn't have a symbol, I think I've figured out what's going on. The Shark Nexus has several divisions, and each division uses a different symbol. For instance, I later saw a shark dorsal fin symbol by chance. That must belong to another division."

Cyrus fell silent.

It was clear that the Shadow Hall had initiated the operation in Chimeric City, only for the Shark Nexus to take over later. Lin Sanjiu hadn't anticipated that these two seemingly unrelated events would turn out to be so deeply intertwined. The questions she had initially prepared for Pete suddenly carried much more weight.

"The Shark Nexus..." she said carefully, choosing her words. "What exactly did they invest in you for? What did they want you to do?"

Pete's gaze dropped to the table. After a moment of visible reluctance, he let out a long sigh.

"Which person living in an apocalyptic world doesn't wish to be stronger? I wanted to stand out, to have my voice carry weight, to make people consider me before they said or did anything. Do you think I enjoyed being locked up and tossed around by you like this? Life can be so many things. Some people struggle, fight, and claw their way forward, while others call the shots and live as they please. When the Shark Nexus approached me, they said that if I could make the most of my ability, they'd ensure I became someone truly powerful."

"What is your ability?" Lin Sanjiu asked.

"[Wildfire Sweeps the Plains]," Pete said.

Lin Sanjiu and Cyrus remained silent, waiting for him to elaborate.

"Although I was born after doomsday, the description of my ability is entirely about the pre-doomsday world. It took me a lot of effort to finally understand what it truly means," Pete said blandly. "At first, I thought it was useless, that it couldn't increase my combat power. I was pretty disappointed."

[Wildfire Sweeps the Plains]

You must've heard phrases like 'it suddenly went viral,' or 'it spread like wildfire across every corner of the internet.' You don't know why, but suddenly a video of animals, a strange song someone sang, a popular phrase, or a new concept—these things, and countless other examples—explode overnight, filling every conversation and flooding your field of vision.

The reasons behind their virality are complex, requiring countless factors to align perfectly. Trying to recreate that by sheer effort is nearly impossible. Otherwise, marketing companies wouldn't be pulling their hair out over it.

Pete paused for a moment, as if waiting to see if they understood, then continued. "My ability is to make something go viral. It can be an idea, a phrase, or even a movement. Once it starts, it spreads uncontrollably. The Shark Nexus saw the potential in that."

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However, this ability condenses all the favorable conditions of timing and opportunity into one. In other words, as long as you use [Wildfire Sweeps the Plains], you can make anything you want to go viral achieve widespread popularity in a very short time.

Unlike many ordinary evolved abilities, the effects of this ability have no time limit. If the user is well-prepared and persistent, the effects can continue indefinitely, allowing an idea to spread deeply into people's minds and even eventually become a widely accepted belief.

After hearing Pete's explanation, Lin Sanjiu frowned deeply.

"What are its limitations?" she asked. "Your ability must have some."

"It does," Pete said. "Whatever I promote can't conflict with basic survival instincts. For example, I can't make 'suicide is good' or 'everyone should give their survival resources and Special Items to Pete' go viral. But I can promote ideas like 'it's best to carry a bottle of water when teleporting.' That's why I initially thought my ability was useless."

It might not have had much direct combat value, but if used for a specific goal, this ability could wield astonishing power. The key question was, what was the Shark Nexus trying to achieve?

"They told me they wanted to use my ability to promote a concept, but I haven't been told what it is yet," Pete said, spreading his hands. "That's the truth. Everything I was doing before you caught me was just laying the groundwork for the day the promotion begins."

Given the Shark Nexus's secretive nature, it made sense that they wouldn't reveal their goal until everything was ready. Lin Sanjiu glanced at Cyrus, who was sitting in a daze, silently listening. She sighed inwardly and asked, "What about Eight-Heads De? When you took Ah Quan's pocket dimension, it was to alter Eight-Heads De's memory and make him work for you, wasn't it?"

"That's right." Pete didn't seem to view memory alteration as morally questionable. The moral compass of doomsday-born individuals often resembled a torn fishing net, full of gaps. "You said you got to know him later, right?"

After some careful consideration, Pete hesitated and said, "I imagine you might want to warn him about me. I wouldn't blame you. But there's a better option. Why don't you convince him to work with me? You know his ability, don't you? With his information-gathering skills, he could help spread [Wildfire Sweeps the Plains] to places I can't reach..."

Lin Sanjiu began to understand Pete's earlier intentions.

"So you needed Eight-Heads De's ability to exponentially expand the range of your ability?"

"Exactly," Pete said. "The range of my ability is limited, after all. The Shark Nexus wants to promote something that goes far beyond what I can reach alone. That's why they need some sort of multiplier."

While Lin Sanjiu was mulling this over, Cyrus suddenly leaned forward slightly.

"I have a question," he said calmly, "Where is the Shark Nexus headquartered?"

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