Chapter 4

Yuan Chenfei bought a chicken farm in the suburbs of Wen'an, a rather remote location. The place was spacious and well-equipped with various facilities, which was quite rare.

The farm owner, Old Qin, was a local, nearly sixty years old. He had a ruddy face like a wine lover, but in fact, he didn't drink at all.

The farm had about three thousand chickens, and it was doing reasonably well. However, the work was heavy, and Old Qin, being old, found it increasingly difficult to manage. His children were unwilling to take over the business, so he decided to sell it.

The price he offered was reasonable, but he was very unhappy that Yuan Chenfei insisted on paying the full amount three days later. Despite his dissatisfaction, Old Qin had no choice. To ensure his interests, he specifically noted in the contract that the paid portion was for the chickens, and the unpaid portion was for the land rent. In essence, he was afraid that Yuan Chenfei would take his chickens and run.

But when Yuan Chenfei arrived, Old Qin realized he had overthought it.

Because not only did Yuan Chenfei not take the chickens away, he brought in a large truckload of other animals.

Watching the trucks loaded with rabbits, ducks, and quails enter the farm and start unloading, Old Qin was stunned. Under Yuan Chenfei's direction, the animals quickly occupied every corner of the farm.

Even rats!

Seeing the boxes of white mice and hamsters being delivered, Old Qin was completely shocked.

"Mr. Yuan, what are you doing?"

"Nothing much, just raising some other animals. This is called mixed farming," Yuan Chenfei replied.

Mixed farming? You call this mixed farming? Putting all the animals in one farm?

Old Qin had to remind him, "Different animals have different needs and require different methods of care. You also need to clean regularly and have separate feeding troughs and water channels. If the environment is poor, they will get sick. If you just put them all together like this, something will go wrong in a few days."

"I know, don't worry, this is just temporary," Yuan Chenfei smiled.

Of course, he knew that such irresponsible mixing would cause problems.

But he didn't need a few days.

He only needed two days.

"Then how will you feed them?" Old Qin, being old, couldn't help but meddle, even though he knew he shouldn't ask.

"I won't feed them," Yuan Chenfei replied casually.

"You won't feed them?" Old Qin's eyes nearly popped out, then he seemed to understand something and laughed, "You must be joking."

But the truth was, Yuan Chenfei wasn't joking.

He had no intention of feeding the animals he brought in. He just wanted to keep them hungry, giving them only some water.

Not eating or eating very little for two days wouldn't kill the animals, and it would save Yuan Chenfei a lot of effort.

Besides the various small animals, Yuan Chenfei also bought medicine. As for food and water, he didn't prepare much.

After Old Qin left, Yuan Chenfei was the only one left on the farm.

Looking at the empty farm, Yuan Chenfei suddenly felt an overwhelming sense of loneliness.

This time, he was putting everything on the line.

A huge gamble!

He was practically insane.

But once he had made the decision, there was no turning back.

Yuan Chenfei could only choose to move forward.

Over the next two days, Yuan Chenfei didn't idle. He hired some carpenters and masons to renovate the entire farm.

In addition, Yuan Chenfei used his connections to buy a few knives.

It wasn't easy to buy restricted knives, and Yuan Chenfei had to go through a lot of trouble to get two steel knives, a crossbow, and a bag of arrows.

Even then, the knives were not sharpened.

Yuan Chenfei bought a whetstone and spent the afternoon sharpening the blades.

The most significant change on the farm was in the center of the open area.

A huge iron cage was erected in the center.

The cage was massive, made entirely of high-quality steel, with each bar as thick as a child's arm, and the ground was covered with steel plates.

Just the cage alone cost Yuan Chenfei over ten thousand yuan, and it was the main focus of the workers' efforts over the two days. The workers thought Yuan Chenfei was crazy.

What was he planning to do?

No one knew what Yuan Chenfei was planning to do.

He just silently sharpened the knives and exercised every day.

Three days of last-minute preparation couldn't make his body strong, but it could significantly improve his physical functions, making his sedentary body healthier and his spirit more vibrant.

Three days later.

The day finally arrived. Yuan Chenfei brought a stool and sat in the yard, silently looking at the sky.

It was early morning.

The old wall clock in the house ticked away, and soon the eight o'clock chime rang.

There was no change in the world.

Everything remained as quiet as before.

Yuan Chenfei's mood darkened.

With the experience of waiting for the robbers, Yuan Chenfei knew that Liu Yang's time records were not absolutely precise, so he didn't immediately lose hope. However, as time passed, his mood inevitably became tense.

Until the green mist rose on the horizon.

Seeing the green mist rise, Yuan Chenfei almost cheered.

But then he thought, was he being too heartless? The world was about to change, the laws of physics would lose their meaning, and the old social order would no longer exist. Everything would change, and many people would be unable to adapt, leading to their elimination or even death...

He was cheering for this change, which was indeed not very good.

But...

He couldn't help but feel happy.

For his efforts not to be in vain.

And to bid farewell to a life destined to be ordinary.

Yes, Yuan Chenfei knew that from this moment on, his life would no longer be ordinary.

——————————————

On that day, large patches of green mist appeared all over the world.

No one knew where it came from or why it happened, and the world fell into a state of panic.

Governments around the world sought help from their most famous scientists, but the scientists were also clueless and could only say they were working on it.

However, they soon realized they didn't need to research.

Because just half a day later, the answer appeared.

At 9:00 AM, two hours after the green mist appeared, a cluster of buildings suddenly appeared in the sky, like a celestial palace, spanning the horizon.

Due to the angle, people could only see one celestial palace, but in the eyes of governments with satellites, they saw five celestial palaces, each appearing in a different area of the sky. The five palaces had different architectural styles but were all majestic and grand, exuding a sacred aura.

They appeared suddenly, with no prior warning, as if they had been born out of thin air, shocking the governments of the world.

In this situation, the governments naturally sent a large number of drones to investigate.

However, when the drones approached the celestial palaces, they were blocked by an invisible wall and couldn't enter. Surprisingly, they didn't fall but remained suspended in the air. If ordered to return, they could do so, but the cameras on board couldn't capture anything.

It was as if there was just air in front of their lenses.

This left the governments in shock.

At the same time, an emergency joint meeting of governments was convened. After the drones' investigation failed, they decided to try to communicate with the five celestial palaces.

However, their communication requests received no response.

Instead, new situations began to emerge.

The new situation appeared three hours after the celestial palaces appeared.

Power plants around the world simultaneously discovered that their power supply was rapidly decreasing.

The power plants conducted emergency self-inspections but found no problems, yet the power output continued to decrease at a fixed frequency. As a result, the power plants issued emergency power outage notices, and a global power outage began, spreading as the power continued to decrease.

In the end, a power plant's output could only supply a few machines. Governments had to concentrate most of the remaining power on government and critical departments to ensure external communication.

However, people soon realized that this was just the beginning.

What was affected was not just electricity but the entire energy industry.

Including oil, coal, nuclear energy, and gas, all energy industries experienced a large-scale decrease in efficiency.

The problems in the energy industry caused the entire society to grind to a halt. Machines stopped working, factories ceased production, cars couldn't move, and some planes in the sky fell directly. Fortunately, the decrease in energy efficiency was gradual, allowing most planes to land in time, but many planes and ships still met with accidents. This day became a day of widespread accidents, and the world was in chaos.

All of this happened within a single day.

Four hours after the celestial palaces appeared, at 11:00 AM, large red towers suddenly appeared all over the world.

The red towers were nine stories high, surrounded by a blank area.

Locals tried to enter but were blocked by an invisible wall. If they tried to force their way through, they would be electrocuted.

Six hours after the celestial palaces appeared, at 1:00 PM, the first riot caused by the energy crisis occurred in a country in the Western Hemisphere.

During the government's efforts to suppress the riot, a new problem was discovered.

Guns became less effective.

The guns were still guns, and everything seemed fine, but the bullets became weak and ineffective. They could fly only a dozen meters and cause only minor pain when hitting a person, reducing their power to toy levels. Even artillery and missiles were affected.

Eight hours after the celestial palaces appeared, at 3:00 PM, people made another discovery.

Plants and animals began to grow rapidly.

This had actually started when the green mist appeared, but it was only recognized eight hours later. In those eight hours, all plants and animals doubled in size, and their temperaments also doubled—pet attacks were reported worldwide.

Governments were in a state of chaos, using all means to get a response from the celestial palaces but receiving none.

Ten hours after the celestial palaces appeared, at 5:00 PM.

At the joint meeting of governments, the communication receiver, which had been sending requests, finally received a response.

It was a response from the celestial palaces.

The federation asked, "Who are you? Gods, demons, or an alien race?"

The response: "All of the above."

All of the above?

Is that the response?

Shi Rongzhi, a member of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and a renowned anthropologist, said excitedly after receiving the response, "Yes, it can indeed be considered all of the above. Any being not from Earth can be called an alien race, and the ability to manipulate the entire planet's technology can be called divine. When things reach their extreme, they become one, depending on how you interpret it. As the saying goes, the end of science is theology, and what we are facing is a living example!"

Understanding this, the members of the federation became excited.

They asked the celestial palaces their second question: "What is your purpose?"

"Transform this world."

Naturally, the federation asked their third question: "Why transform it?"

"Game."