Chapter 1011 – Saving Earth

“What has now appeared before you is the contract card of the ‘Card System.’

“By signing this contract, you can obtain basic survival supplies and magic inheritance from it.

“Remember: you must not use the abilities granted by the system to actively, maliciously, or on a large scale harm other contractors or innocent survivors.

“Serious violators will receive warnings from the Card System, or even permanent deactivation, depending on the severity.”

The Card System Contract Cards hovering before each survivor flowed with a faint glow, quietly awaiting their choice.

Some people recoiled in terror, stumbling back several steps, treating the cards as a new Pandora’s box.

“First everything gets destroyed, and now they send us this? It must be a trap! It’s a new trick from that so-called ‘Returnee’ to control us!”

They screamed hoarsely, refusing to touch the cards, curling up in corners they believed to be safe, relying on the meager scraps of supplies scavenged from the ruins, their wary eyes scanning anyone who accepted a card.

But far more people—beside the cold bodies of their loved ones, amid the searing pain from their own bleeding wounds, driven by the burning thirst in their throats and the cramping hunger in their stomachs—saw the Card System as their last hope.

“Magic inheritance… does it really exist?”

“At least… there are basic survival supplies…”

“Let’s give it a try. Can it really get any worse than this?”

Hesitating, struggling, ultimately overwhelmed by the instinct to survive, they extended trembling hands caked in mud or stained with blood, grasped the Card System Contract Cards, and smeared blood from their fingertips or seeping wounds onto the cards’ surfaces, signing the contracts.

The cards transformed into a warm stream of light that spread along their arms, finally coalescing into a complex yet elegant card emblem on the backs of their hands.

At the same time, instructions and usage methods for the Card System appeared in their minds.

“It really… appeared!”

The survivors who had signed the contracts carefully touched the warm emblems on the backs of their hands, and sure enough, a simple light screen materialized before their eyes.

It displayed personal information, a personal card album, and the Card Shop.

They began following the Card System’s guidance, checking their psychic power values and exchanging Gem Coins.

In the level-zero Card Shop, three cards available for credit purchase were displayed:

Food Card – Dry Bread: Materializes a block of dry bread sufficient for an adult’s minimum daily caloric needs. Tastes terrible, but fills the stomach. Price: 1 Gem Coin. Remaining quantity: 10. (Originally a level-1 shop card; available on credit for a limited time, interest-free for one year.)

Food Card – Clean Water: Materializes a pouch of approximately 500 milliliters of purified fresh water. Price: 1 Gem Coin. Remaining quantity: 10. (Originally a level-1 shop card; available on credit for a limited time, interest-free for one year.)

Potion Card – Healing Potion: Applied externally to accelerate wound healing; taken internally to treat internal injuries and inflammation. Price: 100 Gem Coins. Remaining quantity: 1. (Originally a level-3 shop card; available on credit for a limited time, interest-free for one year.)

Credit! Interest-free for one year!

These terms instantly brought tears to the eyes of countless survivors whose psychic power values were low and who were seriously wounded.

With almost no hesitation, they all immediately chose to take out credit and redeem the cards.

A pale green liquid swirled inside a crude glass bottle. A soldier whose abdomen had been slashed open by shrapnel—crudely bandaged but still seeping blood—tremblingly poured half the potion over his gruesome wound and drank the other half.

A cool, tingling sensation spread from the wound, which healed at a speed visible to the naked eye. The excruciating pain vanished, and his body, which had begun running a low fever, returned to normal.

The immediate, dramatic effect was nothing short of a miracle!

“It works! It actually works!” Similar cries of astonishment rang out sporadically across ruins everywhere, like sparks igniting hope in more and more people.

Those who hadn’t been caught up in the fighting mostly chose to spend 1 Gem Coin to upgrade the Card Shop to level 1.

No matter how low someone’s psychic power value was, it wouldn’t be zero. Psychic power recovery could “recharge” Gem Coins, and at a cost of just 1 Gem Coin, everyone could afford it.

The level-1 Card Shop displayed basic survival supply cards such as Food Card – Dry Bread, Food Card – Clean Water, Tool Card – Simple Stone Axe, Tool Card – Crude Torch, Building Card – Simple Shelter, and Medical Card – Hemostatic Medicine, priced between 1 and 10 Gem Coins, offering survivors more options for sustaining themselves and improving their circumstances.

Some people with relatively high psychic power values who were also interested in the magic inheritance prominently mentioned in the Card System instructions spent another 10 Gem Coins to upgrade the Card Shop to level 2, unlocking the Meditation Experience Card – Zero Level and a series of Zero-Level Magic Cards.

Using the Meditation Experience Card – Zero Level to enter a meditative state could accelerate the recovery of psychic power. After learning to meditate independently, one could further train and increase one’s own psychic power value, mastering true Magic.

People who had lived through disaster felt an especially intense desire for power.

In an instant, countless survivors with relatively high psychic power values, heedless of whether their surroundings were safe, leaned against broken walls and crumbling ruins, used their Meditation Experience Cards, and attempted their first-ever meditation.

Mo Lan sensed more and more survivors signing contracts and becoming Card Magic contractors, and she finally breathed a sigh of relief.

Although on this timeline’s Earth, many people had already lost their lives in the warfare and the subsequent Civilization Rot of technology products, the strength that the survivors unleashed in the face of crisis was not to be underestimated.

The people of Earth had escaped the crisis of annihilation, welcoming rebirth upon the ruins, and Earth’s boundary membrane had restabilized, gradually recovering its strength.

“Whew! I feel so much better!”

Earth’s world consciousness was brimming with the relief of having survived a catastrophe.

“Child, it’s all thanks to you.”

“The Technology Ghosts are gone, and with your Card System, I’ll gradually move toward a safer path of Magic too!”

“The most dangerous moment has passed here. Go on to the other timelines without worry!”

Although this had been the most critical situation among the Earths currently on the brink of destruction, as time passed, the Earths on other timelines would grow increasingly dangerous as well.

“I understand,” Mo Lan replied softly.

She understood that only by pulling most of the Earths across the various timelines back to the safety line could these Earths that had already turned the corner continue developing in a positive direction.

She reactivated the beacon and headed toward the next Earth whose light had grown dim.

This blue-green line of light was in slightly better condition than the previous Earth, though not by much.

By the time Mo Lan arrived, the Technology Ghosts had already ignited the fires of war here as well—it was just that the scope of destruction hadn’t spread as far, and the damage inflicted wasn’t as severe yet.

But once it had begun, there was only one way to bring the fires of war to a swift end.

She followed the same method: first using Civilization Rot to eliminate the threat of the Technology Ghosts, then using the Card System to help survivors save themselves.