Civilization's countdown

A real disaster had dawned.

Tens of millions of Central Plains residents were being controlled to march towards the Southwest and Northwest without realizing it. If one were to look down from space, the dense mass of figures would look like a huge hand fan stomping its way westwards.

The Central Plains was already empty. It was very, very empty.

The previously bustling markets, shops, and streets had become totally abandoned.

Occasionally, a gust of wind would blow, and waste paper and plastic trash on the ground would fly up into the air.

It was as though the temperature in the world had suddenly dropped.

Everyone had left their homes and were being controlled towards an unknown fate that lay either in the Southwest or the Northwest.

The Southwest was not connected to the Central Plains because there was a forest spanning 500 kilometers between them.