The bright red alarm bell on the roof of Dry-Well Central Station rang out with a loud, cheerful DING-DONG-DING!
Normally, an outer-space invasion alarm was supposed to sound scary. However, Pei Xuan had fused the alarm bell with a soothing wind-chime array so it would not startle pregnant women or make Old Guo drop his soup ladles.
Inside the main control room of the station, Pei Xuan sat behind his wide wooden desk, sipping a cup of hot wolfberry tea while looking up at the floating blue screen of his RTS Territory Map. Around him, his top officials had already gathered. Old Wei stood by the door with his hand resting on his heavy black-iron broadsword. Hong Ling sat on top of an iron safe stuffed with high-grade Spirit Stones, sharpening two laser-cleavers with a whetstone. Abacus Su stood near the big glass window, pushing his round spectacles up his nose while his fingers clicked rapidly on a three-foot jade abacus.
At the very edge of the map, just beyond the misty purple orbit of World #9, Red-Gourd Moon, a massive wave of blinking red dots had just popped out of the dark void.
Outside the orbit of Red-Gourd Moon, the cold black void of space had turned as red as blood.
