Chapter 286: Chapter 228: The Coming Storm
In half a month, a fortress city with a population of nearly ten million could undergo earth-shattering changes.
The full-scale launch of "Project Kindlefire" was like the most potent catalyst, injected directly into the veins of the steel behemoth that was East Sea City.
The entire city was buzzing with a restless energy.
Martial Artists with hurried expressions were everywhere, their eyes burning with a thirst for power.
Martial Arts Dojos that were once deserted were now packed to the brim.
On the screens in the mission hall, missions with frighteningly high Contribution Point rewards were snatched up the instant they appeared.
Resources, on an unprecedented scale, were being redirected to the common people.
As long as you had the Talent, the perseverance, and the guts to risk your life, you could obtain Cultivation Resources you previously wouldn’t have even dared to dream of.
An invisible hand was forcibly tearing a rift in the class barriers.
However, where light shines, shadows are also cast.
As the old order was shattered and the cake that once belonged to the upper echelons was forcibly carved up, discontent and resentment festered wildly in the dark.
Within a lavishly decorated club in East Sea Inner City.
Several well-dressed Noble Family Members smashed their wine glasses, their faces grim.
"Unbelievable! The Spiritual Power quota for the industries under my name was cut by thirty percent this month!"
"Since when are those mud-legged peasants qualified to compete with us for resources?"
"You’re not the only one. It’s the same for our family.
Have those old geezers on the council gone mad? Do they really think they can fight a Tier Six Life form by relying on a bunch of lowlifes?
What a fool’s dream!"
"The root of all this is that kid named Han Feng!
If he hadn’t brought down the Sun Family, how would the council have seized the opportunity to launch this ’Project Kindlefire’ and shatter the existing order?!"
"Shh... Keep your voice down!
Who dares to even mention the Sun Family now?
Those two words are taboo in the Inner City."
"What’s there to be afraid of! The Sun Family may have fallen, but what they did, they did for the future of all of East Sea City!"
"And look what happened. The heroes became criminals, while some opportunistic, wet-behind-the-ears kid becomes the savior!"
Resentment was fermenting, and discontent was spreading.
The old class barriers were cracking under the impact of "Project Kindlefire," and new conflicts were breeding frantically within those cracks.
「 」
Celestial Craft Group, No. 3 Research Institute, top-floor conference room.
The fragrance of tea filled the room, but the atmosphere was deathly still.
Seated around a long conference table were a dozen of East Sea City’s top experts in materials science and Rune engineering.
The youngest among them was a B Level senior researcher, while the oldest were leading authorities in their fields, holding honorary advisor titles at the Celestial Craft Institute.
At this moment, these scholars, who were normally unbearably arrogant, all wore surprisingly similar expressions.
Stunned, confused, and with a trace of poorly concealed annoyance.
At the head of the table, a middle-aged man in a Martial Arts University administrative uniform cleared his throat and read from the document in his hands.
"...By joint resolution of the East Sea Martial Arts University Committee and the Celestial Craft Group Board of Directors, and with the approval of the ’Project Kindlefire’ Command Council.
The Special Project Group for ’Single-Soldier High-Mobility Flying Devices’ is hereby formally established. The project codename is ’Shadow’."
The man’s voice echoed in the quiet conference room.
"This project will integrate cutting-edge technologies from the Martial Arts University, Celestial Craft Group, and the military. The objective is to develop a new generation of combat units adapted for high-altitude, high-interference environments.
The project is rated SSS Level and will report directly to Vice Dean Chen Beixuan and the council."
Hearing this, the expressions of the experts present turned serious.
An SSS Level project represented the highest level of resource allocation in East Sea City.
To be able to participate in it would be a monumental boost to any of their careers.
However, the man’s next words made everyone’s breath catch in their throats.
"As personally nominated by Vice Dean Chen, student Han Feng will serve as the project’s Chief Technical Advisor."
A wave of suppressed commotion swept through the room.
Han Feng?
Which Han Feng?
Almost everyone immediately thought of the name that had recently become the stuff of legends in East Sea City.
The Martial Arts University student who had single-handedly turned the tide during the Secret Realm trial and been escorted back by the Garrison Army with the highest honors.
But so what?
He was a Martial Arts genius, a combat genius.
But this was a research institute! A temple of science!
’Chief Technical Advisor? What does he know about technology?’
Chen Kai pushed up his gold-rimmed glasses, a gloating smile on his face.
Beside him, an elegant, white-haired old man’s brow was also tightly furrowed.
This was the Second Level professor of the Celestial Craft Institute, Wu Zhen, who was also Chen Kai’s mentor.
The man reading the appointment seemed to have anticipated their reaction. He stressed his words, speaking deliberately.
"This is Vice Dean Chen’s decision. All of you need only execute it."
The words "Vice Dean Chen" fell like an invisible mountain, instantly silencing all discussion.
He was a Grandmaster at the peak of the Tier Four Divine Containment Realm, one of the true wielders of power at East Sea Martial Arts University.
In East Sea City, his word was law.
No one dared to question him in public.
Defy the Will of a Grandmaster? That wasn’t being stubborn; it was a death wish.
The conference room fell into a dead silence once more.
But everyone could read the same emotion in each other’s eyes.
Absurd!
「 」
After the meeting, in a private, smoke-filled tea room within the research institute.
Several of the project’s Core Members gathered, their faces grim.
"Elder Wang, what do you think? This is utterly preposterous!"
A man in his thirties wearing black-framed glasses was the first to speak.
He was Li Zhen, the youngest A Level Engineer on the project team, who had always viewed the "Shadow" project as his stepping stone to greater things.
The man he called Elder Wang was none other than Wang Jianguo, an honorary advisor to the Celestial Craft Institute.
He slowly blew on the steam rising from his teacup, his cloudy eyes glinting with a sharp light.
"Dean Chen has his reasons for doing things."
Wang Jianguo set down his cup. His voice wasn’t loud, but it carried an unquestionable authority.
"But what reasons?
To have a wet-behind-the-ears kid lead a group of us who have spent our entire lives in research?
Can he even understand an Energy matrix model? Does he know what Rune harmonic suppression is?"
Li Zhen shot to his feet, agitated.
Professor Wu Zhen, Chen Kai’s mentor, sat across from him and gestured for him to calm down, a sharp glint flashing in his own cloudy eyes.
"Li Zhen, don’t get excited."
Wu Zhen’s tone was gentle, but he shifted the conversation, adopting a "purely" academic line of inquiry.
"Naturally, we wouldn’t dare question Vice Dean Chen’s decision.
On the path of Martial Arts, the skilled take precedence.
For student Han Feng to have earned Vice Dean Chen’s favor, he must have some extraordinary qualities."
"However, the ’Shadow’ project is of immense importance.
Its core technology involves the ’Triple Rune Harmonic Lock,’ which our team spent five years of painstaking effort to crack.
Its complexity and technical nature are, I’m afraid..."
He didn’t finish his sentence, but his meaning was clear.
An expert in materials science, Dr. Qian, immediately chimed in.
"Elder Wu is right! This isn’t a game!
We respect the strong, but scientific research relies on accumulated knowledge and rigorous logic, not fists!"
"Letting some upstart kid who hasn’t even studied ’Advanced Spiritual Energy Physics’ guide us, who have spent our lives in this field?
It’s the biggest joke in the world!"
Another man, the hot-tempered engine designer Engineer Ma, slammed his hand on the table.
"I don’t care what kind of genius he is! Every single piece of data in my ’Turbo-17’ engine improvement plan was paid for with blood, sweat, and tears!
If he dares to give blind orders, don’t blame me, Old Ma, for getting nasty!"
In an instant, emotions ran high.
These people were all authorities in their respective fields, proud and arrogant. Making them listen to a teenager’s commands was worse than killing them.
A middle-aged man who had been sitting silently in a corner suddenly spoke.
His name was Li Mo, a key technical expert who had been specially recruited into the Celestial Craft Group after Star Sea Technology was shut down.
"Everyone, please calm down."
Li Mo’s voice was calm, carrying a rational, persuasive force.
"Since it is the council’s decision, our opposition is useless.
To openly defy it would be a slap in Vice Dean Chen’s face. We all know what the consequences of that would be."
Hearing this, the others cooled down a bit.
It was true. Even if they had a hundred times the courage, they wouldn’t dare provoke a Tier Four Peak Grandmaster.
Li Mo continued, "In my opinion, things might not be so bad.
Perhaps student Han Feng truly possesses some ’Talent’ in certain areas that we are unaware of."
"As his seniors, what we should do is ’help’ him, ’guide’ him, and allow him to familiarize himself with the project and integrate into our group as quickly as possible.
We shouldn’t approach this with hostility from the very beginning."
His words about "looking at the bigger picture" made many of them nod in silent agreement.
A glint flashed in Wu Zhen’s cloudy eyes. He understood the subtext of Li Mo’s words.
"Engineer Li has a point," Wu Zhen said, taking the offered way out. "We are all doing what’s best for the project.
Since the Chief Technical Advisor is student Han Feng, we should fulfill our responsibility to ’assist’ him."
"How about this," he said, looking at the group and methodically laying out his plan.
"On Advisor Han’s first day, Dr. Qian, you can compile all of our material test reports from the last six months for him.
The data must be complete, the content detailed. Let him get a macro-level understanding of the project."
Dr. Qian immediately understood and sneered.
"No problem, Elder Wu.
Three whole terabytes of data. I’ll make sure not a single byte is missing. I guarantee Advisor Han will see everything clearly."
Three terabytes? A normal person couldn’t finish reading that in a lifetime.
Wu Zhen then turned to Engineer Ma.
"Old Ma, you have that Energy dissipation problem with the ’superconducting magnetofluid nozzle’ that you haven’t been able to solve, right?"
"Perfect. You can bring it up and ask our Advisor Han for his guidance.
We should pool our wisdom. Who knows, maybe his talent is so extraordinary that he can give us some brand-new ideas."
Engineer Ma grinned, revealing a set of yellowed teeth.
"You got it! Our entire team has been wrestling with that problem for three months without a clue. It’s the perfect opportunity for Advisor Han to enlighten us!"
One "task" after another was assigned.
On the surface, they were enthusiastically helping the new leader get familiar with the work.
In reality, they had laid a trap for Han Feng.
Step one: Drown him in a sea of professional documents and data, forcing him to back down.
Step two: Test him with the team’s most advanced technical problems, making him look like a fool in public.
Step three: In all subsequent meetings and discussions, use their specialized jargon and theoretical models to build a wall of knowledge he could never hope to overcome.
They wanted to make Han Feng understand clearly that this was not a place where he could run wild.
Martial Arts Talent? It was worthless here.
They would use the most "professional" and "respectable" methods to completely sideline this "Chief Technical Advisor" who had been dropped in from above, turning him into a mascot who could only sign and stamp documents.
By doing this, they would avoid offending Chen Beixuan while keeping a firm grip on the project’s leadership.
Killing two birds with one stone!
Seeing his mentor Wu Zhen’s calculating expression, Chen Kai was filled with immense admiration.
Then, looking at Li Mo, who appeared gentle but had been the first to stir the pot, a trace of fear flashed in Chen Kai’s eyes.
’These old foxes... not a single one of them is simple.’
However, their goal was the same—to put Han Feng in his place.
That was enough.
Chen Kai could already imagine the look on that arrogant teenager’s face when he first walked into this conference room and was confronted with mountains of documents and problems difficult enough to be written into textbooks.
The meeting ended, and the attendees left one by one, knowing smiles on their faces.
「 」
At the same time, in a deserted emergency stairwell in the research institute.
Li Mo leaned against the wall. After confirming no one was around, he dialed an encrypted number.
When the call connected, he said nothing, only listening quietly.
A moment later, he reported in a low, emotionless voice.
"I have entered the ’Shadow’ project team."
"Yes, I will find an opportunity to approach the target and investigate the secrets he carries."
The person on the other end seemed to issue a new directive, and Li Mo’s eyes instantly turned sharp.
"Understood."
"If he cannot be controlled, execute the ’elimination’ protocol."
He hung up, turned, and melted back into the shadows, as if he had never been there at all.
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