Chapter 487: Chapter 306: High-Risk Factors (Part 2)
"The government must have taken things too far."
Catherine analyzed, "The Crystal Disease outbreak in North Carolina nearly became an Extraordinary plague sweeping the globe. Despite the danger, North Carolina adamantly refused the Star Association’s intervention. This caused the Crystal Virus to rapidly evolve and mutate, drastically increasing the threat level. The Star Association isn’t a pushover, so of course they’d be unhappy. The factions that don’t favor North Carolina were bound to seize this opportunity to make a move against them.
But what I really want to know is, once North Carolina opens up, what’s their plan for the Crystal Disease?"
"The Star Association must have a plan," the Plague Doctor said. "They never do anything without preparation. They’ve probably already developed a vaccine and a cure."
Suddenly, Zhou Chen saw space ripple, and a doorway materialized out of thin air. Immediately after, a beautiful woman with metallic, silver hair pushed open the door and walked out, and his heart instantly lurched in shock.
—Godslaying Weapon: Tang Ling!
’Holy shit, they deployed a Godslaying Weapon...’ For some reason, Zhou Chen felt a guilty pang, terrified of being recognized.
Tang Ling paid no mind to the people in the containment zone, raising her head to look at the massive [Return Ball] before her. A large amount of rapidly changing code and formulas appeared in the depths of her eyes as she analyzed the Matrix’s weak points. The next second, a storm swept past, and countless light matrices circling in the air instantly shattered, dissipating into a rain of light.
She walked forward, reaching out to touch the [Return Ball]’s cold metal shell.
"That’s an Alchemy Tool Havier made!" the Plague Doctor shouted a hasty warning. "The Matrix is linked to a detonator! Disturb it and you’ll trigger an explosion!"
Tang Ling turned a deaf ear. The code changing in her eyes accelerated, and large amounts of high-temperature steam vented from the seams of her Battle Armor, indicating she was performing computations of extreme intensity.
[Analysis Progress: 69.794%/100%]
[Analysis Progress: 75.550%/100%]
[Analysis Progress: 99.999%/100%]
[Analysis complete. Great Sage Havier’s Alchemy Technique has been mastered. Commencing decryption.]
[Decryption complete. Return Ball deactivated.]
HUMMM...
With a final hum, the [Return Ball]’s flashing red light slowly died out. The sphere turned a dull black, like a great, cold stone, and fell completely silent.
[Spatial Transfer Program initiated. Coordinates confirmed. Commencing transfer.]
The next moment, the [Return Ball] in front of Tang Ling vanished. She retracted her hand and, without so much as a glance at the Plague Doctor and the others, opened an Any Door and left.
「Star Association Headquarters. A bustling command room.」
Tang Ling walked over and nodded to a man in a Star Association uniform. "Return Ball contained."
The man pulled out a black marker and crossed out the words "Return Ball" on a sheet of paper.
The page had a striking, bright red title:
"North Carolina High-Risk Factors"
A quick glance revealed dozens of names already blacked out on the page. There were five names left unmarked.
Crystal Virus, Apostle Factor, Merchant, Pope, and—the King of North Carolina, Enoch!
"These last few are going to be tough," the man sighed, his head aching. Calling it Hell Level difficulty wouldn’t be an overstatement.
Tang Ling ignored him, walking straight toward the Prophet, who was sitting in front of a large screen.
"What’s next?"
"We wait."
The Prophet leisurely sipped at some tea. "We wait patiently."
·
Staring at the empty containment zone, everyone looked bewildered. From her arrival to her departure, Tang Ling had been there for less than a minute. It was simply too fast.
"That person... was that the Godslaying Weapon developed by the Star Association?" the Plague Doctor said, sounding uncertain.
"That’s her." Zhou Chen nodded and bullshitted, "I’ve seen combat videos of her circulating on the dark web. The height, hair color, and profile all match. Besides, there can’t be many people in the whole world who could safely deactivate the Return Ball."
"How could she deactivate the Return Ball?" Catherine asked, confused. "The North Carolina Government invited numerous Great Sages from the Alchemy Realm to solve the problem, but they all failed. The Return Ball is a product of Havier’s unique craft. Only he should be able to disable it. Any reckless attempt to do so would just set it off."
"The Godslaying Weapon is the pinnacle of human intellect," Zhou Chen said. "My guess is she used immense processing power to analyze Havier’s Alchemy Technique. Once she’d learned it, deactivating the Return Ball was as simple as typing in a password." He sighed with genuine awe. ’A Godslaying Weapon truly lives up to the name. Mastering a Great Sage’s Alchemy Technique in under a minute... that’s horrifying. If she ever turned into a Sky Net or an Ultron, she’d destroy the World faster than anything else.’
"Never mind that for now. Retreat immediately," the Plague Doctor ordered, directing everyone to withdraw.
The Government Army was on its way. If the Return Ball were still here, they would have had to grit their teeth and fight a defensive battle. But since the Star Association had contained the Return Ball, there was no point in them staying.
The Poisonous Sore Gang swept through the underground laboratory, took everything useful, and quickly retreated under the cover of night.
Half an hour later, the Government Army legions arrived at the Seventh Military District. Even though they had received the news en route, they still couldn’t believe their eyes.
This was a military district with six thousand soldiers stationed in it!
It was just... destroyed?
「Ministry of Defense.」
Minister Jaslin’s face was thunderous. Her blood pressure was skyrocketing and refused to drop, even setting off the alarms on her Life Detection Device. A crowd of doctors hurried in to stabilize it for her.
She held her forehead, her hands trembling. She had mobilized so many troops to reinforce the Seventh Military District, but in the end, they were a step too late, and the Salvation Army had taken it.
And that wasn’t even the most infuriating part.
Under normal circumstances, even if the Salvation Army had captured the Seventh Military District, the Government Army was confident they could retake it the same night. All those armed forces were not just for show. With planes and tanks combined, how many divisions could the Salvation Army possibly have? But who could have guessed the Star Association would interfere? They could have taken the Return Ball at any time, but no, they chose to contain it precisely when it was in the hands of the Salvation Army. What was that if not a deliberate act?
They even sent people to negotiate with the President. They said, "Look how dangerous the [Return Ball] is in the hands of the Salvation Army. Today’s Salvation Army isn’t the one from the old days. Without Havier leading them, there’s no telling when they might detonate the [Return Ball] and lay waste to all of North Carolina. Why don’t we, the Star Association, act as intermediaries? You can make a deal. You repeal the lockdown laws, the Salvation Army hands over the [Return Ball], and we’ll contain it safely. We can guarantee that, at worst, North Carolina won’t be annihilated. How does that sound?"
How did that sound?
Terrible, of course!
But since the Star Association had made the offer, they weren’t prepared to hear a refusal. They brought the Godslaying Weapon over on the spot, and with a Tier Five from America smiling enigmatically beside them, the President had to agree no matter how reluctant he was. A Tier Five battle breaking out would bring the North Carolina Government nothing but harm.
The Star Association’s move was actually within the government’s expectations, but there had just been too much bad news recently. Piled on top of each other, the resulting chain reaction was enough to make her want to vomit blood.
"It’s bad! This is terrible!"
Hearing the shouts of alarm and hurried footsteps from outside the conference room, the veins on Jaslin’s forehead throbbed. A terrible premonition welled up inside her.
"A report from the Southern War Zone! The Salvation Army launched a surprise attack under the cover of darkness! The Army’s 27th Regiment... has been completely wiped out!"
Jaslin’s vision went black, and the blood pressure monitor let out a piercing alarm.
"And... and..." The messenger swallowed hard. "Because the troops from several cities were all redeployed to reinforce the Seventh Military District, their defenses were left empty. The Salvation Army took advantage of the opening and has already occupied those cities. Military command has given up on retaking them and decided to pull back the front lines..."
Jaslin let out a muffled groan, unable to catch her breath, on the verge of fainting.
"Th-then... just now, another city in the south was taken by the Salvation Army... Minister? Minister, what’s wrong?"
Jaslin finally couldn’t take it anymore. A mouthful of blood sprayed from her lips, and her face turned white as a sheet. She collapsed limply in her chair, unconscious.
Comments