Chapter 477: One Million Hostages |
June 12, Lanyang.
At the edge of an island, Guan Tong, Uenoshi, and Adam stood on the beach, looking out to sea.
"This island's maximum safe distance from the target sea area is about eight kilometers," Guan Tong said, glancing at Adam. "Beyond that limit, you'll fall into the Bright Moon's gravity vortex and be captured by it."
He had taken Adam away from Base No. 2 of the Countermeasures Research Office yesterday afternoon. The base's administrator did not stop him, which surprised him a little.
Guan Tong had expected Gao Liangwei to ask a few questions, but from the moment he took Adam yesterday until today, the Countermeasures Research Office had not contacted him. That made him suspect that someone higher up had quietly given the green light.
After bringing Adam out, the latter did not need to be moved around by Guan Tong's Shadow as before. Instead, he was fitted with an exoskeleton setup to assist his mobility.
"Gravity — some people think it's a special property of spacetime that can cross multiple dimensions," Adam said. "Its field is naturally unique, and that's the difficulty with this rule."
Guan Tong and Uenoshi exchanged a look. Neither of them were specialists; they didn't have much background in physics. Adam might not be a formal scientist either, but since he could manipulate fields, he had inevitably studied the topic to better apply his power.
"Explain in detail," Guan Tong said.
Any physical attack, from a punch to a bullet to a nuke, is fundamentally no different — matter and energy traveling along straight lines through spacetime. The Bright Moon's gravity field turns those 'straight lines' into curves, causing the energy to deviate and the effect to be greatly reduced."
Guan Tong didn't understand the technical talk about 'straight lines' and 'curves', but he grasped Adam's point.
Even if a megaton-class nuke's force is weakened by an underwater detonation, it shouldn't be reduced so drastically. Rather than blaming the ocean, the larger reason is that most of the bomb's released energy is being twisted and diverted by the Bright Moon's gravity field.
Uenoshi asked, "So you mean, unless we destroy that gravity field first, we can't stop the Bright Moon from rising?"
Adam said, "With present human technology, destroying that gravity field is impossible. Either you'd need mastery of antimatter or you'd have to build a super-powerful gravity-wave generator — humans can't do that. However, if it's not destruction but temporary interference, there might be a chance."
"Temporary interference?"
Adam raised his right hand and looked at his palm. "My ability can create various fields, including gravitational fields. If my mind power is sufficient, and with proper calculation, I might produce a gravitational field that matches the Bright Moon's field frequency.
If I wrap a person or object in the field I create, it should temporarily counteract the Bright Moon's gravitational influence. The problem is, it's only temporary. Stopping its ascent is impossible. Even if my mind power increased a hundredfold, I still couldn't do it."
Relying on a single person's field to suppress a micro-planet's field was pure fantasy. Adam knew this clearly, so what he could offer was only an opportunity to get close to the Bright Moon.
"Even if you can get close to it, we'll need other methods to stop its rising," Uenoshi said.
"Yes, it's difficult," Adam apologized to Guan Tong. "I can only provide this level of assistance."
"This assistance is already rare and valuable."
Guan Tong had never expected Adam alone to resolve this rule. That would be asking too much.
"Leader, does he have any other ideas?" Xia Zengqi asked.
Guan Tong pondered. "Not at the moment, but there's little time. You must hurry to think of something."
"Is he considering acting together with the Beixing government?" Adam asked. "Beixing doesn't have few Ascendants; maybe some of their abilities or items could be helpful."
"Surely the government has no plan that needs him, and they wouldn't contact the laboratory proactively. If they had a good plan, they would contact you. Even if you stay with us, it's still down to you to figure it out yourself."
"That's true." Ye Dang nodded, fell silent for a few seconds, then asked, "Shadow, do you have any request you hope he'll agree to?"
"What?"
"Before we challenge that rule, you want to go to the Argan Grassland. I think you hope he goes with you to help you find the Moon Key."
Guan Tong was somewhat surprised. He had planned to see the Moon Key after the rule to get a prophecy about the Prophet, Han Qiu, and other enemies.
Adam's goal was obviously different.
"You want the Moon Key to divine the location of your family?" Guan Tong quickly guessed Adam's intent.
"Yes," Adam admitted. "Also, I want to thank her in person. If she hadn't asked you to help rescue me, I would have died on that island."
"That works. I planned to visit her after this rule ended anyway."
Adam smiled. "Then we'll go together."
......
Manchidon, one of the Human Consortium's six small nations, was the only remaining country in the South Ocean region; the others had perished in past Doomsday Rules.
Surviving was one thing, but the population kept shrinking. Now only a few million people remained, with fewer than two hundred thousand Ascendants, and their numbers kept dwindling.
This population level was on the brink of collapse, so Manchidon was as eager to promote the Super City plan as Luruiguo. If they couldn't complete population relocation quickly, a few more survival-type rules would wipe out the remnants and Manchidon would follow the fate of the vanished nations.
Luckily for this rule, the Bright Moon had appeared in Lanyang, far from the South Ocean region, so the heavily affected nations Beixing and Suroma would handle it.
Manchidon's decision-makers planned to use the opportunity to study Super City construction thoroughly.
But they never expected the rule wouldn't target them, while another force did.
In the capital's core district, a large teleportation array suddenly lit up.
Some passersby froze when they saw the light. Before they could react, a large number of people stepped out from the array.
"For the sake of spread!"
When those who emerged from the teleportation array shouted the slogan in unison, the people on the street were terrified.
"Parasite! It's the parasitized forms!"
"Run!!!"
"Report to the officials, parasitized forms are here!"
No one in Manchidon expected the parasitized forms to openly appear using teleportation devices, and in ever-increasing numbers!
What was worse, these parasitized forms were no longer like before.
Previously, parasitized forms preferred not to kill humans outright, opting instead to capture, imprison, and brainwash to convert new hosts. Captured humans had a chance of rescue by the Human Consortium's forces.
But at some point their strategy changed. They began attacking with the intent to kill. This was terrifying, because the parasitized forms were amplified by spores; under equal conditions they outmatched humans in combat strength.
A horrific scene immediately erupted on the streets of Manchidon's capital. Elite parasitized Ascendants teleported in and, with military-like coordination and efficiency, swept through the citizens.
Within minutes, bodies lay everywhere. These attackers did not linger to fight or pursue fleeing victims. After a wave of strikes they used teleportation tools again to relocate elsewhere.
By the time Manchidon's Ascendant-armed forces arrived, the attackers had vanished.
The scene shifted. The parasitized Ascendants who had teleported away reappeared en masse in a certain hall. The hall was filled with computer equipment. Manchidon's official staff looked in shock at the sudden intruders, unable to believe what they were seeing.
This was Manchidon's official decision-making agency area, strictly confidential; even internally only staff knew of it. How did these uninvited guests know to come here?!
"Kill!"
The teleporting parasitized forms immediately conducted a bloody sweep. Since nearly everyone working here was a clerk, their combat strength was low and the situation turned into a massacre.
Elsewhere, Manchidon's official Ascendants scrambled to reinforce, but the highest decision-makers had already received the news and issued an emergency notice forbidding anyone in Manchidon from going outside until the parasitized forms were eliminated.
After the notice, people across the city started to comply. But they weren't obeying Manchidon's government; they were following the Prophet's orders.
"The country's sleepers, you may act."
The Prophet transmitted the command to every parasitized form in Manchidon through some special channel. Those who had long been planted stepped forward on command, launching sabotage across the city. Fires and chaos erupted everywhere in the capital.
Inside the decision office, Manchidon's top leader hurried to contact the Human Consortium for help. Just as he picked up the phone, he felt a sharp pain in his lower back. A dagger pierced through him from back to front!
"You... it's you..."
He twisted in pain and saw his beautiful assistant's face wearing a cold smile, a dagger's hilt clenched in her hand.
"Parasitized... form? Impossible..." he could not believe it. "We had scans..."
After the Human Consortium agreed to root out internal parasitized agents, all countries had screened decision-making personnel to ensure no parasitized forms were embedded.
But now...
"Who said I'm a parasitized form?" the beautiful assistant said casually. "Someone just offered me a high price, and I thought you deserved to die."
"You... bitch! How could you... this dagger..."
"Curious why your defensive items failed?" The assistant pulled the steel dagger out with a sickening sound, staring at the red on the blade.
"Because that wasn't an advanced mind-power weapon, just an ordinary steel dagger. Ridiculous that your items were all designed to defend against mind power attacks... now they'll be buried with you — what a pity."
After saying that, she kicked the gravely wounded Manchidon leader onto the floor and pulled out her phone to make a call.
"Hey, the job you asked me to do is finished. When will you pay the balance?"
"I'll transfer it now," a young male voice replied. "Nice work."
.....
Han Qiu put down his phone. Scarface's curious voice sounded nearby.
"When did you leave a nail with the Manchidon leader?"
Not only Scarface, even Your Holiness looked at Han Qiu with suspicion and caution.
This person had managed to subvert the Manchidon leader's personal secretary. Even if Manchidon was an insignificant small nation, achieving such an outcome was fearsome.
"She wasn't my planted nail. She realized the ship was sinking, and I just handed her a rope to jump," Han Qiu said, pocketing his phone and stretching.
"Alright, the rest we'll leave to our allies. Once Manchidon's decision-makers are wiped out, the hundred-odd thousand Ascendants left in that country are nothing but a disorganized rabble; they can't resist our allies' terrifying parasitized army.
If we hold a few million hostages in our hands, hehe... the expressions on the official personnel of the Human Consortium's other countries when they receive this news will be quite interesting."
Scarface felt a chill while looking at the seemingly harmless Han Qiu smiling. Even in the same camp, he sensed how terrifying this man was.
Your Holiness seemed to share the feeling, and asked, "How did you get the exact coordinates of Manchidon's decision office? And how did you know the Manchidon leader's condition — that he couldn't defend against a cold weapon?"
"I have a better question!" Scarface's voice dropped as his sharp wolf claw hovered at Han Qiu's throat, as if ready to crush him at any moment.