Chapter 344: The Stage
The Crimson World's question went unanswered, yet it still saw the answer.
"Hiss, hiss, hiss..." As the two opened subspace channels connected, the Holy Light from the Luminous Holy Church's Divine Kingdom began to slowly consume the red and purple light of the Nine Netherworlds at their intersection, creating a sound that suggested the two were as incompatible as fire and water.
"Heaven and the Abyss have connected!" Europeans were more accustomed to calling this suddenly appearing, illusory world, filled with red and purple, the Abyss, to correspond with the Heavenly Kingdom that had surfaced earlier.
"Is this the prelude to an eternal war, until the Twilight of the Gods? The era of heroes has arrived, and my primordial power is already stirring!" Some people, afflicted with chunibyo, began to act up.
"Give them a stage." Bai Mo overlooked the countless people gazing up at the sky, his power, however, transcended layers of space, arriving in the western part of the Huaxia Federation.
A colossal pillar of light suddenly appeared in the uninhabited areas of the Huaxia Federation's Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, and in the manner of the Foolish Old Man removing mountains, it began to absorb everything in its vicinity. Every second, tens of thousands of cubic meters of permafrost vanished into the light pillar, which, like an insatiable Taotie, devoured everything within its sight.
Most of this vanished permafrost became filler for the illusory surface of the Nine Netherworlds' first layer, while a smaller portion was transported to the second layer, serving as raw materials for its construction.
Simultaneously, two other light pillars appeared: one in the Taklamakan Desert, thousands of kilometers away, and another in the ocean. The former carried away the desert's endless sand, while the latter took an astonishing amount of seawater.
"Hurry! Get into the city now!" The battalion commander urgently urged the soldiers behind him, his heart ablaze with anxiety.
Due to the war against the Sea Race, the coastal front lines had concentrated the vast majority of the regular army. Redeploying them from the front to various cities in the rear, while simultaneously stabilizing the front, required an immense amount of time.
Facing a nationwide upheaval that swept through hundreds of cities large and small, only a small number of major cities could be prioritized for the precious air force transport capacity to quell the unrest.
This inexplicable riot erupted too abruptly. The intelligence department simply couldn't comprehend how, with their level of control over the country, anyone could secretly organize and link up such a mad movement that swept across all cities and involved hundreds of millions of people.
More importantly, they had received no intelligence beforehand, as if people had suddenly all gone mad.
Looking at the devastated city, permeated with chaos everywhere, many of the stationed soldiers couldn't fathom how these people, now clutching their heads and weeping bitterly on the ground, could have committed so many insane acts just moments ago.
After the effects of adrenaline faded, the side effects of its over-secretion began to manifest. Many people, due to muscle soreness, were unable to move, left to collapse on the ground.
During the past few hours of madness, most people had been engaged in prolonged, high-intensity exertion; smashing, looting, and burning were all physically demanding activities, not to mention following large groups of people, ransacking one place after another within the surging crowds.
Under the numbing influence of adrenaline acting as a stimulant and the frenzied atmosphere around them, the body's warnings had been ignored. Now, they burst forth all at once, and many who were ordinarily in a sub-healthy state couldn't even get up from where they lay.
"How do we plan to handle this incident?" After shaking off the entanglement of the Crimson World's agents, the entire high command of the Huaxia Federation, ignoring the threat of the Spirit Devourer, personally appeared in Tianqing to preside over the situation.
"The law doesn't blame the multitude; the number of people incited runs into the hundreds of millions, making it impossible to investigate them one by one. But if we don't hold anyone accountable, it would be too unjust to those who suffered heavy losses in this riot." Faced with this situation, Wen Jian was utterly at a loss.
Even letting him slaughter all these people would be easier than dealing with this extremely complicated matter; after all, the former only required a mindless charge.
"And there's the issue of casualties caused by the conflict between ability users and ordinary people..."
To protect their lives and property, almost every ability user who remained in the urban areas had blood on their hands.
The least among them carried the weight of several lives, while the most, like Xiao Yan, had casually burned hundreds to death. If this wasn't addressed, it could easily spark a new round of conflicts, but over-processing would similarly lead to internal disunity and disaffection.
"Those who have killed, conscript them all into the Hunter's Guild to fight the Sea Race. For every person they killed, they must kill ten times that number of Sea Race members to atone." Chen Bo, resting his head on one hand, pondered bitterly for a while before finally offering this compromise solution.
If he were truly to act according to 'a life for a life,' it's quite possible that the most casualties would be among their own people, as ultimately, they primarily represented the interests of ability users.
"What about the self-management of property losses?" Cheng Mu, standing nearby, offered his suggestion. His temporarily generated projection appeared somewhat dim; although the Spirit Devourer virus had no effect on the Divine Path, the Crimson World's agents, as informational life forms, had given several of their artificial gods a tough time.
"For now, this is the only way to handle it. Recovering stolen goods from all participants in the looting isn't realistic. Everything must center on restoring order."
"Once the situation stabilizes, the stability maintenance forces should return to the front lines as soon as possible. I'm worried the Sea Race might take advantage of the opportunity to land."
...
After settling the most urgent matters, the group of high-level officials in Ziliu Sea began discussing other things.
"Barring any unforeseen circumstances, the instigator of this riot should be Red Radiance, or rather, that unknown creature behind Red Radiance." Chen Bo continued to drive the conversation.
No one present refuted him; they had all been intercepted by a mass of red light, and a little association was enough to link the two.
"We still underestimated it. We originally thought it was just a restless Fifth Tier entity looking for some amusement."
"What about this mastermind now?"
"If my guess is correct, it should have perished together with that person, or at the very least, it can no longer appear in this world." Chen Bo said, pointing to the heaven-reaching light pillar on the outskirts of Tianqing.
Upon hearing this, everyone present inexplicably breathed a sigh of relief. This was perhaps the only good news they had heard.
"The things he left behind... society's normal operation can no longer do without them. We need someone to take them over." A newly appointed young man presented his first opinion at the meeting.
The interests behind the Contribution Point System were simply too immense, equivalent to half the right to print money. And any discerning person could see that the stakes involved in the already widespread virtual reality system were absolutely significant. Thus, as soon as Bai Mo disappeared, people immediately began to scheme for these two things.
Recommending a book: "Cancer of Ten Thousand Realms," written by a friend. It features a Cthulhu-esque protagonist. Those who frequent reader groups should know which administrator's work it is.
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