Chapter 398: Restart (10,000)

"Lin Xian, Lin Xian!"

A buzzing sound filled his ears. The immense sense of detachment from the world left Lin Xian feeling dizzy. Gradually, the sounds around him became clear. Lin Xian focused his gaze; ahead, a row of server cabinets was slowly dimming. As his Superstring Reactor shut down, the central control room of the City Ring went dark once more. Following this came the still-intense sounds of artillery fire and Chu Yan's shouts.

"How is it?"

Seeing Lin Xian's complexion gradually recover, Chu Yan asked immediately.

Lin Xian took two deep breaths. He checked the time: 8:36. Searching the entire city had actually taken him nearly ten hours!

"Found it. 35 kilometers southeast of Dawn City, Sector E. Outside the city, it was originally an unfinished Underground City Base No. 2, but now it's been converted into a place called... the Titan Peak Launch Site."

Lin Xian gathered his focus and blurted out the information in one breath: "The people from the Deep Red World are there too. It's not just the Action Brain; he... they are going to launch the entire S-class entity into the sky to use as a screen-breaking device!"

Upon hearing this, Chu Yan immediately pressed her earpiece.

"35 kilometers in the direction of Sector E, Titan Peak Launch Site. Move out immediately."

Rat-tat-tat!

Artillery fire shook the sky outside the Twin Star Tower. At this moment, Zhou Lei's voice came through: "Understood, we're going through the underground network!"

"Is it still being attacked outside?" Lin Xian regained his senses and asked in surprise.

"The three Star Abyss Polar Nights are all accelerating their approach. The anomaly tide has been attacking all night. Now, the 83rd Iron Guard Brigade and the Heaven-Suppressing Ship have also neared the north and east sides of the city to provide support." Chu Yan immediately said to Kiki: "Take good care of him."

Kiki looked exhausted. Now, it wasn't just the few teams from Operation Crescent Moon on the Twin Star Tower; a large number of Garrison Commander troops had been mobilized to resist the aerial attacks.

"I'm fine."

Lin Xian looked at Shizhi. He caught his breath, took out the control-continuation key given to him by Chu Zhaonan, and said to Chu Yan: "I'm going with you. The opponent has a brain-machine device; I can prevent them from self-destructing!"

At this moment, the Nightwalker organization team led by Qi Nuo fought their way in from outside and said: "Let's go, there isn't much time left!"

Lin Xian took out his Black Hawk Battle Armor and put it on. The group was fully armed and began to head downward, preparing to transfer through the underground network. The elevator descended rapidly. Lin Xian walked to the window; under the rainy night, large arcs of Dawn City's Wall No. 1 were already a sea of fire, and the air was filled with the thick smell of gunpowder and blood.

For an entire night, the anomaly tide had not ceased. The outer city area beneath Wall No. 1 had long since turned into ruins, and the piled-up corpses of anomalies were like a sea of death. Incendiary bombs burned almost all night over those ruins and corpses. Countless destroyed and charred mechs and soldiers who had died in power armor were scattered among them. At this moment, all the city gates had long been sealed, and all firepower was being projected from the city walls and from within the city toward the outside.

A night-long battle!

Watching the catastrophic scene, Lin Xian's gaze flickered constantly. Under these circumstances, he didn't know if any other survivors in the Yunjiang Plain could reach Dawn City. And then there was Jinhai; he didn't know if Xiang Ningjing and Qian Dele had returned safely.

At this point, there was no other choice. They had to obtain information from the Deep Red World regarding the connection to the S-class entity before the Vanguard Project launched. Only by mastering equivalent information would the human camp have a chance in the remaining time. At the same time, Lin Xian also had to seize the control hub of the Heart of the Galaxy after the Vanguard Project launched.

Chu Zhaonan had left 10 seconds of time; he had to seize it. Otherwise, once all city weapons went offline, the battle line stalling would very likely lead directly to the collapse of the wall defense, with unimaginable consequences.

"Many people from large convoys have gone to support the front line of the city walls. Inside the city, there have been multiple chaotic incidents overnight due to mutations. But the problem is, many convoys' vehicles were destroyed in last night's fighting, especially those of some small convoys; they abandoned almost all their vehicles to enter the city."

Arriving at the underground works, several team members boarded the maglev transport vehicle and began to drive toward the outside of the city.

On the vehicle, Kiki told Lin Xian about the situation. At this moment, the aftereffects of using radar for mechanical scanning began to manifest; a piercing pain shot through his head, making it difficult for him to even focus his vision.

"Why are there fewer people?" Lin Xian asked.

"Tong Silei, the heavy machine gunner of Zhou Lei's team, and two flight-type ability users from Qi Nuo's detachment died in the resistance last night," Chu Yan told Lin Xian.

Upon hearing this, Lin Xian's expression darkened. He looked at Zhou Lei, Li Su, Qi Nuo, and the others on the vehicle; they were all disheveled after the fierce battle. To Lin Xian, it felt like only a few minutes had passed while scanning the whole city, but he hadn't expected so much time to have elapsed. The death of his team members made Lin Xian feel heavy-hearted. He spoke up: "I'm thinking, we can't determine who is connected to the Gray Mist. What if we accidentally kill them?"

Chu Yan said sternly: "You might not have a deep understanding of the Deep Red World organization. We have tracked and investigated the Deep Red World for a long time and have captured many high-level members of the organization. This organization is not purely anti-human or opportunistic. In a sense, their ideological foundation is the same as that of Chu Zhaonan and his group of Federation members—that is, the 'humanity must fail' thought imprint. Coupled with the technical concept of digital life, their understanding of survival has undergone a fundamental change. Simply put, they don't want civilization to go extinct or humanity to die out; rather, they believe that through human power, they can communicate with, assist, and even assimilate dark creatures, ultimately maintaining a state of coexistence."

"In the eyes of the Deep Red World, the dark civilization brought by the Star Abyss is just another form of life ruler. Therefore, they worship, are fanatical about, and pursue it, and even attempt to change their own existence to merge with it. They call this a 'higher life form,' and ability users are the 'profaners' who have been initially influenced by this."

"'Profaners'?" Lin Xian frowned: "Why?"

"Because it's not perfect enough. Ability users cannot fully survive in dark-invaded areas, and at the same time, life remains fragile."

The maglev transport vehicle sped through the underground network, the air pressure making their eardrums bulge. Chu Yan continued: "So the S-class entity we see is like a god to the Deep Red World. And if they want to connect to such a god and pry into a completely unknown life form and civilization, they couldn't possibly let ordinary people or experimental subjects do it."

Kiki nodded upon hearing this: "I understand. Just like the Red Man anomalies, they aren't just communicating information by connecting to the S-class; they want to become S-class life forms themselves through this mode?"

Chu Yan nodded: "That's right."

"A bunch of lunatics," Lin Xian said.

Qi Nuo, sitting opposite, tried to light a cigarette but couldn't. He spoke up: "The core point of Freud's 'death drive' is that there is an instinct in the human subconscious that tends toward destruction (including self-destruction). When fear exceeds the limit of endurance, it may turn into a pathological obsession with destructive power."

"Coupled with the evolution of humans acquiring abilities from the darkness, this must have made them even more firm in this philosophy."

"Exactly."

Lin Xian nodded: "Then the one connecting to the S-class entity, if nothing goes wrong, should be Julius. But how many copies and clones does this person have? I remember when we were at the Bai Lutan Star Observation Station, you solved one, right?"

Chu Yan said: "He has many clones used for the management of many secret laboratories. Besides that, the Deep Red World has several other 'co-creators' like him, whose identities are currently unknown."

Lin Xian frowned upon hearing this: "Then is it possible that the one connecting to the S-class is his original body? After all, such a tempting thing..."

"It's possible," Chu Yan said: "However, from the many times I've dealt with this person, he is a very cautious person with extremely high intelligence."

Lin Xian checked the time: "There's still over an hour. The screen-breaking device will definitely activate for a second time when it starts. We just need to catch this person at that time."

Chu Yan looked deeply at Lin Xian: "Lin Xian, you're not in a good state right now. We will definitely have a firefight with the Deep Red World people later. Don't get too close to the front. Intercepting the information is my main task; you must ensure the Heart of the Galaxy is not invaded."

"Right," Zhou Lei also said at this time: "My team's mission is to protect you well. If the city-wide weapons go offline for too long or are taken over by the Deep Red World, then we're screwed."

"10 o'clock, dawn should be around then too," Lin Xian closed his eyes slightly: "I hope everything goes smoothly. If we can hold out until dawn, the anomaly tide will also retreat."

At 9 o'clock, the maglev transport vehicle drove from the underground network into a closed passage. After stopping the vehicle, a huge blast-proof door appeared at the far end of the passage.

Various 【DANGER】 and 【ISOLATION】 signs appeared prominently under the flashlight beams.

Zhou Lei was the first to get off the vehicle. He checked the ground and then said: "The tracks are clear, but it splits into two systems from here, completely isolated, which is why we couldn't find it before."

"Those supplies and equipment have to be transported by rail, so this place should be extremely secure."

Hum!

At this moment, Lin Xian, who had come out from behind, took out four large armored vehicles from his Black Star Forge space and then went to the blast-proof door, preparing to open it.

Who knew Shizhi would suddenly call out to him: "Careful, there are monsters behind this door!"

As soon as these words were spoken, the teams immediately raised their weapons in vigilance.

Qi Nuo raised his hand to give a gesture, and the four ability user teams immediately scattered and set up a formation: "Zhou Lei, Chu Yan, take Team Leader Lin to the vehicle. We'll provide cover and then cover your retreat."

"Good."

Time was tight, and no one wasted words. Zhou Lei led his team onto the first vehicle to prepare for the charge, while Lin Xian's trio and Chu Yan's team boarded the middle vehicle. The last two vehicles were left for Qi Nuo's thirty-some people.

The atmosphere suddenly became tense. The next moment, after the Nightwalker detachment was ready, Lin Xian immediately manipulated his mechanical ability to control the blast-proof door and then forcibly opened it.

Woo!

At this moment, the huge blast-proof door opened from the middle. Following a blast of cold air, a dark passage appeared in everyone's line of sight.

The passage inside appeared larger in scale than the works outside, and the tunnel dimensions were an order of magnitude larger. Chu Yan drove, Kiki sat in the passenger seat, and her gaze looked toward the passage. She could only see several rows of green emergency lights extending into the depths. Zhou Lei's team at the very front had already mounted guns on their vehicle to stand guard, and the vehicle lights were bright, illuminating a pale area.

Heh, heh.

A dull, wheezing sound, like someone wearing an oxygen mask, rose from the depths. It was hoarse and eerie, making one's hair stand on end.

At this moment, a black shadow over two meters tall slowly walked out of the darkness. Following its footsteps were two Gatling machine guns shining with a dark light!

Red Man anomaly!

Upon seeing this Red Man anomaly, Lin Xian's pupils shrank suddenly. Compared to the one encountered in Baicheng, the one before him was covered in heavy power armor. Its head and neck had hideous suture lines like a butcher's, and it wore a dual-tube respirator on its face. One eye shone with a red light, making it look like a terrifying combination of a human anomaly and a mech.

"Careful!"

Woo!

In an instant, the motors of the two Gatling machine guns were already spinning rapidly, and a storm of metal erupted. At this moment, a female ability user from the Nightwalker team suddenly spat out a large cloud of red smoke, instantly submerging the tunnel entrance. The machine gun bullets that were violently shooting toward the crowd were actually blocked by this smoke, which immediately reminded Lin Xian of the ability of that strange python in the Star Abyss.

Then the female ability user pushed the red smoke forward, and a large explosion suddenly occurred. Lin Xian immediately used his mechanical ability to make the two Gatling guns directly decompose and disappear. The sound of gunfire stopped, but following it were several shockwaves that rushed out.

Boom boom!

Kiki immediately used a telekinetic shield to block them. After the violent explosion, the heavily armored Red Man anomaly rushed out of the darkness toward the crowd, accompanied by a violent clamor.

Under the vehicle lights, several extremely fast ability-using human anomalies appeared. There were men and women, and their movements were extremely agile. They all had devices similar to mechanical suppressors and lightweight armor on their bodies. Roars rose, and various abilities tore through the air, and weapons erupted and began to explode.

Kiki's telekinetic ability directly grabbed several of them. In the spare time, Lin Xian immediately used his mechanical ability to decompose the armor on their bodies. But strangely, these ability-using human anomalies didn't have brain-machine interfaces; they were like monsters tamed by suppressors. When the suppressors were decomposed, they didn't die, but instead became even more violent.

"These aren't Red Man anomalies!" Lin Xian said.

Bang!

A large magnetic storm bomb exploded in the middle. Qi Nuo led his team to launch a counterattack and quickly blasted out a passage.

"Quick, there's no time, we're charging straight through!"

Zhou Lei slammed on the accelerator, the armored vehicle's engine roared violently, and the team members mounting machine guns on the roof fired with all their might. Chu Yan's vehicle behind also followed out.

At this moment, the Nightwalker organization and Zhou Lei's team were firing at full capacity, with various abilities and thermal weapons clearing the way. The two vehicles charged into the tunnel and drove toward the outside of the city.

Argh!!

As soon as they rushed into the tunnel, everyone immediately sensed an increasingly intense cold feeling of dark invasion. At the same time, a large number of human anomalies installed with suppressors constantly crawled out from the depths of the darkness and climbed out from the tunnel walls, attacking the convoy in dense numbers.

Qi Nuo's detachment behind also boarded their vehicles and rushed in, their abilities exploding to cover Lin Xian and the others' retreat. That Red Man anomaly climbed up from the fragments of the explosion, its heavy armor half-shattered, but the flesh and blood tissue on its body was actually growing crazily, taking the opportunity. It roared and sent a huge shockwave toward the convoy.

With a loud bang, the entire tunnel felt like it was being struck while trapped inside a metal drum, and even the air vibrated violently, causing all the emergency lights in the passage to burst!

"The Nightwalkers concentrated their firepower but didn't kill it quickly. The ability index and vitality of this kind of modified Red Man anomaly are getting stronger and stronger!" Chu Yan said while driving.

"They must have used higher-level ability users as experimental subjects." Kiki was using her telekinesis with all her might to shake away the human anomalies rushing toward them.

For them now, the main goal wasn't to kill these blockers, but to reach the Titan Peak Launch Site before the Vanguard Project launched.

Rat-tat-tat!

The members of Zhou Lei's armored vehicle team in front fired back frantically, the tires rubbing against the metal ground and making a harsh skidding sound. Lin Xian used his AT force field to block the attacks on both sides of the vehicle. At the same time, hundreds of attack drones were released by him. In an instant, the red pulse beams fired by the Thunder Falcon 2000, the magnetic storm field where the "Thunder Prison" exploded, and the whistling sound of "Iron Rain" piercing the air rang out dazzlingly in the tunnel.

Swish, swish, dozens of "Iron Curtain" drones deployed defensive armor and began to fly in tandem around the two vehicles, forming a flying shield.

The pressure decreased instantly. Watching the drone army suddenly deployed to fight precisely in the tunnel, Chu Yan looked at Lin Xian in the rearview mirror and asked: "Did you manufacture these drones directly? How can they be so fast?"

Actually, she had this question last night, because Lin Xian not only took out drones to help in the battle but also manufactured devices to repair the City Ring, which made her naturally think that these drones were all manufactured by Lin Xian in the blink of an eye.

"Sort of." Lin Xian handed control to Grace and began to check the path.

With the firepower support of these hundreds of drones, they could precisely kill and repel the threats surging from the darkness through radar. Soon, lights began to appear in the passage ahead, and their vision began to clear. The human anomalies were much fewer now, as if their appearance could be controlled by area.

After breaking out from the human anomalies, the two armored vehicles gradually drove into a huge underground works building, and the space began to become vast.

At this moment, the armored vehicles drove out of the passage, and the outline of a giant city shaft with a diameter of hundreds of meters appeared in their line of sight. At this moment, dense gunfire suddenly swept toward them from the front, and a large number of drones swarmed from the underground city into the passage, engaging in battle with the two teams of Lin Xian and his group.

Bang bang bang bang bang!

In an instant, Lin Xian felt as if he were being covered by the firepower of an entire regiment. Dense bullets and pulse rays instantly obscured his vision, and his ears were filled with the roaring of bullets and the sound of metal collisions.

"Careful!"

"To the left!" Zhou Lei shouted loudly in the communicator. Immediately, the two armored vehicles slammed into a wire fence from the left, facing the hail of bullets, and rushed into an unfinished underground city block. The ground was all standard concrete prefabricated modules, and the brand-new office area walls had been abandoned before they were even put into use.

In a panic, the two armored vehicles knocked down a row of light steel walls and drove into an internal street.

If it weren't for Lin Xian's "Iron Curtain" drones and his AT force field, the outpouring of firepower just now would have been enough to melt the armored vehicles directly. Woo-woo~, at the same time, Lin Xian's drones were entangled with the pursuing drones. Lin Xian activated his mechanical ability to paralyze these drones in batches, but from another direction, countless Deep Red World armed forces holding firearms and wearing power armor began to pursue them.

For a time, a crazy pursuit battle broke out. A flying craft fully loaded with armed personnel rose from below, following the two armored vehicles and firing dense pulse rays. The high-temperature rays shot through rows of walls and concrete pillars, and the armor layer of the "Iron Curtain" drones already had many perforations.

Just at this moment, Chu Yan slammed the steering wheel and drifted the armored vehicle, then her mechanical arm raised and used an electric hammer to pierce the armored vehicle's front grille windshield. Then her eyes flashed with a red light. In an instant, a huge mental ability shockwave erupted. Lin Xian and the others sitting in the back only felt their whole bodies go numb. Dozens of armed personnel on that flying craft suddenly had blood mists erupt from within their facial armor, and they all fell down one after another without a sound. Lin Xian watched this scene and widened his eyes immediately: "This is what you said was just a little headache?!"

"It is indeed a headache," Kiki couldn't help but complain.

Killing people instantly without even breaking through their power armor—Lin Xian, who was seeing Chu Yan use her ability for the first time, felt his scalp tingle.

"Killing people is simpler than killing anomalies," Chu Yan said lightly: "So my ability is more suitable for intelligence work in the Star Abyss."

"There's no road ahead!"

Zhou Lei shouted, and the special team fought their way out of a bloody path.

At this moment, in the passages of the multi-level underground city, hundreds of Deep Red World armed personnel appeared, firing at their vehicles along the way, but none used heavy weapons. At this moment, the vehicles drove into a dead end, and the tires had been completely destroyed. The two teams had to get off the vehicles while fighting and hide behind cover.

"Grace, go!"

After solving a large number of drones, Lin Xian directly let Grace lead her drone legion to move out and clear the enemies. Here, Kiki and Chu Yan used their abilities to solve those Deep Red World armed forces in large numbers. Chu Yan was right; compared to anomalies, humanity's greatest strengths were flexibility and thermal weapons. And with Lin Xian's defensive armor and abilities blocking the cold shots and hail of bullets, they quickly suppressed the opposite side.

But there were too many cold shots, and Lin Xian couldn't rely on his AT force field and power armor to go out and fight hard, so he sent Grace out directly.

At the same time, more newly manufactured drones were released by him and put into the battle.

Grace received Lin Xian's order. In an instant, over 800 drones surrounded her, forming a dense drone swarm. Her super-strong computing power, combined with the drones' photoelectric radar, allowed her to lock onto enemies on several floors as well as various types of flying craft and drones within 0.01 seconds. For a time, precise firepower coverage came down. And the drones on the enemy side seemed to be operated by some powerful brain, attacking Lin Xian and the other main figures rapidly. But Lin Xian, as a mechanical ability user, found these drones to be completely like EMPs swatting mosquitoes for him; one mechanical control sweep, and dozens of drones directly went black-screen, short-circuited, and fell to the ground.

And Shizhi, who was not good at fighting, followed nervously behind Lin Xian. All she could do was occasionally cast a green healing ability on Lin Xian, and then continue to hide.

Grace quickly took over the battle, and with the addition of powerful ability users like Lin Xian, Kiki, Chu Yan, and Zhou Lei, those armed guards and drones were quickly eliminated in large areas.

"This is the launch site, and it's also the base where the Deep Red World studies the S-class entity, so there are no monsters like Red Man anomalies here!"

Looking at the information sent back from the drone screen, Lin Xian immediately synchronized with Chu Yan and Zhou Lei.

"Old Qi's team has pinned all those monsters in the passage, we have to hurry," Zhou Lei responded at this time.

At this moment, Lin Xian and his team cleared the way along the launch site passage under the cleaning of Grace's drone swarm. As the last armed personnel was taken out, the sound of gunfire stopped abruptly.

The further down they went, the brighter the lights became, as if all the construction vitality was unfolding from the bottom up. The roar of steel echoed in the cylindrical underground void, like the wheezing of some giant beast. This unfinished underground city was originally planned as a residential area to accommodate one million people as a backup city connected to Dawn City, but now it had been crudely converted into a giant launch site.

Between the unfinished concrete skeletons, a large number of thick hydraulic pillars supported the dome and the underground city walls. The central vertical passage had a diameter of over five hundred meters, and the shaft walls were embedded with layers of maintenance platforms, which were currently lit up by orange-red warning lights.

Lin Xian and Chu Yan's team rode an engineering platform and slowly descended. Gradually, a larger and more complex launch device appeared in their line of sight. Around the original underground city shaft, various metal pipes were entrenched, and sets of fuel injection towers and hoisting platforms stood vertically.

"There's a very strong dark aura down here!" Shizhi's small face turned pale at this moment, and cold air was spitting from her mouth and nose, as if the further down they went, the colder the temperature became.

"Look, everyone!"

Kiki exclaimed at this moment, and everyone looked downward one after another. Upon reaching a position three hundred meters underground, the outline of a giant creature appeared in their line of sight.

It looked like both a creature and some kind of ultra-large mech device. The sharp head armor integrated a large number of restraint arrays, and the suppression devices were emitting a grim green light under the armor. Under the various lighting warning lights, this giant screen-breaking device gradually magnified in everyone's eyes. The white outer armor was made of the same armor material as a starship. It seemed that because it was in preparation for launch, only automatic devices were operating down here.

Seeing this grim armor face, Lin Xian seemed to recall the terrifying body of the Gray Mist Envoy with gray-white skin and bone spurs all over that he and Chu Yan had seen in his dream. At this moment, seeing this ultra-large device, everyone couldn't help but gasp, and even held their breath.

"My god, did they combine a starship and Unit 01 and attach it to an S-class entity?" Zhou Lei's pupils focused in shock.

"Not just that... 8 star-sky heavy thrusters. Counting this, it's at least four starships..." Li Su, who was beside him, also muttered.

"Can such a big thing fly?"

"The core support is the torso of the S-class Gray Mist. As long as the main structure doesn't have problems at this scale, it should..." Kiki said with a surprised expression at this moment: "be able to..."

"After all, it's a joint effort of Dawn City and the Deep Red World, and the whole thing is built for flight. The goal is only one: to send this thing up to the Sky Curtain."

Lin Xian figured out why Dawn City was building starships with all its might; it turned out that a large part of the components were used here. This had some essential differences from the Phoenix Society's Emperor Project. Strictly speaking, the manufacturing difficulty of the Emperor Project should be higher, while this one mainly utilized the Deep Red World's brain-machine combination suppressor technology, and then put on a layer of starship thrusters and armor. If it were just manufacturing an ultra-large mech, humanity couldn't build such a large-scale support structure with current materials; at least on Blue Star, it wouldn't work under gravity constraints.

The engineering elevator descended to a platform. This was located at the chest armor of the Gray Mist, which was the position of the nuclear power engine. The entire floor seemed to have been converted into an engineering research institute. When Lin Xian and the others stepped into the interior of this research institute, they were shocked to find that the floor was full of dead researchers and various engineers.

Zhou Lei used his foot to flip over the nearest corpse and frowned: "Just died, right before we came down."

Chu Yan scanned the research institute passage and went in with Lin Xian and the others, discovering that every office, laboratory, and command center was full of corpses precisely killed by drones, numbering over a hundred. Among them, some were the kind of clones Lin Xian had seen in Baicheng before, and a small portion were ordinary people.

"They were all silenced," Chu Yan said.

"Silenced? Why?" Lin Xian said immediately.

As soon as he finished speaking, a slightly magnetic voice suddenly rang out from the command center's announcer.

"Because the sacred mission has been completed, they will all be reborn."

"Julius!" Hearing this voice, Chu Yan said immediately: "He really is here!"

Ssh~

At this moment, ahead in the passage, a main control door slowly opened. Everyone looked toward it vigilantly, only to find that inside was a huge white hall. A group of people walked to the door and found that the scene inside suddenly opened up. On the floor of the entire hall, countless cylindrical devices were arranged neatly. The transparent chambers were filled with light green liquid, and a human body was standing and floating inside each chamber.

And the most eerie thing was that these human bodies were all the same person!

In the center of the hall, a white desk was placed. A middle-aged white man in a suit was elegantly enjoying the red wine and a plate of steak on the table in front of him.

Besides this, there was no one else in the entire hall.

"Oh, oh, oh, it's truly rare. Chu Yan, Lin Xian, the two ability users I most want to study appear before me at the same time. It seems today must be my lucky day."

The middle-aged white man before them was none other than Julius Lite, whom Lin Xian had seen in his dreams and at the Bai Lutan Space Observation Station. And those transparent experimental chambers were also all him!

"Julius, we meet again," Chu Yan said first, her expression cold.

Julius put down his knife and fork, picked up his red wine glass, and took a sip. Then he frowned slightly and said to Chu Yan.

"In fact, this is our first time meeting, you know, based on 'individual life'."

Hearing this, Kiki, who was beside Lin Xian, spoke in a low voice: "So many clones, which one is the real him?"

"Damn it, there are at least hundreds!" Zhou Lei looked around; everywhere were such transparent experimental chambers, and everyone inside was exactly the same, as if they were copies.

Julius seemed very satisfied with Lin Xian and the others' reaction. At this moment, he picked up a napkin, wiped his mouth, and said to Lin Xian and Chu Yan with a smile.

"You should know, from the information obtained so far, S-class creatures, oh, or creatures that reach this disaster level, are the existences truly born from the darkness. And communicating with the darkness is actually humanity's first dialogue with a civilization outside of Blue Star. This..." Julius shrugged and smiled slightly: "is quite wonderful."

"Of course, it's also quite dangerous."

He said, scanning a patch of his clones: "The connection of half an action brain caused me to lose 145 assets at once. This was just half an action brain. My god, what kind of vitality is this."

Zhou Lei's team all raised their guns at Julius at this time: "Chu Yan, what's the plan?"

Chu Yan shook her head at this moment: "He deliberately killed all the experimental personnel just so we would know that only one Julius here has the information we want."

Lin Xian also pondered: "He's waiting for us."

"Don't be nervous, my friends. I know the purpose of your coming. We are in a cooperative relationship with Dawn City now, and the Vanguard Project is about to take off. Even Ms. Ye Lan of the Phoenix Society must have instructed you not to disrupt this operation, right?"

"What do you want?" Chu Yan asked indifferently.

Julius smiled slightly: "I admire you, Miss Chu Yan. You are very smart. Mental-type ability, can survive in the Star Abyss. For the new century life, you are undoubtedly the most perfect one."

After he finished speaking, he looked at Lin Xian again: "And you, Mr. Lin Xian, mechanical ability, can replicate human industrial civilization. From a human perspective, you are also the most perfect ability user."

Lin Xian frowned: "You want me and Chu Yan to be taken to you for study?"

Julius looked at Lin Xian with a scrutinizing gaze and said: "That is indeed a good idea, but right now, what I want most is not this. Oh, not for the time being."

"Then what do you want?"

"What I want is very simple: the Heart of the Galaxy!" Julius said to Chu Yan and the others: "Or rather, the city-wide hub."

Lin Xian looked at Julius in confusion: "Your cooperation with Dawn City is just for a brain?"

"No! No! No!"

Julius smiled inexplicably upon hearing this. He looked at Lin Xian and said quite interestingly: "Mr. Lin, you wouldn't think that we did all this just to seize Dawn City, control the mechanical rebellion, and then catch all the survivors in the city as experimental subjects to carry out some evil plan from some movie you've seen, right?"

"Have you caught few enough?" Lin Xian responded coldly.

"It seems you have a deep misunderstanding of us." Julius pointed at Lin Xian: "If that were the case, what would be the point of our cooperation with Dawn City, and what benefits could Chu Zhaonan give us? Anyway, Dawn City will be swallowed up before long. Does it matter to us if it's a day earlier or a day later?"

He said, looking at Lin Xian subtly: "Mr. Lin, you must understand, time is on my side, not yours."

"Why would you think we would hand the Heart of the Galaxy over to you?" Lin Xian asked back.

Julius raised his finger and walked over slowly: "Because I have the information you want—about the darkness, about the apocalypse, about how long the tens of millions of humans abandoned by Chu Zhaonan can survive, about a chance to choose. Am I right?"

"Actually, this information isn't that valuable to me. I just need to confirm that Chu Zhaonan didn't tamper with the Heart of the Galaxy. After I use Deep Red No. 3 to overwrite the Heart of the Galaxy, I can tell you this information immediately. Oh, by the way, you can turn the weapons completely offline before that. Anyway, it's about to be dawn, and you will also withdraw from Dawn City. A city about to be swallowed by the Polar Night doesn't mean much to you, right?"

Lin Xian's expression changed upon hearing this.

As if anticipating Lin Xian's reaction, Julius smiled slightly: "Surprised? I don't want to take over the weapon system, nor do I care about your resistance. To some extent, I even hope the Vanguard Project succeeds."

He said, snapping his fingers. With a swish, the entire wall of the hall behind him began to open, and a transparent curtain appeared. Outside, facing that Gray Mist colonization suit, frost was constantly falling on the energy pipelines of the 8 star-sky heavy plasma thrusters.

"Look, what a wonderful new century life form. We call it an 'Angel'. Imagine, if humans all developed and reproduced in this life form, possessing this kind of vitality and destructive power, while also having wisdom, then this could completely allow our civilization to leap to a brand-new era rapidly. Under this power, interstellar colonization and civilization wars, wouldn't they be much easier?"

Julius turned around and checked the time: "There are 10 minutes left until launch. We can wait here for the launch of the Vanguard Project, and then you can get the information you want. Or, after you know, you can kill me with one shot, and I will gladly accept it."

Lin Xian frowned: "It's that simple?"

"It's that simple." Julius smiled: "I don't care about death. Death is not the end. How many times has history told the world that civilization is reborn in destruction? Chu Zhaonan's Vanguard Project is just for fugitives, while we, the Deep Red World, represent the true future of humanity. However... you probably won't see this day. Hehe, what a pity."

"Oh." Lin Xian nodded upon hearing this, seemingly thoughtful, and muttered: "So you spent all your efforts to cooperate with Dawn City on the Vanguard Project, and the final goal was just for an empty city and a brain, and then you didn't even want weapon authority, just so we could resist the anomaly tide and complete the withdrawal?"

Julius remained silent, while Chu Yan looked at Lin Xian.

"Let me think. I don't know if you're too stupid or I'm too smart. The Star Abyss is moving, and you don't have the technology to solve the dark invasion. So if Dawn City is swallowed, you will die too. But you want a Heart of the Galaxy. If the weapon system is stripped away, what's left? Hmm, city-wide monitoring, sensors, traffic, ecology, water sources, air. Oh, right... and underground rail and strategic works authority."

Julius frowned slowly, and his face began to turn cold.

Lin Xian continued: "Last night the Polar Night erupted, and millions of survivors in the outer city abandoned their vehicles and entered the city. Strangely, a large number of convoy vehicles were destroyed in the city last night. Where can they go after dawn? Oh, they can't go anywhere. But at this time, what if Dawn City's underground rail system and works passages were all opened?"

Julius's expression was gloomy.

Other team members couldn't help but frown when they heard this.

Lin Xian looked at Julius with a cold sneer: "You don't want nothing; on the contrary, you want everything. When the whole city is besieged and the darkness comes, you can use Dawn City's city-wide system to conduct a comprehensive, clear, and planned large-scale study. And the content of this study is to observe how millions of people mutate and how they awaken abilities. What you want is to restart in Dawn City..."

"The Apocalypse Day disaster!"

(End of chapter)