Chapter 471: The Price

Hoke is an experienced Elite security guard.

His combat squad serves dozens of super-large corporations simultaneously.

In the Kali Civilization, super-large corporations are almost equivalent to official institutions, penetrating every aspect of the Kali Civilization and possessing immense authority.

Being able to serve a super-large corporation is the lifelong dream of most people in the Kali Civilization.

Hoke cherishes this opportunity very much and has always put forth one hundred percent effort within the security team.

A week ago, Hoke's efforts finally paid off; the supervisor spoke with him privately and promised that at the next assessment, he could be promoted by one rank, removing the "Deputy" from Deputy Captain.

Hoke was very excited, until he received the mission to head to Dunke City.

This mission seemed like a simple task of going to an Apartment in the local city to bring one person back.

But Hoke did not expect that just as he and his team members entered this city, a riot would break out.

Furthermore, the riot spread rapidly throughout the city, causing various institutions and equipment that maintain Order to fall into paralysis.

After witnessing the root of the riot and discovering that it was actually aberrant monsters.

Hoke and his team members had already lost the courage to continue the mission and only wanted to flee this city.

However, they soon received a message from above that left them in despair.

Dunke City has been blockaded, and the intelligent system will destroy all vehicles and living organisms that attempt to leave without authorization.

The only way for Hoke and his people to leave this city is to complete the mission.

And pray that the target is indeed worth the researchers' attention, so that they might make an exception and send a transport plane to pick them up.

After the supervisor offered a word of comfort: "Rest assured, the doubled pension will definitely be given to the beneficiaries," and cut off the communication.

Hoke and his team could only choose to grasp at that possible straw of hope, charging all the way until they arrived at the Apartment building where the target person, Kafute, lived.

Hoke and his team started with nine people, divided into three combat squads.

But by the time they reached the Apartment entrance, only Hoke and a new security recruit following closely behind him remained.

The others were either separated while fleeing and lost communication, or after coming into contact with those aberrant monsters, they themselves began to aberrate and become one of the monsters shortly after killing those monsters.

It was precisely after seeing such a situation that Hoke, facing the pursuit of the aberrant monsters, firmly chose never to fight back and only to run!

This Apartment is nineteen stories high, and one can hear the hissing or wailing emitted by those aberrant monsters inside the building.

Fortunately, however, they should all be in their rooms; Hoke and the other person, who did not dare take the elevator and chose to climb the stairs, did not encounter any aberrant monsters blocking the way along the way.

However, after arriving at the target floor, Hoke and the other person walked around the corridor once.

They discovered that they actually could not find the Apartment of the target person, Kafute!

"Is the data wrong?"

"This isn't right!"

Hoke muttered to himself and looked at the data on his helmet display; he requested communication.

However, a large red cross appeared on the screen.

This made Hoke's face darken, and then, unwilling to give up, he and the new recruit checked room by room once more.

They discovered that there truly was no Apartment marked in the data.

It was as if... there simply was no such Apartment on this floor.

Hoke thought it might be a layout issue and opened the two Apartment rooms with numbers close to that Apartment.

The result, however, was that both were empty inside.

One appeared to be lived in by a woman alone, and the other was empty and bare; one could tell at a glance that no one had lived there for a long time.

The data for these two rooms did match the information.

The data wasn't wrong?

No, the data wasn't wrong, so where was the target Apartment sandwiched between these two Apartments?

Hoke retreated from the empty room, realizing that the matter was not simple.

He thought for a moment and went to the floor below with the new recruit, wanting to see if he could discern anything from the layout.

However, just after going down one floor, Hoke discovered something was wrong.

Weren't they supposed to be on the floor below?

Why did the mark he left on the floor above appear on this floor as well?

Hoke swallowed hard, quickly walked toward the nearest door, and after seeing the number on the door.

He confirmed that this was indeed the room number of the floor he had just left.

"This..."

Hoke opened his mouth, wanting to say something, when he suddenly noticed more anomalies.

It seemed that from the moment he went downstairs, it had become quiet by his ears.

The clamor of the aberrant monsters that should have been coming from inside and outside the Apartment building.

Had suddenly gone quiet?

Hoke's mouth twitched; he quietly pulled out a small knife, walked to the open side of the corridor, and let the knife fall vertically.

Then, Hoke saw the knife suddenly disappear from his field of vision after falling a certain distance.

At the same time, after waiting for a while, he did not hear the sound of a heavy object hitting the ground.

This confirmed to Hoke that they had indeed encountered an anomalous situation that one only encounters in science fiction novels.

"Is the world really about to change?"

"Has the content from this kind of science fiction or horror novel actually appeared?"

"Calm down, must stay calm."

Hoke's quality was still not bad; facing a situation he could not understand.

He still insisted on thinking calmly and even took the time to comfort the new recruit's mental state.

However, Hoke soon discovered that it wasn't just as simple as being unable to walk out of this bizarre corridor or find the target Apartment.

Hoke discovered that as time passed, his body also began to develop deformed lumps of flesh.

Moreover, unbearable stinging pain also began to torture his will.

About half an hour later.

He did not remember how many circles he had turned, whether it was opening every door, constantly going up and down the stairs, or taking out weapons to strafe the ceiling or floor.

After Hoke and the others had tried everything, they could hardly endure the deformation.

The newcomer moved his mouth, looking at the lump of flesh on his neck that was growing larger.

He gritted his teeth and raised his weapon, aiming it at his own neck.

Hoke stopped the other person, but he hoped the other person could help him find release first.

"Please, kid."

"Give me a hand, cough, cough, cough..."

Hoke lay half-reclined on the ground, and with no strength left in his body, he looked at the newcomer and gave a bitter smile.

The newcomer was silent for a moment, then nodded and turned the muzzle of his gun toward Hoke.

Just as he was about to pull the trigger.

A door emitting a soft white light suddenly opened in front of the two of them.

Under the soft light, the lumps of flesh on Hoke and the newcomer began to visibly wither and shrink.

Hoke saw the number on the door clearly.

It was exactly the Apartment number of the target person.

Click!

A crisp sound rang out, and the door slowly opened, revealing the hall inside emitting white light.

"Come in."

A gentle voice sounded.

Hoke and the newcomer dared not think too much, and hurriedly bent their waists somewhat shyly as they walked into the room.

After both of them entered, the door immediately closed automatically.

Outside the door, the door disappeared, and everything returned to its original state.

Inside the room, upon entering, they saw a scene of a circle of people hanging their heads and sitting in a circle without saying a word.

Hoke was startled, his first thought being that he had entered a place where a cult was holding a ritual.

It was just that he quickly felt that if this cult really had the ability, and believing in it could save one's life... it seemed not entirely unacceptable.

Just as he was thinking this, a "sit down" made Hoke and the newcomer look up and see Kafute sitting on the sofa.

Looking at Kafute, who was exactly the same as in the files.

Hoke gave a bitter smile and hurriedly sat down next to the other person.

Kafute smiled and asked for the communication device from the other person's hand.

And then, as Kafute operated the device.

Hoke widened his eyes to find that the device, which had previously shown a red cross, was actually operating perfectly.

Soon, a projection emerged, and a supervisor with a tall, sturdy, middle-aged man's appearance appeared on the screen.

And he soon noticed Hoke and Kafute.

"This must be Mr. Kafute, right?"

The supervisor naturally recognized the target person as well.

Although he was a bit confused as to why it looked like the other person was in charge instead of Hoke, he still maintained basic politeness.

However, he soon lost his composure.

This Kafute actually claimed to be a messenger who had received the favor of a True God.

This time, he was using Hoke's channel to warn the Kali Civilization about some things.

The first is that the high-level officials of the Kali Civilization were more or less aware that the source of the pollution came from the Gray Gold dug up from the depths.

The second is the problem of the Gray Gold; the Kali Civilization could not solve it on their own, as their level of technology did not yet have this capability.

The only way to survive is to isolate, blockade, and reduce movement as much as possible.

To live as long as possible, until the day the True God descends to redeem the Kali Civilization arrives.

"..."

The supervisor felt he was listening to a poorly produced science fiction story.

However, as the supervisor connected to the network, he also saw all the records of Hoke and the newcomer's journey.

Halfway through fast-forwarding, this supervisor could no longer hold it together.

Realizing that Kafute was not just crazy and babbling nonsense.

He clearly had the real thing in his hands.

Thinking back to the missing sister of Kafute.

This supervisor had already guessed the truth.

The supervisor chose to report it.

Involving the possibility of the transcendent, it wasn't long before the person who contacted Kafute again became a high-level representative of the Kali Civilization.

This representative wanted to ask some questions in detail.

It was just that the Su Ping Avatar had no patience; after repeating the precautions once and stating that he had no ability to continue saving people.

He returned the communication device to Hoke and left him and the newcomer alone in a small room to be interrogated.

As for the Su Ping Avatar himself, he continued to go back to studying the excellent culture of the Kali Civilization.

Great scientists live long lives, and great artists live long lives as well.

This has indeed resulted in quite a lot of excellent culture.

And among the upper echelons of the Kali Civilization, through their interrogation of Hoke and analysis of the records,

they confirmed that Kafute possessed some kind of mysterious ability.

Not only could he disrupt space, but he could also keep the early stages of aberration under a certain degree of control.

As for the divine favor he mentioned and the True God who would descend before long,

the upper echelons of the Kali Civilization chose to cautiously believe it.

They dispatched more squads, wanting to capture Kafute and learn more secrets.

However, the situation on the ground was getting worse and worse as the number of aberration monsters increased.

Even wearing the best protective suits, aberrations would begin to appear upon entering the skies above the cities.

Under such high-concentration radiation, even intelligent machines malfunctioned, often losing the ability to operate after working for only a short time.

Furthermore, as time passed, the thing the upper echelons of the Kali Civilization feared still happened.

More and more cities began to experience the same situation.

Even in space stations in outer space and in bases on the Moon Surface,

people began to show early symptoms, causing panic.

It was also from this moment on, with the tacit approval of the upper echelons of the Kali Civilization,

that rumors involving salvation by the True God began to circulate on the internet.

While giving the people of the Kali Civilization Hope, it also publicized various little methods for how to survive longer.

People in places where outbreaks had not yet occurred began to store supplies, and then one after another, they chose to live alone.

Because in the warnings, the most important thing was that the fewer people there were around, the slower the radiation would accumulate.

At the same time, the upper echelons of the Kali Civilization did not give up on other methods.

Researchers who did not fear sacrifice braved the risk of aberration to conduct experiment after experiment.

Cocktail therapy, chemotherapy, genetic agents, and even rapid whole-body freezing...

They hoped to find a path to a cure by relying on their own methods.

However, either there was no effect, or the effect was indeed good—the subject stopped aberrating—but the subject also truly died.

Hoke was also under great pressure because of this.

The upper echelons of the Kali Civilization kept demanding that he find Kafute to come and negotiate.

For this, the think tanks even prepared a massive amount of data.

But Hoke could only express his helplessness regarding this.

After he and the newcomer were locked in this room, they could never get out again, let alone contact Kafute.

Under the coercion and inducements of the upper echelons of the Kali Civilization, Hoke and the other person also exhausted every method.

As a result, whether it was the door, the walls, or the windows,

they could not damage them in the slightest, nor could they even make the slightest sound to attract Kafute's attention.

They were as if trapped in an independent space.

This also turned everything the upper echelons of the Kali Civilization had prepared into waste paper.

For this reason, the upper echelons of the Kali Civilization even used missiles to carry out rhythmic bombing in front of the Apartment building.

It was just that not only was it useless, but they also dared not cut off the internet, water, and electricity here, for fear of cutting off this lead to Hoke.

Three days later.

Aberration reactions had appeared throughout the entire civilization circle of the Kali Civilization; there was almost no Jingtu left.

When most people were bitterly waiting for a miracle to happen,

the room where Hoke and the other person were was finally opened.

After the two widened their eyes and saw Kafute, they both wept with joy.

Although it had only been a few days, constantly facing the pressure from the upper echelons of the Kali Civilization, they were truly under immense pressure!

The Su Ping Avatar met with the upper echelons of the Kali Civilization again.

There were over twenty high-ranking officials present at the meeting, basically representing every department of the entire civilization that still had the ability to act.

The Su Ping Avatar could see that these high-ranking officials were all staying in independent compartments.

And two-thirds of them already showed symptoms of early-stage aberration.

The Su Ping Avatar smiled faintly.

After scanning these high-ranking officials of the Kali Civilization, he said indifferently:

"Your Kali Civilization is quite lucky."

"Before the civilization shattered, your existence was noticed by us."

"Release the news."

"Hmm... in about an hour, the True God will descend with the fleet under his command."

"The contamination on your bodies will all receive salvation."

Hearing this, the high-ranking officials of the Kali Civilization all showed expressions of shock.

Because hearing a specific time undoubtedly increased the credibility significantly.

And because there was a fleet, the high-ranking officials began to think of the most likely explanation provided by the experts:

Kafute did not encounter a god, but rather an alien civilization with a higher level of technological civilization.

Consequently, a representative of the high-ranking officials hesitated for a moment and asked:

"Then, Mr. Kafute..."

"May I ask, what is the price for saving our Kali Civilization?"