Chapter 542: Is It Too Smooth?

(This universe incorporates some of the author's personal opinions and secondary settings, after all it's been a long time since I revisited it.)

A single giant could raze a city.

This is the Lighthouse citizens' most straightforward assessment of Sui Yue.

One should know that the Salifu brothers, who allied with Seng to form the rebels, might not be as individually elite as the Hunt Raiders, but Seng also exploited Victor's absence and, as captain, mobilized several Heavy Exosuits and electromagnetic rifles.

Nevertheless, even so, Sui Yue, wielding a double‑edged wrist blade, a telescopic spear, and a boomerang, could not be stopped.

It began as a "marching song," until Sui Yue leapt down from the Upperfolk's residential district into the rebel column marching toward the central plaza, and then…

what followed was, in the physical sense, a "storm of blood and gore" and a "dance of limbs."

Without a plasma cannon, Sui Yue was like a tiger charging into a flock of sheep; no one could capture the movements or trajectory of this Astate.

As the rebels' strongest force, the Salifu brothers could not hold even a single formation before being torn limb from limb.

The Heavy Exosuit's large‑caliber machine gun and electromagnetic rifle, even if they luckily struck Sui Yue, could not pierce his skin; at most the rifle left a few scorch marks.

One minute…

In less than a minute, the rebels were completely annihilated by Sui Yue alone.

This led the Lighthouse citizens to conclude that, if Sui Yue wanted, he could raze a city single‑handedly.

Moreover, there was another Sui Yang who never appeared but also acted.

The absolute martial deterrence of two Astate recruits.

Combined with Mark and the popular support of the Hunt Raiders, the Lighthouse situation stabilized within twelve hours.

After the turmoil caused by the rebellion passed, time quietly arrived at dawn.

The Hunt Raiders and City Defense Forces still conducted basic training, while the Dustfolk continued to perform the hardest, dirtiest, and least skilled labor.

The Law Clerics of the Upperfolk were almost entirely killed in the dawn pacification, with only a handful surviving because they had not joined the revolt and were transferred into the City Defense Forces.

For a time, without the trusted belief in the Lord of Light and Shadow, the people felt uneasy and lost, for in a post‑apocalyptic world, belief means hope.

However, when some Dustfolk porters who had gone out with the Hunt Raiders to gather supplies and returned alive instantly shifted their faith in the Lord of Light and Shadow onto the two Astates, Sui Yang and Sui Yue, the religious issue was perfectly resolved.

After all, an Astate's three‑meter height, robust physique, capricious temperament, and other traits fit the image of a walking "deity"!

Thus, when the Light and Shadow Church was disbanded, Sui Yang and Sui Yue instead became the new "Lord of Light and Shadow."

Yet the two Astate recruits, for the sake of stability, did not rush to deal with this heretical act; they would wait for the combat sisters to arrive and then promote another round of "Human Truth."

Mark and Jing Nan also learned many secrets about the Lighthouse and the surface from Mo Gen.

First, the Lighthouse's core houses a bio‑computer that looks like a human brain, only far larger and equipped with numerous tentacles.

According to Mo Gen, the Lighthouse was originally an airborne prison, merely a cover used by the old super‑state, and the many prisoners were only there for experiments.

And this cutting‑edge product of the old society, called the Clooto System, theoretically could use massive data and various calculations, probabilities and possibilities to "predict the future."

But the Clooto System, when placed before Sui Yang and Sui Yue, is nothing but a chicken rib.

It's not called trash because they both think it still holds some research value.

One should know that the Red Queen and White Queen, who lecture the recruits each week, possess computational abilities unimaginable and incomparable to the Clooto System.

Thus, after accepting Sui Yang's proposal, Mark ordered Jing Nan to take full charge of the Clooto System and abandon the so‑called "future prediction," instead using it to help the Lighthouse analyze surface conditions and locate abundant resources.

Dr. Jia Li, who heads medical research, hoped to obtain Astate blood and tissue samples, but as soon as she spoke, Sui Yang bluntly refused.

Sui Yue added, "If you can use that little broken knife of yours to cut the skin of me and my brother, then you have permission to study our blood and tissue."

Naturally, Dr. Jia Li returned to the lab empty‑handed; she isn't a plague doctor, so how could a scalpel cut the Astate's tough skin?

It isn't Sui Yue's arrogance; rather, the Lighthouse's twisted, malformed system truly displeased this straight‑laced quasi‑reserve.

If his brother hadn't considered that taking over the Lighthouse might be his father's trial, Sui Yue would have long ago abandoned his compatriots and gone to the surface to slaughter Devouring Beasts into mush.

Furthermore, Mo Gen leaked to Mark and Jing Nan that the Lighthouse had made contact with solitary surface forces for twelve years.

Back then, Mo Gen was still the Hunt Raiders' captain, and while searching for supplies he was besieged by a swarm of Devouring Beasts, suffering heavy casualties.

At that critical moment for the Hunt Raiders' survival, a female test subject modified by an old‑society corporation, piloting a bio‑armor, turned the tide, slicing to pieces all the Devouring Beasts that surrounded the team.

When Mo Gen invited her back to the Lighthouse, the female test subject surprisingly suggested "adaptive evolution and return to the surface."

She called the source of the surface's Devouring Beast pollution the "Mana Ecology."

Human bodies are merely shells; the life‑source food the Devouring Beasts require is actually human souls, emotions and feelings.

To return to the surface, humanity must learn to adapt to the Mana Ecology and evolve within it.

Yet this proposal was seen by Mo Gen and the Lighthouse leadership as utterly insane and incomprehensible; the two parties partied on bad terms, and the female test subject seized the chance to flee the Lighthouse's control, leaving behind the bio‑armor and…

a baby.

Subsequently, a research team led by Jia Li launched the "Abyssal Project", reverse‑engineering the bio‑armor, but suffered severe backlash, losing many outstanding researchers.

As a result, the Lighthouse had to seal away the Abyssal Project.

Fortunately, data from the experiments enabled the Lighthouse Engineering Department to develop a series of Mechanical exoskeletons, ultimately finalizing the Heavy Exosuits and derivative models now in use.

After becoming City Lord, Mo Gen immediately issued the Lighthouse's Three Great Laws, targeting the Devouring Beasts' preference for human emotions, feelings and souls.

The laws erased old‑society family ties and free love, aiming to reduce the chance of the Lighthouse being discovered by Devouring Beasts and the Mana Ecology.

Mo Gen's management measures indeed made the Lighthouse orderly; the distinction between Dustfolk and Upperfolk created a pathological yet benign cyclical pattern.

However, humans are a species of both emotion and reason; when one is deliberately suppressed, it backfires, and once a tipping point is reached it erupts.

How could humanity ever abandon emotions and feelings?

As for the baby's identity, it is Mark.

Although Mo Gen did not know the female test subject's purpose, he still handed infant Mark to Hong Kou, a standout of the younger generation and an excellent female Hunt Raider, to raise him.

"Unfortunately," Hong Kou, after becoming Hunt Raiders captain, entered an old‑society romantic relationship with her deputy, Po Xiao.

To preserve the authority of the Three Great Laws, Mo Gen "had to" personally order the execution of Hong Kou and Po Xiao.

The person closest to Mark was Hong Kou, now regarded as his "older sister," and the hero he most admired was Po Xiao, his "brother‑in‑law."

Upon learning this, Sui Yang, also learning that Cha Er Si was Mo Gen's biological son and that Mo Gen had already decided to pass the City Lord title to Mark, concluded that even without his and Sui Yue's intervention, the Lighthouse would still face unrest or a coup.

Yes.

Mo Gen sacrificed a lot for the Lighthouse, but sowed even greater trouble; past decisions pleased neither side.

Cha Er Si needs no further introduction; he coveted the city‑master position and, because of the Three Great Laws and Mo Gen's deliberate distancing, harbored resentment.

Ma Ke still bears a grudge over Mo Gen's execution of Hong Kou and Po Xiao, and he is a straight‑laced man who focuses solely on the hunting‑wasteland mission.

If Ma Ke were as eager as Cha Er Si to obtain the city‑master seat, Mo Gen's authority would have long been stripped away.

Upon learning that his identity was a mystery, Ma Ke and Jing Nan showed no excessive surprise.

To be frank, whenever Ma Ke is wounded he recovers after half a day or a day of rest, a fact evident to everyone at the Lighthouse, Ma Ke himself included.

Now that Mo Gen has pointed it out, Ma Ke and Jing Nan feel more relieved.

As for Sui Yang.

After clarifying Earth's true situation, they immediately prepared to search for that female test subject, but before launching the search, the Lighthouse requires an aerial transport force.

Ground trucks, off‑road and armored vehicles, and a few simple gliders are insufficient to support the hunters in multiple collection missions.

With the aid of the Keluoto system, they quickly pinpointed the nearest location, about three hundred kilometers due north—a former great nation's military base.

Although more than half a century has passed since the apocalypse began, the Keluoto system estimates a 67% chance that the base's warehouses remain intact.

That alone makes it worth the hunters' risk.

Target locked.

Led by Jing Nan, the control team piloted the Lighthouse as far north as possible, traveling 260 kilometers and keeping a fifty‑kilometer gap from the base.

Mainly to avoid disturbing the Mana ecology and attracting the attention of king‑level devouring beasts.

Since the weather was fine and no emergencies arose, the hunter squad did not deploy an airborne convoy; instead, a lift platform transferred the convoy to the ground.

This time the leader was no longer city‑master Ma Ke; instead, the respected Ai Long took command, Ran Bing remained as deputy, and elite hunters such as Ai Li Ka and Jie Fu numbered over sixty, with about 230 civilian laborers.

As for the prosthetic‑armed Mo Cheng and sniper Fei Xue, they have already been reassigned from the hunters and will assume the city‑defense army's supreme commander and captain roles.

Sui Yang will stay at the Lighthouse to "assist" Ma Ke and the various hunter factions, continuing to solidify control over the Lighthouse.

Walking alongside this three‑hundred‑person team is Sui Yue, equipped with a 100mm plasma cannon.

It is worth noting that, even though the Lighthouse experienced conflict, a coup, and a suppression, the execution of 4068 proceeded as scheduled.

For such resentful, self‑important scum who plunge the team into crisis, they must be burned away by fire to quell everyone's anger.

Soon after Sui Yue, Ai Long, and Ran Bing's hunter team departed toward the base, the veteran hunters who covertly surveilled the continent also returned to the Lighthouse according to their coordinates.

This group, averaging over forty‑five years old, includes the "old bones" such as Xue Feng, Ha Ji, and Kun Jie who once followed Hong Kou and Po Xiao; seeing Ma Ke directly assume the city‑master role, they couldn't help but weep with joy.

In fact, without Sui Yang and Sui Yue's intervention, these veteran hunters might have staged a "golden‑robe coup", seizing power and handing the city‑master seat to Ma Ke.

Now they need not strain themselves, but the Lighthouse's military leadership is severely lacking, making these old bones the most suitable candidates.

———————

…

Soon after.

A desert fifty kilometers from the Lighthouse.

A hunter convoy of over twenty assorted ground vehicles sped forward, raising clouds of sand.

The scorching sun shone brightly.

The view was wide open.

That proved advantageous for the hunting mission.

As the convoy pressed on and entered an abandoned town, the surrounding environment grew increasingly…

Eerie.

Inside some ruined structures, luminous flowers floated mid‑air, resembling gigantic egg cells with roots extending deep beneath the surface.

At first glance they were extraordinarily beautiful, but upon closer inspection their outer skins writhed with countless tentacles.

These are the basic components of the Mana ecology: Mana flowers.

After entering the town, the convoy slowed to avoid disturbing the Mana flowers.

Before long,

the convoy arrived at the outer perimeter of a long‑abandoned military base, its barbed wire torn and ragged.

They rammed open the barbed wire.

The convoy drove along the cracked runway, and using the precise coordinates supplied by the Keluoto system, reached a gated, sealed hangar.

All vehicles parked in sequence.

Everyone disembarked.

Ai Long, Ran Bing and their hunters had just readied their guns when Sui Yue briskly moved through the crowd, slung the plasma cannon over his back, and walked straight to the rust‑stained door.

The Astate recruit freed both hands, then forced all ten fingers into the door crack, and then…

"Squeak… creak…~!"

Accompanied by a harsh metallic scrape, the gate stubbornly yielded to Sui Yue's brute force.

Seeing this, aside from a few hunters and civilian laborers, everyone else—including Ai Long, Ran Bing, and the heavy‑vehicle pilots Ai Li Ka and Jie Fu—was unsurprised.

They entered.

They switched on the bright lights of the heavy vehicle and armored car.

Inside the hangar stood, quietly, an old‑society battle tank and armored personnel carrier draped in gray dust covers and transparent shields, along with four vertical‑takeoff jet transport aircraft.

"Wow! This haul is huge! Is it too smooth?!" exclaimed Ai Li Ka, eyes shining as she lifted her helmet.

"Roar—~!!"

But while her voice echoed inside the hangar, a deafening roar already sounded outside.

(End of chapter)