Chapter 838: 435 The Change Begins

"Hurry, hurry, hurry! The leader has left the council chamber!"

Just as Leon dragged Joshua out of the council hall and forcibly shoved him into the carriage, on a bell tower several streets away, a middle-aged man with a slightly stout build lowered his telescope and turned around, anxious:

"Are you all ready? How's the situation inside the Wang Gong?"

"Almost there."

Hearing the man's question, a bald woman beside him replied:

"Although the director of the Virgin Branch has entered the Dream Realm, she left two anomalous objects inside the Wang Gong. Lu Ke can't pass her threshold—we still need the leader to arrive and find a way to get him inside."

"What about the others? How are the rest prepared?"

"I and Phoebe are ready."

A woman with aged features but youthful eyes answered:

"Last night we infiltrated the barracks, wiped part of the messenger's memories at the military academy, and implanted a false set of flag codes."

"Now, no matter how much the Wang Gong begs for reinforcements, the messenger at the barracks will treat every distress signal as a safety report. Before the commotion spreads, no one from the barracks will come to help."

"Tiger is ready too."

At that moment, a man nearby, also holding a telescope, reported with excited expression:

"The Laoser Arcade is on fire. The Police Department and other patrols have all been drawn there by Tiger's fires. Even if they realize something's wrong at the Wang Gong, they won't reach it in time."

"We're set too. Old Owen hired several carriages and has them waiting along the main road. The moment we move, they'll crash into each other."

"I'm good too! We've seized control of several climate towers. There are no other observation points nearby—those stationed beyond the capital won't detect any anomaly!"

"Me too! We've set up ambushes along Redwood Street. If any noble private troops move out, we can…"

"I'm ready too! If anyone tries to evacuate from the Wang Gong, we can…"

Are we all set?

After checking the area around the Wang Gong through his telescope and confirming no obvious flaws, the stout middle-aged man let out a long breath.

"Since everyone's ready, send the signal—get everyone prepared!"

"The leader is heading toward the Wang Gong now. He should arrive in a few minutes. Once he gets Lu Ke inside and secures the Princess's safety, we launch the assault on the Wang Gong!"

"And keep a tight watch on your assigned tasks. This is the final stretch—don't mess up now!"

Raising his telescope again, the stout man stared at the carriage approaching the Wang Gong several streets away, his face flushed with excitement:

"All the opposition senators in the Shangyi Academy have been captured. If nothing goes wrong here, once we break into the Wang Gong, our decades-long dream will…"

"Snap!"

Mid-sentence, a palm suddenly shot out, striking him hard across the face, then snatching the telescope away.

"Ow! What the hell are you doing?!"

"The Wang Gong! Look at the Wang Gong!"

The Wang Gong? Did the people inside discover us?

Hearing his companion's panicked cry, the stout man's heart turned cold. He whirled around instantly.

Yet the Wang Gong under the sunlight remained as still as ever—no armed soldiers stormed out, no one emerged to cry for help.

Aside from the usual patrol guards and a few gardeners working on the lawn, everything was exactly as it had been moments before, unchanged in the slightest.

"What's wrong?"

After checking twice and seeing nothing amiss, the stout man's face showed confusion—but among the rebels on the bell tower, others had noticed something. Gasps of shock echoed one after another.

"What the hell is going on?!"

"Is someone else planning to attack the Wang Gong?"

"Something's about to happen!"

"What's happening? What's wrong with the Wang Gong? Where's the problem?!"

Seeing the stout man still didn't understand, the bald woman who had slapped him stomped her foot, eyes filled with panic:

"People! Look at the people!"

People?

At her reminder, the stout man froze, then squinted sharply toward the Wang Gong—and like the others, he sucked in a sharp breath.

From afar, it hadn't been noticeable, but now, peering closely, every patrol guard and every gardener on the lawn shimmered with an odd metallic sheen.

▲▲￠o

And beyond the strange sheen, the guards and gardeners moved strangely—as if their complex joints had been simplified by some unnatural force, their limbs now mechanical, stiff, looking like…

Like living tin dolls!

Finally realizing what was wrong, the stout man snatched his telescope back and aimed it toward the Wang Gong.

Through the lens, the people who had just been flesh and blood had truly become tin dolls—their human eyes replaced by pairs of colored glass beads.

On their metallic faces, where mouths had been, two lines now stretched downward from the corners of their lips, occasionally opening and closing mechanically, utterly transformed into toys.

What terrified the stout man even more was that the spread of these tin dolls wasn't confined to the Wang Gong's vicinity—it was rapidly expanding outward.

First the guard posts directly opposite the Wang Gong, then the outer walls and carriage roads, then the small square connected to the roads, then the bustling streets beyond the square.

Like a spreading plague, or like a drop of ink falling onto a vast white sheet, one human after another was being uncontrollably transformed into tin dolls.

And those who had become tin dolls seemed utterly unaware—they continued doing exactly what they had been doing before the change, completely oblivious to what had happened to them…

Wait!

As the stout man stared in shock at the distant transformation, he suddenly remembered something. He spun his telescope around, searching frantically among the rooftops for the carriage carrying Leon, shouting anxiously:

"Where's the leader? Where is he?!"

Hearing his cry, the rebels, stunned by the Wang Gong's anomaly, suddenly realized: according to plan, their leader was now holding the Prince, preparing to infiltrate the Wang Gong as an inside man.

But given the Wang Gong's current eerie state, their leader wouldn't just fail to sneak in—he'd likely turn into a tin man the moment his carriage neared it!

After frantically searching the area and finding no trace of Leon's carriage, one of the rebels finally snapped to.

"Signal! Send the signal now!"

At his words, everyone snapped awake and pulled out signal flares, desperate to warn their leader not to approach the Wang Gong—but…

"Too late! It's too late!"

Pointing to the small square before the Wang Gong, the bald woman lowered her slingshot, face pale with despair:

"The carriage just went in. Our leader is already a tin man."