Chapter 580

O5-2 was the first to speak.

"In the past half hour, another 20 million square kilometers of land on Jarilo-VI have been destroyed in the fog."

"No living beings survived, and all agents sent to investigate have lost contact."

O5-4 followed closely:

"The residents of Belobog are experiencing severe panic, and urban stability is declining."

"On the galactic network, some are taking the opportunity to promote the incompetence of the Foundation, doubting the authenticity of the Foundation's past archives, and inciting questioning of the Foundation."

Asta was worried about Bai Xuan who was on Jarilo-VI, and O5-4's words broke her composure, and she began to mutter in a low voice:

"Is the Foundation even daring to make this kind of meeting content public?"

Shouldn't they hide it quietly, never admit mistakes, find opportunities to use internet trolls to hedge, and finally launch a historical revision to rewrite everything?

But before she could think about this matter in detail, or consider which people and organizations could benefit from belittling the Foundation.

O5-13 threw out an even more astonishing piece of gossip.

This O5 Councilor, who had no real power, flipped through the virtual light screen:

"The situation Four mentioned also has manifestations here."

"A facility of the Foundation in the central star region was attacked by unknown armed forces, though it was minor."

"However, it is currently unclear how the information leak occurred."

Hearing this, the audience's first reaction was, are these armed forces crazy?

Daring to provoke the Foundation, daring to attack the Foundation's facilities.

Others quickly regained their composure.

If these people were not crazy, but had carried out the attack after careful planning, wouldn't that mean they had a deep grudge against the Foundation?

Perhaps it was another mysterious organization like the Fifth Church.

Then everything would make sense.

A mysterious society that worshipped a supreme divinity, out of some more ancient grudge, took this opportunity to launch a retaliatory action against the Foundation.

O5-7 continued to speak:

"The GOC has already launched the 'Dialing Song' a step ahead of us. Under our negotiation, the Secretary-General agreed to postpone the time of the general attack by ten hours."

"But forgive me for speaking bluntly, their thaumaturgic attacks are simply ineffective. The fog seems to be intentionally absorbing the EVE particles used for the attack; blind firepower coverage is no different from suicide."

As the voice fell, the highest power center of the Foundation fell into silence.

Thirteen councilors sat quietly in their respective seats, occasionally glancing at the only empty seat, hoping for the owner of that chair to appear at this time.

But there was none.

On that person's table, only a gold nameplate was placed alone, engraved with "Administrator."

That person might think that the current situation is still under the Foundation's control and is far from the point where he needs to appear.

Some O5 Councilors guessed secretly.

Perhaps this is the truth.

A moment later, O5-2 leaned back in his chair, crossed his arms, and sighed:

"If this continues, we will have to consider the final means."

"Wait a little longer. I don't want to execute Chronos; no one wants to reach this step." O5-8 shook his head, expressing opposition.

O5-1 basically confirmed what each councilor who had spoken was thinking at this moment, then turned to look at those who had not yet expressed their stance, waiting for their insights or a feasible way to break the deadlock.

"Twelve, what about you?"

O5-12 looked up, steadied himself, met the old man's gaze without avoiding it, and then yawned.

"I have been leading the investigation into the ancient architectural complex that appeared with 'Containment-C-2001,' as well as tracking the Fifth Church and its massive branch in the C region, the 'Five Elements'."

He raised his hand to cover his mouth, his demeanor showing undisguised fatigue—it is hard to imagine seeing such an expression on an O5 Councilor; not elite, not sharp, not noble, but rather like a wage slave.

After saying this, he paused, waved his hand to summon a virtual light screen, and followed up with a report.

"Many pieces of evidence collected can prove that there have been more than one generation of ancient civilizations in the universe, and they have completely different appearances, languages, and cultural systems."

"But there is one point that is the same, and that is that they all encountered the attack of the thick fog at some point in history, and tried every possible way to resist it, but in the end, none survived."

Audience: "...?"

This conclusion is a thousand times, ten thousand times more terrifying than the fact that the Jarilo-VI anomalous event is related to the "Fifth Starfish."

Until just now, some people held a mentality—what does the survival of Jarilo-VI have to do with me, thousands or tens of thousands of light-years away?

But if such a disaster will repeat itself again and again, burying all civilizations in the lost past.

Then, their fate is related to Jarilo-VI, and related to this battle.

"No way, could it be that those ancient ruins belong to ancient civilizations destroyed by the 'Fifth Starfish' in different periods?"

"This... this is a bit too terrifying. We were still wondering why no civilization older than the Foundation had appeared, but we didn't expect it to be for this reason."

"This universe... is too damn dark... like a breeding farm."

O5-12 said, spreading his hands.

"Because of some unknown reason—mostly speculated to be anti-memetic shielding, and it is exactly the same as what happened at Site-82 of the C region branch."

"—We cannot intuitively see, hear, or touch these items that have already been shielded under normal circumstances, but they do exist."

He adjusted his posture, his gaze swept over his colleagues, and his expression gradually became serious:

"Everyone, has anyone heard of Bart Hughes?"

The councilors shook their heads one after another.

"No."

"No."

"A nobody?"

O5-12 exhaled gently and looked at O5-3:

"Three, please read the personal file of Bart Hughes for us."

O5-3: "Due to the direct order of Supervisor Twelve, this requires additional authorization."

"I approve."

"Bart Hughes, born in ■■ year, once served as ■■ Director, resigned in ■■ year to independently build some kind of unauthorized instrument... presumed dead."

"Enough." O5-12 interrupted O5-3's reading.

"Hughes geniusly predicted today's situation," he said casually, "—ancient ruins reappearing in the thick fog, followed by the world's bewildered end."

Others listened thoughtfully to every word O5-12 said, their expressions calm, with a hint of curiosity amidst the seriousness.

This Hughes had not entered their line of sight; either he was too mediocre, or he had consciously hidden something, not wanting more people in this world to know.

As it stands, it should be the latter.

"... We have no way of knowing what means he used to obtain this information."

"Perhaps the excellent work of the Anti-Memetics Department led to unexpected fields."

"Perhaps it was information sharing from other research institutions, or even possibly with the help of external mysterious forces."

"Enough small talk, Twelve." O5-1 interrupted him, "We need key information."

"Okay." O5-12 smiled.

"When he finally decided to leave the Foundation and go to a place no one knew to build his conceptual weapon, he gave me a box and instructed me to open it when the thick fog descended."

"I have already opened it—"

Subsequently, a photo appeared on the virtual light screen in front of everyone.

It was a piece of paper.

O5-10 felt it was incredible: "A piece of paper, nothing else?"

"The path he took is further than I could have predicted," O5-12 said frankly.

"Let me look at it, this on it..." O5-5 zoomed in on the picture, browsing quickly, extracting the most important content.

"—The 'Fictional Amplifier' will be the final piece of the puzzle?"

O5-12 nodded slightly and moved his gaze away from the photo.

"'Located below the hut where we first met,' that is the final weapon that needs to be loaded into the central launch tower of the ruins."

"Hughes believed it could end this conceptual war, and so do I."

Others did not speak for a while; they needed a short time to understand this matter and evaluate its feasibility.

The more urgent the moment, the less one can run around like a headless chicken, and one cannot bet everything on something that looks like a straw to save one's life.

What if that's a wire without insulation. ===== CHAPTER 582 =====