Chapter 242: Chaotic Night

Due to SaintSong Corporation's last-minute announcement, Wilddo City quickly became the focus of the world.

The first to bear the pressure was not the Anquan Force tasked with hunting SaintSong's killers, but Wilddo City's air transport capacity.

All flights to Wilddo City were fully booked; many journalists, unable to secure tickets, had to fly to neighboring cities first and then drive to Wilddo City.

Beyond commercial aircraft, major figures in high-tech and arms-related fields also arrived overnight on private jets.

Overnight, presidential suites in Wilddo City became unavailable.

If you walked around Second Street and the SaintSong Building these past two days, you'd be stunned to realize how many wealthy people existed in the world.

These billionaires were either SaintSong investors, partners, major clients, or soon-to-be clients—none could be neglected.

To handle this crowd, SaintSong Corporation, already swamped, was working itself to the brink of smoke, especially many Level-7 managers who wished they could sprint at fifty-meter dash intensity.

Even flunkies like Feiguang and Chiyuan, newly promoted to Level-2 staff, were forced to run while being watched.

During a break after delivering documents, the two slipped into Wu Chang's office to request special leave, but before they could finish speaking, the secretary pushed the door open and said:

"What are you doing here? Director Wada is looking for you—he wants you in the lobby within ninety seconds."

Wu Chang shrugged at them and said, "Bear with it—just two more days."

Watching the two pale-faced men dragged out by the secretary, Wu Chang leaned back in his chair and waved at them.

Every single person at SaintSong Corporation was frantic, wishing they had three heads and six arms—except him, the only one not assigned any work, free to slack off completely.

As a Level-9 partner, clients too low-rank couldn't even see him; high-rank clients were all clinging to Schultze, Mo Ke, and Hughes—as if all troubles automatically bypassed him, leaving him unusually relaxed.

During this rare free time, he began scrolling through the Intelligence Department's news—information accessible to a Level-9 partner, each item worth at least a thousand Rotting Silver Coins outside the instance.

While scrolling, he began mentally reviewing the current instance's progress.

Main Quest One—he had unquestionably completed it, and fully maximized: Level-9 partner was the staff limit; beyond that, only Chairman.

Main Quest Two—investigate SaintSong Corporation's hidden secrets.

SaintSong's secrets were tied to the three core classified items once bounty-hunted by the Iron Armor Corps.

The first, the manufacturing method of Prime Armaments, he had thoroughly uncovered: a hidden room's mysterious computer filtered and guided candidates until their Virtue Scores met standards, then transformed them into Prime Armaments.

The second, the location of the Super Laboratory, referred to the Nest and the Prime Armament manufacturing lab—one beneath City Hall, the other beneath the square near SaintSong Building—he had completed this task as well.

As for the third secret, it must be the "Hymn Project" mentioned by Farrell.

Capturing Mo Ke would unlock this secret too.

The only unresolved issues in this instance were Main Quest Three and Lei Mengde's hidden side quest.

Main Quest Three required Peace Value to remain no lower than 30.

Since he killed Farrell, Wilddo City's Peace Value had surged from 59 to 66—seemingly excellent, but entirely illusory.

As gamblers often say: what you win first is paper.

The Nest, Prime Armaments, the Hymn Project, what the Iron Armor Corps sought, and Schultze's hidden secrets—all were ticking bombs.

If any detonated, not only would Peace Value drop below 30, but Wilddo City could easily revert to its former state as Sid Village.

Especially Lei Mengde's hidden side quest—exposing SaintSong's conspiracy—was bound to trigger massive conflict.

The safest way to clear this instance was to find Schultze directly, summon Zhenwo, and kill him in a 1v1 duel.

No matter how many secrets Schultze held, he couldn't withstand Twin Synchronization.

But the problem was—if possible, he didn't want to kill Schultze.

If Schultze were a stranger, or acted like Farrell—prioritizing profit above all—Wu Chang would've already cleared the instance.

For other players, perfectly clearing an instance might be a once-in-a-lifetime chance; for him, imperfect clearance was rarer—even with his depth of plot exploration, he could still achieve an S-rank despite missing one main quest.

In this context, how he cleared the instance mattered more than clearing it itself.

If completing the instance meant overriding his own conscience, wasn't he just a puppet of the Abyss Game?

Completing the instance was important—but preserving his conscience was more important.

Wu Chang always acted with clear justice and vengeance.

For example, in the Suishui Ping'an instance—if Seeing Chiyuan hadn't been too deeply corrupted and insisted on attacking him, Wu Chang had no intention of making things harder for him.

Likewise, in this SaintSong Corporation instance, before uncovering all secrets, he was willing to give Schultze a chance.

The outcome would depend entirely on the content of the Hymn Project.

In Wu Chang's eyes, the instance's core had shifted from Schultze to Mo Ke.

Mo Ke must be eliminated.

"Mo Ke must be eliminated." Lei Mengde tapped the screen beside him and said grimly.

"He's the former Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and current head of SaintSong's Anquan Force—he alone holds nearly ninety percent of the Federation's secrets!"

"I don't care what your goals are, but none of you can complete your missions without him. I liked his words yesterday: everyone should do what they're supposed to do."

"So, for our own sake, we must eliminate him!"

Booker grinned and said, "You just wait and interrogate him!"

Lei Mengde scanned the room; seeing no objections, he declared:

"The SaintSong Hunter Plan is officially underway!"

Booker and his two companions left first; the room now held only Lei Mengde and Wu Chang's Zhenwo.

Lei Mengde asked, "Will your method actually work?"

Wu Chang shrugged. "Try it and see—there's no cost to testing it."

Lei Mengde frowned. "Where did you get your information?"

Wu Chang held up a finger to his lips. "That question crosses the line. You only need to know we share a common enemy—I'll help you achieve your revenge, Agent Lei Mengde. I trust you're a professional agent who won't let curiosity cloud your judgment."

Lei Mengde paused, sighed, and said, "You're right."

Seeing Lei Mengde wouldn't press further, Wu Chang left the room and moved toward his target.

Stepping out of Mao Xiong's hideout, the blazing sun made him squint.

He pulled out his phone; it was twelve-thirty noon, the hottest part of the day, and also the busiest time for SaintSong Company.

In the past few days, due to the SaintSong Hunters, the company's management had traveled with extreme caution, prioritizing safety above all. But with the launch event imminent, even though they knew the SaintSong Hunters were still at large—and possibly even more active than before—they no longer cared about safety or secrecy, only seeking the most efficient travel between top-tier hotels.

In the eyes of SaintSong's management, every wealthy attendee of the launch event was a walking vault; their business cards had all been uniformly rewritten to display only performance metrics.

Rivers, Level Seven Supervisor of the Insurance Department, once a trusted lieutenant of Farrell, one of the strongest contenders for the position of Insurance Department Manager.

To many, Rivers stood a better than seventy percent chance of winning the competition and becoming the next manager; he should have played it safe, not taken risks.

But Rivers thought otherwise: the more critical the moment, the more he must expand his advantage.

A person's life has many days, but the chance to close multiple major deals in a single day might only come now.

As long as he secured the performance metrics to lock in the manager position, if the SaintSong Hunters wanted their lives? Let them take them!

The truth proved: only those who fight hard win.

At the risk of being targeted by the Hunters, Rivers visited five clients in the morning, closing three deals—all major ones.

He descended from the hotel's upper floors, got into his car, and felt utterly delighted.

!

He knew it was fine—SaintSong's entire management had poured out, numbering over a thousand; the SaintSong Hunter was only one person. How could he be so unlucky that it would happen to him?

Just as he was about to start the engine, he suddenly felt something in the back seat. He was about to look up at the rearview mirror when his head grew heavy and his vision went black.

When he opened his eyes again, he was in an unfamiliar room.

The room was crude, like a newly built shell with no wall plastering; thick soundproofing cotton lined every wall and floor. He didn't need to think to know what was coming next.

He tried to scream for help, but his mouth was stuffed full—he couldn't make a sound.

Perhaps sensing his awakening, two masked figures entered. One adjusted the equipment and injected something into his body. Then he faintly heard, "Onset in nine hours," before slipping back into unconsciousness.

In the room, after completing the injection, Lei Mengde looked up at Wu Chang and said:

"As you said, his compatibility with the Disqualified Monster is indeed excellent—far exceeding those I found before. No additional adjustments needed; he can be directly transformed."

Wu Chang shrugged and said: "You should trust your ally."

Lei Mengde pulled out his phone; the notes app displayed four names. He blacked out Rivers' name, then said:

"I do trust you. I'm just curious—where did you get this list?"

Seeing Wu Chang had no intention of answering, Lei Mengde continued:

"Never mind. I shouldn't have asked. Buk has succeeded too—I'll head over there now."

After Lei Mengde left, Wu Chang muttered to himself:

"How did I get the list? Of course—from SaintSong's own SaintSong Premium database."

Lei Mengde's goal was to transform multiple Disqualified Monsters, plunging Wilddor City into chaos to lure Mo Ke out.

To create chaos capable of drawing out Mo Ke, ordinary Disqualified Monsters wouldn't do. If they were all like Murata Keisuke's trash, a few gold-medal employees could easily handle them.

So Wu Chang turned his attention to the hidden database of sin records.

Combined with his Level Nine access rights, he analyzed which individuals on the list were most likely to be out and about, then randomly selected four—thus forming this list.

The four on the list were all top-tier offenders in the sin database, each with verifiable records, sin values never below 85. If death sentences could be stacked, executing them with lethal injection would cause cyanide potassium prices to skyrocket across the entire Federation.

These four transformed Disqualified Monsters would be absolutely formidable.

Time slipped away; the sky gradually darkened.

At ten-thirty p. m., to welcome the distinguished guests, Wilddor City Hall hosted a grand fireworks display.

Massive hot air balloons floated above the city, their surfaces displaying screens scrolling one line of text.

"To freedom and civilization!"

Tonight was destined to be a sleepless night; perhaps years—or even decades—later, if all went well, citizens would fondly recall this night.

Unfortunately, someone wanted to cut their night short.

At the top of Wadell Tower, Wilddor's fifth-tallest building, one could see nearly the entire city. From here, Wu Chang and his team's earlier deployments across the city could be observed simultaneously.

Lei Mengde raised his telescope, confirmed the situation matched the plan—the Disqualified Monsters were surrounded by no crowds, only critical infrastructure—and murmured:

"Time for good children to go to bed."

Ding-ding-ding~

As the alarm rang, a massive roar erupted from the new factory near Wilddor's Power Company.

A monster over ten meters tall, shaped like a giant worm, shattered the factory and roared toward the moonlight.

Immediately, its gaze locked onto the Power Company, and it charged forward at speed.

Simultaneously, from a storage room on the first floor of the Communications Company, thick sludge gushed forth, flooding the corridor in seconds.

Disqualified Monsters appeared one after another around the Water Supply Company and the New Energy Power Company.

Each Disqualified Monster stood at least ten meters tall; under their destruction, no one could fail to notice.

Alarm sirens pierced the night sky. People abandoned their revelry and sprinted frantically toward their homes.

Due to the suddenness, no orderly evacuation could be organized in crowded areas; the scattered, panicked crowds instantly plunged the city into chaos.

At the top of Wadell Tower, Buk blew a whistle and said: "This is way more thrilling than any monster disaster movie."

Lei Mengde checked his watch; about ten minutes after the chaos began, he dialed the number Mo Ke had left him and said:

"Mr. Mo Ke, I've spotted a mysterious group moving toward City Hall amid the chaos. What's there?"

On the other end, Mo Ke replied: "Keep watching them. See what they're doing."

"Understood, Mr. Mo Ke."

After hanging up, Lei Mengde said: "That old man won't act unless he sees the rabbit—he'll need some real commotion."

Buk laughed: "Commotion? I love making commotion!"

He blew a sharp whistle, and a massive motorcycle materialized beside him.

He straddled the bike and said: "I'm going for a ride—your turn to catch them!"

A tremendous blast of air erupted outward as Buck rode his motorcycle straight down the wall of the Vedel Building, the jagged tires crushing a long strip of glass along the building's outer face.

Buck's commotion quickly drew the attention of police officers and the Hymn patrol teams; helicopters and police cars soon tailed him—if Buck had a wanted meter, it would already be maxed out.

Lei Mengde lowered his binoculars and turned his head. "It's time we made our move too."

(End of chapter)