Chapter 342: Hymn of Light

"Ahem."

A cough interrupted the further intimacy between Wu Chang and He Yun.

Wu Chang looked back and saw He Yi looking at him with an unkind expression, saying:

"Making a move on my sister right in front of me, kid, I hope your bones are hard enough later."

Wu Chang scoffed. His social security was paid at the civil servant rate, so what was the meaning of this? Did he want to default on his medical insurance payments?

He spoke to He Yun in his arms, using a cutesy, affected voice:

"Your brother is so scary. Unlike me, I only know how to cherish you. I'll be careful when I make a move, and try my best not to hurt him."

Warning, warning.

A high-temperature alert emanated from He Yi's mecha; it seemed Wu Chang's temperature control was quite successful.

He Yun sensed Wu Chang was acting up, shook her head slightly, and said helplessly:

"Are you two never going to grow up?"

Wu Chang said with dissatisfaction: "Whether I can grow up or not, don't you know already?"

No sooner had he finished speaking than he felt a powerful hook punch to his abdomen, the force so strong and solid that it sent him flying into the air.

Oh no, he had forgotten that if He Yun wore a mecha, she also possessed the strength of a dungeon boss.

Falling from the air and sitting on the ground, Wu Chang looked up at He Yun, puzzled:

"Why are you wearing a mecha under your lab coat?"

He Yun's face turned beet red; she snorted and turned to head back to the laboratory.

Wu Chang rubbed his stomach and stood up from the ground, looking sullen, as He Yi’s gloating voice came from behind him.

"Now you're not just feeling heartache, you've got a stomachache too, right?"

Wu Chang wrinkled his nose. It was all the fault of this third wheel, He Yi. He wanted to spar? Fine, he would use him to vent his frustration.

"Don't you think it's unfair to fight me while wearing an upgraded mecha? Come on, let's both use training mechas."

He Yi immediately said: "Wearing this mecha was just to show you Xiao Yun's latest achievement. I don't even need a mecha to fight you."

Wu Chang didn't say anything more and walked straight to the equipment area of the training ground.

He asked He Yi to change mechas not because he was truly afraid of him, but because the upgraded mecha contained divinity, and he was afraid the God-Slayer wouldn't be able to control his strength and would accidentally break it.

If he caused He Yun to be distracted by repairs and delayed the modification of his own exclusive mecha, that would be a huge loss.

Sparring with He Yi wasn't a real boss fight.

Wu Chang only used martial arts, attributes, and Master-level mecha piloting; he didn't use any active skills, aiming for fairness.

Ever since he had witnessed the Martial Star Lord in action, he had truly become a master on the path of martial arts.

Even against Zhao Yan, he could handle things with ease; if he could integrate martial arts into mecha operation, wouldn't dealing with He Yi be a piece of cake?

Twenty minutes later, Wu Chang, lying flat on his back on the ground, stared blankly at the simulated sky above.

No, how did he become He Yi's punching bag again?

Compared to last time, his attributes and combat abilities had improved tremendously, yet facing He Yi, he still had no power to fight back.

In terms of piloting technique, He Yi had reached at least the Grandmaster level, perhaps even S-level.

Wu Chang's Master-level mecha piloting usually felt like a union of man and machine, but during high-intensity mecha combat, it couldn't keep up with He Yi's operations at all, feeling as stiff and awkward as a stroke victim.

As for physical stats, it was even more exaggerated; he was currently using his true body, yet his strength and agility were far behind He Yi's.

He Yi's values for these two attributes were at least 150 points or higher.

These two attributes alone were enough for a player to trigger a plane ascension mission, not to mention the superhuman endurance he had displayed when dealing with the monsters in the fog.

Wu Chang couldn't understand how such a freak of nature, who had achieved "sanctification through the flesh," could exist in a plane with a wasteland technology background.

As for the combat techniques Wu Chang relied on most, that was even harder to describe.

A combat master like Zhao Yan, who was proficient in various martial arts schools, had moves that could be traced and methods that could be followed.

In the eyes of someone like Wu Chang, who had seen the Dao of martial arts, one only needed to watch an opponent move to estimate subsequent changes and anticipate the enemy.

But He Yi was different; his fighting style had no pattern, relying purely on combat instinct and quick reflexes.

Simply put, Wu Chang's current state was like the pinnacle of the Nine Swords of Dugu, where any move could be easily seen through, using the flaws in the moves to easily defeat the enemy.

But He Yi was like a street thug who had been fighting since he was a kid; he had no moves, just swinging a steel pipe and throwing wild, chaotic punches at anyone he saw.

Yet his combat instinct was as sharp as a beast's, and his physical functions and mechanical piloting were so exaggeratedly strong that it was completely unreasonable.

When Wu Chang dealt with Zhao Yan, he was "winning without moves," but against He Yi, he became the one with the moves.

No technique, just pure stats.

Every time he faced He Yi, he lamented that he was a technical player, while He Yi was a stat monster.

With one sibling sanctified in the flesh and the other possessing god-like intelligence, they were likely both children of the plane reincarnated into the same family.

But that was fine; it seemed the underground shelter wouldn't need him to go find another guardian deity.

With He Yi's current strength, if he piloted a divine mecha, he could kill as many divine projections as dared to invade.

Wu Chang climbed to his feet and waved his hand: "No more, it's boring."

Next time he sparred with He Yi, he would have to use skills, otherwise, he wouldn't be able to fight at all.

He Yi looked down at Wu Chang and said: "Your mecha piloting technique is a bit poor; you're wasting Xiao Yun's mecha. You need to practice more when you go back."

Wu Chang rolled his eyes. Master-level piloting technique was considered poor? Listen to that, was that even human talk?

"It's not that I'm poor, it's that you're too strong."

He Yi said: "Strong? I've already held back as much as I could."

He paused for a moment, then said: "If you ever make Xiao Yun sad, you'll see how strong I am when I'm serious. Believe me, you won't want to experience it."

Watching He Yi leave after delivering his threat, Wu Chang grinned and stood up from the ground.

Taking off his mecha and returning to the laboratory, He Yun was busy debugging something at the console.

She glanced at Wu Chang and said:

"Looks like you lost."

Wu Chang shrugged and said stubbornly: "I let him win."

If he could use skills, even if he only used the Mamba Iron Elbow, he wouldn't have lost so miserably.

He Yun smiled and said:

"Since we were little, my brother has never lost a one-on-one fight."

Wu Chang said: "I guessed as much."

With He Yi's physical fitness, he could easily win against ordinary people even without a mecha.

He looked at the console, suddenly remembered something, took the damaged Dawn Hammer from his personal space, and placed it next to He Yun.

"I was too busy yesterday and almost forgot about this."

"The destruction mode effect is very strong; it helped me a lot."

He Yun took the Dawn Hammer, placed it on the repair table, and said:

"It's damaged quite severely; it's expected to take fifteen days to repair."

Wu Chang roughly estimated the time; it could be fixed before the world dungeon, so he nodded and said:

"Leave it with you for now. I need to leave tomorrow and will come back in a few days."

He Yun stopped what she was doing and asked:

"In such a rush to leave?"

Wu Chang said helplessly: "I'm not going to be a pawn, I'm rushing to pave the way for the young lady He Yun to ascend to her most loyal Anthem Company."

"Besides, didn't I say I wouldn't leave until tomorrow morning?"

The next morning, Wu Chang left the underground shelter and returned to reality.

Upon returning, he first made a trip to the Wanghai Branch Bureau.

Compared to the bustle of the past, the bureau was much quieter.

Gambling is human nature, especially when the opportunity to change one's fate is right in front of them; few people can truly resist the urge to go all in.

Although Shi Ning had made the dangers very clear during the general meeting of the Administration, half of the members of the Wanghai Branch still wanted to give it a try.

They were impulsive, but not stupid; in order to survive the next two dungeons, they had already headed to Yanjing to participate in the training camp before the qualification dungeon.

Those with any real ability in the bureau had basically left; even Director Xia Jia, who had once temporarily taken over the branch and was semi-administrative, chose to enter the world dungeon.

Most of those remaining in the branch were newcomers and administrative veterans with newcomer-level skills.

This period could be said to be the weakest time for the Wanghai Branch.

Wu Chang did not participate in the training camp under the pretext of having a special training plan; Director Gao and the others did not try to persuade him otherwise.

After all, Wu Chang's training plan allowed him to raise his combat specialization to Master-level combat in just a few days.

This kind of efficient private training was far from comparable to the collective mode of the training camp.

However, before leaving, Director Gao specially gave Wu Chang a task: to act as the acting director of Wanghai City.

He asked him to check on the bureau when he could spare time between training sessions to ensure nothing went wrong at home.

As the acting director, he confirmed that nothing had happened in the bureau and screened the area through Ailin's Divine Kingdom to ensure no strange things were hiding in Wanghai City, then prepared to set off for the Anthem Company plane.

Before leaving, he controlled his True Self to come to the commercial street and left a message at Yu Na's restaurant, saying he wanted to talk to the upper management of the Apocalypse, preferably meeting Her Majesty Christine directly.

If possible, they should reply to him through the Earthly Divine Kingdom.

After the familiar plane-shuttle transition, Wu Chang and Ailin appeared on the top floor of the Anthem Company.

His purpose for coming to the Anthem Company this time was to incorporate the Anthem Company plane into the Divine Kingdom.

Once the Anthem Company and the underground shelter both entered the large Divine Kingdom, He Yun could use the Pillar of the Divine Kingdom as a medium to shuttle between various planes.

He opened the chairman's backend, intending to check the recent company news to see if there was anything he could use.

Yet he underestimated the scale of the Anthem Company; just from half a month of not looking, there were over a hundred messages piled up in the backend.

He only looked at two before his head began to spin, so he took out the All-Knowing Crystal to help him make judgments.

That the Anthem Company could be where it is today is at least eighty percent thanks to the All-Knowing Crystal; it is extremely proficient at handling company business.

Wu Chang even suspected that when Schultz faced less important matters, he would have the All-Knowing Crystal decide them directly.

After being filtered by the All-Knowing Crystal, there were only two problems currently facing the Anthem Company that urgently required his intervention.

The first point was company business.

Previously, when developing Primordial Armaments, many large organizations had placed orders with the Anthem Company and paid substantial deposits.

After the battle with the Light Society, news that the Primordial Armament development was complete and entering application had spread throughout the world.

Since the items were made, the buyers naturally wanted to urge for shipment.

The problem was that Wu Chang did not want to continue Schultz's path of using living people to manufacture Primordial Armaments, and he only allowed the company to use the Primordial Armaments that had already been produced.

Even using them for themselves might not be enough, let alone supplying them to the outside world.

During this period, the urging and inquiries from various parties had almost driven the sales department managers insane.

The solution to this point was very easy: one word—delay.

As for this kind of technological trouble, after He Yun took over the Anthem Company, he would leave it to her to solve.

With her current technical prowess, producing Primordial Armaments that did not require living people would be no problem.

The second problem came from the trap he had dug last time.

Before entering the Doom-Ridden dungeon, he had assigned a task to the News Force, claiming that based on the Hymn Project, Schultz had made another breakthrough and was researching a true human deity.

He named the project "Hymn of Light," used Ailin's selfie as the conceptual image for the artificial deity, and handed it to the News Force for external publicity.

It wasn't that the News Force didn't do their job; it was that they did it too well.

Those who could hold positions in the Anthem Company's News Force were all leading figures from various mainstream media, and they understood the three elements of journalism perfectly.

Highlight: not the three elements of journalism regarding authenticity, timeliness, and reportage.

But the three elements of journalism regarding setting the narrative, inciting emotions, and creating opposition.

Under their promotion, the Hymn of Light project spread widely throughout the world.

Due to Wu Chang's instructions before leaving to do everything in their power to make the Hymn of Light project accepted, and requiring the entire company to cooperate with their publicity.

Under the Anthem Company's excellent style of conduct, they utilized Disqualified Monsters and Primordial Armaments during the dissemination.

The main figure in the Hymn of Light project, the Light of Eternal Purity Ailin, although this was her first time entering the Anthem Company plane.

Yet in the various social media of the plane, over a dozen "miracles" of her killing Disqualified Monsters had already spread.

In the Anthem Company's consistent publicity, Disqualified Monsters were monsters drawn by human acts such as destroying the environment and inciting wars.

Disqualified Monsters were the messengers of world destruction, meaning humanity was about to suffer divine punishment.

The appearance of the Light of Eternal Purity was the Anthem Company's act of self-salvation; she was humanity's guardian deity.

Ailin's near-perfect appearance, combined with the News Force's publicity and the threat of Disqualified Monsters frequently appearing worldwide, quickly solidified her status as humanity's guardian deity.

Netizens established personal websites for Ailin, cyber-churches, and even personal fan sites and derivative merchandise became wildly popular.

This allowed Ailin to feel a massive amount of faith surging toward her the moment she entered the Anthem Company plane.

With the help of this faith, she successfully planted the seedling of the Tree of Miracles in the garden on the top floor of the Anthem Company.

She only needed to let the seedling grow to merge this place into the Divine Kingdom.

The great success of the publicity, however, brought a serious problem: the News Force was backed into a corner.

Wu Chang's previous request was for them to promote it, but he hadn't said much about the details of the Hymn of Light project.

They had imagined the Hymn of Light project based on the parts of the Hymn Project that had already been declassified.

Now, the Light of Eternal Purity had been overly deified, and some of the descriptions exceeded the capabilities of the Hymn Project.

If they continued to hype it up following the trend, and the pie they drew far exceeded the company's current technology, they would definitely be the ones to take the blame.

If they denied those excessive descriptions, it would conflict with the current sense of anticipation and cause people's enthusiasm to cool.

Once enthusiasm cooled, brains would cool along with it; once brains cooled, questioning would follow, and the effect of the news would worsen.

So they asked Wu Chang for instructions on how to operate the next step.

Wu Chang was very satisfied with the News Force's work; he had his secretaries verify the contributions of each member of the News Force in this incident and give them top-tier rewards according to relevant company regulations.

As for how to handle it afterward, they didn't need to worry for the time being.

Because Ailin had arrived.

The thing about tropes is not whether they are new enough, but whether they are useful enough.

What he needed to do next was to use the Anthem Company's most proficient method to build a stage suitable for Ailin's debut.

In the second hour after Wu Chang and Ailin arrived at the plane, the Anthem Company released news.

At eight o'clock tomorrow night, Federal time, a press conference would be held on time, with the content being the announcement of the phased results of the Hymn of Light project.

Once this news came out, it instantly ignited the whole world.

Whether it was the artificial deity project or Ailin herself, both were incredible bombshells.

This time, not only famous news agencies and large media from various countries, but all kinds of self-media flocked to the scene.

Making Weierduo City even more bustling than the Primordial Armament press conference at the end of the Anthem Company dungeon.

At the same time, on the Hymn of Light discussion website, a post was pushed to the top.

"If the Light of Eternal Purity is truly humanity's guardian deity, would the messenger of the apocalypse really sit idly by?"

The post had a high level of discussion, once reaching the number one spot on various social media trending lists.

As if Murphy's Law had taken effect once again, on the day of the press conference, Weierduo City, which was supposed to be sunny according to the weather forecast, was shrouded in dark clouds all day.

The pitch-black clouds were stifling, signaling that something major was about to happen.

"Weierduo City Abnormal Weather" became the focus of people's discussions.

Starting from 4:30 PM, wild winds began to blow in Weierduo City; the strong winds stirred the clouds, making the sky look eerie and dangerous.

At 5:00 PM sharp, residents living in high-rise buildings could vaguely hear the shrieks and roars of monsters coming from above.

At 6:00 PM, the shrieking grew louder, spreading throughout Weierduo City along with the wind.

Huge black shadows moved within the clouds, appearing and disappearing, with the length of the shadows being no less than a hundred meters.

The Federal Prefecture sent drones to investigate, but all flight equipment lost contact as soon as they entered the clouds.

At 6:15, the clouds parted in the gale, and a huge yellow monster revealed its ferocious face.

It rode the gale as if it were going to tear the sky apart.

Countless cameras captured this scene, broadcasting the existence of the yellow monster to the whole world via live stream.

Whether they were at the scene in Weierduo City or watching from behind a screen, the moment they saw the yellow monster, they felt their heads swell, their thinking slow, and despair couldn't help but surge in their hearts.

A single thought arose in people's minds: the apocalypse was truly coming.

Just as the feeling of despair was spreading wildly and those with weak wills were about to collapse under the pressure, a soft light pierced the firmament.

The next moment, the young girl with four wings on her back and a giant hammer in her hand faced the gale, splitting the yellow monster with one strike, simultaneously splitting the pitch-black clouds and revealing the sunset hidden behind them.

The moment the sunset appeared on camera, a massive power of faith gathered from all over the world.

The Tree of Miracles on the top floor of the Anthem Company shot into the sky, turning into a Pillar of the Divine Kingdom, connecting with the large Divine Kingdom.

(End of chapter)