December 5th, evening.
Banzhen City, Sakura Prayer Country Official Administration Building.
Within the brightly lit office area spanning floors 1-3, hundreds of office workers were present, frequently moving about with docunts in hand.
All these people wore matching dark blue suit uniforms, their faces mostly expressionless. Everyone was focused only on their own tasks, rarely even glancing at the person at the adjacent workstation.
Interpersonal relationships were already cold in the era of the Doomsday Rules, let alone among the Sakura Prayer people who had experienced the tragedy of their holand sinking. Although many had relocated with the official authorities, in reality, they weren't much different from walking corpses, surviving only on instinct.
This indifferent attitude ant they completely failed to notice a stranger they had never seen before walking out of the restroom.
Guan Tong was dressed in the sa dark blue suit uniform as the office workers, wearing a pair of black-frad glasses, his hair combed in the style of a salaryman. He looked no different from the assembled personnel.
Holding a tablet, he walked nonchalantly to the elevator lobby.
Entering this administration building was simple for him, but going above the third floor required swiping an identity ID card.
He naturally didn't have such a card.
So his strategy was simple: just wait for soone to co down.
He waited in the stairwell for a few minutes. The elevator display showed it going up from the 2nd floor, stopping at the 6th floor, then descending back to the 1st floor.
When the elevator doors opened, a man stepped out, coming face-to-face with Guan Tong standing at the stairwell entrance.
"Move aside, you ignorant fool." The man, seemingly soone at a leadership level, mistook Guan Tong for a junior clerk and rudely reached out to shove him aside.
Guan Tong smiled at him. The man only saw darkness before his eyes, then abruptly lost consciousness the next mont.
With a flash of light from the Storage Ring on his hand, Guan Tong calmly picked up the man's identity authentication card, entered the elevator, and pressed the button for the 5th floor.
Upon reaching that level, the elevator opened directly into an office area.
Compared to floors 1-3, there were fewer people here, but still several dozen. Each person was almost equally busy.
Guan Tong imdiately went to the restroom, locked the door from the inside, then summoned the Shadow to begin searching.
After his physical body entered the barrier that defended against Mind Power, using the Shadow inside would not be affected by the barrier. However, the longer he took, the risk of exposure would increase exponentially.
Furthermore, when soone discovered they couldn't contact that man, an investigation would likely be launched. Once they checked the usage records of the identity authentication card, they would realize an outsider had entered a restricted area.
He had to be fast.
Countless hair-thin shadow lines spread out, rapidly scouring every corner of the fifth floor.
Guan Tong believed that since the device used by Yamata no Orochi to log into her account was here, he should be able to find clues about her whereabouts. Because she had said she was under house arrest, not imprisoned, and the difference between the two was significant.
Every workstation and room on the fifth floor was being infiltrated and scouted one by one by the shadow lines.
Even those rooms with tightly closed doors were no exception.
No matter how tightly a door is shut, could the gap be narrower than a single strand of hair?
Where a strand of hair can go, the shadow line can go.
Soon, Guan Tong discovered that on the fifth floor, there was a corridor completely sealed off by electronic doors. A warning sign reading "Unauthorized Personnel Prohibited" was placed at the entrance. The corridor was lined with small rooms on both sides.
He manipulated the shadow lines to slip through the door gaps into these rooms. Each room's layout was largely similar: a bed, desk, cabinet, and a single-person bathroom—standard confinent cells.
So of these rooms were occupied, others empty.
Most of those inside were either sitting quietly or staring blankly at the ceiling.
They had nothing else to do. Forget internet devices, they didn't even have a single book.
"Warning! Warning!"
At that mont, a piercing alarm suddenly blared throughout the floor.
Soone outside shouted loudly: "An unidentified person used Vice Minister Kamijo's identity card! Seal the administration building imdiately! Conduct a full-floor search!"
Discovered so quickly...
Hiding in the restroom, Guan Tong heard the commotion and knew he was already exposed. It was only a matter of ti before they found him here.
Had to speed up.
He accelerated the shadow lines' search of the confinent rooms. When he reached the last room, he finally found his target.
Yamata no Orochi, wearing a blue plaid shirt, was staring blankly at the wall. The next mont, she suddenly saw a mass of black substance pouring in from the door gap, rapidly spreading to fill the entire room.
In the next instant, a figure silently appeared behind her.
Yamata no Orochi whirled around to look. The identity of the person clad in black shadow armor was imdiately apparent.
"Shadow? You..."
"No ti to talk. Let's get out of here first."
Guan Tong raised a finger, and a large amount of shadow surged toward Yamata no Orochi, completely enveloping her.
Then he took out the [Wordless Book], summoned the shelter, threw her inside, and retrieved the shelter.
Thump thump thump!
Urgent running footsteps sounded from outside, likely internal personnel coming to check on the confined individuals.
Guan Tong didn't delay any longer. He took the unlucky man he had knocked out from the ring and threw him on the floor, then imdiately activated the Body Swap ability to leave.
Half a minute later, soone outside opened the room door. Seeing the man unconscious on the floor, they were greatly alard.
"Is that Vice Minister Kamijo? How did he..."
"Damn it! Confined individual Yamata no Orochi is no longer in her room!"
"Find her quickly!!"
...
When Yamata no Orochi's vision cleared, she found herself in the midst of so ruins.
She collected herself, realizing Shadow had brought her out.
Although Shadow had previously said via website private ssage that he would rescue her, when it actually happened, she was still quite surprised.
"Should I call you Yamata no Orochi, or Uenoshi?"
"Uenoshi. 'Yamata' is a surna others forced upon . I actually hate it."
Uenoshi turned around. Shadow was still wrapped in black armor, apparently not intending to show his true face to her.
"Thank you," she added.
"Not necessary. Since I said I would rescue you, I won't go back on my word." Guan Tong paused. "Besides, I also need your help with sothing."
"What is it?"
"...You don't have any Mind Power right now?"
Guan Tong looked at Uenoshi's black pupils and asked sowhat curiously.
When he saw her before, her eyes were vertical slits like a snake's. If that was brought about by Mind Power, it naturally required Mind Power to maintain.
"No," Uenoshi said, raising her right hand. A silver ring was on her wrist. "They were afraid I'd escape, so they put this on . It automatically absorbs naturally recovering Mind Power."
Guan Tong manipulated a Shadow Blade to strike the silver bracelet, but it had absolutely no effect.
"It's useless," Uenoshi said. "This item is special. Unless the holder actively removes it, otherwise..."
Before she could finish, she saw a miniature black sphere, like a marble, appear in Guan Tong's palm.
The mont that thing touched the silver bracelet item on her hand, a whole section of the bracelet vanished, imdiately losing its effectiveness and being destroyed.
Uenoshi was sowhat surprised. The next mont, Guan Tong retracted the "space domain" he had created.
She didn't ask what it was, just shook her hand.
Within re seconds, her pupils transford into vertical slits as her automatically recovering Mind Power began to take effect.
"What do you need
to help you with?"
Uenoshi was no longer a child. She was a woman in her twenties who had worked for several years and knew the rules of society.
Moreover, she had a clear self-awareness of her ordinary appearance and didn't think she held any heterosexual appeal for Shadow.
"You rember the Kimos Star fragnts, right?" Guan Tong got straight to the point. "Back when I was in Andai State, Sakura Prayer launched a long-range bombardnt against
and sent a ground team to recover the fragnts."
"...I rember. The location where you held the fragnt was provided by ."
"Who was the decision-maker?"
Uenoshi understood Shadow's aning: "You want revenge? Unfortunately, the decision-maker has already committed suicide."
Guan Tong said in surprise: "Committed suicide?"
"Yes. His na was 'Mu Tiancheng,' the forr instructor of the Chosen Team... The Chosen Team is one of the several Ascendant teams officially ford by Sakura Prayer. It included
and two others."
"Mu Tiancheng always wanted to use this special era of the Doomsday Rules to make Sakura Prayer the world's most powerful nation. Later, after experiencing a series of failures and setbacks, perhaps because his hopes were shattered, he ultimately committed seppuku."
"..."
Guan Tong hadn't expected it to be like this.
He originally intended to get the decision-maker's information from Uenoshi's mouth. He didn't expect the person was already gone before he could even act.
However...
Guan Tong asked: "This Mu Tiancheng you ntioned actually had the authority to mobilize special forces units and warships?"
Uenoshi said Mu Tiancheng was the instructor of the "Chosen Team."
In Guan Tong's view, this status was similar to Zhang Minglu from the Beixing Counterasures Research Office.
Even Zhang Minglu, as the person in charge of all official team Ascendants, had more power than Mu Tiancheng.
But to say Zhang Minglu had the authority to mobilize Beixing's official warships to launch missiles overseas to bomb soone was absolutely impossible.
"He made a proposal and received permission from above," Uenoshi said.
"Whose permission?"
"The Divine Child."
"The Divine Child..."
Hearing this title, Guan Tong's expression beneath the armor grew solemn.
Sakura Prayer Country's political system was similar to the Suroma Empire. Multiple ritorious families supported a royal family, and each generation's head of the royal family was called the "Divine Child."
The Divine Child held supre power in Sakura Prayer, even greater than the power of the Suroma Empire's king. If the Suroma king wanted to do sothing but faced collective opposition from the Senate, it wouldn't be easy to push through.
But if the Divine Child had an idea, even if it was utterly absurd, it would be absolutely executed.
Why no one opposed or overthrew this was related to Sakura Prayer's national military power being held by the royal family. Past opponents had all been suppressed and eliminated.
"How much do you know about this Divine Child?"
Hearing Guan Tong's question, Uenoshi asked one in return: "Do you want to kill him?"
"If he wanted to kill , why can't I return like for like? Just because he's the so-called Divine Child? I don't think anyone's life in this world is more precious than another's."
Guan Tong's tone was dismissive. Uenoshi nodded after hearing it: "You're right."
"Tell
what you know about him, then you can go investigate your parents' situation yourself. As agreed, I'll rescue you, but I won't participate in investigating your parents."
"I don't know how to investigate, no avenues. And the island has sunk. I can't even go back to my hotown to ask so people."
"Start with the archives," Guan Tong suggested. "Sakura Prayer's official departnts should have archives of citizen identities."
"It would be very difficult for
to do such a thing," Uenoshi said frankly. "Can you help ? In return, my power is at your disposal."
Guan Tong's heart stirred: "What power do you have?"
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