Every participant in this assassination attempt against the First Emperor was rooted to the spot.
Their initial strikes against ordinary civilians had been ant to incite mass panic. Instead, the bizarre phenonon before them had paralyzed them with fear.
"Sister, could it be that all of them are—?"
Randgriz's cherry lips trembled as the words escaped.
Even she was slightly shaken by the scene unfolding before her.
The wounds on the attacked civilians showed no trace of blood—because there was no flesh inside.
Through the gashes, intricate chanical components were visible.
In other words, these civilians weren't human at all. Like Xiang Yu, their souls had been transferred into chanical bodies.
In this state, they felt no pain, ignoring all attacks as if nothing had happened.
The sight was nothing short of horrifying.
At the sa ti, Randgriz found it deeply cruel.
She refused to believe that such a vast number of people—nearly the entire city's population—had willingly abandoned their flesh to beco chanical constructs.
They had lost not only the ability to feel pain but, it seed, all other emotions as well. Were they being controlled?
Perhaps brainwashed.
If so, they had been stripped of their humanity, reduced to soulless chanical puppets.
They were even worse off than Xiang Yu. At least when she had seen him, aside from his chanical body, he had still seed like a human with emotions and awareness.
Upon closer inspection, so individuals hadn't reacted at all—appearing to be genuine civilians.
Among them, a few had been startled when nearby "people" suddenly lashed out with violence. But their terror only deepened when they saw the "victims" remain unhard, behaving unnaturally.
Others, though not witnessing any attacks, still noticed the eerie behavior of those around them.
So… what exactly was going on with these people?
These people must be the ones who ca from other places knowing about today's military parade ceremony, just to watch the spectacle.
So, they are real, flesh-and-blood humans.
However, having witnessed such a secret, these people will likely et the sa fate.
Their souls will be forcibly extracted from their bodies, transferred into machines, imprisoned within them, becoming puppets controlled by the First Emperor.
It is precisely such an army that can be invincible in battle.
Ordinary human soldiers could never defeat these fearless chanical puppets that feel no pain.
"Don't be so quick to anger, Randgriz," her sister beside her suddenly spoke, seemingly seeing through her thoughts and understanding the reason for her rage.
"Try to recall carefully if there have been any changes from the beginning of the inspection until now," she reminded her.
Could it be that the situation wasn't as she thought?
Randgriz carefully recalled the scene from the mont the First Emperor stepped onto the inspection platform.
Hmm? There did seem to be sothing slightly off—was there a faint fluctuation in the scene? A blur?
It was like a video being played that had a very slight flicker due to so interference. But because the image was dynamic and the fluctuation was brief, unless one paid close attention, it would go unnoticed.
But what did this an?
Randgriz couldn't discern any issue from such a minor change.
No, Randgriz noticed sothing else.
It was like a person standing before her—suppose their height was 175 centiters, right?
In the next second—or rather, the next fra of the footage—the height abruptly changed to 180 centiters.
Since the attire remained identical, this transformation would go unnoticed without close scrutiny.
Moreover, though the clothing was of the sa style, subtle differences could be spotted in the folds. These weren't wrinkles caused by movent but rather discrepancies in how the garnts were worn—for instance, the sleeves, previously rolled up, were now unrolled in the next fra.
Additionally, the clothes in the earlier fra appeared noticeably worn, while those in the next seed brand new.
And this phenonon wasn't isolated—it appeared to be widespread.
Hmm? Another anomaly caught the eye: one of the assassins attacking a target ahead had the exact sa face as their victim.
Wasn't that bizarre? Why would soone disguise themselves as an assassin?
Furthermore, there was a more general abnormality: the heights of the civilians in the previous fra varied, didn't they? So were taller, others shorter.
Yet in the next fra, every civilian's height was uniformly standardized.
Of course, children didn't suddenly grow into adults. But looking around, kids of similar ages also matched the sa specifications—like mass-produced dolls from a modern assembly line, differing only in facial features and attire.
This was even more unsettling.
However, during this montary fluctuation, a portion of people remained entirely unchanged: the assassins causing the chaos and those who had traveled from afar to witness the ceremony.
"Sister, what on earth is going on?"
Though she noticed these discrepancies, Randgriz still couldn't grasp the full picture, so she turned to her sister beside her.
From the faintly upturned corners of her sister's lips—bearing a trace of amusent—it was clear she understood what was happening.
"Do you think the First Emperor forcibly stripped countless people of their flesh, imprisoning their souls within machines instead?"
"Huh? Isn't that the case?"
Her sister's tone suggested otherwise.
If that wasn't the case, then good—Randgriz didn't want to believe in such cruelty, the idea of souls being torn from bodies and bound to machinery, turning them into puppets.
It was utterly horrifying.
"No."
Brunhilde shook her head.
She saw more clearly and knew the truth.
In that fleeting fluctuation, the world had simply been replaced in an instant.
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