"So you agreed," Lin Guang said, "I killed him, and you must befriend ."
"Agreed."
Su Ming’an turned around and walked out.
The City of Gods was an extrely modern city, clad in icy white, filled with devices, but sadly devoid of people. As he had looked down earlier, he had noticed that only a few people resided here.
The building where Lin Guang was located was even more deserted, inhabited only by the cold chanical army and wires pulsing like blood vessels. Su Ming’an had hoped to find so traces left by Ta Wei here, but there were none, indicating that Ta Wei indeed couldn’t invade the current world.
He noticed a painting on the wall. This Western-style painting stood out starkly against the icy white walls. It depicted Yasa Acto, the doctor known for his gentle disposition, whose eyes in this painting were exceptionally fierce. Acto, dressed in a pitch-black combat suit, was backed by a red and black mixed color, densely packed with fragnts, resembling the mountains of corpses and seas of blood on a battlefield.
Did Lin Guang paint this?
"Hold on," Lin Guang’s voice ca from behind, causing Su Ming’an to stop in his tracks, anticipating Lin Guang’s attempt to retain him.
"You don’t need to go."
However, the way Lin Guang retained him seed problematic—he ordered, and suddenly, all gun barrels were aid at Su Ming’an.
"Lewis, today I can kill that Edward. From now on, you won’t need to go anywhere," Lin Guang said.
Looking at the hundreds of gleaming gun barrels around him, the spatial cross light around Su Ming’an paused temporarily.
"You want to make friends with , even against my wishes?" Su Ming’an turned around. "If you force to stay, I won’t consider you a friend. Do you really want to do it this way?"
"Wishes?" Confusion flickered in Lin Guang’s eyes. "What are wishes?"
"..."
Seeing such a fool, Su Ming’an suddenly changed his mind.
"Lin Guang, if I agree to stay and be your friend, can you spare the people of Beacon?" Su Ming’an asked.
"Of course," Lin Guang nodded.
"Then, would you be willing to tell everything you know?" Su Ming’an asked. "For instance, how were you the first to contact the Deity, why did you beco their Agent, and why did you massacre the residents on such a large scale?"
"..."
Lin Guang stood still for a long while.
Dark emotions swirled in his eyes, unrelenting even when facing Su Ming’an, if only sowhat diminished.
The audience watched this scene nervously, worried about Su Ming’an’s behavior of constantly confronting the BOSS and making life-threatening remarks.
Yet Su Ming’an was unruffled.
...He didn’t hear any notification about a decrease in favorability.
Curiously, no matter how he treated Lin Guang—by hacking at, killing, or testing Lin Guang’s limits—Lin Guang’s favorability had never dropped.
Lin Guang took a deep breath.
"Lewis, I can’t tell you any of these things," Lin Guang said. "I can’t say anything."
He stretched out his hand:
"But trust , everything I do is for the future of humanity. I won’t ask for anything more from you, just follow ..."
"You can’t say anything?" Su Ming’an confird.
"I cannot say, no matter what," Lin Guang paused, then said.
Su Ming’an’s gaze gradually faded.
...Then, there was no more information from Lin Guang.
To defeat Lin Guang, gain sovereignty over the City of Gods, and establish the City of asurent—he could then ensure his survival and the completeness of his mission.
As for Lin Guang’s "future of humanity," it likely belonged to a twisted future. Humans relying on Ta Wei, slaughtering their own, living day-to-day in uncertainty, dying from diseases of deficiency... Such a future was simply not suitable.
History also proved Lin Guang’s mistake. Su Ming’an had never seen records of "Lin Guang" or "disease of deficiency" in the histories and at Constantine University, indicating they vanished into the dust of history.
"So," Su Ming’an said.
He had one last move.
"Lin Guang, would you like to leave here with , leave this world?" Su Ming’an also extended his hand to Lin Guang.
The glow of the bleeding sun sprinkled on their hands as they reached out to each other, his palm seeming to brim with a pool of boiling blood.
Lin Guang appeared slightly stunned.
...
"Ding dong!"
[Triggered Third Rank Ruler·"Follower" skill: You can recruit a npc with full favorability as a "Follower" (this action requires consent from the other party).]
...
The mont he heard the system notification, Su Ming’an’s expression slightly crumbled.
It was a casual attempt, yet he hadn’t expected Lin Guang to truly have full favorability—such a thing was unprecedented. What did full favorability imply? Initially, Holy Initiation only had 95 favorability towards Qin Wang, but Lin Guang started with a full 100 favorability points?
He believed Lin Guang’s closeness to him might be the result of so "good deeds" Acto had done thirty years before his disappearance. If he told Lin Guang he was Acto...
"Lin Guang," Su Ming’an hesitated no longer, removing the Wang Han human skin mask from his face, revealing Acto’s visage: "Do you still rember ?"
If he could lure away a faction BOSS and take control of the City of Gods, then Caius Tower would be his playground.
Lin Guang’s eyes flickered.
At that mont, extrely complex emotions collided within the pale depths of his eyes.
..."
He opened his mouth to speak, then closed it, unable to utter a word.
Eventually, his gaze flicked to the wall painting. In the image, Acto in military garb was identical in appearance to the figure before him, draped in a blood-red cloak—
—both were entrenched in blood-red light and shadow. One, amidst mountains of corpses and seas of blood, and the other, beneath the sunlit sky.
"Yasa?" he whispered.
"Hmm." Su Ming’an’s right hand clenched Spatial Vibration.
"Yasa?" Lin Guang asked again.
"It’s ," Su Ming’an gazed at Lin Guang’s expression.
"..." Lin Guang advanced a step, while Su Ming’an slightly retreated half a step.
Lin Guang halted and asked for the third ti, "Yasa?"
"..." Su Ming’an did not respond.
He suddenly felt a sense of crisis, as if countless gazes were fixated on him.
The icy white ground reflected the glaring sun, resembling a pool of blood. He slowly retreated, his footsteps becoming sticky. His blood-red cloak almost rged with the bloody sun, as if he were trapped in a thick sea of blood.
Before him, the white-haired young man also stood amidst the blood, his eyes vacant.
"But I don’t rember you."
At last, Lin Guang said that. He raised his hand, then let it drop, finally shaking his head in confusion, his voice trembling, "I only rember your face and na..."
Countless iron pipes were connected to him. As he moved, they dragged along like long snakes, making the whole building seem to tremble.
...
[NPC (Lin Guang) has declined your "Follower" invitation.]
...
"I’m leaving."
Su Ming’an imdiately said, turning around to leave. Since ascending to Fourth Rank, he had developed a sixth sense-like vague foreboding. He felt that if he stayed any longer, things would turn sour.
He could confirm—Lin Guang was also afflicted with the "Missing" syndro, and it was one of the most severe cases. This might be a thod used by Ta Wei to constrain Lin Guang. After all, Lin Guang was the strongest Agent. If Lin Guang chose to defy Ta Wei, the latter, unable to truly invade the world, would face a severe setback.
With too little information, Su Ming’an could not speculate whether his actions were right or wrong.
If only the ti for rewinding were longer, the choices more free...
He wouldn’t be so exhausted.
He covered himself with spatial concealnt and left. Lin Guang did not stop him, and thousands of chanical soldiers remained still.
Before leaving, Su Ming’an specifically observed the layout of the City of Gods, preparing for future conquests of this place.
—Since Lin Guang wouldn’t talk, he would find his own way out, like, overthrowing the deity camp’s rule.
Before he flew toward the sky, a lodious flute lody emanated from behind him.
Lin Guang held the flute that he had played during their walk that night, playing a lancholic tune.
"This piece is called ’Missing,’" Lin Guang said.
"Missing?" Su Ming’an was slightly startled; coincidentally, the piano piece he had played at Constantine University was also called "Missing."
He no longer lingered, boarded his wheelchair, and flew away from this cold city.
Only Lin Guang stood quietly at the doorway, countless iron pipes dragging his body, confining him within the building. He put down the flute, his gaze intensely following the figure flying farther away.
The figure rged with the blood sun, like a burning starfire.
"Goodbye, Lewis. You really are a good person," Lin Guang said.
...
Following the coordinates from Scarlet Bird, Su Ming’an found the location of Beacon. The current Beacon had evacuated from Zone Eleven and was staying at a gathering spot in the outer regions.
Zone Eleven was under the rule of the deity Agent "Noah." Sen pondered for a long ti before deciding to evacuate everyone.
What surprised Su Ming’an was — although this gathering place was small, it had everything necessary. According to Tretiya, it had been a retreat prepared after the Century Catastrophe thirty years ago, intended as a Safe Zone to prevent their complete eradication.
"Did you foresee that we might fall to our current state, needing to wage war against the invaders, and thus established this gathering area?"
After touring the gathering area with Tretiya, Su Ming’an asked.
"After all, your identity is too important. I had to consider how we would fight the invaders if you weren’t here," Tretiya said softly, "Fortunately, you’ve returned, and we can start from here."
Her eyes always shone brightly, looking at him as if looking at hope.
Su Ming’an began to arrange strategies.
Currently, the Beacon mbers totaled 1,899, with a number having died in a previous rubble explosion. He mapped out the distribution of Combat Power among the people, assigning high Combat Power individuals to lead those with lower Combat Power and forming squads for reconnaissance of the surrounding areas.
Water resources were not a problem for now. Previously, Xia Sheng had found an underground river, which could still be used for a while.
Lu also offered so suggestions, having a background as an arms dealer and so understanding of war. Under Lu’s planning, Beacon’s combat system was gradually divided into the Combat, Reconnaissance, Resource, and Living departnts, managing warfare and patrols, intelligence and external trade, resource mining and storage, and everyday life managent and dical care. They were organized into different combat groups led by people like Xia Sheng, Rong Yuan, Joslin, and Camilla.
The top hierarchy consisted of Su Ming’an and Sen Kylstia, followed by Xia Sheng’s Combat departnt, Rin’s Reconnaissance departnt, Tretiya’s Resource departnt, and Lu Sa’s Living departnt.
However, these could not change the huge gap between Beacon and the Deity’s camp. The real decisive factor lay with Su Ming’an.
What surprised Su Ming’an was that Tretiya, Rong Yuan, and Rin, the organizers of the night eting, were indeed not so simple. After officially deciding to go to war, Tretiya set out to contact her forr subordinates. Rong Yuan unearthed a pile of stored tals from underground, while Rin indicated that she had people in the trading areas of the eight neighboring zones.
Su Ming’an’s decision was indeed correct. Although Beacon looked impoverished, and actually was impoverished, the presence of Tretiya’s trio was enough to make up for the deficiencies — they’d been preparing for war ever since Acto disappeared, and they were fully prepared.
Previously, during their eting, Tretiya had ntioned that she, Acto, and seven others had experienced the Century Catastrophe together.
Su Ming’an guessed that these nine people were the ones from the night eting. The Century Catastrophe had endowed them with extraordinary powers.
The comprehensive score of Beacon rapidly soared to 3,500, only missing Su Ming’an turning these tals into weapons and further expanding the domain.
He had Luna lead a team to construct a Barrier wall, so there would be a physical wall, preventing being surrounded from all sides.
That day, he gave multiple speeches to the people, collecting Emotional Value to construct the Lamb Barrier — he had discovered that his own thods, while capable of killing enemies in large-scale wars, were strategically less useful than the Lamb Barrier, which could at least protect this domain.
This way... even if the day was up and Lin Guang and his chanical Army arrived, they wouldn’t just end the war with a missile bombardnt.
From morning till night, as darkness fell, Su Ming’an, having talked all day, sat next to the Command Post to rest.
At that mont, Xia Sheng rushed over.
"How is everything?" Su Ming’an scrolled through the panel. The one day given by Lin Guang was too short; he had done everything he could today. It was too cold at night, so everything had to be paused for now, and the war would officially start tomorrow.
"..." Xia Sheng coughed.
Su Ming’an looked up.
"Lord, the head of the Reconnaissance departnt, Rin, has sent the latest news," Xia Sheng said. "Currently, it is known that the Deity’s camp has three major legions of the chanical Army, not less than 300,000 in number. High-level intelligent chanical Army units exceed a thousand. In terms of weapon resources, the Deity’s camp has over 300,000 firearms, over ten thousand cannons, over ten thousand tanks and gun-carriages, and the number of missiles is unknown but not less than a thousand. In preliminary calculations, including the human soldiers who have sided with the Deity’s camp, our enemies should number over 500,000."
"Hmm," Su Ming’an nodded. This armant level was within his expectations, "What about us?"
Xia Sheng coughed again.
"Our combat mbers total 487. We have 800 usable firearms, 3 cannons, no tanks for now, and the gun-carriages are not yet made. Missiles... zero," Xia Sheng said.
Su Ming’an: "... Uh."
"Lord, don’t be disheartened. As long as each of us kills a thousand enemies, we can win the war," Xia Sheng obviously struggled with words.
Su Ming’an: "..."
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