[Instance Activation, Day 11 · 2022/1/28]
The Deity Faction had ruled for a long ti, and people had long harbored hatred towards it.
Slaughter, executions, oppression of faith, and discrimination by level... The Deity Faction’s series of actions had left the population in constant fear.
While the rulers had the most powerful Source and chanical Armies at their disposal, the ordinary residents could only guard their barren fields with no guarantee of survival, and scenes of them selling their sons and daughters or exchanging children for food were commonplace.
Trapped in such a life, the people were powerless to change it.
——However, one day, a genius erged out of nowhere.
He created a chanical culture that surpassed the world’s current stage of progress, ard the abandoned "lower class," and launched a counterattack.
Renad "Doomsday City," District Eleven called upon the human hero Yasa Acto, urging humanity to stand up and resist, no longer to be oppressed by the rule of the deities.
Once the flas of war ignited, the world fell into chaos.
The "Lighthouse Church’s" missionary work and the omnipresent live broadcasts ignited a spark of rebellion in so of the numb residents, and under the influence of the Missionary Halo and the "Faith" passive, countless people began to migrate and assemble armies.
From the First to the Tenth District of the Deity Faction, no one wanted to be the first to attack Doomsday City, reluctant to be the expendable pawn in a thankless job.
They intended to stop residents from listening to Acto’s broadcasts but were unable to sever the connection to all electronic devices. Each major area had to implent temporary regional bans to prevent an outflow of people.
Among them, the Lord of the Second Zone announced a unique stance, declaring outright "rebellion!" and becoming the first area amongst the top ten to betray the Deity Faction.
The Second Zone decided to attack the nearest territory—the gathering spot of the Third Zone. The extrely vicious Lord of the Second Zone even announced intentions to personally assassinate the Lord of the Third Zone, frightening the Third Zone Lord into fleeing with family overnight.
years after the Century Catastrophe, on January 29th, the Freedom Faction established several new gathering spots outside, protected by the Lamb Barrier, and appointed Tretiya, Lu, and Sen as Lords. They ford armies called "Dawn Army," "Beacon Army," and "Fla."
Che Kylstia and Luo Kylstia led their warbands to pledge allegiance, and multiple player armies, upon hearing of the establishnt of Doomsday City, followed the tide of history to lend aid in battle.
At the sa ti, the City of Gods issued a decree. The Ruler of the Seventh District decided to ally with the nearby Sixth and Eighth Zones, intending to attack the satellite gathering spots of Doomsday City from two sides, cutting off the wings of the Freedom Faction.
This news was intercepted midway by Xike and delivered to the command post of Doomsday City.
Inside the command post, a eting was in progress.
"Without the use of nuclear weapons and large-scale thermal strikes, in this near-ancient style of large-scale war, information is the key to victory," Xia Sheng said from across the long table.
"We hold the information advantage unless the Deity Faction employs so special powers," Che Kylstia explained from the side.
The warbands had already gathered in Doomsday City. Regarding City Lord Acto of Doomsday City, the warriors had mixed feelings.
They still disliked Acto but didn’t believe that the Acto from Caius Tower was the original Acto from the City of asurent; they just saw this Acto as a product simulated by Caius Tower.
Thinking this, they considered stopping Acto from modifying the Dawn System. Without the Dawn System, there would be no Type 8 Personas 70 years later in the City of asurent, and none of the conflicts would happen.
It was with this thought in mind that the warbands joined Doomsday City.
Of course, Che was an exception; he knew that this Acto was indeed the original from the City of asurent.
In the eting room, Doomsday City was discussing future strategies, and as a descendant of Sen, Su Ming’an was pulled into this discussion by Che.
"Will the Deity Faction resort to using special powers?" asked Joslin from the intelligence departnt: "Are you referring to a channel for information transmission that can’t be hacked electronically?"
"Yes," Che replied: "Many of my subordinates have mastered magical powers. So can send Spirit Beasts with ssages, so can teleport over long distances, and so can even conjure food and weapons out of thin air. These are unpredictable factors in war."
Su Ming’an sat at the end of the long table, silently listening to their discussion.
"No need for such trouble," he said.
At the sound of his voice, everyone fell silent.
"From a global perspective, the Deity’s faction is very powerful, but locally, their structure is quite loose," Su Ming’an said. "The ten districts fight on their own, following a command system where the Lord’s orders are absolute, and there isn’t even a council to distribute power. In such a case, once a Lord is killed, the entire region will fall into chaos."
"But we can’t kill any of the Lords from districts one to ten," Xia Sheng frowned. "The defense scale and weapon level of the Deity’s faction are far superior to ours, even with the technology you’ve left behind. It would take us at least five years to catch up, not to ntion infiltrate their territories and kill a Lord..."
"There’s no need for a head-on attack," Su Ming’an said. "I will just assassinate those Lords. As soon as one ascends to power, I will kill him. That way, no one will dare to issue commands anymore."
With his Spatial Concealnt domain, and the combination of Teleport Judgnt skills, he was practically a shadow with no trail, the chanical Army couldn’t capture a trace of him, making him the most suitable for assassinating the Lords.
However, to his surprise, when he proposed this decent plan, it t unanimous opposition.
"I disagree!" Xia Sheng shouted loudly.
"Absolutely not." That was the voice of Rong Yuan.
Even Che, Joslin, Maxia, and others shook their heads in turn.
"The techniques of my Three Domains have all been fully docunted. All you need to do is learn them. Even if I am absent from Doomsday City for the ti being, there won’t be any problems," Su Ming’an said.
"No way, no way," Rong Yuan’s head shook like a rattle-drum.
"Since when does a City Lord personally go out to assassinate..." Ali from the Resources Departnt said helplessly.
"Are you expecting us to dig you out of the hibernation capsule again?" Shi said coldly, "If you die, we’ll be completely finished."
Dr. Aceto was a symbolic figure of the Freedom Faction; moreover, he was seen as the embodint of the world’s will. Layer upon layer of halos rested upon him, placing him in a position where retreat was no longer an option. If he were to die, it would be a catastrophic blow to humanity.
Apart from Dr. Aceto, people wouldn’t follow anyone else; if he died, it was only a matter of ti before this place would descend into the sa kind of factionalism as the Deity’s faction.
"Hmm, hmm..." Su Ming’an appeared unconcerned on the surface and didn’t raise the matter again.
However, when night fell and Xia Sheng ca knocking with a map, he discovered that Su Ming’an’s room was already empty.
"—The City Lord has run off!" Xia Sheng’s shout was almost piercing.
...
"Shhh."
A silent glow dimd as Su Ming’an silently appeared in the residence of the Lord of District Seven, invisible even to infrared detection.
The [Spatial Concealnt] skill was vastly different from the Invisibility skill of assassin-type Players, being more than twice as high in positional rank. During the concealnt process, not even his footsteps or the sound of the wind would be left behind, because this skill created a small space around him that didn’t affect anything in the outside world.
The Amber Knife spun around his wrist; he aid at the bulging bed inside the room, confird the face of the assassination target, and then thrust the knife downwards!
Blood spread out, thrusting into the throat, District Seven’s Lord Ming Chen couldn’t even invoke "Source" before he was assassinated in his bed.
"Cough, cough..." Ming Chen made a sound in his throat, he looked in shock at Su Ming’an as the Spatial Concealnt faded, catching a glimpse of Su Ming’an’s face.
—He knew who Su Ming’an was.
This face lit up on all kinds of electronic devices daily, spreading bizarre tales of Lighthouse adventures and plundering the faith of the Deity’s faction.
This was Yasa Acto... Why would he co to assassinate him personally? This was taking things too far!
Ming Chen let out a few "cough, cough" noises like an old hen and died on the bed.
As his life signs disappeared, the detectors in the room picked up the change, and Su Ming’an heard the piercing alarms outside; District Seven plunged into martial law.
A glaring light shone through the window, attempting to capture his form.
But the next mont, he was once again cloaked in Spatial Concealnt, vanished from the room.
With the [Spatial Concealnt] skill, he had evolved from a space-class Mage to a Mage-Assassin, and with the added critical hits of the Weakness Insight skill’s red circle, few could escape his assassinations.
"Whoosh!" Just as the sky was beginning to show the first light of dawn, the Lord of the Ninth District was also killed by his blade.
[Kill the Lord of the Ninth District (Mu Lin), Exp 3000!]
[Current Faction Contribution Points: 13500 points.]
...
Su Ming’an, feeling pleased, sheathed his knife and once again slipped away under the cover of spatial concealnt.
As people woke up in the dawn, they found their lord dead in his bed.
Before the wrath of the City of Gods could strike, the Freedom Faction decided to contract their front lines, no longer engaging in direct confrontation with other districts. Taking advantage of the natural defenses ford by exotic beasts and barriers, Doomsday City entered a period of rapid developnt.
Just when Su Ming’an was planning to head to District Eight to continue his assassinations, a system prompt popped up.
Everything around him suddenly ca to a halt, even the moving figures, at that instant, froze in ti.
...
"Ding-dong!"
[The Dawn War · Initiation Phase has been completed, as the initiator, please decide whether to enter a rest period? (If you want to experience a complete Caius Tower, please choose to enter the rest period.)]
[The rest period will be ten hours, and you will be automatically transported back to Caius Tower after ten hours.]
...
"Enter," Su Ming’an said.
The rules ntioned a rest period for players, allowing them to briefly return to the City of asurent. It was just in ti as his wheelchair’s ammunition had run out, and he could replenish it.
A flash of white light appeared, and he vanished from the spot.
...
——"Doctor, Doctor."
The soft voice of Xike calling out awoke Su Ming’an; he opened his eyes to find himself at the entrance of a dilapidated building within the ruins of Central City, where ginkgo leaves were fluttering down.
In the upper right of his field of vision was a countdown tir [09:59:59], indicating that in ten hours, he would return to Caius Tower.
He tentatively moved his legs, and indeed, he was still disabled; upon returning to the City of asurent, he was once again the crippled and coughing blood Dr. Acto.
This rest period was designated for everyone; all players were transported back to the City of asurent, waiting for ten hours before they returned to Caius Tower together.
"Xike, back to the Central Lab," he said to Xike.
Ti was of the essence, and he needed to refill his ammunition.
"Sure thing," Xike prepared to teleport.
Su Ming’an looked at the sealed-off Central City, the street littered with ginkgo leaves, deserted.
...On second thought, even though he was within the bounds of Central City, why could he only see this one deserted building? Where exactly were the Central Lab, Tereya, Mrs. la, Dong Xu, Xu Dong, Qin Shaoli, and the others? Was so sort of spatial concealnt technology at play here that prevented him from seeing the lab even though he was right here?
Every ti he moved from the Central City Lab to the City of asurent, it required Xike’s spatial ring adjustnt to co and go.
He stared at the dilapidated building, which he rembered well——he had stayed there for one night on the top floor during his negotiations with Dawn, and the building was empty, long abandoned. The central control room of the Dawn System was at the very top, and the basent was full of countless Acto skeletons, with dust and cobwebs everywhere.
Strange,
——had he overlooked sothing?
——was there any clue that he missed?
He recalled that fifth night in the ruins, when he used the Dawn Code as leverage to negotiate with Dawn, refusing the personality transformation plan.
In front of the candlelit dinner prepared by Dawn, he was curious about the empty building.
...
["Where are the other humans here?" Despite the tempting al before him, Su Ming’an couldn’t help but ask this question.]
["They have been gone for a long ti. An accident happened here before, and... most of them moved away," Dawn said.]
...
Su Ming’an’s brows furrowed deeper.
At that mont, Xike’s voice sounded, "Doctor, preparation is complete, preparing to transport you to the Central Lab."
A rise of white light enveloped Su Ming’an.
After the teleportation finished, he reached the Central City Lab but felt his mouth moving.
——At that mont, he heard his own voice:
"——The [Dawn] intelligence system categorized humanity into eight main personas based on a person’s nature and psychological state, quantified their abilities scientifically, and thus established a new order..."]
He opened his eyes to see a large classroom and a sea of heads.
People sat obediently in the classroom, looking up in unison, gazing at him earnestly and admiringly.
He looked down to find himself seated at the lecturer’s desk, holding various docunts, as if giving a lecture.
A young assistant teacher next to him, with a worried expression, approached him and steadied him:
..."Are you okay? Is there anything wrong with your health?"
Seeing that Su Ming’an seed a bit dazed, the assistant teacher restrained his movents and gently shook his shoulder:
...
..."Dr. Acto?"
...
...
[On the night of the fifth day of instance activation, Su Ming’an once pretended to hold the Dawn Code to negotiate with the Dawn System, refusing the persona transformation program.]
[After the negotiation ended, Su Ming’an wandered around the ruins of the building.]
[As he was to go to Constantine University to be a music teacher the next day, he temporarily stayed here that night.]
[This ruined building was covered in dust and had been abandoned for a long ti; many rooms had collapsed, and so spaces were even remodeled, yet while he wandered, he always felt the structure of the building was eerily familiar.]
[——A sense of déjà vu.]
[As with the hippocampal effect, humans might suddenly feel in real life that they "have experienced a certain scene sowhere before," evoking a feeling of "it seems familiar."]
[...]
[Déjà vu?]
...
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