Chapter 403
The Prison Gates Open
Chapter 403 The Prison Gates Open (Seeking Monthly Tickets)
"Are you really going to leave?"
Many of the world's major events happen at moments when we are least prepared.
While all the upper echelons were focused on the momentous event of the Golden Clan Grand Duke's promotion, some unnoticed figures were also making difficult choices.
For example, Zhang, Li, Wang, and Zhao, who are known as the Four Heavenly Kings of Qinggang.
The four of them, who were once seen as possessing immense power and almost omnipotent by all the enforcers and investigators in Qinggang, have recently begun to feel an invisible pressure. As the situation in Qinggang becomes turbulent, although they have been excluded from the power struggle, they have also clearly perceived the consequences of this struggle.
Of course, I understand in my heart that I need to make a choice.
What happened in Qinggang was a war, where the winner takes all, but sometimes the losers also receive respect.
But it cannot tolerate those who waver between the two sides, nor can it tolerate those who want to remain independent of the war.
Of course, in a war, not many people actually have the ability to make choices, but the Four Heavenly Kings are still among them.
Of the four, Zhang Chiguo was the most resolute.
He had promised Han Su to investigate the kidnapping case to the end, and coupled with his previous experience of having his values shattered and then rebuilt, he now possessed a composure that others did not have.
Sitting in this teahouse in the heart of Qinggang City, he silently drank his tea, as if he were seeing off three old friends.
"It's not a question of whether we should leave or not."
Faced with Zhang Chiguo's calm question, Wang Fotuo gave a wry smile and said, "That little girl named An Wei is young, but her methods are incredibly ruthless."
"She not only wants to take over Qinggang, but also to completely control the Disaster Management Bureau and the secret prisons in our hands."
"So she has only just gained power and she already has the intention of forcing us to choose sides. It's still early and she is still being polite to us, but I'm afraid that she has endured for too long in order to gain power. Now that she has power in her hands, she will inevitably lose patience. If it drags on for a few more days, she may not even give us the right to choose."
"Of course, I will first make a statement..."
He paused for a moment, then looked up and said, “Of course I don’t know how these young people got together, or why they are so ambitious and bold as to challenge those above them. But I will not be their enemy. So, the choice before me is either to stay and stand on their side, or to leave!”
And you all?
"...Apart from Lao Zhang, are you planning to leave or stay?"
"..."
"Leaving means giving up everything we've painstakingly built in Qinggang, our independent laboratory, and the secret prison we've been guarding for years."
"And staying means that we will stand with a group of crazy young people, and strive upwards..."
Zhao Fantian opened his mouth, but only said half of it before rolling his eyes upwards and falling silent.
“I know you are all filled with conflicting feelings, but I still feel it is necessary to remind you.”
Zhang Chiguo, who had been silent all along, spoke up at this moment: "You are not only facing the question of whether to leave or stay. The three of you have a good reputation and reputation among independent investigators, or rather, you are capable. I suppose there are other cities that would be willing to accept you. But if you go to other cities, it is not necessarily the same that you can gain the trust of the city and obtain the right to conduct independent investigations."
"Even if we were to give you this independent investigator position, you would still be ranked behind everyone else."
"Of course, there's another unavoidable problem: we know very well that many cities and secret societies want what we possess. Here, we can remain experimental subjects, but in new places, if someone suggests that you hand over this knowledge, or even ask you to cooperate in some substance extraction experiments..."
"...What would you do?"
"..."
These words caused the three people present to frown slightly, and they remained silent for a long time, but the answer was already forming in their hearts.
"Also, I need to say something unpleasant upfront."
Zhang Chiguo added a decisive weight: "The four of us are lucky. We have obtained knowledge that we should not have had, and we have made further progress in the Scarlet Sequence. The division of our Gold Cells can reach four or even five times... But don't forget that I shared this knowledge with you, and the one who gave me this knowledge was the child at the center of the vortex."
"If one day you are prepared to give up all your knowledge in order to secure a peaceful corner of the world, please remember not to give it to your enemies."
"Otherwise, you will be..."
"..."
"No need to say anything, Lao Zhang."
Suddenly, Lee Moses, who had been expressionless, spoke, his eyes rolling back, revealing a pair of piercingly sharp eyes beneath his calm face.
He gave a cold laugh and said, "No one is truly oblivious. Over the years, we've turned a blind eye to this kidnapping case in Qinggang and the Abyss Studio that has been lurking around Qinggang, precisely because we've guessed who's behind them. We're unwilling to stay in Qinggang any longer because we don't want to get involved in his struggle with those people..."
“We all have to admit that at the beginning, no one thought that this child could get to this point.”
"Of course, I never expected Qinggang to fall into the hands of a crazy girl."
"The issue being discussed this time is quite simple: to stay or to leave, how should we choose?"
"If we had decided from the beginning to be enemies with these crazy young people, this discussion would not have happened."
"..."
"Even if you've made up your mind now, what's the point?"
Wang Fotu suddenly laughed twice and said, "Others may not understand those nobles, but we do, because our goal has always been to become itinerant knights."
“We know how difficult it is to stand out among so many independent investigators and be selected by the Guardians, and we also know how terrifying the boost to strength will be once selected.”
"But these powerful itinerant knights are all private soldiers protecting the interests of those nobles, and their numbers are beyond our imagination."
"There are only four of us, four insignificant people. Are we, the four of us, supposed to make the decision to fight against that enormous force? Gentlemen, this is not a question of how to choose."
"It's a question of life or death!"
"..."
At this point, his phone suddenly rang, but he was too excited to pay attention. He simply glanced at the three people in the room and said, "Just like how we can control the mutants in those secret prisons, it's not because our individual strength is enough to crush them all, but because the sheer volume of knowledge we possess can deliver a devastating blow to them."
“We understand all their weaknesses and habits, and we control their groups, so we have become their superior beings.”
"But this world is divided into classes. In our eyes, secret prisons hold a group of prisoners. In the eyes of those nobles, how much better are people like us?"
Zhang Chiguo listened to his words, his face darkening, but he seemed too lazy to say anything more.
Just then, his phone rang, so he looked down and took it out.
"That's true..."
Zhao Fantian also sighed, "Everyone, I have resigned myself to my fate."
"My core principle is patience, but sometimes when people endure to the extreme, they develop an intuition that transcends time and space."
"I have a premonition that my training in endurance may be endless."
"When I visit these cities as an independent investigator, I feel like everyone in these cities lives in a giant glass dome."
"And when we look at our civilization and our world with this intuition, we actually have the same feeling."
Li Moses suddenly looked up at Zhao Fantian, a half-smile on his face: "So you plan to keep enduring this?"
His phone rang, but in this atmosphere, he naturally had no time to check it.
Even if it was something important, his subordinates would still make a phone call.
Zhao Fantian originally wanted to nod, but due to a strange emotion, he actually held back.
"Of course we have to endure it, we have to keep enduring it..."
Wang Fotuo picked up on his words and laughed, saying, "I'm only certain that the accident that led the four of us down this crimson path back then was perhaps deliberately arranged by someone. In order to adapt to this sequence, I did a lot of research and published some papers on the Black Table, but do you know the results of those papers after they were published?"
He chuckled self-deprecatingly and said, "A year ago, I went to Zhen Dan City on a business trip and met a young man. He came over at a party, clinked glasses with me, and we started chatting."
"Then he mentioned my paper, and in just a few sentences, he completely refuted the results of my painstaking research. But in the end, he even smiled and claimed that what I researched wasn't actually that useless; he had noted down a few good points and hoped that I would continue my research, perhaps with a chance to touch upon the truth..."
"..."
His voice grew softer and softer as he spoke, until it reached its lowest point, then he asked again, "Truth?"
"Damn it, this guy casually took my most important thing and then he even had the hell to mock me!"
"What does this mean? It means that they already possessed a much larger and more profound knowledge system."
"This shows that our struggle and survival are just an experiment waiting to be observed in their eyes, and we are just guinea pigs for them to record data."
"Now that we're the guinea pigs, we actually have such a tiny bit of wishful thinking, wanting to fight against that observer. We're really..."
He smiled wryly: "That's really overestimating myself."
"..."
Ding Ding Ding!
His phone rang, and it rang several times, but he was too caught up in his emotions to pay attention.
"and many more……"
Zhang Chiguo stared intently at his phone, then hesitated before speaking.
"If you really think you're just a guinea pig, why are you throwing such a tantrum?"
Li Moses gave Wang Fotuo a strange look, though he had agreed with everyone's suggestion to leave together. He had kept a straight face the whole time.
Now that everyone is gradually getting emotional, his expression has improved a lot.
Ignoring Zhang Chiguo, who was playing on his phone while chatting, he said softly, "Of course I've investigated as well, and I know there's a family in this world that's been researching the Crimson Power system."
"Of course, unlike your self-pity, I think the four of us are all remarkable people." "We survived that accident, and we maintained our willpower through countless long periods of pollution. I'm quite certain that we are actually among the world's top geniuses. But saying this makes it seem a bit ridiculous that we can only cower in a small place like Qinggang, and even the gates of the Traveling Knights won't open to us?"
"Looking at the whole world, how many people like us are also living a life of frustration and resentment?"
"..."
His curly hair trembled slightly, and a faint blush rose to his pale cheeks: "So, gentlemen, staying is certainly not a wise move..."
"but……"
"..."
"and many more……"
Just as his emotions were about to reach a fever pitch, Zhang Chiguo suddenly interrupted him again.
His voice was rather loud.
The people in the room immediately turned to look at him, their expressions somewhat displeased.
Zhang Chiguo suddenly looked up, his gaze almost reluctant to leave his phone screen, and swept over Wang Fotuo with intense emotion:
"So you think you should be a guinea pig in the experiment?"
He then looked at Zhao Fantian: "Do you think you can continue to endure this?"
Finally, he looked at Lee Moses and said, "You think you're a genius, but are destined to continue being mediocre?"
The three of them suddenly felt a bit stifled, wanting to say something but unable to get it out: "That's what we meant?"
“We clearly…”
"..."
"Then you can continue thinking like that!"
Zhang Chiguo suddenly stood up abruptly, even waving his hand excitedly: "The world's格局 (geju, a concept encompassing both structure and overall situation) is about to change!"
"You guys continue your discussion... Anyway, the world doesn't need a few more of you."
"..."
After he finished speaking, he hurriedly walked outside.
Three people were left behind, all looking extremely awkward.
Everyone knew that Zhang Chiguo's purpose in coming here was to persuade the three of them not to leave, and even to help him investigate the kidnapping case.
Although the three of them had just spoken in a disheartening manner, their emotions had already been stirred up, and he only needed to say a few more words of encouragement... What kind of person is this? Why didn't he even offer a word of advice?
"wrong……"
In their astonishment, someone suddenly realized what was happening, hurriedly took out their phone to check, and immediately gasped in shock.
"This thing..."
"..."
The other two also realized what was happening and quickly took out their phones, looking at the compressed file in their inbox that someone had sent to them.
After quickly decompressing the files, looking at the detailed data inside, I felt an overwhelming surge of excitement rushing to my brain.
The oppression and resentment I just mentioned all converged into a disorienting sense of unreality about the world:
"...No, really?"
"..."
"..."
"So, Miss Ai, what kind of impact do you think this information will have on those nobles if it is made public?"
In Lin Yuan City, Han Su was curiously asking Miss Ai, "How many people dare to touch this forbidden knowledge?"
"This matter is difficult to assess."
Miss Ai replied softly, "All I know is that there are countless intelligent people, ambitious people, greedy and hardworking people in this world."
"There are so many of these people that you can run into several even if you just go downstairs to buy a pack of cigarettes."
"And within this prison of civilization, the twelve races and the guardians of the world have been relentlessly suppressing, blocking, exploiting, and disrespecting them."
"They have built the world into a breeding ground for reality, and viewed this civilization as a prison. So, once the prison doors begin to open, the world will surely give them a big surprise."
Han Su smiled and said, "Then what we can do is open the prison doors even wider..."
At this moment, he was sitting in a building near Jinshui Manor in Linyuan City. He did not go to Jinshui Manor in any capacity, but in this city completely under Miss Ai's control, he could know in time about everything that was happening. Even the surveillance cameras that covered an entire wall next to him were showing the scene of the promotion ceremony of the Grand Duke of the Golden Clan.
To some extent, he suddenly felt that the scene was somewhat familiar, as if he were in the secret cell of the Void Palace.
During the ceremony, Xu Ji emerged from the dark room, but he held his head high, refusing to greet anyone and glancing sideways at everyone.
The red carpet was already filled with guests from all sides who had come to witness the ceremony.
All the candidates who had participated in this promotion ceremony, as well as the marquises and earls of the Golden Clan, crowded at the front, totaling more than thirty.
This is also the key to managing the relics.
It is extremely rare for a member of the Gold Race to lift a relic directly, but when there are enough members of the Gold Race present, it can be activated directly.
Han Su didn't understand this before, but now he does. It's because when there are more nobles, a kind of ancestral material aggregation effect will occur. As for the key to the success of this ritual, it is that after the relic is activated, the Grand Duke needs to completely control the pen with his personal will in this state and keep it in the activated state.
This is also why the various families don't want to see a stranger promoted to Grand Duke.
That means the Grand Duke will have the ability to mobilize or even modify Contract 02 at any time, and the whole world must respect this power.
However, it's not feasible to prevent him from taking charge, because Contract No. 02 has been broken for two and a half days and urgently needs repair.
As a result, what would happen when Xuqi was truly promoted to Grand Duke became a question of great concern to everyone present.
At the head of the table, all the nobles of the Golden Clan had gathered together, their hands clasped together in a somewhat comical gesture, surrounding Xu Ji in the center. Then, their voices rose from low to high as they chanted their family's secret incantation. Below, countless people craned their necks and stared intently ahead at this crucial moment.
"Did you see that?"
In the monitoring room, Han Su had already taken out the crystal skull and gently placed his palm on it, where a strange and dazzling light flowed like water.
Miss Ai's voice rang out, seemingly tinged with concern.
Tick-tock!
In his other hand, Han Su gently held the No. 05 mechanical fragment. His eyes were empty as he felt the dense flow of information. Even with a crystal skull as a transit point and the information extraction range strictly controlled within the small Jinshui Manor, he still felt the intense impact of the massive amount of information on his brain.
He subtly achieved a spiritual resonance with everyone present, thus easily gaining their insights.
For example, Xu Ji said: "Damn, the vibration is so strong, won't this little thing explode?"
For example, those earls of the Golden Family: "If things go well, will our titles be promoted by one rank?"
"Hmm... Although this Grand Duke is domineering, he is still young. If I can control him, I will be the Grand Duke..."
Furthermore, they sensed that among the spectators below the stage, several people were already prepared to die, plotting to unleash a powerful attack on Xu Ji at a crucial moment to completely eliminate the hidden danger.
Han Su caught these key signs of hostility and immediately made a plan. The "reality modification" function of mechanical fragment No. 05 sounded mysterious, but in fact, it was the simplest in principle among the mechanical fragments. It was to distort people's minds invisibly to make the overall situation understandable. However, this distortion was extremely technical.
First, his mental distortion must not be too obvious, otherwise the other party will notice.
Ideally, the other person should already have similar tendencies in their mental state for the process to proceed smoothly and achieve the desired effect.
Furthermore, the more categories one distorts about something, the greater the pressure on oneself becomes.
For example, writing one hundred "王" characters in a row is extremely simple, but when writing "王" and then casually writing "张" (Zhang), the difficulty increases exponentially.
Now...
Through the crystal skull, he gained astonishing computational abilities, and naturally, he immediately made a calculation: "These assassins, ambushed by various forces, each have different identities, wills, and reasons for risking their lives here. It's impossible to target and twist them one by one. However, these different people all share the same emotion..."
"fear death!"
"..."
No matter the reason for their arrival, once these assassins make their move, there is only one outcome: they will pay the price with their lives.
No matter how loyal or how strong the motivation to do this, the pursuit of life will not change.
When it comes to making a move, there's bound to be some fear.
No one can truly control anyone else. Those families can send these people to their deaths, but they can't change the fact that these people still have some survival instincts in their hearts.
"Then let them be even more afraid..."
Han Su made a decision instantly, and then his mental power surged, flowing into the No. 05 mechanical fragment in strands.
In that instant, a powerful thought entered the minds of the assassins unnoticed. At that moment, they nervously saw that the golden pen was already activated. In this critical instant, they suddenly stood up, ready to make their move. But then, their hearts skipped a beat, and an extremely subtle idea arose in their minds...
"I'm not the only one here who's going to make a move. Maybe we can wait for someone else to make the first move?"
"He killed his target first, so wouldn't I be..."
"...Can he survive?"
(End of this chapter)