Chapter 52: Eye Chamber Activation
On the basement wall, the recording left by Mr. J continued to play. In the video, Mr. J wore a metal mask, his voice betraying no gender.
"Don't dwell on which world we fought in. As the loser, I have nothing to boast about. However, that painful lesson taught me that combat requires talent, especially melee combat. Clearly, I have no talent in that area, so I won't appear before you again. That would be a very foolish choice."
Mr. J sounded somewhat self-deprecating, pausing for a moment before continuing.
"Oh, I almost forgot to thank you. If you hadn't blown up the Ghost Ring's base camp, I wouldn't have had this opportunity. Sincere thanks."
Mr. J bowed slightly, his gaze seemingly mocking everyone he saw.
"That's it?"
With a crack, Su Xiao crushed the energy emission device. He already knew why Mr. J had lured him here. It wasn't to set a trap nearby, but because the man needed an audience.
For someone like Mr. J, one couldn't judge his actions by ordinary standards. Clearly, Mr. J's plan was about to succeed, so he invited Su Xiao, his opponent, to this place to 'share' a small part of the completed plan, with no other special intentions.
Su Xiao pushed open the basement door and climbed the stairs back to the ground.
Zul City was as bustling as ever, but the Eye Chamber was about to be successfully activated. As for where it would be deployed, the intelligence provided by Madam Nancy indicated the Central Street district, at least affecting the Parliament Palace.
Evacuating civilians from a large urban area wasn't difficult, but doing so was meaningless. The Eye Chamber would shift positions after being attacked and could quickly reassemble into a summoning array. In other words, unless the over 6 million civilians within Zul City were evacuated, massive civilian casualties were unavoidable.
This was impossible within just a few days. This wasn't the modern era; there was no real-time communication. Evacuating 6 million people in a world with relatively closed communication channels was almost equivalent to deliberately inciting a riot.
A large-scale evacuation would absolutely cause panic. If a problem arose in even a small area, the military would need to suppress it. The resulting chain reaction would likely mean that before the evacuation was complete, unofficial organizations, commonly known as rebel armies, would appear within Zul City.
Civilians weren't livestock to be herded wherever one pleased. Fear stemmed from the unknown. The Empire couldn't possibly explain to the civilians that Eye Chambers had been set up in Zul City and they needed to be evacuated—that would be an even stupider move.
Therefore, Harold chose to suppress this information, sending away the main officials within the Parliament Palace. As long as these people were safe, the Empire's system wouldn't collapse.
As for Harold himself, he had been staying in the Parliament Palace for the past few days. Apart from the guard force, no one else remained inside. Furthermore, residents of several blocks near the Parliament Palace had been evacuated, under the pretext that the Empire was hosting a Midsummer Festival and needed to lease the nearby blocks for a week.
Though the civilians harbored resentment, they had no choice but to temporarily rent accommodations in other areas of Zul City.
Harold's intention was clear: he was forcing Sin to make a choice—either come to kill him, or find a place with more civilians to activate the Eye Chamber.
Standing atop a domed high-rise, almost the tallest building in Zul City, Su Xiao had a panoramic view of the entire city.
Checking the activation time for the final phase of the promotion mission, there were 31 minutes and 54 seconds left. Su Xiao began to wait. Besides waiting for the Eye Chamber to activate, there was indeed nothing else to do.
A gentle breeze blew across the rooftop. The scene made Bubu Wang's dog body tremble, lifting his rear and tilting his head.
"Woo-woo~"
After a howl, Bubu Wang was satisfied, even using his dog paw to nudge Amu, as if to say: "Amu, you howl too. It feels great."
"I can't."
The honest bull scratched his head, very straightforward.
Time slowly passed. When only 20 minutes remained before the final mission activated, a pitch-black pillar of light shot up from near the Parliament Palace.
This pillar of light seemed to absorb the surrounding light, darkening an area of a hundred meters around it, as if doomsday had arrived.
Black arcs of electricity flickered near the pillar, piercing through the clouds in the sky, as if linking heaven and earth.
Thump, thump, thump...
Something beneath Zul City seemed to have come alive, like a giant heart beating.
This pillar of black light that shot into the sky was completely different from the fake one Mr. J had created. The ominous, twisted, and filthy aura emanating from the distant black pillar could be sensed by Su Xiao even from several kilometers away.
Boom! Boom!
Two more pitch-black pillars of light shot up, both in the area near the Parliament Palace.
The pillars, over ten meters in diameter, were extraordinarily spectacular. Countless civilians within the city witnessed this scene. Upon seeing these three pillars, their reactions were uniform: their bodies trembled uncontrollably, and their legs went weak.
A total of three black pillars appeared within Zul City. At the same time, in the courtyard of the Execution Agency headquarters.
The Awakeners, who had been waiting there for a long time, divided into several teams and quickly rushed toward the three black pillars. No matter how dangerous it was there, they could not retreat—this was their duty.
On the high-rise rooftop, Su Xiao watched the three black pillars reaching into the sky, gradually furrowing his brow. If he wasn't mistaken, each pillar should represent one Eye Chamber. Yet after the three Eye Chambers were activated, the entire 'summoning array' seemed to have wilted, with no follow-up.
Su Xiao had found a total of seven Eye Chambers. There were sixteen Eye Chambers in total, meaning nine more could be activated.
Only three had been activated now. Where had the other six Eye Chambers gone?
Su Xiao leaped down from the high-rise, bringing Bubu Wang and Amu, and headed toward the nearest black pillar.
When Su Xiao arrived near that black pillar, departments such as the Security Forces, the Seventh Division, and the Execution Agency had already tightly sealed off the area.
Entering the blockade zone, Su Xiao stopped about ten meters from the black pillar. The energy drifting in the air was highly corrosive. If not for wrapping his body in Azure Steel Shadow energy, Su Xiao wouldn't have been able to get so close to the black pillar.
The ground near the black pillar was already shattered, with rocks and soil floating weightlessly. Below, there were eyeballs of various sizes, continuously emitting finger-thick energy rays. All these rays converged on a single point, forming this sky-piercing black pillar.
Su Xiao's guess was correct: one energy pillar represented one Eye Chamber. Once activated, the Eye Chamber was nearly impossible to approach or destroy.
However, Su Xiao sensed no spatial fluctuations from this black pillar. It simply continued to spew energy high into the sky.
The core of the Eye Chamber hadn't appeared either. The three black pillars within Zul City seemed like mere decorations.
The Eye Chamber hadn't summoned the Undying King, nor had it absorbed surrounding life force. And Su Xiao could confirm that this thing had been fully activated.
Su Xiao's mind raced. From the current situation, Madam Nancy had been deceived. Sin's plan wasn't to use the Eye Chamber to summon the Undying King, or rather, it originally was, but now he had found a better means to achieve his goal.
Sin had been on the run all along, but Su Xiao knew that guy was by no means a low-IQ villain boss. His constant fleeing now seemed clearly to be waiting.
The Undying King was just a smokescreen. The Eye Chamber was also a smokescreen. Why go to such great lengths to set up these things within Zul City? To showcase the Ghost Ring's power? Absolutely not. Sin wouldn't do something so stupid. The only possibility was that Sin wanted to attract someone's attention.
Consider this: when such terrifying black pillars appear in Zul City, which departments would arrive first? The answer was the Seventh Division and the Execution Agency.