Mixed in the apocalypse, become a fairy alone. 35

Chapter 35: Fireworks

Several chat boxes popped up simultaneously, almost crashing Zhou Zhengde’s communication device. It was unavoidable; precision instruments were prioritized for the United Defense Force, and this type of communicator shouldn’t even exist in Midtown.

[My Mom’s Forever Young: Wen Ying is in trouble. Her pulse has disappeared. The life detection chip’s last ping was on the 49th floor of the Lower City, but the exact location is unknown.]

[Unimportant Law Enforcement Officer from Uptown: Thirteen Institute’s psychics are rioting! Over thirty psychics have stormed out of the Thirteen Institute building; they’re heading for the elevators! Captain! Holy shit! The psychics from Fortress 76 have escaped too! There are thirty-eight of them!]

[Ex-Goddess Wei Na: The cleanup troops on the 45th floor have suddenly mobilized! It seems they received orders and are moving downwards! I’ll go ask immediately!]

Zhou Zhengde’s mind went blank. What was happening down there? Were the psychics stationed at Fortress 76 all mobilized simply because An Xi died? And there were even several C-class psychics among them?

Of course, Zhou Zhengde couldn’t see the Minister of Biology, whose mother’s pulse signal had just vanished, frantically raging in his office.

Zhou Zhengde pondered briefly and immediately began to reply.

To his ex-girlfriend Wei Na: [Immediately tell Mu Liang to leave the 49th floor! The psychics stationed at our fortress have been deployed en masse!]

To his former teammate: [Hide yourselves, delete the chat logs from the server. Thank you.]

To his mother, the Minister: [Why would Sister Ban go to the 49th floor?]

He waited for more than ten seconds.

[Unimportant Law Enforcement Officer from Uptown: Don’t worry about me, Boss! Everyone’s waiting for you to come back! Going dark.]

[My Mom’s Forever Young: She only told me she was going to the 45th floor for supervision, to facilitate the takeover of the Black Fire Gang’s facilities, to prevent your psychics from destroying that expensive equipment.]

[Ex-Goddess Wei Na: The captain here says the order came from the Uptown command center. The Black Fire Gang started a fierce firefight half an hour ago, with large-scale explosions, and Thirteen Institute psychics were killed.]

[Ex-Goddess Wei Na: I’m going down with the Silver Party, and I’m trying to contact him. Are you sure his helmet receiver won’t be damaged in the battle? I haven’t received a response.]

Zhou Zhengde immediately replied to Wei Na: [The receiver is on his forehead. If that’s damaged, he’s probably dead.]

Zhou Zhengde thought for a while and replied to his mother, the Minister:

[Mother, I know you have to make plans for your faction and political stance, but this… I think this is going too far.]

After a while, two more messages popped up.

[My Mom’s Forever Young: I know what you’re disgusted by, child, but you must consider: If we can control the Black Fire Gang’s functional modules, can we effectively supervise their actions?]

[My Mom’s Forever Young: Justice that ignores the bigger picture isn’t true justice. Remember what your grandfather said: The fortress fights the blade beasts, hundreds of thousands of humans are a whole. For the survival of the whole, we can sacrifice some individuals.]

Zhou Zhengde replied with a dark expression:

[Me: But Grandpa also said that the whole is made up of each individual. If we don’t value each individual, the whole will soon fall apart.]

[My Mom’s Forever Young: So it requires balance. The fortress’s ecosystem is the best balance currently; Uptown, Midtown, and Downtown each have their own responsibilities.]

[Zhou Zhengde: But we haven’t given the people of Midtown and Downtown enough choices! The basic human rights of the Lower City residents are not protected!]

[My Mom’s Forever Young: I’m the Minister of Internal Affairs; I have access to all the data within the fortress. I can answer your question… We simply can’t afford to support them.]

[Zhou Zhengde: Then why are we letting the Lower City reproduce so many people!]

[My Mom’s Forever Young: Because human individuals are a resource in themselves. Including you and me. If necessary, we must sacrifice ourselves for the group. I have a self-destruct chip implanted in my neck to prevent mimic blade beasts from stealing fortress data.]

Zhou Zhengde threw the communicator onto the table, covered his eyes with his hand, and leaned back in his chair.

Helplessness.

Every conversation he had with his mother was filled with this helplessness.

And yet, he couldn’t convince his mother. He could only stick to the principles in the political textbooks.

Although Zhou Zhengde was currently sitting in the security office on the thirteenth floor, he seemed to already hear:

He heard the radio sounds of the fortress’s cleanup troops advancing…

…”Sss…All squads, the combat plan has been distributed to each squad’s command system. Objective: Eliminate the Black Fire Gang, kill all armed personnel, and any life forms or mechanical entities that attack us. Squad leaders, report.”

“Received.”

“Received.”

“Received, Commander! The rapid descent channel is open!”

“All squads, prepare for rapid descent according to your number… Tell those young soldiers not to look at the scenery of the Lower City! This is another world within the fortress. It’s like… if we saw a human body dissection, we would be disgusted. This is the fortress’s insides.”

“Received, drone swarm launched, mechanical vanguard launched.”

“Received, my unit will descend first.”

“Received.”

“My unit is ready, beginning rapid descent.”

“Air support units, seize air superiority. Don’t let our soldiers die in internal operations.”

“Air superiority is being seized.”

Suddenly.

“Sss…Mu Liang? Mu Liang, can you hear me? Retreat! The cleanup troops are here! They’ll kill all armed personnel in the designated area. Or just drop your weapons! I’m bringing in hired troops to support you! Mu Liang! Answer if you hear me! You’ve already taken down a D-class psychic and killed two to three hundred armed personnel! You can stop fighting! Leave the rest to these brutal regulars! Mu Liang! Mu Liang!”

“Sss…Doctor Wei Na, this is the full-frequency command system. You’ve connected to the wrong channel. Your helmet’s communication unit seems to be one of our pieces of equipment.”

“Uh, sorry! Hey? Is that my ex-ex-ex-ex-ex-boyfriend?”

Wei Na, speeding down the winding road on her motorcycle, quickly recovered:

“I’m actually reminding everyone that there’s someone of ours down there. He… was upholding justice because he couldn’t stand the Black Fire Gang’s actions.”

Commander: “Continue the descent, don’t chat on the command channel! All captains switch to 99230! Wei Na! Get your new boyfriend out of that area quickly if he doesn’t want to face my wrath!”

“Okay, okay, you guys do your best.”

On the motorcycle, behind her helmet, Wei Na’s face visibly reddened.

It wasn’t shyness; she hadn’t felt such girlish emotions in years.

It was purely embarrassment at her unprofessionalism.

She continued to call out for Mu Liang on the channel. On a section of road where she had to slow down, she subconsciously looked at the center of the 47th floor.

There was a tremendous noise.

She heard the shouts of the gang members around her:

“Look!”

“Damn! It’s splitting open!”

“Fortress regulars! After twenty years! We see them again! The cleanup troops… it’s the cleanup troops! Whoa!”

“That area in the middle can open? No wonder they didn’t let us touch it!”

In the center of the 46th, 47th, and 48th floors, corresponding to the central elevator shaft above the 45th floor, cracks appeared simultaneously. Huge fan blades shifted up and down, slowly rotating, eventually forming a twenty-meter-diameter circular frame.

A vertical ‘skylight’ connecting the top and bottom floors had appeared.

From the edges of the skylight, dozens of high-strength ropes quickly descended.

With a violent hum, a swarm of drones appeared in the center. Each drone was spherical, equipped with short-barreled machine guns, miniature missiles, and other firepower units.

Following close behind were sixteen three-meter-tall all-terrain combat robots. They were covered in gun barrels and cannons, descending vertically along the ropes.

Soldiers in camouflage combat uniforms, tactical helmets, and tactical backpacks descended at a steady rate, aided by the rope system.

Drone swarms, combat robots, fully armed soldiers…

The gang members’ eyes instantly became incredibly clear.

Wei Na couldn’t help but utter a curse, hurriedly shouting: “Mu Liang! Mu Liang! Mu Liang, can you hear me! Is this communication system malfunctioning?!”

Perhaps because a passage had opened between floors.

“Sss…Doctor Wei Na? Is that you?”

“This is the helmet’s built-in communication system! Mu Liang, run! Get out of the Black Fire Gang’s territory! The farther away from the Black Fire Gang, the better!”

Wei Na shouted urgently:

“The cleanup troops suddenly moved out! They won’t distinguish whether you’re a gang member; if you have weapons and dare to resist, you’ll be shot dead! Go!”

“I’ve seen them, many drones are coming,” Wang Jixuan’s voice carried a hint of wind, “Help me contact Wan Lijin’s people, let Captain Zhou handle it. I’ll add another one to the debt I owe Captain Zhou. I need to take a dozen children from there.”

“A dozen?” Wei Na scolded, “So you have that many bastards! And you pretended to be pure with me!”

“They’re orphans; I think Midtown should be able to help them.”

Wang Jixuan instructed:

“Remember, contact Wan Lijin’s people first, don’t put yourselves in danger to save people.

“I can get out of here. Later, I’ll blow up the Black Fire Gang’s high-level escape route… I’m right on their escape route now, planting some booby traps…”

“Alright, alright, you still don’t like to listen to others, I’ll contact them! After all, you’re the big shot.”

Wei Na grumbled.

In the tunnel, Wang Jixuan breathed a sigh of relief.

Did Wei Na mean he was opinionated?

He quickly tossed down miniature grenades, each tied with thin wires.

His helmet fell silent.

He looked longingly at the large sniper rifle he was soon to return, disassembled it, slung it over his shoulder, and ran with all his might.

A few minutes later.

Fire?

Wang Jixuan’s spiritual sense detected a rolling wave of fire ahead. He casually formed a hand seal, his index finger pressed to his forehead, and chanted:

“Heaven is round and Earth is square, nine chapters of law, golden light shine, protect my true form!”

A thin layer of golden film appeared around him.

Wang Jixuan ran, slapping the edge of the corridor, his movements like flight, he darted along the upward sloping stairs into a sea of fire.

Wang Jixuan paused.

The entire wooden house was burning fiercely.

He was about to rush to the second floor, but his steps suddenly stopped.

He sensed no living beings.

The central beam of the wooden house was about to fall.

Wang Jixuan jumped out of the window, several leaps later, he stood firmly on a shed roof, looking around.

Thomas’s car was also burning; a smell of burnt meat filled the air.

A white figure appeared in Wang Jixuan’s line of sight.

By the bumpy cement road, a girl sat obediently beside a carry-on suitcase, her white dress like a lotus blooming in the night.

“Yezi… Yezi!”

Wang Jixuan jumped down, took off his helmet and held it in his right hand.

Yezi, who had been in a daze, looked up. A bit of light appeared in her lifeless eyes, and she excitedly shouted: “Tian Ge!”

Wang Jixuan landed, rushed forward two steps, then subconsciously stopped, his pupils contracting sharply.

Yezi laughed, opening her arms to him. As she got closer, she noticed that Wang Jixuan’s face was pale in the firelight, and she slowed down nervously.

On her clean little face, there was a trace of almost invisible blood.

“Welcome home, Tian Ge! The cleaning is done, you really came back to get me, Yezi will also diligently do housework in the future!”

“Your younger brother and sister?”

Wang Jixuan’s voice trembled.

“They, left,” Yezi answered crisply.

“Your younger brother and sister!”

“They left!”

“What do you mean left! Answer me! What do you mean left!”

Wang Jixuan pointed his pistol at Yezi’s forehead:

“Tell me! What do you mean left! Where did this evil energy on you come from! What did you do, what did you do!”

“Tian Ge…”

Bang!

A bullet hole appeared at Yezi’s feet.

Wang Jixuan’s breathing was ragged, his right hand and arm holding the pistol trembled uncontrollably, and he suddenly turned and ran towards the darkness.

His eyes were slightly broken, his Dao heart constantly trembling.

“Tian Ge…”

Yezi’s lips trembled, her tears blurring her vision, and she slowly crouched down, covering her face.

“Wouldn’t it be nice if we just left together… We can’t take care of them here… Yezi cleaned up for you, isn’t Yezi good enough… Tian Ge… don’t you want Yezi anymore… Tian Ge… come back…”

The burning car in the distance exploded.

The wooden house collapsed with a series of crackling sounds.

The girl’s whimpers gradually turned into soft laughter.

The fire, burned even brighter.

(End of Chapter)

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