Twenty-two days later, Yuandu, Grand President's Office.
The phone rang. After answering it, Wan Guiyuan frowned slightly and nodded.
After hanging up, he summoned the Tier A Clerk on duty. "Notify the media operations department to post three consecutive notices on the Forum Homepage."
"Understood... May I ask what the notices should say..."
"99."
"What?" The Tier A Clerk did not seem to understand.
"Don't write anything else. Just the number 99!"
"This..." The Tier A Clerk hesitated.
"Just do as I say."
After the Tier A Clerk left, Wan Guiyuan frowned slightly. After several moments of hesitation, he finally took a crystalline pearl from the Hundred Treasure Box. With a squeeze of his fingers, he crushed it to pieces, turning it into a cloud of luminous mist that dispersed through the air.
Wan Guiyuan took a deep breath and inhaled all of the luminous mist. A moment later, a streak of golden light lit up at the center of his forehead.
[Metropolis], Tianluo City, Lower District.
In a dim alley, a young man in a trench coat hurried over and knocked on a tightly shut iron door.
With a click, a small window opened in the iron door, revealing a pair of red electronic eyes.
"What do you want?"
"I want to replace my Advanced Brain Chip," the young man said softly.
"You've come to the wrong place!" The red eyes gave a cold snort, but did not close the window.
"Wait, Old Scar referred me!" the young man hurriedly said.
"Which Old Scar?" the red eyes asked cautiously.
"The lunatic who planted a sapling in his own head..." the young man said. "The plant roots invaded his nerves and nearly killed him. You were the one who treated him..."
"You really know Old Scar?" The red eyes were