Special Message from President Xiao (6,300 Words)

Is Old Man An stupid?

Xiao Xiao pondered this question silently. In truth, he was not stupid; he was shrewd and ruthless, and when it mattered most, he was willing to risk everything and abandon all pretense of decency.

He has his own understanding of the relationship between the world of strangers, the Mysterious Source, and cities, so he can build City of Rest into the largest city in the world of strangers and wants to promote this theory to the whole world.

If he succeeds, he will become the first person under God.

In fact, his ambition is almost realized. City of Rest has already contacted more than 70% of the cities and established preliminary alliance intentions with them.

No matter who this person is, no matter how arrogant they are, you can't point your finger at them and call them stupid.

But why do I find him ridiculous?

Xiao Xiao slowly stepped forward, his mind in a state of Mind Burst. In his eyes, everything around him was slow, even frozen, including the gaping mouths of the people around him, the spinning chainsaw, and the city slowly cracking and collapsing around him. In this eerie yet soothing world, he pondered this question and gradually understood why he had such strange thoughts about Old Man An: "The reason is actually quite simple: his level is too low..."

This Old Man An, willingly became a slave, knowing only to be loyal to City of Rest, so his vision was limited to the level of City of Rest.

He was so loyal, so loyal, that he didn't understand that City of Rest and what he was loyal to were not one and the same.

City of Rest is merely an ocean, and he is loyal to the only existing overlord of this ocean. However, this overlord is susceptible to being challenged...

... He didn't understand why anyone would provoke the hegemon, so he reacted slowly and was helpless.

Just like ministers in ancient times, they were most adept at forming cliques and engaging in corrupt practices in front of the monarch. They were so clever that they could predict the monarch's every word and action, and knew how to provoke the monarch with a single sentence and have someone else sentenced to death.

But he never imagined that someone would actually draw a knife and chop the monarch to pieces...

This has led to this very impolite situation; he thinks he's too crazy, yet he thinks he's stupid...

"Then let's give someone like Old Man An. An a good performance?"

After figuring these things out, Xiao Xiao couldn't help but feel happy.

Now, chaos has broken out all around. The City of Rest has been dismembered and torn to pieces by the Butcher, who is empowered by 30% of the city's original power, and is now in complete disarray.

With Xiao Xiao's reminder, the city guild leaders who had already become allies of City of Rest through contracts understood what they should do...

They were all intelligent people and quickly figured out the key point.

"Screw that old dog An, from this moment on I'm no longer your ally..."

As one of the Allied forces of City of Rest shouted, a bizarre and frenzied confrontation immediately began.

These people immediately decided to fight for the consequences of violating the contract.

The so-called contract is the constraint of an invisible force. The Enhancement Element, in their normal function, also need to follow the internal rules. Just like the vines of pain, they need to touch a person to make them feel the backlash of painful memories. Just like the Suffocation Puppet, it needs to be close to make people drown in life. And like Ruan Ruan, her Prisoner Chains need to bind people to lock them in her cage. The function of the contract is to make these Enhancement Element start to work directly.

Once you disobey, it's like grabbing the vines of pain, getting close to the Suffocation Puppet, and being locked in the Prisoner Chains.

These are the people who decided to break the City of Rest.

After they made their decision resolutely at the level of will, the contract in Old Man An's hand suddenly began to burn.

At the same time, the mirror in each of their spaces was suddenly covered with glass-like cracks, and the mysterious power instantly began to take effect.

At that moment, someone kept groaning. He had a left hand that was always covered in long sleeves and leather gloves. It was his most powerful weapon. But the moment the contract took effect, this arm suddenly seemed to be controlled by another will. Caught off guard, it suddenly stretched out and grabbed his neck. The force was so great that it almost killed him. But he had deliberately defied the contract and was prepared. In the first instant, he grabbed his left arm with his right hand.

Then, with a sharp tug, he ripped his left arm off his body and threw it aside.

"Damn it, betrayal, betrayal!"

Whether from pain or anger, he kicked the severed hand twice more.

His facial features were contorted in pain. Having lost this arm, his strength in combat was at least 70% weaker than before. After all, he only had 70,000 enhancement points in total, while this arm was worth 40,000.

But losing such a powerful special element is better than losing your life...

... But I was still a little unwilling. How could I get back the points I lost?

The moment someone decides to betray the contract, they immediately feel as if they are being watched by something dangerous.

That was some kind of dangerous creature from the Mist Sea. Once it set its sights on prey, it would relentlessly pursue it until death, even hiding in a city wouldn't help. Normal people wouldn't provoke such a thing, but his contract with City of Rest stipulated that betraying the contract would automatically make him a target of this dangerous creature. Now that he had betrayed it, it meant he was about to be hunted down by it. A wave of panic washed over him, but then he suddenly thought, "Being hunted by this thing..."

"It's better than being hunted down by that madman from Black Gate City, isn't it?"

"..."

Some even found themselves betrayed, their wives and children looking bewildered, automatically becoming slaves bought by the Clover Knights of City of Rest.

But he just kept a cold face and said coldly, "Lock them up. I'll release them after I kill that guy..."

"Also, inform my mistress to prepare. If all else fails, she can bring the child and move into my house; that's a backup plan..."

"..."

"..."

The once orderly City of Rest of Parthia is now like a murky ocean.

Within this murky ocean, a certain will is writhing in rage.

He was originally the greatest will of the City of Rest, the only Mysterious Source within the spiritual sea of City of Rest, and the highest will in the city. However, overnight, He was threatened like never before. First, something was causing havoc in His city. Then, He sensed that something in the city was secretly stealing His control over the city. Even some slaves from other cities who were vaguely under His control began to rebel against Him...

The contract that governs other cities, which governs City of Rest, was bestowed upon it by its own hand.

For those who are prepared to break the contract, He is the direct creditor, and He is also responsible for ensuring sanctions and collecting debts.

What angered Him most was that with so many threats appearing in the city, His slaves, projected onto the real world, had done nothing.

This feeling of powerlessness and anger caused Him to become furious. Those who betrayed the covenant were the first to receive His attention, and some invisible spiritual power began to surge.

All the guild leaders in the core of the alliance felt this overwhelming anger.

They might have felt fear because a city hated them, but now that things have come to this, it doesn't matter anymore.

The guild leader of Black Gate City is terrifying.

But it's still very touching when someone like that is willing to befriend you.

He even pointed out a solution to us:

Wishing Altar!

How honest that president of the Black Gate City Outsider Association is...

It showed us the way.

Making a wish only costs 20,000 points, how cheap...

Thus, as the will of City of Rest was projected remotely, they all rushed to the wishing altars in their respective cities and expressed their wishes:

"Wash away the will to resist the 30 years of being single!"

"Borrow the weapon that can kill the one-eyed, lanky man!"

"I want my wife and children back..."

"..."

It must be said that many people essentially understand Black Gate City's promotion of the Wish-Granting Record Player as a high-level weapon rental system.

But both the name and the Ruan Ruan promotional language emphasize the word "make a wish." That's right, making a wish is making a wish, and all kinds of desires for liberation should be allowed.

Furthermore, these traitors were initially prepared to accept the consequences of the contract, but while making this mental preparation, they also thought about how to minimize the cost to themselves and escape the attention and pressure of the Will of City of Rest as soon as possible. Therefore, many of them, with a heavy heart, came to the secretly prepared wishing altar, risking losing 20,000 points, and expressed their wishes to the Record Player Miss in the distant Black Gate City.

The next moment, an invisible spiritual force surged towards the various altars in Black Gate City.

The young lady was pleasantly surprised to see the points she had suddenly acquired.

Many things are beyond the capabilities of strangers, like a special weapon that possesses the will of others and betrays itself. What should one do?

A dangerous creature from the Mist Sea has its eyes on you. How do you fight it?

What should I do if my wife and children are snatched up and bought by someone else?

Strangers, whether strong or weak, are limited by special elements and internal laws, so there's nothing they can do about it, but that doesn't mean Record Player Miss is helpless.

Higher-level forces inherently possess the ability to cancel each other out or erase one another.

Therefore, Record Player Miss instantly unleashed unprecedented divine power. The arm that had betrayed its master now possessed the power of City of Rest, which was why it attacked its master. In essence, this arm now belonged to City of Rest. However, the moment Record Player Miss's will descended upon the altar, it directly erased the will of City of Rest from the arm, making it ownerless once again. It was then surprisingly taken into the hands of the guild leader who was feeling sorry for it.

A certain S-class weapon appeared in the hands of someone who was being hunted down, and the right to use it was limited to the duration of one song.

The wife and children, whose wills had been distorted, were suddenly straightened by another force of the same level, like bending a steel bar and then straightening it again.

"Does it really work?"

The alliance members who received help were both surprised and delighted.

That pervert actually didn't lie to us?

Of course, they weren't fools. They suddenly received such a great benefit, but they also realized that as long as City of Rest was not eliminated, the threat they faced would not disappear.

So...

The Mysterious Source within City of Rest grew even more enraged, sensing a power of equal strength opposing it, negating its punishment of the traitors.

How can we tolerate this?

But now, beset by internal and external troubles, He truly cannot afford to clash head-on with forces of equal strength. Instead, He is forced to shift His attention to someone currently in City of Rest. That person, originally a slave, has already crossed a taboo and is now using this forbidden power to vie for control of City of Rest's spiritual sea. He cannot accept this, yet His slaves on the physical level are powerless to stop this person, so He has no choice but to resolve the matter himself...

And so, a kind of mad will suddenly swept through City of Rest.

This city has a population of tens of millions, so even if the Hell Legion causes trouble, it will only affect a small portion of them.

But when the Mysterious Source of City of Rest began to exert its will, countless people in the city suddenly became sinister, and their skin began to split open bit by bit.

The Mysterious Source cannot directly suppress people in the real world; it can only do so through outsiders who are loyal to it.

When one's strangers in a foreign land have no other options, only one method remains.

They incited the city's original inhabitants, using their malice to begin besieging or expelling those who were Anomalies from them.

This is the same kind of malice that a stranger feels when he first awakens in a foreign land.

For all the ordinary people in this city, it was as if they suddenly heard a faint, dreamlike murmur in their ears. They didn't know why, but a person's image suddenly appeared in their minds, and they subconsciously hated this person, wanting to kill or even eat him. They were powerless to think about how this strange thought came about; they were just driven by instinct and began to go crazy, using any method they could to search for this image in their hallucination.

"Oh?"

Xiao Xiao turned his head and saw countless molting monsters rushing towards him.

At that moment, he felt as if he were in the midst of a zombie horde, surrounded by a dense sea of heads, with crazed faces woven into a carpet before him.

"You've finally made your move?"

He looked into the depths of City of Rest, as if he could see some kind of monster that existed in the minds of everyone.

Only the Mysterious Source of City of Rest could have done this. Right now, it's just the crowd surrounding him, but soon, City of Rest's security system, and even the army, will all be surrounding him.

However, it's still a bit difficult to expel someone simply by provoking their malice.

Xiao Xiao smiled and waved with one hand.

Behind him, the Butcher, whose figure was nearly a hundred meters tall, swung his enormous chainsaw wildly forward.

The crowd surging in front of him was sliced in half at the waist, and writhing tentacles struggled helplessly in the pool of blood.

Not only that, after being cut, these people's wounds healed quickly, and they slowly got up from the ground, their expressions returning to rationality. They looked at each other, wondering what had just happened.

"It works!"

Xiao Xiao's mood eased slightly.

This was the first time he had used his own will to directly confront the will of the Mysterious Source.

The Mysterious Source's effect on ordinary people is simply to activate the malice within them, even imposing some malice upon them, causing them to kill themselves in the real world. However, this malice can be dispelled by simply retaliating or killing them, instilling fear in them, and they will return to being ordinary. The method Yang Jia taught me to kill Jiang Cheng in the beginning was essentially the same. The only difference now is that I'm facing a slightly larger number of them...

"Roar..."

As ordinary people surged towards Xiao Xiao, being killed in droves and regaining their senses, the Mysterious Source of City of Rest unleashed an even stronger roar.

The countless people who had already Shedding Skin did not immediately rush towards Xiao Xiao. Instead, they seemed to be hypnotized, standing there blankly. The fluctuations of their spiritual power became increasingly cold and terrifying.

The next moment, every street and every shop in the city suddenly opened their doors in unison.

Inside were all sorts of weapons, and these people who had already Shedding Skin seemed to have received some kind of warning, and began to rush into the store frantically, picking up the weapons.

Malicious escalation!

The Mysterious Source of City of Rest also knew that ordinary splitters couldn't harm Xiao Xiao at all, so He was making them level up.

He opened his museum of special weapons and enhanced them.

Originally, only Old Man An had this power in the entire city, but now, every ordinary person who Shedding Skin has the right to enter the City of Rest Weapon Museum.

"If you're willing to open the museum, then things will be much easier..."

But at the same moment, Xiao Xiao watched as countless crazy and powerful auras began to appear in City of Rest, but he only gritted his teeth slightly.

The logic, authority, and power of the Mysterious Source began to gradually become clear in his eyes.

In short: the Mysterious Source is not that powerful at all!

Upon awakening, strangers are filled with awe at the power of the Mysterious Source, and may even hallucinate that the Mysterious Source is the city itself.

But this is merely a distortion of the Mysterious Source's own perception.

The true Mysterious Source can only corrupt those in the real world within the ocean of spiritual power; all they truly possess is a weapons museum.

The origin of this weapons museum was due to the help of strangers. The strangers helped them clean up one aberration after another, and the Pain Substance and special elements generated in the events were harvested and devoured by them.

Just like now.

The Mysterious Source of City of Rest, wanting to kill itself but lacking any outsiders to utilize, could only corrupt ordinary people. It then opened its museum, strengthening these ordinary people. This can be understood as these ordinary people temporarily becoming outsiders. Now, the Mysterious Source's influence on these ordinary people is fixed and long-term. If it has bestowed upon them not only weapons but also the Mysterious Source's own authority, then these ordinary people have become a different kind of person...

... the Branders.

Look carefully.

As an observer, Xiao Xiao saw the relationship between the Mysterious Source, the city, and ordinary people so clearly for the first time.

And at the moment of seeing it clearly, there was only one feeling:

I'm not afraid anymore.

People are only afraid of things they don't understand.

Although Xiao Xiao could sense that an unimaginable and terrifying power was brewing in the city, capable of easily devouring him, he felt no fear whatsoever.

He simply smiled, looking towards the city, or perhaps towards the ocean, at its former master:

"Since you were the first to jump out, then this chaos will begin with you?"

"..."

"..."

As he uttered those words, his heart pounded harder and harder.

To the other outsiders, Xiao Xiao, with each heartbeat, was sending countless blood vessels and nerve tissues sprouting from his feet, openly and frantically infiltrating the city. Having already secretly reached 30% of the city's population, Xiao Xiao was now no longer pretending. He was forcefully accelerating his infiltration, as if standing on someone else's turf, pointing at the boss opposite and yelling, "From today onwards, this place is under my protection!"

His insane parasitism, even his provocation, angered the Mysterious Source of City of Rest. Those Split People, who had been enhanced through the museum, surged towards Xiao Xiao like a tidal wave.

Now, Xiao Xiao is facing what seems like an entire city transformed into a gigantic, fleshy monster. Not to mention him, even the Butcher at this moment is no bigger than an ant compared to this entire city.

But at this moment, Xiao Xiao was laughing unusually happily, almost laughing out loud.

City of Rest should never have, absolutely never, gone this far...

He opened the museum wide and placed these rare elements on these divided indigenous peoples, which led to a special situation.

These special elements do not truly belong to the indigenous people; they are merely temporarily borrowed. This temporary borrowing means that the indigenous people only have the right to use these weapons, not the right to own them.

As an observer, and having already controlled over 30% of this ocean of spiritual power, Xiao Xiao could easily perceive these things and deduce the crucial step. Thus, the moment City of Rest began to open its museum, he immediately conveyed his will to Record Player Miss in Black Gate City. This will then transformed into seductive language, which was transmitted to various cities through the various wishing altars.

[Black Gate City issues a special mission: Divide and conquer a city]

[Mission Level: Super S-Rank]

[Mission Description: The City of Rest is now teeming with Splitters, temporarily enhanced with Enhancement Element ranging from C to S grade. Killing them will allow you to seize these Enhancement Element. Our Black Gate City Guild Master Xiao, a lover of socializing and parties, has specially issued this mission, inviting like-minded individuals to City of Rest to share this feast.]

[Passing Through: Wishing Altar]

[President Xiao's special message: Have you ever enjoyed a free lunch? It's everywhere here!]

[...]

[...]

And so, the whole world went crazy!