Turmoil, Murder

"We apologize for revealing the truth so late. In fact, Yakarta only has three years left. If a solution cannot be found before then, the entire city will be engulfed by the vortex of calamity, and seventy percent of the city's population will be infected with the incurable Honkai Sickness."

The group stared silently at the video. The old man tearfully accused himself, deliberately shifting the core contradictions of one incident after another to orders from the United Nations leadership. The consequences of this blame-shifting were left unsaid.

Su Qing'an whispered indifferently:

"Before the Great Honkai occurred, the United Nations suppressed several potential Honkai events, preventing them from taking root and sprouting. But now, the internet is full of information that will incite riots and public outrage, and it not only shows no signs of stopping but continues to spread widely."

"The corresponding licensing authority is in the hands of local governments. Originally, there might have been room for maneuver, since public opinion is always easy to control. But now that agents are personally stirring up trouble, I can only conclude that local governments have gone mad."

Perhaps the only word to describe the current situation is "madness".

Carole glanced at the constantly refreshing news and content on the virtual screen, then extinguished it with her fingertip, causing the blue special effects to dissipate and disappear.

Shiyu Qiluo stood silently at the edge of the ruins of the arsenal.

The original staff here naturally perished in this disaster, and even the remains that were barely unearthed were broken and torn to pieces.

The strange thing is that although nearly a hundred people died inside the factory, the actual remains found were only a few pieces of body tissue, which looked like black ash.

This is not normal. The people who can work here generally have a basic level of Honkai Energy adaptability and wear special protective clothing. The phenomenon of them partially or completely dissolving into black ash during Honkai will not occur.

The Honkai Reactor explosion was terrifying, but thanks to the safety valves and emergency systems, even though the destruction would have resulted in a massive thermal explosion and Honkai Energy collapse reaction, it wouldn't have led to the current situation.

Once the initial report from the instrument scan came out, the truth was readily revealed.

Shiyu Qiluo looked at the report, silently sharing the information with the others present, while muttering to herself:

"The remaining debris [Ashes] were not black ash dissolved by Honkai Energy; these people most likely had high explosives implanted in their bodies before they died."

"Perhaps this can explain why the Honkai Energy reactor suddenly exploded."

"However, the consequences of Honkai the Honkai reactor are extremely dangerous, so the initial design included comprehensive safeguards against this. Even in the event of such a bombing, it would only be possible if all safety valves and emergency systems were shut down."

Carole looked at the message she received and picked up the conversation, continuing:

"My mother also had the permission to operate the base back then..."

But her murmur abruptly stopped. Her golden pupils narrowed slightly as she exchanged glances with the others, and she understood the most direct answer in those words.

They had suspected the existence of a mole before.

After all, the explosives inside the bodies of millions of workers could not have been planted without their knowledge, and shaking the thick outer shell of the Honkai power reactor, apart from the safety valve, would require a high degree of organizational discipline.

However, it now seems that to achieve this result, the accomplices needed are far more than just these people. Only the head of the local Moth of Moth to Fire branch and High Command officials of the local government have the authority to dismantle all internal defenses.

Therefore, the only way to immediately dismantle all defenses is for one of the parties to request their removal.

There are generally two possibilities for disabling the self-defense mechanism of the Honkai reactor.

The first reason was to deal with an enemy that could not be defeated, and at the same time, it was believed that using this approach at this moment could achieve the effect of stopping losses.

Therefore, during this special period, the intelligent review process at the higher level can be bypassed, and the issue can be directly lifted.

Another possibility is that the machine requires regular maintenance and self-inspection, necessitating the opening of some safety valves to allow maintenance robots to enter the interior.

Based on the current situation, the only explanation is that an insider used the former as a pretext to cause the Honkai Power Reactor to lose all its defenses in a short period of time, ultimately leading to its destruction by a simple and brutal human bomb.

Fu Hua whispered:

"The only entities with the authority to grant this permit are the head of the Moth to Fire branch here and the local government."

Su Qing'an glanced at the impassioned old man in the video and said:

"It's strange. From the local government's perspective, preventing the implementation of this plan would be detrimental to them in every way, and smearing the higher-ups would be a self-destructive choice."

"The current situation can no longer be explained by normal logic, but if we temporarily disregard these anomalies and choose between the two targets who hold the licensing authority, then the first choice can only be him."

Fu Hua frowned, tapped the screen to pull up the other party's information, and after briefly browsing through it, she said:

"I haven't looked into the specifics, but even if he's an agent of the local government, can such a licensing authority really allow a single individual to make arbitrary decisions?"

The group remained silent, yet they seemed to have grasped a clue.

Shiyu Qiluo suppressed her inner turmoil. She and her teammates had already completed their mission, but given the current situation, it was impossible for them to leave directly and return to headquarters to attend Hua's father's funeral.

The Moth to Fire has always been short-staffed. The three of them have had less than a month of rest in the past six months, and have been constantly switching between tasks.

Therefore, the higher-ups will likely notify a few people nearby to directly assist local personnel in resolving the almost inevitable riot. Similar scenarios are not uncommon in previous missions.

Shiyu Qiluo found it difficult to remain completely calm. The current situation not only forced her friend Fu Hua to shoulder even greater responsibilities, but also made the future of the country uncertain.

How many people will die, and how many resources will be consumed, before the situation can be stabilized and the plan can resume?

This is clearly a special time when all of humanity needs to unite and make every effort to fight against the Honkai, so why are the internal conflicts still so difficult to quell?

She couldn't understand the ideas of those Honkai Cultists and extremists.

At this moment, only the regret and worry of failing at the last hurdle filled her heart, making Shiyu Qiluo was the least emotional among the three, feel a wave of negative emotions that were hard to digest.

All the previous efforts vanished in an instant; it's impossible to remain completely calm and undisturbed.

However, recalling the previous movements of the Honkai Beast reveals that this victory was achieved through a combination of internal human issues and the Honkai Beast' unintentional or intentional cooperation.

Just days before the armory was to be completed, the number and attack frequency of the Honkai Beast underwent a dramatic change.

After the most precious instruments were injected into the armory and the cycle was initially established, the Honkai Beast, as if foreseeing this, reverted to their three-wave-a-day outing mode.

However, this tactic, which seemed to keep their attention focused on the front lines of the battlefield, had already drawn our attention. As a result, the patrols at the arsenal have become increasingly strict in the past few days, and a significant portion of the machine soldiers manufactured on the assembly line have been stationed nearby.

However, no one could have imagined that these staff members, who had passed layers of psychological tests by the Moth to Fire branch and had their past life trajectories and family backgrounds analyzed step by step, would all inexplicably become accomplices in the destruction of the Honkai reactor.

Looking back now, these measures were launched at this particular time precisely to achieve the greatest possible results.

They succeeded. Having lost the main unit that absorbed Honkai Energy, this plan had lost even the greatest possibility of stopping the damage in time, but the price was their own lives.

It's not surprising that extremists have such awareness, but the fact that they were able to pass the tests and infiltrate the Moth to Fire division is itself a paradox.

A person's family history, life trajectory, parents' occupations and education level, and other details are all laid bare within the Moth to Fire, and it is almost impossible to transcend these and become a personality state that does not conform to the experience.

This almost impossible event was repeated nearly a hundred times, and there were no exceptions in the examination of black and gray materials.

This made the group question whether the most direct truth was actually the correct answer, and whether there were some hidden circumstances that led to the current situation where logic could not connect the dots.

From Fu Hua's perspective, at least, she prefers to believe that this was the result of a mole within the Moth to Fire branch's detection department colluding with the Honkai Cult or extremist organizations.

She was actually quite anxious inside, but her tone remained calm:

"The local branch was dispatched to suppress the attack the moment he uttered his first words, and they should be arriving soon."

Su Qing'an said:

"That would confirm everything they said and make the survivors even more hostile towards the authorities."

Fu Hua sent Himeko a series of emails filled with information, reporting on the current state of the arsenal. She said:

"Letting public opinion fester will only make things worse. As long as we pull that madman down and have other credible local government officials step in to calm public opinion, we can barely stabilize the current situation."

The boy looked up and saw that the video on the screen had automatically cut off and turned into a black screen.

The authorities acted swiftly; the vivid speech was successfully thwarted in less than five minutes, thanks in part to a group of irrational soldiers in the government center who intercepted and delayed the proceedings.

Ten minutes later, another representative known to the public quickly appeared on the live broadcast program.

The man's approachable face appeared on the video screen. With his excellent speaking skills and captivating charm, he successfully numbed the audience and the soldiers of the Moth to Fire in a short time.

But just as Fu Hua breathed a sigh of relief, a vivid struggle and disappointment appeared on the man's face, and the words he spoke gradually faded into a low cadence.

Immediately, as if he had made a resolute decision, fearless of death, the bloodshot veins in his eyes, like a spider web, revealed a ferocious look as he stared straight at the camera.

The man gripped the microphone and said calmly and firmly:

"The authorities are using Yakarta as a testing ground for researching Anti-Honkai Vaccine; the so-called plans and facilities are just a formality..."

Before the words could be fully uttered, the live broadcast was instantly cut off.

But the most crucial slander has already been uttered, and those present can imagine the consequences. The credibility of the government has long been at rock bottom after years of weakening and collapse.

This statement is tantamount to adding fuel to the fire; it's now impossible to prevent a riot.

But the troops stationed with the local government found it even harder to understand why this had happened.

That official was the one with the cleanest resume, the most transparent past, and the least reason to choose to do this among the people found in a short period of time.

After this incident, even the branch's best experts and intelligent systems were unable to determine whether anyone inside was acting abnormally.

Carole murmured in a daze:

"Incomprehensible, this is utterly illogical betrayal."

"How could this happen..."

Shiyu Qiluo remained silent.

Fu Hua took a deep breath; she already knew what was going to happen next, and whispered:

"Get ready, the orders from above should arrive soon."

The missionary needs no schemes; she only needs to implant a belief in the Honkai of humanity into the souls of people to perfectly utilize their original wisdom, experience, and logical thinking abilities.

They would conversely adopt the perspective of Honkai to consider how to inflict the greatest trauma on humanity, weaving corresponding conspiracies from the blind spots of normal human logic, and striving to execute them regardless of any cost or consequences.

Aside from the Honkai Beast attacking the armory, which were ordered by the missionary, everything else was a spontaneous result of simply placing them there.

This very casual approach not only rendered Mei's plan futile but also dragged the nation's fate into a hopeless abyss, causing it to gradually sink...

Protests, riots, panic, despair.

After a barrage of information, the public quickly processed the information. By the time Himeko notified the group to head to East Yakarta, all they found was a vast, white ocean.

People dressed in white robes and with their faces covered in veils formed this magnificent scene.

But just as the helicopter was slowly descending and a few people were preparing to get off to help some branch personnel disperse the crowd, a sudden roar echoed as the crowd of people dressed in white robes, mixed with a few extremists bowing their heads and silently praying, exploded.

The intense light and heat, along with wave after wave of air currents, caused the helicopter, which was still nearly 100 meters in the air, to experience noticeable vibrations.

What immediately came into view was an indescribable scene: thousands of vibrant lives had been reduced to bare bones, completely submerged in blood, and countless remains and limbs were scattered like flower petals across the once peaceful square.

The fountain and statues in the center were dismantled into unsightly forms by the roaring light and heat, and the water gushed out from the source, wantonly washing over this thickly painted blood-red oil painting.

The girl's azure eyes were stained with blood and filth, and as the deathly silence, where even the cries of the dying could not be seen, gradually extinguished the light within them.

The diluted blood slowly spread along the cracks in the winding stone slabs of the street, like paint dripping onto rice paper, revealing varying shades as it spread.

"Let's go," she said softly, her voice barely audible, as if about to be swallowed by the murmur of the water, yet carrying an inexplicable determination.

No matter how many tragedies and deaths I've witnessed, there are things I just can't get used to...

The helicopters gradually flew away based on the information allocated to the other units, but they were still bound to encounter suicide attacks by extremists who saw themselves as human bombs.

This is actually unreasonable. After the Great Honkai, the extremists remaining in Yakarta should have been disorganized and were just scattered individuals.

Even if they are distributed across different areas, it is impossible for them all to choose to infiltrate the marching crowd in such a uniform manner to carry out suicide attacks.

Even extremists have their own internal logic that allows them to communicate with each other, but the current situation seems to be just a repetitive task done for the sake of maximum efficiency in killing. This subtly reveals a sense of unease that makes Su Qing'an somewhat concerned.

So, after deliberately sensing the numerous, straw-like, ubiquitous soul auras, the boy noticed a few unusual fluctuations.

These subtle differences were like ripples of varying depths spreading across a lake. He had to spend time unraveling the complex patterns within them to understand that the unusual fluctuations were indeed a fact.

Su Qing'an was unable to judge whether or not he should try to take action based on his emotional fluctuations, but the moral values he had cultivated over a long period of time and Fu Hua's current mental state drove him to make a far-reaching decision.

Under her stunned gaze, the boy's appearance subtly changed; his jet-black hair turned snow-white, and his eyes were tinged with a magnificent crimson.

This was Su Qing'an she had never seen before. Fu Hua was speechless as she recalled the scene she had seen through that silk thread half a year ago when Chi Yuan left her, and she seemed to understand something.

The ancient robes fluttered in the wind, and the immortal stood in the void, but vanished in an instant.

Su Qing'an has a way to resolve the source of this calamity in the shortest amount of time. Since comprehending the art of soul oppression, he doesn't even need to use the form of [momentum] to cause beings whose Soul Essence is far inferior to his own to die without expending any physical or mental energy.

Only in that moment when the soul is shaken do the previously elusive and strange auras become completely invisible.

The boy's task was simple: he only needed to confirm that everyone with this unusual aura in their soul indeed had a problem.

Then Su Qing'an could be certain that this was the reason for the frequent occurrence of internal spies and the strong sense of purpose behind the turmoil.

At the same time, the turmoil in this country will be completely extinguished under the oppression of the soul, and the root of the disease will be eradicated.

And this act of removing the rotten flesh requires...

It was murder.