The Most Brutal Home Demolition in History

"Damn it..." Luo Jue exclaimed in surprise upon hearing the loud noise from the ground, "What is Yu Xing doing up there? Wasn't it supposed to be just sending a rescue message? Is he doing demolition?"

In the dimly lit room, apprehensive discussions could be heard incessantly.

A hand reached up and slapped Luo Jue on the head without mercy, like hitting a watermelon. "Don't swear in front of me."

"Luo Qishan!" Luo Jue jumped three feet high, yelling angrily, "You're not smart to begin with, and if you hit me, you'll become even dumber!"

Luo Qishan's expression was calm as he ruffled Luo Jue's hair twice. "Not stupid. But clearly, something has changed up there, Yu Xing has probably chosen the second way to complete the mission."

As they spoke, the ground trembled, and the rumbling sounds of collapse rose and fell, deafeningly loud.

They were in a dark room located underground in the base, which was where Veil had ordered all survivors to temporarily gather and take control.

Those survivors who had not awakened any special abilities huddled in the corner, genuinely terrified of the upheaval.

When Yu Xing decided to go directly to Veil, Zhao Yijiu left the base. The two members of the Luo family, who had little interest in "that item," were ordered by Yu Xing to return to the underground secret room.

Although it was cramped and dark, it was actually very safe, like an air-raid shelter during wartime, where attack radiation rarely reached.

According to Yu Xing, the dark room serves as a safety net should anything go wrong.

As for the cleanup teams... after four hours of searching, some of them had already realized that something was wrong with the order. For example, Zhuzi A Jin had long since broken away from the team and were now in the dark room doing the work of calming down the survivors.

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When the two members of the Luo family entered the dark room, they inevitably came face to face with Zhuzi. As the atmosphere became tense, A Jin smiled and took the initiative to greet them, pretending that they were not the ones who were also wanted by the authorities.

"Why are you helping us?" Luo Qishan asked Zhuzi and A Jin from the corner.

Zhuzi's response was. "... I have doubts about your identities, but there were indeed too many strange decisions made during Veil's management of the base, and many things I just can't understand."

"This pursuit of Officer Yu and Lieutenant Zhao has brought me to my senses. Our cleanup team belongs to the base itself, has the authority to implement any decisions that benefit the base, and also has the right to question the management. But what about my colleagues? They seem to have gone mad."

"No one cares that Veil is hunting down the Base One Commander, yet she can't produce any evidence that those two men are imposters. And nobody cares that four hours have passed, such a major incident has occurred at the base, Veil hasn't offered a single explanation."

As Zhuzi spoke A Jin nodded in agreement, "Also, if something happens to the base, we should request assistance from other bases, but Commander Veil hasn't activated the central control—sending a request for assistance from the central control would trigger a base-wide notification. The nearest bases, Base 50 and Base 49, will both send speed-type Awakened to help us."

"I'll never forget the expressions on those people's faces when we raised these questions just now." Zhuzi gritted her teeth.

"What kind of expression is that?" Luo Jue asked curiously.

"They froze, then glanced at me, their expressions gradually turning fanatical. They seemed to have stopped being themselves, becoming—in some way—fervent, involuntary fans of Veil. We trained and did missions together, and I'd never heard them say they Veil this much."

Zhuzi clenched and unclenched his fist. "They're being controlled, they're collapsing from within, I can feel it... If it weren't for Officer Yu's glance at me today, I would have been one of those controlled too. Once triggered, I would have lost myself forever."

Realizing what was right, Zhuzi and A Jin left the group without permission to protect ordinary people in the dark room, and also accepted the two members of the Luo family.

Unexpectedly, not long after, a sound like the sky collapsing and the subway crashing, as if the end of the world was upon them, came from the ground.

"It's completely destroyed." A Jin appeared beside the Luo family members at some point, looking up at the exit in the ceiling of the secret room and muttering to himself, "With the base destroyed, what will happen to all these people... Where can they go?"

"Don't worry too much, they'll just be relocated to other bases." Zhuzi patted his shoulder, her expression grave. "Do you remember, about a month ago, Base Fifty-Two was declared abandoned, and a bunch of survivors were scattered?"

Luo Qishan suddenly turned his head. "I know about this. I'm also very curious about why Base Fifty-Two was abandoned, but I can't find out the reason no matter what I try."

"Because it's classified. Base Fifty-Two wasn't abandoned; it was overrun by the virus. Luckily, someone discovered it in time, quickly evacuated those who could be saved, and then sealed off Base 52, preparing for a cleanup." Zhuzi shrugged. "One of my teammates escaped from Base Fifty-Two; he told me this quietly."

"But it suddenly occurred to me, could our base be in a similar situation to Number Fifty-Two?"

Luo Qishan narrowed his eyes, pondering the connection between them.

Base Fifty-Two has little to do with the main storyline of their trip; it seems to be just a background element with little presence. But for the native inhabitants of this world, its significance is far greater.

The virus is systematically and disciplinedly attempting to dismantle the human base.

But most viruses don't even have brains, let alone make such plans. There must be one of them that can relay messages and coordinate planning across various bases.

Etc.

Luo Qishan suddenly caught his breath.

Does such a thing truly exist? The central nervous system.

Could it be that... the reason Yu Xing chose to destroy the base was because the central control center was also on the virus's side?

During the frenzied brainstorming session at Luo Qishan, the loud noise overhead finally stopped.

Feeling safe, Zhuzi A Jin exchanged a glance. "Let's go up and check the situation."

Under the expectant gazes of the survivors, they climbed the ladder and pushed open the door to the dark room.

A hazy, yellowish twilight seeped in, framing a small patch of sky, the annoying grayness now draped in the deep darkness of night.

"Are you alright?" Zhuzi was in the front, so A Jin asked quietly from behind.

"... It seems like everything's alright now." Zhuzi's voice sounded hesitant, and after a pause, she said, "No, something's actually quite serious."

"Don't keep me in suspense!" A Jin was impatient; he leaped up and flipped onto the ground.

Then they were dumbfounded.

As far as the eye could see, it was all flat land.

The buildings were completely pulverized; not a single fragment or broken piece remained when they collapsed, only fine sand-like powder.

When the wind blows, the powder floats up.

"This, this is terrifying..." His body trembled. "What kind of power is this?"

"Central Hub turret." Zhuzi sighed.

Only the centrally equipped artillery emplacements can reduce everything to smoke.

Fortunately, the particle beam was not radioactive and would not cause excessive pollution; otherwise, these people would have mutated due to the pollution even if they hadn't been killed by the beam.

"That's... the central control!" A Jin suddenly pointed to the side and behind, where the massive metal main unit stood out against the dust.

The central core, having lost its concealment within its subspace, appeared before the survivors of Base 51 for the first time.

Its screen was still lit, with a line of black text flickering intermittently.

I will take revenge for everything that happened today.

"There seem to be words too! What do they say?" Luo Jue, who followed closely behind, squinted to try and decipher them. "I... know... what--"

The screen flickered twice and then went dark, pretending to malfunction.

Despite harboring resentment towards humanity, this AI, in this situation, can only write a harsh word for itself.

"Where is Yu Xing?" Luo Jue looked left and right, but couldn't find him.

"They went to find Zhao Yijiu, didn't they?" Luo Qishan climbed out and straightened his clothes. "Our mission is over. But for some people, their struggle continues."