Act.4·[Black Dog Dog]

Foreword:

[Bombs will destroy everything, not just selectively target anything.]

Nikita Sergei Khrushchev

[Part 1: Artificial Sun]

The Pavlov substation is getting closer.

Several hundred meters apart, on the towering, rocky bedrock of the tundra, several enormous windmills, each over a hundred meters tall, are slowly turning.

It was built in a desolate place, with cliffs hundreds of meters deep extending into the distance.

Looking down from the cliff face, one can see layers upon layers of strangely shaped rock formations, a natural barrier that is difficult for conventional vehicles to traverse.

When the ballast road reaches this point, it marks the last stop for humankind.

Even today, people remain here to provide power to the RSH outpost and to observe the unusual spiritual pressure emanating from the Mist Country of Niflheim.

Jiang Xueming's team arrived safely and parked their vehicles next to the dormitory building in the substation's living area. They then saw this group of uninvited guests in heavy armor knocking on the door of the duty room.

Xue Ming kept asking questions along the way, showing great interest in the [Heaven's Ladder] organization.

According to the two VIPs, and with Jason Megan's additions.

This organization is likely a follower of the Lord of Cinder. They are not members of the Madness Butterfly Sect, and while they scoff at the Vita Imprint, they deeply admire the Lord of Cinder's actions.

The way that Ming De bestows his essence upon passengers is by delivering Universal Elixir to cure diseases and injuries.

Those who preside over the ceremony are destined to become kings.

Xue Ming couldn't quite understand at first. He couldn't comprehend it—what merits did this [King of Cinder] possess that allowed him to be compared to the Hunter King, the King of Craftsmen, and the Detective King?

The first three represent the Abyssal Railway's armed security, scientific research and industry, and road transportation.

What do the [Lords of Cinder] represent? Are they worthy of people following, worshipping, or becoming like them?

It was only later that the two VIPs clarified the term.

It turns out that the King of Cinder wanted to become the sun, and he really meant it—not just a metaphor or artistic rhetoric.

Rather, on a physical level, it becomes firewood, burns, releases energy, and transforms into the sun.

Teacher A Ling spoke to Jiang Xueming several times, becoming a veritable parrot.

Xue Ming simply didn't understand.

He truly hadn't expected that the underground sun he'd seen at the Twilight Pass when he first traveled to Fang Feng was actually a [King of Cinder].

That's not a natural phenomenon or ball lightning.

It is a person, a soul.

It is a Homo sapiens who seized a great deal of primordial matter and possessed Immortal Lune. Using a powerful spiritual body and a rudimentary nuclear restraint device, he transformed into a humanoid fireball that illuminated all directions.

The sun can kill most viruses and fungi in nature.

The energy released by the sun can make dead earth rich again.

Solar energy has made the growth and development of Homo sapiens healthier and their bones stronger.

The sun never asks for anything; it only gives.

The Lord of Cinder, this emerging branch within the Madness Butterfly Sect, is like a maverick rock musician, giving other cult members the middle finger and swearing.

These powerful individuals, possessing soul might, had already planned how to plunder primordial essence, how to ignite themselves, how to dispel the Vita Imprint of the underworld, how to become a living sun illuminating all things, and ultimately enter heaven, transforming from ordinary undead spirits into divine spirits and heroic beings in shrines and temples.

Therefore, their followers are also called the "Heaven's Ladder".

As long as one artificial sun is successfully launched...

Those who helped the King of Cinder will also benefit from his influence, with their entire families rising to prominence.

These firewood are always ready to become the solid foundation of the Heaven's Ladder, offering fresh primordial essence to the King of Cinder, even if it's human flesh—as long as these powerful individuals possess a blood-giving body and the cannibalistic ability of [carnivorousness], the firewood will not hesitate to gather primordial essence for their leader.

Nietzsche once said, "He who fights with monsters should be wary of becoming a monster himself."

The Lords of Cinder are a group of ruthless people. They initially fought against the Madness Butterfly, seeking a shortcut by exploiting the power of the Madness Butterfly's and Mountain Giant's bloodlines, turning them into fanatical seeds of the Lords of Cinder's cult.

They had long since transformed into monsters; more specifically, they were a mass of flesh and blood. Like the Earth Dragon Anna, who gained intelligence by devouring the spiritual essence of Homo sapiens, similar to the monstrous physique of the "you are what you eat" type.

They are not a single individual, but rather a complex mixture that was repeatedly selected, devoured one another, and ultimately became a highly complex entity.

A King of Cinder may possess the memories of hundreds of people and the social experiences of hundreds of people; the more complex the recipe, the more complex the meta-essence.

Before the burning begins, they will search for superior elemental matter in various cities along the railway system, seeking out powerful individuals, and using various means to kill these individuals before swallowing them whole, in preparation for the ignition ceremony.

These monsters never feel that they are committing murder or a crime.

--If we can create an artificial sun, it will benefit future generations and be a great achievement for posterity.

Even if it can only burn for a few hundred years, or a few decades, or even just a few years, this fiery red sun will transform the desolate underground cavity into a thriving human city-state.

"Oh! It's a virtual idol!" When Meteor heard A Ling talk about the Lord of Cinder, she immediately thought of the suited man, "Being famous for being infamous is still being famous! Everyone's here to be an idol, isn't the Heaven's Ladder just a fan leader?"

Jason had just taken off his helmet, preparing to drink some engine antifreeze to warm himself up with the 96-degree "water of life," when he heard Meteor's muffled voice. He spat out a mouthful of liquor, which turned into ice crystals.

Su Ling scratched her head. "That seems to be the theory."

Xia Xia scratched her head and said, "That's right! A Ling! It's not just virtual idols; all those artists who are desperate to appear on the big screen and the big movie stage do the same thing, don't they? They just don't kill or eat people; they just focus on making money, regardless of whether the money is clean or not. After they become famous, they do charity work, become charity ambassadors, become artificial suns, and they are worshipped."

Xiao Qi scratched her head for her teacher. "That makes sense."

Xue Ming remained silent to the side.

He was a meticulous yet curious engineering student.

After leaving the battery factory, he became fascinated with various mechanical structures and chemical products.

He was filled with awe for the Lord of Cinder and pondered what kind of wondrous soul power, what kind of powerful spirit, could transform human essence into nuclear fusion fuel, use the electromagnetic constraints of the spirit to control the nuclear reaction rate, and achieve the miracle of creating an artificial sun.

All in all--

--The founder of this sect was so Madness Index that he could probably pierce the moon if he stood on the Earth's surface.

But this practice of getting on the train first and buying the ticket later is truly evil.

Aside from the wonderful life brought by the burning sun, the way to gather primordial essence before that was by hunting down the strong, whether they were strong in spirit or in body, whether they were human or monsters. All of these things had to be sent to the crown prince's belly. Let them eat their fill and sleep well, so that one day they could fly into the sky and bestow blessings upon all things.

Xue Ming could somewhat understand why the group on the Heaven's Ladder were so resentful of the Immortal Lune.

The constitution of [[Outlaw]] is very magical; even if they are crushed into powder and scum, they can recover completely, including their brain structure and cortical memories.

While it's unknown whether the strong magnetic and electric fields of nuclear energy will alter the neural synapses of these monsters, or whether they will lose memories from their cerebral cortex during the nuclear reaction, one thing is certain: the Immortal Lune at least allows the Lord of Cinder to have the possibility of reusing waste after burning away its elemental essence.

Even a freak like Mary Stuart, with only one arm, can be reborn in another way if attached to a person.

The stray cats of [Heaven's Ladder] are also constantly preparing to become the next crown prince.

However, this process was extremely brutal, like a bomb that could explode at any moment.

The bomb doesn't choose a specific target; it destroys everything.

[Part②·Giant]

At this moment, there are still sixteen people on duty at the Pavlov substation.

Thirteen of them were outsiders, engineers from the station system. They greeted Jason, explained the current Spirit Calamity index of the beach where RSH was located, and then returned to their respective posts.

The other three are RSH natives, children who came from the beachhead outpost.

They were mostly young people around fifteen or sixteen years old, with physical disabilities and deformities. They delivered supplies, mostly canned food, from the substation to RSH, and returned to Red Star Hill every day.

The children's descriptions were completely different from what Xue Ming had imagined the outpost to be.

--Red Star Hill is not a mountain, but a village.

It covers an area of more than 20 square kilometers on the beachhead, much larger than a typical military base, but has a very small population; currently, only about 50 people still live there.

After Jason finished communicating with the three children in Russian, he spoke to Diamond.

"You stay here; the place we're going to is dangerous."

Diamond was confused. "Then why did you bring me here? I thought I could finally go on an adventure with you, Jason!"

Jason patted Diamond on the shoulder. "It's for the people at the Red Nail Hotel—they'll know you ran away and came back safe and sound, and they'll respect you and won't dare bully you anymore."

Diamond persisted, "I can't be a fake, Jason! The moment the workers started working on me, they knew I was a paper tiger. If it were really like you say, I should have gone to RSH with you. Only fire can refine true gold! I want to become the real deal."

Jason wanted to say something more.

Xue Ming tossed the entire heavy armor to Diamond and prepared to head towards the elevator on the cliff.

"Take him with us. He knows how to dig a tunnel. I need help dealing with the steel. He heard what we talked about before. He knows the difficulties and dangers of this journey. He's not afraid to die."

In the end, Jason had no choice but to give up and stop being coy and hesitant.

Everyone crawled into the large iron cage of the Pavlov substation, except for Xue Ming and A Ling, who did not enter the elevator.

One of them stood beside the suspended cable of the elevator to observe, while the other squatted on the base of the motor winch.

Xue Ming, "Katusha, you stay."

A Ling threw the two large metal boxes into the elevator.

"Xia Xia, catch!"

The waiter ran out of the elevator carrying a sniper rifle and a secondary weapon.

Then she saw Xia Xia catch her metal box bag. Unlike Liuxing, who looked like she was struggling, Xiaxia didn't take a single step back.

Xiao Qi didn't understand what the two commanders meant, but at this moment, Xue Ming and A Ling should have thought of the same thing.

Xue Ming said to the people.

"We were being watched in the car earlier. Teacher A Ling and Teacher Xia Xia said that those were sentries from [Heaven's Ladder]. They have sniper rifles. I don't know how far or how accurate their snipers can be."

Su Ling removed her heavy chainmail gloves, revealing her glittering diadem.

"From what I've observed, at the speed of this large elevator, it will take at least a minute and a half to reach the next bedrock platform, and then we'll transfer to another elevator. The three of us won't go up; we'll just stay here and act as live targets."

Xue Ming: "Humanoid units are always more tempting than the elevator cables. These hounds lurking in the shadows will probably be difficult to deal with."

"I understand!" The waiter immediately went on alert, raising his gun and waiting for the right moment. "If they dare to attack us, I can retaliate immediately! In this quiet and spacious place, even without the muzzle flash, I can tell where the bullets came from! I'm a dog-killing expert! No matter if it's a white dog or Black Dog! I can kill it!"

Jason gave Thumb to the outside world from inside the elevator.

Meteor wanted to rush out again, and just as he shouted, "Me too! Me too! I'm really good at taking bullets!"

He was immediately pulled back by 3301.

Teacher San San covered her face, not knowing what to say.

Why are employers so excited about "being good at taking bullets"? It's just like the Crazy Thursday meal-taking service!

Xiao Qi looked at Xue Ming with concern, but didn't say anything more.

The elevator descended into an endless abyss, with only the hum of the motor's gears and winches meshing.

Xue Ming and Katusha crouched down together, silently calculating the time and waiting.

Waiting for the winch to stop operating, waiting for my colleagues to arrive safely at the station.

Everything is normal, and no accidents have occurred.

Xue Ming asked, "Katusha, did you see anything?"

Katusha: "No, there's no reflection from the mirror either. The enemy's mirror probably used a coating. My Phantom sniper rifle's scope has this kind of matte coating, which affects the scope's light transmission—but it hides the mirror's reflection."

Xue Ming asked, "Where is Teacher A Ling?"

Su Ling: "I can't sense any unusual spiritual pressure. He may have already left and given up tracking me."

After saying that, Su Ling pulled Xue Ming and Katusha into the group.

The Phoenix's squad list only includes these three people.

Xue Ming: "Is there no one else in the team? Are they beyond the range of Soul Might?"

"That's right, my soul power can only extend outwards by about 120 meters at most." Su Ling pulled the handle of the elevator. "If you go beyond this range, you'll be outside my service area."

Wait until the elevator returns to the cliff platform in Pavlov.

Xue Ming felt as if she were locked in a large iron cage.

Its iron mesh is covered with traces of acid rain corrosion. Looking out, you can see fireflies dozens of kilometers away. Those are the lights of RSH's outpost, indicating human activity.

The small air conditioner built into the heavy armor, which acts as an air purifier, has begun to operate beyond its capacity. You can hear the mechanical malfunctioning sounds coming from the fan motor and filter. The dust, sand, and aerogel in the air are gradually accumulating into large clumps of sludge.

With a loud bang--

--The elevator starts operating.

The movement of the chains was like a roller coaster climbing a hill, slowly carrying Xue Ming deeper into the valley.

The light sources of the weather observation balloons could be seen from mid-air, illuminating parts of the beach and the sea.

The pitch-black seawater crashed against the mudflats, carrying scalding, bluish-black steam, resembling a scene from hell.

The orange and red balloon lights shone on the wriggling mud, transforming it into millions of strange shapes, each with its own unique form and a greasy sheen.

Further afield, several mountains can be seen rising from the sea.

--No, that's not right, that's not a mountain!

Xue Ming's pupils contracted slightly.

He took out binoculars from his backpack, trying to get a better look at the "giant island" in the waters near the mudflats.

--That was a giant, a giant who, when standing, was over three hundred meters tall.

They stood frozen in the dark ocean, and one could glimpse the thick fog emanating from the giants' skulls. The places where their facial features had once been had been devoured beyond recognition by the White Lady, revealing parts of their petrified skulls.

On the missing bridge of the nose, in the hollow of the face, there is a Runes -black rune, its darkness deeper than the fog or the natural environment, as if it could absorb all light sources, making it particularly conspicuous.

Its shape should be [Hagalaz]

It represents ice, delay, limitation, and natural disintegration.

Based on actual proportions, the Immortal Lune inside this giant's skull is at least as tall as a six-story building.

Despite the great distance, Jiang Xueming could still feel a terrifying spiritual pressure emanating from him.

It is still alive, and its physical body is constantly breaking down and rebuilding. You can hear the sound of heavy objects falling to the ground in the ocean. In the rising water mist, there seems to be huge, Madness Butterfly falling from the giant's body and being absorbed back into the body by these powerful and tyrannical ancient creatures, becoming the primordial matter for rebuilding the physical body.

In the fountain plaza of the Nine Realms Station, the giant bronze sculpture that built the station for the BOSS is kneeling.

Even when they kneel down, on the top floor of the Council of Five Kings, in the lounge of the VIP tea room fortress, looking out the window, they are only level with the skulls of these bronze sculptures.

At this moment, they stood up.

--Just by standing up, these creatures can be seen to be slowly losing their consciousness when Homo sapiens looks directly at them.