Eternal Punishment!
Adolf, dressed in military uniform, raised his arms in the Imperial Diet Hall and conducted a band performance in front of a group of high-ranking officials.
As the orchestra began to play, Adolf slowly closed his eyes. "I said that if we lose this battle, I will step down without anyone having to say a word."
"But unfortunately, we won; we are the victors of this war!"
The moment the victory declaration was announced, the entire nation erupted in jubilation. The empire had won the world's toughest war and become the dominant power on the continent.
At this moment, the empire reached its zenith.
Especially after the Imperial Head of State Adolf, received the potion.
Adolf never imagined that he would become a Sequence in his lifetime. No other Sequence had ever done this; only 009 had.
The one who gave the drug to his subordinates was 009.
However, 009 can only select drugs from a limited range, which are either derivative sequences of his or universal sequences.
009 looked around and then selected a branch that he had derived from.
An immortal branch!
This is a potion that only 009 can choose. The effect of this potion is one of the ways 009 achieves immortality.
His name is Yongfa.
When immortality becomes a curse, a punishment called suffering follows: what I feel, what I am wounded, you will share with me.
Serial Number 080: The Eternal Punisher, Alos.
Number 0: The Eternal Punisher
Mid-Tier Third Order individual possesses three characteristics and one ability.
These three characteristics are: the Undying Curse in the physical body.
080 cannot be killed by physical means. Like 009, 080 will be resurrected after death, but each time he is resurrected, he will suffer exponentially more pain than when he died.
In other words, each time you are resurrected, the pain you endure will double.
If he dies ten times, he will suffer ten times the pain of physical death upon resurrection.
There is no upper limit to this multiple.
When the pain of resurrection exceeds that of death by a thousand or ten thousand times, death becomes a liberation, and living becomes the greatest punishment.
This is a curse, and also the first characteristic of 080 Alos.
His second characteristic is the Curse Backlash.
Whatever pain and injury 080 suffers, the person who kills 080 will suffer the same pain and injury.
The third characteristic is called the Pain Link.
If the person who kills 080 is not killed by the backlash, they will be branded with the mark of pain and will form a spiritual connection with 080, sharing the pain of 080's resurrection.
For every ordinary brand holder, 080's suffering is reduced by half.
Those branded cannot be attacked, but pain will be reflected in their bodies, and they do not have immortality and may die from pain alone.
The brand will be removed upon death.
These are the three characteristics of 080, and finally, one of its capabilities.
080 can actively select a person and give that person a share of their own injuries.
These are all the abilities of 080 Eternal Punisher. This is a branch of 009's ability evolution, a branch of Pain Sacrifice.
But 009 clearly prefers his ability to split.
If every split requires accumulating pain, then why would 009 even split? He'd just have a mental breakdown and die from the pain.
After becoming 080, 009 simultaneously gave Alos a split entity.
This split is quite important. 009 initially kept splitting it in order to deal with the Frost King's freezing ability, but those splits never gave him a satisfactory result.
Until that mirror appeared.
That was something he had never separated from before, ten thousand times stronger than the Golden King's strongest artifact!
The moment the mirror appeared, 009 had a premonition.
This mirror will be unique; there will never be another like it before, and there never will be.
This may be the only chance, a chance to change the world.
This is important.
009 then entrusted this important task to Alos.
Alos asked 009 when to make a move, whether to start the final battle against the Frost King now.
But 009 hesitated for a moment, then rejected Alos's proposal, explaining that the Frost King should be left until 600 years later.
He wants the Frost King to die alive!
What will become of the Frost King if he lives?
Alos didn't understand, but he didn't question it, just as he did with 009's declaration: he might not understand 009's intentions, but he had to follow them.
But on the very night the empire held its victory celebration, an unexpected incident occurred.
The Zerg began their overwhelming attack, sweeping across the entire Outer Sea Continent.
The long-dormant Insect Mother has begun to exert her power, and in a nuclear war, the Insect Mother will be the biggest beneficiary.
Even now, though the Empire's soldiers wear special breathing masks to guard against a potential biohazard, the insects are undeterred.
The insects mutated under the radiation and fed on it, absorbing the radioactive material after the nuclear explosion, just like the Lord of the Red Flow.
In a way, they have helped the world.
They also played a role in purifying the world, but those insects themselves became the most terrifying source of radiation.
The victory celebration ended, and the empire entered a new phase of preparation for war.
The high-ranking officials, who were originally gathered together in celebration, all turned grim. The empire was beginning to face the threat of the insect swarm, and some reactionary factions were emerging within the empire itself.
Civilians walked the streets waving flags and shouting, "Oppose nuclear weapons! The world needs purification! We can live without nuclear weapons, but we cannot lose the bounty of nature!"
"If we hadn't unleashed a large number of nuclear weapons, these insects wouldn't have mutated. This is nature's punishment for us, and also a warning!"
"We are reaping what we sowed, and we must reflect on our actions!"
"Oppose nuclear weapons!"
As these voices grew louder, Adolf's expression became increasingly cold.
To strike the mountain to scare the tiger, to kill the chicken to warn the monkey.
Adolf directly arrested an inconspicuous Imperial man in the group, claiming he had been bribed and was a spy from another country, and then executed him by firing squad in full view of everyone.
After that, the voices of opposition decreased significantly, and the empire enjoyed a period of peace.
The entire Outer Sea Continent is now facing a crisis from the Zerg. The Insect Mother has tasted the sweetness of victory, and Li Yuan behind her has begun to further fuel the flames, urging her to fight against 009 with all her might.
The Insect Mother thought so too.
The Empire's prized nuclear weapons gradually became somewhat useless against the evolved Zerg. When nuclear weapons failed and instead enabled the enemy to evolve, the Empire found itself in a predicament.
The war between the Empire and the Zerg has been going on for a long time, seemingly without end.
As the territories of various countries shrank under the Zerg's attacks, Li Yuan landed on the Outer Sea Continent at this very moment.
He began to annex the territories of other countries in large numbers, as well as to win over various smaller nations.
Even 003, who didn't want to make enemies of anyone or get involved in any war, made a choice at this moment.
003 joined forces with Li Yuan.
"Welcome, old friend."
"Since we can't avoid it, we can only face it."
The two hit it off immediately and formed an alliance. Also brought into the alliance by Li Yuan were the Lord of the Red Flow and Sequence 024 Great Serpent.
Li Yuan and Li Heng had been in contact for some time, but their plans changed.
Their initial plan was to have the alliance deal with 009 first, and then, once 009 was out of the picture, to find a way to dismantle the alliance and devour other countries.
But the alliance lost and then disbanded prematurely.
Li Yuan's preparations came to naught, but Li Yuan had anticipated this possibility and thus prepared the Insect Mother as a backup plan.
If Plan One fails, let's switch to Plan Two.