The Voice of God, Judgment from the Broadcast!

Lin Xuan reached out and pressed the red button.

"Bzzzt—"

A faint crackle of electricity.

The next second, a voice drowned out everything.

The loud, monotonous chime of a broadcast system activating instantly blanketed the entire noisy, chaotic military base.

The soldiers running frantically through the corridors stopped in their tracks.

The soldiers in the barracks, putting on their gear, froze mid-motion.

Even the patrols on the perimeter raised their heads and looked toward the nearest speakers.

With communications cut off, they had been at a complete loss.

Noisy shouts.

Panicked footsteps.

All of it vanished in that instant.

Everyone held their breath, waiting for what came next.

Just as the oppressive atmosphere reached its peak, a man's voice rang out.

Calm, indifferent, utterly devoid of emotion.

It came simultaneously from hundreds of speakers throughout the base, reaching every ear with perfect clarity.

"Good evening, soldiers of the Red Ribbon Army."

The greeting was like a boulder crashing into a lake, and the entire base instantly erupted.

"Who is that? Who's speaking?"

"That voice... it's coming from the command center!"

"Has the command center been infiltrated?"

After that brief silence came even greater panic.

The soldiers' faces went pale, and their palms were drenched in cold sweat as they gripped their guns.

Ignoring the commotion, the voice on the broadcast continued in that unhurried tone, stating a fact that drove everyone to despair.

"Your commander, Colonel Light, can no longer issue you orders."

"From this moment on, this base is under my control."

Boom!

The first statement had caused panic. The second was a bomb.

It exploded in everyone's mind.

Colonel Light... had been taken out?

Their commander, whom they had nearly considered invincible, had been killed without a sound?

How was that possible?

Countless soldiers wore expressions of utter disbelief.

Yet the voice on the broadcast was too calm—so calm that it made their skin crawl.

Lin Xuan did not give them much time to think.

His voice began to tear open the sins concealed beneath the veil of discipline.

"Some of you may still believe yourselves to be honorable soldiers."

"But the land beneath your feet remembers what you have done."

"You forcibly enslaved the villagers nearby, treating them like livestock and working them to death in lightless mines."

"You casually seized their property, piling gold and jewels into this fortress of sin."

"Every innocent person who dared resist had their last hope shattered by your cold bullets."

With every sentence from the broadcast, the soldiers below turned a shade paler.

The veterans who had personally committed such acts in particular began to tremble.

These were secrets everyone in the base knew, yet no one dared speak of.

Now, that mysterious voice had laid them bare before everyone.

The false cloak called "justice" had been ripped to shreds.

"Now, it is time for judgment."

Lin Xuan's voice suddenly turned cold, carrying an authority that allowed no argument.

"I will give you five minutes."

"Put down your weapons, leave the barracks, and assemble in the central square of the base."

"This is your only chance to live."

"Five minutes from now, anyone still resisting with a weapon will be killed without mercy."

The last four words were like a death knell ringing from hell, slamming brutally into every soldier's heart.

The base fell silent once more.

Every soldier wrestled with the same conflict.

Surrender? Or resist?

Then, the broadcast sounded again.

This time, it brought a terror worse than death.

"Sergeant Martin's squad behind Warehouse No. 3 in Zone B, discussing countermeasures—you can stop talking now. Stubborn resistance will only lead to death."

Behind the warehouse, Sergeant Martin, who had been encouraging his men, went completely rigid.

The expression on his face froze, as though he had seen a ghost.

"H-how does he know we're here?" a young soldier said in a trembling voice, barely able to hold onto his rifle.

"The five people in Barracks No. 7 in the eastern sector trying to escape through the tunnel—I advise you to come back up immediately. I've sealed the tunnel exit."

Inside the barracks, the five soldiers prying up the floorboards froze. They looked at one another, their eyes filled with nothing but despair.

"And Captain Anderson in the armory, planning to gather people and storm the command building? A very stupid decision. Because the moment you charge out of the armory doors, the ventilation duct above your head will come crashing down."

In the armory, Captain Anderson, who had just gathered more than twenty die-hard loyalists, abruptly looked up at the ceiling.

As he stared at the massive ventilation duct, cold sweat instantly beaded on his forehead.

God.

This was the voice of God.

Other than an omniscient god, who could know every movement throughout the entire base so clearly?

That thought spread wildly through the minds of every soldier.

Their final psychological defenses began to crumble under this omniscient assault.

The unknown brought panic.

But omniscience brought despair.

"Four minutes remain on the countdown."

Lin Xuan's icy voice was a death warrant.

At last, the first soldier broke down.

"I surrender! I surrender!"

A young soldier screamed as he threw away his gun, raised both hands, and stumbled and crawled out of the barracks toward the central square.

His actions were like flipping a switch.

"Clack."

"Clack, clack."

The sound of weapons hitting the ground rang out one after another.

One, two, ten, a hundred...

More and more soldiers chose to surrender.

One by one, they walked out of the barracks as though their souls had left them, discarded their weapons, held their heads, and silently made their way toward the square.

Their faces showed fear, confusion, and a trace of undisguisable relief.

Many of them had not joined the Red Ribbon Army willingly.

They had long grown tired of this life where death was always around the corner.

Now, a mysterious and powerful person had given them a way out.

"Three minutes remain on the countdown. It seems some people still haven't thought things through."

The voice over the broadcast precisely called out more names.

"The squad in the energy control room preparing to cut power to the command building, I regret to inform you that the backup power lines have already been severed. Everything you do is useless."

The moment the words ended.

Electrical sparks suddenly burst beneath a soldier's feet in the energy control room. He screamed and collapsed to the ground, convulsing.

On the main breaker in front of him, a large rat squeaked and darted swiftly into the darkness.

The others who witnessed the scene gave up completely and slumped to the floor.

"Two minutes remain on the countdown."

The wave of surrender throughout the base reached its peak.

Hundreds, even thousands, of soldiers merged into a human tide and streamed toward the central square.

Before long, the square was piled high with weapons, like a small mountain.

But not everyone surrendered.

There were always fanatical loyalists, or vicious criminals who knew their sins were too great and that surrender would only lead to death.

"Brothers! Don't listen to him! He's just putting on an act!"

"He's alone! There are so many of us—rush him and tear him apart!"

Captain Anderson's face was flushed red as he waved his pistol and frantically rallied the last few dozen soldiers around him who refused to surrender.

"For the glory of the Red Ribbon Army! Kill!"

With an enraged roar.

The eyes of those soldiers, driven into a corner, held nothing but madness.

Guns in hand, they screamed as they charged toward the command center building.

Launching their final assault.

Their eyes contained only the last traces of madness and brutality.

Inside the office, Lin Xuan quietly watched the charging group through the window.

The countdown over the broadcast had just reached zero.

"Time's up."

"The judgment begins."

He switched off the broadcast.

The entire base returned to the quiet of the night.

Only the mad footsteps and shouts of those few dozen men echoed through the empty base, painfully grating.

Lin Xuan turned around, not the least bit tense.

He straightened his clothes like an aristocrat preparing to attend a banquet.

Then he walked to the office door, reached out, and slowly pushed open the heavy wooden door.

Outside lay an empty, deathly silent corridor.

At the far end of the corridor, hurried, chaotic footsteps were rapidly approaching.

Lin Xuan simply stood in the doorway and waited in silence.

Waiting for his first head-on battle against many opponents alone.