Footpan Chicken Country, Jingdong. Su Xiao stood on the street, her fingers unconsciously rubbing the strap of her backpack.
Seven days had passed.
Over those seven days, she and the other eight had split into four groups and toured all of Jingdong like real tourists.
She had taken photos at Kaminarimon of Senso-ji Temple, Shibuya Crossing, and Shinjuku Neon Street.
She had posted on her social feed, eaten ramen, and even bought a figurine in Akihabara.
Everything had been as normal as could be.
Yet not once in those seven days had her nerves truly relaxed.
That evening, the nine of them gathered in a small basement.
The air was somewhat stuffy, and the fluorescent tube overhead gave off a faint hum.
At the center of the room, a complex formation had been painted onto the floor with special paint.
It was the Flying Thunder God Formation, the core spatial technology of the Firmament Project.
Commander Li stood at the edge of the formation, looking down at the tactical watch on his wrist.
"Thirteen minutes left." His voice was low, but it was especially clear in the silent basement.
No one spoke.
Su Xiao's gaze settled on the empty center of the formation. According to the plan, the transmission would activate at exactly seventeen hundred.
She did not know what would be sent over.
But she knew that the next few hours would change many things.
Seventeen hundred.
The air at the center of the formation suddenly twisted.
Su Xiao instinctively held her breath.
Then—
Whoosh!
An extremely faint sound of something cutting through the air, almost too soft to notice.
Several dark green military cases appeared out of thin air at the center of the formation!
They were stacked together. There were no markings on the cases, only a