Fishing

Since the Thousand-Man Law-Ruler had awakened, it was time to use all nine remaining T-1000s to collect the Thousand-Man Law-Ruler Cores. All T-800s and most T-600s were reassigned to assist the T-1000s in any high-intensity battles that might arise, while the remaining few T-600s handled routine security. Once the Tenth Law-Ruler emerged, many refugees would inevitably flee into Dr. Mei's city. Terminator units could blend in among the refugees, and their highly realistic artificial biological tissue would help the T-800s and T-600s avoid suspicion.

Qin Su, naturally, moved through the city like a fish in water. Fire Moth could not possibly gather and consolidate information on every single person. Every place touched by human society was under wartime control, and every supercomputer had to be used for research or combat. But for Qin Su, as long as everyone had smart devices, gathering and compiling their data to infer behavioral patterns was the simplest thing in the world. The power of big data stood out even more in war.

A long line of civilian trucks stood side by side at the city entrance, and many "people" stepped out of them. A weathered middle-aged man had a cigarette dangling from his mouth; a burly, muscular brute with a fierce face stared up at the sky; a young man in the prime of life wore a worried expression. Their steps were sluggish, their faces full of fatigue, helplessness, and cunning. No one could have told that this group of people, each with such vivid and varied expressions, were machines made of parts.

"Next!" the junior inspector guarding the checkpoint on the city's outskirts shouted impatiently. The scorching sun beat down on several soldiers nearby. Though sweat poured from them like rain, they did not dare move even a step away, gripping their guns tightly. A Law-Ruler could very well be hiding among these people.

A spry old man walked forward. When the inspector at the checkpoint saw that he was an elderly man, his irritated expression softened considerably. He waved the old man over. "Please show your identification."

"What identification?"

"An ID card would be best, but anything else works too," the inspector said impatiently. He had repeated those words countless times today. No matter how good-natured a person was, endless repetitive work would eventually wear away their patience. That was why shorter working hours had been instituted.

The old man looked to be around fifty. His movements were crisp and decisive, and his build was notably strong. Without a word, he handed over his ID card.

The inspector placed it on the scanner. A clear chime sounded, accompanied by a gentle blue glow.

"Your ID." The inspector handed the card back.

"Where should I go?"

"Wait over there for a while."

The old man nodded and walked over to the crowd waiting to enter the city. A few minutes later, the inspector waved his hand, signaling the soldiers behind him to let them through.

The city could roughly be divided into five districts: a circular district centered on the government building in the city center, with the other districts forming sectors around it. Infiltrators were spread throughout all five districts, though the city center had the highest concentration. The Tenth Law-Ruler's operations mainly revolved around the Divine Keys. To obtain information, the Law-Rulers would certainly tamper with government agencies. Even if the Tenth Law-Ruler communicated through a psychic link internally, as long as they moved, they would leave traces.

In all history thus far, the Previous Era's Tenth Law-Ruler was undoubtedly the most intelligent of all Law-Rulers. They could disperse for guerrilla warfare or concentrate their forces for a hard assault. They made plans and knew they could not defeat Fusion Warriors, so they chose to destroy the Divine Keys and seize their authority. They were among the rare Law-Rulers whose intelligence did not decline after becoming Law-Rulers.

Even so, there was no such thing as a wall without cracks. A person's actions could reveal a great deal of information. No matter how cautious the Tenth Law-Ruler was, they would leak some small clue. Qin Su's central computer had already marked several hundred individuals as suspicious, though there might not be a single Law-Ruler among them. But once he found one, the Law-Rulers would notice Qin Su's existence. If what that Law-Ruler saw and heard before death was enough to pique their curiosity, then tools carrying Law-Ruler Cores would keep delivering themselves right to his doorstep.

Only a handful of people walked along the broad, brightly lit sidewalk. The once neat and clean pavement was now littered with debris from collapsed buildings and trash thrown everywhere. A Fire Moth soldier patrolled the street with a gun in hand when three burly men in overcoats approached him. The first man reached out to stop him. Seeing the powerful muscles and bulging veins on their hands, the soldier instinctively assumed they meant trouble and gripped his weapon tighter.

"Sorry, brother. Could you tell us where the refugee camp is?" The second burly man scratched his head with an apologetic look, while another took out a map and pointed to a spot on it with an ingratiating smile. The soldier secretly breathed a sigh of relief and pointed out the route amiably. "You go this way..." He rattled off a long explanation, then looked at the three men. "Any other questions?"

The three burly men looked at each other, their eyes filled with confusion. They all shook their heads. One of them scratched his head awkwardly and said, "Us three brothers are terrible with directions. Otherwise, we wouldn't have walked from the southern checkpoint all the way to the city center. How about you lead us there, brother?"

The soldier thought it over, then nodded helplessly. "Fine, but I'll only take you part of the way. I'm on patrol, and it won't look good if I leave my post without authorization. For the rest, just keep going straight in the direction I point."

The three burly men followed the soldier into a silent alley.

"From here, follow the direction I'm pointing..." The soldier pointed behind him toward an alley. Before he could finish, the T-1000 transformed both hands into conical spikes and pinned the soldier's shoulders to the wall, while the other two T-800s seized his arms. With the T-1000's overwhelming strength, if the T-800s had not held his arms in place, the soldier would already have been embedded in the wall.

What truly made the stunned soldier realize he was a Law-Ruler was the agonizing pain shooting through his elbows, knees, and shoulders. Even if he understood what was happening now, there was nothing he could do. Severe fractures prevented him from exerting his normal strength. He was nothing more than a lamb awaiting slaughter.

The soldier gritted his teeth, disbelief written all over his face.

"Damn it, do you know how much trouble you've gotten yourselves into?! If you don't let me go now, you'll be the ones who die!" He did not want to expose his Law-Ruler abilities before he had fulfilled his real purpose.

The three burly men did not react in the slightest. Their cold expressions and swift movements stood in stark contrast to their earlier simple, honest appearances.

"Damn it! Even if I die, you'll die before me!" An eerie agate-red light appeared in the soldier's eyes. He roared almost madly, "Turn to ash in the heat!"

A massive amount of heat gathered in his hands. His restrained arms suddenly blasted flames reaching 1,000°C at the T-800s. Yet the three burly men showed no fear. All the biological tissue on the T-800s' heads burned away, revealing red-hot metal and electronic eyes glowing crimson.

Titanium alloy and liquid metal could not withstand such thousand-degree heat for long, but in only a few seconds, his arms were snapped by the red-hot mechanical arms.

"Armed Dolls?! How is that possible?! How can there still be Armed Dolls?!" The soldier was utterly horrified and instantly shared what he had seen through the Law-Rulers' psychic link.

The T-1000 transformed its right hand into a spike. Like some kind of cult ritual, the spike aimed directly at the Law-Ruler's heart and plunged down viciously.

After losing their heart, a person could probably survive for only a few minutes. Law-Rulers, however, were different. Qin Su wanted to know whether human organs still functioned after Law-Ruler transformation. As it happened, he had recently started a new project called "Research into the Bodily Structure of Law-Rulers." With the numerous Tenth Law-Rulers as research material, he could infer the weaknesses of ordinary Law-Rulers from the broader picture.

The soldier's hands and feet were firmly restrained, yet he continued breathing for around an hour and a half. It seemed that while the heart was a weakness, it was not a fatal weakness capable of killing him quickly.

A T-800's half-exposed mechanical arm plunged into the soldier's chest. After some searching, it removed the Law-Ruler Core. They covered themselves in a layer of biological tissue again and vanished without a trace.

The bait had been set. Now it depended on whether the Law-Rulers would take the hook.

PS: Terminator was the general term for ground-combat robots, while Infiltrators were Terminators wearing human skin.