Sounding the Horn of War

Under the shadow of war, the Punklorde Oasis Zone was shrouded in a suffocating atmosphere. The city's newspapers buzzed with news of the impending war, causing widespread panic in the Oasis Zone. People began hoarding supplies and staying indoors. The once bustling city became eerily quiet, and prices rapidly increased.

Almost every day, drones lined up in the sky above the city, conducting patrols and surveillance around the clock. Drones were also frequently dispatched to the Great Wilderness on missions.

In this environment, you intensified your efforts to break through your hacking skills and began researching the Dark Domain. For Punklorde, the Dark Domain was a legendary cyberspace.

The story of the creator of the Aetherium Chip, a hacker who named herself "The Deceased," was almost a household tale in Punklorde. It was said that she successfully infiltrated the Dark Domain at the cost of abandoning her physical body, becoming a ghost wandering the interstellar internet. Moreover, rumors circulated that the first person to infiltrate the Dark Domain could find the first Aetherium Chip left behind by "The Deceased." This original chip had many names, but Punklorde hackers most fondly called it—the Origin Chip.

Possessing this chip was, in a sense, the ultimate pursuit of every hacker.

However, your reason for wanting to crack the Dark Domain wasn't for this chip, but because within this space, you could obtain all the information you desired.

Outside of work, you also kept an eye on the situation at the fast-food restaurant. The news you received was that Silver Wolf had bid farewell to the proprietress one day and left. If you remembered correctly, she was only fourteen that year.

As for her destination, Silver Wolf told no one. She only sent emails to the proprietress from time to time, assuring her that all was well and inquiring if Bai Heng had returned. If he had, she asked to be contacted immediately.

At twenty years old, you made a breakthrough in your research of the Dark Domain, nearly tearing a rift in its fabric. In the same year, under the recommendation of Owl Serpent, you became a first-level inspector for the Punklorde Oasis Zone government. This position was equivalent to entering the core level of the Punklorde Network Corporation.

After entering the core level of the Punklorde Network Corporation, you gained access to more crucial data regarding Aetherium Chips, preparing you to fully breach the Dark Domain.

During this period, you also received some news from Scrap Mountain. It was said that a new genius hacker had emerged from Scrap Mountain, single-handedly taking down an entire Slag Gang stronghold. Normally, such a minor incident wouldn't require your attention, but another rumor about this genius hacker caught your eye.

It was said that the hacker's purpose in coming to Scrap Mountain was actually to find her brother, the once-famous "White Fox" of Scrap Mountain. Therefore, every time she challenged a hacker, she would leave behind an electronic graffiti related to a missing person's notice.

But before she could gather any information about the whereabouts of the genius hacker named "White Fox" in Scrap Mountain, the storm brewing over Punklorde descended ahead of schedule.

Late autumn wrapped Punklorde's streets in a chill, with withered yellow leaves scattering in the wind.

On the Golden Arch Bridge, the largest cross-river bridge in the city, many cars were gridlocked.

In the deep gray sky, raindrops fell rapidly, splashing into the churning river and creating black water blooms.

On the bridge, car horns blared incessantly, playing the noisy tune of this neon city.

However, a scene that frequently occurred in the city was suddenly interrupted by a series of strange noises.

All the traffic lights began to flash erratically, not just on the Golden Arch Bridge, but across the entire city.

Red, yellow, and green lights flickered and pulsed, falling onto the dim ground through the rain.

The paralysis of the traffic lights soon escalated into the collapse of the entire city's transportation system.

A massive traffic jam formed on the roads, with frequent car accidents. Amidst the previous cacophony of horns, panicked screams from the crowd emerged.

Because at that moment, what fell from the sky were no longer just raindrops, but drones with miniature propellers spinning.

At first, they were like black stones, but as the roaring sound grew clearer, they smashed against car windows, shattering glass, like a bloody rain of blackness.

Some on-duty drones, seemingly controlled by some force, extended their dark gun barrels, aimed at buildings and crowds, and began firing indiscriminately.

Fires lit up the sky, appearing from a distance like fireflies hovering in the rain.

The buildings, which had been projecting celebrity portraits from data boards, were also altered at this moment to display several bloody characters:

"The game has begun."