91: scorched earth

"7..."

The cold countdown, each number like a heavy hammer swung from hell, slammed hard against the heart of every intruder in the central square.

The smile of a master strategist on Osiris's face froze completely, then shattered bit by bit.

In his gray-blue eyes, which always carried an air of total control, a thick, indelible bewilderment emerged for the first time.

He had schemed against Lin Feng, schemed against Juan, and schemed against all the defense mechanisms of the Golden City, even treating the entire city as something already in his pocket.

But for all his calculations, he never expected that this prehistoric ruin, which had slept for ten thousand years, would actually have a fucking final protocol for mutual destruction buried within it!

"What's going on!"

He didn't roar; instead, his voice was kept extremely low, each word squeezed out from between his teeth, exuding a terrifying, deathly silence before the coming storm.

"Who did this?"

"No... it wasn't us!" The technical supervisor's face instantly lost all color, turning as pale as a sheet of paper. His hands pounded frantically on the console, trying to regain control of the system, but all commands were like stones sinking into the ocean. "The protocol is a passive response! Our forced takeover... became its trigger! Boss, it's a setup! A death trap aimed at all intruders!"

"6..."

The countdown continued to tick mercilessly.

The sound seemed to ring directly within the soul, impossible to block out.

"Cancel it! Cancel it immediately!" Osiris's command was short and sharp, carrying an unquestionable ruthlessness.

"We can't! We can't do it!" The technical supervisor's voice already carried a sob as he looked despairingly at the screen full of red warnings. "Its system priority is the highest! We can't do anything right now! We never even got the actual permissions!"

"5..."

Along with the countdown, that towering Golden Spire began to erupt with an increasingly blinding light.

Those complex and gorgeous golden patterns on the tower's body were no longer decorations; they were like red-hot branding irons, emitting a heat intense enough to melt steel.

The Annular Force Field Generators surrounding the spire's main entrance could no longer hold out under the impact of the massive energy backflow.

"Bang! Bang, bang!"

A series of ear-piercing explosions rang out as sophisticated and expensive modules burst one after another, blue electrical sparks darting around like fireworks.

The air around the spire visibly distorted and boiled, as if it would ignite the very next second.

"Useless trash!"

Osiris finally cursed out loud.

He took one last look at the spire that was about to turn into an energy furnace, then glanced at the technicians who were still fruitlessly operating the consoles and crying out.

There wasn't a hint of pity on his face, only a bone-deep coldness.

For this plan, he had invested astronomical sums of money and manpower, yet in the end, he was actually played by a dead object buried for who knows how many tens of thousands of years!

"Everyone, fall back!"

He no longer hesitated and decisively gave the final order.

"Abandon all equipment and retreat to the edge of the square immediately! Move!"

He was the first to turn around, without a shred of lingering attachment, taking large strides as he sprinted back the way he came.

The Black-Armored Guard behind him moved like a high-precision machine, their actions uniform as they followed closely. Not a single one of them even looked back at the abandoned companions.

Those technicians were merely consumables.

"4..."

"Boss! Wait for us! Boss!"

"Ah—! My leg! My leg's been blown off!"

Order collapsed instantly, and chaos erupted completely.

Those technicians who were just cheering for success now threw down all their instruments and fled for their lives, their survival instinct overwhelming everything else.

A soldier had half his leg sliced off by a fragment of exploding equipment. He fell to the ground screaming and rolling, his blood staining the golden floor red.

But of the people running past him, not one stopped to help; some even stepped directly over him just to run faster!

As doomsday arrived, the ugliest side of human nature was fully exposed.

"3..."

"Brother Feng! Holy shit! This thing is fucking gonna blow!"

On the top floor of the building, Wang Dalong's teeth were chattering from the hellish sight.

Just then, the vent cover beneath him was shoved open, and a dust-covered figure climbed out nimbly.

It was Lin Feng!

On his face, there was no fear, only a near-callous calm.

"Record it."

Lin Feng only said those two words to him, then his gaze swept over the chaotic crowd in the square below, locking onto the retreating back of Osiris.

Get a clear shot of him for me.

"2..."

The spire's light had reached its peak.

That golden structure was no longer a grand wonder, but a supernova about to explode, condensed with infinite energy!

The ground around it had completely melted. Golden liquid churned and flowed on the ground, emitting billowing thick smoke, forming a small lava lake.

"1..."

Time seemed to be stretched infinitely at this moment.

Every movement of the people in the square turned into slow motion.

Someone opened their mouth wide but could make no sound.

Someone reached out their hand, as if trying to grab onto something.

Osiris's running figure also seemed frozen in mid-air.

"0."

The final judgment descended.

There was no world-shaking explosion as expected.

The entire world, in this instant, fell into an absolute, deathly silent pure white.

A golden pillar of light, indescribable in any language and containing world-ending energy, shot up from the top of the spire, piercing through the dome's light screen above the city without resistance!

That sky, which had been maintained for ten thousand years, was punctured with a large hole!

Immediately after, this extremely violent energy, with the spire as its absolute center, formed a perfect spherical shockwave that exploded outward in all directions!

"BOOM—!!!!!"

The terrifying sonic boom arrived with a slight delay, as if it wanted to tear everyone's eardrums apart!

The destructive torrent of energy swept across the entire central square with unstoppable force.

Those technicians who were too slow didn't even have time to scream before they were instantly vaporized in that golden light, leaving not even a speck of dust behind.

All the high-precision instruments Osiris had set up at any cost, equipment representing the pinnacle of human technology, melted away without a trace in less than a second, like snow under a blazing sun.

The entire floor of the square was forcibly plowed away by a layer of this energy!

The melted gold gathered into a boiling, golden lake that emitted the aura of death.

The residual force of the shockwave slammed hard into the building where Lin Feng and Wang Dalong were hiding.

"Clang—!"

The entire building shook violently, and spider-web-like cracks instantly appeared on the walls, as if it would fall apart the next second.

Wang Dalong was shaken senseless by the massive force, his head slamming into the wall behind him, making him see stars.

"Holy shit!"

He cursed, but his hands still held his precious camera tightly, the lens always pointed outside.

After an unknown amount of time, the blinding light that was enough to dazzle anyone finally began to slowly dissipate.

Lin Feng was the first to lift his head from the corner and look outside.

The sight before him made even him gasp.

The once grand and magnificent central square had completely turned into scorched earth.

The Golden Spire still stood there, but its once golden and resplendent body was now charred black, still emitting wisps of smoke, like the remains of a giant that had exhausted all its life force.

At the edge of the square, Osiris and his core Black-Armored Guard had managed to escape the most lethal core of the impact because they retreated in time.

But they were all in a wretched state, knocked to the ground by the violent residual energy waves, their black armor showing various degrees of damage.

However, no one realized that this was merely the beginning.

The disaster was not over.

At this very moment, an ancient, majestic, and strange voice that belonged to no known language rang out simultaneously in every corner of the city and in the minds of every survivor.

It wasn't a sound transmitted through the air, but a higher-level informational resonance that acted directly on the mental level.

[...City power system collapse detected...]

[..."Inheritor" Project failed...]

[...Initiating "Purge" Protocol...]

[...Awakening... City Guard...]

As this cold voice fell, the entire deathly silent Golden City suddenly came to life!

"Click... clack, clack... clack, clack, clack..."

Throughout the city, the buildings that had been silent for ten thousand years—their walls, floors, ceilings—all began to emit dense, tooth-grinding sounds of mechanical rotation.

One by one, the golden floor tiles flipped over, revealing deep passages beneath.

Wall after wall of magnificent golden stone slid slowly to the sides, revealing hidden spaces within.

Immediately after.

In every shadow of the city, in every newly appeared dark hole.

Pairs of eyes flashing with an ominous red light snapped open.

One pair.

Two pairs.

Hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands!

Densely packed red points of light lit up from all directions of the city, instantly illuminating this dead city that had just experienced a catastrophe!