December 8th, less than a week until the Doomsday Rules ended.
Guan Tong stood on a high slope, staring at the area enclosed by barbed wire in the distance.
Inside the area stood several large warehouses, towering walls, and a runway.
In front of the barbed wire, a huge warning sign read “Military Zone — No Entry.”
This was his target for today: a military base in Suroma.
Over the past few days, he had relentlessly destroyed multiple munitions factories and energy stations, dealing a heavy blow to Bruce and the entire Suroma nation.
After meeting and chatting with Yelanka, the latter mentioned “tactical nuclear bombs,” which shocked Guan Tong immensely.
This made him realize once again that Yelanka was no longer the student from the academy, but an administrator who had experienced betrayal and a coup, long since becoming hard-hearted and decisive in killing.
Moreover, she was very young, not yet twenty years old.
This meant that, compared to the older decision-makers of Beixing and other nations, her underlying temperament would be more radical, more “young and reckless.”
Using tactical nuclear bombs to destroy the Hall of Halls, decapitating Bruce and his core supporters, nipping the risk of world war in the bud… This was a decision that basically no other leaders of Human Consortium nations would make.
And the reason she only mentioned it when meeting with Guan Tong, the subtext was undoubtedly that she wanted him to execute this operation.
She would provide the tactical nuclear bombs; Guan Tong could place the bombs inside his mobile shelter for transport, then use Shadow’s pervasive and flexible nature to complete the deployment and detonation.
He had to admit, this was indeed feasible.
Leveraging the flexibility of Guan Tong’s abilities, he could virtually transport a small tactical nuclear bomb anywhere in the world and detonate it at any time, maximizing its effectiveness.
Yelanka even directly told Guan Tong that if this matter made Beixing unable to tolerate him, then she and the entire Xisiya Empire would welcome him as a member at any time.
However, Guan Tong did not agree.
It wasn’t that he was worried about Beixing’s reaction, or about harming the innocent.
He was worried about Ai Ya.
A nuclear explosion at the Hall of Halls might be able to blow up Bruce, but what about Ai Ya? She would definitely be killed as well.
Guan Tong had promised Adam that he would fulfill his last wish and help him rescue his daughter. Hadn’t that promise already been broken just a few days ago?
Yelanka was somewhat disappointed about this, but she didn’t say much. Instead, she gave him a “suggestion for attacks” and a set of maps.
Guan Tong’s target today was a base marked on the map.
“Yelanka said that this base holds multiple long-range bombers and transport planes. If I can destroy them, it will significantly weaken the Suroma military’s battlefield projection capabilities…”
Battlefield projection capabilities were crucial to a war.
Especially large transport planes. Without them, the war weapons Suroma had built couldn’t be transported to the battlefield at all, only used for domestic defense.
Of course, in the age of the Doomsday Rules, exceptions existed for everything.
With exclusive or one-use teleportation items, or if some Ascendants possessed special teleportation abilities, long-distance projection was also possible.
But the cost involved was impossible to ignore.
The effective range of teleportation items was generally small. Some could teleport hundreds of people at once, but the volume of a single large war weapon was larger than a thousand people, making it impossible to teleport.
Countless shadow lines spread out from beneath Guan Tong’s feet, drilling into the ground, heading toward the base in an ethereal form.
After passing through the barbed wire, the base’s internal defenses were very lax. There were only a few soldiers on duty and some armored vehicles.
This struck Guan Tong as strange. Logically, such an important base should have tight security.
But soon his question was answered.
After the shadow infiltrated the base, it discovered that many of the warehouses meant for transport planes were empty; almost only one-fifth of them contained anything.
“Looks like they’re spreading the risk…”
Guan Tong thought to himself. Bruce would surely have to respond to his guerrilla tactics.
Even if he couldn’t stop him, he would have to reduce the overall losses from his sabotage.
Scattering the important items from each base to other locations was the best way to handle this.
Adhering to the principle of “since you’re here anyway,” Guan Tong still made his move.
Just like before, he had the ethereal shadow burrow into those transport planes and bombers, then materialize.
Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!
By the time the sounds of explosions reached Guan Tong’s ears from a distance, they had already faded considerably.
He didn’t need to go there in person to do this kind of destruction; he only had to remotely manipulate his shadow to complete it.
But this time, just as he was about to leave after finishing the destruction, the base suddenly began playing an audio recording.
“Shadow, if you’re hearing this recording, it means another Suroma government facility has been destroyed by you. Your actions have threatened the lives of all Suroman people, and I don’t believe this is your intention.”
Guan Tong used a physical shadow line to listen to the recording playing in the base. He guessed that Bruce had set up this message in every munitions factory and energy facility.
He was curious to hear what Bruce wanted.
“If you stop this kind of behavior, in exchange, I will transfer the memories of Liesert’s daughter to you. This is what you want, isn’t it? If you continue your destruction, her memories will be permanently sealed. Think it over carefully before making a decision.”
After hearing this, Guan Tong let out a cold laugh, feeling that Bruce really took him for a fool.
At Wensilisa Castle, when Ai Ya appeared, she clearly still retained her own consciousness, even if she seemed to be in a suppressed state.
Someone like Bruce, if he could erase Ai Ya’s memories and consciousness, he would have done so long ago.
Not doing it was absolutely not out of kindness, but because he couldn’t.
Guan Tong had speculated before that what Bruce valued was not Ai Ya’s body, but her innate powerful talent and the ability to manipulate fields inherited from her father, Adam.
But these were likely bound to her original memories, or rather, consciousness.
Guan Tong judged this because there had been cases during the previous “Memory Erasure” Rule period.
Ascendants who failed the Rule challenge and had all their memories erased would also have their Terminal Panels shut down.
From this, he could infer that if Bruce used technical means to erase Ai Ya’s memories and consciousness, her bound abilities and Terminal Panel would both disappear.
By then, even if Gaelid could completely take over her body, a child just a few years old who couldn’t use Mind Power, honestly, how long could she survive in such a cruel world?
Using Ai Ya’s memories to threaten Guan Tong was purely Bruce playing a game of chicken.