In the evening, inside the Hall of Halls, in the underground laboratory.
After coming down, Bruce found Dr. Haisen, who led him to the surveillance room.
The large screen was divided into dozens of small grid windows, each showing a young man with highly similar facial features, bearing a strong resemblance to Bruce.
Without a doubt, these were all products of "Project G," all replica bodies of Gaelid loaded with cloud-stored memories.
In the footage, some Gaelid replicas sat calmly, some muttered to themselves, some paced back and forth in their rooms banging their heads against the walls... These scenes combined together inexplicably gave off a sense of absurd hilarity.
But neither Dr. Haisen nor Bruce could bring themselves to laugh.
"Seven or eight of them have relatively normal cognition," Haisen said. "The others all have varying degrees of problems, especially the Memory Bodies downloaded into fully mechanical containers—almost all of them immediately showed signs of mental breakdown."
"It seems human memory still cannot fully manipulate machinery without a biological body."
"Yes. Because a large portion of human memory and cognition is highly bound to biological organisms. Completely replacing that with machinery will inevitably cause cognitive dissonance."
Haisen paused. "Using bio-organic substitute materials yields mediocre results and requires more testing time. For now, downloading into another person's brain remains the most reliable option."
Bruce nodded. "Select the most stable one as soon as possible. Also, can the 'Destroyer' be deployed in actual combat?"
Dr. Haisen froze upon hearing this. "Your Majesty wishes to deploy the 'Destroyer' now?"
The "Destroyer" was commissioned by Bruce and secretly developed by Haisen as the newest model of war mech.
Unlike the many models already in mass production, it was a true "Destroyer" in every sense of the word.
Bruce's combat requirement for this mech was that a single unit alone could wipe out an entire small city.
To meet this design goal, Dr. Haisen had assembled nearly a thousand engineers who worked around the clock, and based on the R&D experience and advanced technology of multiple mech models, they successfully produced the blueprints.
"Answer my question," Bruce said.
Haisen dared not question him further and hastily replied, "According to the blueprints, with the coordination of several thousand engineering robots, we have completed the construction of the 'Destroyer.'
However, since it is the first fully assembled unit and still a prototype model, we cannot guarantee it will achieve one hundred percent of the designed performance."
"There's no time for gradual testing. I want it deployed into combat immediately," Bruce said.
Dr. Haisen didn't quite understand why Bruce was in such a rush and asked curiously, "Your Majesty, are you planning to eliminate Han Qiu?"
"Han Qiu is nothing but a clown. Even if he rallies all the weak and feeble to his side, he will never be my match. There is only one truly dangerous enemy."
"You mean... Shadow?"
"I'll give you half a day. Have it fully calibrated before dawn."
Bruce paused, then said with a pointed tone, "After this Rule ends, humanity will enter a new era in the true universe. The grudges of the old era should be settled before this Rule comes to an end."
Bruce left after speaking, and Dr. Haisen's heart skipped a beat.
He could feel Bruce's resolve, and he also realized that choosing this moment to strike was precisely because Han Qiu's high-profile actions had captured the world's attention.
An inexplicable sense of oppression spread through his heart, and the suffocating pressure of an impending storm made Uenoshi's heart race, leaving her with a vague sense of foreboding.
She shook her head, deciding not to overthink things, and immediately went to carry out the calibration work on the "Destroyer."
"Let them all die."
Uenoshi abruptly opened her eyes, sitting up from the bed, gasping for air.
In her dream, she had heard that voice with the strange tone again.
Cold, damp, as if it carried the foul stench of the deep fissures at the bottom of the sea.
Ever since she first heard that voice while confronting the fringe group that Han Qiu had infiltrated and corrupted, it had been appearing with increasing frequency over the past few days.
Guan Tong had told her before that perhaps everyone received different omens when acquiring their Authority, and this voice might be the omen for her Authority.
But she found it very strange.
Every time this voice appeared, it stirred up an uncontrollable urge to kill within her heart.
Like last time—if she hadn't been influenced by that voice, she might not have directly petrified and killed over a hundred people on the spot.
This made the image of Yuzawa Jun resurface in her mind. That brutal, bloodthirsty bastard who had transformed into a giant serpent form—just thinking about it now still sent chills down her spine.
After Yuzawa Jun died, she had automatically absorbed his share of the Great Serpent bloodline.
After the absorption, her power had surged at an explosive rate for a long time, changing almost every single day. Even Guan Tong had been stunned by the speed of her growth during that period.
But if she got the benefits of absorbing the bloodline, then what about the drawbacks?
Uenoshi's gaze turned solemn. A bad suspicion took root in her mind.
In Sakura Prayer's mythology, Yoroi was the hero who slew Yamata no Orochi. Her bloodline ability was also named "Yoroi."
Back then, Yuzawa Jun had renamed her "Yamata no Orochi" purely as a cover-up. In reality, it was Yuzawa Jun's bloodline ability that was truly "Yamata."
Guan Tong and Uenoshi had once discussed a topic, speculating that "Yoroi" and "Yamata" were two rival deep-sea serpents, and the outcome of their conflict was that the former killed the latter.
Uenoshi had absorbed the "Yamata" bloodline, which meant she now possessed both "Yoroi" and "Yamata" bloodline abilities simultaneously. This was likely the reason she had developed some new powers.
But if she had also absorbed the drawbacks of the "Yamata" bloodline... perhaps the reason Yuzawa Jun had turned into that monstrous state was not unrelated to the evil corrosion contained within this bloodline ability.
Thinking about this, fear welled up in Uenoshi's heart.
She absolutely did not want to become a second Yuzawa Jun. She would rather die outright than become someone like that.
"...I shouldn't overthink this."
Uenoshi calmed her emotions, got out of bed, and glanced through the window at the gloomy gray sky outside. It was still four or five in the morning, and dawn had yet to break.
Yesterday, Guan Tong had said he was going to make a move against Bruce, and she had immediately asked to go with him.
Guan Tong agreed.
For this assassination mission, the Trace Origin Travel Troupe would be led by its core duo—him as the Troupe Leader and Uenoshi as the Deputy Troupe Leader.
Moon Key would stay behind on guard duty, while Black Star and White Star would provide a certain level of intelligence support.
As for their younger brother Aaron, he was still training at the Countermeasures Research Office base, and Guan Tong had no intention of informing him about this. There was no need to involve Aaron.
However, there was one more person Guan Tong needed to meet before the operation.
Uenoshi knew that person had to be Shi Jingyi.
Having known Guan Tong for so long, she had a fairly good understanding of him. Even if he never directly mentioned it, she knew that Shi Jingyi was extremely important in his heart.
Last time when Shi Jingyi went into secluded meditation for a breakthrough, she had watched Guan Tong stand motionless outside the shelter for over twenty days without budging an inch. That alone said everything.
And now, with such a dangerous operation as assassinating Bruce in Suroma, Guan Tong would certainly need to inform Shi Jingyi.
But Uenoshi knew that Shi Jingyi would most likely not go with them.
Her identity was too special, and her participation in such an operation would have enormous repercussions. Besides, even if she wanted to go, Guan Tong would probably try to talk her out of it.
However...
Uenoshi thought to herself, if it were her, how could she possibly let someone important to her go on such a dangerous adventure without going along too?
That thought flashed through her mind and was quickly suppressed.
She knew she could only manage herself, not other people's affairs, and she had no right to judge choices that had nothing to do with her.
She sat quietly on the bed for a moment, then dressed herself, got up, took a sip of water, and pushed open the door to step outside.
The sky outside was still gloomy and gray, and the air carried a slight hint of moisture, as if it was about to rain.
Everything around was eerily silent, broken only by the faint rustling sound of her shoes scraping against the ground as she walked.
Before heading to Suroma, she still needed to arrange some affairs for the Serpent Hair Society.
Because this operation's duration and success were unknown.
She knew that if things went poorly, the outcome might not just be a failed assassination with a clean escape. Both she and Guan Tong had a real possibility of dying in Suroma.
But she felt no worry about that. It wasn't that she wasn't afraid of death, but rather that fighting side by side with Guan Tong, even dying in defeat, was something she could accept.
She thought she would find a few reliable subordinates to talk to before departing, so that if she couldn't return within a short time, these people would be ready to take over.
But wasn't it too early to go looking for people at this hour? It wasn't even dawn yet...
That thought was dispelled by a blinding white light that appeared out of nowhere.
Without warning, without anticipation, a massive spherical burst of white light exploded across the sky, tearing it apart like a sheet of paper. In that instant, time seemed to leap from three or four in the morning straight to high noon.
Uenoshi was momentarily struck blind, and her ears seemed to go empty as well—every sound vanished without a trace.
Then scorching heatwaves and tremors came sweeping in like a tsunami, devouring everything in their path.
An explosion? No, a nuclear explosion?!
After a brief blank, consciousness snapped back into place, and Uenoshi suddenly realized that an ordinary explosion could never possess such world-shattering power and scale.
Oh no! Moon Key!
Without any further room for thought, her body instinctively charged toward the room where Moon Key was located.
She had no time to think about why a nuclear explosion had occurred in Bandzhen, how the nuclear weapon had been delivered, or why there had been no warning whatsoever.
All she could do in that moment was think instinctively—if even she, covered in scales with powerful defensive capabilities, felt scorching heat unbearable, then everyone else, including Moon Key, absolutely could not withstand the shockwave of a nuclear explosion!