March 2nd, living room on the first floor of the Wordless Book shelter.
Black Star and White Star were present, both wearing grim expressions, silent and solemn. The atmosphere felt heavy.
Before long, Guan Tong descended from the second floor, accompanied by Chen Na.
Chen Na was no longer wearing the dark gray official Ascendant uniform of the Countermeasures Research Office base. She had changed into a set of athletic wear made of items, easy to move in, her hair still that neat, refreshing cut at the chin.
Guan Tong glanced at Black Star and White Star on the first floor and said, "Starting today, Chen Na officially joins the Trace Origin Travel Troupe as one of us."
"Welcome, welcome!"
White Star and Black Star both forced smiles, though those smiles carried a hint of reluctance.
It wasn't that they weren't happy about Chen Na joining. It was just that the pain brought by recent events had yet to fade.
"Thank you! I'll work hard from now on!"
Chen Na, on the other hand, was genuinely delighted. After all, she wasn't very familiar with the other Troupe members, having only met Uenoshi a few times before.
Earlier, she had thought Uenoshi was dead and had been deeply saddened. But after leaving the base with Guan Tong, he told her on the way that there was still hope for Uenoshi's recovery, which put her mind at ease.
The four of them then sat down around the table. Guan Tong said, "You all know that the nuclear explosion in Bandzhen caused us tremendous losses. Troupe member Moon Key has fallen, and Deputy Troupe Leader Uenoshi... is barely hanging on, but she won't be able to make an appearance anytime soon."
Guan Tong would never classify Uenoshi as a casualty. Even if the hope of saving her was slim, as long as there was even a shred of it, he wouldn't give up.
"The Serpent Hair Society that Uenoshi built has been almost completely wiped out. As for the tens of thousands of people in Bandzhen, not many survivors remain either."
"Sakura Prayer is effectively a destroyed nation at this point," Black Star said in a low voice. "And with so many Sakura Prayer Ascendants dead, you've also lost a major source of Flowable Mind Power collection, Troupe Leader."
White Star couldn't hold back her curses: "That insane bastard Bruce! Is there anything he wouldn't do?"
"...What we need to do now is take revenge. For Adam, Moon Key, Uenoshi, and so many others, including myself, of course."
"Just tell us what to do, Troupe Leader. We won't hesitate for a second!" Black Star and White Star declared in unison.
Chen Na refused to be left behind: "Brother Guan, I want to contribute too!"
Guan Tong nodded. "Tonight, I'll infiltrate New Covenant City and plant a tactical nuclear bomb inside the Hall of Halls. When the new rules are released tomorrow, Bruce and the core members of his ruling circle will surely gather to analyze the rules. That's when we detonate."
Black Star and White Star exchanged a glance, both feeling that Guan Tong had picked an excellent window of opportunity.
Every time a new rule was released, the decision-making bodies of every nation would gather together to review the rule's content, analyze it, and discuss countermeasures.
If one launched a surprise attack at that moment, there was indeed a high probability of wiping out the enemy's core in one fell swoop.
However, it was also at those very moments that security around the decision-makers' locations was raised to the absolute maximum. It was the most dangerous time of all.
"If the nuclear bomb detonates successfully, I'll confirm the results immediately. If Bruce and the others are killed, I'll retreat right away."
Guan Tong then looked at Chen Na. "If Bruce and the others are still alive, I'll handle the finishing touches myself. At that point, Shi Jingyi will bring you, Xiao Na, to meet up with me and assist in locating the enemy."
Shi Jingyi wasn't currently at the shelter, but she was fully aware of Guan Tong's plan.
After Guan Tong had finished his Deep Dive of Consciousness, he had shared his revenge plan with Shi Jingyi.
If one were to compare this new plan with those of the past, the difference wasn't that the new rules had entered a slower release cycle, nor was it the absence of Han Qiu as a reconnaissance asset.
Bruce's changed situation meant that if the first wave somehow failed to kill him, Chen Na would be brought over to use her Perception Domain to assist Guan Tong in tracking the target.
"Sorry, Xiao Na," Guan Tong said. "You just arrived, and you haven't even had time to settle in before being asked to take on such a dangerous mission."
Chen Na shook her head repeatedly. "I came here to help Brother Guan. If you didn't let me participate in the operation, that's what would actually make me angry!"
White Star was astonished. "I didn't expect Xiao Na, despite being so young, to have more guts than me. Impressive!"
Black Star's face darkened as he reminded her, "White Star, Chen Na is practically a veteran of the Countermeasures Research Office. She's been on more dangerous missions than you could count. How can you even compare yourself to her?"
White Star felt a wave of embarrassment, knowing Black Star was right. It was all because Chen Na's youthful appearance was too deceptive.
If nobody told you, who would ever guess she'd already been carrying out missions for nearly three years? She'd set foot on more battlefields than most soldiers, and the trials she'd endured were far beyond what ordinary people could imagine.
"It's nothing, really." Chen Na smiled shyly at the praise. "Honestly, at first I was terrified of going on missions too. But I gradually got used to it. And Sister Silver Fox and the others always took good care of me and protected me."
White Star sighed. "Kids in this era are all extraordinary. Speaking of which..." Something occurred to her, and she looked at Guan Tong. "Troupe Leader, what about Adam's daughter, Ai Ya...?"
"Her consciousness is still dormant. She's receiving treatment at the Countermeasures Research Office's memory research department." Guan Tong was just as helpless about the matter.
He had actually considered searching the Star Sea Court's database during his Deep Dive of Consciousness for any potential solutions.
As it turned out, the sheer volume of critical information he'd obtained at the time had hit him like a tidal wave. It had taken him a long time just to recover from the shock.
And by the time he'd wanted to ask for more detailed aerospace technology or memory technology, that "Seventh Chief Justice" had suddenly appeared in the database space for unknown reasons.
To avoid any uncontrollable situations, Guan Tong had prudently ended his Deep Dive of Consciousness immediately, which meant he never got his hands on either piece of information.
"However, Ai Ya's issue is also a secondary objective of this attack," Guan Tong added.
"After completing the primary objective of eliminating Bruce and his core circle, if the opportunity arises, I'll try to locate and obtain Suroma's key research data in the memory field."
He said the words, but deep down, he didn't hold much hope.
Suroma would undoubtedly keep such critical data under airtight security. Without intelligence provided by a mole, finding it would be nearly impossible.
Speaking of moles, there was actually someone in Suroma's intelligence department whom Guan Tong knew—Adam's friend, Wemban. The latter had provided Guan Tong with intelligence after Adam's death.
But after that, Guan Tong had lost contact with him. He suspected Wemban had been dealt with internally.
Because Guan Tong had personally witnessed Suroma's government forcing Ascendants to sign the Modification Consent Form, he'd realized that Suroma had entered an era of suppressing free will.
The civil war waged by the resistance earlier had been the final struggle of those who valued free will... but due to the overwhelming disparity in strength and the lack of strong external support, that struggle had ultimately ended in failure.
Since then, there was every reason to believe Bruce had completely crushed any opposition to his rule.
Nowadays, anyone in Suroma with access to critical intelligence was either a modified Ascendant or someone whose memories had been tampered with to ensure absolute loyalty to Bruce.
"Troupe Leader, then what about our tasks...?"
Black Star and White Star weren't combat-capable, so accompanying him to New Covenant would be pointless.
"They'll keep purchasing Flowable Mind Power for you on a smaller scale while also looking into Uenoshi's situation. They thought I'd been laying too low lately and that it might expose some sort of weakness."
As one of Guan Tong's other persistent thorns, Uenoshi had been anything but quiet. Ever since she'd openly declared herself an Awakened One, she'd been posting video after video every single day without stop. There was no way Guan Tong didn't know about it.
Guan Tong knew Uenoshi was doing it to build influence with niche audiences. But moving from behind the curtain to the forefront like that—once you went public, going back to lurking flawlessly in the shadows was nearly impossible.
With the plan settled, Guan Tong escorted Black Star and White Star back to Xisiya, then spent some time talking with Chen Na about her situation.
Upon learning that Chen Na's current Mind Power upper limit was already past the one-thousand mark and approaching the two-thousand threshold, he felt both pleased and somewhat uneasy.
That unease was tied to Authority.
In the past, he had always believed that "Authority" was something advanced civilizations forged entirely on their own—a symbol of a civilization's power that only concerned the civilization itself.
But that "Core Protocol" mentioned making "Authority return to the True Tree," which suggested that the Starry Giant Tree was the true origin of Authority.
If that were the case, then rather than saying civilizations "forge" Authority, wouldn't it be more accurate to say they "discover" it?
Just as humans might say a certain scientist discovered a certain law and named it after themselves—but giving it a name doesn't mean the scientist created the law itself.
If that was true, then Awakened Ones who held Authority would instead become targets for "reclamation."
That said, the fourth clause of the "Core Protocol" also stated that "all of the above is null and void," and mentioned "the Death God's accelerated arrival," which left him both reassured and unsettled at the same time.
In any case, given the current situation, worrying about whether Authority would be reclaimed or what the Death God was seemed less pressing than worrying about the Demon Race and the unknown timing of the Pain Dominator's arrival.
So Guan Tong planned to devote his full effort to assisting Chen Na, helping her raise her strength as quickly as possible and turn her into the second Awakened One with Authority at his side.