March 2nd, nighttime, Suroma, New Covenant City.
This capital of Suroma, once hailed as "the world's most prosperous metropolis," had now become virtually unrecognizable.
Large numbers of residential homes and shops had been torn down completely, a sight similar to the major cities of Beixing.
But the difference was that after demolition, Beixing had constructed numerous official shelters to house its citizens.
What Suroma built after demolition, however, were mostly automated production factories, densely packed and numbering in the thousands.
These factories continuously churned out various components, which after processing and assembly would serve as intelligent robot soldiers or war mechs.
As for where the original residents lived, most had been concentrated and relocated to empty houses at the city's edge, with the Suroma government even glorifying this as "gifting luxury homes."
Those houses in peacetime truly could be considered luxury residences, with spacious private garages, large swimming pools, and sprawling lawns stretching over a hundred meters.
But whether swimming pools or lawns, both required enormous time to maintain, and who in the present day had the heart for such things?
Not to mention that all critical facilities were now concentrated in the city center, meaning those living on the outskirts faced inconvenience in every aspect of life, unable to receive help promptly in times of danger.
The Suroma government turned a completely blind eye to these issues, because under Bruce's iron-fisted rule, the opinions of these people carried virtually no weight whatsoever.
Those now residing in New Covenant City's central district were mainly official Ascendants who had signed the Modification Consent Form.
But for them, this was less a privilege and more a form of shielding for the Hall of Halls. Like an honor guard, they would be the first to be summoned to protect Bruce at a moment's notice.
In this environment, when Guan Tong manipulated his Shadow to infiltrate the city, he found not a single soul on the streets.
This fully cyberized metropolis no longer had any place for ordinary people to stand, with only an automated patrol matrix of drones circling overhead, radiating outward in concentric layers from the Hall of Halls at the center.
With this level of defense, even an exceptional top-tier Ascendant would find it impossible to infiltrate without alerting anyone.
Only Guan Tong could rely on his phasing Shadow to slip into anywhere, using them to move deeper into the core perimeter.
When he manipulated his Shadow to arrive before the Hall of Halls, this residence where Suroma's kings had worked and lived for generations had been completely transformed from its former self.
Zhang Minglu had once told him that every city in Suroma was now being fortress-ified, with New Covenant City being the most heavily fortified of them all.
And within New Covenant City, the most heavily fortified structure was this very Hall of Halls.
It was now entirely encased in thick alloy barriers, completely sealed off from the outside world without a single crack.
The alloy material was similar to that used in war mechs, being extremely durable.
Though Guan Tong had single-handedly destroyed over a hundred war mechs in Bandzhen last time, doing so silently was simply impossible.
Especially based on his observations, the alloy encasing the Hall of Halls also had a layer of anti-intrusion armor.
If he directly phased his Shadow to infiltrate, contact with the alloy would trigger detection, and Bruce would immediately know an external enemy had invaded.
This would turn infiltration into a forced assault, dangerous in itself, and could also give Bruce a chance to escape.
Guan Tong observed for a moment, then split off a strand of his Shadow, phasing it underground to see if he could break through from below.
Using Shadow's vision, he immediately discovered that an underground bunker had been built beneath the Hall of Halls.
It wasn't unusual for a bunker to exist beneath such a structure, but for the bunker to be several times larger than the surface building? That was highly unusual!
Guan Tong found that the entire bunker was barely a fraction smaller than the surface area of the Hall of Halls above ground—no, it was far beyond the specifications of a "wartime command center," even vastly exceeding shelter standards.
Could there be a large-scale laboratory beneath the Hall of Halls? If so, there should also be a dedicated Energy Station supplying it directly.
Guan Tong thought this over as he manipulated his Shadow to conduct a thorough inspection, discovering he had guessed correctly.
There was indeed a large Energy Station underground, its output directly powering the Hall of Halls and the laboratory.
This way, even if external energy supplies were interrupted due to war or Doomsday Rules, the Hall of Halls would remain unaffected, sustained by this large Energy Station for years on end.
Moreover, because this Energy Station was too massive and extended deep underground, it couldn't be completely wrapped in anti-intrusion armor like the surface-level Hall of Halls.
This meant the Shadow could perform a circuitous infiltration, first entering the Energy Station, then passing through the power transmission conduits into the underground laboratory of the Hall of Halls.
He immediately manipulated his phasing Shadow to enter the Energy Station, slipping into a conduit and traveling all the way to the end, where he arrived at a large warehouse-style room.
He discovered that this storage room contained thousands of Life-Support Pods arranged in rows, and what shocked him was that every single pod had a person immersed in nutrient fluid!
"What is this place? What's going on with these people?"
Through Shadow's vision, he could see that all the people in the pods had tubes inserted into the backs of their heads, with these tubes extending outward along the pod's wiring and leading to other rooms.
Moreover, the eyelids of these tubed individuals were constantly twitching, as if they were in the "rapid eye movement sleep" stage.
Guan Tong had once watched a sleep documentary that mentioned how, during the REM sleep cycle, brain activity approaches wakefulness and the eyeballs move rapidly, which is why the eyelids twitch incessantly.
According to research, people in this sleep stage have brain neurons processing memory and emotional information. If awakened during this stage, the person would most likely report having been dreaming.
Could Bruce be using these people for experiments, seeking breakthroughs in memory technology?
Guan Tong looked at the people inside those Life-Support Pods, feeling a chill run down his spine—the sight reminded him of certain horror sci-fi films.
He didn't know what state the people in the pods were in, or whether extracting them would kill them or save them... but he couldn't afford to worry about that right now.
The tubes from those Life-Support Pods, on the portions outside the pods, converged in bundles of roughly a hundred or more into single cables, which passed through wall openings and exited the storage room.
So he had his Shadow continue phasing through the wall openings, following the path of those tube connection lines, and soon traced them to a large laboratory.
Inside the laboratory, roughly twenty to thirty people were busily working at various operating stations, with screens covering the walls displaying all sorts of constantly fluctuating parameters.
Guan Tong couldn't understand what those parameters represented, but he knew they were certainly related to the brains of the people in those Life-Support Pods.
He split off one strand of his Shadow to continue exploring other areas while leaving another strand in the laboratory to observe.
After more than half an hour, he had roughly mapped out the complete layout of the underground complex beneath the Hall of Halls.
The entire structure consisted of the Energy Zone, Laboratory Zone, Living Area, and a Special Zone.
The first three occupied nine-tenths of the total area, while the final tenth—the Special Zone—appeared to be an area usable only by Bruce.
This section presumably included the wartime command center, and as such was heavily protected, making reconnaissance impossible.
After his thorough investigation, Guan Tong had figured out exactly where his tactical nuclear bomb should be placed—precisely in that laboratory with the wall-to-wall screens.
It sat directly beneath the Hall of Halls, positioned centrally within the underground level, roughly equidistant from all other areas.
Detonating it there would maximize the destruction of both the upper and lower sections—exactly the result Guan Tong wanted most.
However, this laboratory was quite critical, and the number of people inside never dropped below twenty, meaning when Guan Tong made his move, he would need to deal with the experimenters first.
He felt absolutely no moral burden about this, but the time wasn't right yet. He needed to wait, to wait until the Fire Thief released new Rules.
After syncing the information to Shi Jingyi and Chen Na on the city's outskirts, Guan Tong went into hiding and waited for time to pass.
During his wait, he observed that the Laboratory Zone operated 24 hours without rest, with large numbers of personnel constantly busy advancing various experimental projects.
Most of these experiments were related to the memory field, with a portion also dedicated to researching and improving war mechs.
Clearly, these two fields were what Bruce valued most, serving as the twin pillars maintaining his reign of absolute power.
So he had to keep them firmly in his grasp, placing the experimental facilities beneath the Hall of Halls where he could keep them under his own watchful eye.
When the clock passed five in the morning, a slightly hunched figure hurriedly entered the laboratory.
"How's the test experiment preparation going? Hurry up and start!"
The moment this person arrived, he began loudly urging, and the other experimenters in the room dared not slack off, scrambling into action.
An assistant stepped forward to report: "Dr. Heisen, we're ready."
Heisen...
The Shadow lurking in the conduit opening transmitted this name back to Guan Tong's ears.
He had already learned from Beixing that this "Heisen" was the core developer behind both Bruce's memory and intelligent machine technologies—by any measure of intellect, absolutely world-class.
This man should possess the core technology related to memory transfer, and if captured alive, he might be able to solve Ai Ya's problem.
Guan Tong thought this over, quickly formulating a plan in his mind.