New Covenant City.
Atop a stretch of ruins, a large number of people in radiation suits were conducting a net-like search, many of them holding special instruments to scan.
Every so often an instrument would emit a sound, and someone would discover something, pick it out of the rubble, and place it into their personal collection bag.
There were also some people standing at the edge of the ruins, one of whom had his arms crossed over his chest, his gaze sharply sweeping the surroundings.
At that moment someone came before this person to report: "Lieutenant Colonel Silver Fox, this area has been searched about thoroughly. We'll be able to wrap up in a few more minutes."
"Mm." Silver Fox nodded. "Hurry it up."
After Suroma's large-scale nuclear explosion occurred, Gao Liangwei had found her at the first opportunity and issued an order.
The order was that the officials would organize multiple rapid-response mobile teams to enter Suroma.
On the surface, these mobile teams were all there to rescue nuclear explosion survivors, but one mobile team's true mission was to search for and collect Suroma's classified scientific research technology.
One of the things Bruce had relied on to commit his many evils was multiple world-leading technologies.
The data on these advanced technologies might have been destroyed in the explosion, or might still remain. In any case, there was a need to search for it.
Silver Fox served as the captain of this mobile team responsible for collecting data. The ruins beneath her feet were the former location of the Suroma Research Institute.
"Lieutenant Colonel Silver Fox." The voice of a perimeter guard came through her earpiece. "A team of about twenty people is approaching this way."
Silver Fox frowned. "What nationality?"
"Their protective suits have no national flag markings."
No national flag markings on protective suits meant either someone from a certain nation's officials didn't want to reveal their identity, or it was some civilian mercenary group or the like.
Suroma was in complete chaos now. Many mercenary groups had come to this land wanting to skim off some profit. This was not surprising.
Silver Fox said: "Warn those people that this area is under lockdown and entry is not permitted."
"Yes."
There was a moment of silence on the channel, but before long gunshots erupted, as if a firefight had broken out.
Silver Fox's expression turned cold. Her body suddenly shot forward, and in a few bounds she vanished.
In the perimeter area, over twenty people in protective suits were raising their guns, fingers on the triggers.
Several perimeter guards from the Beixing Action Team used collapsed buildings as cover, while the enemy's shouts came from outside.
"What gives you Beixing people the right to monopolize this area? This is our country. If there's anything good, we Suromans should be the ones to take it!"
The moment the words fell, Silver Fox arrived on the scene, appearing behind the cover.
She glanced at the several team members. "Any casualties?"
"None! We hid in time. The other side seems to be a mercenary group made up of Suromans!"
"I understand."
Silver Fox walked out from behind the cover, several team members following close behind.
When those twenty-plus people in protective suits saw Silver Fox, they immediately became alert and aimed their gun barrels at her.
Seeing her completely fearless, one person stepped out from the crowd and asked in a gruff voice: "You're the one in charge?"
"I'll give you one minute. Leave immediately," Silver Fox said. "Otherwise, don't blame me for being impolite."
"What gives you the right to make us leave? What are you Beixing people doing running to our Suroma territory? You're the ones who should get lost!"
"Boss, stop wasting words on them. It's just a rescue team, what's there to be afraid of!"
"Yeah, hurry up and search for some good stuff to sell on the black market, that's where the profit is!"
The mercenaries under that boss could hardly wait, not taking Silver Fox and the others seriously at all.
One had to know there were quite a few bounties on the black market, offering high prices for data and materials from Suroma's research department.
At times like this, casually picking up a hard drive in the ruins might sell for quite a bit.
"Shut up!"
That boss still couldn't gauge Silver Fox's strength and continued to probe: "Since you rescue team people are here to save people, and we mercenaries are here to pick up things, the two sides don't interfere with each other. What do you think?"
Silver Fox merely glanced at her watch. "Time's up."
The next moment, the mercenary group and the others saw her figure flash, leaving only an afterimage in place.
"Attack!!"
The mercenary group boss let out a low shout, still wanting to say something, but felt a sharp pain in his chest.
Looking down, a sharp blade had already stabbed into it. The next second it was pulled out, and immediately after, a series of "thud, thud" sounds of bodies hitting the ground came in succession.
As he fell, he turned to look, and everyone in his mercenary group had already fallen. The only one standing was Silver Fox, shaking the blood off her blade tip.
"You..."
He couldn't believe this person could be so strong. The mercenary group, including himself, had several Ascendants, all with decent strength, yet at this moment they had no chance to fight back at all. They were all instantly killed.
Thud!
Accompanying the sound of the mercenary group leader hitting the ground, Silver Fox had already put away her short blade.
The several Action Team members were all stunned. They knew Silver Fox was very strong among the base's Ascendants, but witnessing her single-handedly annihilate a small mercenary group in an instant was still deeply shocking.
One person couldn't help asking: "Lieutenant Colonel Silver Fox, with you being so powerful, are you about to become an Awakened One too?"
"Me?"
Silver Fox shook her head.
She didn't know the specific conditions for becoming an Awakened One, but she had always been working hard to raise her Mind Power upper limit.
Zhang Minglu believed that since the Terminal Panel's comprehensive evaluation improvement had always been linked to the Mind Power upper limit, and there also existed functions like the "Mind Network" that required meeting a certain upper limit to unlock, then to become an Awakened One, the Mind Power upper limit must inevitably be a hard threshold.
Even without knowing exactly how much was needed to meet the requirement, continuing to work hard to improve before that point was never wrong.
"Lieutenant Colonel Silver Fox, this area has been fully searched. We've confirmed there are no more remaining data."
Silver Fox heard the report in her earpiece and replied: "Good. Assemble the team immediately. Head to the next area."
"Yes."
Silver Fox looked into the distance, thinking that those eyeing Suroma's "technological legacy" were far more than just Beixing's officials.
Several other nations had surely sent people as well, plus all the mercenary groups fishing in troubled waters. This city, which should have been dead silent from the nuclear explosion, had instead become quite lively.
.......
Outside the Countermeasures Research Office base, Zhang Minglu and Dragon Soul were waiting.
"Dragon Soul, I know you two have a conflict because of what happened last time, but..."
Before Zhang Minglu could finish, Dragon Soul said seriously: "Please rest assured, Doctor. I will not let personal reasons interfere with the mission."
"Mm, I know you've always been the most reliable. The person in charge thinks so too." Zhang Minglu paused, then smiled. "Let me give you a little heads-up. You'll soon be transferred to a new military branch."
"New military branch?"
"That's right. It's related to space."
A new military branch related to space? A Space Force?
Dragon Soul was extremely curious, but seeing that Zhang Minglu wouldn't say more, he knew there were confidentiality rules, so he didn't press further.
After another moment, the people the two were waiting for finally appeared.
A man in a trench coat with an eyepatch over his left eye. A short-haired girl in a full tracksuit. And a person wrapped tightly in shadow, dragged along behind.
They were Guan Tong, Chen Na, and Haisen.
Zhang Minglu and Dragon Soul went to greet them. The former glanced at the "shadow person" being dragged behind. "That's Haisen inside, right?"
"Mm." Guan Tong nodded. He glanced at Dragon Soul, who looked back at him expressionlessly.
The two had originally gotten along fairly well, but because of a conflict over the handling of Suroman soldier captives in the Antu rainforest, they had now become like strangers.
Moreover, based on their identities and experiences, both had their own principles to uphold, and neither would bow to the other.
"Dr. Zhang." Chen Na took the initiative to greet Zhang Minglu at this point.
Zhang Minglu smiled. "Xiao Na, you finally show me a bit of a pleasant face. Not like when you were at the base, keeping a straight face and refusing to come train."
Hearing this, Chen Na felt somewhat embarrassed and ashamed. She knew her behavior then had been a bit willful, but if she were made to choose again, she would still insist.
"Alright, let's not stay outside any longer. Let's go inside the base."
Zhang Minglu and the other led Guan Tong's group of three into the base. After arriving at a laboratory, Guan Tong retracted his shadow.
After Haisen emerged from the shadow, he raised a hand to shield his eyes, taking quite a while to adjust to the bright light inside the laboratory.
After his vision recovered, he looked around. Besides Guan Tong and Chen Na, there were also Zhang Minglu and several people in lab coats.
"Dr. Haisen, I never expected we'd meet here." Zhang Minglu's tone carried some emotion.
Once upon a time, Haisen, as a world-renowned, preeminent scientist, had received widespread respect from scientific researchers around the world.
Zhang Minglu had also read many papers Haisen published, and held great reverence for this senior nearly twenty years his elder.
It was only after later learning that Haisen had become Bruce's Chief Researcher that this reverence faded considerably.
Haisen sized up Zhang Minglu a few times. "I don't know you, but I do recognize you."
He looked toward a man in a lab coat, who was precisely the head of Beixing's memory research department.
"Your name is Yan Lei, right? I've read one of your papers on neural networks. It was written fairly well."
Yan Lei's expression was serious, seeming somewhat repelled by Haisen, and did not respond.
"I'm guessing you're the one researching memory digitization technology on Beixing's side. What, haven't you read my papers?"
"I have," Yan Lei said. "I admire your talent, but I firmly do not approve of you becoming Bruce's accomplice, using technology to help him do so much evil!"
Hearing this, Haisen's demeanor was very dismissive. "Technology is just technology. What distinction of good, bad, evil, or virtuous is there? This kind of pedantic thinking is exactly the reason your technology will always be a step behind."
"A step behind is still better than you conducting human experiments without restraint to advance technology!" Yan Lei retorted defiantly.
His purpose in bringing Haisen to the base today was to have him participate in Beixing's technical improvements, in hopes of completing the stripping of Gaelid's consciousness as soon as possible and allowing Ai Ya to fully return to normal.
Before coming, he had already communicated this matter with the Countermeasures Research Office.
Upon learning that Haisen was in Guan Tong's hands, the Countermeasures Research Office expressed great interest.
Haisen was indeed a sinner, but the technology he possessed was also truly what Beixing, and indeed all of humanity, needed.
Now that Suroma's core cities had been bombed into ruins and much precious technical data had been lost, this was actually a loss for all humanity.
If the living Haisen could make up for some of it, that was naturally a good thing.
Hearing this, Yan Lei stopped arguing with Haisen and walked to the computer in the laboratory. After a series of keystrokes, a large amount of professional data was displayed on the wall screen.
Guan Tong and the other non-professionals couldn't understand it and stood to the side waiting.
Haisen merely glanced a few times before saying: "Your research progress is too poor. No wonder you didn't dare touch Gaelid's memory. Fortunately you didn't, otherwise the result would have been Ai Ya and Gaelid both suffering brain death."
Yan Lei's expression darkened, but he had no way to refute it. Their team's technical level was indeed inferior to Haisen's team. This was plainly obvious.
Haisen turned to look at Guan Tong. "I want to improve their entire technical workflow. Add a series of debugging and preparations, and I'll need at least a month."
"Then you'll stay here for a month." After saying this, Guan Tong didn't forget to warn: "But it's best you don't have any little ideas, and don't think you can earn a pardon through technology."
Hearing this, Zhang Minglu and Yan Lei exchanged a glance.
They both knew that with Haisen's technology and intellect, if he truly declared he had repented and would serve Beixing's officials in the future, then perhaps the officials really might have the tiniest sliver of a possibility of sparing his life.
But Guan Tong's words were equivalent to making that tiny sliver of possibility cease to exist. The past matter with Duanmu Feng was already an example.
"I know without you saying it." Haisen said calmly. "I will honor the promises I've made."
After Guan Tong and the others left the memory research laboratory, Chen Na went to find her mother Wang Yan.
Zhang Minglu then said to Guan Tong: "The person in charge wants to meet with you and talk."
"Talk about what?"
"Unclear. I think since you're here, you should meet him."
Guan Tong thought that someone like Gao Liangwei certainly wouldn't waste time talking to him about trivial matters, so he agreed.
Zhang Minglu brought him to a small meeting room. After about half a minute, Gao Liangwei arrived.
Zhang Minglu did not remain in the room. After going out, he closed the door behind him. Only two people remained in the meeting room.
Neither Guan Tong nor Gao Liangwei spoke immediately. They simply looked at each other.
In the past, any cooperation between the two sides had been conducted through intermediaries like Zhang Minglu, Li Meng, and Silver Fox. A one-on-one meeting and conversation like this was a first.
After a moment, Gao Liangwei was the first to speak: "If I asked you whether you're an Awakened One, would you tell me?"
"No."
This answer seemed to be within Gao Liangwei's expectations. He nodded. "Then let me ask a different question. Do you think Han Qiu is an Awakened One?"
"No."
If before Guan Tong couldn't be certain, then after his Deep Dive of Consciousness, he was one hundred percent certain that Han Qiu was a fake.
He knew that with Han Qiu's personality, if he were an Awakened One, even if he verbally spoke of democratic voting decisions, privately he would definitely conduct a Deep Dive of Consciousness.
That way, upon learning of the existence of the "Convention," Han Qiu would inevitably exploit this information gap to make a fuss, making the whole world even more convinced that he was an Awakened One.
"If that's the case, then we should stop him from continuing to deceive," Gao Liangwei did not ask why Guan Tong was so certain. "Because he is both the enemy of Beixing's officials and your personal enemy."
"...Indeed."
Guan Tong thought to himself, could it be that Gao Liangwei sought him out for this conversation to cooperate against Han Qiu?
"After this round of rules ends, Beixing's officials will formally initiate a proposal, calling on all nations to form a United Government of the Great Water Star, so that humanity can form a single entity to welcome the interstellar era."
Gao Liangwei suddenly revealed a piece of information that surprised Guan Tong somewhat.
"We judge that the reason Han Qiu has been so loudly promoting himself during this period is that he deduced humanity was going to establish a united government. His goal is to leverage his popularity to occupy a key position in the united government and use it to whitewash himself."
Having said this, Gao Liangwei's eyes narrowed. "We absolutely cannot allow him to achieve this goal. Humanity is too fragile right now. It cannot withstand the emergence of another Bruce."