The battle soon drew to a close.
Reverting to human form, Scar breathed heavily, his lingering anger unappeased.
He delivered a heavy kick, sending the dying Sanhua tumbling into the Whispering Oculus’s reach.
“Two out of five instruments destroyed…
Now the experiment’s success rate is cut by more than half again.” Scar muttered under his breath, his face filled with irritation.
Just then, a squad of Fractsidus members trotted over to report to him: “Reporting, Overseer!
Of the two spies, the male has been captured alive.
The female just fled the Tacet Field, but we expect to capture her within half an hour…” “Useless trash!
You only caught one of two, and you dare come claim credit?
A bunch of useless trash!” Scar glared coldly at the Fractsidus members, then shifted his tone: “Go bring Jiyan up here.” Before long, a battered and bloodied Jiyan was dragged before Scar.
Scar handed over a Basic Restoration Spray, gesturing for his subordinate to administer it to Jiyan.
Before long, Jiyan’s weak breathing gradually stabilized, and he opened a pair of dark purple eyes—dull, vacant, and unfocused.
“Everyone completely corrupted by the Whispering Oculus is the same—losing their ability to think for themselves, turning into puppets that obey orders.” Scar mused aloud, stepping in front of Jiyan to issue a cold command: “Jiyan, I am the new Magistrate of Jinzhou City—Scar.” The moment the words left his lips, Jiyan stood up mechanically from the ground and gave Scar a crisp salute: “Greetings, Lord Magistrate.
What are your orders?” “I order you to take a team of Fractsidus Craftsmen and capture large numbers of people around Jinzhou City, bringing back more test subjects for the Fractsidus’s live-conversion Tacet Discord experiment.” “By your command, Lord Magistrate!” …
Outside the Tacet Field.
“Baizhi, can you hear me?
Baizhi!” Enduring her injuries, Taoqi sprinted across the ruined debris of Jinzhou City, anxiously trying to contact Baizhi through her terminal until a response finally came through.
“I’m here, Taoqi.
How are you holding up?” The thick fog over Jinzhou City had dispersed.
Hiding on the slopes of Mt.
Pingting, Baizhi controlled a drone and clearly saw the pink-haired figure fleeing in distress far below.
“Listen to me, Baizhi!
The people of Jinzhou City are all inside the Tacet Field, but they are undergoing an inhuman experiment…” The Fractsidus, Jinzhou civilians, live-conversion Tacet Discord experiment, Magistrate, Scar…
Taoqi concisely relayed everything she had seen and heard.
The more Baizhi listened, the darker her face became.
“Wearing a Cognition-Shielding Bracelet can grant immunity to the corruption caused by that horrific eyeball…
General Jiyan!” Taoqi’s voice cut off abruptly.
A cyan dragon spear thrust through her abdomen from behind.
She coughed up a mouthful of blood and turned her head with great difficulty, a familiar face entering her vision.
“Don’t kill her; we need her for the experiment.” A Fractsidus member shouted from behind.
Jiyan nodded silently and withdrew his spear.
Taoqi collapsed to the ground.
A pool of crimson spread beneath Taoqi like ink blooming on tissue paper, stinging Baizhi’s eyes.
Her brain hummed as if struck by a sledgehammer.
Once upon a time, her scientific expedition teammates had fallen before her eyes in much the same way, yet even now she remained powerless.
“You should know where people are gathered nearby, right, Jiyan?” “Then you lead the way!
The more people you capture, the more companions you’ll have later, jie-jie-jie.” “As a general, those were the people you once risked your life to protect, right?
And now you’re going to hurt them with your own hands!” “Hey!
Why isn’t he responding at all?
How boring.” “Oho, where did this drone come from?” A few muffled exchanges echoed through the terminal’s comms before the drone was shattered by a Fractsidus bullet.
Jiyan led a group of Midnight Rangers and Fractsidus troops further and further into the distance.
The dialogue heard was brief, but the information it carried was massive.
Jiyan would lead that group to capture people on the outskirts of Jinzhou City.
And the closest place to Jinzhou City was Taoyuan Village!
Her mind a tangled mess, Baizhi severed the comms with Taoqi and immediately dialed Jianxin: “Jianxin, hurry and evacuate the villagers of Taoyuan Village!” …
Taoyuan Village.
The usually tranquil countryside was currently a scene of utter commotion and noise.
“What?
General Jiyan is bringing Fractsidus forces to capture us?
I don’t believe it.” “I agree to evacuate, but I have a lot of stuff to pack.
It’ll take me a while.” “I’m not leaving!
Even if I die, I’ll die in Taoyuan Village!” The Patrollers maintaining order were at their wits’ end, doing their best to calm the agitated crowd, though to little avail.
Chixia, trying to help everyone evacuate, felt a massive headache coming on.
Stepping outside the crowd, she rubbed the bridge of her nose and lamented: “Earlier we were worried that evacuating would leave tracks behind, but now look at this—no one even wants to leave!” “No need to panic.
I’m here.” You Luoming sat on a natural rock, his face devoid of any urgency as he went over his panel stats.
On his way back to Taoyuan Village, he had successfully acquired an Elite Class Stonewall Shieldbearer Echo.
Although its main stat had rolled into Energy Regen Bonus and its substats were pretty mediocre, it belonged to the Celestial Light set, successfully activating the 2-piece set bonus.
[Celestial Light (2-Piece Set): Spectro DMG increases by 10%.] Checking his attributes again: Character: Rover HP: 21,664 ATK: 1,634 DEF: 1,605 Energy Regen: 146% Crit.
Rate: 41% Crit.
DMG: 237% Aside from HP and DEF, his other stats were on the lower side, but passable enough.
Though his stat panel was somewhat lacking, You Luoming didn’t mind.
After all, he had just thrown together five Echoes on short notice, and his weapon was merely the 4-star Commando of Conviction.
Upon equipping all five Echoes, You Luoming’s stats saw a modest boost.
At the same time, as if everything fell naturally into place, he unlocked an additional power he hadn’t possessed before.
Previously, he could only trigger a brief area-of-effect time-stop by unleashing his Resonance Liberation.
Now, much like the Rover (Spectro), he could execute AOE time-stops anytime, anywhere.
Although this ability consumed a significant amount of Resonance Energy, making long-duration casts impossible—and stopping living targets lasted only a few seconds at best—it was an undeniably god-tier skill.
You Luoming surmised that only when his stat panel reached god-tier endgame perfection would he truly and completely master the full power of the “Rover” character.
“Sigh, if I’d known, I wouldn’t have told the villagers that General Jiyan was coming.” Yangyang let out a soft sigh as she walked over.
Just from her expression, one could tell how thoroughly exhausted she felt.
“Originally, even if the villagers were reluctant to leave Taoyuan Village, they would have obediently cooperated with the evacuation.” “But ever since they heard that the one coming is General Jiyan, a portion of them refused to leave, saying they want to see General Jiyan in person.” “And those who refuse to leave influence even more people to stay, causing massive headaches for the evacuation effort.” At this point, Yangyang sighed again, utterly at a loss.
Chixia stood up from the rock, gesturing for Yangyang to sit down and rest while sharing her own perspective: “I think there’s no need to panic too much.
I mean, it’s General Jiyan!
There’s no way General Jiyan would hurt us.” Slapping her forehead, Chixia suddenly struck an enlightened pose, raising her right index finger as if an imaginary lightbulb had lit up above it: “Aha!” “Is there a possibility that General Jiyan is only associating with the Fractsidus because he has some unspoken hardship, or he’s turning their own plot against them?” “That’s how it always goes in the storybooks!
The great hero gets coerced by the villains, so he pretends to play along until he finds the chance to wipe them all out in one swoop!” Her simple remarks immediately drew the gazes of You Luoming and Yangyang, both wearing expressions that were equal parts amused and baffled.
Chixia scratched her head sheepishly: “What?
Did I say something wrong?” “No, what you said makes a lot of sense—if not for Baizhi notifying us to evacuate the Taoyuan Village residents, that is.” Yangyang suppressed a smile and shook her head slightly.
“That’s just Jinzhou for you.
We only need to take care of business, while Chixia has so much more to ponder.” “What’s that supposed to mean?
Yangyang, you’re making fun of me!”