Chapter 108: The Mad Scheme
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“Councilor Yao is only holding back from attacking my boss because of Speaker Zhang’s orders. Once the situation in Nangang spirals out of control and the rules vanish, he won’t hold back anymore,” the centipede said upon hearing this.
Nodding, he added, “I’ve heard of their feud; that makes sense. But how can we help him?”
“There are some small-yield tactical nuclear warheads stored in the Gray Zone Guard outpost’s armory besides the smoke grenades,” Chen Qian said as she tapped a few points on the virtual map opened by Lu Shangbai. “He hopes you can help deploy those warheads to several high points around here—such as the third TV tower in the Gray Zone, the Xinghe Grand Hotel, and the rooftop of the White Iron Bank—and then start shelling this location at eight o’clock tomorrow morning.”
Her finger pointed decisively at a place within the Emerald District.
After speaking, Chen Qian exhaled heavily and let her hand drop weakly, a strong sense of frustration rising in her heart.
As the personal secretary, she felt obligated to try her best to carry out Ji Cheng’s orders, but this matter...
Her boss’s plan was too difficult to accomplish; those powerful individuals would never agree.
“He’s crazy—this is the Emerald District! Nuking the Emerald District?” Qiu Ding stood up in shock, waving his arms. “Absolutely impossible. I won’t agree.”
As expected? Chen Qian gave a bitter smile and lowered her head.
“According to Ji Cheng, hasn’t the Emerald District already been destroyed?” Liu Fangjian said indifferently.
“That’s right,” Lu Shangbai chimed in.
“But that’s only conjecture. No matter how likely, it’s still just speculation for now,” Qiu Ding was no fool. After he spoke, seeing the expressions of the others, he knew what they were thinking but still protested, “What if—I mean what if—the Emerald District hasn’t completely fallen yet? If you use nukes to bomb it, don’t you have any family?”
“Don’t worry. There are no civilians in the Emerald District—only families of ability users. There are mutant beasts everywhere now, and those people have surely already hidden in underground safe houses. A few nukes won’t make much of a difference,” Fu Ting replied in his stiff, electronically synthesized voice. He himself had no family; they had all perished in a tragic accident.
“Besides, these small-yield tactical nukes are meant for situations like this. Clearing the mutant beasts out of the Emerald District would be a good thing. Destroying some buildings is no big deal—we can rebuild later. What’s the fuss?”
Isn’t that a big deal? Qiu Ding was left speechless.
“That’s right, no big deal,” the centipede banged the table loudly in agreement. “But I do have one question—why bomb this particular location?”
Lazily lifting her head from the corner, Zhang Lingfei pushed aside the curls covering half her face and explained, “This seems to be the hangar where Old Yao docks his Hunter-class spaceship.”
She belonged to Yao Lun’s squad, so she still remembered some publicly known squad information.
“What good does bombing a single-person spaceship do? And the underground hangar has nuclear-level defenses. Even if you wanted to bomb the ship, it probably wouldn’t be destroyed,” the centipede scratched his head, voicing his doubts.
“Who cares if it’s effective? I agree,” Lu Shangbai said impatiently.
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“I agree,” Liu Fangjian nodded.
“I agree as well.”
All the ability users present, except for Qiu Ding, agreed to the plan.
The majority ruled, and the proposal passed.
Everyone sat back down with calm expressions, as if they had just completed something perfectly natural.
But Chen Qian stood frozen, her head buzzing.
They all agreed?
Just like that?!
Hadn’t her boss only recently become an ability user?
Why was everyone defending him?
No, it wasn’t just defending him—they were fully committed, entrenched in their stance, determined to see it through no matter what!
They were talking about bombing their own district with nuclear weapons!
They were all mad!
How had her boss pulled this off?
She had thought this mission would be extremely difficult—very difficult.
After all, asking the other ability users to help against a councilor from their own city-state, even bombing the Emerald District with nukes, sounded utterly unbelievable. She herself thought the plan was crazy and had no confidence in convincing them.
Only out of professional duty and personal feelings for Ji Cheng had she tried to advocate for it.
But unexpectedly, it was thousands of times easier than imagined. It didn’t feel like she had proposed something and others agreed after consideration. Instead, it felt as if they had already made up their minds to agree beforehand, no matter what she said.
She felt that even if Ji Cheng’s plan was to nuke the Parliament Building, those mad ability users would find countless reasons to support it unanimously.
She couldn’t understand it!
Chen Qian had no idea that Yao Lun, cold and solitary, had few good relations outside his squad. In contrast, Ji Cheng’s reputation and influence had just peaked after the Hive incident, and everyone was eager to repay him.
What was a second-tier genetic prototype? Ability users were willing to bet their lives on such things.
It was like trying to explain ice to a summer insect—ordinary people like Chen Qian simply couldn’t grasp the concept of a second-tier genetic prototype, nor did they know that Ji Cheng had practically put such a thing right in front of several ability users, who would snap it up at a word.
All of this led to the seemingly bizarre but actually logical scene before them.
While most might hesitate to strike Yao Lun directly, they would jump at the chance to lend some support and assistance.
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Chen Qian was full of questions but still bowed deeply to those present, tears welling in her eyes.
“On behalf of my boss, I thank you all!”
Yet within moments, the ability users almost all slipped away, leaving only a bewildered Chen Qian and a grim-faced Qiu Ding staring at each other.
“Thank Ji Cheng? Who has the face to accept that...” a faint murmur floated from outside the door.
...
Despite the Silver District appearing severely damaged, the mutant beasts seemed only capable of the most primitive destruction. Smoke grenades could only ignite some of the more densely built structures.
At least some power facilities still operated. Among the burning and smoking buildings, a few light sources remained—street lamps, traffic signals at intersections—some were still working.
Especially the many alleys with tightly sealed exit gates, topped with intimidating electric fences sparking intermittently.
These short alleys were mainly for citizens nearby to temporarily hide when mutant beasts rushed into the city.
Seeing those firmly closed gates and hearing faint, short breaths, Ji Cheng suspected many people were hiding inside, but he had no time to do anything about it now.
Time was urgent.
After encountering that terrifying group of monsters, the four of them exchanged brief words and decided to push forward, as the monster group directly ahead seemed smallest.
Zhou Ze was confident that if they reached the Parliament Building and joined up with Speaker Zhang and others—plus the building’s already formidable defenses—they should survive.
Unexpectedly, when the towering Parliament Building finally came into view from afar, it had completely changed.
That steel behemoth, once guarding Nangang, was now covered with red pustules and boils, blood vessels as thick as millstones protruding everywhere, like a hellish creation.
This was even more absurd than Ji Cheng had imagined.
They turned and fled, desperately running from the numerous humanoid monsters resembling Zhao Lu and Pang Weiwei.
Though these monsters formed from ordinary people were much weaker than those two, their sheer numbers were terrifying.
Relying on a damaged power armor, Zhou Ze fought to pave a bloody path for them, then the four scattered to save themselves.
Beep—
Ji Cheng raised his wrist and activated the wrist-computer shaped like a gauntlet.