Chapter 1009: Chapter 1009

"The Kopes Mining Mercenary Corps stopped outside the North Gate security zone, blockading all roads," Mid quickly said over the phone. "They appear to be engaging in military exercises there, which is also what the spokesperson for Kopes Mining has claimed, but the area of their exercise completely cuts off our trade route to Dawn City."

Dawn City is Yilan City’s largest trading partner—ores produced by Yilan City as well as some heavy industrial goods are mostly sold to Dawn City, and Yilan City’s light industrial products also principally come from Dawn City.

Cutting off this trade route essentially severs the artery of industrial goods circulation for Yilan City, which will cause severe economic impact to Yilan City in the short term, as well as affecting some of the industrial economy of Dawn City.

Those industrial consortiums in Dawn City will also be affected, and some returns will have to be conceded to quiet those smaller consortiums, which is akin to injuring the enemy by a thousand but hurting ourselves by eight hundred.

There was a moment of hesitation from Mid, "Do we need to send troops to attack them? We excel in defense battles, moreover with the high wall protections, we are not afraid of them, but if we were to fight outside the city, their Mercenary Corps have extensive experience operating in the wilderness, we might be at a disadvantage."

"No need to bother for now,"

He Ao listened to Mid’s words, withdrew his gaze from the colossal illusory figure at the city center, and shook his head slightly. He slowly picked up the cane in his hand, "Send a few more people over there, arrange for both visible and covert sentinels diligently, and monitor the movements of the Kopes Mining Mercenary Corps closely."

Mid hesitated for a moment, and finally nodded gently, "Understood!"

The dim clouds spread across the sky, obscuring the morning sun and the rosy clouds.

Dawn City · Glorious Palace

A young guard officer rushed into the office, looking at Christos who was reading documents behind his desk, he said anxiously, "Miss Lin Na has gone missing."

Christos suddenly lifted his head to look at the breathless officer, "Wasn’t she always protected by someone by her side? How could she have gone missing?"

The officer stammered and took a deep breath, "She discovered our covert sentinels, then she made a bionic robot to impersonate herself, and then snuck out in the crowd at night. By the time we noticed she didn’t leave the apartment as usual, she had already left a long time ago."

"You’re saying a seventeen-year-old girl eluded professional agents and, all by herself, silently escaped under the noses of a bunch of agents?"

Christos put down the documents in his hand and stood up, asking in a cold voice.

"That decoy robot was made out of materials from her laboratory, so we speculate it was her own initiative,"

Sweat trickled from the officer’s forehead as he spoke rapidly, "Moreover, she left around two or three o’clock in the morning yesterday. A group of students wearing various bizarre costumes, dressed very... ’avant-garde,’ came and went from her apartment, she must have blended in with them when they left."

He then paused, explaining hoarsely, "Miss Lin Na entered Dawn University at fourteen, pursued her Ph.D. at sixteen, and is now about to graduate. She is indeed a genius youth of Dawn University; we really did not take this into consideration and underestimated her..."

Christos looked at the officer before him, his gaze gradually softened, he asked hoarsely, "Did she see the news from Yilan City?"

"Yes, those news pieces are everywhere in Dawn University,"

The officer said in a low voice, "Even though Miss Lin Na didn’t have much of a social life, she must have seen them."

"Can we trace where she went?"

Christos continued to ask.

"We found those students afterwards, they did see a redhead girl mixing in with them to leave, according to them, Miss Lin Na might have headed towards the airport,"

The officer said hoarsely, "We investigated at the airport, and indeed the surveillance captured her. She boarded a sky vessel to Yilan City early this morning."

"When is that sky vessel supposed to arrive in Yilan City? Has it already arrived? Have we received a response from Yilan City?"

Christos took a deep breath and braced his forehead.

"Theoretically, we should be almost there,"

the officer whispered, "Under normal circumstances, they should have already entered the coverage area of the long-distance aviation signal station on the Yilan City walls, which operates even in non-war situations. By now, we would be able to inquire about the flight information, but,"

he paused, speaking softly, "we have not received any messages from Yilan City about this flight. We also can’t find any information on this flight in the aviation interconnection system, which consists of all civilian aircraft as signal relay stations, used to locate civilian aviation equipment."

"If I remember correctly, this kind of disconnection from the aviation interconnection system usually happens because the target aircraft is lost, too far from the nearest aircraft and cities, hence out of contact."

Christos looked at the officer in front of him, his voice growing lower, "Of course, there’s another possibility... This airship is on the direct route to Yilan City?"

the officer shook his head, "Because the Kopes Mining Consortium’s Mercenary Corps is situated between Yilan City and Dawn City, claiming to be conducting exercises, and because of the war situation in Yilan City, all the routes from Dawn City to Yilan City now detour to the west, circling around and entering Yilan City from the south."

"Send the Mayor’s Guard’s Mecha squadron, we must find this airship at all costs, and ensure its safety,"

Christos looked at the officer, "If Miss Lin Na is still safe, escort her back to Yilan City. If she’s injured, directly send her to the nearest hospital in my name. At all costs, we must find her and protect her!"

the officer hesitated before speaking in a gentler tone, "If we take a shortcut by going straight, we might pass near the Kopes Mining Mercenary Corps, do we need to avoid them?"

"Go straight through,"

Christos glanced at him, "Surely Kopes doesn’t dare to start a war between north and south now, does he?"

"Yes! I’ll get it done right away!"

The officer immediately stood up straight, saluted, and left the office.

Christos rubbed his temples, looked at the sunlight outside the office window, and then raised his communicator to open the contact list, pressing on ’Mr. Lin En’s’ telephone number.

"Why does it seem to have gotten darker?"

Sitting in the middle seat, a plump woman raised her head, looking over the red-haired girl beside her to gaze out the adjacent porthole at the clouds, "It was sunny just a moment ago, is it about to rain now?"

Hearing the plump woman’s comment, the red-haired girl also turned to look at the dark sky outside the window, frowning slightly.

"How come we haven’t arrived yet?"

Some of the passengers looked outside and muttered, "We’ve been circling in the clouds for dozens of minutes now. According to the time, we should have already arrived."

"Ah!!!" "What’s going on?!"

At that moment, the entire airship began to shake violently, and several sharp screams echoed through the cramped cabin.

"Ladies and gentlemen, please take note, the airship has encountered some turbulence on its journey. Please fasten your seat belts and refrain from walking in the aisle."

The flight attendant’s announcement also reverberated throughout the cabin.

"I’ve flown on this plane so many times, and this is the first time I’ve encountered such... intense... turbulence..."

The middle-seated plump woman was violently shaken in her seat by the airship, turning her head to look at the red-haired girl beside her, "Young lady, be careful... don’t move around..."

Then she was taken aback to find that the aloof red-haired girl beside her had already quickly adjusted herself to the shaking vessel, swaying much less than herself.

"How did you manage that?"

Amid the violent trembling, the plump woman’s eyes widened.

"I learned a bit of fighting before."

The red-haired girl said softly, "When my parents were young, they often traversed the wilderness, and they taught me some self-defense."

"Your parents were quite visionary,"

The plump woman trembled as she spoke in the jolting, "Girls should learn something to protect themselves."

No one knew how long the shaking of the spacecraft lasted, but when the plump woman felt she was about to have a concussion, the spacecraft suddenly descended, and the scenery outside the window changed.

The clouds they had been deep within were now hanging in the sky, like a dome that covered Heaven, and the entire spacecraft gradually regained stability.

Someone in the crowd exclaimed as they looked out the window, "We’re almost there!"

The red-haired girl looked up towards the window; at the end of the endless cloud cover, a majestic city stood amidst the wilderness shrouded by dark clouds.

However, before everyone had time to be happy, intense shaking accompanied by roaring explosions resounded throughout the cabin.

Then, as if having lost all support, the spacecraft began to plummet rapidly.

"The spacecraft has encountered an unknown attack; we are making an emergency landing in the wilderness. Please, all passengers, don your oxygen masks and do not panic!!!"

Transparent breathing masks fell from overhead, and the attendant’s uncontrollable panic echoed in the confined space.

The red-haired girl turned her head, still gazing at the grand city outside the window.

That ancient city seemed to recede into the clouds outside the window, transforming into fleeting light and retreating rapidly.

And down on the wilderness below, lines of armored vehicles and war machines were rapidly ’approaching’ them.

"Little girl, why are you still looking outside?!"

The plump woman, already wearing a mask, quickly picked up the oxygen mask in front of the red-haired girl and placed it over the girl’s face.

Yilan City · White Jasmine Palace

Standing beside a pristine white bed, the Elder raised his head to look at the dark clouds that blotted out the sky.

He raised his hand and waved it gently through the air; the chill air brushed past his fingertips.

The sky grew darker, and the clouds above grew heavier.

Under this silent sky, it seemed as if an invisible force was moving slowly.

It was as if an unseen and dimly cold world was connecting to the present one.

He Ao shifted his gaze, turned around, and walked to the head of the bed, looking at the photo frame on a small bedside table not far from the headboard.

He Ao slowly picked up the frame.

Under the thick glass cover, an aged family photo was sandwiched.

The man in the photo stood upright, looking at the camera, with a hint of gray showing in his hair.

The red-haired woman in the photo held her husband’s hand with a gentle smile on her face.

And in between the two, a little red-haired girl clung nervously to her father’s sleeve, staring intently at the camera.

Time seemed forever frozen at that moment, and those who left behind the photo seemingly wished it could remain so permanently.

He Ao placed the photo back on the stand; he looked at his wristband, focusing on the number at the top of his contacts list.

The last communication was four days ago, on the night he was assassinated when He Ao had called to check for safety.

The time before that was a month ago.

Each call lasted only a few minutes.

At that moment, along with the vibration of the wristband, a communication request came through.

He Ao raised his hand and accepted the call, and the blond Chief of Staff appeared in his field of view,

"Mr. Lin En, Yilan City’s network has been cut off from the outside. All communications are unable to get through, and no successful calls are coming in. However, the city’s network nodes are still operating normally.

"The United Network Communications said that they are also investigating the cause. It could be that the underground fiber cables connecting to other cities have been affected, but they haven’t seen any excavation of the cables in the wilderness. They speculate that it is very likely that some Extraordinary Power has affected the underground cables."

Having said this, she hesitated a bit,

"Theoretically, for a large metropolitan area like Yilan City, there isn’t just a single underground fiber cable, but a star-shaped network connecting to all surrounding cities. Even if one cable has issues, others should operate normally to ensure connectivity. But the entire city experienced an instantaneous blackout,"

She looked at He Ao somewhat worriedly, "This means that all the cables were almost simultaneously affected. A powerful Extraordinary Power that spans the entire city might have just, moments ago, affected Yilan City."

He Ao nodded slightly, "Issue a public announcement telling the citizens that this issue will be resolved soon and not to worry."

Although somewhat puzzled, the blond Chief of Staff nodded slightly in response.

At this moment, He Ao, who was watching the wristband’s contact list, suddenly asked, "Have there been any flights from Dawn City to Yilan City recently?"

"There should be, let me connect to the airport’s network and check," the blonde Chief of Staff didn’t understand why He Ao asked this, but she still bowed her head and operated her computer, "There are three flights a day. The earliest one has already left in the early morning, expected... to arrive in Yilan City ten minutes ago?"

As she spoke, her voice paused, "This flight seems to be delayed. The air traffic interlink system doesn’t have its location? Yilan City airport... hasn’t received any communications from it—no, they have,

"The last communication was just a few minutes ago. The communication system briefly detected a signal but disappeared before it could be successfully located. From the base station connections, it’s possible it’s in the northeast direction, less than one hundred kilometers from Yilan City?"

She looked up at He Ao, "Mr. Lin En, this spaceraft might be in danger."

He Ao was silent for a moment before nodding lightly, "I understand, I’ll arrange for a solution. For now, reassure the citizens."

The blond Chief of Staff looked at the elderly man’s profile and nodded softly.

He Ao raised his hand, ending the call, and turned his head to look at the dim sky outside before dialing the Police Chief Tucker’s number.

And as the phone connected, he spoke quickly,

"Arrange a Floating Warplane for me, and send it to North City Gate."