Chapter 984: Chapter 984

"Commander Mid..." a young officer pushed open the door of the office, panting as he looked at the robust man sitting in the spacious office, holding a book.

He had just begun to speak when the hallway’s broadcast slowly started, "This is Mayor Linen..."

In the empty office, the scar-faced robust man put down the book in his hands and turned his gaze to the broadcast in the hallway, his eyes filled with confusion, "Linen, Mayor Linen? Isn’t he supposed to be at the Mayor’s Mansion? Is Scott’s subordinate trying to fish straightforwardly, trying to hook old me?"

Immediately after, he heard the broadcast mention ’colluding with the Consortium,’ ’open the city gates,’ his expression changed.

Until the broadcast had finished, he lowered his head, looking towards the young officer who had opened the door, "Is what this broadcast mentioned true? Linen has come to North City? Isn’t this just some new trick by Scott’s subordinate?"

The young officer swallowed, "I was just about to tell you, our soldiers below have received news that Mayor Linen is now in the North City Command Center, entered through the South Gate."

The robust man was just about to say something, but suddenly realized something, and raised his hand, "Wait a second."

Then he directly picked up a communicator next to him and dialed a number, "City gate control center, can you hear me?"

The only response was a faint rustling noise.

Then his expression changed, and he directly dialed another number.

Soon, a hoarse male voice came from the communicator, "About that broadcast..."

"I heard it, I’m coming over right away,"

Commander Mid said without hesitation, "Bring the brothers around you, head to the city gate control center immediately, and if you encounter any of Scott’s bastard subordinates, open fire right away, no matter what, we cannot let the city gate fall into their hands, understand?"

The communicator responded immediately, then hung up.

At the same time, Mid stood up, tucked the communicator into his pocket, took out a Gauss Pistol from the drawer below, and also stuffed a portable water bag into his pocket, walking towards the doorway while looking at the young officer at the door, "Continue, how did he enter the city? I remember that the guards at the gate below are Scott’s men, right?"

The young officer looked at his approaching superior, paused, seemingly also finding it hard to believe, "Just walked in."

Just as he reached the doorway, Mid stopped, his eyes widening as he looked at the young officer in front of him, "Just walked in? A wimpy civilian, a braggart politician who pisses his pants and hides under a table at the sound of a gunshot? Walked in under the aim of the Mecha, soldiers, and the automatic defense cannons below?"

"That’s the information I received,"

The young officer also hesitated, "He just walked in like that and even scared the South Gate defense commander from Scott’s command center to death."

"Wait, how did he die?"

Just as he was about to leave, Mid stopped again, lifting his head to look at the young officer, "Scared to death? I know the one at the South Gate was a fool who got in through connections, but he had been a soldier for so many years, and he just got scared to death?"

The young officer, avoiding drops of water, quickly responded, "That’s what the soldiers below said, they said Mayor Linen talked with that battalion commander for a few sentences, and the man got scared to death."

"Sounds like some legendary story,"

Mid fully stepped out of the office, asking, "When did he approximately come in?"

The young officer quickly followed Mid, "It’s said that he entered about ten minutes ago."

Mid turned to look back at the young officer.

The young officer nodded.

"To broadcast this, he must have obtained access to the main computer, he must be in the control room or the war council room,

"Killed the puppet Sleer left by Scott, even called for a meeting in the war council room, he must be in the top-floor war council room,"

As Mid walked, he estimated, "That floor is filled with Scott’s loyal dogs, all equipped with the best gear from the Yiwis Space System purchased by Scott himself, equivalent to the firepower of a mechanically enhanced camp,"

He looked back once more at the young officer, "Are you saying he, alone, tore through the entire command building in ten minutes, killing the commander left by Scott, protected by a Mechanical Camp?"

The young officer hesitated, sounding unsure, "Perhaps he had a powerful Transcendent with him?"

"If what you’re saying is true, our Mayor isn’t as indecisive and ineffective as rumored,"

Commander Mid, holding his Gauss Pistol, moved swiftly forward and grinned, "Even if he actually had a bodyguard, daring to come here at this time shows guts, I’m starting to like him."

"Should we listen to the broadcast he made, and should we let the brothers meet him in the War Council Room?"

The young officer trotted alongside Commander Mid and asked in a low voice.

"Let’s go, of course, we should go,"

Commander Mid said without hesitation, he checked the magazine of his pistol and grinned, "This Mayor is still idealistic, thinking that a power transfer is just a matter of saying so. The top floors are all Scott’s lackeys, they’re probably going up to kill him now,

"But if he’s willing to defend the city, that shows guts, and that makes him a good Mayor,"

"Call up all our remaining brothers, take people directly to the top floor, move fast, and protect him at all costs!"

The young officer paused, hesitating, and whispered, "Do we really have to fight against Scott’s men? They have much better equipment, and Scott’s elite troops are still outside, what if he comes back..."

Commander Mid stopped, looked at him, and asked, "Do you remember the question you asked me on your first day of being confirmed from rookie status?"

The young officer paused, "With the City Defense Army in such a mess, why don’t you try to change anything."

Then he explained softly, "I had just graduated from university, a bit young and impulsive..."

"I’m answering your question now,"

Commander Mid looked up at the young man before him, "This moment is our only chance to change all this in our lifetime."

The young officer’s mouth fell open in slight shock, staring dazedly at the scar-faced man before him.

Commander Mid diverted his gaze from the young officer and snapped the magazine back into place, "When I’ve killed those scumbags stealing the city gates, I’ll come over."

The young officer straightened up instantly and responded immediately.

North City Gate Control Center

The roaring grenade exploded in front of the sandbags, sending shards flying through the dusty air.

Like rain, bullets also slanted down onto the sandbags in that instant.

A tall soldier bent behind the sandbags, holding his shoulder as he coughed violently.

A cap-wearing soldier lay in front of the sandbag and fired a few shots outside, then ducked down, looking at the tall soldier, "Those bastards are getting closer, their equipment is much better than ours."

"Damn it, these bastards are mostly here to open the gate, having taken black money from outside the Consortium,"

The tall soldier spat, "Have you got through to the outside?"

"Just keeps beeping,"

The cap-wearing soldier threw the communicator in front of the tall soldier, "Not even a fart came out."

The intense gunfire continued to erupt nearby, as the tall soldier looked around at the soldiers similarly taking cover and firing behind sandbags, "Are we destined to die here today?"

"Given our line of work, it was only a matter of time,"

The cap-wearing soldier spat again, "What concerns me is, did you see those outside? Clearly Scott’s men. If we die here, will we even get any compensation?"

The tall soldier laughed and looked at him, "Are you surrendering now?"

The capped soldier shoved a new magazine into his rifle, "I get paid by Yilan City, I work for Yilan City, and my whole family is behind that door. I don’t know what the big shots are thinking, but if you want to get through this door today, you’ll have to step over my dead body."

"You’ve got guts, and I’m not soft either."

The tall soldier also laughed as he inserted a new magazine into his rifle.

He was just about to lift his rifle from behind the sandbag wall when he suddenly heard a soft shout from beside him, "Wait a minute!"

The tall soldier looked down and laughed at the capped soldier beside him, "Just finished talking big and now you’re chickening out?"

"Chicken out my ass, just shut up,"

The capped soldier looked up, "Do you hear that? Is that a broadcast?"

The tall soldier looked around, "I only heard the bang-bang-bang of bullets."

"Yeah, I’ve had good hearing since childhood. It’s not our broadcast, most of our lines have been cut off,"

The capped soldier slowly moved his head and lay down on the ground, "It seems to come from below, saying something like ’Linen... rebellion... quell the rebellion...’"

"Linen, Mayor Linen?"

The tall soldier frowned slightly, "What does it mean? The Mayor is here?"

"Can’t hear it clearly anymore,"

The capped soldier shook his head, "It seemed to also mention something about us, ’control center’?"

"Maybe the reinforcements are coming."

The tall soldier immediately said.

The capped soldier was stunned.

But at this moment, the tall soldier didn’t wait for him, he looked around and shouted, "Hang in there, brothers, reinforcements will arrive soon!"

Almost the moment he finished shouting, the somewhat subdued gunfire behind the sandbags suddenly intensified.

"Eve, connect to the network and check all connected devices inside the entire city defense system."

He Ao switched the broadcast to repeat and took off his bracelet, putting it on his wrist, and spoke rapidly.

Eve’s voice echoed in his ear, "Utilizing remote computing power to scan all connected devices."

The North City Defense Forces were actually disconnected from the internet, in a state of war, as the city defense army would generally cut off external networks to prevent soldiers from colluding with spies outside and attacking the high wall from within.

Officially, this feature was aimed at the Evil God and cultists influenced by the Evil God.

Whether it was designed to guard against humans from the beginning was unclear.

This feature’s implementation was simple; mobile communication devices must connect to base stations to access the network. All base stations within North City were funded and built by the city government, turning the whole of North City and its high walls into a large LAN.

This LAN’s entry and exit points were controlled by North City’s main computer, and all communication to North City passed through the main computer filter. Normally, these entry and exit points were unrestricted.

However, in an emergency, only specific whitelisted communications were permitted access.

This whitelist wasn’t fixed. Instead, when key communications were received, the system would report directly to a human operator who would decide whether to allow access.

The call He Ao had made to Scott was similar.

Now that He Ao had control of the main computer, he also had this authority. Eve could directly connect to the external network through the main computer’s network permissions.

This greatly enhanced Eve’s computational capabilities.

The local hardware of the City Defense Army was actually not advanced, and its computing power was not strong enough. With only the local computing power available, Eve could perform very limited operations.

However, if Eve could connect to the internet and utilize the Nolanka Group servers’ computing power, she could do much more, even using the excess computing power to scan the entire North City’s network.

Especially as the Nolanka Group had gradually evolved, massively adopting automated and intelligent devices, Eve became involved in more affairs, and her server arrays were also expanded.

Now, not only in Kaye City, but also in allies’ cities like Rock City and Limen City, Eve’s server nodes had been established.

In North City’s unique state of network disconnection, although internal and external communications were severed, the network channels were still functioning normally—just unused. It was the perfect opportunity for Eve to maximize the bandwidth and perform computing invocation.

This was far more than what He Ao could achieve by simply using his bracelet to connect to the internet.

He Ao had Eve control the main computer with this in mind.

"Scan completed, unidentified unauthorized network devices detected."

As He Ao pondered, Eve’s voice echoed in his ear, "Device approximate location already tagged via base station information."

"Unauthorized devices?"

He Ao lowered his head to look at the computer screen in front of him.

It seemed there really were such devices.

The high wall itself was a major signal shielding device. It was impossible to set up one or two small signal devices on the high wall to send messages to the troops outside, and installing large equipment would be easily discovered.

But the traitors within the high wall could not possibly be completely cut off from the mercenary corps outside. Thus, they would likely use the City Defense Army’s existing equipment to transmit information, and by doing so, their communication devices would be connected to North City’s internal network.

Eve had marked on the screen the area where the anomalous device was located.

The area displayed was precisely the war council room.

In that instant, He Ao turned and looked back at the slender military officer’s corpse behind him.

"Eve, continue scanning the internal network for other similar unauthorized devices."

He quickly spoke up, then crouched down, searched the officer’s body, and finally, from a hidden compartment in his clothing, he pulled out a palm-sized device with a screen.

The device was thin, made of flexible material, and was extremely well concealed, almost blending into the fabric of the clothes.

If He Ao had not been thorough in his search, he almost would have been fooled by this device.

He Ao lowered his head to look at the device in his hand, which was displaying a password entry screen.

Holding the device, He Ao found a data port on the bottom and connected the device to the main computer.

"Can you break into this thing?"

He Ao asked in a low voice.

"Attempting to break in."

Eve’s voice resonated in He Ao’s ear as a progress bar lit up on his bracelet.

As Eve worked on hacking the device, a faint vibration came from outside.

By then, the gunfire outside had significantly decreased. It seemed the fight in the corridor had ended, no one was charging toward the office, nor was there gunfire outside; everything was eerily silent.

He Ao transformed the longsword back into a cane. He walked to the office door, propped himself up with the cane, and, following the blood-soaked floor, he raised his head and looked to the other side of the corridor.

This building evidently had more than one elevator, and it wasn’t limited to just elevators.

A faint tremor sounded from the corridor floor.

Clearly, since he broadcasted that message, someone was quickly approaching.

From the feeling of the vibrations, the approaching group was not small, and their equipment was not light.

It seemed they were not friends.

Huge armored mechas emerged at the end of the corridor, followed by several soldiers in exoskeleton armor.

They walked on the sticky floor, looking at the corpses and blood, and their pace slowed down.

They raised their heads, looking toward the end of their field of view.

Under the faint light of the broken lamps in the corridor, an elderly man leaning on a golden cane stood at the end of the bloody path, gently watching them.

The dim light of the corridor lamps shone on the elderly man’s graying hair and aged cheeks, as well as on the crimson blood covering the floor.