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Warning, warning, a large-scale energy attack has occurred in the Huaxi Experimental Area, the intelligent assessment rates the risk as special-grade, please immediately shut down the power in Huaxi District, please immediately shut down the power in Huaxi District!

In the Supreme Command Center, an alert from the highest intelligence prompted numerous high-ranking officers to rush to the command room and engage in intense discussion.

The Supreme Command Room, which is responsible for the entire energy operation of the Digital City’s Huazhong District, has its location encrypted multiple times and also undergoes IP changes at any time.

It is guarded in rotation by ten specially authorized commanders from the military.

This place holds a special status but in reality, it’s rarely utilized; it only approves the use of major energy policies.

Yet such policies are essentially developed by the parliament and then issued as documentation, with the commanders here simply responsible for carrying them out.

Most of the time, this is merely a department of symbolic significance.

However... the protection here remains exceptionally strict, because this department holds the highest executive power. When Huazhong is in a special situation, the decisions made here could almost determine the fate of Huazhong District.

Such as the immediate shutdown that intelligence is demanding!

Shutting down an area’s power is the highest level of executive authority and requires the simultaneous signature of ten commanders to proceed since the consequences are too severe and this measure is not to be used unless the nation is in dire straits.

In fact, since the establishment of the Supreme Command Center in Huazhong District, this authority has never been used.

Shutting down... means completely cutting off a region’s power supply, what’s known as "pulling the plug"!

Once the energy of that area is disconnected, all data operations within will come to a complete halt. As for what happens to the data lives inside, no one knows...

This is a means more threatening than nuclear weapons, initially intended by the data hierarchy to limit used by high-combat forces in the virtual worlds.

Top high-combat forces in the Virtual Realm, like Zhang Zhengyuan, if one were to break loose and not comply with the Federation, the potential for damage to Digital City is terrifying.

To restrain them, this mechanism was put in place: once the power is cut, even the most powerful data lives are like rootless duckweed!

"A special-grade alarm? What on earth has happened?"

Among the ten commanders, there was only one woman, who Wu Xiaoli would definitely recognize if she were here—it was Wu Qian, who took the Wu Family’s turn serving as a command officer.

Although Wu Qian looked not much older in appearance, she was in fact over a hundred years old and ranked much higher than Wu Xiaoli by two generations.

"What has happened? Commander Wu, do you not know?" a tall man with a somber expression said, "What else could be happening in the Huaxi District now? It must be due to that project presided over by your esteemed niece from the Wu Family that has caused such chaos."

"That little niece of mine isn’t capable of causing such a mess!" Wu Qian coldly retorted, "Who doesn’t know how that project was approved? Currently, half of the upper echelons are there; could my niece possibly be the one calling the shots?"

"Enough!" In the command center, a young, short man with a solemn face, who bore a resemblance to Hou Tianhua sitting in a wheelchair, was Hou Family’s current rotational command officer.

Though he appeared young and tender, he too was of advanced age, over a hundred years old, and held a high position within the Hou Family.

As per Federation’s rules, commanders are not allowed to enter the virtual world.

Those on rotation here are from the major families who are willing to forego the benefits of Virtual Realm and hold a position that cannot be too low.

Anyone who comes here, whether from their family or the official ranks, is highly respected.

"What time is it now? Is this the time to still be looking into who is responsible?" The Hou Family officer said, furrowing his brows, "The key question is, what do we do now?"

"What to do? Of course, we execute the shutdown!" Wu Qian didn’t hesitate to respond, "A first-grade alert has never occurred before; this shows how troubling the mess they’ve caused there is. If we don’t shut down quickly, the situation could become uncontrollable!"

"Shut down? Are you sure?" another commander frowned, "Huaxi has an active population of around 300 million and has the most scientific research laboratories. Zhu Xian’s power station for the virtual world is also there. Once we shut it down, do you know how much turmoil it will cause?"

"Moreover, due to this project, half of the high-level officials are over there assisting. Once we shut it down..."

"So what?" Wu Qian said coldly, "I opposed that project from the beginning due to the high risks. That madman Zhang Zhengyuan insisted on gambling with everyone’s lives. Now that he has lost the bet, what else is there to say? Who knows what they have let out, if we don’t shut it down now, waiting for that thing to come over, it won’t just be a matter of shutting down one district of Huaxi! "

"This..."

"Let’s vote!" the Hou Family representative took a deep breath, "Regardless, this decision is too significant. Once we start, we cannot turn back and we will bear a tremendous historical responsibility. Vote now, the old rules apply. Use red and blue ballots; red to agree with Commander Wu’s statement to shut down Huaxi, blue to. .. consider other options!"

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Jiangnan...

When Chen Qing entered the vortex, besides the King of Qin, there were a few unexpected onlookers.

It was Mister Tianji, who had quietly infiltrated Jiangnan to meet with Jiang Xiaoling.

"Is this really possible?"

Behind Tianji, there was an unexpected figure, none other than Wang Ye!

"What’s not possible?" Tianji said with a smile, "Flying Star can traverse anything as long as it has coordinates. The mark you left on Chen Qing should enable you to use it no matter where he goes, right?"

Wang Ye deeply glanced at Tianji, then at the place where Chen Qing had left, lost in thought.

His reason for following Tianji was that Tianji had said he would reveal to him the truth of this world, and now, his statement was this: the place Chen Qing had entered was the truth of this world!!

For some reason, the world visible beyond the vortex filled him with an inexplicable sense of panic, as well as an unexplained yearning...

Intuition told him Tianji was telling the truth, and that the place Chen Qing was headed to contained the truth he had been seeking!

Tianji looked at the hesitant Wang Ye, remaining silent, not urging him, because he too did not know what the consequences might be.

After all, it was two worlds, and this was the so-called Virtual Realm. Would the rules that worked here still apply outside?

To be honest, he found it absurd himself.

But a multitude of intelligence suggested that it was indeed possible!

In the Federation District, there were quite a few people who had returned from the Virtual Realm, and with them, their completely reengineered genetic algorithms and the Divine Skills they brought from the Virtual Realm.

No one knew the principle behind it, but it was a fact.

So Tianji wondered, if the Divine Skills of the Virtual Realm could be used in Digital City, then upon the opening of the pathway between the two worlds, did Wang Ye’s Flying Star also possess the ability to cross between the two realms?

This bold conjecture once formulated, he decided to test it with his inherent Divination Divine Skills.

The result of the divination was beyond expectation.

It was feasible!

He didn’t know if his Divine Skills would count at this moment because it involved the outside world.

In theory, his profound and mysterious luck-changing Divine Skills shouldn’t be able to calculate events from outside since the code was designed to provide answers from the intelligent operations running the entire game world, revealing to him and allowing him to grasp some future directions.

But the Virtual Realm was the Virtual Realm, and outside was outside. How could the intelligence of the Virtual Realm synchronize with the computing data from outside?

Tianji did not understand, but he wanted to try.

It had been a long time since anything had made him this excited.

This kind of bold experiment, this sort of unprecedented wild idea, had kept him excited for several days without sleep. Despite his calm appearance, his toes were nearly poking through his shoes.

Finally, nearly half an hour after Chen Qing had disappeared, just as the vortex was getting smaller, Wang Ye’s eyes suddenly burst open.

A streak of starlight radiated from his body, eliciting an excited smile from Tianji beside him.

Indeed, Wang Ye, like himself, had that inherent adventurous and exploratory nature. He was definitely going to do it.

"Predecessor..." Wang Ye said softly, "Do you think, in that world... if we die, will there be reincarnation?"

"There probably... won’t be..." Tianji said hesitantly.

"Is that so?" Wang Ye said with a smile, "That’s truly thrilling... Have you really thought it through, Predecessor?"

"I’ve been waiting for you to think it through."

"Alright!" Wang Ye laughed.

In his memory, when he initially escaped from the Nine Heavens Mirror, he was as weak as an ordinary insect, but nevertheless, he had fled Jiangnan without any hesitation. Tianji was right; at heart, he was someone who loved adventure!