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"Who are these two.....?"

Old Yu stared at them, dumbfounded, even afraid to move.

Hackers in the Digital City were absolutely comparable to the notorious river pirates of the past. Any act of hacking in the Federation was punishable by death, and although the other four districts, once proponents of abolishing the death penalty, did not have capital punishment for almost any crime, they reserved thunderous strikes for this group of people.

In such an oppressive environment, those who still dared to follow this path were mostly desperadoes!!

In his entire life, Old Yu had only heard about such individuals in the news; he never expected to encounter one personally. He had really run into some bad luck this time.

"This is really interesting....." Wang Ye glanced at himself and then at the mechanical body that carried them. The special form of their own bodies made him feel like they had no physical form, and yet, could such ghostly existences manipulate such tools to labor outside?

If such technology could be used in his own world, particularly the Jiangnan region under Chen Qing’s control, could they not employ spirits to utilize these devices and continue to be of value in the human realm?

Wang Ye looked on with curiosity, while Tianji was not in the mood for such thoughts but rather asked directly, "Can it connect to the network?"

"Ah?" Old Yu was taken aback. You hack into my place, and now you’re asking me if it can connect to the internet?

"Can’t you understand?" Tianji frowned.

"Yes.....yes, it can!" Old Yu dared not argue and could only nod repeatedly.

"Old Yu, what’s wrong?" The miners outside began to wonder why Old Yu had suddenly gone quiet, growing curious.

"It’s nothing, just a bit of lag. I’ll handle it."

"Lag, with that model of yours..... Honestly, it’s pretty old, and we’re not criticizing you, but you don’t have to be so thrifty. What if one day no one is around, and you crash? I wonder what you’ll do then?"

"What can I do?" Old Yu replied with an indifferent tone. "I’m getting on in years anyway. If I crash, then I crash. What else is there to look forward to in this life?"

Wang Ye curiously observed the other party. Judging by the exterior, he seemed young, but the aged tone of his voice suggested it was not a ruse. The people of this world really were interesting.

"Check all major networks immediately, reports regarding the Huaxi District!" Tianji commanded coldly.

"Yes, right away..." Old Yu hurriedly opened the network, and hundreds of virtual screens immediately appeared in front of the three men, covered with news about Huaxi.

Tianji rapidly scanned the sprawling news pages, gathering intelligence.

One thing was clear..... Huaxi truly had been shut down!!

The move was too big to control public opinion. Besides, shutting down one-fifth of the Huazhong District, especially an arch-research region, was equivalent to a provincial capital getting bombed in the old days; how could it possibly be concealed?

The official statement claimed it was a technical shutdown, assuring it was not a cause for much concern and urging the public not to panic.

But such words were patently feeble. A technical shutdown of an entire district? Such an event had never occurred in the entire Federation; how could a few official statements stave off the public’s panic?

Tianji, falling into silence, pondered over the news. The Huaxi District was well and truly shut down; this was proof of Huazhong’s leadership’s resolve, and also evidence that the King of Qin had indeed overstepped!

He did not understand what the King of Qin was trying to accomplish. If he truly solved the disintegration program issue, shouldn’t he have tried to negotiate and strive for rights?

This human-form nuke of his could surely compel the government to avoid a mutually destructive course of action, if it wasn’t utterly necessary, right?

Such a situation didn’t fit the profile of a smart man like the King of Qin.

Creating such substantial conflict, such widespread panic..... what was he really plotting?

"What do we do now?" Wang Ye, not fully understanding what a shutdown entailed, but seeing Tianji’s grave expression, realized the situation must be serious.

"We can’t learn about the internal situation from the news.

Minister Wang, given the current extraordinary circumstances, if you don’t wish to take risks, you can stay here.

Even if the Digital City is completely destroyed outside, as long as the machinery can maintain power, there won’t be any issues. "

Old Yu looked utterly baffled, the Digital City destroyed?

My God, what on earth has happened? Has the sky fallen?

"Senior, do you plan to act alone?" Wang Ye chuckled as he looked at the other, "You wouldn’t be thinking of abandoning your junior after making use of his abilities, would you?"

"Have you considered it carefully?" Tianji seriously looked at him, "I can’t predict what crazy thing the King of Qin will do next. If you follow me, it might be very dangerous."

"Since I followed senior to this so-called real world, I never imagined it would be a safe journey." Wang Ye shook his head, "Wherever senior goes, I will follow. Until we find Chen Qing, I won’t let you out of my sight."

"That’s your choice, haha," Tianji laughed instantly.

Wang Ye looked at the other somewhat taken aback. For some reason, Tianji’s smile always seemed to give him the creeps.

If there were any acquaintances here at this time, they would surely feel the same. Anyone who had encountered Tianji knew that when this guy showed that kind of smile, it was time he was planning to set you up...

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"Have the people at the command center gone mad?"

The moment the alarm sounded, all the higher-ups from other regions of Huazhong wanted to contact the top command center immediately, but the place was heavily encrypted.

Getting in touch with the people inside required going through multiple approvals and there was simply no time to intervene.

The entire Huaxi District had been shut down by the command center.

At that instant, it wasn’t just the civilian population that was in an uproar, but the entire leadership was also in turmoil.

The command center actually went ahead with a nuclear-like self-destructive decision!

"Have you got through yet?"

At this moment, the higher-ups from all the major districts were holding an urgent meeting via the internet.

"We’re still applying. Who knows what those people are thinking? Such a big issue, and they’ve made a decision on their own!"

"What do you think the command center is for? It’s for making emergency decisions in critical situations.

Otherwise, what’s its purpose?" The military commander from the Eastern District said coldly, "The key is we must figure out what event could make them come to such a decision. What kind of threat led to this step? Has the threat been dealt with? That’s crucial! "

"And we need to address the panic among the civilians immediately," said the administrative officer from the South District, "Right now, the internet is clueless about the truth, and other regions of the Federation have already received the news. I’m afraid they’ve already started activating their dormant spies for intelligence gathering.

We do not have much time, we must immediately lock down key intelligence; otherwise.

.. I believe you all know what the consequences would be. .."

The commanders from several districts fell silent at once.

This time, the shutdown of Huaxi District not only resulted in the loss of Huazhong’s massive engineer community but also its largest virtual world project.

In today’s Digital City, the virtual world is not just a place that accommodates world contradictions, it’s also a military weapon!

High-end digital lifeforms make up the main military force of countries nowadays, and unfortunately, more than half of Huazhong’s military force comes from Zhuxian World.

Moreover, what’s worse is... this time, with the Huaxi project initiation, top combat forces, like Zhang Zhengyuan and his group, are all in Huaxi...

If the people in North America were to find out the current situation in Huazhong, I fear the four major districts would immediately turn into hungry wolves, eager to divide and conquer Huazhong’s pie.

This is not alarmist talk...

Huazhong boasts the highest energy output and the largest engineer community in the world today. Without a sufficient military deterrent, it would be like a piece of fat meat!

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"What are you planning to do exactly?"

In Digital City’s Huadong District, Wu Xiaoli looked pale as she gazed at the man holding her hostage.

The two of them were walking through the crowded Huadong Digital Area, where bystanders were focused on the Federal’s latest news on the square, oblivious to the fact that the mastermind behind such a huge turmoil was right next to them!

This guy, without hesitation, had killed Elder Zhang and the rest, instantly wiping out all present top combat forces at that time, triggering the command center to urgently shut down the Huaxi District.

Now, he was stealthily hiding among the crowd with her, watching the news...

This guy... what on earth does he want to do?