A fold of light shot through the surrounding air—it was actually Captain Jiao Ma.
{Zi Zang, come back quickly. There’s a major mission.}
–Did the company just say something about building a city?-
So this little girl wasn’t here to cause him trouble. Yang Zicang breathed a sigh of relief.
{Exactly. Just now, our company received a production task for the highest-difficulty Demon-level ranking battle battlefield. It’s been years since we last had such a ranking battle. Our newcomers have never done this kind of work.}
–So?-
{All leaves are canceled. Everyone needs to hurry and get ready to work—including you! Hmph, or else when it reaches the council and the New Fate Trajectory sends down their Demon-level battlefield, it won’t be your ordinary Demon-level. That would really shatter these people’s psychological defenses here.}
Yang Zicang frowned several times, sighed, and looked up at the sky.
–Why does it have to be now? Looks like my weapon is doomed to be hopeless.-
Fortunately, there were only a little over two days left of the vacation, so it wasn’t too much of a loss. Yang Zicang quickly made arrangements with the group, telling them to be careful and to change the campsite location. It would be best to send away those who didn’t belong to their group.
Because the next time he came back, it would likely be half a year later.
……
At the first second of midnight, the beach of Resort Area No. 11 was already completely empty.
A rustling sound came, and a cyan-faced figure about 1.5 meters tall appeared.
He was dressed in an expensive black suit, the leather shoes on his feet as sharp as his nose; the fleshy silkworm-like bulges above his eyebrows protruded outward, and the pupils in his eyes were dazzling. His face radiated a fierce majesty, bizarre like a statue of a deity or demon.
The man, with his hands behind his back, spoke in a sharp voice: –This shabby place—is it the only resort your company has? Really… it’s so stifling, huh. A small town is just a small town.-
{Lord Executive, please don’t be too critical. We will apply for a true psi-field with better scenery for you to enjoy during your stay.}
–Who cares about those fake things?-
The strange man, whose face was unlike a human’s, glanced around at the beach and the plants, as well as the distant city behind him.
His long, pointed ears extended slightly upward, catching the sound of storms in the distance and the roars of monsters within the city.
–Tsk, so noisy.-
{We can deploy a psi-field to block out these sounds.}
–Forget it, I’m just here for a look first.-
{We sincerely ask for your agreement.}
–First stop done,- the man said, facing the wide lake on the beach as he let the night wind blow over him. –Next, let’s go take a tour of your company. As for whether things will work out—I’ll have to think it over.-
{As you wish.}
Behind this person, an energy door with an ethereal glow appeared; starlight gracefully traced arcane patterns upon it, revealing a tunnel of shifting, interwoven scenes like a kaleidoscope.
The bizarre figure turned and stepped into it, vanishing without a trace.
……
–The meeting is about to start.-
–It’s actually a midnight meeting.-
Inside the Lost Illusion Company, on pathways paved with vintage tiles, handsome men clutching documents and elegant women hurried past.
At the bend, Yang Zicang watched their direction. Even at midnight, the whole company buzzed with urgency—clearly, this sudden assignment to build the Mo Ying Hall was no easy feat.
Zuo Luo, dressed in a gray-black overcoat uniform, approached. Looking at the hurrying people, he exclaimed, –Does it really need so many people?-
–Come on, let’s wrap up the meeting early so we can get some sleep.-
In the Gothic-style ancient hall, the Chief Director of the Red Division, Huan Bao’er, sat at the head of a vast, elongated table.
Hundreds of Lost Illusion Company employees in gray-black overcoats gradually settled into seats along both sides of the hundred-meter-long table.
Miraculously, despite the enormous distance, everyone could clearly see those at the opposite end. This reminded Yang Zicang of the Moon Shadow Monster that Chin Mong had sealed within his body. Whenever that monster appeared in a creature’s line of sight, no matter the distance, it could be seen with perfect clarity.
As Yang Zicang scanned the room, he spotted Jiao Ma a few dozen meters away, an open notebook before her, pen in hand.
Jiao Ma, as if sensing something, looked up.
Yang Zicang nodded at her, and the girl forced a fake smile back at him.
Footsteps sounded from behind, and a stranger sat down in the empty seat to Yang Zicang’s left, then patted him on the shoulder.
–Hello there, you must be the new Mr. Yang Zicang.-
–Yes, I am. And you are?-
–Ba Haitao. Your deeds last month really stirred me. Facing such a formidable opponent, you never gave in—truly a model for our kind.-
–Thank you.-
A few people walking past behind them heard this and exclaimed in surprise, –So you’re Yang Zicang.-
He was like a minor celebrity; everyone who passed patted him on the shoulder and offered a word of praise.
As several hundred people took their seats, a male officer stood up beside Huan Bao’er. His clear voice rang out across the spacious hall.
–Fellow colleagues, I am Gong Huanwu of the First Action Department. This time, a town mayor has applied for the highest intensity assessment of the year-end ranking battle—the Demon Hero level battlefield!-
A murmur of whispers broke out among the audience.
Yang Zicang was taken aback. Was this assignment triggered by a –town mayor’s- application?
–The Demon Hero level, even higher than the Crimson Moon level—I’ve only heard of it today.-
–It seems to be a rank that exists only above the Fate Track; it practically never appears here.-
Gong Huanwu raised his hand to calm them. The whispers gradually subsided, and the officer continued:
–Although we can apply for a battlefield to be deployed from the threads of fate, that would come at a very great cost to our company. Moreover, the intensity of that kind of assessment is something that the current candidates cannot handle.-
–You are all elite colleagues who have settled into your work routines. I’ve called you here to have you cooperate and create a demon-class battlefield that belongs to our company. If we can succeed and thereby earn the qualification to establish a demon hall of our own, it would be a great blessing for this company.-
As he paused, a team leader raised his hand and asked:
–Excuse me, Gong Huanwu, director. Is a demon-class ranked battlefield the same size as a crimson-moon-class interlaced zone?-
–I’ll give you all the relevant data on the demon-class arena later. But we need to build a arena that is different from those of other demon halls.-
–Arena?-
–That’s right, it’s about the size of a small city. The demon class is not like the ordinary year-end battle—it’s not a showdown between two top teams. It can accommodate multiple teams simultaneously, or even allow everyone from two entire cities to enter together. Therefore…-
Gong Huanwu’s expression grew solemn: –It’s a showdown between two cities!-
–Ah! That would be a city-destroying war!-
The murmur of discussion grew significantly louder.
–It can hold people from two whole cities?-
–How many would die in a single battle!-
–So that’s why so many of us were called in. This is no small workload.-
Everyone exchanged remarks, and Zoro leaned in and whispered:
–This is like having us build an Olympic stadium.-
Suddenly, this sentence clearly reached everyone’s ears. They all looked over, and Zoro, who had intended to murmur, instantly turned bright red with embarrassment and buried his head.
His own words had been amplified.
Yang Zicang quickly straightened his posture, relieved that he hadn’t said anything odd—the traps here came out of nowhere.
Huan Bao’er, seated at the head, lightly clapped his hands to draw everyone’s attention:
–Little Luo described it very well. We must approach this matter with the seriousness of hosting a world sports festival. Your task is to design an arena palace that tests the strength of the two cities. It must ensure that at least twenty thousand people can enter at once.-
Before Yang Zicang could fully digest this information, Huan Bao’er raised a finger, and above the long table standing upright in the center of the ancient meeting hall, a phantom of a palace appeared.
As their gazes followed it, the information it contained naturally surfaced in everyone’s minds.
【Demon Spirit Arena City—Crown of the Green Lotus】
It was a massive structure floating on water.
The assembled people stared at the colossal building, as if it had manifested from the murmurs of some prehistoric hallucination.
It was rough, bold, archaic, and wild—yet at its summit stood an exquisitely crafted pyramid, as if primitive humans had built with their bare hands a simple yet breathtaking monument that could endure beyond civilization.
The tip of the pyramid was flat, and atop it rested a lotus platform. Something should have been inside the circular dais, but it was no longer there.
Huan Bao’er said:
–Although the company has not produced any Demon-class arena city since I became the Director-General, our company actually did produce them a long time ago.-
She, along with everyone else, looked at that wild, primitive structure.
–This Demon-class palace—could it be a past creation of our company?-
Huan Bao’er nodded, signaling with her eyes for Gong Huanwu to continue.
–This Demon-class palace comes from many years ago.-
Gong Huanwu said: –Like all intersecting fields, most of this city’s buildings are composed of various out-of-frequency bands discovered by the Spectrum Monitoring Department.-
He held a short staff as thick as a thumb and pointed from afar at the phantom image of the Demon-class palace.
–The Action Department, using their spiritual telepathy, deformed and recreated similar bands, combined them, and finally, through meticulous design, produced this palace.-
Everyone studied it carefully.
Yang Zicang gazed at the exquisite structure. It appeared so barren and primitive, like a patchwork of ‘construction waste,’ yet the crown atop it proclaimed its excellence, transforming the whole into an artwork rich in raw, primal atmosphere.
Zorro tilted his body slightly and whispered again:
–Building this thing means the Band Group and the Action Department have to cooperate, right?-
–That should be the idea. You stabilize the terrain data, and we’ll reshape and combine them.-
This work didn’t seem particularly difficult on the surface. But actually doing it was like comparing stacking blocks to building a house—the difficulty was on an entirely different level.
Huan Bao’er took over:
–The company will apply for the authorization to use a certain arcane treasure for you. It will help enhance your spiritual power, allowing you to reach the frequency required to create a psychic field.-
The crowd buzzed with discussion. One person raised a hand and asked, –But it’s almost October now. Is three months really enough?-
–For the first two months, I will apply to activate the Chronos expansion state. However, that will affect the stability of this region, so at most it can buy you all an additional two months.-
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