From room after room and resting areas, soft recitations drifted through the air.
In the remote Hub Town, inside this exclusive courtyard house that ordinary people could not approach,
Popoli sat at the desk by the window, quietly waiting for dusk to fall.
Time passed minute by minute.
[I have received a completed power-leveling contract.]
Moxel appeared, and a light point flashed before vanishing.
[I have received –Power-Leveling Contract: Dwight Croft’s Design Concept Draft – 3 pages, Completeness 100%-.]
Popoli closed his eyes. The contract was used directly without being displayed.
Fragmented information surfaced in his mind.
A few minutes later, two more light points appeared.
[Power-Leveling Contract: Dwight Croft’s Design Concept Draft – 4 pages, Completeness 100%]
[Power-Leveling Contract: Dwight Croft’s Design Concept Draft – 3 pages, Completeness 100%]
Popoli took a deep breath, gradually making use of the completed contracts as they appeared, and began to activate Lucid Sense to relieve his mental fatigue.
As the night deepened, the light points multiplied until, around nine or ten o’clock, they clustered densely.
[Power-Leveling Contract: Dwight Croft’s Design Concept Draft – 6 pages, Completeness 100%]
[Power-Leveling Contract: Yuwen Haowen’s Design Concept Draft – 5 pages, Completeness 100%]
[Power-Leveling Contract: Dwight Croft’s Design Concept Draft – 10 pages, Completeness 100%]
[Boost Contract: Magic Hero Hall Design Principles, 10 pages, 100% completion]
[Boost Contract: Manifestation and Modification of Spiritual Field, 7 pages, 100% completion]
As more and more content gathered and was applied, a set of broad spiritual design theories gradually emerged!
Boboli, feeling them, was exhausted but also filled with more excitement, thrill, and immense happiness!
The halo that had already appeared showed no signs of stopping.
While Boboli wasn’t paying attention, a faint light spot kept flickering slowly within it.
Just like the flashing –insert cursor- behind computer code.
……
Zhao Xuemei looked at Li Mi before her.
He was holding a screwdriver, disassembling the core of an electrical device from Earth.
–Is there anything else you need to do?-
Li Mi’s slightly thin cheeks lifted up.
–Right now we don’t need to do anything else—just wait.-
With that, he continued dismantling the machine, which was impossible to identify.
Zhao Xuemei thought for a moment.
–Earlier you asked me to mention the security team entry to Zhu Yin. I thought you were planning to check out other cities.-
–That was only because the data I purchased required it.-
Li Mi answered without looking up. Click—an old small part fell into his hand, and he casually tossed it into the box at his feet.
Mentioning the data, Zhao Xuemei looked at him curiously:
–You’re really strange. You’re clearly Yang Zicang’s liaison, yet you spend Chronos to buy information about him from that fat guy.-
Li Mi also smiled:
–Robin Lo has been providing intelligence to our headquarters for three years now. Otherwise, with our city’s ranking, we would have been completely crushed by the Xiongying Group long ago. Now we continue to buy his information—both to update our data and to maintain our client relationship.-
He pushed the screwdriver further into the deformed gap in the iron sheet.
–So, for someone who is now a key figure around Yang Zicang, whatever he sells, we have to buy. Even if we could get the answer to something just by asking, we still have to spend this Chronos. That’s the rule I set.-
–Alright. You’ve got a point.-
Zhao Xuemei, looking a bit bored, propped her chin on both arms.
Li Mi paused, lifted his head, and looked at the woman in front of him with gentle eyes.
–If you’re bored, go find those portrait painters in Hub Town. While you still remember their faces, make some souvenirs.-
Zhao Xuemei gave the man a humph and a glance.
……
A rather flustered Cadre Gong returned from the psychic field.
Only one month and three days left, but the Green Lotus Crown was being dismantled more and more, while what was being filled in was becoming increasingly unsightly.
A man in a black velvet coat with gold trim pushed open the office door.
–Cadre Gong, Jiao Ma has been acting strange these past few days.-
–How so?-
The spectrum department section chief, who had come to find Gong Huanwu, hesitated and said:
–As of this morning, over the past seven days or so, she has already applied to mobilize more than a thousand frequency-lost psychic fields.-
Pfft! Gong Huanwu nearly spat out the water he had just drunk.
–It’s far beyond the reasonable limit. We noticed the anomaly, so we came to ask—does our Demon Hero Hall progress really need so many lost-frequency bands?-
–Alright, I get it!-
–Then, Group Leader Jiao Ma…-
–Regarding Croft’s matter, I haven’t been paying much attention for now. Perhaps.-
The section chief thought for a moment and said, –I understand. Sorry for taking up your time, Officer Gong.-
……
–I can’t take this anymore.-
Yang Zicang, on the verge of a mental breakdown, leaned against the wall the moment he stepped out of the office, his head pressed against it as he gasped for breath.
Passing colleagues patted him on the shoulder.
–Hard work.-
–As expected of a comrade from the First Cleanup Group.-
–Hang in there—without you, our work wouldn’t go so smoothly.-
Seeing that the crowd had almost dispersed, Wang Dingshan walked up to Yang Zicang.
–I thought you guys were going to do something special, but nothing’s happened all this time.-
Yang Zicang glanced at him. –Oh right, you’re still here.-
–Me?- Wang Dingshan blinked. –What do you mean?-
–Hmph. A fine comrade from the First Operations Department.-
Yang Zicang reached into his pocket and pulled out a wooden pomegranate pendant.
Wang Dingshan knew exactly where that came from. His eyes widened.
–What are you planning?-
–Cover for me for two days while I sleep. I need a good rest—I can’t keep going.-
Without waiting for a reply, he hung it around Wang Dingshan’s neck.
Jiao Ma walked to the door and said, –Yeah, hehe, just wear it. Go to bed early tonight. Best to sleep right after eating.-
–You all.- Wang Dingshan glanced back and forth between the two, then whispered, –Hey, what exactly are you guys up to?-
Jiao Ma turned her head to look, then suddenly darted out from behind the door and put a finger to her lips.
From the wide, tall doorway, a green-skinned figure emerged. Croft glanced at them from the corner of his eye, then turned and walked toward the other end of the corridor.
……
After eating, when he had digested enough, Wang Dingshan said goodbye to a few friends and returned to his room.
He lay on the bed, placed his companion Enightmare beside the pillow, then pulled the thin blanket over himself.
–What are these guys up to?-
He looked at the pendant on his chest. Was he about to attend a secret meeting?
–Could they be secretly plotting something damned?-
Soon, wearing the wooden pomegranate pendant, Wang Dingshan woke from the dream.
On the green grass ahead, the girl was already busy at a small table.
She had materialized a glass tube with a flashing spectrum here in the mask. Though not essential, the girl always felt that without this object by her side, her heart couldn’t find peace.
Thus, even if it was just an image, Jiao Ma manifested it.
She looked at the arriving Wang Dingshan. –Today you are the last one.-
–I’m the last one?- Wang Dingshan pointed at himself. –Are there others?-
Seeing Jiaoma’s smiling, distant gaze, the man turned his head and spotted a teenage boy sitting on the ground at the edge of a slope far away.
A stranger.
–Who’s that? Hey, you guys really are up to something, aren’t you?–
Wang Dingshan walked curiously toward the edge of the slope. The grass beneath his feet slanted gently, and the world below gradually came into view. When he reached the teenager’s side, he stared down in shock.
In the valley lay a city as winding as a nine-bend corridor.
–This…–
Wang Dingshan turned to look at Jiaoma.
The girl smiled. –Tonight is not my spiritual world.–
Bopoli looked up at Wang Dingshan and said in even more fluent Chinese:
–Hello, nice to meet you. I’m a director of the Puming Group. You can call me Bopoli.–
Wang Dingshan turned his head in disbelief.
–You—when did you get in touch with Yang Zicang’s teammates?–
He pointed at the spiritual phantom below. –And what the hell is that thing down there?–
The teenager pushed himself up with his legs and rose to his feet.
–This city is called ‘West City.’–
Bopoli’s curly hair swayed gently in the wind. –Of course, it’s just the West City in my imagination.–
He made a grabbing motion with his hand, and the city vanished. The teenager turned to look at the people beside him.
–Thank you for being here, allowing my fantasy world to manifest.–
Bopoli walked toward the table where Jiaoma was sitting.
Only then did Wang Dingshan realize—the boy before him did not have the authority to manifest mental images.
–Hey hey, explain yourselves. What exactly are you planning to do?- Wang Dingshan caught up from behind.
–We’re going to build our very own Demon Hero Hall.- The youth who had his back to him spoke in a calm yet resolute tone.
–Wha—at!-
Wang Dingshan might as well have been struck by a thunderbolt.
A –Head Team Leader Certificate- materialized in Jiao Ma’s hand, and the spectrum inside the glass tube that had conjured on the table began to fluctuate.
A mental pressure like the slow, heaving tide emanated from her body.
The girl looked at the dumbfounded Wang Dingshan and said, –Welcome to our ‘Demon Hero Hall Top-Secret Production Task Force’. You must never breathe a word of this—from now on, you’re our fourth member.-
–The, the fourth!-
Wang Dingshan felt dizzy. Four people trying to build a Demon Hero Hall?
–That’s impossible.-
–Heh heh, I don’t know if we can pull it off, but I do know that if we never try, it’ll never happen.-
Jiao Ma raised her hand, and the various tiny light shows generated by the fluctuating spectrum scattered like projections around the space, even up into the sky.
She declared solemnly, –Mr. Wang Dingshan, elite employee of the First Action Department, please commence and execute the scene change.-
–Sigh.- Wang Dingshan put his hands on his hips in resignation.
–Alright, alright. Maybe this is exactly why we were chosen by the Lost Illusion Company!-
With that, Wang Dingshan raised his hand and manifested his employee card of the First Action Team.
The dark card surface lit up with golden lines, shining like the trajectories of stars.
Swish! The lines spread outward like the complex rings of an armillary sphere.
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