Peace set sail—Day Seven.
Nurse An, who stayed behind, was filled with worry.
Everyone watched the Raider countdown.
“Only three minutes left until Arrival, but Peace is still completely out of contact.”
“She said back then the crash rate was over sixty percent. We never should have let her take Xiaomi and Xiaozhi on that crazy mission… And now? Most of our main force has disappeared with her.”
The situation was grim.
According to the plan, Peace should have arrived at Nerrifa ahead of this mission’s Arrival.
But…
Plans always fail to keep up with changes.
Peace had gone missing—completely.
Nurse An speculated that there were two possibilities.
First, Peace might already have been blown to powder somewhere.
Second, the distance was simply too far—conventional communication methods couldn’t work.
“But even the comms embedded in our jewelry aren’t connecting… Didn’t Miss Nuo say those were based on quantum entanglement?”
“Sister An,” Huang Xiao looked anxiously at her ring, “do you guys feel like… our jewelry has faded?”
“Faded?”
Reminded, everyone looked down—and sure enough.
The jewelry looked like the paint was peeling, with specks of rust appearing on the surface.
Nurse An tried contacting Huang Xiao.
Even face-to-face, the connection was flickering with static snow.
“That’s not all—do any of you feel like it’s hard to breathe? My head is spinning a bit… it feels like… we’re running out of oxygen.”
It wasn’t an illusion.
Not far away, the oxygen alarm was wailing loudly.
“Last time, Xiaozhi said—the White Space was a temporary refuge provided for us by the ‘Stars’, and after a while, it would vanish.”
It seemed the time had come.
“On the bright side, maybe Xiaomi and Xiaozhi weren’t blown up. Maybe during warp flight, the protective field around Peace blocked quantum entanglement interference, so communication was shielded…”
Everyone forced a wry smile in silence.
That was all they could pray for.
“Final check—everyone’s dressed up as Nerrifa Natives now, right?” Nurse An asked.
“Yeah.”
The group responded heavily.
“The situation is dire—the Royal Family of Nayi and Lingguang has suddenly gone mad. They’ve sworn to execute every single Raider, leaving none alive.”
At the final moment, Nurse An stood at the center square of the Mangu District.
Just like Kang Jie once did, facing the uneasy Raiders with no idea what lay ahead.
In that instant, she finally understood Kang Jie’s feelings.
—She didn’t have Miss Nuo’s knowledge, Niao Xiaomi’s composure, Bai Xiaozhi’s intelligence, Han Nuo’s decisiveness, or Ah Lei’s optimism.
She was just an ordinary Earthling, like the countless Proletariat, spinning quietly as a cog in the world’s machine.
Precisely because of this, she would always remember the longing of ordinary people, their joy and sorrow, and would always stand with them, fighting for every ordinary soul.
Mangu District, forever fighting for her people.
“We reached out to Feisi City in advance. The Lord of Feisi City is willing to shelter us.”
Kindness stored up always finds its use.
“But, according to the Mangu District vote—we refused the Lord’s offer.”
“Because even Nerrifa’s people, are still our own.”
“Raiders must not, for their own safety, make the people of Feisi City bear the crime of treason! That would bring the Imperial Army to massacre the city!”
Only half a minute left on the Arrival countdown.
Nurse An surveyed the fully armed crowd of Mangu District.
“Remember our purpose? Since it’s the Royal Family of Nayi and Lingguang targeting us, what must we do?”
The crowd exchanged smiles.
Then, in unison, their voices thundered:
“Destroy the Royal Family!!!”
“If no one in Nayi and Lingguang resists the royal rule, then what must we do?”
“Kill the Emperor!!!”
“Move out—!”
The Light of Arrival enveloped the Raiders.
When they opened their eyes again, they had arrived at Nerrifa.
Han Nuo stood among the crowd, glancing at Nurse An in the distance, shaking his head.
“People of Xinhua always end up making such reckless, overconfident decisions.”
“So, boss, what do we do?” a subordinate asked.
“If we send the video we just recorded of their speech to the Emperors of both Empires, and tell them someone’s plotting to assassinate the royal family, maybe we can win ourselves a pardon.” Han Nuo replied.
“So…?” the subordinate pressed.
“But the Emperor must die.”
Han Nuo laughed carelessly:
“No matter the era, no matter the place, no matter which universe—anything that sits atop the masses, squeezing them dry, must die.
That’s a matter of principle. There’s no doubt.”
……
Syndicate, finished.
There was no distinction between factions in the slaughter of Raiders, though the Syndicate had desperately tried to show their loyalty to the two great Empires.
But… annexing with profit was called surrender, annexing with nothing to gain was called raising parasites.
What could the Syndicate offer the royal families?
Combat power? That batch of Newbie Sequence?
Technology? Motorcycles?
The royal families of the Sequence System had long scorned the Raiders’ tech creations.
They considered those things hard to make and useless.
Besides, the Syndicate’s technological ceiling was the motorcycle Miss Nuo cobbled together back when she cosplayed a biker gang leader.
Of course, there were also scientists and other Scientific Talent providing the Syndicate with things like fridges, black-and-white color TVs, washing machines, Windows 95 computers, air conditioners, water heaters—a set of six junkyard classics.
But all of these could be replaced by the Sequence.
As for more advanced technology…
That goes back to before Brother Jie died.
Ever since Kang Jie fired that rocket, sacrificing himself to show his resolve, Mangu District had become a holy ground for all Scientific Talent.
Scientific Talent from across the globe flocked to Miss Nuo’s side.
Even those on the other side of the planet built planes overnight, flying straight to Mangu District to seek her out.
In other words—anyone capable of building a plane, any group, had already arrived at Mangu District.
As for those who couldn’t, Mangu District sent planes to fetch them.
From that moment, Mangu District’s overall strength skyrocketed overnight.
Once all-powerful Syndicate? The ominous cloud looming over Mangu District? Pah, just primitives.
And that wasn’t the deadliest blow.
The most soul-crushing thing was the “No Background Check Policy” Kang Jie left when he died.
Any Raider who joined Mangu District in the first half month—no background check, even Syndicate members would be taken in.
So, in those first two weeks, even the handful of Scientific Talent Syndicate had, slipped away.
—A most cunning move.
Those talents were first to see Mangu District’s potential, so they left most decisively.
Within half a month, they had all abandoned the Syndicate.
And after that, the only ones left were those who would stick with the Syndicate to the end—vicious, hopeless scum.
From then on, Mangu District closed off their open-door policy to the Syndicate.
All in all—
By today,
The Syndicate was utterly finished.
“I can help you identify the Raiders!”
This was the Syndicate’s last bargaining chip.
“They must already be disguised as Natives, hiding out, maybe even plotting an assassination! But I can help you pick them out—help you drag them out and kill them!”
Nayiguo King gazed down at the prisoner before him.
He nodded.
“Deal.”