Chapter 120: Too Unsightly (Part 2/2)
Translator: Strivon
Things were out of Luo Nan's hands after the High-Imitation Low-Configuration Human-Faced Arachnid entered the dark cloud. With the human body's level of processing information, watching it was fine but manipulating it was extremely difficult. What he did just now was the equivalent of tossing out a wiretapping bug into the dark cloud. Whether or not he would be able to receive results more or less depended on a bit of luck.
The spiral arm of the dark cloud was smeared with the complicated cluster of emotions, looking like a swaying poisonous mushroom. It still remained unclear but Luo Nan could feel that there were some differences now. He needed to keep on waiting.
Luo Nan was not pinning his hopes onto the Human-Faced Arachnid. He withdrew his attention and focused back on Frost River Reality.
The battle between Fairchild and Baze was not that noisy. There were many times when Luo Nan had completely forgotten about their existances. It was hard to imagine these two powerful ability users skilled in physical techniques doing things in this way.
However, Luo Nan could not forget about them even if he wanted after he erected his Star River Clairvoyance System. This was because the brightest cluster of stars was situated there.
This was a very interesting phenomenon; the most eye-catching constellation of the Life Sketches drawn by Luo Nan was the constellation that belonged to Fairchild.
Originally, it was impossible for Luo Nan to successfully analyze Fairchild due to his super powerful strength but he had exposed the marvels of his body interacting and interfering with the mental and the material planes. He was grand and imposing, not really concealing anything. Therefore, Luo Nan's Life Sketch of Fairchild was clear and distinct.
Simplifying Fairchild's constellation down to Cat Eyes' degree of simplicity was obviously impossible. The structure of Fairchild's constellation was complicated, lit with the dots of several stars but because of this, the stars of this constellation combined together to cause an astonishing degree of presence and luminosity within the splendid star river of Luo Nan's senses.
Because of Fairchild, the eight Oblatum Knight, including Baze, had their constellations affected. The nebula dust that enveloped their bodies was torn apart bit by bit and exposed some deeper mysteries.
Luo Nan pondered. It seemed that through this phenomenon, he could get a peek at the common origin between the Order of Justice's First Oblatums and Oblatum Knights. He just needed a bit more time.
However, He Yueyin issued new orders at this time within the encrypted channel. "Head fifty meters toward the one o'clock direction. Exit through passageway number three."
Luo Nan and the others had been advancing forward all this time. They only discovered now that they had unwittingly arrived at one of the exits to Frost River Reality. It was a passageway that connected to one of the buildings that supported Frost River Reality. Through here, they could enter the connected building B. In other words, they had already slipped past much of the dangerous regions in Frost River Reality.
Zhang Yingying, who was paving the way as the vanguard, could not hold back from speaking in the channel, "Hellooo, don't we still need to rescue about a hundred people?"
He Yueyin responded, "The mission targets are the gunmen of the Order."
"Luo Nan has already wiped them out already, okay!?"
"There are at least a dozen or so gunmen left in the three buildings. From our current intelligence, the Order still has three or four squads, excluding the First Oblatums and the Oblatum Knights, that haven't been contained yet. There is a sniper team confirmed at Yulan Hotel. There are also mobile units still present in the surrounding three buildings."
Zhang Yingying was baffled by a problem for a long time before so she could not help but ask, "What's the point of getting rid of the gunmen? The First Oblatums and the Oblatum Knights are the big shots..."
"Leaving the gunmen alone will lead to more civilian causalities."
"Hellooo, are you saying that a Secretbound First Oblatum and two Clearsworn First Oblatums are less dangerous than a few gunmen?"
"Looking at the current situation, yes."
A few rounds of back and forth happened and this led to Zhang Yingying becoming extremely dissatisfied with He Yueyin's answer. She was about to muster more energy to grill her further when Red Fox, who had not spoken in the encrypted channel for quite a while, suddenly interrupted,
"Before becoming an Extraordinary, a mentally enhanced ability user is quite limited in direct interference with the material plane. The lethal power of a mental storm isn't necessarily greater than that of a metal bullet. Moreover, the ‘weapons’ of the First Oblatums are currently being pinned down by Fairchild in Frost River Reality. This leads to a substantial offset to the First Oblatums' mental powers..."
He Yueyin continued after Red Fox. "There are currently at least thirty to fifty thousand civilians within the three buildings. If these people were to be enslaved by fear, crowd stampedes may occur and the consequences would be unimaginably catastrophic. All the gunmen would need to do is to pull the trigger to set this off... we can't afford to pay this price."
Everyone was forced to admit that their words had some truth in them. However, these two people had slapped each other's faces not too long ago, yet now they were echoing one another? This caused very conflicting emotions to be born in the others who held various stances during the contention.
Luo Nan was a bit embarrassed. Compared to He Yueyin's and Red Fox's train of thoughts, his thought process contained some assumptions. Even if he managed to draw Life Sketches of the First Oblatum and resolve the situation with them, it seemed that his actions would be of little help.
So should he adjust things and go look for the gunmen?
However, the demands that such an action would place on the precision of his senses was much greater than before. Luo Nan felt that he might not have the ability to do this.
As Luo Nan thought about his problems, Zhang Yingying thoughts were of a more practical nature. "To sift through these three buildings would take until the end of time, right?"
"He Yueyin responded as if she had expected the question, "We're just responsible for building B. Building A and C will be handled by the military."
The encrypted channel was immediately thrown into a state of shock. Papercut asked, "The military? The military is personally making a move? Oh right, there was that drone a while ago..."
Zhang Yingying shouted, "Like I said! How could it be a coincidence!? You were the one who gave the order to verify that the corpse was Ghost Thunder, right? Did you use some personal contacts?"
He Yueyin had a strong military background. This was not a secret in the Society. However, she had not shown much of her personal network since she entered her society, besides her military accomplishments. This sudden mention caught people off guard.
He Yueyin did not respond immediately when faced with this question.
Zhang Yingying would not let her escape. "Helloo, won't bringing the military into this complicate things... Secretary He?"
He Yueyin responded two seconds later, "It's an official collaboration."
"What?"
He Yueyin moved on from this topic. She simply said, "Enter building B in thirty seconds. Red Fox, Bamboo Pole, Papercut, remain responsible for Yulan. Pay heed, we need to resolve the situation with the gunmen within five minutes."
A countdown interface appeared within the encrypted channel after He Yueyin issued these orders. The current time remaining was 295 seconds.
The sudden inclusion of this element made everyone freeze in shock.
When Papercut was faced with this unreasonable task, he spoke out in shock, "We don't even have the time to run back from there to Yulan Hotel!"
In Papercut's moment of doubt, Red Fox did not speak a word and instead turned around and left. Bamboo Pole gave Papercut a yank and increased his speed to catch up to Red Fox. It was as if Papercut had awoken from a dream. He pushed off with his feet and asked for clarification, "What happens if we can't accomplish it in five minutes?"
"We make an emergency action plan after 285 seconds. We can't predict what changes will occur by then... Move faster!"
He Yueyin urged the team to move faster and issued the operational procedures one after another. "The special forces will form a second squad. Upon entering building B, they will act as the vanguard, clearing the way and maintaining order. As for everyone else, Mr. Luo, Yingying, and White Salt will form a team upon entering the floor; they will head down. Cat Eyes and I will form a team and head up. We will quickly search and handle the gunmen as we make contact with them. 270 seconds later, regardless of whether this task is completed, immediately perform rapid descension from the building and get out of the range of the building complex!"
She matched the timer interface perfectly every time she mentioned the remaining seconds. She notified everyone to deploy themselves in teams and that time was being endlessly consumed.
As the group of people took in the amount of time remaining, He Yueyin spoke specifically to Luo Nan, "Mr. Luo, you need to concentrate your energy. You can't afford to be distracted."
Luo Nan was stunned for a moment, having understood the meaning behind her words. It was at this time he ‘heard’ some information with his ears. It was spoken seemingly regretfully but also mockingly.
"... How unsightly!"
So I'm out on travel for a few days. Releases will be sporadic, but still five days a week.
Chapter Synopsis:
Luo Nan views thing on his star atlas and can see Fairchild's and Baze extremely clearly upon it due to the radiance they emit. The light of Fairchild's constellation helps him see through the nebula dust around the Oblatum Knights and find the link between the knights and the First Oblatums.
He Yueyin expands on their mission to wipe out the gunmen of the Order, stating that leaving the gunmen alive will lead to more civilian casualties. They are responsible for building B while building A and C will be handled by the military in an official collaboration. He Yueyin sets the time limit to five minutes, much to everyone's surprise.
He Yueyin warns Luo Nan not to be distracted, but he "hears" someone say, "How unsightly!"