Chapter 24: The Restless Lord of the Underworld

December 18th. Seventy-two days remain until the awakening of the Dark Sovereign.

For the past few days, Louis had been continually inspecting the Dark Sovereign, convinced that the incident that day must have been an accident. How could a mere machine possibly possess human consciousness? Auden had come by several times, but Louis had always found various excuses to turn him away.

“Dark Sovereign! You are the result of my research. I will never allow anyone to destroy you!” Louis gazed at the Dark Sovereign for a long time, lost in thought.

Suddenly, Louis’s keen senses picked up a subtle movement from the Dark Sovereign. He was certain he hadn’t touched anything—yet the Dark Sovereign had moved, all on its own!

But when Louis looked again, the Dark Sovereign was as still as before, showing not the slightest sign of disturbance.

“Hallucinations, all hallucinations!” Louis shook his head and resumed his research.

December 19th. Seventy-one days remain until the awakening of the Dark Sovereign.

Zhang Hua remained fully absorbed in developing a firewall to counter the Dark Sovereign’s intrusion. He hadn’t slept for a full day and night. Only yesterday, his team had made a small breakthrough. To safeguard this hard-won progress, he refused to rest.

“Let’s give it one more push!” Zhang Hua declared.

The firewall Zhang Hua devised was a hundred times tougher to breach than the previous one. At this moment, he was relentlessly searching for vulnerabilities to attack, while the rest of the team patched those vulnerabilities, doing their utmost to block his assaults.

Half an hour later, Zhang Hua still managed to break through the firewall.

“No, it’s still too weak,” Zhang Hua shook his head.

Lu Dang, another member of the Red Hackers’ Union, was second only to Zhang Hua in skill.

“Alliance Leader Zhang, I have a suggestion,” Lu Dang stood up and spoke aloud, his voice resounding through the room.

“What is it?” Zhang Hua looked to him.

“I think we can turn the tables on the Dark Sovereign. While it attacks us, we shouldn’t just sit and wait. We can counterattack—infect it with a virus, or even take control of its system!”

These words exploded among the crowd like a thunderclap.

Indeed! If they could truly seize control of the Dark Sovereign, it would no longer be a threat. It could even become an asset for Jiuzhou!

“That’s a great idea!”

“How did we not think of that before? Lu Dang, you’re brilliant!”

“Enough talk, let’s start researching how to infiltrate the Dark Sovereign!”

“Exactly!”

Zhang Hua felt a surge of energy course through him.

“Everyone, hold on and listen,” Zhang Hua called. “We must first decide what kind of virus we need. I have three proposals.” He knew they couldn’t proceed blindly—they needed a plan. Their only objective: to prevent the Dark Sovereign from invading Jiuzhou’s systems and controlling its weapons.

The room fell silent; hundreds of eyes fixed on Zhang Hua.

He surveyed the assembly. “The first option, as Lu Dang just said, is to create a virus that can directly control the Dark Sovereign. But this is most likely to fail.

“The second targets a specific subsystem of the Dark Sovereign, aiming to destroy that function.

“The third is a rapidly replicating virus. If not eliminated quickly, it would spread throughout every system of the Dark Sovereign. Of course, eradicating it would be troublesome. This type is easier to deploy—once it contacts our systems, we can inject it. Its main purpose would be to buy us time.

“These three options—I want everyone to research them together. We’ll split into two teams: one to develop the virus, the other to continue building the firewall.”

With that, Zhang Hua turned to Lu Dang. “Lu Dang, you’re an expert in virology. You’ll lead the virus team. Is that all right?”

A flicker of surprise crossed Lu Dang’s eyes, but was quickly replaced by resolve. “No problem.”

“Excellent.” Zhang Hua then addressed the rest. “I’ll continue leading the firewall team. Any objections?”

“No!” the group responded in unison, their spirits instantly revived.

Satisfied, Zhang Hua nodded, then looked to Lu Dang. “Pick your people.”

“Understood,” Lu Dang replied, wasting no time.

Time was running short.

The construction of the underground base had already begun.

Hou Huarong was among the team overseeing the base’s construction and was the chief coordinator of the twenty thousand workers dispatched by the nation’s top leader.

When the country called, he gave up his comfortable life without hesitation and threw himself into the nation’s work. Previously a lieutenant general, he now bore responsibility for these twenty thousand men.

Yet, to him, the progress was far too slow. If the Dark Sovereign was truly as terrifying as Chu Xiao had predicted, they needed to accelerate.

Hou Huarong sought out Chu Xiao, determined to revise the work schedule, for the current pace was insufficient.

“Hello, Director Chu. I am Hou Huarong, the chief coordinator of manpower for foundation construction, sent by the First Commander,” Hou Huarong introduced himself, and before Chu Xiao could reply, he continued, “I believe our current speed is too slow!”

Chu Xiao frowned, “Why do you say so?”

He hadn’t noticed any major progress issues.

“There are nearly thirty thousand people working at once, but many are not being fully utilized. If we maximize manpower, I suggest adopting a twelve-hour shift system—half working during the day, half at night. This way, manpower is fully utilized, and efficiency is increased.”

Hou Huarong finished in a single breath, without a pause.

Chu Xiao hesitated, but when his gaze met Hou Huarong’s, he was shaken.

Those eyes burned with patriotism and unwavering resolve, utterly pure.

Was this the patriotism spoken of by the world? That passion deeply moved Chu Xiao.

“Very well, we’ll do as you suggest,” Chu Xiao agreed, understanding that this man’s heart and soul were devoted wholly to Jiuzhou.

Chu Xiao and Hou Huarong walked together to the construction center of the underground base—Buge Village.

Hou Huarong gathered the other supervisors and rolled out the new work schedule.

From a distance, Chu Xiao surveyed the construction. No word but “magnificent” could describe the sight. Excavators rolled by one after another; bottomless pits were dug deep into the earth. Countless loads of titanium alloy were transported underground as endless mounds of earth were hauled away.

The dense mass of workers looked as small as ants, yet just as tenacious, just as resilient—impossible to defeat.

Wang Shuai was among them.

He had left his family behind, following the great army here without a second thought.