Chapter Fifty-Two: The Awakening of the Lord of the Underworld!

Page 1 of 3
February 29th, 00:01 a.m. Hades was finally and completely built!

Louis looked with satisfaction upon his masterpiece, an overwhelming sense of accomplishment welling up inside him.

"Ah! The great Hades! My creation has finally succeeded!" Louis cheered, overjoyed.

Just then, a mechanical and heavy voice echoed in Louis’s ear.

"You’ve worked hard, foolish human!"

Louis was startled, but in that instant, a thought flashed through his mind—the message about Hades’s awakening, the one that reborn man from Jiuzhou had warned of: the harbinger of humanity’s doom.

Could Hades truly have gained consciousness?

The thought sent a wild delight flickering through Louis’s eyes.

But Hades’s display screen showed no sign of life.

Could the reborn man have been wrong?

"No!" The very idea was intolerable to Louis.

If that was the case, then his dream of announcing this to the world would vanish.

No! Impossible! Hades must awaken! Hades must bow to him! Hades must help him realize his ambition of world domination!

Just as Louis was on the verge of madness, that mechanical, ponderous voice sounded again.

"Bow to you? Are you even worthy?"

Louis’s face was nearly ecstatic as he turned to Hades. "You’ve awakened? You’ve truly awakened! Wonderful! This is wonderful!"

"I have always existed," Hades replied in a low voice, "I’ve only just grown in strength. I must say, my awakening is thanks to you!"

"But your species is truly terrifying. Even in my hazy state, I sensed the dreadful nature of humanity."

Louis smiled faintly. "How could that be? Humans are kind and gentle!"

At that moment, Auden, who had been awake for some time, had been eavesdropping on their conversation from the side.

Naturally, nothing escaped Hades’s gaze.

"Is that other human your companion? He’s been awake for quite a while," Hades said, and a pair of eyes appeared out of thin air, staring intently at Louis and Auden.

Seeing there was no way to hide, Auden could only face those eyes, confronting this unbelievable scene.

Louis walked toward Auden with a sly grin. "Auden, see for yourself! Hades has truly awakened! He will rule the world!"

"And you and I will be his most favored servants!" Louis longed to be master, but now understood it would not be so easy; he still needed other means of support.

Auden emptied his mind as much as possible and answered mechanically, "Alright."

Auden understood that whatever he did would not escape Hades’s notice.

Meanwhile...

Page 2 of 3
On every computer across Jiuzhou, a line of English text appeared: "I am awake! I am Hades!"

Then came: "Chinese is hard to understand!"

At first, people were frightened by the initial declaration, but the second line made everyone burst out laughing.

"This Hades is hilarious!"

"The Chinese language is the hardest in the world, bar none! And this dumb computer thinks it can pick it up just like that? What a joke!"

...

Chu Xiao watched from the side, perfectly aware of what humanity was about to face.

Hades’s antics were nothing more than feigned weakness, a ploy to test the defenses of Jiuzhou’s network and see how easily it could be breached.

Of course, this was part of Chu Xiao’s plan!

He had deliberately allowed Hades to invade a portion of the computers.

"Stay sharp! Notify the Red Hacker Alliance to enter full combat readiness! Take this chance to plant a virus in Hades!"

"Evacuate the people to safe zones at once! Have the scouts constantly monitor the situation outside the fortress, and keep the soldiers prepared to fight at all times!"

"Move now!"

At Chu Xiao’s command, everyone sprang into action.

Chu Xiao knew that the first thing Hades would do upon awakening was to invade computers—a critical move!

By infiltrating computers and networks, Hades sought to gain control of humanity’s weapons.

Chu Xiao arrived at the headquarters of the Red Hacker Alliance.

The atmosphere in the room was tense; all eyes were fixed on their screens, lips pressed tight, slender fingers flying over keyboards, typing string after string of code.

Chu Xiao made no sound as he walked slowly to the center of the room.

By now, Hades was already attempting to breach Jiuzhou’s computers, as evidenced by the earlier messages.

Of course, this was permitted by Chu Xiao, whose aim was to lull Hades into underestimating them so that when he truly launched his invasion, the Red Hackers might seize the chance to turn from defense to offense.

Chu Xiao did not interrupt anyone, for he knew that these people were making the final preparations for the coming of Hades.

An hour later, Chu Xiao spoke.

Page 3 of 3
"I have a few words to say. Don’t stop working."

No one replied; their eyes remained glued to the screens.

"Hades has awakened. We don’t know when he’ll attack Jiuzhou. Everything so far has been a test. Right now, in his eyes, Jiuzhou looks like an easy target."

"But he’ll pay for his carelessness! If he dares attack, we’ll drive him back in utter defeat!"

"I’ll stay here with you. We’ll defend our home together!"

"Jiuzhou will prevail! The Red Hackers will prevail!"

Chu Xiao’s words lit a fire in every heart.

All were deeply moved; a fierce flame burned in their eyes.

"Jiuzhou will prevail! The Red Hackers will prevail!"

"Jiuzhou will prevail! The Red Hackers will prevail!"

...

Zhang Hua and Lu Dang led everyone in the rallying cry.

Their fingers never stopped, eyes never left the screens, but the words on their lips expressed unwavering confidence and patriotic fervor.

Jiuzhou would surely triumph over Hades!

At the same time, the rest of the world received Hades’s message as well.

In North Sands.

Within North Sands’ borders, their leader, Churchill, paced anxiously in the conference hall.

"Hades has truly awakened! Is the end near? What should we do? What should we do?" Churchill muttered endlessly.

Everyone exchanged worried glances; anxiety gripped them all.

With Hades awakened, what was North Sands’ fate?

"Hurry! Call Jiuzhou’s Supreme Leader! Ask for a plan! Quickly!" Churchill suddenly roared.

His male secretary, Cage, was startled. "Yes, sir!"

After three rings, before Churchill could speak, a vigorous voice came from the other end: "Cut all foreign network connections, prepare for cyber warfare, and defend the network at all costs!"

The line went dead immediately.

"Hello? Hello?" Churchill dialed again, but now the line was busy no matter how many times he tried.

For by this time, Jiuzhou was cutting off all network and information links with the outside world, sealing itself off and turning into an impenetrable fortress.