Chapter 107 Running Rampant

The moment Lily darted out, Hao Ren couldn't help but mutter to himself, "Am I going down the path of bullying the weak? I heard that bullying men and women starts with letting the dog bite people at the slightest disagreement…" But after thinking about it carefully, he felt there was no risk, because in most cases, even if he didn't instigate her, Lily would still rush out and bite people.

Actually, from the beginning, Hao Ren knew that things would definitely develop in the current direction—the real world wasn't a shonen manga, where two groups could understand each other by chatting about love and justice, and where people who were at each other's throats one second could become friends by talking about their dreams. Everyone was civilized; when reasoning didn't work, going head-to-head was the normal course of action—and to be honest, with two groups having different worldviews, there was basically no basis for reasoning.

So his plan had always been clear: observe the way this Twilight Capital existed before causing chaos, fulfill the duty of an inspector to "observe," and then inevitably encounter the local forces, who would inevitably create obstacles. Then, everyone would rush all the way to the Iron Throne with sparks and lightning to chat with the Ancient Ones.

This wasn't just wishful thinking; Hao Ren came to these conclusions after learning about the operating methods, historical achievements, corporate culture, and management philosophy of the Steam Council from Wendell and Boken.

A mature social management institution, one that could maintain the city's operation after the apocalypse, an institution that could maintain order to this day when everything was precarious, needed conservatism, stability, and caution above all else, not flexible thinking and an enterprising spirit, especially when it came to the dark wilderness outside. Hope's seemingly paranoid misunderstanding wasn't entirely due to subjective factors; in fact, in the two thousand years since the Twilight Capital was established, the city had faced countless rumors, scams, and even cult threats that led to social unrest. Trapped in the barrier for so many years, the probability of mental illness among ordinary people was extremely high. Whether it was escaping reality or retaliating against society, people would claim to have found the key to saving all of humanity every century, and these keys would basically point to the dark wilderness outside.

Trapped in darkness for so many years, people either firmly believed that there were savage beasts on the other side of the darkness or firmly believed that there was paradise on the other side of the darkness. The number of the latter was of course much smaller than the former—but the harm was countless times greater than the former.

There had indeed been a terrible incident in history where Seekers of Light colluded with cultists to create the illusion of paradise. It was said that a large team of Seekers of Light entered the night, and soon after, they lost contact with the Twilight Capital. They were lost in the scorching sand sea of Jotunheim. Everyone was wiped out in twenty days, but one survivor miraculously survived. No one knew how he survived, but it was certain that he had encountered a mental upheaval during those terrible twenty days. This Seeker of Light had hallucinations, and he firmly believed that he had found paradise and had filled in the details of that oasis, which only existed in his imagination, extremely realistically. Then he returned to the Twilight Capital and began to preach about the "new home," and this had terrible consequences.

He eventually gathered an organization that was almost a cult, and he didn't hesitate to fabricate evidence to prove the existence of that oasis. He even confronted the Steam Council's investigation team and organized thousands of people to leave the Twilight Capital and go to Jotunheim to find that beautiful paradise that only existed in his false memories.

Thousands of valuable citizens with various skills died in the dark wilderness just like that.

From that day on, the Steam Council formulated strict rules that any Seeker of Light returning from the night must accept strict questioning. If there were more than two people returning, it would be fine, but if there was only one person returning—then almost everything he said would not be believed.

Because under the erosion of arcane radiation, even the Seekers of Light themselves couldn't be sure that their minds were normal. A Seeker of Light who returned alone might have gone mad, and even if he was mentally normal, he might have been brainwashed by hallucinations. Without anyone else to compare notes with, no one could prove whether their words were true.

So Hope's suspicion of Wendell was completely understandable. He was just a little more extreme than ordinary members of the Steam Council: he didn't suspect his father, but completely didn't believe his father. But in any case, the result was the same: Hao Ren and his group could not go to the lower city through formal channels.

Let Wendell accept the Steam Council's formal questioning procedure? Let his group accept the questioning and evidence collection that could last for several months? Discuss his life worldview of more than two million words with a group of experts and scholars? This might be the formal procedure, but to be honest, Hao Ren didn't have the time to go through the formal procedure.

Lily howled and transformed into a werewolf, instantly turning into a blur, and almost knocked down all the security officers on the scene before anyone could react. Then Hao Ren pulled out his two spears, waved them, and rushed to the edge of the platform: "Which direction is the elevator in?!"

Wendell was wrapped up by a large group of bats summoned by Vivian. The old man was dizzy, but he had already rushed out a hundred meters with this group of violent people. At this time, he couldn't care less about any rational solutions or peaceful plans. It had to be said that he deserved to be a tough guy who had embarked on the Seeker of Light journey twice. When reasoning turned into a head-on confrontation, his spirit of being a tough guy burst out: "To the left! The place where the smoke is coming out! Rush over there!"

The security officers brought by Hope were knocked into a mess in an instant: these people were not real combat personnel. They were just maintaining the daily order of the upper city. Their combat power was the authority attribute brought by their uniforms. Therefore, the last unlucky person got up from the ground only when Hao Ren and his group were about to disappear on the platform. One security officer even threw the metal rod in his hand as a flying prop in a moment of desperation—and then Lily turned her head and caught the rod in one bite, and it could never be taken back.

"Sir!" A subordinate with a bruised nose and a swollen face staggered to Hope, "What should we do?"

Hope's face was ashen, and beads of sweat as big as beans flowed down his neck. He now had only one thought in his mind: his father was finally completely hopeless. He was even prepared to lead people to break into the Ancient Ones' Iron Throne. Without a doubt, he had really gone mad on this last journey as a Seeker of Light!

"Go notify the Wizard Corps and the armed security team, and the Steam Sixth Division!" Hope shouted loudly while pressing a button on the small metal box on his waist, "Santiss, Roland, sound the alarm! Habert, go to the elevator, evacuate the civilians, and seal off the machine!"

"The others follow me to the city hall—check which cult's remnants that group of people is!!"

At this time, Hao Ren and his group had already rushed out of the locomotive platform with sparks and lightning. According to Wendell's instructions, they advanced along a wide beam made of steel, and soon left the station far behind.

The upper city of the Twilight Capital was full of things built of steel: steel frames carrying pipelines, reinforcing beams between buildings, and suspended roads. These crisscrossing structures were like spiderwebs covering the sky above the city, and the smoke and steam spewing out of various factories and boilers were lingering in the gaps of these "spiderwebs." The crowd passed through a huge pipeline system, and the gas leaking from the pipeline system made the surroundings foggy. In this hazy fog, two rows of faintly luminous fluorescent lights guided the way forward. Those were the runic characters embedded in the building structure.

In order to reduce the pressure of the heavy structure on the lower layers of the city, the builders of the Twilight Capital used a large number of runic characters on the buildings. This unique rune, which was popular in Northern Europe, was not as powerful as the Leta runes, but it had excellent auxiliary uses. Vivian showed a slight smile when she saw these runes and said in a low voice, "These runes were 'created' by Odin, but if it weren't for Ragnarok, I'm afraid 'mortals' would never have had the opportunity to access their secrets."

"Woo—"

A low and loud whistle came from afar, followed by the second and third.

The whistle roared throughout the upper city, and the steam clouds that had been entrenched in the upper buildings all year round seemed to be shaken and dispersed by the bursts of whistles. Wendell's face changed the moment he heard the whistle: "It's a high-level alarm! They sounded the alarm!"

Hao Ren curled his lips: "Nonsense, a group of people is preparing to storm the president's office, so it would be stupid not to sound the alarm."

The huge steel beam came to an end, and in front was the roof of a certain building. The crowd jumped off the steel beam and jumped between the roofs and eaves of the houses. The city was receding under their feet, and at this moment, an unusually heavy footstep suddenly came from the surroundings, followed by a majestic broadcast: "The dangerous elements in front, stop immediately! We are the Steam Sixth Division, you have been surrounded! Give up resistance immediately, give up resistance immediately!"

"Rumble...crack...rumble...crack..."

The heavy footsteps and strange metal friction sounds continued to ring out. Hao Ren looked around curiously, and some surprisingly huge machines soon appeared in everyone's sight.

The first to appear were some huge claws clinging to the surrounding eaves, followed by mechanical arms constantly emitting high-pressure steam, and finally, the huge, insect-like steel monsters.

One by one, black machines as high as five meters with a circle of mechanical arms crawled up along the outer walls of the surrounding buildings and pipelines and steel beams. The shapes of these things were difficult to describe. They were very similar to the products of mad scientists in old comics. They had bodies that looked like a mixture of spiders and scorpions, and eight to twelve rough mechanical arms. High-pressure steam was constantly leaking from the valves and joints on their bodies. The hissing sound was like the roar in the throats of these monsters, and in their abdomens, runic characters were shining brightly.

The largest mechanical monster crawled to Hao Ren, and two rows of red small lights that looked like eyes were flashing rapidly on the monster's head. One of the lights released a laser beam like a scanning beam. The monster scanned everyone present while emitting a low voice: "Drop your weapons immediately, drop your weapons immediately!"