pjbooks Chapter 447: Luring the Tiger Away from the Mountain!
Chapter 447: Luring the Tiger Away from the Mountain!
Zhang Yan stood on the lunar surface for a full ten seconds.
Within ten seconds, he accomplished three things: locked the coordinates of the faint light beneath his feet, backed up the warp data of the Chaos Mech, and sent an encrypted message to Nie Qingcheng.
The message consisted of only four words: Return to defend Earth.
The four wing-like structures on the back of the Chaos Mech suddenly retracted, and the thrusters ignited at full power.
The dark gold-colored machine rose from the lunar surface and sped towards Earth.
"Qin Xiao, give me L2 status," Zhang Yan said.
"The subcore is operating normally, and the shielding efficiency is stable at 96.4%."
"What's causing that magnetic field deflection?"
The sound of keyboard typing came from the other end of the communication line.
Qin Xiao's voice was somewhat strained: "It's not a problem with the gate nodes, it's... at the level of consciousness."
Zhang Yan didn't understand. "What do you mean?"
"The analysis report just came from the Stargazing team." Qin Xiao took a deep breath. "The colony launched an invisible 'consciousness meme pollution' towards Earth. It's not a physical attack, but something that directly affects the human mind. The magnetic field deflection is just a byproduct. The real goal is to plunge all of humanity into chaos."
Zhang Yan's fingers tightened. "What's the situation now?"
"Mild."
Qin Xiao said, "Sporadic disturbances have occurred in Jinghai City, and some citizens have reported experiencing hallucinations and seeing things that do not exist."
"The military is conducting emergency evacuations using physically soundproof air-raid shelters, but the efficiency is limited."
Zhang Yan squinted as he looked at the blue planet ahead.
"Looking at the sky anchor."
"It's still running, but meme contamination is eroding its physical foundation," Qin Xiao said. "If the contamination spreads to a critical point, the Sky Anchor will fail."
"how long."
"At the current rate, it will take at most forty-eight hours."
Zhang Yan didn't say anything more.
The Chaos Mech's engine has been pushed to its limit, and the 380,000 kilometers between the Moon and Earth are being compressed at an alarming rate.
His brain was working at high speed.
The community's strategy is simple, yet ruthless.
The Giant of Light on the moon was merely a decoy, a pawn used to distract him.
The real killer move is the simultaneous launch of meme contamination.
A spiritual weapon that is invisible and intangible, and cannot be defended against by physical means.
It doesn't need to break through the gate, it doesn't need to destroy the Sky-Gazing Anchor; it just needs to drive humanity mad.
When everyone is delusional, when the gatekeepers and the people of Guantian Pavilion lose their minds, when the people around Zhang Yan can no longer function properly.
No matter how sturdy that door is, it will collapse from the inside.
"Nie Qingcheng." Zhang Yan opened his private communication channel.
Three seconds later, Nie Qingcheng's voice came through, calmer than one would expect on the eve of the apocalypse.
"I'm fine. The villa has an independent electromagnetic shielding layer, so the pollution can't get in," she said. "Qin Xiao is already organizing the evacuation. The physical shielding of the military's air-raid shelters can block most of the pollution waves, but Jinghai has a population of ten million, and the air-raid shelters can't hold them all."
"I know," Zhang Yan said. "I have a better way."
"What method?"
"Anti-meme broadcasting".
Nie Qingcheng was silent for two seconds. "You need to use your own consciousness as the source of transmission."
"right."
"What about the risks?"
"I don't know," Zhang Yan said, "but a 48-hour window isn't enough time for us to make any preparations; we have no choice but to proceed."
Nie Qingcheng's voice grew even colder.
"Zhang Yan, listen to me clearly."
"Um."
"If you dare to lose yourself, I'll dismantle all your broken mechs and sell them to the junkyard."
Zhang Yan's lips twitched slightly. "Okay."
Communication was cut off.
The Chaos Mech has entered Earth's orbit, and the blue planet below is slowly rotating.
Zhang Yan adjusted his posture, aligning the mecha with the direction of Jinghai, then shut down the engine, allowing the Chaos Mecha to fall into the atmosphere in free fall.
The 30-meter-tall dark gold machine burned up into a meteor as it passed through the atmosphere, its speed increasing and its altitude decreasing.
Zhang Yan stabilized the aircraft at an altitude of 5,000 kilometers, allowing the Chaos Mech to hover at the edge of the stratosphere.
The altitude is high enough that the pollution waves haven't spread here yet, so his consciousness won't be disturbed.
It's also low enough that the signal from the Heart of the Craftsman can cover the entire Jinghai City.
Zhang Yan took a deep breath.
"Qin Xiao, notify all conscious individuals to shut down all communication devices and block all electromagnetic signals in ten minutes."
"Received, Brother Yan, you..."
"Stop talking nonsense."
Zhang Yan said, "Execute."
He closed his eyes.
Inside the cockpit of the Chaos Mech, the dark cyan light of the Heart of the Celestial Craftsman surged, shining through the gap in the collar and illuminating the entire interior of the mech.
Zhang Yan's consciousness sank into the depths of the Heavenly Craftsman's Heart.
There, he felt the pulse of the entire network of doors.
The shielding efficiency of the six nodes is stable, but a layer of grayish-white mist adheres to the edge of each node, which is meme contamination, slowly seeping in.
Zhang Yan mobilized the energy of the Heavenly Craftsman's Heart to construct a massive "purification field".
The purification field spread outward from him, like an invisible shockwave sweeping from the stratosphere to the ground.
The shockwave swept across the skies above Jinghai City.
On the ground, the people who were experiencing hallucinations suddenly woke up.
Those distorted faces, non-existent shadows, and whispers in my ear all vanished in an instant.
The people in the air-raid shelter felt a warm force sweep over their bodies, like being bathed in sunlight or soaked in warm water.
The panic and chaos subsided quickly under the influence of the purification field.
Qin Xiao's voice came through the communication channel, filled with suppressed excitement: "Brother Yan, it's working! The pollution wave has been suppressed, reduced by at least seventy percent!"
Zhang Yan did not answer.
He is still maintaining the output of the purification field, and the energy reserves of the Heavenly Craftsman's Heart are continuously decreasing.
99.4%...98%...97%...
A sharp pain shot through the depths of his consciousness.
That wasn't a side effect of energy consumption, but something deeper, something was pulling at his consciousness.
"Zhang Yan".
A voice echoed in his mind.
That was Nie Qingcheng's voice, carrying a familiar warmth.
But that's not right.
Zhang Yan opened his eyes and found everything normal inside the cockpit of the Chaos Mech.
Nie Qingcheng's voice didn't come from the communication channel, but appeared directly in his consciousness.
"A beauty that could topple empires?"
"It's me," the voice said. "What are you doing? Stop it, I'm worried about you."
Zhang Yan's finger stopped on the control panel.
"Who are you."
There was a three-second silence on the other end of the communication.
Then the voice laughed.
"You are more perceptive than we expected."
It said that the voice was no longer Nie Qingcheng's, but a complex sound that Zhang Yan had never heard before, composed of countless superimposed voices, "but it was too late."
Zhang Yan's pupils suddenly contracted.
Inside the cockpit of the Chaos Mech, all screens simultaneously went out.
The light of the Heavenly Craftsmanship suddenly dimmed, like a star that was going out.
His consciousness was dragged by a tremendous force, plummeting into some bottomless abyss.
In the final moments of his fall, he heard Nie Qingcheng's voice.
This time, it's for real.
"Zhang Yan!" Her voice came through the communication channel, sharp and urgent, "Your heart rate is dropping! What's wrong! Answer me!"
Zhang Yan wanted to speak, but he couldn't open his mouth. His body had lost all sensation, and his consciousness was being dragged into a completely unfamiliar, dark dimension.
The last image he saw was of the Chaos Mech teetering precariously in the stratosphere, while in the distance above Jinghai City, the purification field was dissipating at a visible speed.
Then everything returned to darkness.