Chapter 497

Chapter 497: The Final Surprise Attack

Using her abilities required mental strength. Although Zhuang Mian had just felt a breakthrough, at that moment, she sensed her mental strength dissipating like flowing water. However, she did not feel discouraged; instead, she became increasingly excited.

This clearly indicated that more and more people were being influenced by her abilities and gradually falling asleep. The once fervent crowd nearby, caught up in Zhuang Mian’s voice mixed with her powers, began to collapse, like wheat bending in the wind.

Zhuang Mian noticed anger and fear on the faces of those remaining. The corners of her mouth curled up slightly. Although she was exhausted, she realized that she had ultimately won.

In the next moment, she saw those who had not yet been affected vigorously waving their arms, striking their ears heavily.

Without any evasive action, this strength instantly turned these individuals into deaf people with ruptured eardrums. Naturally, Zhuang Mian’s “sonic” attack did not achieve its intended effect.

Although Zhuang Mian was shocked to witness all of this, she quickly understood Lachesis’s countermeasure.

While the opponent’s response was fast, it was still unable to completely negate the impact of Zhuang Mian’s abilities because sound was only one of the triggers.

Facing enemies who were now unaffected by sound, Zhuang Mian swiftly employed other methods to drag these humanoid bodies deep into sleep.

As for those who had run away, Zhuang Mian believed there would be help to complete the task.

Just as she planned to sit down to rest and report the current situation, a figure suddenly appeared beside her.

"What do you need?"

Zhuang Mian gasped and looked at El.

"[Skydome] has learned about your situation. Speaker Arthur has other plans to execute."

"So?"

"So, the Speaker means for you to deal with Lachesis."

"…Me?"

Zhuang Mian pointed at herself,

"I’m supposed to fight Lachesis? Is this for real?"

El shook his head:

"I’m not asking you to defeat him; the Speaker only wants you to hold him off."

"Hold him off until when?"

"Until the plan succeeds… or fails."

El extended his hand toward his companion:

"Let’s go. Lachesis is spreading in the inner city, and about a million people need your help to have a good sleep."

Zhuang Mian took a deep breath and reached out to grasp her companion and informant’s hand:

"‘He’ is definitely going to hate me."

—

“It seems your body has undergone some kind of change.”

A voice from the bottom of the spire called out, belonging to "Infinite Scroll."

“You actually felt it this time?”

Lin Qingliu seemed a bit surprised.

“Did you just observe some changes on your body’s surface? So, is the plan about to begin?”

Lin Qingliu rose to address Infinite Scroll’s confusion.

“I believe I mentioned that I hold the identity of a ‘priest.’”

“Indeed, you have shared that piece of information with me.”

Suddenly, Lin Qingliu burst into laughter, a crude and unrestrained laugh:

“From both the essence of the plan and the moral abyss it represents, this plan would undoubtedly be called—The Little Boy Plan—in another world.”

Lin Qingliu’s body abruptly floated, drifting deeper into the energy chamber before him.

His hands became eerily translucent, as if they could defy the laws of physics and tear through any material they touched.

He approached the energy source of the spaceship, held in place by the force field, and effortlessly tore away the majority of it, leaving only a small fragment floating alone within the force field.

At that moment, the entire Dandelion No. 3 spaceship seemed to shudder with intense pain, though Lin Qingliu knew the trembling was merely the result of instability caused by his own actions in dividing the energy source.

The small fragment of energy that had been separated successfully integrated into the system, continuing to maintain the shield, ship’s cannon, and the daily operations of the spaceship, including Infinite Scroll.

Meanwhile, the larger portion of mass and energy rested obediently in Lin Qingliu’s left hand, like a docile pet.

Even a fraction of its energy, without external constraints, could obliterate everything nearby. Yet Lin Qingliu, now fully in the Fifth Level and adept at maintaining energy balance, could still manage this volatile entity.

“The load of all the spaceship systems has been temporarily transferred to Wang Xiao.”

Infinite Scroll’s voice echoed through the speaker. Though Lin Qingliu did not anticipate failure, he had prepared a contingency plan out of a sense of duty to humanity.

Wang Xiao’s abilities made him the only one capable of bearing the pressure of the spaceship’s systems. If Lin Qingliu could not return successfully, he and Infinite Scroll could at least hold out for a considerable time.

Lin Qingliu nodded, and Infinite Scroll’s voice came again:

“Speaker, I wish you success.”

“Wishing success for humanity.”

Lin Qingliu responded with a smile.

He held the shrinking yet weighty energy block in his left hand and lightly waved his right hand in the air before him. A glowing rift appeared.

This was a masterful application of spatial abilities. Lin Qingliu used various skills from this path to distort the energy chamber at the bottom of the spaceship and a location hundreds of kilometers away, as if folding a piece of paper so that two distant points could touch.

The cutting motion of his right hand was merely to stabilize the rift and prevent the massive energy block from causing instability during transit.

Lin Qingliu stepped through the rift, which closed swiftly behind him, leaving the lower sections of the spaceship in silence once more, as if nothing had occurred.

Meanwhile, hundreds of kilometers away, a man holding a miniature sun suddenly appeared in the air, radiating energy and biological fields without restraint, abruptly manifesting in Clotho’s domain.

To be precise, this was the birthplace designated by the commander of the extraordinary beasts—a creature that sought survival yet could not die—and the location of Clotho’s human brain matrix, deduced by Lin Qingliu through empathetic human reasoning.

Previously, he had hesitated to act due to two constraints: first, not all the believers had reached the Fourth Level, leaving Hope City vulnerable to the extraordinary beasts; second, his own state was unstable due to the disparities in energy levels among his paths, making the reckless division of the energy source and execution of the plan too risky.

Upon entering higher energy levels, Lin Qingliu increasingly felt his mind fragmenting when the differences between paths grew too great, much like when he used his avatars for biomass research. Though the avatars did not need to communicate, his mind compelled him to do so.

But now, this seemingly dual yet singular issue had been resolved, and the crude "Little Boy Plan" had reached its pivotal moment—

Big Bang Zero!