Embers Ad Infinitum

Amidst the explosion, Khal—whose vision had returned to normal while his ears rang—sensed something abnormal. A good friend he believed that he had a good relationship with—one who was sufficiently friendly with him—hadn’t warned him when an enemy tried to attack him!

As he followed this train of thought and ruminated over it, he discovered a fact that shocked him—he didn’t even know his good friend’s name!

There’s a problem… The experienced Khal immediately reacted. He stopped Real Dreamscape and imposed Forced Sleep on all human consciousnesses in the area!

In the blink of an eye, Kanna—who was sighing that she had failed to grasp the opportunity and was about to give up on Friendly Halo—closed her eyes. Her body slowly fell to the thick carpet.

The Virtual World’s owner—the old woman in the black beanie, who had just opened her eyes and had yet to figure out the exact situation—fell asleep again.

Avia—who was holding the battered phone and hesitating about whether to use it—leaned against the armchair. She fell asleep again as if everything she had just seen was a dream.

Shang Jianyao—who was holding the Death rocket launcher—also fell to the ground. As he was holding something heavy, he fell quickly, almost crashing down.

This way, the pain of falling would definitely wake him up from his slumber.

Unfortunately, Khal had sufficient experience in this regard. He added Matter Interference, slowing down Shang Jianyao’s fall.

Shang Jianyao lay on the ground without causing so much as a stir as he snored, asleep.

In order to prevent the sleeping Jiang Baimian from waking up strangely like before, Khal quickly switched Forced Sleep to Real Dreamscape. After doing this, he finally heaved a sigh of relief.

The developments made him worried that not only was he unable to complete his designated goals, but he would also encounter something bad. Fortunately, after a few rounds of confrontation, he—who had always held the initiative—finally saw an inkling of success by relying on some external influence.

Avia has been eliminated. It’s time to deal with the fellows who know the passcode… After dealing with them, I’ll enter the villa immediately, search for the dangerous item, and take it away… As these thoughts raced, Khal cast his gaze at the Old Task Force’s military-green jeep.

His next target was the woman with the fake name October Xue or the man with the fake name Zhang Qubing. The previous series of accidents was brought about by these two people. They had to be eliminated first!

For some reason, compared to the Virtual World’s owner and the Mind Corridor-level Awakened who made him feel friendly, Khal believed that these two were the greatest latent dangers. After all, nobody knew if they would use Real Dreamscape to summon the boy named Xiaochong.

Just as Khal locked onto Shang Jianyao—who wasn’t far away from the jeep—and prepared to use Cardiac Arrest on him, he suddenly felt the world spin around his heavy mind. He quickly couldn’t think.

Slowly, he collapsed and slammed onto the top of the black car. However, he didn’t wake up because of this as if he had become a vegetable.

The last thing he saw was: In the driver’s seat window of the military-green jeep was a hand. It was a woman’s left hand with malt-colored skin.

After her hearing was deprived, Jiang Baimian drove the car toward Khal and did one last thing before she fell asleep: She rolled down the window, stretched out her left hand, and released the anesthetic gas contained within the electric eel-like biomechanical limb!

Due to the fact that the enemy had used Auditory Deprivation, she suspected that he also had Olfactory Deprivation.

For an Awakened who paid the price of being sensitive and afraid of certain smells, blocking their sense of smell in advance was definitely the best choice when conducting a large-scale massacre or avoiding any corresponding accidents.

That would make him invulnerable.

Even if Khal didn’t have any items related to Olfactory Deprivation, Jiang Baimian believed that he would’ve already affected his senses in advance or subsequently, making his olfactory senses dull. Khal had previously shown his ability to control sensory intensity on Long Yuehong.

When the target lost their sense of smell or became slow-witted, he definitely couldn’t smell anesthetic gas!

Jiang Baimian drove the jeep to the back of the enemy car. The reason she stepped on the brakes was that the other party had already ‘flown’ above her. It required a lot of luck to cause an explosion with a collision, and the losses were likely to outweigh the gains. On the other hand, she didn’t want to scare the enemy away. She hoped that he could remain in his original spot and remain within the anesthetic gas’s effective range.

In such an open environment, the anesthetic gas would be ineffective if some distance was put in between them.

Just as Jiang Baimian had expected, Khal—who was busy carrying out all kinds of operations and didn’t want to be distracted by Matter Interference—chose to land on the car and had deprived himself of his sense of smell. Therefore, he had been inhaling the anesthetic gas while doing those things, but he had never sensed it.

If it weren’t for the fact that Shang Jianyao had just fired a rocket at Khal and had cleared the gas around him, he would’ve entered an anesthetic state earlier.

In an instant, everyone inside and outside Avia’s classical villa ‘fell asleep.’ Be it the attacked or the attackers, they lay down.

Whoever woke up first gained immense initiative.

A relatively hot wind blew in the morning. In an extremely quiet environment, a green parrot flew over from somewhere.

It cursed as it flew. “Damn woman, why are you acting like a retard like most people in the Senate? Why do you think a parrot is trustworthy? It’s so dangerous… You can trust the morals of a parrot, but you definitely can’t trust its mouth and brain…

“I don’t agree with all the vulgarities I say. This is purely an imitation…

“It’s too dangerous, too dangerous…”

As the parrot cursed, it flew to the third floor of Avia’s classic-looking villa and landed on its owner, Kanna. It then began to peck at the lady who had taught it many vulgarities.

Khal only enforced Forced Sleep on humans and not animals.

…

Red Wolf Zone, Senate.

Galoran floated outside the window, her green eyes never leaving the demonstrating citizens below. She tried her best to reduce the number of people in the other Mind Corridor-level Awakened’s sights and protected them to the greatest extent.

She could already sense that many people hiding in the dark had cast their gazes at her, prepared to launch an attack at any moment.

At this moment, it was dark—it was dark wherever the naked eye could see.

Light then erupted and swept across the area. This was like nuclear bombs exploding when the Old World was destroyed or the fluorescent tubes that suddenly lit up in a dark room.

Galoran subconsciously closed her eyes.

This was everyone’s instinct.

In the Senate behind her, the people who cried and laughed because of former Consul Beulis had returned to normal.

Just as the light subsided, a figure quickly outlined itself in the middle of the Council Chamber. He wore a general’s suit and had a sinister bearing. He had a clear, aquiline nose and was none other than the former commander of the Eastern Army Corps, Gaius.

Gaius finally smiled as if he had gained sufficient confidence from the strange development. At some point in time, his left palm was holding a phone.

The screen was shattered, and it had a black exterior.

Without giving anyone a chance to react, Gaius pressed the speed dial.

The screen lit up, but no number or corresponding name appeared. There was only the sole word—’calling.’

Ring, ring, ring!

The phone clearly didn’t make a sound, but a ringtone echoed in the ears of all the humans and animals in the surrounding area.

Ring, ring, ring…

The ringing stopped abruptly. On the cracked screen of Gaius’s phone, the words ‘calling’ switched to ‘connected.’

Suddenly, these words seemed to come to life and sink in.

The entire screen seemed to transform into a ‘black hole’ that constantly swallowed the contents and the surrounding light. In just a second, the Senate Council Chamber became abnormally dark, giving off the feeling that dusk was about to pass and that the sun was about to sink below the horizon.

At the same time, Superintendent Alexander, the other Elders, their attendants, and their guards—who had returned to normal—seemed to turn into statues or had been cast with immobile magic.

In their minds, the intermittent ringing and lingering sounds constantly echoed.

Having contracted the Heartless disease, Beulis—who had lost all his rationality—turned to look at Gaius and the phone in his hand. A hint of fear surfaced in his bloodshot, turbid eyes.

The next second, the ‘black hole’ on the phone screen seemed to freeze. Inside, a pair of heavy, blurry double doors appeared.