098. The Night Before the Gathering

  With the Kowloon Gathering about to begin, one of the gra festivals in Tianhuan, even the usually fierce gang members toned down their activity. White paper nterns hung along the streets, and though gunfire occasionally broke the silehe streets felt much more peaceful.

  Meanwhile, the capital of Tianhuan, Qiong'anjing, was a different se entirely. Is elegant city walls, armored vehicles and police were statio almost every ten steps. The security was incredibly tight, with drones and helicopters patrolling the skies.

  The Kowloon Gathering is a grand celebration where major family s, corporate groups, and royal fas e together to exge, offer blessings, and celebrate the end of the year. Guests include political dignitaries, wealthy tys, and at the very least, academic giants. To maintain order in the capital’s inner city, Qiong'anjing’s police headquarters mobilized 20,000 officers and 100,000 voluo handle venue liness and provide services.

  Holding an invitation, Li Aozi had moved into a VIP room at a hotel two days earlier, enjoying the hot springs and drinks. Meanwhile, pyers from the Murloc Guild, posing as volunteers, smoothly infiltrated the event.

  Tianhuaed Li Aozi with utmost respeot daring to him. On one hand, Li Aozi’s assistan Gunt’s independence aligned with Tianhuan’s is. Oher, his one-man rampage through the airspace during the Gunt battlefield nearly caused a mutiny in the Frost-Pted Air Force, showg his immense power.

  For someo even at Gamma rank but with destructive power on par with oianhuan’s higher-ups took the approach of engaging and recruiting him, careful not to alienate or provoke him.

  After all, maintaining a Gamma-rank fighter is an expeask, and Li Aozi essentially told them, “I don’t need you to support me, and I’m more useful than yamma ranks.”

  However, Li Aozi had been in and out of the Red Arrow Embassy several times, dispying his ID and passport, much to the disappoi of Tianhuan’s leadership—they couldn’t win him over, but they also couldn’t risk eliminating him.

  Li Aozi was all too familiar with Tianhuan’s political games. In his past life, pyers had oftericked by Tianhuan politis. If not for the excellent leveling enviro, far fewer people would have stayed in Tianhuan.

  After dinner, holding a cup of sake, Li Aozi stood by the massive floor-to-ceiling windows on the 63rd flazing down at the bustling city nightscape.

  This was the sed capital of the four nations he had visited since his transmigration.

  Neon lights alternated, dazzling the eye. Fireworks lit up the sky, casting bright blooms across the heavens. Guests came a in an endless stream, the city full of luxury and dece.

  Li Aozi sipped his sake and calmly said:

  "The show is about to begin."

  Oher side of Qiong'anjing, Murloc Guild pyers, dressed in volunteer uniforms, successfully arrived at the venue for the main bahe Beitiao Group Tower.

  As soon as the train reached the station, the Murloc Guild pyers were awestruck by the magnifit structure before them—Beitiao Tower stood 678 meters tall, c an area of 1.2 hectares. It was an enormous plex of buildings, its t opy-like structure remi of a giant tree, with various buildings and office zones ected by pipes and floating cars. It housed 130,000 workers, and 2,200 drones were used for daily maintenand ing.

  And that was just the above-ground portion. Underground, the tower extended 2.8 kilometers deep, operating seven internal subway lines. It housed Beitiao Group’s most advaeology bs and even a simuted town for training professional security forces. They had practically excavated an underground city, powered by geothermal resources, with self-sustaining agricultural greenhouses and meical factories.

  To put it bluntly, even if you bined Gunt’s 200 years of GDP, it wouldn’t be enough to pay for a month of this tower’s electricity bill.

  “This is basically a wonder of the world...” The Murloc Guild pyers marveled.

  This was the differeween the four nations and smaller tries. Simir structures could be built by Frost-Pted, Zhengxu, and Red Arrow, and the resources used to create such buildings could easily feed millions of people iside world.

  The four nations didn’t ck resources, and Tianhuan had accumuted vast wealth through long-term external plundering. The essence of the Kowloon Gathering was akin to an a “King of the Ring,” where powerful lords and warriathered to divide up the spoils of their quests and pray to the dragon god for strength and luck.

  The pyers weren’t too ed with these historical details. As volunteers, they easily gained access to the tower, but figuring out how to find the hydrogen bomb known as “Guangzaki Arisa” roving to be a major problem.

  “Beitiao Heavy Industries, the pride of Tianhuan, has been tinuously providing talented people to society for a hundred years. If the nation wants to prosper, Beitiao will help. If the try wants to rise, Beitiao will give its all... Love Tianhuan, and choose Beitiao Group.”

  Everywhere the pyers went, they were bombarded with propaganda praisiiao’s tributions to Tianhuan. The stant barrage made it hard tet Beitiao’s name. One pyer tried to buy water and found evetled water was Beitiao-branded. In the restroom, the toilet was made by Beitiao Ceramics. A suspicious security guard pointed a Beitiao-manufactured gun at them, questioning their purpose and identity... and even the ventition system was built by Beitiao. It seemed like everything, down to the air they breathed, beloo Beitiao.

  While Beitiao’s quality was det, the pyers couldn’t help but feel a bit awkward at the overwhelming monopoly.

  “Boss, we’ve been wandering around all day and haven’t found any clues,” one pyer pio Old Blind.

  “We’ve made it down to the third basement level. At this rate, we could wander until month and still not find the bottom.”

  “What’s the rush? The missiress is still tig up, o hurry.”

  Old Blind remained calm about the situation.

  “We’re here to scout, not to steal the hydrogen bomb, got it? Look at the NPCs around you—see that twin-tailed JK girl over there, with the pale skin and delicate features?”

  “Whoa, those legs are so white!”

  “White your ass! Look at her level!”

  “Level 25 【Martial Artist】—I’m out!”

  Old Blind folded his arms and adjusted his volunteer cap to hide the silver runes in his eyes. He remained calm because he uood how deep the waters ran here.

  The Hojo Family was the oldest and most powerful Tianhuan. Their aors were once royalty, and during industrialization, they naturally took trol of the best resources, such as mioday, the Hojo Family was no longer just a family; numerous talented people in Tianhuan, from different surnames, worked for them, gainih and status iurn.

  In a pce where the average rank ha, the pyers, with their measly levels below 10, were as fragile as paper. Anyone could tear them apart.

  They couldn’t keep wandering aimlessly. They o start asking for dires, but their 【Eye of Truth】 couldn’t see far enough underground. So they began fog on people who looked like researchers, providing volunteer services to tourists while covertly watg b-coat-wearing individuals rushing through the pedestrian areas.

  However, the limitations of their volunteer identities soon became apparent. When they reached the 15th basement level, a cyb security guard coldly approached them and warned, “Get out. You have no business here.”

  The pyers didn’t lose heart, obediently leaving the area, though their team had shrunk from 24 members to 23.

  A moment ter, aed voice crackled over the guild’s voice chat:

  “Hey, hey, hey! Boss, I’ve infiltrated while invisible! This Omega Energy rental was totally worth it!”

  Old Blind chuckled, “Good job.”

  FAL