Chapter 40: Ascending to the Heavens

Mo Wen returned to the city of Cithod.

On the vacant streets, automated cleaning drones moved back and forth, disposing of discarded clothing that no longer had anyone to wear them.

The people... they had all vanished.

When that thing first appeared, Mo Wen had roughly guessed that many would perish in the aftermath, but seeing the city truly reduced to such a deathly silence was not easy to accept.

The contact entries for the leader of the Hawks Gang and K-Ai were already dark and unresponsive, yet Mo Wen could not help but send a short message. Naturally, there was no one to receive it. Everything they were, everything they had, was utterly useless before the cataclysmic power of that entity.

The children who had just received funding and a chance to enter the Inner Ring... they were likely dead as well.

Mo Wen’s pace did not falter due to the messages; by the time these thoughts flickered through his mind, he had already reached the corporate branch.

The company had also lost a vast number of employees, but the survivors were far more capable than Mo Wen had imagined. In the launch field, numerous rockets had been erected, and his pragmatic colleagues were checking their armaments and injecting themselves with strange serums.

1.12-meter-tall Ren Yiyi stood among them. She looked as though she had only just graduated from kindergarten, yet her expression was chillingly stern.

She spotted Mo Wen, who had just snuck back in, at a glance. "Headquarters guessed you might still be alive, so they transported a Spirit-Bone prosthetic body here, crafted regardless of the cost. No time for small talk or head-updates—come here, detach your head, and I’ll transplant it directly."

Mo Wen did not waste words. He walked over, pulled off his own head, and handed it to Ren Yiyi. Beneath his skull, his spiritual roots writhed restlessly, appearing unstable.

Seeing this, Ren Yiyi injected a serum into the back of Mo Wen’s head, then hopped slightly and pressed his head firmly onto the new prosthetic body. Both the prosthetic and Mo Wen’s head possessed integrated spinal columns, but after Ren Yiyi’s injection, Mo Wen’s spiritual roots melted the old artificial spine and rapidly adapted to the new one.

Even though he had already been saved from a state of raw meat by Ren Yiyi once before, Mo Wen still felt that her medical skills were bordering on the divine. Such psionic medicine, however, likely carried a heavy price. But Ren Yiyi clearly possessed the resolve to pay any price, and questioning her choices was meaningless.

Facing the impossibly short Ren Yiyi, Mo Wen adjusted to the new body and asked, "What is the current situation?"

Ren Yiyi immediately turned to attend to others; it was Ren Sisi who answered for her.

Her voice echoed through the communication channel: "The 'Group' has completely broken ties with our faction. We have proof that the current Qi Shiming is a fake, and the 'Group' cannot provide any evidence we find trustworthy. Therefore, we have decided to destroy 'Number Zero'—the artificial psionic deity within the orbital fortress."

"Every branch is prepared to launch and fight. The anti-psionic serum created from your physical tissue has been distributed everywhere."

"Ahem, it seems... well, it’s a slight violation of the agreement you and my sister originally made? But in urgent times, we must act with flexibility."

"It doesn't matter," Mo Wen’s emotions remained nearly flat. "If it is indeed necessary, then proceed."

"By the way, where are you?"

Ren Sisi replied naturally, "I’m in a safe place, of course, preparing for electronic warfare. It’s one thing to run around during normal times, but this is a major event. I value my life quite a bit, so you’ll likely only be seeing me online until the war ends."

"...I understand." Mo Wen did not press the matter, only gazing at the sky, preparing for the assault. "Then..."

Ren Sisi interrupted, "Wait, don't rush to fly off yet. You have plenty of comrades this time."

Mo Wen did not consider himself to have comrades. "They cannot keep up with my speed."

Ren Sisi denied this. "Wrong, you arrogant fool. Some psionic users, even if their energy level is low and they aren't Alpha-plus, possess unique effects that can bridge the gap in strength."

Psionic power is the condensation of a person's life, a miracle forged by their greatest fears and desires.

Nearby, Zhui Feng, who had once been defeated by Mo Wen, sensed something and smiled at him. "Yo, you're alive."

"When I give it my all, I can carry everyone and catch up to anyone willing to be caught."

"As long as you don't ditch everyone, not a single person will be left behind."

Mo Wen did not question this, only asking, "How long to prepare?"

Every second was critical. He was unsure how long it would take the "Group" to recover after he had carved through them once, and he did not know when "Number Zero" might launch its next attack. With his abysmal luck, every wasted instant could allow the enemy to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat.

Zhui Feng’s answer was: "Now."

They could start now.

Before the Dream-Weaving Faction officially declared war, and after Mo Wen forced out that strike from Number Zero, the survivors on this planet had already begun preparing for a counterattack. According to the dying wishes of their predecessors, the network was managed by the AI and all the people together; the "Group" could sabotage or intrude, but they did not hold absolute dominion over it.

The truth spread along the network to every corner.

People of the Dream-Weaving Faction traveled far and wide carrying the seeds of resistance. Those who refused to rebel tried their best to crush them, but nothing could stop the momentum of the uprising. They crossed yellow sands and mountains; some left their bones behind, while others passed on the seeds in distant cities before rushing toward the next battlefield.

Those who were strong enough, those with enough resolve, were ready.

Then, let it be now.

Mo Wen looked to the sky. His artificial eyes could not identify the location of the orbital fortress, but a sensation akin to that of a fated nemesis allowed him to easily lock onto its position. "Everyone, lock onto the target, prepare to..."

"Launch!"

Mo Wen flew first.

A massive swarm of rockets and super-powered cyborgs followed him into the sky.

His current prosthetic body had a base speed of Mach 35. With the thousand-fold multiplier of a Level 4 energy state, he reached Mach 35,000—one-twenty-fifth the speed of light, traveling twelve thousand kilometers per second.

It was an awe-inspiring figure.

He, and they, like lightning flying in reverse, broke free from the shackles of the planet. In an instant, they surpassed all man-made structures on the ground, surpassed the highest peaks in the world, soared past the clouds, and pierced through the troposphere, stratosphere, mesosphere, thermosphere, and exosphere.

The turbulent air currents, the high-energy charged particle streams from the sun, and temperatures of thousands of degrees Celsius could not stop them.

Those defense systems deployed by the "Group" to hinder humanity were even more useless against them. Before a speed that transcended gravity and chased the thunder, those things were merely futile toys.

The rebels arrived in the domain of the artificial deity in a heartbeat.

Yet, even the psionic energy, so intense and unbelievable that it could kill a Level 4 and severely cripple a Level 5 in an instant, could not halt their advance.

They stepped into the orbital fortress that had been transformed into a human-made divine kingdom.

The pathfinder—"Zhui Feng," died.