Chapter 930: A Discovery
What"s going on?
Could he have found a way to resist the "command"?
With a flicker of doubt, Lin Sanjiu immediately whispered, "Send him away!"
The pet.i.te person who had just reported the situation was originally wide-eyed, his gaze s.h.i.+fting between his superior and the unfamiliar woman. Before he could understand the situation, Percival Levin turned towards him and said, "Go tell the team leaders to regroup their people and allocate twenty percent of them to seal off all the exits. Also, bring the rest of the people here!"
His urgency conveyed that this was his last chance to fulfill his duty.
The pet.i.te person hurriedly responded and stumbled towards the people not far away. As he left, Lin Sanjiu took a step forward and stared at him, whispering, "Knock down the person on your right."
If there was a possibility that he had simply complied with the previous "command," this time she clearly saw a flash of resistance on Percival Levin"s face. As he struggled, his right hand suddenly rose, and his arm shone brightly from under his sleeve. Several lightning-like flashes of white light cut through the air, sending a surprised Munitions Factory member flying several meters away.
"Commander!" someone immediately shouted from a distance, "What... What are you doing?"
Percival Levin quickly glanced at Lin Sanjiu, but she took a step back, crossed her arms, and said softly, "You explain it yourself."
She had confirmed that the "command" was still effective.
He took a deep breath and turned around, shouting, "I told you to return to your units quickly! Haven"t you seen the fire? If you keep running around, you"ll be next!"
The two Munitions Factory members were clearly startled by his fury, as if he were about to devour them. They hurriedly helped the person on the ground and quickly disappeared into the crowd. However, even with the commander"s orders, the crowd illuminated by the raging fire in the half-dark, half-bright sky was still in a state of panic and confusion. The sky was now half black and half red, and even the ground was tilted and unbalanced under the light and heat emitted by the slender tower.
Lin Sanjiu suddenly looked up, realizing that it wasn"t the ground that was unbalanced.
"Follow me!" she shouted angrily, grabbing Percival Levin"s sleeve. "Run!"
At the same time, the Munitions Factory members around Commander Tower also reacted. Shouts, footsteps, and cries of shoving... The chaotic crowd magnified the panic countless times. In that instant, Lin Sanjiu only remembered countless fragments of chaos flas.h.i.+ng before her eyes. Then, a deafening roar engulfed the world.
After what seemed like a long while, she slowly opened her eyes again. Besides a buzzing sound in her ears, the world was silent. Her vision fluctuated like ripples in water. She blinked hard and turned her head backwards.
... Commander Tower was cut in half. Its slender, burning upper half stood crookedly on the ground, while the lower half had disappeared—it smashed through the bricks and deeply embedded into the ground. Countless people, originally lying on the ground like corpses, suddenly twisted and struggled when the bright sparks fell like raindrops. In the almost blazing white flames, they turned into countless shadows.
Lin Sanjiu quickly regained her senses and looked around, patting the shoulder of the person next to her.
"Percival Levin!" she felt herself shouting loudly—her ears were numb from the impact, and even her own voice sounded distant. "Wake up! Are you okay?"
The man with black hair suddenly opened his mouth, gasping heavily, and slowly crawled up from the ground. He only had time to glance back at his subordinates before Lin Sanjiu pulled him up and started running towards the distance, step by step. "Follow me! They can"t be saved!"
"W-wait," Percival Levin obediently followed, but his tone was filled with unwillingness. "The control panel... the control..."
"What?" Lin Sanjiu glanced back briefly, but immediately felt as if her eyes were being scorched by the flames behind her. She quickly averted her gaze. She was grateful that her ears were deafened and she didn"t have to imagine the sound coming from the crowd being engulfed by the flames behind her.
Most of the Munitions Factory buildings were made of steel, so the fire should not spread outside... For those unfortunate enough to be trapped in the buildings with the exits sealed by fire, their deaths changed from being burned alive to being roasted alive.
"The stone brick ground beneath Commander Tower..."
To Lin Sanjiu, his voice sounded even farther away. Both of them had partially numb ears, so they had to raise their voices and shout desperately to communicate. "The control panel is in that area of stone bricks!"
"So what?"
Commander Tower had just tilted and crashed down from the sky, and a large area of stone brick ground was directly hit by it. The control panel might have turned into fragments along with the bricks.
"But that area is not on fire!" Percival Levin rubbed his own ears while shouting loudly. "To enter the tower, we must open that control panel... I... I need to go in and see who is inside the tower!"
Lin Sanjiu abruptly stopped in her tracks and stared into his eyes.
She had to try again, even though she didn"t understand the result from the previous attempt.
"Take me to find Luther," luckily the time limit for her ability hadn"t expired yet, so she could continue giving commands. "Once you find Luther, you can do whatever you want."
Percival Levin looked at her, his silhouette distorted by the towering flames behind him, as if it were wavering.
All commands were effective, except for this one.
Just as Lin Sanjiu was filled with shock and confusion, unable to say a word, Percival Levin seized the opportunity and suddenly turned and ran.
"Come back!" Even though she immediately gave the command, he was fast, already several steps away. Amidst the crackling of flames, roaring, and screaming, his ears, which were already not very clear, probably didn"t catch Lin Sanjiu"s "command."
Lin Sanjiu hesitated for a moment, then quickly activated the Defense Forcefield and followed him.
The closer they got to Commander Tower, the more scorching the air became, making it unbearable. Although Percival Levin took the lead, it was evident that each step was more difficult than the last. However, Lin Sanjiu had the "High-Temperature Adaptation," so it didn"t take long for her to step over numerous corpses and catch up to him near a pile of rubble made up of broken bricks.
"Stop!" she shouted loudly, not daring to rush forward. Percival Levin seemed not to have heard her, scanning the wreckage back and forth, his face covered in sweat and confusion. It seemed he still intended to find the control panel from this pile of debris.
Subconsciously, Lin Sanjiu followed his gaze and her heart suddenly froze in her chest.