Translator: ryuxenji Editor: H2dH2mr
"Yes, Leader!" The team members quickly turned on their respective communicators, thinking to contact the hackers in their Tianji Mecha Clan. However, they soon found that their communicators were all dead.

"The communicators cannot make external contact ..." This realisation made the faces of all the team members change drastically. They, who had initially already calmed down after receiving their leader"s orders, began to panic and lose control of themselves again, completely at a loss on what they should do.

This was not something any ordinary hacker could do — mind you, taking control of a student"s personal communicator was not that simple. The hacker would need to break through the defences of the S-tier mainframe of the military academy and obtain all its administrative rights; only then would they be able to control the communicators of the cadets. Could it be that the one attacking Tianji headquarters was a G.o.d-cla.s.s hacker?

"How could this be?" The team leader jumped up in fright at his team members" words. He began examining his communicator in disbelief, and found that it was truly as his team members had said — his communicator was completely unresponsive.

"No. This type of ability, even if it were the number one hacker of our school, Leiting"s Lin Zhidong, he would not be able to do this ... could it be that this attack is from the outside?" The team leader"s face went dark at this thought. No matter how powerful an attack was from inside the school, it was still just inside the school — there would be no real harm to the military academy"s mainframe. However, if the attack was an external one, their school would be in danger!

He said anxiously, "You all continue trying to login to the mainframe, I"ll go find the instructors ..." Such a formidable hacker attack — only the instructors would have the power to save them.

That said, the team leader rushed out of the monitoring room, prepared to go find the instructors of the hacker specialization and report what was happening here. If his guess was right, this attack was very likely a sinister plot of an outside faction targeted at the military academy — their Tianji was just unluckily the spot they chose to infiltrate from.

Meanwhile, at this time, with Luo Lang over her shoulder, Ling Lan was swiftly making her way across the 4th floor corridors. Every 20 to 30 metres, Ling Lan would smack a palm at the wall. This action seemed extremely casual, and did not appear from the outside to cause any damage to the wall.

However, Ling Lan herself knew that the spots where she had chosen to hit were all the main structural points of support of this building. When she had come, she and Little Four had already discussed beforehand that Little Four would be in charge of destroying all the surveillance facilities here, while she would demolish the entire building. She wanted the Tianji Mecha Clan to fall from their perch in the clouds into a pit of dust and ashes. Once they were no longer the lofty 2nd faction of the school, they would no longer have the wherewithal to commit any more dirty criminal acts.

Besides, Little Four had already given Ling Lan the blueprints of this building before she had even entered it. On the map, he had even thoughtfully provided several spots which were most appropriate for Ling Lan to attack.

After finishing with the 4th floor, Ling Lan immediately chose to go downstairs. After ambushing several patrolmen in the stairwell who were slacking off with a cigarette break, she successfully came to the second floor, and then continued with her demolition work.

Right then, Little Four suddenly began to shout excitedly, "Boss, I"ve found Lu Yong-guang!"

After Little Four had destroyed the mainframe of the Tianji headquarters and all the surveillance equipment, he had begun searching for those people who had helped Shi Mingyi abduct Luo Lang, and very quickly, he had found that the biggest culprit was Lu Yong-guang. If he had not used the treatment centre to send a fake message to Luo Lang, Luo Lang would not have gone there, and what happened next would never have happened.

"Destroy him!" Ling Lan replied clinically. Having decided on her personal code of honour, Ling Lan"s way of acting became even more cold and resolute.

"Roger that, Boss!" answered Little Four excitedly. He could finally show off his amazing skills to his boss.

The initially cute steamed bun-face of Little Four stretched as he opened his mouth wide. Two sharp fangs began to grow out from within it, and the area around his marble-round eyes began to turn bruised and mottled as his face became paler and paler, in stark contrast to his lips which were as vibrantly crimson as fresh blood.

"Thwack!" A strong finger-flick sent Little Four"s gruesome head bending back. Face dark, Ling Lan said, "What the h.e.l.l are you doing? Who are you trying to scare with this demonic appearance?" Little Four appearing with such a demonic aura without any warning ... no matter how composed Ling Lan was, she could not help a shudder from coursing through her heart. D*mnit, since she was a kid, she had never liked watching horror films.

Little Four was flicked back to his original form by Ling Lan — seeing Ling Lan"s angry expression, Little Four quickly covered his head with his arms and scurried away, er, no, went off to carry out his task of "killing people" ...

********

Right then, Li Lanfeng, who was in the military academy"s virtual world revising his training courses, suddenly felt an extremely familiar yet horrifying energy explode within the virtual world. His spectre energy was blaring violent warnings at him, and had automatically activated itself to form a powerful defensive shield.

"This is spectre energy. How is this possible?" Li Lanfeng stared in the direction of where the explosion originated from, his face filled with disbelief. He knew very well that this energy had come from within the military academy, otherwise he would not have sensed it so acutely. This energy was something only spectres could sense — could it be that there was another spectre hidden within the military academy?

An extremely cold and unfeeling face emerged in Li Lanfeng"s mind ... could it be him? Only he had given Li Lanfeng the vibe that he could be kin, but Li Lanfeng just could not be sure. This explosion of energy — did it prove Ling Lan was also a spectre like him?

Could that person be his companion? At this thought, Li Lanfeng"s heart pounded, so hard that it almost seemed as if it would leap out of his throat. His heart, which had been so lonely all this time, could not help but yearn for this, just like when he had encountered that rabbit seven years ago.

********

Lu Yong-guang, who was in the virtual world searching for information, was currently ecstatic. He had obtained the 2nd-tier warrant of vice regiment commander Shi 1 as he had wanted. To get this, he had done quite a number of questionable things, but the rewards were bountiful. Lu Yong-guang felt that it was very worth it — heaven destroys those who do not look out for themselves, after all.

This 2nd-tier warrant ent.i.tled him to withdraw a 2nd-tier resource from the Tianji Contribution Department. The types of 2nd-tier resource were abundant — in order to avoid wastage, he had decided to first do some research in the virtual world, so that he would be able to make the best choice and select a resource most appropriate for himself.

Just as he was reading all the materials he had gathered with relish, he suddenly felt an unprecedented sense of danger rise within his heart. Before he could react, he felt a tremendous force steamrolling over his body ...

Lu Yong-guang felt his consciousness fading, his vision becoming blurry and unfocused, and then everything turned completely black as he finally became fully unconscious.

If there had been anyone by Lu Yong-guang"s side, they would have found that Lu Yong-guang"s body in the virtual world was slowly disappearing. This was distinctly different from the typical log-off process, where a person would turn into a flash of white light and disappear swiftly from the virtual world. Instead, this was a slow process — his body was disintegrating slowly, becoming countless small particles which drifted into the air, finally becoming a slight breeze within the virtual world to disappear without a trace.

Meanwhile, Lu Yong-guang"s real body, lying in a virtual world login device, never ever opened his eyes again. He had become a vegetable. Little Four hated how the other had abetted evil for his own greed, and thus had not shown any mercy. He had crushed the other"s awareness completely, not even giving him the chance to live as a simpleton.

As for the other people involved, Little Four still obeyed Ling Lan"s directive. He only destroyed part of their brain region, leaving that last thread of awareness. In other words, they would still wake up, but they could only live the rest of their lives as dullards.

When Ling Lan was about to finish her sabotage of the 2nd floor, Little Four returned to Ling Lan"s minds.p.a.ce after completing his tasks.

"Boss, all done!" said Little Four smugly, his hand raised in a victory sign. However, he was still rather regretful that his boss had not been there to witness his great prowess in the virtual world. Little Four secretly decided that if there was a chance in future, he would definitely make sure Boss got to see how he killed and tormented those sc.u.mbags in the virtual world with her own eyes. He would let Boss truly understand the meaning behind his status of G.o.d of the virtual world.

"Alright, now it"s my turn." In the blink of an eye, Ling Lan returned to the central area of the 2nd floor. She raised one hand and shouted, "Domain, activate!" 2

A half step to Domain was enough to allow her to activate her Domain for a few seconds. Although it might be ineffective in neutralizing opponents due to how briefly it could be used, it was more than enough to demolish this building which had already been structurally weakened by her ...

Right then, the entire s.p.a.ce about 10 metres around Ling Lan had become her Domain, and then Ling Lan could be heard to roar, "Explode!"

Violent explosions answered her cry, beginning from the Domain area furthest from Ling Lan. Since the person controlling the Domain was Ling Lan, in order to guarantee Luo Lang"s safety, Ling Lan had chosen the safest sequence of explosion.

Following the activation of the first explosion, Ling Lan"s figure was like a streak of light, pa.s.sing by the corridors of the 2nd floor in a flash.

At the end of the corridor was a window — right before she would crash into it, Ling Lan"s readied palm pushed out forcefully, sending a surge of invisible energy at it, shattering the gla.s.s panes of the window into smithereens. And at the moment Ling Lan broke the gla.s.s, she leapt down from the second floor with Luo Lang. With a soft touch of her feet on a branch outside, she flew off in a sprint, leaving the Tianji headquarters without a sound, vanishing without a trace in an instant.

Meanwhile, violent explosions began to rock Tianji headquarters. Several minutes later, the entire Tianji building could no longer withstand the destructive power of the explosions, collapsing in on itself, and the people on duty inside could be seen rushing out amidst horrified wails and howls.

Of course, this did not account for those who did not manage to escape in time. Those people were trapped within the ruins, but with the abilities of any student of the First Academy, even if they were trapped under rubble, they would not die.

Ling Lan"s use of the immense power of half step into Domain to blow up the entire building startled several old beasts 3 who had been laying dormant within the school all this time. They charged over to the scene as soon as they could, hiding in the shadows, trying to sense the remaining energy signature to try and see which tough customer had done this ...

"Actually a Domain stage? This energy signature is very unfamiliar. I have never seen it before ... h.e.l.ls, how did a foreign Domain stage master make their way randomly into the military academy?"

When they confirmed the energy signature was unfamiliar, they could not help but look at one another, all of them equally shocked. They, who had always taken pride in the fact that the military academy"s defences were no weaker than that of the Federation"s military headquarters, felt deeply burned by this scene before their eyes.

"Looks like, the other has already left." After closely investigating the scene, they did not sense any presence of the Domain master remaining in the area.