Infinity: Kill your way through the movie world.

Inside a suppression factory on the western side of the mainland, a life suppression chamber has just completed the first batch of personnel access.

The cabin housed more than a dozen people who were deemed highly active, each with a different identification number.

On the third day of access, one of the middle-aged women tried to scratch the sensors on the bulkhead with her fingernail. After being detected by the system, she stopped and waited a while before letting go of her fingernail.

She didn't continue trying to scratch the sensors; she simply sat back down cross-legged in her seat.

Soon after, she also entered a low-energy state.

The demons sent to the containment zone were placed in a specially regulated space where the energy field generator maintained a low frequency output, which prevented damage to the demons' souls and also prevented the infiltration of high-concentration life signals from the outside world.

Within three days, the vast majority of usable demon souls were contained.

After the gates of the containment area were closed, the demons' activity was stabilized.

In the core area of ​​the containment zone, the souls of all demons were gradually guided into a common energy field to prepare for the subsequent aggregation process.

On several occasions, when the souls were lured into the core area, their shapes would expand instantly and then quickly shrink back.

They no longer rush towards the source of life as frantically as before.

By dusk on the third day, the data integration work covering the entire region was basically completed.

The suppressed life signal has been connected with Allen's core perception network, forming a multi-layered data network covering the entire continent.

The network is like a continuous low-frequency vibration, slowly diffusing through the earth and air.

It covered all the ruins, all the settlements, all the shrinking passageways, the closed lottery stations and the deactivated registration points, and the souls that were slowly drifting within the containment zone.

It is everywhere, but it is not directly perceived by most people on the surface, because it travels underground, through mine tunnels and rock strata, through old cables and underground rivers, bypassing the remaining human sensory organs, and flowing directly into Allen's own consciousness.

Allen sat in front of the control panel in that underground space and spent almost the entire night checking the data to make sure nothing was missing and that all the nodes were complete.

He pulled up the summary reports from the suppression factory, as well as the statistics on the souls in the containment area, and also received several feedback signals at night about those individuals who had entered a low-energy state.

After reviewing the last recording, he turned off the main control panel, turned his chair toward the wide rock wall, and closed his eyes to rest for a moment.

The aggregation project has been completed and is ready to begin. The ultimate aggregate will begin to take shape, and the order on the ground will finally begin to steadily move toward the predetermined mark, like an old clock that has been calibrated.

On the morning of the eighth day, Allen terminated the final verification of the comprehensive data census.

After several hours of integration and comparison, the data streams flowing into the core network from the suppression plants and containment zones have been compressed into a complete global vitality distribution map, arranged hierarchically by region and activity level.

Allen did not immediately shut down the terminal. He spent about half an hour rechecking the difference in vitality readings in several key areas to confirm that no data shift had occurred.

After completing the first phase of work, he simultaneously sent the next phase of action instructions to all pressing plants, mining conveyor belts, energy field control centers, and laboratory nodes around the world via underground transmission lines.

"Between eight and fifteen days, the remaining traces of life in the human world will be gradually stripped away, and the entire space will be filled with pure hellish demonic energy to clear away the last interfering factors for the unification and aggregation of the original demons."

Most people on the ground remained silent after receiving the relevant reports.

They realized that Allen's system had an extremely strict pace of action and rarely responded to or adjusted to external factors.

The timetable has been set.

They no longer expected negotiation, because the channels for negotiation had never been open in the first place. Those who were still waiting also began to quiet down; some returned to their old settlements, some found a sheltered corner in the ruins to sit down, and some lay down on the hard earth.

During the same period, most energy nodes worldwide began to enter a new regulation mode.

The power of the high-activity mineral mining lines buried deep underground was increased to transport more insulating ore to the processing stations and sealed chambers on the surface.

The conveyor belts in the abandoned mine area started running again, and the previously slow production pace was increased to full capacity.

The array of insulating minerals, which was once used for experimental isolation of life force, has also entered the full-scale activation phase. They will serve as a supporting framework to block the penetration of human life force during the subsequent construction of the barrier.

On the evening of the eighth day, Allen retrieved a large number of engineering logs stored a thousand years ago from the main control database, checked the coordinates of the energy field nodes distributed on different plates, and confirmed whether the location and burial depth of each insulating ore array met the planning requirements.

Although some of the records in those logs are hundreds of years old, thanks to the standardized record management system he established at the beginning of the disaster, most of the old records are still available for reference. Only some parameters need to be corrected by comparing them with the current crustal movement data.

He sent out the revised coordinate parameters and the start command together.

On the morning of the ninth day, the experimental startup program for the first energy field generator began to run.

The generator was located deep underground in an old industrial base in the central part of the continent. It was converted from an abandoned mine. Its metal shell was covered with a thick layer of insulating ore material that had been purified and compressed multiple times. The top was connected to an underground energy transmission pipeline that stretched for several kilometers.

Under Allen's remote monitoring, the generator started the system self-test program, and various parameters gradually reached the preset thresholds.

The energy consumption data monitored during the first operation was slightly lower than the early predictions, so Allen adjusted the output parameters to keep the generator running.

About two hours later, the third and sixth energy field nodes also began to activate.

They are located underground on the eastern edge of the continent and in the central old railway hub, respectively, and slowly spread outward with the same low-frequency energy output mode, advancing towards the areas they are responsible for.

Perceptible changes occurred in the surface areas beneath the overburden on the night of the ninth day.

The first to change are the air layers near the Earth's surface. That change is a more fundamental physical change.

The flowing wind slows down unnaturally after passing through a certain area, as if its path is blocked by an invisible membrane.

People standing in that area will also notice a slight change in their breathing rate. The resistance to inhalation is slightly greater than usual, but it doesn't feel like the air has become thicker; it's more like the conductivity of the air has changed.

The changes are gradual, and most people in the settlements are still unsure whether they actually exist.

On the morning of the tenth day, Allen set more energy field nodes to standby mode, and subsequently, more generators were activated in the northwest, southwest, and south directions. Their activation pattern was the same as the first batch of nodes in the central region: gradually increasing the power output from low levels to the set value, and then expanding the coverage area outward at a relatively stable rate.

The output parameters of each node are uniformly adjusted to the same set of preset values, which are maintained by the control terminals in each location, and all key data are synchronously fed back to the main control database.

This means that no matter which continent or plate they operate on, they are advancing towards the boundary at the same pace, simultaneously blocking the horizontal spread and vertical penetration of life.

Allen sat at the control console in the underground space, monitoring the real-time status of each node through the sensor network.

On the evening of the tenth day, most of the human settlements within the barrier's coverage area began to notice changes in their environment.

Although the changes are not as obvious as knocking down a fence or lighting a fire, they are continuous, stable, and cannot be ignored.

Some people felt their pain lessen slightly, while others felt their hunger lessen.

On the morning of the eleventh day, Allen retrieved all environmental monitoring records within the area covered by the barrier.

Records show that the barrier has covered more than 70% of the continent's land area. The remaining areas are mainly concentrated on the edge of the old civilization's industrial belt, where there was not much human activity and no high frequency of life force dissipation, so it has little impact on the overall pace of progress.

Allen decided to postpone the activation of nodes in the remaining edge areas to nighttime to avoid unnecessary fluctuations in energy field readings during the day due to changes in surface temperature.

He also retrieved the status records of the demon souls within the containment area. As the barrier's coverage expanded, the state of those demon souls showed observable changes—the edges of their souls became smoother, no longer constantly scattering debris as before.

The stability of those changes in a low-vitality environment is increasing, and the self-sustaining needs of individual forms are decreasing.

After confirming that the barrier coverage had reached the expected level, Allen switched the main control terminal to long-term monitoring mode. He no longer needed to manually observe the changes in the demon soul's state at a high frequency; the data streams of those changes would directly flow into the core network.

He slightly relaxed the back support in his seat, closed his eyes for a moment, then opened them again, brought up the preparatory interface for the aggregation project startup program, and set the trigger time to midnight on the twelfth day.

The prototype of an ultimate aggregate is about to take shape.

At midnight on the twelfth day, the last gap in the barrier covering the entire continent was closed.

Allen did not immediately initiate the aggregation process; he waited for about half an hour before issuing the first traction command.

The containment area is located in the north-central part of the continent. From the air, it looks more like a newly excavated ring-shaped depression.

The arrays and cables had been finalized several days ago and were now continuously emitting a low-amplitude, life-simulating signal that could be sensed by demons.

The signal is not strong, intense, or powerful, but its frequency is almost identical to the vitality frequency released by human cells in a highly active state.

The demons in the containment area sensed the signal; most of them were still in a semi-stagnation state, while a few maintained basic mobility.

But whether they are stagnation or activity, at some point after the signal has been present, they begin to slowly move toward the source of the signal.

The first to be drawn in was a high-ranking demon that had been lurking in the ruins of the southern coast for many years.

Its soul has remained on the surface for a long time, and due to excessive consumption, its outer black mist is noticeably thinner than when it first descended.

After the barrier was applied, its senses began to gradually return, and its direction of movement became clearer than before.

In the early morning of the twelfth day, when the waveform of the traction signal reached the sky above the ruins, it began to move toward the signal source.

It didn't walk fast, but it didn't stop either.

Deeper into the northern mining region, two low-ranking demons also began to move along the passage.

Their souls were extremely thin, like two wisps of embers just rising from a furnace. They were the first individuals to move from the periphery of the containment area to the core region, hours before the other, larger demons.

After entering the core area, they did not stop, but drifted straight toward the center of the energy field. They did not make contact with each other or slow down. At the edge of the core area, they encountered an invisible resistance and stopped moving forward.

On the morning of the thirteenth day, souls from all over the mainland arrived at the edge of the core area one after another.

The first group of low-level souls to arrive lingered at the edge for a while before slowly moving along the central edge, searching for a place to cut in.

More souls arrived after them, some drifting from the surface, some seeping up from underground fissures, and some floating upwards along the ventilation ducts of the old mine.

They converged into a loose band of black mist around the core area, like a piece of algae pushed to the lake shore by the wind, slowly gathering, accumulating, slowly spreading outward, and then gathering back again.

Allen activated the first set of energy field generators in the center of the core area. The output power was controlled at a low level, and its function was only to make the density of black mist in the central area slightly higher than that in the outer area.

This slight gradient difference caused the souls to gradually shift towards the center. The process was extremely slow and almost imperceptible, but after several hours of continuous action, the demon souls had formed a more dense aggregate in the central area.

It is still unstable, with its edges constantly drifting and receding, but it has already formed a relatively concentrated core that can be observed.

On the morning of the fourteenth day, Allen initiated the stripping procedure.

The output frequency of the energy field generator was gradually adjusted to a band similar to the demon's self-awareness, and then it began to continuously release a reverse resonant signal.

The signal does not directly attack the soul or weaken its energy intensity. Instead, it acts on the attachment structure of the demonic consciousness, causing the weak self-consciousness that has become accustomed to anchoring inside the soul to gradually lose its anchor point.

The consciousness of these demons has been shattered countless times and is not firmly established within their bodies.

Even so, this stripping process takes time and cannot be accelerated.

The first batch of low-level demons that entered the core area completed the stripping process within hours. Their consciousness dissipated rapidly after separating from their souls, leaving behind a pure mass of death energy that no longer possessed any individual characteristics.

Subsequently, the larger souls also gradually lost the outline and structure of their consciousness during the peeling process, and their forms slowly degenerated from blurry human and animal shapes into more primitive, amorphous black mist.

They ceased moving and responding to external stimuli, simply hovering quietly, awaiting the subsequent fusion process. (End of Chapter)