This time I chose Paladin.

Chapter 270 Energy Fluctuation Detection Report

System Announcement: [World Boss [Second Administrator] has appeared. Sighted location: Huaxia - Zhongzhou - 3366 City Voice coverage area. The "Leader-Level Hostile Target Files" has been updated; please view the [World Boss: Second Administrator] section.]

Not long after Nie Weiyang left, the second administrator was spotted at the scientific research city ruins numbered C3366, which was no coincidence.

Moreover, this is the first time the system announcement has directly involved a former civilized city, but the wording is not "C3366 research-oriented city", but "the coverage area of ​​the city's voice".

Clearly, City Voice radio station is more important than the city itself.

The people from the old city, who had been having a warm and cozy gathering, quickly assembled, and even those who had fallen asleep were pulled out of bed.

"Can the second administrator please leave Zhongzhou as soon as possible..." Yi Jian said dejectedly, "World BOSSes should be farmed all over the world, that's what makes it a complete world..."

"Enough with the nonsense." Han Jiangxue and Li Duo rushed over together. One was an ice dragon and the other a phoenix. The heat emanating from their bodies caused the air between them to distort slightly, making it impossible for anyone to stand between them. As a result, they could only stand together.

"What's going on?" Han Jiangxue asked seriously. "C3366... ​​That's the direction Brother Nie went. What should we do?"

"..." Liang Zhenduan seemed to be thinking. After a moment of silence, he said, "Do nothing."

"……Um?"

“I said, do nothing,” Liang Zhenduan said. “Let’s call it a day and go back to sleep.”

……

C3366 stood silently in the night, like a silent steel graveyard.

Inside the city, the cold white lights of the unmanned shops and the streetlights mingled, casting their glow on the deserted streets, creating a stark contrast with the flickering campfire at the explorer's camp in the distance.

Administrator number two walked among them.

His footsteps pounded on the asphalt and gravel, making a soft sound that stood out starkly against the deathly silence. His black and gold uniform and the heart-shaped prism floating to his side seemed out of place in the dilapidated surroundings.

A huge police cordon was slowly turning around at the intersection ahead, the dull thud of its four-legged mechanical feet hitting the ground like a heavy heartbeat.

Its crimson spotlight swept across, the blinding red light enough to expose any lurking figure. However, just as the light was about to touch the black figure, the massive machine seemed to recognize him. The crimson spotlight deflected in an almost gentle manner, humbly making way and continuing to scan other areas, ignoring the man.

At the edge of the camp in the distance, several explorers who had been chatting and laughing had frozen in place for quite some time.

They were completely unaware that the roasted potatoes in their hands had fallen into the fire; they just stared wide-eyed as the black figure strolled leisurely through the forbidden zone of death, while the terrifying police line actually moved aside...

"Damn it... Am I seeing things?" someone muttered to themselves.

"Shut up..." The person next to me pinched himself hard. "Let's report back to 'our hometown'..."

There were no gasps, no commotion, only an unbelievable deathly silence spreading through the camp.

Nie Weiyang ignored the gazes focused on him from behind. His goal was clear—City Voice Radio Station.

He had been to C3366 before. It was a research-oriented city, unlike a comprehensive city. The entrance to the City Voice here was a heavy alloy door with a smooth surface and no visible switches.

He reached out, his red-gloved hand pressing against the cold metal.

In the darkness far behind, a trembling stalker strained his ears to hear the location of the warning line. He had mustered his courage and followed, wanting to see what the second administrator was up to. Meanwhile, on the edge of the city, two explorers stared wide-eyed, one of them clutching a notebook and frantically scribbling something in it.

[Authentication successful. Welcome back, Administrator Number Two.]

A clear, synthesized voice echoed from inside the door. The door slid open silently, and a gust of wind carrying a mixture of dust, static electricity, and the smell of machinery rushed in. Inside was a dimly lit corridor extending upwards, with only the faint blue glow of emergency lights at the base of the walls.

The stalker stared in disbelief: 'Come back?'
Under their watchful eyes, the second administrator walked in, and the door quietly closed behind him, completely isolating him from the outside world.

The interior of the tower was far larger than it appeared from the outside. Countless thick cables, like the roots of a giant tree, coiled around the walls and ceiling, emitting a low hum.

Just two floors down, you'll find massive server racks, resembling a black forest of monuments, their dense array of indicator lights flashing green, red, and yellow, like countless peering eyes. The main control room is located on the middle floor of the tower. In the center of the circular room is a huge, dimly lit screen.

The surrounding control panels were lit with gentle green indicator lights, proving that the system was not dead. It hadn't had any problems since Nie Weiyang restarted it last time.

Nie Weiyang turned on the main control panel and looked down at himself.

Unbeknownst to him, his attire had undergone some changes since the last upgrade of the Heart Prism Fragment. It was now more streamlined and minimalist, with more accessories that resembled formal wear and space combat gear. A faint glow emanated from beneath the sash on his chest, and Nie Weiyang's intuition told him this was important.

He touched the ribbon; it was secured so firmly that he couldn't open it to see if there was an Ultraman energy lamp inside.

And, most importantly...

Nie Weiyang turned his arm and pulled a cable out of his arm armor.

—This design also includes added features!
He connected the cable to an interface on the console, and instantly, a massive amount of information flooded into his system panel like a burst dam.

It wasn't an organized report, but a mountain of chaotic data. City maintenance logs, energy fluctuation records, someone being whipped in pieces by the edge of a warning line dozens of days ago, marked abnormal events... The system was like an old man with a confused memory, mechanically repeating the stored fragments.

Nie Weiyang quickly filtered out useless information. He opened the list of abnormal events and found that they were all records of outsiders being defended by the city's security system.

He frowned, searching for a specific pattern, regarding energy anomalies, regarding disturbances in the Netherworld.

—The incident occurred at night, during the operating hours of the pre-civilized city, and there must have been more information recorded in the research-oriented city.

Soon, he gleaned some information.

In certain frequency bands, a certain energy has appeared around the planetary barrier in this region, which is highly similar to the energy emitted by the star stone.

They appeared intermittently in the surveillance footage of City Voice, like ghosts.

Meanwhile, some regular fluctuations appeared in the scan data of the city's surroundings, the meaning of which is unknown.

Nie Weiyang seemed to be deep in thought. But just as he was trying to analyze it further, the connection was suddenly cut off.

The familiar disconnection precisely severed the data stream. The lights in the control room flickered briefly before plunging back into darkness.

Nie Weiyang chuckled: "Now that things have come to this, you still want to hide it from me? Your destruction is also related to the Star Stone, isn't it?"
"The fluctuation exists near the barrier... If there were starstones there, they would fall down. So, it's outside the barrier?"

The air was quiet.

"Silence? You are free to do so."

“It’s alright, I know you still have doubts about me.” Nie Weiyang said, pulling out the cable, which automatically retracted into his arm armor. “But you know, you can’t keep it from me forever.”

As Nie Weiyang spoke, he turned around and left the control room without looking back.

When he stepped out of the tower again, bathed once more in the starlight and the city's cold light, the explorers in the distance saw that the black figure remained unchanged.

He crossed the street, the police tape still making way for him, and eventually, he disappeared into another part of the city's darkness.

In the camp, it took a long time before someone finally let out a long sigh of relief.

"What...did he go in there for?"

"I don't know," another hoarse voice replied, "but they certainly weren't looking for supplies."

"...Isn't that obvious!" The camp leader scratched his head frantically. "These cities' systems only operate at full capacity at night...How about...we go in and take a look?"

The people around were horrified: "Are you out of your mind?! If you're not going to live, we'll still be alive, bro!!"

(End of this chapter)