Handong: Sha Li wants political achievements? I'll shut down the entire province.

The crystal glass clattered heavily onto the Persian carpet, making a dull thud.

Outside the floor-to-ceiling windows, dozens of thick, green laser beams instantly tore through the clouds of the rainy night.

The blinding green light, like a sword of judgment, cleaved directly at the old town of Guangming District.

There was no bidding process, and no official document from the land planning bureau.

With the terrifying computing power of Yunxiao AI, 100,000 heavy-duty construction drones rose from the ground.

Like a swarm of jet-black steel locusts, they pressed down on the old city, blotting out the sky.

"Boom—"

The twelve-meter-tall heavy engineering mechs brutally crushed the asphalt roads of the old town with their tracks.

With a swing of the robotic arm, a 30-year-old residential building was instantly flattened as if it were made of paper.

The ear-piercing sound of welding and the crisp crack of steel bars being torn apart intertwined to create a frenzied metal symphony.

Thick dust billowed into the sky, and the air was filled with the pungent smell of fermenting cement and lime powder.

Even the earthy smell after the rain was completely masked by this industrial violence odor.

Yan Qingfeng sat in the CEO's chair, watching the construction progress rapidly unfold on the holographic screen.

"Hua Linglong, notify the entire province." He didn't even look up, his voice as cold and hard as ice.

"Lingxiao University officially breaks ground today. I want to see the first batch of students enroll in three months."

Beside her, Hua Linglong's fingers flew across the holographic keyboard, her black-nailed fingers leaving afterimages.

"Master Yan, shall we proceed with the program setup as you previously intended?"

Yan Qingfeng snorted coldly, his eyes filled with arrogance.

"I've cut all the traditional math, physics, and chemistry exams. I don't need these people to take some damn civil service exam."

"Put 'Mutant Agriculture,' 'EMP Pulse Physics,' 'Holographic AI Logic,' and 'Financial Warfare' on the homepage."

"Separated from the Ministry of Education and independently archived. My university only teaches how to eat people in this wasteland world."

Hua Linglong pressed the red Enter key.

In an instant, Lingxiao University's unconventional admission brochure dominated every lit screen in the entire Handong Province.

Amidst this broadcast that resonated throughout the province, in the garbage dump outside the construction site in Guangming District.

A figure reeking of overnight spoiled water was frantically rummaging through the rain-soaked mud.

That's Hou Liangping.

Director Hou, who was once high and mighty, is now a complete "dead man" in the Handong system.

Without Lingxiao Points, even drinking a sip of tap water from a public restroom would be blocked by AI.

His white shirt had long since turned grayish-black, emanating a desperate smell of urine and sweat.

"Gurgle—"

His stomach, which had been starving for three days, was spasming violently, and the stomach acid was refluxing and burning his esophagus, causing him to break out in a cold sweat from the pain.

He knelt in the mud, his hands digging at the blackened, rotten vegetable leaves like a dog.

Suddenly, his greasy fingers touched something hard.

Half a piece of substandard bread, covered in green mold and soaked by rainwater.

Hou Liangping's eyes instantly turned bloodshot, his Adam's apple bobbed violently, and he let out a wild, animalistic panting.

He didn't care at all that it was covered in disgusting fly eggs.

Holding the half-moldy bread in both hands, he opened his dry, bleeding lips and was about to stuff it inside.

"Warning: You have crossed the construction warning line set by the consortium."

Above them, a patrol drone suddenly flashed a blinding red light.

Hou Liangping was so hungry that half of his body had already crossed the invisible laser warning line.

"Sizzle—"

A surge of blue high-voltage current traveled along the muddy water and instantly struck his shoulder.

"Ugh!"

Hou Liangping let out a scream that sounded inhuman, and his whole body was thrown out like an electrocuted toad.

He fell heavily into a muddy pit filled with shards of broken glass.

His clothes were instantly charred by the electric shock, his skin and flesh rolled up, and a pungent smell of burnt roasted meat emanated from them.

The high voltage caused his limb muscles to completely lose control, and his thighs twitched violently and uncontrollably.

My whole body ached as if hundreds of hammers had shattered it all at once.

He lay prone in the mud, his fingernails digging deep into the foul-smelling mud.

The mud and sand pierced my fingernail, causing dark red blood to seep out.

The half-moldy bread rolled two meters away and was instantly crushed into mud by a passing tracked construction vehicle.

Hou Liangping's bloodshot eyes bulged out as he stared intently into the distance.

On that land that originally belonged to the government, one after another cyberpunk-style steel behemoths are rising from the ground.

That was the prototype of Lingxiao University, a monument that completely trampled him underfoot.

Despair gripped his heart like a venomous snake; he opened his mouth, but had no strength left to even cry.

Just as Hou Liangping was lying in the mud like a dead dog.

A black Audi sedan with a Beijing license plate screeched to a stop in front of the checkpoint outside the construction site.

The car door was pushed open forcefully, and a middle-aged man wearing a gray jacket and with slicked-back hair jumped out of the car in a fit of rage.

This is a special envoy dispatched from Beijing by the Ministry of Education overnight.

He clutched a large red-headed document stamped with a red seal in his hand, his face contorted with rage.

"Outrageous! This is utterly lawless!"

The special envoy, his leather shoes stomping through the mud, pointed at the drones flying everywhere ahead and cursed loudly.

"They haven't even obtained the necessary operating licenses, yet they dare to bulldoze half the district to build a university?"

He turned and roared at the driver.

"Charge in! I want to see if Yan Qingfeng really dares to treat the laws of the country like toilet paper!"

The driver was so frightened that he huddled in the driver's seat and refused to step on the gas.

This is Handong, a lawless place that even the highest levels of government have tacitly approved of.

When the special envoy saw the driver back down, he was so angry that he yanked his collar tighter.

Relying on his status as someone from the capital, he strode towards the checkpoint at the entrance of the construction site.

"Get your manager out here! I'm a special envoy from Beijing, this is a stop-work order!"

He had just finished yelling and hadn't even taken two steps.

A tall, muscular figure slowly emerged from behind the temporary steel gate at the construction site entrance.

Zhou Yuan, wearing a yellowed black vest and with a cheap cigarette dangling from his mouth, slowly walked out.

Following him were twelve fully armed "Dark Sword" mercenaries wearing black tactical helmets.

Everyone reeked of gunpowder and sweat.

That's the kind of murderous aura only mercenaries who have actually seen blood possess.

"A work stoppage order?"

Zhou Yuan chuckled, pinched the cigarette butt off his lips, and flicked it with his finger.

The cigarette butt, still glowing, arced through the air before striking the tip of the special envoy's leather shoe precisely.

The special envoy was stunned, then his face turned bright red, and he was about to explode.

"Click".

Twelve dark assault rifles were raised simultaneously.

One of the masked mercenaries strode forward, giving him no chance to take out his identification.

The cold, rough gun barrel was violently pressed against the special envoy's pampered double chin.

The immense force forced the special envoy to tilt his head back, his neck fat bunching up.

A strong, pungent smell of gun oil, mixed with the metallic rust of death, assaulted the special envoy's nostrils.

The special envoy's pupils contracted instantly.

All the official rhetoric and legal arguments he had prepared beforehand shattered into dust in the face of that cold gun barrel.

"What...what are you trying to do! I'm from the capital..."

The special envoy's voice was split in two, like a duck being choked.

His upper and lower teeth began to clash violently and uncontrollably, making a "clucking" sound.

My stomach clenched violently with fear, and cold sweat poured down my forehead like a waterfall.

In just one second, his cotton undershirt was completely soaked.

A night wind blew, and the bone-chilling cold made his legs feel like noodles, making it impossible for him to stand.

"Gurgle."

The special envoy swallowed hard, a sharp, unbearable spasm shooting through his bladder.

The sphincter completely failed due to panic.

A warm, pale yellow liquid flowed down the leg of his expensive gray suit trousers.

"Tick-tock, tick-tock."

The urine splashed onto the mud, emitting a nauseating, foul odor.

Zhou Yuan took a half step back in disgust and fanned the air in front of his nose with his hand.

He pulled another cigarette out of his pocket, lit it, and took a deep drag.

A thick cloud of white smoke, reeking of cheap tobacco, was blown directly onto the special envoy's deathly pale face.

The special envoy coughed repeatedly from the choking, but dared not even tilt his head slightly, for fear that the gun barrel might accidentally discharge.

Zhou Yuan's rough voice was like a piece of iron being sanded on sandpaper, harsh and arrogant.

"Go back and tell the capital that the education system in Handong will henceforth belong to the Yan family."