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

The stench of the special envoy's incontinence was swept away by the violent draft of the construction site.

It vanished instantly into the swirling dust of cement.

Control room on the top floor of Lingxiao Media Building, Handong Province.

The central air conditioning was set low, and the air was filled with a slightly astringent ozone smell, like a server running at high speed.

Hua Linglong, dressed in a fitted black leather outfit, sat with her legs crossed in front of the large control panel.

Her long, slender fingers, painted with dark black nail polish, were hovering over a glaring red physical Enter key.

"Boss Hua, the servers of all major online platforms have been taken over, and all ports are open."

The technical director next to him was sweating profusely, swallowed hard, and stared nervously at the screens covering the wall.

"The old rules should be scrapped."

Hua Linglong suddenly exerted force with her wrist, slamming the Enter key down with a crisp "snap".

The "First Special Recruitment Brochure of Lingxiao University" is like a nuclear bomb with a yield of one million tons.

Following the fiber optic cable of Yunxiao AI, it instantly and forcibly occupied all the lit electronic screens across the country.

This isn't student recruitment at all; it's blatant exploitation by capital.

The brochure contained no superfluous words, only three large, gleaming golden characters.

First: All those who are admitted will receive 100,000 Lingxiao Points on the day of registration.

Second: During their time at school, they received an unlimited supply of premium mutated rice, and the consortium provided food rations for the entire family.

Third: Graduates do not need to take civil service exams or public sector exams; they will be directly assigned to core positions within the conglomerate with a starting salary of 300,000 points.

In this world where undergraduates are everywhere and the real economy is as stagnant as a pool of still water.

These three promises are slapping the right to survival and the future hard in the faces of poor students.

Half an hour later, in the boys' dormitory building of the highest institution of learning in Beijing.

The hot, humid air was filled with the smell of sour, stinky socks that hadn't been washed for months and the stench of cheap tobacco.

Zhang Ye, a top genius in the physics department, stared intently at the brochure on his phone screen, his eyes bloodshot from lack of sleep.

His Adam's apple bobbed violently, he swallowed hard, and his fingers trembled with excitement.

"Brother Ye, are you crazy? That's Handong, a lawless land!"

His roommate across the bed pushed up his thick glasses and looked at him with a horrified expression.

"You earned your spot in the graduate school recommendation program after three months of pulling all-nighters, and you've already chosen a supervisor!"

"What a load of rubbish about graduate school! Are you going to graduate and then serve tea and water to those old academic tyrants?"

Zhang Ye suddenly pulled open the drawer and grabbed the letter of recommendation for graduate school admission stamped with the official seal.

"Sizzle—"

With a piercing tearing sound, the recommendation letter, coveted by countless people, was ripped into shreds.

Paper scraps fell to the ground like snowflakes.

"I'm going to build mechs in Handong! I want to eat the premium rice grown by Master Yan!"

Zhang Ye didn't even take his luggage; he grabbed his ID card and rushed out of the dormitory like a starving wolf.

The entire dormitory corridor was filled with the violent sounds of doors slamming.

The usually well-mannered top students now had their eyes gleaming with fanaticism as they pushed and shoved their way downstairs.

Tickets are extremely hard to come by.

Tickets for the green-skinned train to Handong were scalped at exorbitant prices by underground scalpers, yet they still sold out in three seconds.

The temperature in the crowded carriage was close to 35 degrees Celsius, and the stuffiness was suffocating.

The strong aroma of braised beef noodles was mixed with the sour smell of dozens of people's sweat from the previous night.

The fumes caused acid reflux and made people feel nauseous.

Even the entrance to the toilets in the corridor was packed with people.

"Make way! Let me through! I threw away all my luggage and only brought my brain with me!"

A male student wearing the Fudan University badge was pressed against the cold car window, panting heavily.

No one complained, and no one got off the bus.

The eyes of these young people shone with a fanatical fervor, as if yearning for a god.

"As long as I can get into Lingxiao University, my life belongs to Master Yan!"

From a corner of the carriage, someone let out a hoarse roar.

This instantly drew a massive, frenzied response from the entire carriage, causing the metal roof to vibrate and hum.

However, the counterattack from the old official forces came faster than expected.

The principal's office of a century-old traditional prestigious school in Jiangnan Province.

The former principal stared intently at the hundreds and thousands of withdrawal applications in the OA system.

He was so angry that his thigh muscles cramped violently, and the fabric of his trousers rubbed against his leg hair, making him feel extremely uncomfortable.

"This is outrageous! Utterly lawless! Yan Qingfeng is trying to uproot the nation!"

The old principal grabbed the red telephone on his desk and roared at the Academic Affairs Office.

Spit sprayed all over the microphone.

"Log into the system immediately! Physically lock all the files of top students!"

"Don't release them! Not a single one! Let's see how Handong manages to recruit unregistered residents!"

Once the order was issued, several top universities across the country joined forces.

They attempted to use the iron gate of academic records, which the old system was most proud of, to stop this terrifying torrent of talent outflow.

Supercomputing Center, Legal Department, Lingxiao Building, Handong Province.

Lin Yubing, dressed in a perfectly wrinkle-free black suit, coldly stared at the large number of red lights flashing on the screen.

The lenses of the frameless glasses reflected a cold, fluorescent light from the data.

"Mr. Lin, the education networks of several provinces outside have blocked all student records and are refusing to transfer them."

The technician next to him wiped the cold sweat from his forehead and reported cautiously.

Lin Yubing interlaced her fingers, her knuckles cracking loudly.

Her lips, painted with red lipstick, remained expressionless, and her voice was as cold and hard as a piece of raw iron.

"Trying to hold us back with old rules? Then let's smash their rules along with the table."

Her slender fingers flew across the keyboard, bringing up a dark gold-colored control panel.

"Yunxiao AI has identified the power grid hubs in the cities where these universities are located."

"For any company that uses our Lingxiao-1 solid-state batteries for energy storage and backup, the default circuit breaker procedure will be initiated."

Lin Yubing's tone was chilling, devoid of any human compassion.

"Countdown begins, three minutes."

Three minutes later.

Inside the experimental building of that century-old prestigious school in Jiangnan Province.

The bright incandescent light bulb suddenly emitted a sharp "sizzle" sound from the electrical current.

It went out instantly.

Immediately afterwards, the neon lights and streetlights of the entire city outside the window were instantly extinguished, as if by an invisible giant hand.

The pitch-black darkness, where one couldn't see their own hand in front of their face, instantly engulfed the entire vast campus like a tidal wave.

The backup power grid was not activated at all.

Because it contains solid-state battery packs supplied by the Lingxiao Consortium, the code instructions have been completely physically locked.

The old principal stood alone in his pitch-black office.

Without the air conditioning and heating, the biting cold air of the autumn night quickly rushed in through the window cracks.

His close-fitting pure cotton sweater was already soaked with cold sweat from his earlier panic.

Now, the cold wind whipped him up, and the wet fabric clung tightly to his spine, chilling him to the bone.

"Giggle giggle..."

The old principal's upper and lower teeth chattered uncontrollably, making a crisp, clattering sound.

My stomach suddenly spasmed violently, and acid rushed up my throat.

Suddenly, a deafening roar echoed through the darkness.

That was the sound of thousands of people forcefully pushing down the heavy cast iron fence of the school's south gate and smashing it to the ground.

The cast iron smashed the marble floor tiles, sparks flying everywhere.

Immediately following was the sound of thousands of students rushing out of the school gate, their footsteps hurried and chaotic.

Stepping on the asphalt road produced a muffled, thunderous roar that sent chills down your spine.

"Bang!"

The director of the academic affairs office, holding a powerful flashlight, stumbled and crawled open the office door.

The blinding light shone on the old principal's pale, paper-white face.

The director's voice was hoarse, his face was contorted with grief, and he was trembling like a leaf as he shouted.

"Principal! The power's completely out! The system's down!"

"The students smashed down the iron gate, and without even taking their books, they all ran towards the train station!"

The old principal's legs went weak, and he slumped against the cold wall.

He gripped the director's arm tightly, his nails almost digging into his flesh and drawing blood, his trembling voice filled with utter despair.

"We can't stop them... Quick, contact the capital immediately using the backup communication!"

"Yan Qingfeng isn't running a university; he's openly and brazenly draining the nation's lifeblood!"