Cthulhu America, I can see the kill line.

"Are you sure you want to use this name?"

Kong Jiu's voice trembled slightly with disbelief as he asked Abel to repeat what he had just said.

"'Forbidden Territories,' I'm sorry, I don't speak your language, so my pronunciation isn't quite right..."

Abel repeated the word stiffly, but also noticed a tremor flash across Kong Jiu's pupils.

"I do have a copy of the original proposal document."

As Winchester spoke, he reached into his satchel and slowly pulled out a stack of documents with yellowed edges and brittle pages.

"Would you like to see the concept design for the Iron Curtain?"

Kong Jiu practically snatched it away and quickly flipped through the pages.

The yellowed paper seemed to bear the weight of time, causing Kong Jiu's eyelids to twitch slightly and his gaze to become solemn.

Although he couldn't understand the profound psionic technology discourse, the concepts and effects described in the plan were so clear that they made his heart clench.

As lines of grand yet oppressive plans came into view, the hesitation on his face gradually eased, eventually transforming into a complex and indescribable smile.

That's a bitter smile that involuntarily spills from the bottom of one's heart when utter absurdity and helplessness intertwine.

"Ha ha ha ha……"

Kong Jiu scratched his head, but subconsciously used all his strength, as if he were pulling a non-existent braid.

"Yes, the Iron Curtain... isn't it essentially about imprisoning thought and oppressing the lower classes? How come I didn't think of that?"

He had never really known what the "Iron Curtain" was.

The concept was too vague, too abstract. Squich said it would corrupt the mind and rationalize oppression and enslavement, but he never explained the reasons in detail.

At this moment, the concept document in his hand completely explained to Kong Jiu what the "Iron Curtain" was.

First, faith was introduced to make the residents inside the Iron Curtain believe that all blessings came from God and all suffering was a test given by God.

As for materials, guns can be handed over to gangsters like the Windat to further exert pressure downwards; but they must never be passed on to the lower-class refugees, giving them the opportunity to turn their guns on the real enemy.

Next comes cognition, which is also the key to determining where the gun is pointed.

Thoughts originate from experience, and the soul is shaped by memory. Under the Iron Curtain, everyone's thoughts are subtly shaped, making them accept the idea that "it has always been this way, so it must be right," thus quietly reinforcing the first two points.

Finally, there is the most insignificant yet all-encompassing "continuity." The "continuity" of the subspace anchor point is like a faint thread, connecting the first three points to form the Iron Curtain.

The four concepts, integrated into the laws of the Amerigo world and the psychic realm through spiritual entities, prevent this land from giving birth to A-level psychics who wreak havoc on humanity, and from having major warlords threaten the Federation, allowing people to live in "harmony" and reproduce continuously.

Of course, this is just a beautiful initial intention, a vision that remains on paper in a project proposal from hundreds of years ago.

In Amerigo Vespucci, a plan is nothing more than a beautiful fantasy that will never come to pass.

The four concepts were initially referred to as goodness, peace, law, and prosperity.

However, after a century of evolution, and under the manipulation of the federal leadership with their own selfish motives, it has become a system of keeping the people ignorant, banning weapons, traditionalizing, and endless continuation.

Four deadly concepts, intertwined through psychic energy, loomed over the skies of Amerigo Vespucci.

Kong Jiu couldn't help but raise his head and glance at the thin, eerie bloodstain outside the window.

The snow was light, the night was dark, and the full health bar resembled a metal shackle stretching across the sky above Hills City, cold and glaring.

"Indeed, the Iron Curtain truly reflects the fundamental logic of this world..."

Kong Jiu laughed, a wild and clear laugh, yet tinged with an indescribable sadness.

Why can't psychics of rank A or above be born?

How will I get home?

The determination to destroy the Iron Curtain has taken another step forward.

"The concept is indeed ingenious... but how exactly is it implemented?" Abel looked at Winchester.

He merely proposed this concept that would help maintain public order, and before it could be implemented, he was assassinated.

Winchester understood immediately and gestured a square.

"Implementation? Just like the Crimson Dragon's Son setting up an array, each local federation can establish its own four-fold concept to guard the four directions, thus forming an iron curtain."

After this explanation, Kong Jiu, combined with the documents in his hand, finally understood.

The four "concepts" are placed at the four vertices of a square to achieve an effect similar to altering the laws of nature, thus maintaining the operation of the entire Iron Curtain.

And the "Red Rain Fortress" that they knew of was one of those locations.

Therefore, if we know the location of one more "concept", we can try to deduce the locations of the other two points.

As he stared at the document, Kong Jiu's gaze gradually cleared.

In such a long period of oppression and fog, he felt a refreshing sensation from the bottom of his heart for the first time, as if he had figured out the dark alley where the enemy was hiding.

The reasons for needing to destroy the Iron Curtain, and the methods to carry it out, are now clear.

"Kong, do you want to destroy the order I envisioned?"

Now, Abel also noticed the burning obsession and fervor in Kongjiu's eyes.

Kong Jiu nodded, his eyes still fixed on the document.

"Isn't there any way to fix this?" Abel asked.

Kong Jiu finally looked away from the document.

"When a lighthouse that guides the way at sea falls into the devil's trap and lures ships to the reef, it is a thankless and arduous task to make it shine again."

"Why?" Abel asked calmly.

As a former federal president, he could see the kindness and hidden cunning in Kong Jiu's heart.

So, the fact that such a good person would decide to destroy this sophisticated instrument originally used for maintaining order can only mean that the instrument was already completely rotten.

Perhaps Amerigo's spirit of freedom had already died, and it was only this system that was forcibly keeping it clinging to its last breath?

Like a swollen and festering corpse, long since lifeless, yet tightly wrapped in a body bag, barely maintaining its shape?

Abel, the leader who had launched the Civil War in his lifetime to pursue freedom and dispel the darkness of this land, now saw a completely distorted beacon through the eyes of Conju, a good stranger in a foreign land.

Now, as a wandering soul, Abel wants to mount his horse and launch one last charge toward the decaying lighthouse, just as he did hundreds of years ago.

Why?

Kong Jiu looked up and met Abel's gaze.

"I cannot give you an answer, Your Excellency."

This time, he did not address him as Mr. Abel.

"You have to see with your own eyes the towering flames as houses burn in the lower city; listen with your own ears to the last sigh of the dying; and walk with your own feet through the streets of the poor, piled with corpses, to measure and feel the weight and scars of this land once more."

As Kong Jiu spoke, he untied the jade pendant from his neck.

His ferocious rage burned through his reason; at this moment, he was devoid of rationality, only boiling anger remained.

But Kong Jiu remained calm, eerily calm.

Kong Jiu stared at Abel and said, word by word, "Only after experiencing all of this, after personally witnessing the suffering under the Iron Curtain, do you have the right to ask me 'why,' Your Excellency."

"May I... travel with you?"

Abel spoke up, "Perhaps there are still people who recognize me. If I step in, I can resolve a lot of trouble."

"A fellow traveler? Do you know the path I want to take?"

Kong Jiu's eyes were blazing with anger, but a hint of cold sarcasm could still be heard in his voice.

"Do you think I would sit at the same table with those beasts who exploit the lower classes, politely inviting them to dinner and begging them to allow me to destroy all of this?"

"Don't be silly, Your Excellency the President,"

Kong Jiu handed the documents back to Winchester swiftly and without hesitation.

"Money and power are not what I seek."

He turned around, looked out at the deep night sky, and spoke in a low voice, yet with the sharpness of a tempered blade:

"What I want is to set this sky ablaze."