I don't want to conquer witches anymore.

But soon, when they realized that Duke also possessed the secrets of Ultimate Deterrence, and that another group of humans was preparing to activate Ultimate Deterrence, the situation changed drastically.

They began actively negotiating with Duke.

Chapter 216 Always Spicy, Always Enjoyable

"What a joke! You can't pinpoint the location of those humans? Our Sky Eye system should be all over the world; not even a swarm of ants that has committed a crime can escape its tracking. And you say you can't find the terrorists' location? Your Majesties, forgive my harsh tone... but I really don't know what you freakish dinosaurs are doing!"

At the meeting, the Ant President unleashed a torrent of verbal abuse through the translation device, leaving the already timid dinosaurs speechless and reminiscent of Zhuge Liang's debate with the Confucian scholars. Of course, faced with this barrage of insults, not a single dinosaur dared to stand up and argue back—everyone knew why the usually mild-mannered Ant President was so enraged.

When it first learned about the "ultimate deterrent," it was ten times more agitated than this.

However, it is also a rare clear-headed one among the ants. After learning of the existence of the ultimate deterrent, it immediately contacted the ant general in the ant federation and asked him to stop the ants' "ultimate judgment" plan.

Damn it, they had a perfectly good plan: wipe out the dinosaurs and the ants would become the sole superpower... But now they realize that if they wipe out the dinosaurs, the world will be wiped out by the negative timer ultimate deterrent created by the two dinosaur empires. What kind of trial is this?

The ant president decided to pretend nothing had happened, to act as if the ants hadn't come up with any ultimate judgment plan. This way, he could stand on the moral high ground, grab the dinosaurs in front of him, and hurl insults at them, while the dinosaurs, feeling guilty, wouldn't be able to refute him.

Damn, that feels so good!

"The situation is not as simple as you think, Mr. President."

The chief scientist standing next to the Dinosaur Emperor stood up and said with some helplessness, "This is not a problem with the Sky Eye system. It's not that we haven't been able to capture any trace of the wanted target 'Alexander,' but his movement trajectory is not linear, making the Sky Eye system's tracking effect almost useless."

"But I heard that you clearly tracked down Mr. Duke and then used indiscriminate bombing against him, didn't you?"

The ant president's insensitive remark stunned everyone present, and they all looked at Duke almost simultaneously... Of course, dinosaurs and ants cannot understand human expressions, so they could only guess whether Duke was angry or not.

They couldn't understand why Duke looked at his female companion immediately.

"Don't look at me like that. So what if I don't know any teleportation spells like portals? With Amber as my best friend, do I need to learn such flashy but impractical spells?"

"You talk as if you can't do any conventional magic other than spatial magic... Aside from casting Holy Light, aren't you just a paladin? You one-sided witch!"

"Stop cursing, stop cursing. I'm too embarrassed to call myself a witch after leaving the floating city, for fear of embarrassing Carol and the others."

"You are so self-aware...you really are, I'm going to cry."

Of course, they couldn't understand what Duke and Cecil were talking about while they were having such a lively conversation.

"In short, Mr. President, you need to calm down first."

At this moment, the Dinosaur Queen stepped in to act as a peacemaker. She soothed them in a calm voice (although from a human perspective, Duke felt it was also roaring, the dinosaurs and ants could all understand her gentleness):

"The problem now isn't just finding that human, but also how to solve the two major threats in the sky, isn't it?"

To the dinosaurs, the Dinosaur Queen was undoubtedly a noble and elegant beauty, stunningly beautiful to the point of being breathtaking. Perhaps her appearance played a significant role in her becoming queen. Ants, having developed their aesthetic sense over millions of years, can also appreciate the beauty of dinosaurs; the Dinosaur Queen's captivating beauty has the same effect on them.

The Ant President slightly toned down his anger and foul language, pursed his lips, and continued to emit a chemical scent, saying through the translator, "Hmph, those two major threats in the sky, aren't they only there because of the freakish nature of you dinosaurs? If Mr. Duke hadn't offered to help us solve this ultimate deterrent, would you have even considered it?"

"We do all this for world peace, Mr. President."

The Ant President shrugged noncommittally, while the Dinosaur Emperor picked up the thread, angrily rebuking the scheming Dinosaur Queen: "Has your habit of political posturing become ingrained? This summit is no longer an ordinary dragon-ant summit. Our conversations will not be exposed to the public... Stop pretending and admit it, we are here to dominate the world!"

“My old rival, you really are an honest man.” The Queen turned to the Emperor and said with a sigh, “If we weren’t leaders of enemy countries, I would definitely consider associating with you, really. You’re a dragon that can be trusted.”

"Pfft! Cough cough cough... Really?"

"Your Majesties, is that enough?"

Duke interrupted the somewhat off-topic conversation, looking at the dinosaurs present with a smile, and slowly said:

"His Majesty the Emperor is right. We should be more honest... Let's get straight to the point. I think if it weren't for my existence, you wouldn't even consider lifting the Ultimate Deterrence, right? No, even now, you wouldn't lift the Ultimate Deterrence, and you don't even intend to lift the negative countdown, right?"

The emperor and queen looked at him at the same time, but he did not react for a long time.

They neither admitted nor denied it.

But this is a fact that humans, dinosaurs, and ants all know.

For the two dinosaur empires that have achieved ultimate deterrence, the best-case scenario is that the other side disarms its ultimate deterrence while they do not. Therefore, they would never be foolish enough to disarm their own deterrence... and Duke's plan to "activate deterrence and shoot down stars" suggested at the beginning of the meeting is even more absurd to them.

"So, I won't stop you. This is your own business in the Dragon Ant world; you can handle it yourselves. We'll just deal with that human force, okay?"

The dinosaurs and ants looked surprised.

Prior to this meeting, Duke had been absolutely adamant in his desire to "help" them resolve the ultimate deterrent, and it was only out of respect for him that they reluctantly discussed the topic. But now, Duke has actually made concessions.

The Dinosaur Emperor bluntly stated, "This is the best decision, Mr. Duke."

“But I’ve made concessions, and you must make some concessions in return.” Duke clapped his hands, then pointed to the sky. “I want the data from your Skynet system.”

Chapter 217 Different Paths, Same Destination

Millie died too.

Alexander gritted his teeth, suppressing his anger.

His companions died one by one at the hands of Duke and Cecil, not to mention the big sister who had been kind to him, who was also defeated by Duke.

This heavy truth weighed on Alexander's heart, intensifying his hatred.

He glanced around at the Norton androids surrounding him, the most loyal and strongest of whom was android number one, who had always followed him.

These Norton androids are incredibly powerful. The sheer physical strength they can unleash surpasses that of most elite adventurers at levels 10-14. Furthermore, their resilience and regenerative abilities are terrifying. If a large number of androids cooperate in an attack, even some hero-level professionals might be worn down and killed by them.

Just like the Norton androids that appeared at the Dragon Ant Summit, even when facing attacks from enemies of a different energy level like the Zun Dragon, they only felt pain but were not seriously injured. Although they fled everywhere, they were not defeated. If Zun does not further strengthen itself, it will not only be killed by the real Norton, but it will also be unable to defeat these super-weakened versions of Norton.

Zun seemed to be completely outmatched by Norton's unassuming abilities.

However, on the other hand, these androids are also restrained by Cecil.

While some Hero-level professionals might be worn down by the Norton Homunculi, this doesn't include Cecil. Even when she was at the peak of Hero-level, let alone now that she's close to Legendary, she could easily deal with these Homunculi. The Norton Homunculi, no matter what, aren't the real Norton. Their defense and regeneration abilities are far from enough to withstand Lightbringer's Holy Light. And then the problem becomes quite simple.

She was the one who killed the androids at the Dragon Ant Summit, and Guangbao didn't even break a sweat when he did it.

I can't beat Norton, but I can beat you bunch of imposters.JPG.

“The androids can’t handle Duke and Cecil, not even that magical mechanical creature they brought.” Alexander gritted his teeth, forcing each syllable out of his lungs. “So, so, to complete my revenge, I must activate the Ultimate Deterrence! Cough cough cough… Hahahahahahaha!”

He suddenly coughed violently, then burst into wild, unrestrained laughter. Coughing and laughing, a trickle of blood flowed from the corner of his mouth, like a traveler who had finally found an oasis of hope at the end of his rope.

"I found it! I finally found it!"

Behind him and the androids, the dinosaur operators lay on the ground, while in front of Alexander, on a screen as solid as a wall, were densely packed data. It was this data that confirmed to him that this was part of the ultimate deterrent.

"This is a direct connection to the transmitting satellite codenamed 'Golden Crow'," Alexander directed the androids as they typed on the massive keyboard, their eyes glued to the data on the screen. "And we're also in contact with another transmitting satellite codenamed 'Jade Rabbit' across a planet."

He had previously found the research institute controlling the "Jade Rabbit" within another empire, but the problem was that Duke and Cecil were on the other side of the planet at the time. Activating the "Jade Rabbit" would not directly destroy them in the asteroid impact, but would only give them time to escape.

Alexander didn't want to gamble that they wouldn't be able to escape this dark game.

Regardless of her specialization, Cecil is a member of the Floating City Witches. She has served as the presiding witch many times and understands the principles of witch games. She has a high probability of being able to take Duke out of the alternate dimension.

So either we wait for Duke and Cecil to reach the other side of the planet, or we find the research institute controlling the "Golden Crow" and cause both asteroids to fall simultaneously, destroying them and the world along with them.

Alexander did it.

He not only occupied the research institute here, but also commanded the android army to go to the "Jade Rabbit" research institute and occupy it in the shortest time, allowing both sides to proceed simultaneously. By now, they should have already stormed into the research institute and are about to destroy the control console there.

Alexander looked down at the control panel in front of him and muttered to himself:

"There are 25 hours left until the countdown ends. Should we hold this place for the next 25 hours?"

He snapped his fingers, preparing to have the androids destroy the control panel and disable the stop command transmitter, but the loyal androids did not move.

Alexander paused, turning to look behind him. He then noticed the androids behind him falling silently, each one decapitated, their wounds marked with burn marks from holy light. Even the thick-skinned Norton androids were beyond dead after being beheaded… Except for the most powerful android, Number One, whose body was still twitching, the other androids were completely still and silent.

Then, Alexander saw Cecil holding a pocket watch. She appeared out of nowhere, standing abruptly in the center of the android corpse, fiddling with the watch and excitedly turning back to the door, saying, "Hey, Duke, this is fun!"

"Right?"

Duke walked through the door with a smile, then... with a dark face, he jogged towards the control panel—there was no way around it, the dinosaur's room was just too big. The distance from the control room to the control panel might only take a few steps for a dinosaur, but for a human, it would take a while to run.

He was, after all, a nimble wanderer, and in a few quick steps he arrived in front of Alexander, then greeted him with a smile: "Hello, Second Brother, it's been a long time."

"...Just kill me."

Alexander stared at Duke and Cecil with hatred. A master of deception and rhetoric, he had no desire to speak at this moment, but was instead filled with despair and a desire to die.

Duke shrugged, said nothing more, raised the Lucky Dagger in his hand, and plunged it into his stomach.

He had nothing to say to this wicked villain who committed all sorts of evil deeds, nor did he have any perverse pleasure in tormenting him; killing him was the best he could do.

Alexander clutched his bleeding stomach and collapsed to the ground. He stared at Duke and said in a heart-wrenching voice:

"I curse you, I curse—"

His voice abruptly stopped.

Because, as Alexander lay dying, he watched as Duke conjured a fireball and hurled it at the control panel in front of him, doing what Alexander had wanted to do.

Huh, why?

His brain was somewhat malfunctioning due to oxygen deprivation caused by blood loss.

“Oh, I forgot to mention.” Duke suddenly turned around and waved to Alexander. “Thank you for finding the correct locations of the two research institutes. Now we can save the world.”

...Through activating ultimate deterrence?

Chapter 218 The Old Father

Even after Alexander died with his eyes wide open, he still couldn't figure out what Duke wanted to do.

If a person looks like a bad guy, speaks like a bad guy, and does like a bad guy, then he is a bad guy. Duke meets all these criteria: he looks like a bad guy (charisma over 18, and the first person to meet him gave him a SANCHECK), speaks like a bad guy (his villainous behavior when he fooled dinosaurs and ants at the Dragon Ant Summit), and does things that are even more like bad guys—referring to breaking the control panel and activating Ultimate Deterrence.

It's not surprising that Duke would be seen as a bad guy, and he himself was prepared to be misunderstood. After all, his actions had opened the gates of evil, causing the Sword of Damocles hanging over the Dragon Ant World to fall!

"Zun, do you know where the other research institute is?" Duke looked at Zun, who had followed them into the control room after a long time. It still maintained its harmless baby dragon appearance, and the Zun Dragon was parked outside the research institute. "Before the two dinosaur empires reacted and cut off the information sharing of the Skynet system, you should have already found it, right?"

"Of course, Mr. Duke."

Zun nodded.

At the Dragon Ant Summit, Duke made his biggest concession, promising the two dinosaur rulers that he would not interfere with Ultimate Deterrence, but only wanted to find another group of humans who were hostile to it. In exchange, he obtained a certain degree of information sharing from the Skynet system.

They probably felt that if they, as the inventors of the Skynet system, couldn't find any trace of Alexander and his companions, they wouldn't be able to find aliens far away from the system. The two emperors who made the decision at the time could never have imagined that the Zun, as the most technologically advanced product of magical science in the world of swords and magic, possessed analytical capabilities comparable to a quantum computer.

Furthermore, it contains a wealth of information about magic, which can be used to precisely analyze how Alexander and his companions moved non-linearly, thereby enabling further analysis and accurate location.

The latter is a disadvantage that dinosaur researchers can never overcome, because no matter how intelligent they are, they cannot calculate the specific data of the space gate out of thin air.

“Okay, you make a navigation device to guide Cecil there. We’ll take a two-pronged approach as quickly as possible.” Duke looked at Cecil. “Guangbao, the asteroid over there on ‘Yutu’ is your responsibility.”