Gunfire, Punk and Necromancer

Twenty minutes later, a convoy of seven vehicles drove into the Grand Expo venue, protected by armored vehicles at the front and rear. At this time, not only the roads and parking lots along the way, but also the inside and outside of the main exhibition hall of the venue, the surrounding commanding heights and all intersections were controlled by personnel from the business development departments and internal security departments of the four major companies. The original security guards, whether they were from the expo venue or the professional police officers of the PCPD, had to obey the orders of the company's security first and stay in the designated place without moving.

There was a lot of discussion in the venue, and there were all kinds of speculations. Many people expressed their dissatisfaction and were looking forward to watching the excitement. Finally, the radio sounded, and the announcer's voice trembled with excitement. She announced: Ms. Rorick, vice president of the Scarlet Group and chairman of the technical dispatch center, came to the expo with the latest "God's Execution Puppet - Ia". She will exhibit this "new artifact" and give a keynote speech titled "New Era, New Order, New Beginning".

This broadcast was not only sent through loudspeakers in the Grand Exposition venue, but also spread in the controlled information network. Zhuang Xuteng was in the car, and the car's radio turned on by itself, and then broadcast this broadcast simultaneously. He tried to tune the station, but the radio had the same content on all bands. The only difference was whether the signal was clear or not.

"A woman has come, and an exhibit has come. Is there such a fuss?" Zhuang Xuteng sighed, and then asked: "Do the vice president and the chairman of the technical dispatch center have a big connection?"

"Hmm... I don't know. I feel that the vice president is definitely not as powerful as the president. Is that true?" Ge Gongdao thought about it carefully and said, "Generally speaking, when it comes to the four major companies, the one that appears most in the news is the local executive. The director, or a certain press spokesperson. It seems that people like vice president and above have never been mentioned, and I don’t know how many vice presidents there are.”

Nightingale and Yanque hang around in the information network all day long, and they know more. "Although she has the word "vice", she is already at the top of power. I have heard a rumor that as long as two vice presidents of a company think that a corporate war should be started, a corporate war will start. From this perspective , the power this woman holds is terrifying."

Half the power to declare war? 50% of the power to drag the world into war...it's really scary if you think about it carefully.

"Brother Dao is right. The top executives of the four most powerful companies are rarely mentioned in the news. We only know that their internal structures are different. Usually the people who appear on the scene are the company's leaders in various cities, and the company must still be there. There is a headquarters and a center, which is the core of the company. Generally speaking, managers at the core of the headquarters only need to face the inside of the company and rarely show their faces outside."

Zhuang Xuteng pinched his nose and said: "Looking at the pomp and circumstance of her trip, she needs to be protected by strong guys from the business development department along the way. It is indeed not suitable to go out often. Hey, what do you think, that god's execution puppet, Ia, could be?"

"I only understand the four words "execute the puppet", and I can guess that Yi'a is the name, and the god is probably used to describe how powerful the execution puppet is, right?" Ge Gongdao shrugged and said: "Since the gods left, , the word god is rarely used, especially to describe ability. In boxing and fighting matches, descriptions such as "He is like a god of war" will be used. God, was it used to refer to the god of light in the past? ?”

"The gods refer to the four gods who established the Kingdom of God in the sky. They are..." Zhuang Xuteng thought for a moment and felt that this knowledge was too unpopular, so he shook his head and changed his words: "They are all gone, so it is useless to mention their names again. It makes no sense. The kingdom of the God of Light is between the lights, not in the sky of the material world we think of. The gods are actually four intermediate gods, subordinates of the Lord God of Light."

"Where did you get this knowledge?" Ge Gongdao was very surprised.

"Someone gave me a historical study of this god, so I read it as a story and memorized its contents."

The so-called historical research on gods is the bound book on the history of temples, gods and magical arts that Morgana gave him. Zhuang Xuteng often reads it to study necromancy and learn more about Morgana's thoughts. source. When they were together, Zhuang Xuteng could also understand some of the allusions and special terms used by Morgana from the Church of the God of Light, and he could also say one or two words from time to time, which made their communication smoother and more comfortable.

"Your hobbies are quite unpopular." Nightingale and Rock Bird didn't know about Morgana, so they said this. "Are you interested in that god's puppet execution? Since no one is going to attack here, why don't we get out of the car and take a look?"

"Why are you joining in the fun?" Zhuang Xuteng shook his head and said: "There must be a large number of security personnel around the vice president. We are just headless and faceless little mercenaries, but we all have implants and may have killed people. Company business The people from the development department will definitely stop us and not let us get close to that important vice president. Well, maybe there is no need for people from the company at all, the PCPD will stop us."

"Yes, let's not ask for trouble." Ge Gongdao lay down on his seat and said: "Anyway, watching a real person is the same as watching TV. If such an important person appears in Peicheng, there will definitely be news."

"Hey, there's no need to wait for the news. Look at the big screen outside the venue." Yanque patted her sister and Zhuang Xuteng and pointed out the car window. "That should be a live broadcast, right?"

The side of the expo's five-story building faces the road, where a projection screen the size of a basketball court is used most of the time to show advertisements. The parking lot where Zhuang Xuteng and the others were located was right next to the big screen. Several people got out of the car and sat on the roof of the car, where they could watch the screen at a 45-degree angle. The only problem: it's just the screen, no sound.

"The sound is on the radio. I found the frequency for simultaneous interpretation." Nightingale patted her forehead, cleared her throat, and said, "It feels like the sound is faster than the projected image. I'll write it down and synchronize it for you."

"Thank you for your hard work." Zhuang Xuteng said with a smile. At this time, a reporter popped up in the center of the screen and began to explain the situation at the venue.

"This guy talks a lot of nonsense, let me give you a rough overview..." Nightingale frowned slightly, probably sorting out and refining the content of his speech. "He probably said that Ms. Rorick is very welcome and it is not easy to meet her. Ms. Rorick is mainly responsible for the direction of technological progress in the Scarlet Group, and the execution of the puppet is a major achievement achieved under her direct leadership."

The reporter was talking endlessly in front of the camera. From the look in his eyes, these endless flattery were rolling on the prompt board in front of him, and he just had to read them. Zhuang Xuteng was more concerned about the changes in the venue behind the reporters, especially the company security guards who entered the venue and formed a defensive formation before Rorick officially took the stage.

Some people are tall and strong, probably filled with implants, while others look slim and fit, not much different from ordinary people. I don’t know what they use. Fortunately, Yanque gave some information to his two companions: the thinner one was probably a shadow follower spell user. They will not install implants that enhance physical attributes, but more maintenance-type shadow slave equipment to help them share the side effects caused by shadow slave spells. Of course, those people may also be intelligence spies. The implant is concentrated in the brain, so it cannot be seen at the muscle level.

After a while, Ms. Rorick appeared in the camera, receiving warm applause from the crowd while calmly walking to the podium. She seems to be well-maintained, and her makeup and clothing are very exquisite. It is obvious that she is the usual suit, long skirt and high-heeled shoes of a senior manager, but some details clearly give people a more elegant, noble and meticulous feeling. In her outfit, a golden hairpin with three strings of pearls hanging on it is eye-catching. Three strings of crystal-clear and round pearls swayed slightly as she walked, and the halo of light seemed to draw a pearl-white trajectory in the air.

She looks about forty or fifty years old, with fair skin, blue-green eyes, and black hair. There were several thin lines with phantom light on her face, converging from the corners of her eyes, nose, and mouth to the base of her ears. There was also a vertical phantom line in the middle of her forehead. These are traces of implants, but it's not certain what kind of implant she used. Since her face is an implant, her age is not believable, and she seems a bit younger to have become the vice president with the power to declare war for half the world in her forties or fifties.

Not far behind Rorik, there were four strong staff members. Their body shapes were similar to those of Ge Gongdao, which was the tall, wide and strong type. These four people were carrying a metal box at the four corners. The box was about half the size of a container and looked heavy. After the box was brought up, four people stood it upright. Then, a big guy over three meters tall and about two meters long and wide appeared on the stage.

"I'm glad to come to the Grand Expo, and I'm glad to see you all..." Ms. Rorick smiled slightly, and then began her speech. She first used 70 words to compliment the importance of the Expo, 60 words to express her gratitude to the Peicheng government for its dedicated organizational work, 50 words to bless the attendees present, and then used more than 3,400 words to describe Why and how the Scarlet Group developed execution puppets.

"Execution puppets can replace humans in dangerous and arduous tasks, which will greatly liberate human resources. A trained operator can control thirty to one hundred execution puppets at the same time. He only needs to deal with some accidents and emergencies. That’s all. In the future, there will be no hard labor, no physical oppression, and the lowest working condition for human beings will be supervision, and this is the goal pursued by the Scarlet Group!"

The staff opened the container and displayed the contents: God Execution and Puppet Ia. It was a naked human figure squatting on a metal platform with more than thirty tubes inserted into his body. When he stood up, everyone was surprised to see that his chest and abdominal cavity were empty, and there were no organs that could be directly seen. The spine and ribs are covered with shadows from the device.

It was a big guy nearly three meters tall. Except for his chest and abdomen, the rest of his body looked similar to that of a normal human being. Oh, by the way, his head is completely covered by a metal mask, with only sunglass-like observation windows placed at the eyes. This metal mask is connected to the shadow equipment on his neck and shoulders as a whole, and it seems that it cannot be removed. Come down. Physically speaking, he is taller and stronger than Ge Gongdao, and can only be matched by the orangutans of the Wild Monkey Gang - not the orangutans, they must be King Kong. However, there are no internal organs in its chest and abdomen, and its completely hollow design is reminiscent of an exoskeleton.

"The side effects of the shadow slave implant have not yet been resolved. The fragile human body cannot fully exert the power of the shadow slave, but a puppet that will not be affected by the side effects can be our best helper." Ms. Rorick pointed. The God's Execution Puppet said: "The God's Execution Puppet is entirely composed of shadow slave equipment, 70% of which are implants. It can be commanded via remote control, and can also execute preset commands. Its combat capabilities are roughly equivalent to the above A regular army during a corporate war. We have made calculations and found that with its flexibility, persistence and excellent tactical use, it can completely eliminate a regular army in any battle scenario."

Ms. Rorick said with a smile: "In this sense, we have eliminated the side effects of war, and there is no need to sacrifice precious human lives for it."

There was thunderous applause from the audience, and compared to the enthusiastic palm movements, the expressions on everyone's faces were more worth pondering. Looks of curiosity, suspicion, and fear appeared on everyone's face in turn, and everyone's eyes were focused more on the God's execution puppet instead of Vice President Rorik.

"That thing can hit a regular army, doesn't it mean it can hit 50,000 or 60,000 people? It's impossible..." Ge Gongdao frowned and shook his head vigorously, saying: "There were also many regular soldiers who used implants during the company war. There are exoskeletons, tanks, airplanes, cannons... these things can kill a few people through sneak attacks, but they can't kill all 50,000 or 60,000 people, right?"

Zhuang Xuteng didn't know how the Scarlet Group performed the test, so he couldn't answer Brother Dao's question and could only continue to watch Ms. Rorick's demonstration. She clapped her hands, and the god's puppet Ia straightened her body and raised her head slightly. Next, two orange-yellow beams shot out from its eyes, directly penetrated the ceiling of the hollow hall, and flew into the gloomy sky.

Now, the parking lot can be seen more clearly than the venue. Zhuang Xuteng and others looked up and clearly saw two orange beams shooting into the dark clouds, sparking a series of free electric sparks. At the same time, the dark clouds were "burned" to create an ever-expanding hole, and the long-lost sunlight slanted down from the hole, just shining on the venue, and penetrated through the open hole, shrouding Vice President Rorick.

"The brighter age of humanity has come," she said with a smile.

The God's execution puppet retracted its gaze and returned to its previous standing posture, as if it were an immobile statue. Everyone present was speculating in their minds about the meaning of the phenomena just now, especially how much shadow energy was needed to "turn the clouds and see the sun", and whether there was anything similar that could be compared with it.

"If it looks straight and sweeps across, it can kill everyone present with just its eyes. Unless it can be avoided, unless it has armored skin." Ge Gongdao finally stopped frowning and said: "I now understand how to destroy this thing. It’s a regular army: it can shoot directly through the ceiling, so no tank can prevent it from staring twice. As long as it still has the ability of high speed and high burst, then it can solve the most critical problem: breaking the defense.”

Zhuang Xuteng scratched his face and said: "This thing... is amazing. What does the Scarlet Group mean by taking out this thing? Does it mean that it will not lose in a corporate war? Uh... looking at the appearance of the four major companies, it seems If you don’t want to fight a corporate war anymore, why are you building this? Yes, how many of these are there, and will it be too expensive?”

Nightingale sighed and said: "Shadow Copying Technology. If you can make one, you can make at least eight more..."