Chapter 198
The God’s Cane was formerly known as God’s Cane Space-based Kinetic Energy Weapon System. NATO completed the deployment of the weapon system in 2030, but now its combat ability was no longer limited to kinetic energy attack.
Over the past hundred years, NATO had continuously perfected this weapon system. Although its core attack was still a vertical strike by tungsten rod bombs, in addition to that, NATO had also added high power microwave weapon (HPM), wide-area electromagnetic pulse (EMP), as well as particle shields aboard the weapon system. NATO completely transformed it into a hedgehog-like existence—a near-Earth orbit weapon platform.
Though Jiang Chen had already experienced the power of this weapon, after listening to Lin Lin’s explanation, he still got astonished.
Seeing the shock on Jiang Chen’s face, Lin Lin haughtily raised her head and paused before continuing, “That is a really powerful weapon. It is believed that to destroy it, PAC launched 27 nuclear missiles to the low Earth orbit, but they were all unfortunately intercepted. Finally, while the God’s Cane’s HMP was on cooldown after it had just attacked the Holy Shield system, relying on the aerospace special force’s attack at ten crystals cost near-Earth orbit landers, they finally managed to capture it.”
However, before they even had the opportunity to hold the “cane”, NATO had initiated the “God’s Cane’s” self-destruction program in the hope of destroying it and preventing it from falling into the enemy’s hands. So the superweapon that was in the service for over 150 years had turned into a space junk.
No one knew this weapon better than Lin Lin. After all, she was a former PAC researcher, so she more or less understood the specifics of the weapon.
“Wait, space debris?”
“Yeah, is there any problem?” Lin Lin asked, tilting her head.
“Didn’t God’s Cane fall onto the Earth’s surface?” Jiang Chen asked with a frown.
“Of course not, I can attest to that. The post-war World Alliance Organization had considered recovering the remains at the near-Earth orbit, but the proposal was not implemented because shortly after, the implementation of space colonization plan was passed with a landslide victory. You know what happened next—six colony ships were sent to the deep space.”
“Is that so?” Jiang Chen said thoughtfully.
“Why the sudden interest?” Lin Lin was puzzled.
“What if someone used a supercomputer to determine that the remains of God’s Cane fell into the downtown of Wanghai City?”
“That’s impossible. You’ve been duped,” Lin Lin unceremoniously denied.
[Did I get fooled?]
Jiang Chen fell into deep thought.
Or did everyone get fooled?
This was troublesome.
…
Inside an ancient room, a tripod incense burner stood on top of a table, smoke floated on top of it. A man with grey sideburns leaned against a recliner, his eyes were closed, and he appeared to be taking a nap. Next to him was a woman dressed in cheongsam, and though her face could not be considered gorgeous, she certainly looked graceful.
The old-fashioned visage obviously didn’t match the high-rise buildings outside the window.
To be able to build such a large manor in such a ritzy area of Sixth Street, this person must possess an immense amount of power.
Indeed, the man on the chair was Cao Jinsong, the owner of Crimson Chamber of Commerce and the head of the Group of Ten council.
There was a knock at the door, and the man slighly opened his eyes.
“Come in.” His voice was slow and gentle but without a trace of his old age.
The door slowly opened, and a woman walked in.
The face was identical to the cheongsam beauty standing beside him.
Almost as if they were cut out from the exact same mold.
Other than being twins, there was only one explanation to this: they were clones.
“Nine members of the council have sent large-scale forces to the metropolis. Among them, the Double-headed Bull Chamber of Commerce was the largest with a total of 207 people, two spider tanks, and five armored vehicles…”
Hearing his secretary’s report, Cao Jinsong’s eyes narrowed while nodding.
When she finished, he briefly pondered for a moment before asking, “What about that Zhao Chenwu? Did he do anything?”
That person was slightly shrewder compared to the other council members, and his sight was not blinded by the dazzling brilliance of the crystals.
“He deployed scouts to Luzhou, and also sent a team to the city center, but their teams did not advance and just lagged behind our team,” the secretary reported as she pushed her eyeglasses up.
Cao Jinsong suddenly laughed. The wrinkles that had been etched on his face through the passage of time blossomed and transformed him into a kind, old man.
The laughter, however, carried a few strands of menace.
“Although everyone wants to be the person wielding that sword, it would be interesting if that sword didn’t exist in the first place.”
Conclusive evidence and foreign spying. Just these two points alone seemed to be enough evidence to prove the existence of God’s Cane.
“Is it that time already?” Cao Jinsong looked at the smoke above the incense burner and smiled.
The expressionless secretary just quietly looked at him, without saying a word.
“Bring that thing over.”
“It has already been prepared.” A trace of a smile appeared on the female secretary’s face. She took out the holographic computer pen from her pocket and handed it to him.
He took the holographic computer pen, but his forefinger stopped at the start button.
On the metal surface, two faces were reflected: one old and the other young.
The young face belonged to his wife. She was so frail that she couldn’t get through the first year. Before she passed away, he promised her that he would bring order to this chaotic wasteland.
Afterwards, he would join her down there.
After the collapse of all civilizations, a new civilization would be reborn from the ashes. The new civilization would be powerful as ever and rise from the Phoenix fire. It would learn from the past mistakes of the ruined civilization and abandon any weaknesses from the past civilization.
In this radiation-filled wasteland, not only the mutant’s claws and human’s marksmanship evolved, but also things of a higher level had also evolved.
Thirteen years ago, the walls of Sixth Street were built. The gathering place built by the survivors of the settlement gave birth to the seed of civilization.
However, this seed had been dormant for far too long.
Even though the expedition brought prosperity to it, it was only a basic level of prosperity.
When it came to one’s own interest, the council would engage into endless squabbles.
Without a unified voice, nothing would come out of it.
He had enough of these endless disputes.
The people from Northern Alliance District would perhaps come but definitely not at this time. What they wanted was definitely not the God’s Cane but something entirely different.
Ten years ago, the unification of the Northern Alliance was completed.
If this continued, Sixth Street would no longer be its match. It would become a mere speck in the history. But everything here was the fruit of his hard labor, and he couldn’t bear to end like this.
This piece of land needs a dictatorship!
“Hero or criminal, only history will tell,” muttering to himself, Cao Jinsong closed his eyes.
Suddenly, he opened his eyes and looked at the Secretary in front of him.
“Qin Lian, could you lend me some courage?”
The woman didn’t say anything and merely put her hand on his. The woman in cheongsam standing beside him also came over and held out her hand.
Taking a deep breath, a crazed expression returned to his face.
“Then let’s begin.”
He pressed the button.
A fire started burning and the manor of the Crimson Chamber of Commerce in the Sixth Street was completely incinerated.
Rumor had it that it was the conspiracy of Zhao Corporation plotting for “the treasure”.
At the same time, another fire broke out in the center of the city dozens of kilometers away.
It was the fire of civil war.