Some are as big as washbasins, others as small as fingernails; the larger ones shield the smaller ones, just like tanks shielding infantry on a battlefield…
The Kamishiro family's forces began to put up a fierce resistance, but their ability to resist was quickly broken.
Only then did they understand the fear that the residents of City 10 had felt.
The cockroaches targeted locations with remarkable precision: all branches of the PCE Security Management Committee, garrison barracks, residences of all members of the Shindai, and places accessible only to high-caste individuals.
At one point, the outlaw Zhang San was walking down the long street. He was especially grateful for the high caste system of the God Era. This system really helped him gather all the members and lackeys of the God Era together, making them very easy to find.
During his time in City 20, he was constantly busy, sleeping only three hours a day, all to identify these attack targets.
The mistress understood that he was the most important part of the parents' plan; only if he succeeded could the parents' final plan be completed.
His parents promised him that if the attack succeeded, he would be the second member of the Black family after Luo Wanya…
Inside the garrison camp, a commander was roaring, "Close the gates! Get the flamethrowers! Bullets are useless!"
As the gates of the garrison camp were lowered, the soldiers went to retrieve flamethrowers from the warehouse. However, when the swarm of cockroaches reached the gates, they only paused briefly before suddenly taking flight.
But they easily flew into the sky and fell back down like dark clouds.
The garrison soldiers, witnessing this overwhelming scene, began to break down!
Cockroaches not only have bite mouthparts, but they can also fly! Who wouldn't be confused by that?!
To be honest, if it had been a cockroach swarm instead of a rat swarm that attacked humans in City 10, it's questionable whether the Parents' Association could have held out.
Especially when faced with a cockroach that can fly up to the 30th floor, there's no point in hiding anywhere!
In just five minutes, the garrison barracks of City 20 fell, and the soldiers could only retreat hastily into the buildings, with no other options.
No one expected that the seemingly massive stronghold under the Kamishiro Group would fall in this way.
Starting tonight, the Parents' Association will no longer be a grassroots organization, but a brand new behemoth that is slowly rising, a behemoth capable of severely damaging the foundations of conglomerates.
Everyone must re-examine its existence.
At this time, the southwest corner of City 20 had not yet been ravaged by cockroach swarms, but the Kingdom's 'King's Landing' air fortress, which was docked there, had already begun issuing mobilization orders to all its off-duty crew members.
Inside the fortress, Nikita sat in the command seat, demanding that all resting personnel arrive at the air fortress within 30 minutes.
They will then take off again.
The previous explosion on the deck of the air fortress resulted in 89% of Nikita's body being burned. If she hadn't been an A-level superhuman, she probably would have died from organ failure long ago.
Nikita is no longer beautiful. She has wrapped herself up completely and wears a mask on her face, waiting to be fully implanted with nano-skin after she recovers.
She opened her phone, staring coldly at Qing Chen's photo, her eyes filled with hatred.
If a woman's heart is filled with hatred, she will be willing to drag the whole world into a sea of fire.
...
...
In a shop on the themed street, Qingchen walked unhurriedly down the corridor.
The shop was empty; everyone had been scared away by the swarm of cockroaches, leaving only the empty room, Qingchen, and more than a dozen white men unconscious inside.
He called Qing Ji: "169 Fengqing Street, come pick me up."
The next moment, Qing Ji opened the Shadow Gate inside the brothel...
Qingchen: "I really didn't expect you to come so quickly... You have a lot of life experience!"
Qing Ji glanced at him: "Why is the chairman of the board concerned with such trivial matters? Let's go."
As he spoke, he opened the Shadow Gate and dragged the dozen or so unconscious white men back to the Ginkgo Manor in City 5.
The neural connection equipment had been re-established in front of them.
There was no one around, and apart from Qing Chen, the patriarch, and Qing Ji, no one knew what was happening here.
Qing Chen shoved the white man into the machine, and Qing Ji asked curiously, "You're going to strip them of all their memories and then impersonate him?"
“Yes,” Qingchen nodded.
Originally, Qingchen's plan did not include the memory-stealing aspect, but now that he had the machine, he naturally had to make use of it.
The device was started, but an unexpected change occurred: sparks burst from the circuitry connecting the neurons to the device.
Immediately afterwards, the chips and motherboard inside were also completely destroyed.
"It's broken?" Qing Chen frowned and asked, "Does the Qing Clan still have body-snatching devices?"
“Yes,” Qing Ji said, “I’ll have my mute servant bring it over.”
He sent the mute servant to the warehouse, but five minutes later the servant rushed back in a panic, signing: "The equipment has all been destroyed!"
Qing Ji looked at Qing Chen: "It was done by someone!"
Qing Chen asked, "After yesterday's memory plundering, who else had the opportunity to come into contact with this machine?"
Qing Ji calmly replied, "A mute servant specifically responsible for guarding the equipment."
"Where is he?" Qingchen asked.
“He’s on duty today, watching over the old man outside his room,” Qing Ji said.
Qing Chen: "The old man is in danger!"
...
...
At that moment, the old man inside the house said, "Bring in some fresh tea."
Upon hearing this, the mute servant outside hurriedly went to prepare the old man's favorite red robe. He steadily carried the tray inside, and his gaze suddenly changed as he looked at the old man whose back was to him.
But the old man said, "That's strange. I don't understand when you found the opportunity to turn even my mute servant into a puppet."
The mute servant paused slightly, then smiled and slowly straightened his hunched body, using sign language: "You're really clever. You've been the one who put the most pressure on me all these years. The month before last, I only gave myself a slight hint, and you killed over a thousand puppets in quick succession. Back then, I didn't dare to approach you, afraid that you would notice something was off, but I never thought that after all these years of effort, I still couldn't hide it."
The puppet used the formal "you" (您), showing his genuine admiration for the old man.
If it weren't for this person stationed on Ginkgo Mountain and relentlessly investigating clues related to him for eight years, the Qing family would probably have changed hands long ago.
The puppet asked curiously, "How did you find me, and how did you find those puppets? I think I have no clues left outside... I have a guess, let me tell you and see if it's right."
The old man calmly said, "Please speak freely."
The puppet pondered for a moment, then asked in sign language, “For the past few years, although you’ve been looking for me, I’ve cut off all the leads, so you shouldn’t be able to find me. And indeed, you haven’t been able to inflict any serious damage on me during those years… But after Prison 18 was destroyed, and the forbidden ACE-002 Heaven and Earth Chessboard disappeared, things started to change…”
The puppet seems to think a bit slowly, as if it needs to gather a lot of information together and process it centrally. Although it has a strong ability to gather information, its CPU is a bit outdated.
He finally concluded: "I know that forbidden item was traded to you by Li Shutong, so I suspect that the reason you were able to kill more than a thousand of my puppets without leaving a trace was because of that Heaven and Earth Chessboard? What exactly is its function?"
The old man retorted, "Are you here to kill me, or to ask me questions?"
Chapter 787, Xiao Liu's revenge is complete.
Puppet: "This puppet has been lurking for a month, but you should have only discovered me this morning because I destroyed the neural network connection machine. I guess the Heaven and Earth Chessboard still has some uncertainties and is not as convenient to use as imagined, otherwise my puppets should have been killed long ago."
The old man then laughed: "You've been too lonely all these years. You've been hiding in the shadows like a mouse, so you seize any opportunity to chat like a chatterbox."
The puppet nodded earnestly and honestly: "That's right, that's how it is."
"I'm curious, since you've obtained such an important puppet, why expose it? It's just a neural interface machine, is it really that important?" the old man asked.
The puppet patiently explained in sign language: "The generals that Qingyu captured at the front are being sent to City 5 today. Qingchen is going to steal their memories, right? One of these people is about to become my puppet. If Qingchen steals his memories, it will probably cause me a great loss."
"I see. I suppose Qingchen's ability to steal memories caught you off guard, so you chose to sacrifice the pawn to save the king," the old man said with a smile. "Is there anything else you want to say before you pass away?"
“It’s gone,” the puppet said, lunging at the old man, but before he could get close, a sound burst from the roof beam.
The young Qing Wu flipped over and landed, striking the puppet with a palm strike that sent it flying backward, its chest caved in.
There has always been someone guarding the beams of this wooden house. In the past, Qing Ji cultivated himself on it, but now it is Qing Wu who has taken over.
Qing Wu turned to look at the old man: "Should we just carry him away?"
"Yes, take him away and give him a proper burial."
Qing Chen and Qing Ji strolled leisurely up the mountain. Qing Chen asked, "Grandpa, are you alright?"
The old man said calmly, "At the speed at which you arrived, even if something happened to me, you wouldn't have time to save me."
Qing Chen laughed and said, "If anything happens to you, I'll treat it as a work injury. Our Qing family never mistreats its workers."
The old man was silent for two seconds: "Originally, I was supposed to live an extra 21 years, but if you upset me a few more times, it will become 20 years."
Qing Chen's smile faded, and he asked seriously, "I've always been curious about the purpose of the forbidden item ACE-002 Heaven and Earth Chessboard."
The old man shook his head: "I can't say."
Qing Chen paused for a moment: "Then let me guess, it might be able to see some crossroads in the future and help you make some choices. The reason you're keeping this a secret from me is because I'm just a pawn in this destiny. A pawn shouldn't know its own fate, as that would affect the course of destiny."
The old man smiled and shook his head: "I can't say."
The inability to speak means that even the correctness or incorrectness of this guess cannot be answered.
Qing Chen glanced down at the Go board in the room: "Is this the Heaven and Earth Go Board?"
The old man nodded: "You can say that, it is it."
On the chessboard, the black dragon had been cornered by the white dragon, struggling desperately, but showing signs of exhaustion.
Qing Chen asked, "Is the Black Dragon a member of our Qing clan, or an enemy?"
"I can't say."
Qingchen walked to the chessboard and tried to pick up a chess piece, but the black piece seemed to be welded to it, and the chessboard seemed to be welded to the ground, making it impossible to move.
The old man smiled and said, "Once a move is made, there's no going back. Once the game of chess begins, it can't be stopped."
Qing Chen glanced at the chess tube; there weren't many black and white pieces left... Could this mean that the Heaven and Earth Chess Board was also running out of uses?
The old man changed the subject: "Did those cockroaches appear in City 20 to force the Kingdom Organization's air fortress to leave?"
“Yes,” Qingchen nodded, “I want the kingdom to take me to the other side.”
Qing Chen asked, "Are there still body-snatching machines in the entire Southwest?"
“No more,” Qing Ji shook his head.