Chapter 469 - 416: The Traitor is Exposed

Chapter 469: Chapter 416: The Traitor is Exposed

After the teleportation went horribly wrong, everyone in the rear operations room was utterly shocked.

Li Meng was the first to rush up to the Soloma elder and demand furiously, "Is Soloma colluding with the Fire Worship Cult? Did you deliberately set a trap to screw over the other teams?!"

The elder was stunned as well.

He knew that the Soloma Team’s teleportation point was different from the other teams’.

But he had never imagined that the Fire Worship Cult would learn the operation team’s teleportation coordinates in advance and set a trap.

In his plan, after the teleportation was complete, the leaders of the other teams would surely question why the Soloma Team hadn’t arrived with the main group. He had planned to fob them off with the excuse that "there might have been an error."

It wouldn’t have had much of an impact anyway. As long as Adam and his team, who had teleported inside the cathedral, could find and capture the Pope first, the overall outcome of the operation wouldn’t be fundamentally affected.

But he hadn’t expected the Fire Worship Cult to be prepared. This made the Soloma Team, with their different teleportation point, the primary suspect.

"Yeah! What the hell is going on?!"

"You have to give us an explanation!"

It wasn’t just Li Meng; the leaders of the other teams also began to pressure the elder.

Facing their collective anger, the elder tried to defend himself. "Everyone, please calm down! Soloma has a blood feud with the Fire Worship Cult. How could we possibly be colluding with them? If that were true, I should be having my men arrest you all right now!"

Li Meng and the other leaders frowned at his words. He did have a point.

If Soloma truly harbored ill intentions, they wouldn’t just sabotage the operation teams; they certainly wouldn’t have spared the leaders either.

"Then how do you explain your Soloma Team teleporting to a different location than the others?" Li Meng pressed, refusing to let the point go.

"Well... there might have been a small error."

"An error? Are you kidding me!"

The elder, feeling guilty, avoided Li Meng’s sharp gaze.

Li Meng suppressed his anger, knowing that he had to focus on the big picture.

"The other teams have been ambushed, and the enemy seems to be jamming communications, so we can’t contact them at all. If Soloma isn’t guilty, you should immediately contact Adam and the others and have them go support the other teams!"

"Mr. Li is right! The Soloma Team didn’t teleport into the ambush zone. They can break the siege for the other teams from the outside!"

The elder reluctantly took off his headset and handed it to Li Meng. "Gentlemen, I’d like to do that, but I can’t reach Adam either! Communications inside the cathedral are also being jammed. If you don’t believe me, have a listen."

Li Meng took the headset and listened. There was nothing but static.

CRACK!

He slammed the headset on the ground and said in a threatening tone, "Then use a Psychic Power item that ignores jamming, like a Communication Secret Scroll! I can tell you this, and I’ll take full responsibility for it: if our team suffers any casualties, Soloma will be held entirely accountable. North Star will see this through to the end!"

The Sisiya leader immediately declared his stance. "We at Sisiya will stand with North Star on this!"

Since Yelena came to power, the two nations had cooperated frequently. Besides, this incident was clearly problematic, both overtly and covertly. If key members from both sides were killed or injured, they would undoubtedly join forces to hold Soloma accountable.

The elder’s hands trembled slightly, his heart filled with panic. He couldn’t bear the responsibility of antagonizing nations like North Star and Sisiya. After some thought, he decided to pass the decision up the chain of command.

"This... everyone, please be patient. I’ll contact His Majesty right now to request..."

Just as he finished speaking, a voice came through Li Meng’s earpiece.

"Section Chief Li, can you hear me?"

"Guan Tong!" Li Meng was overjoyed to hear his voice. He pressed his earpiece. "Did you destroy the jamming device? What’s the situation over there?!"

"The Fire Worship Cult knew our teleportation time and location and set an ambush in advance. But we broke through successfully and eliminated all of them. Chen Na detected that the members of the Soloma Team teleported inside the cathedral. We suspect they might be involved."

It wasn’t just Li Meng who received a call. The leaders of the other teams also re-established contact with their respective team captains and began asking about the situation.

"This is a huge problem," Li Meng said quickly. "At first, I also thought Soloma betrayed you. But after you ran into trouble, our personal freedom as leaders here hasn’t been restricted."

"So you’re saying Soloma isn’t colluding with the Fire Worship Cult?" Guan Tong asked.

"No, we can’t say for sure yet. Regardless, the fact that they deliberately teleported to a different location is undeniable! By the way, what’s the team’s status? Any casualties?"

"The North Star Team is fine. The Sisiya Team has one injured. The Six Nations Team has one dead and one seriously wounded."

Hearing that his own team had no casualties, the weight on Li Meng’s heart lifted.

He had been extremely anxious just a moment ago, terrified that the Fire Worship Cult’s ambush would cause casualties for the North Star Team.

After all, every member of the team had enormous potential. If they lost anyone due to an intelligence leak, it would be unacceptable not just to him, but to the Strategy Research Room and even the North Star government.

"I’m not going into the cathedral now," Guan Tong’s voice continued. "I’m going to blow the building up from the outside and force out whoever manages to survive."

Li Meng’s heart jumped. He didn’t doubt Guan Tong had the ability, but the original plan was to infiltrate the cathedral. Otherwise, if they were just going to blow it up from the outside, it would be much easier to use long-range missiles.

’This ambush must have really pissed him off...’

Although Li Meng couldn’t detect any strong emotion in Guan Tong’s voice, his actions already showed that he was no longer taking the original mission plan seriously.

This was undoubtedly a sign that he was angry. According to the Strategy Research Room’s records, this behavior was perfectly consistent with the time he blew up the Andai Kingdom’s royal palace in a fit of rage long ago.

Li Meng reminded him, "The Soloma Team is inside the cathedral too."

"They didn’t come out to help us. They don’t care if we live or die. Why should I care if they live or die?"

"...Then do what you think is best. But it has to be fast. Evacuate as soon as you’re done. According to satellite surveillance, Cultists from all over Liluo Safety City are heading your way. Even an army of ants can kill an elephant. Don’t forget your team only has enough people for a decapitation strike."

Li Meng understood Guan Tong. The kid seemed easygoing on the surface, but he was actually incredibly stubborn.

If you wanted to change his mind, it was best to intervene before he made a decision. Once his mind was made up, nothing anyone said would work.

Back on site, Guan Tong ended the call with Li Meng, raised his Silver Hunter, aimed it at the building before him, and pulled the trigger with a blank expression.

"BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM...!"

He had dozens of No. 6 missiles saved up, and he wasn’t being stingy this time. He started by firing off more than ten of them.

The ancient building couldn’t withstand the immense power of the missiles.

Fahe Country hadn’t had mature steel reinforcement technology when it was built, so its defensive capabilities weren’t strong. Under the missile bombardment, huge chunks of brick and tile exploded outward. The entire building began to sway, emitting a "CREAK" that sounded like a scream.

The other members of the operation team watched, dumbfounded. They never expected Guan Tong to have such a powerful superweapon in his hands.

A portable weapon that could be fired continuously and packed a punch comparable to a standard missile would definitely rank as a "Divine Artifact" in the mind of any Ascender.

Meanwhile, Adam and his three teammates were fighting their way through the cathedral. They had already efficiently slaughtered their way to the fifth floor, eliminating over a hundred Cultists who stood in their path. Just as they were about to reach the sixth floor, where the Pope was located, the entire building began to shake violently as flames erupted all around.

Amanda looked at a window shattered by an explosion and cried out, "Someone’s bombarding the building with heavy weapons from outside!"

Moon Key looked up at the fractured ceiling. "The building is about to collapse."

Adam raised his hands, and an invisible power radiated out from him as a core. "Stay close to me. I’ll protect you with my Force Field."

RUMBLE!

Unable to withstand the relentless bombardment from outside, the building began to give way in a catastrophic collapse.

The Cultists still inside either cursed loudly or tried desperately to save themselves, but the collapse was too fast and too sudden. Many were crushed or killed before they could even react.

Adam manipulated the Invisible Force Field to deflect all the bricks, wood, and stone raining down on them. At the same time, he looked up, searching for any sign of their target amidst the collapse.

They were on the fifth floor, and the sixth was right above them. If the Pope was up there, he might fall down as the floor gave way.

To his disappointment, however, no one fell from above. Not a single person.

The dust settled.

Outside, Guan Tong and the others stared at the ruined building, a mixture of emotions stirring within some of them.

Before the Apocalypse Rules, this was an ancient architectural landmark, at least. And now it was destroyed, just like that.

Seeing the somber mood, Yang Ran tried to lighten the atmosphere by peering into the dusty ruins. "Say, wasn’t this building Fahe’s national library back in the day? How come there aren’t any books?"

"The books were all rounded up and burned by the Fire Worship Cult," said the Ascender from Lu Rui Country.

"What?"

"You didn’t know?" the Lu Rui Country Ascender explained. "It happened a long time ago. The Fire Worship Cult believes that no books other than *The Word of God* need to exist, so they put the entire library’s collection to the torch... Oh, *The Word of God* is..."

"I know about *The Word of God*," Yang Ran said. "Those Cultists compiled every one of the Fire Thief’s Apocalypse Rules into a volume, named it ’The Word of God,’ and use it as a prayer book... But did they really have to burn all the other books? That’s insane!"

"Well, that’s why they’re called Cultists."

Just then, the dust began to clear, gradually revealing several figures.

A few black-robed Cultists crawled out from the rubble, but the operation team paid them no mind. Their gazes quickly focused on a single spot.

Adam and the members of the Soloma Team were standing on a patch of ruins.

The moment their eyes met, fury ignited in the hearts of the joint operation team members.

The captain of the Sisiya Team took two steps forward, pointed at Adam, and demanded, "Adam! Did the Soloma Team collude with the Cultists and betray the rest of us?!"

Hearing the accusation, Adam frowned. "What are you talking about? Wait, you’re the ones who destroyed the cathedral? Why would you..."

"Stop playing dumb! If you’re not traitors, why was your teleportation point different from ours? Why were we ambushed while you’re all perfectly fine!"

"You were ambushed?"

Adam’s expression changed. Suddenly, Amanda’s shocked cry came from behind him.

"Adam, watch out!"

BZZZT—!

A massive, incredibly fast bolt of crimson-white lightning shot out from behind, aimed straight for the back of Adam’s head.

This development caught everyone present by surprise. Almost no one had time to react.

Although Adam managed to activate his Force Field in time, he was still too late.

His heart went cold when he heard a thud. Turning around, he saw a large hole blown through Amanda’s chest, the worried expression frozen on her face.

"Amanda!"

"The mole... the mole is Peter?!"

"Get him!!!"