Chapter 762: [Side Story] United States Salvation Chronicle: The Legend of the Founding Father Subduing Demons

In the sky, swarms of drones buzzed past like flies, casting their shadows below.

"This is the entrance to the demon’s den of Silicon Valley," Roosevelt said. "Every inch of air here is collecting our biometric data, every sensor trying to analyze our will."

A vast city made entirely of black glass appeared before them.

On the ground, people wore VR headsets, lost in illusory sensory stimulation, moving like the walking dead.

A massive holographic projection materialized above the city.

It was the Thousand-Eyed Demon Monarch, a cloud of mist formed from countless ethereal blue 0s and 1s.

Within the mist, countless pairs of eyes flickered, coldly gazing down upon the land.

"Welcome to the Data Sanctum, you ancient phantoms."

The Demon Monarch’s voice seemed to come from all directions at once.

"Here, every thought you have is predictable, and your every struggle is merely a calculated probability."

"You foul beast! Surrender the people’s freedom!" Washington roared like thunder, raising the People’s Battle Axe high.

"Freedom?"

The Demon Monarch laughed.

"They have already willingly surrendered their freedom."

"They traded their privacy for convenience, their souls for entertainment."

"They now live in the most perfect illusion I have crafted for them."

"Look. This is what they wanted."

The Demon Monarch cast its spell.

A blue ripple swept over them.

The scene before the four of them instantly collapsed.

They were pulled into a hyper-realistic virtual world.

Lincoln stood upon a field of ruins.

He saw the Federation he had worked so hard to preserve shatter once more. The KKK ran rampant, and Black people still toiled on the plantations of the Southern States, only this time, they wore electronic shackles named Debt.

The victory he had taken so much pride in had vanished into thin air.

"No... It wasn’t supposed to be like this..."

Lincoln collapsed to his knees, clutching his head in agony. The chain sank into the mud.

Roosevelt returned to the White House.

But he found nine faceless Supreme Court justices—the very will of Capital itself—standing before his desk.

"Your New Deal is unconstitutional, President."

"Your efforts are worthless, President."

The voices bored into his ears like a venomous curse.

Roosevelt felt his wheelchair rusting, rotting away beneath him.

Washington saw a collapsing Continental Army.

The states were at war with one another, and the great powers of Europe had carved up the land once more.

They plunged into their own deepest despair, unable to break free.

"Your wills are far too fragile," the Demon Monarch sneered.

"Here, you can only watch your greatest fears come to life and listen to the whispers of your deepest doubts."

"Give up," the Demon Monarch tempted. "Become part of the data, and you will know eternal peace."

But at that critical moment, Franklin tore himself free from the illusion.

He hadn’t been trapped.

In his eyes, these so-called spatial distortions and mental manipulations were, in essence, nothing more than anomalous fluctuations in electromagnetic waves.

"Have you little punks who do nothing but play with code forgotten who the forefather of electricity is?"

Franklin leaped into the air and plunged the lightning conductor in his hand straight into the ground.

"When I was manipulating public opinion with printing presses and building information networks with the postal service, you pathetic lines of code were still suckling on silicon!"

He bit his finger, using the blood to draw an ancient symbol of Science on the metal rod.

"Logistic Regression!"

"Natural Science is the only truth! Thunder of the Nine Heavens, BLAST THEM!"

He drew down the electrical power that had long been building in the clouds.

BZZZZT—CRACK!!!

A column of lightning as thick as a water barrel shot through the entire city, traveling down the conductor and striking Franklin.

He was bathed in blinding lightning, like Raytheon incarnate.

"Super EMP—ERUPT!"

Franklin threw his arms wide.

A powerful electromagnetic pulse radiated out from him, sweeping across the landscape.

"AAAAH!"

The Thousand-Eyed Demon Monarch let out a piercing shriek.

In that instant, the once-orderly streams of data descended into violent chaos.

The Demon Monarch’s massive hologram began to distort wildly, like a corrupted signal.

The swarms of drones in the sky burst into flames, plummeting like rain.

The illusion shattered.

Lincoln, Washington, and Roosevelt opened their eyes.

They saw the black city before them sizzling, blue arcs of electricity dancing across its surfaces.

"Damn it. I almost bought it." Roosevelt patted his still-smoking wheelchair, his eyes growing calm and focused again.

"Good work, Benjamin," Washington said, tightening his grip on his axe.

Having slain the Thousand-Eyed Demon Monarch, they pressed onward.

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Chapter Five: The Holy Word Lost to the Wastes

They wander the rust-stained rails, searching for a glory of old. The factories are ruins, the hammers are scrap. This is a corner of the world forgotten by God.

As the wheelchair rolled into this new land, even Franklin fell silent.

This was the Rust Belt.

The massive factory buildings were now empty shells, their shattered windows like blinded eyes.

Rusted cranes hung in mid-air, frozen in the position they had stopped in decades ago, resembling the desiccated corpses of men who had been hanged.

There were no monsters here, only countless rust-wraiths drifting on the cold wind.

They were the ghosts of unemployed workers, specters abandoned by their era.

In life, they were welders, steelworkers, and drillers.

With their own two hands, they had once held up an entire era.

But now, they were merely forgotten statistics in this country, bad debts wiped from a balance sheet.