Chapter 555: Killing and Annihilation

Butterfly’s pupils contracted. The composure on her face vanished, replaced by shock and utter disbelief.

She turned sideways on pure instinct, trying to identify the source of the threat. But all she saw was a figure radiating immense killing intent, appearing before her in a flash—at a speed far beyond human limits!

‘Too fast! So fast she couldn’t activate any of her pre-set defenses. She couldn’t even form a single coherent thought!’

Wu Liangchen’s eyes were cold as ice, devoid of any emotion.

He had only one goal: to kill Butterfly!

He shot out his right hand, fingers held together like a blade. With an aura that could shred anything in his path, he thrust straight for Butterfly’s throat!

He poured nearly all of his strength into the strike. His fingertips even began to glow faintly red from the intense friction with the air.

“You—!”

Butterfly only had time to let out a short, sharp gasp, her voice filled with utter shock and terror. She never imagined someone would attack her so directly, so brutally, with a fatal strike in the heart of her own domain.

She instinctively raised a hand to block. Several glimmers of light flashed on her wrist as some protective Magic or tech device activated at the last possible moment. However, before Wu Liangchen’s overwhelming power, these hastily triggered defenses were as fragile as paper.

“CRACK!”

The sharp crack of breaking bone echoed, piercing the silence of the data center. The light from Butterfly’s device instantly faded. Her arm bent at an unnatural angle, and Wu Liangchen’s hand blade sliced unimpeded into her long, pale neck.

Blood gushed out like a bursting dam, splattering across the cold metal corridor and drenching Wu Liangchen. The shock and fear on Butterfly’s face froze in place. The light in her eyes faded rapidly as her once curvaceous, alluring body slumped to the floor, lifeless.

The goddess of the digital world, one of the Dome Group’s most mysterious executives, Butterfly, had been killed on the spot by Wu Liangchen with the force of a lightning strike.

Wu Liangchen didn’t spare the body on the floor a single glance. He had no time to waste. He spun around and charged toward the server racks, their indicator lights blinking.

BANG! BANG! BANG!

With a series of thunderous crashes, the expensive servers crumpled like paper under Wu Liangchen’s iron fists, smashed to pieces.

“WHOO—WHOO—WHOO—”

A piercing alarm finally blared throughout the data center.

“Enemy attack! Enemy attack! Intrusion in the data tower’s core sector!”

“Code-A alert! All combat personnel, report to the data tower immediately!”

The cold, synthesized electronic voice echoed from all corners of the data center.

The heavy, hurried thud of countless footsteps converged from all directions—the data center’s most elite security force.

Wu Liangchen paid it no mind. His destruction was methodical and brutally efficient.

Soon, every server on the top floor was utterly destroyed. Without pausing, he leaped from the platform—a drop of several dozen meters—and crashed down into the server array below!

“BOOM!”

With a tremendous roar, several rows of server racks toppled like dominoes.

The first guards to arrive opened fire without hesitation. A dense web of bullets tore through the air, converging on Wu Liangchen.

Like a phantom, Wu Liangchen flickered and dodged most of the bullets. Then, with a sweep of his arm, he ripped an entire row of heavy server racks from their moorings and hurled them at the guards like artillery shells.

“CRASH—”

A cacophony of screams, crunching bone, and crashing metal filled the air. In the billowing dust, the guards were instantly crushed into a pulp.

As the data center was reduced to a ruin, the entire network of Zhongjing crashed.

Countless active surveillance cameras went dark. Smart devices everywhere became paralyzed. Departments dependent on the network were instantly cut off.

Back at the base, Old Ghost shot up from his chair, his eyes glued to the massive screen in front of him, which had abruptly gone dark.

“He did it… Mr. Wu… He actually did it!” Old Ghost’s voice trembled with disbelief.

The Starfire Organization members behind him were stunned for a moment before erupting into a deafening cheer.

Old Ghost quickly issued the order.

“Commence the all-out counterattack, as planned!”

The members of the Starfire Organization, long prepared for this moment, surged into action across the city the instant they received the signal, like a tide swelling from the darkness. They disseminated evidence of the Alliance Government’s and the Dome Group’s crimes. They stoked the long-simmering public anger. They lit the first flame of rebellion!

The people, who had been oppressed to the point of suffocation and had long dared not voice their anger, were now free from the omnipresent surveillance and high-pressure deterrence. The rage in their hearts finally found an outlet.

They spontaneously took to the streets, gathering into raging torrents and clashing violently with the patrol squads sent to maintain order.

Rocks, Molotov cocktails, and makeshift weapons… pitted against the patrol squads’ standard-issue gear.

In an instant, the entirety of Zhongjing descended into chaos. Flames erupted in every district. Gunshots, explosions, roars of anger, and cries of pain filled the air as blood stained the cold streets.

The city, once thought to be an impregnable fortress, had become a chaotic battlefield in the blink of an eye.