My Ability Pool is Superior

Unlike the isolation, coldness, and deathly silence of outer space.

At this moment, the forward base had completely fallen into a riot.

More and more civilians raised the rebel army’s banner, constantly inciting fellow bottom-layer civilians to join them in resisting the City Association’s hegemony.

Initially, the Unified Management Committee’s attention was entirely drawn to the starships in low Earth orbit, with no spare energy to handle the rioting civilians.

Having missed this optimal window for suppression, it had now reached an irreparable state.

If someone flew over the forward base now and looked down, they would be shocked to discover that, centered on the forward base, conflicts of varying intensities were erupting everywhere within a thirty-kilometer radius.

Muzzles spewing tongues of fire, burning firelight, and occasional explosions.

The crowd was like madmen, charging at any personnel with a City Association background they saw in front of them.

Vastly outnumbered, the soldiers were powerless even fully armed.

When the riot began, the armed forces were distributed across various areas for stability maintenance, and there was no unified command from high-level officials at the start.

This led to the soldiers fighting individually when the riot first broke out.

Their highest organization was at the squad level, and they had not yet formed up.

Facing civilians surging from all directions, they collapsed almost instantly.

By the time Lu Bai resolved the starships in low Earth orbit and the Unified Management Committee finally turned its gaze to the disturbance at the forward base, it was already too late.

Staff, ordinary civilians, rebel army, armed forces… personnel of all identities were mixed together, turning the scene into utter chaos.

Even the residential area under drone swarm supervision had not found peace.

Possibly drawing on advanced experience gained from the previous large-scale riot.

To avoid another blanket strike from the drone swarm, many people directly set buildings ablaze, even using gasoline drums seized from who-knows-where.

Rolling thick smoke spread over the forward base, and the reduced visibility further intensified the chaos.

Thermal sensing alone couldn’t identify targets in the thick smoke, so to avoid friendly fire, tens of thousands of drones could only hover overhead, wasting power.

“Everyone stop! Squat down and put your hands on your head!”

“Fuck you!”

A fully manned armed squad of sixteen had barely assembled amid the chaos and hadn’t contacted superiors yet when, after scolding an arsonist, they were riddled with bullets from muzzles hidden in the darkness.

Immediately after, rebels hidden in rooms and tents rushed out, annihilating the entire armed squad at the cost of over a dozen casualties.

No time to mourn their fallen brothers, they quickly seized the soldiers’ firearms and armed the survivors.

Now there were people and potential rebels everywhere.

As long as there were weapons, there were no shortage of users.

Even those who hadn’t initially planned to join the rebel army would feel killing intent rise with a sharp weapon in hand; a few rallying words were enough to steel their resolve to fire.

In the end, to ensure the underground city’s operational efficiency, the City Association couldn’t avoid exploiting the surplus value of bottom-layer civilians.

Over time, every bottom-layer civilian harbored resentment toward the City Association; it was just a matter of degree.

As more civilians became armed, the difficulty and cost of suppression skyrocketed.

Eventually, fully armed rebels began launching attacks toward the central district where the forward base was located.

Particularly the building housing the Management Committee Office, guarded by few but equipped with formidable firepower, directly turning the thirty meters of space in front into a meat grinder.

Masses of severed limbs and arms littered the ground, with corpses nearly covering the entire road.

Clearly, this wasn’t the rebels’ first assault on the Management Committee Office; previous attempts had only left piles of corpses without success.

Even though the Management Committee Office still seemed impregnable, the clerks inside were still panicked and frantic, desperately contacting their superiors.

If not for lacking the authority, the clerks would have dearly wanted to directly summon Cheng Zhi Wu to guard the Management Committee Office.

Yes, in fact, the Management Committee Office in the forward base was currently just a shell.

The Unified Management Committee’s members were only remotely commanding from the shelter and had not yet returned to the surface.

The only member currently at the forward base was Pu Xueli, who had temporarily applied to join the Unified Management Committee.

But he was still at the combat command center discussing subsequent war matters with the Mona people, showing no intention of returning to take charge.

As the saying goes, misfortune never comes singly.

The forward base wasn’t only plagued by widespread riots; the exterior was equally uneasy.

Notably, the town rebels, who had previously suffered a head-on blow, had not been scattered and fled.

Instead, under that clear-eyed young man’s efforts, they had regrouped.

Of course, their numbers had indeed taken a hit, totaling less than ten thousand at most.

But this was no bad thing.

Forged by artillery fire, this rebel army had been further purified.

The rebels still willing to gather around this clear-eyed young man were basically those ready to give their lives to tear a chunk from the City Association.

Bolstered by strong martyr spirit, they instead exuded the flavor of a desperate force bound to win.

Led by this clear-eyed young man, they swiftly crossed that three-kilometer-diameter pit and headed straight for the forward base.

When they discovered the forward base had already descended into intense chaos without their intervention, this unexpected joy faintly revealed a ray of hope for victory.

New strength surged in their previously exhausted bodies, boosting their marching speed by another thirty percent.

This allowed them to reach the forward base perimeter much earlier than planned.

The combat command center hadn’t taken these rabble seriously; after completing frontline deployments, the pre-set second line of defense was directly redirected to suppress the riot.

This allowed the rebels to encounter no obstruction and smoothly penetrate the forward base’s rear.

“That’s the armory!”

A sharp-eyed one immediately spotted the sign outside one of the warehouses.

This rebel army’s biggest problem was lack of weapons; faced with this near-free opportunity for equipment, how could they pass it up? They swarmed toward it.

Only about twenty guarding soldiers, plus completely unanticipated rebels appearing from this direction, ended the battle in three minutes.

The young man’s eyes now blazed with surging firelight: “We have grasped the bargaining chip of victory.”