Chapter 369 311: Hive, Activate War Mode... Go to War with the Daqian Dynasty

A few moments later.

"...This is a bit of a surprise!" Chu Bamboo said, his expression complicated as he gazed at the calm and peaceful Union Headquarters building.

He had expected to see a scene of utter destruction, with bodies strewn everywhere... He had even prepared for the worst—

'As long as we can preserve some of our key members and the basic organization, it'll be a victory!'

Chu Bamboo had actually dug a number of external escape tunnels within the Union. If a real war broke out and they were at a severe disadvantage, they could use these tunnels to escape. Combined with the Union's groundwork in the redevelopment district, it would guarantee they could blend in and hide within the area to the greatest extent possible.

But... Chu Bamboo quickly realized something. His expression turned serious as he issued a few new orders.

A few breaths later, the drone feed showed him what he was looking for. Near the Union Headquarters, the drones had locked onto one suspicious, muscle-contorted target after another... as well as some burly, powerfully built men with a military bearing who looked completely out of place in the entire redevelopment district—

These individuals would occasionally look up at the drones, but they didn't react... From the looks of it, they seemed to have mistaken the drones for their own.

'I see!' A look of understanding dawned on Chu Bamboo's face. 'These must all be Body Cultivators... and some of the surrounding military forces.'

He subconsciously glanced at his phone. As expected, no one had called... 'That's right. If the Union was being assaulted, Li Xuan would have definitely called to let me know. Unless... Li Xuan was taken out in an instant!'

But the odds of that were really low.

'It's possible Eunuch Huang's side realized this too, and since they don't think the Union is all that important... they decided not to spook the snake!'

'Maybe they're waiting to capture me before they make a move on the Union... If that's the case!'

After a moment of contemplation, Chu Bamboo suddenly looked at Little Mushroom Head and said, "Nuwa No. 17, if I call someone... I won't be eavesdropped on, right?"

"Theoretically, it is possible. In practice, there are no records of such eavesdropping within this unit's current authorization scope," Nuwa No. 17 replied in her usual manner.

Chu Bamboo paused for a second before it hit him. 'She means that if someone issued an order to Nuwa No. 17 to do so...'

'...as long as the person giving the order had sufficient authority, she could do it.'

'But then again, in Daqian—or more precisely, in the area of Jinghai City under Nuwa No. 17's authority—anyone who views Nuwa as a Divine Being would never issue an order for her to eavesdrop!'

'Doesn't that mean I have another cheat code?' Chu Bamboo's expression grew even stranger. After a moment's thought, he added, "Nuwa No. 17, if any of the surrounding Official Captain's Offices, or say, the eunuchs, make a call... record all their verbal communications. I might need to review them."

"Yes!"

Chu Bamboo nodded and quickly dialed a number.

"Hello! Chief—"

"Don't talk," Chu Bamboo cut Li Xuan off, his expression calm. "Follow Emergency Protocol: Plan Three. Execute immediately."

Then, Chu Bamboo hung up. The so-called Emergency Plan Three was the emergency escape plan.

Under his control, the drones circled the headquarters building. Chu Bamboo even detected some new drones and silently usurped control of them, but he didn't reveal his hand immediately. Instead, he chose to...

"Nuwa No. 17, you should be able to create some virtual video feeds, right?" After receiving an affirmative reply, Chu Bamboo stated his request precisely: to feed these virtual videos to the drones to mislead their operators.

Chu Bamboo waited quietly until the building was completely empty...

But outside, although they sensed something was slightly off—for example, why were there so few guards at the entrance now?—they didn't take the initiative to attack without receiving orders and with the drones detecting no anomalies.

Letting out a long breath, Chu Bamboo hesitated for a moment, continuously swiping across the light screen. When he scrolled to Zone Three, in the direction of the church, he was stunned to find that there were no drone light pings there.

"...So, they aren't actually monitoring the church right now?" Chu Bamboo was a little confused. 'Logically, there's no way the Officials could have failed to uncover my association with Zhang Hai, right?'

"Wait!" Chu Bamboo realized. 'That's right, even if they know, the God Worship Sect and Daqian aren't part of the same system. And judging by the exchange between Hu Kaikang and Governor Su... the God Worship Sect is clearly at odds with Daqian!'

'If I think of it that way, the God Worship Sect is a force I can also leverage?' Chu Bamboo hesitated. In the end, he still didn't dial Zhang Hai's number. He pulled up Huo Qiming's contact information but didn't press call. 'After all, the most Huo Qiming can do right now is protect himself... and he's probably being monitored!'

Chu Bamboo looked again at the dense cluster of light pings on the screen. Just as he was about to tap it, a thought occurred to him and he gave a wry smile. "For some reason, this suddenly feels like... I'm playing Red Alert? How absurd!"

He slapped his cheeks, his face showing a surge of fighting spirit.

"Let's give them a fight then!"

Chu Bamboo didn't expect to win the first wave. Or rather, even in the best-case scenario, at most he could only take down Jinghai City... and use his superior firepower to wipe out the three legions of the Donglin Army stationed around the city...

But that wasn't a big problem.

As long as he could gather enough information, it would be a success...

In any case, time was ultimately on his side.

"Hive... can you deploy the drone carrier now?"

"Now retrieving current base status. Integrity of the base's super-large drone carrier elevator is at seventy-nine percent... operational!" Hive's voice was as steady as ever. "Warning! Warning! The drone carrier's maintenance is not yet complete!"

"Then, once the maintenance is done, let me know..." Chu Bamboo trailed off, then paused before continuing, "and then take the one Z-3 that's been repaired, load it with full ammunition, and put it on the drone carrier... while you're at it, load the rest of the usable ammunition too! Leave all the inoperable Z-3s behind!"

"Command received."

After that, Chu Bamboo waited quietly until... all preparations were complete.

Chu Bamboo looked at the Official personnel, still relaxed and oblivious to the fact that the Union they were monitoring was just an empty shell. He sighed. "What a bunch of good-for-nothings... Still, when I think about them being my enemies, I'm actually a little relieved!"

'It's true, what's that saying about real life... most of the organizations you run into are just a motley crew?'

Chu Bamboo cleared the distracting thoughts from his mind, his expression turning stern. "Hive, initiate war mode! Let's bring out our drone carrier and put on a show."

"All unmanned machines at the entrances of the special prisons in Zone Two, begin the attack! Rescue Li Kang and Wall Announcements!"

The next instant.

「At the entrance of the Zone Two special prison.」

The eyes of hundreds of drones and mechanical dogs flashed with a terrifying, piercing red light.

A mechanical dog at the very front suddenly splayed its legs, and a small, fist-sized sphere dropped from its belly. It rolled across the ground at high speed, rushing toward the prison.

Then, it shot under the main gate!