Chapter 271 - The Weapon Is…
It took a few seconds before it finally registered in their brain.
The shocking and confusing request didn't make any sense.
Lowengren observed their observation.
"Let's see if that Commander who was already impatient ought to try to kill me." Lowengren hoped.
"Your what?" The Commanders all seemed shocked at Lowengren's statement.
"I have to bring this. I believe I will die in the Caliphates. So why not die with my precious toys. I did export a great effort to acquire this secretly." Lowengren shrugged off.
"And if possible, send me more of this! I need at least another box. You have the connections! Wait. I decided! Bring me more of this! And it has to be colored black!"
"ARGH! I'll kill him!" One of the Commanders suddenly ran towards Lowengren.
"Perfect." Lowengren smiled.
Lowengren quickly opened a small portion of the Cube of Lightning, and it created a powerful burst of electricity that began to attack all the Commanders and the Fleet Admiral.
Several powerful force shields blocked the sudden emergence of the lightning bolts, and everyone retreated.
The shocking power of the lightning collided with the force fields and was slowly piercing the shield.
ZAAAP!
The force field of the Commander at the forefront of the attack shattered. The Commander raised his Exoskeleton arms, which transformed into a large shield to block the lighting.
The Commander was stunned at the development.
"Stop!" Magantae shouted. Her force field was also close to collapsing.
"We will buy dildos!" She shouted in panic.
The lightning field disappeared as Lowengren flicked the turned top part of the Cube and closed it. But right before all the lighting energy could disappear, a single bolt struck Lowengren.
ZAAAPP!
"Ugh!" Lowengren stumbled down.
"Madman!" The Fleet Admiral called out. It was clear that the weapon could immediately kill Lowengren as well. On their perspective, a stray lightning energy struck Lowengren.
"Don't aggravate him! We could die!" Magantae ordered. It was the first time she was afraid of the man before him.
However, on Lowengren's end, he was also cursing.
The chaotic lightning should not have harmed Lowengren. The lightning attack that Lennox contained in his cubes had some form of sentience and would avoid the user who activated it. Activating the Cube itself was only possible for those above the Surmounting Unbecoming stage of the Unlocking. This allows the Lightning energy to avoid attacking the wielder as the various signatures that only an Unlocked could release.
But who would have thought that this one had energy programmed specifically to attack Lowengren?
Lowengren stumbled down. The Lightning energy had the ability to create pressure that it was as if a large metallic pole struck Lowengren.
And this pole aimed for Lowengren's nether regions.
Lowengren stumbled down.
"This is for tricking me into this deal. Don't worry. This will happen the first time you use a Cube. The other cubes can detect if you've already been kicked. Enjoy my products." A strange thought emerged in Lowengren's head.
"Lennox…" Lowengren wept.
Right before he left, Lowengren managed to procure several materials from Lennox for free through deception and lies.
The pain was so immense that Lowengren almost dropped the Cube, and he couldn't even hear the words that the Commanders were shouting at him.
"You're crazy! You'll kill us all!"
"We'll buy those damned dildos! Stop it!" The Fleet Admiral pleaded.
The lightning energy vanished as Lowengren was kneeling on the ground and the Cube was closed.
"Admiral… His techs are amazing. We've known that the WGP was after Lennox's alleged techs. And now we have proven it! This is something that the Emperors have been researching! If we acquire that and gift it to them…" A Commander secretly sent a message to Magantae.
"Right…"
Lowengren was still in pain as he knelt down and concentrated on forcing his brain not to process the pain. But the jolts of electricity would stimulate his nerves and force him to feel the pain. As he was in this state of torture, he couldn't hear the words of the Magantae.
"General Vender Hirock! We will accede to any of your requests! As long as you give us that! Give it to us!"
"My genitals!" Lowengren whimpered in pain.
"I should have known!" Lowengren cursed at his own foolishness. He received a weapon from Lennox but should have known that Lennox would not allow his pride to be trampled on so easily.
"My genitals! The target was my genitals!"
"We're after that weapon! Why would we want your genitals?!" A Commander cursed out.
Lowengren then realized what was happening. He was silent for a bit and used Advanced Recall. He was so focused at the pain that he didn't hear what was being discussed and used Advance Recall to remember what the group talked about.
Lowengren then cursed at the misunderstanding.
But something unusual occurred because Lowengren remembered Alean's words.
"Was this still part of her prediction? Wait… The group genuinely believed my words… Do I deny it. Or use it?" Lowengren pondered.
"Deception is based on truth. I cannot deceive without having any basis for the truth. Perhaps my words can be used to mislead them further…" Lowengren pondered and realized what easy way he could use to deceive the enemies.
"Do I really have to do that?" Lowengren gritted his teeth.
"That weapon! We want that weapon! Give us the weapon, and we can assure you we will accede to whatever wild request you have!"
Lowengren cursed. He now had a way to explain perfectly why the WGP can't activate the Cube. This was one of his fears in revealing this tech. The Cube of Lightning would be miraculous in the eyes of the WGP. He had to make an excuse for why they couldn't study it.
"The weapon is my genitals!" Lowengren explained.
"WHAT?!"
"What do you think is the root of this technology?" Lowengren challenged.
"New Great Britain's Lightning Rod tech." The Fleet Admiral patiently answered.
"Well? What do you think the Lightning Rod of this weapon is?" Lowengren countered.
There was silence.
The WGP team couldn't answer this challenge. They had little knowledge of Lightning Rod technology is.
"You mean…"
"Why did you think I wanted you to purchased Lightning Rods?" Lowengren reminded.
"Lightning rods?" The group wondered. And then realized what he meant.
"The Dildos!"
"What's going on?!" The Fleet Admiral demanded.
Lowengren simply laughed.
"You've been playing us a fool! Those dildos! They are weapons, aren't they?" Magantae accused.
"Of course! Do you think that I would easily trust Fleet Admiral Intrik! I purchased these weapons as a secret weapon! It was perfect! That stupid Fleet Admiral wouldn't know what hit him if he tried to betray me! But now that he didn't even intend to give me the medical supplies he was supposed to give me, then I'll go in there and Bolt his wife and kid! I'll fry him, and I'll even make them lightning rods!" The mad Lowengren laughed.
The Commanders were slowly retreating at the madness that this General presented.
"This General is dangerous!" Commander Drinths suddenly sent a secret message to everyone.
"Yes! We've all been played the fool! He would have succeeded in using us to purchase the materials without even knowing!"
The Fleet Admiral couldn't help but admit.
"So the dildos were your aces?"
"Yes. Lennox was a genius. He gave me the means to do this! He is claiming that General Jacob might have been involved in kidnapping his daughter. And seeing me, a kindred spirit, he decided to help me. I promised him to give whatever information I find to him. As payment, he gave me these cubes and crafted them to have mysterious techs that only I and the Lieutenant General can use!." Lowengren revealed several metallic cubes, which caused the Commanders to retreat even further.
"The Dildos were modified to have strange materials that actually become great rods that fortify and redirect the lightning! Of course, there is something necessary to activate it. Something that I won't tell you. But as you can see, the drawback is that it will hurt me!"
"Then the burns on your body… They are-" The Fleet Admiral asked.
"Yes. You guessed it. It's caused by using these weapons. Me and the Lieutenant General has used Lennox's Cube several times. One Cube has enough energy to destroy forty high-tiered Exoskeletons at your level!"
"You're insane!"
"I'm desperate! This is the perfect weapon for me! A man in desperate circumstances hoping to save my daughter has a weapon that can put to shame the pride of the WGP! I even had to sacrifice my body and hide it in a place which isn't suspicious!" Lowengren slowly stood up and proudly revealed the slightly burnt area on his lower body.
Everyone wanted to turn away to avoid this sight.
"Give us the techs that Lennox gave you. I have already reported your case to my mother. I can urge her to increase her support for you."
"Kill General Jacob, and you might get Lennox's support. He could even provide these materials directly! Of course… he might not trust you. After all, your coworker used my desperation and betrayed me. And Lennox sympathizes with my situation. We are but fathers looking for a way to save our daughter!"
The Commanders and the Fleet Admiral looked at each other.
"Fine. We agree to support you. There's a medical bay on our ship to help you and the Lieutenant General heal while we travel."
"I accept. But don't test me, Fleet Admiral. If I even get a hint of your betrayal, I'll use these to blow you all up! If you noticed, the Cube was not even opened all the way! If I were to release all the energy this Cube has, you could be sure that that shield of yours won't even prove helpful!" Lowengren boasted as he fiddled with the Cube and revealed another one on his other hand.
The group subconsciously retreated.
"By the way, this Lightning energy is controlled by me. Now that you revealed you guys have force fields, it can arc and hit you on another location. You guys only have single directional force fields, right?" Loewngren laughed.
"We will do our part. But you have to allow us to study a single tech."
"Be my guest." Lowengren threw one metallic Cube.
The group panicked and almost dashed out when the metal cube fell quietly on the ground.
"Are you guys idiots? Didn't I just explain it? It needs the lightning rod, and it needs… well… me. I gave the cubes to my team to study, and they couldn't make any heads or tails with that. Lennox seemed confident with the complexity of his tech. So a smart man like him must have done something with that weapon that you can't even activate. The only way to activate it is if I do. But I won't since it will… punish me."
The group couldn't understand why such a crazy method was necessary.
"If you're wondering, why that place… It was Lennox's idea! And he had a point. No one would expect that place to be the lightning rod source." Lowengren explained.
"Pick it up!" The Fleet Admiral finally ordered.
There was an awkward pause as the Commanders didn't know who would pick it up.
The Commander in the forefront froze for a solid second before rigidly moving to pick up the Cube.
As he held it, he confirmed that it wasn't an arm and detected no energy leaking out of it.
"Shall we? Lieutenant-General needs treatment. And I'm not in perfect condition myself." Lowengren urged.
The Fleet Admiral moved and accompanied Lowengren. The team began to move towards the medical bay.
"Also, since you guys have already attacked a base, I recommend not using it. The security there ought to be tougher. And besides, I have a contact down south that can get us in easier. Head for The Southern Saudi Fifth Fortress."
"We have our ways of going inside." A Commander scoffed.
"No. That place sounds perfect. If he has contacts there, it would be easier. We have already created an action that should have caused Intrik to investigate. But he didn't. Why? We have to be cautious. We follow General Lander's suggestion."
Alean was placed inside an enclosed pod to heal her. At Lowengren's request, her mask was not removed. Her body was under extreme exhaustion. Lowengren knew that this was because she overexerted her Path, and it somehow caused immense pressure on her body.
The WGP couldn't understand Alean's condition. One of the Commanders was a trained doctor and continued to check on Alean's status and concluded that it was indeed the plague that was causing her body to go through immense catabolism.
The moment the Commander found that the Lieutenant had a strange form of cancer cells, he immediately increased the quarantine protocols and kept her in a pod.
Lowengren refused being placed in a pod and requested injectable, edible, or drinkable medications to help speed up her healing process. The Commander could not give any comment as it was reasonable for Lowengren to remain on guard.
As such, medicines and MREs were provided for him. But Lowengren did not take any and simply stared at Alean's pod.
Soon, several commanders arrived carrying a box of dildos. There were more boxes now as the Commanders managed to procure more in the short time they had.
Some of the Commanders were tinkering with the box full of dildos that Lowengren owned.
One of the Commanders touched the dildos with his bare arms to curiously access the dildos that hid the strange technology of controlling the cube lightning.
"So this is the rod?" The Commander praised.
"You're a very impressive man, General. To think I just saw you as a sick pervert." The Commander, who nearly tried to kill Lowengren, couldn't help but praise.
"Did you pick that up the pile? I hope it's not the one we used after you left earlier." Lowengren emotionlessly answered.
The Commander dropped the dildo.
"Wha-what?!"
"I mean… it's already there. Why wouldn't we use it? Why would I tell my wife I had an affair if it wasn't true?" Lowengren asked.
The Fleet Admiral quickly followed and stood behind Lowengren to ensure that his soldiers wouldn't attack.
The Commander wanted to rip Lowengren limb from limb, but the Fleet Admiral stopped him and ordered them to make their preparations immediately.
"Enough! Make preparations! We leave for Fifth Fortress." Magantae urged everyone out before someone would start killing each other.
The group quickly finished their preparations and the large building that they had transformed into a strange vessel that had now submerged in the Red Sea. It began its journey to the other side of the Red Sea.
Lowengren was soon left alone in the room.
Lowengren looked on at Alean and was lost in thoughts.
"It went too smoothly." Lowengren reflected on how he managed to get to this point through his deception.
"I always plan my lies. But now that I went with the flow... it was... too coincidental. How did I succeed without plans?" Lowengren had accumulated his victories because his wisdom and wit accompanied his lies. But at that point, he was without plans, and yet it didn't even cost him much apart from getting kicked on the nuts by lightning bolts.
"Arthur and Seeker said that my Path would not have been complete without Alean's Path. And just now, her actions paved the way for my success. Just what is her Path?"
Lowengren had long noticed that his lies often coincided with coincidences. As a constant person who would enter the Zone in his games, he knew that luck was essential to achieve Zone. But what Alean had was not only luck but a sense of direction that could dictate favorable circumstances in the future.
"It's not luck. Just what is it?" Lowengren continued to think.
"My Path can only grow stronger if I understand this Zone. Overcomers have it, and this turned Arthur's Pseudo Path into a real one. I had received a portion of this through Seeker. But what is it?"
Lowengren gave a deep sigh and glanced at the pod where Alean was.
"It looks like it would be harder for me to deceive you… Oh well…" Lowengren shook his head and began to eat the MREs of the WGP.