Devouring World Dragon

Chapter 230 Insignificance
Inside the sealed metal room, the middle-aged man known as Number 166 stared at the display screen in front of him. His assistant had already pulled up the video feed, and he frowned as he looked at the video.

"What is this?"

This is a surveillance video, but apart from the monitoring time indicator in the lower right corner, it is just a blurry image with mottled light spots everywhere, and nothing can be seen clearly.

"It's not just this surveillance camera, but also this, this, and this..."

The assistant beside him frowned, speaking urgently while his fingers flew across the keyboard. Then, in front of number 166, a series of windows popped up, each containing numerous surveillance videos showing only scattered, mottled spots of light.

The assistant clicked on a few of the videos and then said.

"These are surveillance cameras in several blocks near the Manhattan World Tower. Within a span of about 10 minutes, several cameras were affected for unknown reasons, and the subsequent footage only showed static. I live in this area and am quite familiar with these places. These blocks are connected, and the order in which they were damaged is consistent, as if something was moving nearby."

Manhattan?

When he heard the word, Number 166's expression remained unchanged. He just pondered for a moment, but something immediately came to mind.

Just now, Manhattan has been confirmed to have suffered an unexplained incident. Everyone within a radius of several kilometers around the World Tower has inexplicably disappeared. Yes, they have simply vanished.

If there were explosions, destruction, bloodstains, or corpses, the man could barely understand it as a terrorist attack similar to 9/11 last year. But the problem was that there was nothing there. Everything was unchanged. Cars, buildings, road signs, streetlights... everything was intact, except for all living things.

Whether inside a building, sitting in a car, human, cat, or dog, all life vanished 17 minutes after the solar anomaly.

Conservative estimates suggest that 100,000 people have suddenly disappeared. How could such a thing happen in bustling New York?

Thanks to the images of the unusual solar activity, all network communications were disrupted. The media and citizens may still be confused, but the government had already noticed it. Just two minutes ago, No. 166 was informed of this on the internal network.

Now, strange news is suddenly coming from a place that has been confirmed to be deserted. How could he not make connections to this?
"Is there anyone we can contact near the World Tower? For example, could we get some shadow units to scout around?"

After only a moment's thought, Number 166 made a decisive decision and asked directly.

The assistant shook his head.

"There aren't many shadow units capable of responding to a nuclear strike. Our 163 Institute is deep underground, so the impact is relatively small. But most of our units are now paralyzed. They're either not in New York or they're special forces, and they probably need authorization from the Secretary of Defense or the combatant command."

Number 166 is in a bit of a dilemma. Requesting authorization from the Pentagon for a situation of uncertain value is probably not worthwhile.

"Ring ring ring... Ring ring ring..."

Just as he was hesitating, suddenly, in a corner of the room, the red telephone that had been sitting there for years but had never rung rang.

Number 166 looked surprised, and his assistant beside him was equally astonished. That red phone number had never been dialed, nor had it ever been mentioned, but everyone knew the significance of that call.

The red phone was still ringing. Number 166 placed his hand above the phone, but inexplicably felt his heart pounding. He took a deep breath and solemnly answered the phone.

"Okay... um... definitely..."

Speaking into the phone, Number 166 looked serious, listening intently to the voice on the other end and nodding repeatedly.

After putting down the phone, Number 166 looked up and said to his assistant.

"Send the 7th Air Rescue Team to Manhattan."

……

"A bunch of lunatics."

As he gazed at the sun, which had set but then rose again, the gaunt man cursed as he realized that his fingers holding the cigar were trembling slightly.

When was the last time he was afraid? It seems like it was more than ten years ago.

Since he sat in that coveted position, he had long forgotten what fear and powerlessness were. The Freemasons' power to do whatever they wanted was beyond even the Priory of Sion's comprehension.

For a long time, the Freemasons and the Priory of Sion jointly held power in the underworld, though the Freemasons were more concerned with worldly affairs, while the Priory of Sion was content with managing the underworld. The two behemoths fought and compromised with each other, and sixty years ago, they even united to fight against the German Führer who held the key to the world.

When Uberto Bruni, this Italian name, came into their view, the Freemasons were more interested in the technology he possessed than the World Key, because this genius had demonstrated his wisdom to them. Before him, even the massive Freemasons were nothing more than bloated and sluggish fat. Having all their information and secrets known, the Freemasons were like flies swatted with a cannon; any plan could be deciphered, and they could never catch this genius.

This ability to utilize information surprised the Freemasons. The Freemasons were not lacking in intelligence; they could know all the secrets at will. However, they could not extract what they wanted from that massive amount of information. At the time, it was widely believed within the Freemasons that this genius possessed some technology that was several generations ahead of humanity.

But as the pursuit deepened, the Freemasons realized that this incident was not simple, and the fact that their centuries-old rival, the Priory of Sion, had been destroyed overnight also made these leaders back down.

No matter how powerful they are, and how many terms they are given to them, such as "extremely intelligent," "incredibly powerful," or "shadow government," they must all be preceded by a prefix—"human."

The Freemasons are ultimately just humans, and humans are capable of things they cannot do.

Louis, who proclaimed himself God, the unlocked key to the world… Regarding these things that had transcended human capabilities, the Freemasons even seriously discussed the possibility of using nuclear bombs to bombard the entire city of New York. And ultimately, just before the Freemasons tried to stop them, those madmen released something truly extraordinary.

Others may not know this, but the Freemasons have far more information than the average person.

The sun in the sky, the anomalies in Manhattan, the dragons seen by citizens before these events occurred... Even though Louis turned the area around the World Tower into his palace, the Freemasons could not know the details, but they still managed to deduce the cause of the events.

That madman who calls himself a new god has finally made things spiral out of control.

He had no desire to get involved with these lunatics. He couldn't care less what the religious fanatics of the Priory of Sion thought, but Freemasonry was more about a comfortable life than the pursuit of self-destruction.

The destruction of the Priory of Sion served as a great warning to the Freemasons, but they ultimately underestimated that power and did not anticipate that the power within the World Key could achieve such a feat.

Is it that force moving the sun?

Looking at the sun on the horizon, Roman's face turned pale.

Only by understanding the immense power embodied in this act can one realize one's own insignificance and fear. Before such power, both the Freemasons and humanity are utterly insignificant, negligible in comparison.

……

new York.

Although they lost the ability to communicate, people still had their tongues to spread messages, and soon the anomalies near the World Tower were spread through these tongues.

"There's not a single living person left near the World Tower..."

UFOs? The end of the world?

Not long after the doomsday prophecy of the terrifying demon king, and just over a year after the 9/11 attacks, various events have aroused people's curiosity, and many versions of rumors have spread through word of mouth.

But the rumors didn't spread for long because government police arrived.

"Why should you do this?! What right do you have to do this?!"

Faced with police eviction and clearance operations citing "dangerous area" as the reason, some young people shouted in dissatisfaction, but the only response they received was the police's silence and riot shields.

Despite the commotion, most people complained a bit and then had to leave. Of course, some overly active individuals were swayed by the police's "professional persuasion skills," but ultimately the process went relatively smoothly.

"Rumble..."

Just as the crowd was leaving, several jet fighters roared overhead...

"Joseph has arrived at the designated location. Repeat, Joseph has arrived at the designated location. Over."

Joseph, piloting the fighter jet, stared intently at the instruments as he spoke.

A cacophony of sounds could be faintly heard nearby.

The fluctuations caused by the sun will not subside in an instant; on the contrary, the abnormal activity of solar flares has only just begun to be triggered, and even this short-range communication industry is extremely difficult.

"Attention to radar display... Repeat, attention to radar display, over."

Amidst the noise, a teammate's indistinct reply could be heard.

Normally, one shouldn't be carrying out a mission when the conversation is so unclear, but how many times have people like them actually carried out a mission correctly?
Even though it was dangerous, we had no choice but to bite the bullet and go for it.

Now that there are no remote instructions, all that remains to be seen is how well the five of them can cooperate and adapt to changing circumstances.

The five men knew very little about the mission; they were ordered to carry out reconnaissance almost hastily, leaving them completely unaware of the situation. Before takeoff, they were given vague instructions such as, "Only conduct reconnaissance; record everything you see; return immediately if there is any danger."

As things stand, the five of them were rushed into taking off without even understanding what they were supposed to be investigating. This bizarre situation was a first for them.

"What exactly are you asking me to investigate?"

Joseph felt a moment of silence.

But when he looked down at the radar, he suddenly paused for a moment.

"Joseph calling David, repeat, Joseph calling David, radar alert..."

A huge, flashing dot appeared on his radar.

(End of this chapter)