In this cyberpunk era, why are you still playing the traditional villain?

"So, it's time to send you all to your deaths."

As she spoke, she lightly touched the ground with her toes and leaped up to stand on the head of the giant sandworm, with flashing electric light flowing from her fingertips.

Tang Shuang's expression was solemn.

Su Lin can sense an opponent's strength by her aura, and so can Tang Shuang.

So she never let her guard down from the very beginning, because she knew that this eerie woman with a pale face was also SS!

It's infuriating! Are SS (Super Item) items so worthless now? They used to be so hard to find...

More importantly, as an S-rank, she already had little chance of winning against the giant sand worm. Now, with another one appearing, it's no longer a question of whether she can fight back, but whether she can leave with a complete corpse.

No matter how confident she was, the gap in ability was undeniable, forcing her to confront the issue.

But she wouldn't back down—in this situation, all she could do was buy time for the reinforcements, buy time for Xu Shi. Even a second more would be a gain in this crisis.

and so.

Undeterred by the enemy's strength, Governor Tang has launched an attack!

A dozen or so "Cloud Glasses" were thrown out and converged at a single point in the air.

"Ah."

Upon seeing this, the woman in the veil merely sneered disdainfully, extended a finger and drew it downwards, causing a bolt of lightning to strike down from the sky without warning.

The lightning struck the steel ball precisely, instantly turning it into fragments, effectively neutralizing the explosive force and reducing it to a harmless firework.

"If that's all the attack can do... then it's far too weak."

Her tone was full of sarcasm, "You might as well just die obediently, and I'll consider making your death more dignified."

As they spoke, more bolts of lightning struck down.

In an instant, the roles of offense and defense were reversed.

This was to be expected. The gap between S-rank "Ascensionists" and SS-rank "Ascensionists" is already huge, and the slight advantage gained by striking first cannot be made up for at all.

"whispering sound."

Tang Shuang gritted her teeth, but had no choice but to abandon the attack, try to increase her speed as much as possible to avoid the dense lightning strikes, and then wait for an opportunity to counterattack.

Amidst the deafening thunder, she could vaguely hear the woman in the veil speaking in broken sentences.

"Run! Run faster! Run like a mouse!"

"The threat threshold has reached a critical point... activate the elimination plan."

"You don't really think you can defeat 'natural justice' on your own, do you?"

"Executor: 'β', Expected clearance level: 100%"

Upon hearing the other party's words, a mixture of madness and mechanical ramblings, Governor Tang was speechless.

Damn it, is this guy a lunatic?

Of course not. Her clashes with "Tianli" over the past few years have taught her that most members of this organization are in this state—possessing their own thoughts and abilities to act, but also being manipulated by higher-ups behind the scenes at any time.

In other words, it's just different people using her as a mouthpiece to speak, but they sound so ridiculous that she doesn't know how to respond.

Fortunately, she did not degenerate into a pampered noblewoman in Night City during these three years. On the contrary, she never gave up on training herself and improving her supernatural abilities.

With her physical functions at their peak, she is still the same head of the inspection bureau who always leads from the front. Although it is difficult to hide, she is still able to hold her own.

She even had time to multitask, extracting useful information from the other person's words.

First of all, this is the first time that the so-called "Purgers" have appeared in front of everyone. From the hooded woman's actions, she can also analyze that compared to the "Overseers" who can only subtly influence the plot of each region, their duties are obviously simpler and more brutal - to eliminate the abnormal existence in the region, which is the so-called forced intervention.

It was obvious that their appearance was considered extremely unusual in their eyes, and they were even willing to send two SSs at once to completely eliminate these "heretics".

However, whether such behavior was solely due to their "arrival in the Azure Cloud Immortal Realm and their intention to interfere with the regional structure" or a causal consequence of Xu Shi's actions over the past three years remains to be discussed.

Tang Shuang herself was more inclined to the latter, after all, it seemed a bit unreasonable if it were the former - during this period they had not only interfered with the Qingyun Immortal Realm, there were dozens of other areas before that... Why didn't this happen then, and why did it have to happen now?

Is the Azure Cloud Immortal Realm superior to others? Or is there something special about this place?

Based on the information we have so far, it doesn't seem so... But if it's because Xu Shi interfered with too many areas, causing the bottom line of "natural law" to reach a critical point, then it seems to make sense.

However, from a personal perspective, she would prefer the first scenario.

The reason is simple: the "cleansing reaction" produced by intervening in a single area is far less severe than the outbreak caused by long-term accumulation. To give a simple example, when the inspection bureau was cracking down on gangs, if it was just a warning, they might fire a shot into the air to scare people at most. But if it was three warnings, the bullets would actually hit people.

With their current achievements, or rather, with the achievements they have made, are they really capable of handling this level of "purge"?

This is what worries her, so naturally she doesn't want the so-called decisive battle to happen now.

Unfortunately, wishing can't change anything, and she herself knows that the latter is more likely—sending out two SSs at once, no one would believe that "Tianli" wasn't serious.

This also illustrates another issue.

Is the overall strength of "Tenri" really declining step by step, just as Xu Shi predicted?

Before encountering this situation, Tang Shuang naturally thought so too. After all, everything that "Tianli" had shown before was proof of this fact—whether it was the initiative to abandon the Hualan Empire or the indifference to the "Star River" Federation's large-scale crackdown on "Observers" in various places in recent years, it was all a signal of weakness.

But what if all of this... was just a trap to lure the enemy in?

If that's the case, it would be terrifying—because does it mean that everything they did before was just a futile effort based on their own assumptions?

Just as the "Star River" Federation was thriving, such a devastating blow suddenly struck. It destroyed not only their efforts, but also their spirit and will, along with a large amount of resources they had invested.

Tang Shuang also understood some of the dirty tricks of those in power, and knew that at this time, letting everything fall apart was the most ruthless move. After all, when people's will is destroyed, the possibility of replicating such a feat is probably infinitely close to zero... Especially when a lot of sunk costs have been paid, even if people are still willing to do it again, there may not be enough resources to support them to do so.

In other words, if they fail here, they will never be able to recover!

Realizing how bad the situation was, she quickly organized the information she had gathered and immediately planned to send it to Xu Shi so that he could prepare in advance.

"You dare to get distracted?!"

Tang Shuang's multitasking angered the woman named "β", and her expression visibly twisted.

next second.

Not only did lightning strike, but the giant sand worms she was stepping on also began to move.

"babble--"

Instead of releasing small sand crickets to harass and attack, it sprayed out a vast expanse of yellow mist in an instant!

This undoubtedly made it more difficult for Tang Shuang to evade.

To be honest, both the "β" and the giant sandworms' attacks can be described as simple, without any fancy moves whatsoever.

However, as the saying goes, brute force can overcome any technique. Given the difference in strength, even such a simple move still gave Governor Tang a headache.

To reiterate, even in a war of attrition, she would be worn down and killed by her opponent.

at this time.

"Tang Shuang!"

A shout came, and the next moment, Tang Shuang saw a figure flash behind "β" and bring down a slash without hesitation!

The opponent seemed unable to dodge in time, and caught off guard, the blade struck his back, tearing his robe and revealing a small patch of pale, paper-white skin.

Who else but Su Lin could do that?

Lin Yue followed closely behind and came to her side to stand shoulder to shoulder.

"Why are you here?"

Tang Shuang asked subconsciously.

"Then I'll go?"

Su Lin landed a successful blow, then quickly moved to her side, still in the mood to joke.

"...Since we're already here..."

Governor Tang chuckled lightly, inwardly feeling slightly relieved.

It's always better to have three S-class soldiers fighting side by side than to fight alone.

It seemed they realized something was wrong, so they left Mosuo and a group to resist the insect swarm, while they chose to go with her and capture the leader first.

"...A rat is a rat, even its tricks are so low-class."

Despite being caught off guard and having her private parts exposed, "β" didn't show any anger; instead, her eyes gleamed with excitement.

It's clear that, given her absolute strength, she doesn't mind having a few more opponents.

"be careful."

Tang Shuang didn't slack off; instead, she kept it brief and briefly explained her discovery to her two good friends.

"Two SS-rank..."

Su Lin seemed to understand something upon hearing this, "...Alright, no matter what, we must buy ourselves some time."

She couldn't say for sure that holding on until the appointed time would break the deadlock, but she also believed that if there was anyone in the world who could turn the tide, that person would only be her young master.

"Nobody's scared, right?"

She breathed a sigh of relief and gestured for Tang Shuang to tell Xu Shi about the situation.

"of course not."

Tang Shuang and Lin Yue spoke in unison.

"Then fight!"

Director Su spoke with a firm and resolute tone, his eyes filled with determination.

"Oh ho?"

Hearing her say that, "β" smiled.

It seems to be mocking their overestimation of their abilities and their blind self-confidence.

"That's quite courageous, but unfortunately, a rat's courage can't change the fact that it's a rat."

She intensified the frequency of the lightning strikes, and together with the giant sandworms, tried to turn this place into a dead zone.

Her mouth was also busy.

"Or rather, even if you do manage to grasp that slim hope and defeat me, so what?"

If you listen carefully, you can almost hear a hint of regret in those words.