Deposed? I couldn't be happier! I wouldn't even be a dog to the crown prince.

The clock tower at Daming Palace struck 10 p.m.

The deep, resonant sound of bronze pierced the cold night sky of Chang'an.

It transforms into waves of physical sound.

It slowly surges and ripples amidst the endless neon lights of the city that never sleeps.

The illuminated clock at the top of the clock tower ticks precisely on the hour.

【22:00:00】.

The pale white digital light froze at the highest point of the entire capital city within a microsecond.

It was reflected in the eyes of countless people who looked up and gazed at it.

The shock of the precise power outage, within that millisecond, was like a cyber tsunami that struck without warning.

It swept wildly across all network segments along the elevated optical cables throughout the entire Tang Dynasty territory.

In the virtual world of "Second Chang'an".

In the holographic brothel of Pingkangfang, a young nobleman spends lavishly, embracing the most beautiful courtesan and drinking nuptial wine.

One second I was enjoying the ultimate sensory pleasure and a tipsy feeling.

next second.

Before me lay magnificent pavilions, fine wine, and beautiful women.

It instantly turned into a blinding red light.

The red light was dazzling.

It's like a bloodstained dagger.

It forcibly fragmented the entire virtual world into countless tiny pixel blocks.

It's not just them.

A madman wielding an energy particle blade in a virtual battlefield instance, his eyes bloodshot as he fights his enemy to the very last moment.

A huge red exclamation mark suddenly popped up in the center of his vision.

[Anti-addiction protocol 2.0 activated. Your underage or illegal deep-diving certification has expired, and the system will force you offline.]

The forced pop-up gave these mortals, who were addicted to the pleasure of data, no time to react.

The original code of the Tian Shu backend has an irresistible and domineering attitude.

It transforms into a high-load digital iron clamp.

detach their consciousness from endless virtual vanity.

Forcibly stripped back into the cold, numb, even frostbitten body of reality.

That feeling of your soul being forcibly torn apart.

The entire city's countless players experienced a momentary blank in their cerebral cortex for one ten-thousandth of a millisecond.

"What's going on? My land transactions aren't settled yet!"

"Are all the people at the Cyberspace Administration of China dead? Why is the entire stock market up?!"

The cries of despair in the real world subsided after two milliseconds.

Like a volcanic eruption.

Countless roars and curses, filled with shock and anger, erupted simultaneously from every corner of Chang'an.

Those privileged sons who used to lie on their armchairs and act like immortals.

One by one, they tumbled awkwardly off the cushions.

They ripped the holographic helmets off their heads with all their might.

Looking at the completely blacked-out metal casing, he was so angry that the veins on his forehead bulged.

"Go and call Manager Cui here! I just recharged 500,000 credits, and they've already cut off my power?!"

Inside a secluded club owned by the Lu family.

Several young men, their faces flushed from drinking.

He smashed the celadon wine cup in his hand in a frenzy.

Debris was scattered all over the smooth alloy floor.

It produces a harsh, physical friction sound.

They are used to using money to pave the way.

But faced with the Crown Prince's unreasonable twenty-two ironclad rules.

Even a wealthy family's gold bricks couldn't buy a single, basic string of characters.

This collective frenzy and fear.

Following the main street of the capital city.

It spread into the deeper, darker areas of the sewers.

In the shantytowns of the slums.

Those men who hide in their cubicles and act like lords, relying on illegal neural pathways.

At this moment, he suddenly trembled violently on the straw mat.

The illegal blocking agreement forcibly tore apart their deep bond.

Many people are like that in the first second after opening their eyes.

Then, with a loud "whoosh."

He vomited out large chunks of dark blood mixed with acid.

"The fairyland is gone... Where's my divine wine? Who clipped my wings?!"

A dockworker desperately banged his head against a mud wall.

The physical impact produced a dull thud.

The mud peeled off in large patches.

His fingernails dug deep, bone-revealing bloodstains into the wall.

The immense contrast between the ultimate bliss and the reality of falling from blissful ecstasy back to the ditch in an instant.

They have broken their fragile sanity.

Within this minute.

It drove them to a state of utter madness and despair.

In a side hall of the Taiji Hall.

Li Shimin tore off his imperial helmet.

Looking at the dashboard, which had turned back into a ghastly gray interface.

He was breathing heavily, lost in thought.

"Chengqian...that kid."

They said they would cut off the power at 10 o'clock.

They really didn't give me even a fraction of a millisecond more.

I was just a hair's breadth away.

"Then we can buy that holographic Lingyan Pavilion!"

The old man narrowed his eyes slightly.

The skin on his face was twitching violently.

But deep down, he felt utterly frustrated about his millions of dollars in special beach funds.

"Your Majesty, His Highness the Crown Prince is simply handling official business."

Look.

The core waveforms of those variants in the west of the city have now been completely severed by Tian Shu.

Changsun Wuji wiped the cold sweat from his face and nervously handed over the latest security report.

The red lines on the screen that were originally moving erratically at high frequency.

As the ten o'clock bell rang.

They were all suppressed to the lowest point by a cold, lifeless blue straight line.

Technically enforced addiction withdrawal.

Although their eating manners were unsightly.

But in the end, within a second, the entire capital was pulled back from the brink of riots.

"Have Meiniang handle the market stabilization matter at the central bank first thing tomorrow morning."

"I get a migraine just looking at this glowing box!"

Li Shimin waved his hand weakly.

This stopped Changsun Wuji from making further attempts to test him.

He rubbed his temples wearily.

Listening to Wei Zheng's loudspeaker outside the hall, which had finally stopped.

All I felt was the dramatic ups and downs of that night.

It was even more exhausting than the Battle of Luoyang back then.

Technology has put a noose around the neck of the Tang Dynasty.

Tighten by one inch.

He was the emperor.

He would break out in a cold sweat under the power switch for his son.

Across the Pacific Ocean.

The interior of the main control cabin in Hawaii.

The intense sirens have completely subsided.

Li Chengqian casually tossed the Coca-Cola can, which had melted down to just syrup, into the food processor.

It makes a creaking, grinding sound, like metal being shredded.

He pushed up his black aviator sunglasses on the bridge of his nose.

Looking at the large screen, which showed an offline rate of 99% across the entire network.

A cynical yet cold smile played on his lips.

"Your Highness, the thirty-six illegal nodes that the aristocratic families built on the dark web have now all been exposed to Tian Shu's scanning matrix."

Wu Zetian's holographic projection stood aloof to one side.

In those beautiful phoenix eyes.

It gleamed with a shrewd confidence that victory was assured.

"They wanted to transfer assets before the line went down."

The legal entity IDs of the last twelve special workshops in reality were also written into this overstocked grid.

We can carry out physical confiscation at any time.

"Since they've even sent their underwear over, the national treasury will gladly accept it."

Li Chengqian lay back down in the soft, comfortable beach chair.

Place your hands behind your head.

Listening to the familiar ebb and flow of the tide outside the cabin.

The voice was still so lazy.

"but.

The old man will definitely be so angry tonight that he won't be able to eat dinner.

Tell Tian Shu.

Tomorrow, I'll send two "Yuanyu Huaqing Pool Free Trial Vouchers" to his top-tier leek account.

We need to let our chairman know.

The anti-addiction system of Donggong Palace.

That's also full of humanistic care.

"Your Highness, please stop teasing His Majesty. An urgent coded telegram just arrived from the Wannian County government."

Wu Zetian couldn't help but laugh.

But when she pulled open the top-secret message stamped with the Tang Dynasty dragon seal...

The smile on his face froze instantly.

"Those refugees who rely on the cheat codes of their families to delve into the depths of their neurons."

After consciousness was forcibly stripped back to reality.

A significant number of people experienced a strange, backlash-like spasm in their cerebral cortex.

This forced stripping of consciousness brought terrifying aftereffects. Inside a luxurious mansion on Suzaku Avenue, the sounds of shattered porcelain and agonizing screams, like those of a wild beast, echoed.