Desperate people, accept the seed of my soul!

"Ten seconds left in the countdown."

The operator's voice rang out in the command vehicle, carrying a mechanical coldness.

The red numbers on the screen began to jump—10, 9, 8—each number striking the heart of everyone in the carriage like a heavy hammer.

"All units, prepare." Zhou Zhengqing grabbed the walkie-talkie, his voice brimming with confident assurance. "On my command—"

His words came to an abrupt end.

The screen on the command vehicle suddenly jerked violently, as if it had been slapped hard by an invisible hand.

All the surveillance footage turned into static at the same moment, a white blur, and even the infrared thermal image of the Emperor Club disappeared without a trace.

A piercing electrical noise came through the headphones, and the previously clear troop reports—the captain of the first company reporting that the riot shield array had advanced to fifteen meters from the main gate—were instantly swallowed up by the noise, leaving only the crackling electromagnetic howling.

"What's going on?!" Zhou Zhengqing slammed his hand on the control panel, the metal surface making a dull thud. "The signal's been jammed? Investigate immediately!"

The operator frantically typed on the keyboard, his fingers flying across the keys, and a fine layer of cold sweat instantly appeared on his forehead, glistening in the pale light of the screen.

He typed three sets of commands in a row, then unplugged and plugged the network cable back in, and finally slapped the side of the monitor hard, as if hoping to slap the system back.

The screen still only showed static; not a single word could be displayed.

"Detective Zhou!" His voice was filled with obvious panic. "All communication channels are messed up! The main channel, the backup channel, and the encrypted channel are all paralyzed!"

The drone signal was lost—both drones lost contact. The last frame showed the window on the top floor of the Geely Emgrand Hotel, and then the screen went black!

The walkie-talkies are malfunctioning! All frequencies are being suppressed, and the power is ridiculously high—at least ten orders of magnitude stronger than our own jamming equipment!

Li Cheng's expression changed drastically.

The veteran detective's reaction was almost instinctive—he reached for the spare walkie-talkie at his waist. It was an old-fashioned analog walkie-talkie independently configured by the Zhaoming City Public Security Brigade, unaffected by the digital encryption system, and theoretically usable even if the main channel was completely disconnected.

He pressed the call switch and held the walkie-talkie to his ear, but all he could hear was a buzzing sound of electricity; not a single word could be transmitted.

The static hum rose and fell, like something breathing in the channel, sending chills down your spine.

He pressed it twice more, but still nothing happened.

The signal indicator light on the walkie-talkie, which was originally green, has now turned red and is flashing, as if it's sounding an alarm.

"It's all down." Li Cheng put down the walkie-talkie, his voice low. "Even the analog channels have been suppressed."

This is not ordinary signal interference—ordinary jammers can only suppress digital signals, and analog channels are much more resistant to interference than digital channels.

The only system capable of simultaneously suppressing both digital and analog signals is either a military-grade full-band suppression system, or—”

He didn't finish his sentence, but Zhou Zhengqing understood what he meant.

It's either the ability of an awakened being.

There is a member of the Fire Seed Squad who can manipulate electromagnetic waves.

Liu Zhen—the holder of the power of electric energy surge—in the battle at Yunyin Manor in Lieyang Province, he precisely paralyzed the entire manor's power supply system and communication network from hundreds of meters away, and tore the Five Mountains Society's Faraday cage into scrap metal.

If he were nearby right now, he would be perfectly capable of turning the communications of the entire block into a mess in seconds.

But Zhou Zhengqing rejected this idea as soon as it came to mind.

No—Liu Zhen's ability is to manipulate electrical energy, not electromagnetic waves. Although electrical energy and electromagnetic waves originate from the same source, the precision of their manipulation is on completely different levels.

To precisely suppress all communication frequency bands without affecting other electronic devices, extremely precise control over the electromagnetic spectrum is required, which Liu Zhen's electrical energy oscillation cannot achieve.

This is not him.

What happened?

Before Zhou Zhengqing could figure it out, a loud thud came from outside the window.

This was followed by panicked shouts from soldiers, their voices shrill and piercing, the kind of cries that only come from extreme fear: "Enemies! I can't see anyone! Who fired the shot?!"

Then two gunshots rang out, the sound exploding in the narrow alley, the echoes buzzing against the walls.

Then came the sound of metal clashing—someone had knocked over a trash can, and the sheet metal rolled twice on the ground, making a loud clanging sound.

The four guards outside the command vehicle instantly tensed up.

These four men were all trusted confidants that Zhou Zhengqing had brought from Lieyang Province. Having experienced the two operations at Yunyin Manor and Qingyun Horse Ranch, they knew far more about the methods used against Awakened than ordinary security guards outside.

Unlike the greenhorns outside who opened fire in a panic, they quickly formed a defensive circle back to back, cautiously scanning their surroundings with submachine guns in hand.

The night vision goggles only revealed the green outlines of buildings and the neon lights reflected off the exterior of the Emperor's Clubhouse; in the distance, several blurry figures could be seen running.

Those must be the security guards on the outskirts, running in the opposite direction of the gunshots, clearly panicked.

There was nothing else.

But the feeling of being watched lingered.

The hairs on the back of the necks of the four guards stood on end; a kind of instinct honed from years of military service told them that danger was nearby.

But even with their eyes wide open, they couldn't see a single person—this feeling was even more terrifying than seeing the enemy head-on, because you didn't know where the other party was, when they would attack, or how they would attack.

All you know is that he's there, like a cat crouching in the dark watching a mouse, and you can't tell if you're the cat or the mouse.

"Snap—"

The guard standing at the northernmost point suddenly felt his helmet hit hard by something, so hard that his head slammed forward and his chin hit the neck guard of his bulletproof vest, making his teeth go numb.

The impact sound was amplified inside the helmet, like someone ringing a bell next to his ear, buzzing incessantly.

He turned around, raised his gun, and fired almost reflexively, completing the three actions in a fraction of a second. The muzzle flash exploded in the night, and the bullet, trailing a tracer, grazed past another guard's ear.

The guard was so close he could feel the heat of the bullet as it cut through the air before it struck the nearby trash can, leaving a finger-sized hole in the metal sheet, sending sparks flying, and the bullet embedded itself in the brick wall behind it.

"Are you fucking crazy?!" The guard whose ear had been grazed instantly turned red in the eyes. Adrenaline transformed his fear into rage, and he raised his hand to point his gun at his comrade.

His finger was already on the trigger, just half a pound more to fire a burst of bullets. "Where are you shooting? You want to kill me?"