The Demonic World I designed-Chapter 681 - 671: A One-Sided Situation!

Hou Liming had never imagined that things would escalate to this extent. Since the establishment of the Central Federation, there had never been a coup, not even once. It was an event so unprecedented that it was absent from gene memory.

Not just him—perhaps even his own elderly father lacked such awareness. Those peasants actually dared to stage a coup!

Moreover, the result... was more astonishing than he had imagined.

In less than four hours, four districts had been locked down by heavy military forces. Mid to high-ranking officers received no news at all, and most were placed under house arrest. This mobilizing power surpassed everyone’s expectations.

Scions of the great houses, just like Hou Liming, were initially dumbfounded. Were these peasants out of their minds?

"What’s going on, Elder Hou San?"

Countless video pop-ups came through, all voicing their queries, "Didn’t you say that Xuu Min, that dog, had already agreed? How could it turn into such a mess? How are we supposed to clean this up now?"

"Where did these peasants get the guts from? They must be suppressed. Have we given them too much face or what?"

"But so many lower-level soldiers are also involved. Suppression of all of them? Wouldn’t that cause chaos?"

"Use the disintegration program, execute only the ringleaders, and issue warnings to the rest. Are we really going to compromise with these dogs?"

The noisy voices were about to make Hou Liming’s head explode.

But most people shared his opinion. It seems they really had given too much face to those peasants. How could they dare to do such a thing? Did they really think they had grown strong wings?

As he was thinking, an elderly voice interrupted many others.

"Have you ever considered what they are relying on to make such a bold move?"

Everyone paused. The speaker was an elder from the Xuu family, who, despite his advanced age, had been forcibly kept by the clan to preside over affairs. He was quite dissatisfied with this arrangement, considering it overly cautious. But now, it seemed too conservative; the issue was far more serious than he had anticipated.

"What do you mean, Elder Xuu?" Hou Liming frowned and asked.

"Haven’t you considered that they might have already dealt with the disintegration program?" The elder Xuu looked at the group of young council members still not grasping the situation and was momentarily speechless. He really didn’t know how these people were brought up by their families.

"How could that be possible?" Hou Liming almost instinctively began to argue.

The others also reflexively objected, "Yes, that disintegration program is securely locked down, those people don’t stand a chance of getting close to it, and it’s preserved in a distributed fashion. If something goes wrong in one place, we’ll immediately notice it. How could they possibly get away from it?"

Elder Xuu looked at this group of people with their resolute yet insecure demeanor and couldn’t help but sigh.

At this point, what good was it to shy away from the problem?

Yes, the security protocols of the disintegration program were meticulously designed, and according to the original logic, it would be impossible for outsiders to breach it. Otherwise, the Central Federation couldn’t have remained stable for so many years. But there’s nothing absolute; he didn’t know how the other side managed to silently eliminate that threat.

But to launch such a large-scale coup, how could they possibly do it without having neutralized this threat? They weren’t fools...

Amidst the sighs, messages from soldiers quickly arrived: in the Digital City’s Western District’s database area, those responsible for guarding and organizing the data had all been killed, and a vast amount of the disintegration programs had been destroyed!

Upon hearing the news, the entire council’s network fell silent!

Many had considered this possibility, yet they still couldn’t believe it. The security mechanism that hadn’t failed in a million years was failing today... Was this some cruel joke by the gods?

"How dare they..." Hou Liming’s eyes were bloodshot, ferocious like a wild beast.

Everyone else also became anxious, knowing that without the dissolution program, the situation had seriously escalated. freewēbnoveℓ.com

"Immediately order the special combat troops of the Immortal Executioner Realm to return to their ranks and suppress this at once!" Hou Liming snarled, "These dogs, not a single one should be spared!"

"Nonsense!" Before anyone else could agree, Elder Xuu rebuked him first.

"What do you mean by that, Elder Xuu?" Hou Liming looked taken aback, with an ugly expression on his face.

"Haven’t you seen the state of things? Do you really want to destroy the Central Federation before you’re satisfied?" Elder Xuu said sternly, "Four major city districts, in just four hours, have been completely sealed off. We received no message from all the mid to high-rank officials prior to the encirclement. Do you have any idea how weak our control over the lower ranks has become? Now that the city defense troops haven’t been deployed, do you not understand what that implies?"

Many people fell silent. There were armed forces in each city district, but they showed no intention of confronting the situation. To say that they were all controlled was simply unrealistic; the only possibility was that they had been persuaded to defect.

What did this signify?

The low-ranking soldiers, the armed forces within Digital City, had all joined in this coup d’état!!

How dissatisfied must they have been?

Elder Xuu sighed inwardly. Over the years, the scions of noble families had become increasingly excessive, their manners increasingly unseemly, particularly in their exploitation of the lower ranks to maintain the energy required for several virtual worlds. It was a classic case of the straw that broke the camel’s back. There might have been no outbreak on a normal day, but resentment and dissatisfaction had accumulated bit by bit. Otherwise, how could it be that as soon as someone took the lead, such an effect was achieved?

"So what?" Hou Liming said sharply, "Most of the power among the upper echelons is still in our hands. As long as the special forces from the virtual realms regroup immediately, these ragtag mobs can be dealt with in an instant. Once Xuu Min and the others are captured, will those below dare to make trouble?"

These words made some people look somewhat relieved. Indeed, the noble families had monopolized resources for so long that the elite combat strength they had accumulated was incomparable to that of the civilians.

"Heh... regroup..." Elder Xuu scoffed, "I issued the regrouping order an hour ago. Would you like to guess how many have responded by now?"

His words chilled everyone to the bone, and Hou Liming was stunned, "What... What does that mean?"

Having to explain such common sense, Elder Xuu felt even more disappointed in these young people, and with a sigh, he said, "Do you really think that we, the scions of noble houses, are of one mind? In this New World crisis, Chen Qing has released a million places, but who was sent there first? Do those who stayed behind not have their own opinions? When it’s time to share benefits, they are asked to stay behind, and now when trouble arises, you want them to undertake this operation to suppress the lower ranks and take the fall. Do you think everyone is as foolish as that?"

"They just don’t care anymore?" Hou Liming said in disbelief, "If the family falls..."

"What if it falls?" Elder Xuu said sharply, "Do you think everyone is like you, rising by relying on the family’s benefits? Most of those who stayed behind are fringe members of the families, who climbed up step by step on their own in the virtual worlds. For them, the noble houses are less important than an opportunity in a new world. If this rebellion succeeds, they won’t face any retribution. On the contrary, if they come forward to suppress the unrest and end up being blamed by the common people afterwards, what then? This simple power dynamic, do you think those who fought their way up didn’t think of it as you did?"

"This..."

Elder Xuu’s words poured down like a pail of cold water, thoroughly extinguishing the flimsy rage in everyone’s heart!

"Are we just to compromise then?" Hou Liming asked, unable to believe it.

"Even if we wanted to compromise, it still depends on whether they are willing!" Elder Xuu said with a cold laugh, feeling that these people still hadn’t understood the situation.

The current situation was much more severe than these youngsters realized. Public resentment had completely erupted, and the fringe members of the virtual worlds were sitting on the fence, enjoying the chaos; some might even be direct participants.

Most crucially, how had the dissolution program been breached?

To suggest that Xuu Min and his group did it on their own was something Elder Xuu refused to believe. It was laughable, considering that even someone of Zhang Zhengyuan’s caliber hadn’t been able to access any information about the dissolution protocol. Xuu Min and his bunch, therefore, stood no chance of breaking through this critical safeguard on their own.

Only an external force could have had the opportunity...

Almost without thinking, he knew it must have been Chen Qing’s doing—Mister Wang who remained here!

But how could an outsider have managed this?

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