23rd City was still brightly lit at two in the morning, and the revelry would not cease until four.
For the people of the Inner World Federation, the night was for partying, since their sleep time had long been reduced to 4 hours.
The Federation war did not seem to have affected the prosperity here. Each Conglomerate was also careful to keep the war confined to the wastelands.
Zheng Yuandong advanced along the streets, silently calculating the route Qing Chen gave him.
After the Guardians' Union arrived in 23rd City, they did not just develop the lower three districts. They also disguised themselves as civilians, thoroughly mapping out the streets, PCE Security Committee checkpoints, and Garrison Troops distribution points.
The route Zheng Yuandong was currently walking was carefully designed by Qing Chen. The Garrison Troops were unknowingly dispatched along his route, all to capture this one person.
In the second district, a banquet was underway.
The banquet was held on the top floor of the resplendent Lotte Hotel in the second district. A female celebrity in a long evening gown was seated at a grand piano, her fingers dancing across the keys.
The silver gown was studded with diamonds, making it exceptionally bright and dazzling.
In the dance floor, men in suits invited women to dance.Around the dance floor, hundreds of people held champagne glasses, conversing with smiling faces.
Outside the banquet hall, dozens of Garrison Troops soldiers stood guard, with even the restroom entrances guarded by two soldiers.
At this moment, a cleaner arrived pushing a trolley, and said to the Garrison Troops: "Hello, I'm here to clean the restrooms and change the air fresheners."
The Garrison Troops soldiers scanned him with a detector and thoroughly checked the trolley.
"Go in," the soldier said expressionlessly.
Just then, four middle-aged men arrived, chatting and laughing together. They glanced at the soldiers: "Do we need to be checked? It's just a trip to the restroom."
The two Garrison Troops soldiers quickly explained: "No need for you gentlemen."
These men were the scientists under Koshima's residential surveillance, ranked 3rd, 4th, 18th, and 19th. They were also social celebrities in 23rd City.
If it weren't for the special circumstances, Koshima would generally not offend them.
Even under residential surveillance, they would be treated with courtesy.
The four scientists continued to walk into the restroom, chatting and laughing. The soldiers listened to their laughter outside.
After a while, the cleaner pushed the trolley out, while the scientists' hearty conversation continued inside.
But a strange thing happened. One soldier whispered, "How long have they been in there?"
"5 minutes!" another soldier replied.
"Something's not right. Why come here to chat? I'll take a look!"
At the same time, in District 4 of 23rd City, a symphony orchestra was putting on a brilliant performance at the Hengluo Music Hall.
On stage, the orchestra's violins were light and lively, the cellos were deep and melodious. Hundreds of upper-class people sat in the audience, listening to the music with rapt attention.
Among them were 14 scientists, including numbers 1, 7, and 9, each of them a highly important academic authority.
They wore formal attire, with bow ties at their collars. The wives beside them, though older, all possessed extraordinary grace.
The fact that 14 closely monitored scientists had suddenly attended a concert together was itself unusual.
The Koshima intelligence department had immediately deployed forces to control the entire music hall. Hundreds of soldiers guarded every entrance and exit, carrying live ammunition and ready to shoot at any moment.
Under this tight control, hundreds of people were moving quickly towards the Hengluo Music Hall, weaving through the pedestrians.
Upon arriving at the main entrance of the hall, these hundreds of people exchanged glances and together put on red badges.
They dispersed, some ascending the steps from the front, others flanking from the side doors.
At the main entrance, hundreds of family members, from who knows where, had obtained twenty riot shields, which they held up in front of them, charging forward like a wall.
The 120 Garrison Troops soldiers guarding the main entrance immediately opened fire upon seeing the approaching force, shouting loudly, "Enemy attack! Requesting backup!"
Bullets rained down on the riot shields, but the C-Class and D-Class family members holding them remained unmoved.
The Garrison Troops also raised riot shields, preparing for a head-on confrontation.
In an instant!
With a bang, a sniper rifle fired from a distant rooftop, piercing through the riot shield and killing the defending soldier behind it.
Although the riot shield was bulletproof, it could not stop sniper bullets!
The hundreds of family members responsible for the frontal assault immediately drew their pistols and disrupted the guard formation at the door with a barrage of gunfire, steadily advancing behind the riot shields, while waiting for the snipers to help suppress the fire.
At the side doors, the Home Families simply raised their riot shields and charged!
In the Guardians' Union communication channel, Lu Yuan calmly said: "Main entrance secured."
Soon, someone said: "Side doors secured."
Lu Yuan: "Clear internal obstacles, pay attention to shield protection. They are not carrying heavy weapons, riot shields are enough to deal with all chaos. People outside, block the roads, and in 10 minutes, retreat into the music hall for evacuation."
At the command, more than two thousand people quickly gathered to block the roads.
This team included not only family members, but also Kunlun Members.
The sniper was also from Kunlun, with amazing marksmanship.
This force, including the disguised pedestrians on the streets, outnumbered the Garrison Troops several times over.
The operation to extract the scientists had turned from a covert snatch into an open robbery!
Moreover, this was no longer just a simple kidnapping operation; Qing Chen and Zheng Yuandong wanted to evacuate all these people to City 10.
The Guardians' Union had already attracted the attention of the Conglomerates. If they didn't leave, they were likely to be trapped in the city, surrounded, and hunted down.
Withdrawing now was the best option.
The Garrison Troops soldiers called for reinforcements, but by this time, the Garrison Troops had unknowingly been drawn far away by Zheng Yuandong.
They immediately dispatched 500 elite soldiers, abandoning the pursuit to support the music hall, estimated to arrive within 15 minutes.
The 23rd City's entry and exit gates slowly closed, and all the Metal Storms on the city walls were activated. Koshima intended to trap them like turtles in a jar, locking this team of thousands of people firmly within the city.
Thousands of people couldn't just vanish into thin air, could they?!
In just 5 minutes, Lu Yuan had already led his men to complete the invasion of the Hengluo Music Hall.
Masked, he stood on the stage and said loudly: "Ladies and gentlemen, please do not panic. We only want to take a few people with us. As long as you sit quietly in your seats, no one will be harmed."
As he spoke, Guardians' Union members supported the scientists as they quickly left, heading towards the backstage.
These people had been invited by the president and congressmen, but they still had doubts about the 21-year life extension, so they drew lots and selected the 13th scientist to verify it in City 10.
In City 10, the 13th scientist personally experienced the miraculous empowerment, and then called these people, gathered them together, and took them away.
To be honest, when the concert started, and they saw Koshima sending more Garrison Troops to the music hall, they had already despaired.
In Koshima's territory, who could take them away from hundreds of Garrison Troops soldiers?
It seemed impossible to accomplish.
However, when the battle began, these scientists were stunned to see thousands of people beating the Garrison Troops into retreat.
In the team responsible for taking them away, there were several C-Class and piles of D-Class family members.
The Garrison Troops had no room to fight back, and when their bullets ran out, they could only wait for death.
The Garrison Troops had also underestimated the intensity of the battle. They thought that in this Koshima political center city, even if there was a battle, it would be small-scale, after all, this was Koshima's base camp!
But who would have thought that, in order to take away a dozen scientists, the other side would launch a small-scale war in the city!
Moreover, where the hell were these people hiding before? This was too terrifying!
Backstage.
The Key Gate had already been opened. This time, it was smoother than ever, opening directly into the Garrison Troops barracks in City 10.
Lu Yuan said in the communication channel: "Evacuate!"
As soon as he finished speaking, the Guardians' Union and Kunlun Members outside the door poured into the music hall like a tide.
Everyone passed through the Key Gate in the backstage of the music hall in an orderly manner.
No one knew how long this operation had been planned, but from the moment it began, all tactical instructions flowed as smoothly as silk.
In the end, only Lu Yuan was left, not leaving.
Kunlun Members returned from the Key Gate, anxiously asking: "Team Leader Lu, what are you waiting for? Let's go?!"
Lu Yuan smiled: "You guys continue forward, I opened the Key Gate, I have to close it."
The Kunlun Members were stunned to hear this. He knew very well what it meant to stay at this time.
An old saying circulated in the Wizard inheritance: Do not be the one who opens the door.
The meaning was simple and easy to understand: the person who opens the door is responsible for closing it, the one abandoned by the world.
But there were always people in this world who were willing to be the last person to close the door, guarding the rear for everyone.
Lu Yuan looked at his subordinate's sad expression and smiled: "Don't worry, Boss has made a plan for me, I won't die."
Koshima's reinforcements arrived, and they looked at the empty main entrance of the music hall, finding witnesses to ask: "Where are they?! Which direction did they go?"
"They all went inside!" the witness informant replied: "I saw with my own eyes, their team of thousands of people all entered the music hall."
The Garrison Troops commander's heart sank. It's over!
This place has been hijacked!
In an instant, the commander's mind flashed back to the scene of a bank robbery with hostages. He thought that the Guardians' Union and Kunlun were going to hold this place to negotiate terms with Koshima!
It should be known that a place like the music hall could only be attended by high society figures, meaning that the hundreds of audience members in the music hall were all important people. How could he launch a strong attack?
But before the commander could come up with a plan for a strong attack, hundreds of people rushed out of the main entrance of the music hall.
The commander roared: "Control everyone, don't let anyone run away!"
The adjutant said: "These may all be audience members of the concert."
"The criminals may also be hiding among these people," the commander continued to roar: "Control them all and check their identities one by one!"
This commander wanted to block all ways of escaping from here.
But he felt something was strange. Didn't the criminals inside plan to take these hostages?
He found an official from the Tax Management Committee and asked: "Where are the criminals who went inside?"
The official said urgently: "They took some scientists to the backstage."
"All went inside?"
"Yes, several thousand people, all went inside!"
The commander secretly thought something was wrong, and he quickly led people to rush inside: "Follow me!"
However, when he rushed to the backstage of the music hall, it was empty, with no one there.
The Observer organization was low-key, and the True Sight Eye and Wizard inheritance they held were always very mysterious.
Few people knew what Key Gate was, and didn't understand the theory behind it.
At first, the Garrison Troops suspected that it was the Qing Family's Shadow Gate picking people up, but Shadow Gate could only be controlled by one person. They thought that this method might work for picking up one or two people, but it was not realistic to pick up scientists on a large scale.
But now, multiple points across the city were blooming, and so many scientist extraction operations occurred almost simultaneously, which was something Shadow Gate couldn't do.
More terrifying than Shadow Gate!
"It's over, it's all over. Thousands of people robbed people under our noses and escaped!" The commander's heart was filled with despair. He knew that he would face severe questioning from the intelligence review agency, and he would spend the rest of his life in prison!
"Check the identities of everyone outside, don't let anyone go," the commander said with a grim expression: "I suspect there are still criminals hiding inside!"
He recalled the message from his subordinates: a cleaner extracted four scientists in the restroom and calmly evacuated.
This incident contained a very important piece of information: the extractor himself could not leave through some mysterious means!
Otherwise, the cleaner would not have needed to escape with a parachute.
The commander found the truth: "Quick, verify their identities, I want to know all the secrets of this plan!"
At this moment, Lu Yuan was hiding among the upper-class figures, dressed in a suit.
He had worn a mask earlier to avoid being recognized at this moment.
However, contrary to his expectations, these upper-class figures did not break through the Garrison Troops' encirclement, but were instead controlled together.
"Damn it, I'm screwed," Lu Yuan thought with a wry smile.
Just then, he suddenly heard the roar of engines coming from the end of the street.
Immediately afterward, Lu Yuan saw his Boss Zheng Yuandong running wildly, attracting thousands of Garrison Troops in cars to pursue and intercept him, rushing towards him!
"Holy crap," Lu Yuan exclaimed.
The Garrison Troops commander was shocked to see this: "Quick, set up a defense line, don't let him escape!"
This man, who was attracting all the Garrison Troops in the city, was the target they had to catch tonight!
"Fire!" the commander ordered.
Zheng Yuandong held the black True Sight Eye and shouted: "May your happiness be as boundless as the East Sea, and your life as long as Nan Mountain!"
The Garrison Troops commander: "?"
What did that mean? In such a serious atmosphere, why would you suddenly say such a thing?
In an instant, everyone had no time to think, only feeling that they had suddenly flown up.
No, they weren't flying up, but the Force field within a hundred meters had reversed, the ground becoming the sky, and the sky becoming the ground!
The soldiers felt weightlessness in the air, and everyone fell towards the sky in panic!
In another instant, the Force field of the entire world returned to normal, and all the soldiers on the scene fell from a height of six meters, crashing heavily to the ground.
Zheng Yuandong had already arrived next to Lu Yuan, smiling and saying: "Just as Qing Chen guessed, you really couldn't escape."
"What about now? How do we escape?" Lu Yuan asked anxiously.
"Helplessly, flowers fall and fade away, yet like familiar swallows, they return," Zheng Yuandong recited.
The Garrison Troops commander got up, feeling pain in his internal organs. Then, he watched as Lu Yuan and Zheng Yuandong's figures transformed into hundreds of gray swallows, flying in all directions.
When the swallows dispersed, no one was left in place.
In one night, Zheng Yuandong used two S-Class witchcraft spells and one A-Class witchcraft spell in succession, announcing the reappearance of the Wizard inheritance, the most mysterious inheritance had re-entered the world!
23rd City was a mess. In just 3 hours, the Guardians' Union and Kunlun had extracted 20 scientists, each of whom was an academic authority.
Koshima suffered heavy losses.