Chapter 1 The Silent City

The shrill sound of alarm bells echoed across the entirety of City No. 7 in the early morning. The pattern was two long rings followed by a short one, very rhythmic. This wasn't an alarm signaling an attack, but rather a notification about the distribution of supplies.

Generally, this time of day was the busiest and most congested for City No. 7. The squares at various supply distribution points would be packed with bustling crowds. The complaints of the hungry civilians, the roars of the soldiers responsible for maintaining order, and the cries of children mingled together, the cacophony almost capable of overturning the sky.

But today, City No. 7 was shrouded in an extremely eerie silence.

The supply distribution alarm rang three times, yet not a single figure from the resettlement area was seen in the entire square. Only some trucks transporting supplies from outside the city slowly came to a halt. Some soldiers responsible for maintaining order and distributing supplies jumped off the trucks, their eyes full of confusion and bewilderment, looking at the empty square, unsure of what had happened.

"Hey, George, did you receive any notification about a curfew?" A soldier frowned, looking at a comrade walking from another direction, and said in an astonished tone, "Has the civilian resettlement area been sealed off? Why hasn't anyone come out?"

His comrade looked equally bewildered, shrugging his shoulders and saying, "We were responsible for patrols outside the city last night and didn't receive any orders about a lockdown."

Several soldiers gathered together. After a brief exchange, they immediately realized that the eerie silence was probably not due to an order from the city's higher-ups, but because… something unexpected had occurred!

"Immediately contact headquarters!"

"Go to the civilian resettlement area to investigate!"

"I'll go to the garrison barracks..."

The soldiers' faces were grim and their expressions solemn. They realized that perhaps during the time they had been away from City No. 7 last night, something significant had happened in the city!

On the Blue Planet of today, there were forces capable of wiping out an entire human city overnight. Several Apostles possessed such power. But what was frightening was that all of this had happened silently.

Even the most powerful Earth Apostle couldn't possibly kill all the humans in City No. 7 without making any noise.

This was a major human city, possessing nuclear-level power. Even if it couldn't win, it would still be able to cause a commotion!

The more the soldiers thought about it, the more alarmed they became, and they quickened their pace.

Their first target was the civilian resettlement area, the large building at the forefront. Before entering, the leading soldier scanned the building with a life energy detector.

"There are still some life signs inside the building, but they're very weak and sparse!" The leading soldier spoke extremely quickly. This discovery proved at least one thing: that something had indeed happened in the city. Many people in the resettlement area had died, but not everyone was dead. This city hadn't become a dead city!

Living people meant that they might be able to obtain some useful information from them.

Without much thought, the leading soldier strode into the dimly lit corridors of the resettlement building. As a powerful Mind-type Evolver, he felt a mental shock wave rushing towards him like a tidal wave the moment he stepped into the resettlement building. It was as if countless tiny steel needles were frantically piercing into his brain. Almost at the same time, his vision became distorted and changed. The dark corridor in front of him transformed into a magnificent and resplendent church.

He saw his girlfriend, who had died in the disaster, now wearing a pure white wedding dress, standing on the high platform with a happy smile, slowly reaching out her right hand to him.

"Mr. George, are you willing to take this woman before you as your wife, for richer, for poorer..."

A priest in a black tailcoat held a Bible and loudly recited the wedding vows.

The leading soldier stood there dumbfounded. He looked down at himself and found that the military uniform on his body had been replaced by a white suit at some point. Standing beside him were not his comrades, but his family, friends, and classmates.

They were all cheering and nudging him.

"George, answer the priest's question quickly!"

"Don't make your wife wait too long..."

"You rascal, what are you spacing out for at a time like this?"

The cheers and playful noises coming from the surroundings made it difficult for George to distinguish between illusion and reality. He looked at the bouquet of flowers in his hand, hesitated for a moment, and then walked towards his wife with a happy smile on his face.

Just then, George suddenly felt his legs stagger, and his body fell straight to the ground. At the same time, an extremely intense pain came from his legs. The feeling was so strong that it rushed directly from his limbs into his mind, as if a steel chisel had been ruthlessly inserted into his head, shattering everything in front of him.

The magnificent church shattered, the body of his wife was torn apart, and those friends and family around him disappeared like reflections in a mirror.

George's vision was once again occupied by the dark and cramped corridor of the resettlement building.

"No, no, no, no... don't go, don't go!" George's voice was terrified and flustered. He stretched out his hands and grabbed wildly in front of him, as if trying to grasp those illusory images, but in the end, everything in front of him completely disappeared.

Intense pain came from his legs. He looked down and saw that everything below his knees had been completely shattered, revealing gruesome bone fragments and shredded flesh.

Outside the corridor of the resettlement building, several soldiers who had not yet stepped inside were aiming their guns at his knees, the muzzles still slowly smoking.

Clearly, it was the bullets from his comrades that had forcibly pulled him out of the illusion.

George was an Evolver, and the location of his life flaw was not in his legs, so his companions didn't need to worry when taking action.

*Pa!*

A special steel cable shot out from the gun of the soldier behind. The top of the steel cable had a claw-like hook. The hook caught George's arm and dragged him straight out of the building.

George also reacted. There seemed to be a kind of mental magnetic field inside this building. Once you entered this range, you would involuntarily be subjected to mental radiation. Even Mind-type Evolvers would find it difficult to resist the invasion of this mental magnetic field and would instantly fall into an illusion.

"Pull!" The team member outside the door roared and forcefully dragged George out of the corridor. At the same time, George saw a soldier lying pale on the left side of the corridor, less than a meter away from him. Although the other party's aura was also weak, he was still alive.

With quick eyes and hands, George endured the pain and grabbed the soldier's ankle, enduring the intense mental shock around him, and forcibly dragged him out of the corridor.

A few seconds later, George and the soldier were dragged out together. When the surrounding companions saw this, they were about to rush up, but George stretched out his hand and said sternly, "Don't come over!"

"Don't approach us!"