The Anti-Terrorism Mobile Team was under surveillance.
This meant that the fact Li Chang’an could train Transcendents had likely been leaked.
The only thing that remained unclear was which faction had discovered his secret.
Seeing the worry in Anna’s eyes, Li Chang’an stroked her hair. "Don’t worry. This day was bound to come sooner or later, wasn’t it?"
Anna was still clearly worried. She was no longer a child, and she knew what it meant for news of the Extraordinary Breathing Technique to spread.
She didn’t say anything, simply nuzzling against him again and greedily inhaling his warm scent. "No matter what happens," she said, "you have to take me with you!"
Li Chang’an patted her head and smiled. "You’re my strongest trump card. Of course I’ll bring you along if anything happens!"
After a few more words, Li Chang’an turned and left under Anna’s reluctant gaze.
The moment he was out of Anna’s sight, the smile vanished from Li Chang’an’s face, replaced by a cold, stern expression.
’Who is spying on the Anti-Terrorism Mobile Team?’
’Who dares to spy on the Anti-Terrorism Mobile Team?’
’And who *can* spy on the Anti-Terrorism Mobile Team?’
Asking these three questions led to only one possible answer.
’Even a place as heavily guarded as the Anti-Terrorism Mobile Team’s base is being investigated.’
’The Advanced Technology Group may seem inactive on the surface, but in reality, they’ve probably already sent people to turn Yunxiao Group upside down.’
Fortunately, Li Chang’an was not entirely unprepared for this.
Anything the Advanced Technology Group could find was something he had allowed them to find.
In reality, Yunxiao Group’s greatest trump card wasn’t the Anti-Terrorism Mobile Team, but Li Chang’an himself. He alone was an army.
...
The sun rose and set; the seasons turned.
A year passed in the blink of an eye. Li Chang’an was now twenty-two, and it had been a full twenty-two years since he’d arrived in this world.
This year, unlike in the past, he didn’t devote all his energy to research.
Instead, he began going to the Anti-Terrorism Mobile Team’s headquarters every day to teach, explaining his insights on the Path of Genetic Extraordinary and the Martial Dao—starting with the basics before moving to advanced concepts, and then revisiting the fundamentals from a new perspective.
And yet, high-tech products from Yunxiao Group and Night City continued to erupt onto the scene, constantly bringing earth-shattering changes to the global landscape.
To resist Yunxiao Group’s disruptive, paradigm-shifting attacks and to retaliate for the humiliation they had suffered, the other major corporations took the rare step of uniting to pass a series of technological, economic, and trade sanctions.
Specifically, these sanctions strictly forbade any region from providing technological support or economic aid to Yunxiao Group and banned the purchase of any of its products.
But for all their sanctions, not only did Yunxiao Group’s sales not decline, they actually grew better with each passing year.
In the eyes of most outsiders, Yunxiao Group, the master of Night City, had completely broken free from the ranks of the world’s ten largest corporations. It had become a behemoth, second only to the Advanced Technology Group itself.
The other major corporations, of course, refused to accept this.
Furious and humiliated, they began gearing up to form a joint military force, intending to use their fists to make Night City spit back out everything it had swallowed.
Yet, just as everyone braced for the outbreak of the Sixth Corporate War, a mysterious, unknown force emerged and quietly suppressed the conflict before it could truly ignite.
The major corporations stopped clamoring for Night City to pay the price. Instead, they began frantically training their own armies in secret.
At the same time, the outside world noticed a sharp decline in the production of Extraordinary Potions. It reached a point where rumors spread that the Advanced Technology Group had stopped supplying them to the public altogether.
The Fourth Corporate War failed to break out as scheduled, but everyone on the planet could feel the oppressive atmosphere of a storm about to break.
...
The following June, the strangely silent atmosphere was finally shattered.
The other eight of the world’s ten largest corporations, excluding the Advanced Technology Group and Yunxiao Group, simultaneously declared war on Night City.
The reason for the war was simple.
They suspected Li Chang’an was hiding a method in Night City for the orderly evolution of Transcendents.
When the news broke, the entire world was in an uproar.
Those with quick minds immediately made the connection to Night City’s Anti-Terrorism Mobile Team, a unit that had become increasingly famous worldwide in recent years.
’No wonder that team is so terrifyingly strong, capable of abducting people from the headquarters of major corporations.’
...
Why was the world still dominated by corporate oligarchs and not ruled by Transcendents?
One reason was that the corporations controlled the source of the Extraordinary Potions.
The number of Extraordinary Potions the Advanced Technology Group sold each year was strictly calculated and controlled. This tight regulation kept the number and power of Transcendents within a manageable range.
This policy both protected the Advanced Technology Group’s trillions in annual revenue and maintained their absolute dominion over the world.
The second reason was that the process of a Transcendent’s birth and evolution was fraught with uncontrollable factors.
The line between a Transcendent and an Extraordinary monster was sometimes as thin as a single misstep during the process.
If a Transcendent failed to control the genetic changes in their body during evolution, they would, at best, become a grotesque monster, neither human nor beast. At worst, they would die on the spot, exploding into a pile of mangled flesh.
Furthermore, the higher a Transcendent’s level of evolution, the greater the danger of further advancement.
Countless Transcendents died during evolution each year. If they wanted any kind of safety net, their only option was to cooperate with the corporations and become their dogs.
These two factors made it impossible for Transcendents to ever rise above the corporations.
But now, according to the public announcements from the eight corporations, Yunxiao Group’s Little Charles had apparently discovered a path for the stable evolution of Transcendents...
What did this mean?
It meant that Little Charles, by his own power, had pried open a corner of one of the shackles that had long restricted the growth of Transcendents.
To every corporation and conglomerate in the world, this was an absolutely unacceptable, massive threat.
And so, eight of the ten largest corporations had declared war on Night City simultaneously, intending to completely erase these two destabilizing factors—Yunxiao Group and Little Charles—from the face of the earth.
As for the Advanced Technology Company, it remained on the sidelines, calmly fishing in troubled waters.
Anyone with eyes could see that the Advanced Technology Group was the true puppet master behind this war, but it was certainly unwilling to join the fray from the outset.
For now, all they had to do was provide a steady stream of Extraordinary Potions and reap the rewards. Only if the eight corporations faltered would the Advanced Technology Company have to intervene personally.
But that raised a question.
With eight corporations joining forces, plus a constant supply of cheap Extraordinary Potions from Advanced Technology, could Yunxiao Group really hold out long enough for the Advanced Group to have to step in personally?
The answer was obviously no.
No one thought they stood a chance.
Yunxiao Group’s actions were tantamount to declaring war on every corporation and conglomerate in the world, all by itself.
Under these circumstances, even the Advanced Technology Group would risk being overwhelmed, to say nothing of Yunxiao Group, which wasn’t even half its size.
...
Upon seeing the simultaneous declarations of war from the major corporations, all of Night City was thrown into a state of shock.
In the past, such news would have immediately plunged Night City into chaos. The entire populace would have been scrambling to flee the city, terrified of having even the slightest connection to Yunxiao Group.
But now, upon seeing the news, Night City fell into a rare, thoughtful silence.
Although the vast majority of citizens were apprehensive and anxious about the future, they didn’t abandon Night City. None considered fleeing, even though Li Chang’an had placed no obstacles in their way.
On the contrary, not only did the citizens not flee, but many even took to the streets of their own accord, calling for everyone to enlist and defend Night City.
Such a scene would be unimaginable in any other city ruled by the corporate oligarchs!
After all, the relationship between the people and the oligarchs was one of rulers and ruled, exploiters and exploited. When disaster struck, it would have been considered generous for the populace not to kick the oligarchs while they were down.
Why would they ever offer to help?
The reason this was happening in Night City was that, over the years, Li Chang’an had not only purged the city of gang warfare and chaos but had also provided low-rent housing for countless homeless citizens, created jobs that could support a family, and built schools and hospitals on every corner.
In other words, Night City had given its citizens a sense of belonging.
Life here was happy, prosperous, and peaceful.
Everyone could find a job to support themselves. If they got sick, doctors were readily available to treat them. When they married and had children, those children could attend school without a single worry.
These things alone made it completely different from any other city in the outside world.
Their homes, their families, their entire lives were in this city, all of it sheltered by the very man now wanted by the entire world.
Now that this man was under siege by the world, it meant that their Night City was also under siege by the world.
They weren’t just protecting Li Chang’an, nor were they just protecting Night City. They were also protecting themselves.
Thus, after a brief period of panic and fear, the people of Night City ultimately chose to stand firm with Li Chang’an.
To face the entire world with him.
More and more citizens took to the streets. Some even gathered in droves outside the NCPD Police Station, volunteering to enlist in the army to defend Night City.
There were no cowards in Night City, and no traitors!
As long as they followed in that man’s footsteps, they would march forward without hesitation, even if the whole world was their enemy.
...