Apocalypse Forecast

Seeing Director Gao faint, Raven immediately manipulated Huai Shi MK-II to close the door, then crouched down to inspect the unconscious middle-aged man on the floor, beginning to ponder whether to silence him for good.

Making someone vanish without a trace wouldn't be hard.

But the same day an incident occurred at Wanli Plaza, a disappearance case popping up in the school of prime suspect Huai Shi would be too conspicuous.

Therefore, the only option would be to use a Potion for hypnotic suggestion to alter his consciousness.

Regardless, they couldn't let him lie there.

Raven soon finished deliberating, put the head back on, opened the cabinet in the piano room, and dragged Director Gao's body inside. This body's motor system was too weak, almost failing to drag a single person.

As she was gritting her teeth, trying to shove Director Gao's legs into the cabinet, the door suddenly opened.

Fu Yi entered, struggling with a heap of props, "Huai Shi, Director Gao was just backstage asking for you. You weren't caught by him, were you…"

Dead silence, an awkward dead silence.

In the silence, Huai Shi MK-II stared blankly at Fu Yi.

Fu Yi also gazed in shock at the boy who seemed to be stuffing a body into a box, completely stunned.

"Uh, truth be told…"

Huai Shi MK-II stiffly turned back and spoke, "He got heatstroke…"

Fu Yi was even less convinced.

Looking at the bloody red liquid on the floor, a mix of tomato sauce and strawberry jam, she seemed to finally understand something, her face turning pale.

But the moment she realized what was happening, she immediately closed the door behind her.

She stood, looking at Huai Shi, breathing heavily.

"No, that…"

Raven hesitated, considering whether to explain or to drug her too, when suddenly she heard Fu Yi's trembling voice, "I'll go to the chemistry lab and get some strong acid for you…"

Jumping to destroy evidence straight away, aren't you going a bit too far!

Is this a familial tradition, or are you just extraordinarily gifted!

Even the Raven hidden inside was dumbfounded, hastily stopping her, "No! He really did have heatstroke!"

After much explanation, Fu Yi seemed to finally understand something. Forcing a smile, she sat in a chair and couldn't resist reaching into her pocket, but didn't find her cigarettes.

"Right, I came to tell you something."

She patted her head, finally remembering, and looked at Huai Shi, "It's your turn to go on stage."

"Okay, okay."

Raven glanced warily at her, picked up the cello, and walked towards the door, but heard Fu Yi's puzzled voice from behind, "Why are you wearing a high-neck shirt with the weather so hot?"

"My neck's cold."

Huai Shi MK-II raised a hand to touch the seam at the neck below the collar, then closed the door behind.

Next, it was showtime.

She tapped the secret latch inside the cello case, suddenly feeling somewhat expectant.

Five minutes earlier, a line of black vehicles had stopped in the Wanli Plaza parking lot, and the person in charge had already been waiting for a long time, approaching the cars before they had even come to a full stop.

Before he could speak, a pale-skinned middle-aged man stepped out from the opened car door. "Is security ready?"

"Orders have been given," the person in charge nodded hurriedly. "Is this shipment so urgent, Mr. Clement?"

"No, leave the rest here," Clement said. "Headquarters is very interested in that formula you acquired recently; we need to transport it immediately. Please lead the way, sir."

"Alright, come with me."

The person in charge turned and headed toward the elevator, but before it could open, the shrill sound of an alarm had already rung out.

Clement's face turned pale.

Huai Shi felt like he was done for.

Unaware that he had just narrowly escaped giving himself away and that someone was about to cause trouble using his face, the real him had rushed directly into the vault from an internal passage and knocked out the two guards before they could react.

Unexpectedly, he must have triggered some mechanism, and the alarm instantly blared.

Now, with the vault in sight, leaving was out of the question. He at least had to try and push through.

Huai Shi quickly took out two vials Raven had prepared and a flask from his pocket, poured them together, then carefully added several packs of powder, and, following the instruction manual, began shaking vigorously.

He hadn't brought a gun this time, so naturally, there was no way he'd brought explosives. These days, even street hoodlums knew that once you brought out guns and explosives, the nature of your sentence could change from a term of years to life, and from life imprisonment to a death sentence.

If the Special Affairs Department says the Astronomical Society should handle this, what about Huai Shi then?

Investigate themselves?

So, although making explosives posed no difficulty for Raven, in the end, a more efficient method was recommended—the Omnifactor Dissolvent.

More precisely, a downgraded version specifically for metals.

After all, how could something the Alchemists had coveted for thousands of years easily come to light, a purging agent that could even dissolve and destroy Stigmas and miracles?

This time, the substance Raven created was a byproduct of exploring that power, also the Potion used by Alchemists to remove impurities during critical smelting.

Because it was too dangerous for common use, Raven's instructions and explanations were terrifyingly extensive.

But in short, there were just two points. Firstly, pour them together and shake furiously; the more evenly the two Potions mixed, the better. Secondly, see a glow and let it go fast, lest you burn yourself up as well.

In the flask, the two Potions appeared quite stable with no sign of mixing, as distinct as ever. Even under Huai Shi's Sublimation-enhanced manual dexterity honed over seventeen years of single living, there was no dispersal, and though entwined like balls of yarn, they didn't change color.

But as Huai Shi's vigorous shaking intensified, the intermixed powder quickly reddened, emitting bursts of high heat like boiling iron filings, causing the liquid in the flask to rapidly boil.

Under both the shaking and boiling effects, the increasingly dispersed and diluted Potions finally could no longer maintain their independent properties.

For a moment, two delicate streams of color gently touched each other.

Like a handshake.

Then a terrifying brightness burst forth from the dust, filling the whole bottle in an instant with a current-like rush from the boiling color.

The moment Huai Shi realized what was happening, he let go and hurled the bottle toward the iron door in front of him.

But in that instant, the mist that erupted from the dissolving bottle had already corroded his gloves with large holes. He quickly took them off and threw them on the ground, as the corrosive traces continued to spread until it had turned the entire pair of gloves into a lumpy mess.

As the reaction completed, the white vapor bursting from the shattered bottle thoroughly engulfed the iron door.

Within the vapor, only the quiet sound of water could be heard.

Like honey dripping from a tree, there flowed a thick liquid.

Luckily, at room temperature, the Omnifactor Dissolvent—the metal version—could not maintain its miraculous properties and would rapidly break down, leaving only sulfur and salt behind.

Soon, the rolling vapor dissipated, leaving behind only a pungent odor.

Huai Shi had already donned a gas mask and a new pair of gloves.

After the vapor cleared, all he saw were the floor and ceiling riddled with holes. And where the vault door once stood, a vast chasm had silently appeared, like a glacier that had melted away. Iron sludge that had dissolved and then solidified again still held the shape of flowing liquid, looking just like mud made of iron.

Without hesitation, Huai Shi dove into the vault.

Time was of the essence.

The mechanical hound inside the vault had awakened, and it had to be dealt with before it could attack and respond.

This Puppet, powered by Source Crystals, was commonly used for the Guard and alarm of important items. Due to its adaptability, it had a frightening number of derivatives. Just this size and type alone had several hundred models, including "poor man's," "economical," and even "luxury" versions with different configurations.

The most formidable could bite through a Third Stage Sublimator in one go.

The weakest could barely call out to a person.

According to Raven's judgement, this mechanical hound was a Guard type, commonly encountered, with a tough shell, immense Power, and no fear of injury. Its flaw was a weak defensive power against "Offensive" attacks targeting Source Substance.

To Huai Shi, this should have been an easy catch.

However, it wasn't permitted.

"Do you think your features aren't distinct enough now?" Raven asked. "After you use the Axe, you'll be immediately wanted, you know?!"

Fortunately, she had already found a solution to this problem.

Huai Shi flipped his hand and pulled out tube number 3 from the Potion pocket on his waist belt, and hurled it towards the iron Hunting Dog that was pouncing towards him.

Then, he pulled up his coat collar to cover his face.

The test tube shattered on the steel, and immediately after, a storm and bitter cold burst forth. The white blast of air swallowed the Hunting Dog in mid-air.

Then, bone-chilling cold spread from the falling Hunting Dog into the air. A crackling sound filled the air wherever the cold wave passed—it was the sound of glass jars on the shelves shattering.

Whether it was eyeballs, hearts or tendons, all the organs of the Border Variants were instantly sealed within blocks of ice.

And the Hunting Dog was immobilized; the extreme drop in temperature had turned it into an ice lump that fell to the ground and cracked apart.

Immediately after, Huai Shi pulled a hand hammer from his toolkit and slammed it onto its dog head.

CRACK!

The extreme cold that could instantly freeze tank Armor took away all metal's ductility. Under the Iron Hammer's blow, the dog's head disintegrated, scattering all over the ground, revealing the complex machinery and shattered gears inside.

Problem solved!

Huai Shi moved quickly, heading straight to the deepest part of the vault to snatch the frozen box, then smashed it on the spot, stuffing the formula inside his coat.

In an instant, he heard the scream from behind.

The sound of Space Break erupted.