Mystery Paradise: Wishing Power Demon

"God bless... Is this really happening?"

"I’m not dreaming, am I..."

Chaoyang once again heard the prayers’ shocked "inner voices." Although he couldn’t directly reply to them, he was able to display individual responses on televisions, mobile phones, and even smart refrigerator panels.

’The Paradise Master is protecting you.’

’Move forward, this is not a dream.’

People mustered their courage and tentatively stepped out of the rooms where they had been hiding—then they were surprised to find that the corridor lights were flashing in one direction, as if guiding their way!

When the power went out and everything plunged into darkness, the fear in people’s hearts multiplied. Now that the building was lit once again, and with the longed-for "Savior" appearing, hope finally overcame fear! Chaoyang saw that more and more residents were leaving their rooms, beginning to congregate towards the underground garage.

Especially when people realized they were not alone on the journey and that there were others traveling with them, their courage grew considerably.

Chaoyang issued new instructions at the right moment.

These instructions were transmitted one-on-one. He selected those who appeared strong and robust, asking them to assist injured neighbors or those still too scared to leave their homes. Some of these instructions came as text messages, while others appeared directly on the electronic billboards in the hallway. To his delight, most people responded to Chaoyang’s directions—they put off their escape to knock on their neighbors’ doors on the same floor, either carrying the injured or encouraging the fearful, which improved the efficiency of the evacuation by a notch.

Nevertheless, there was still a small group of stubborn holdouts who refused to leave their homes even after the power was restored.

Chaoyang reported these people’s apartment numbers to Ailuodi.

Compared to earlier when she might have had to persuade hundreds of households alone, now she only needed to find about ten people, knock them out, and carry them away.

By now the time had reached 1:10 AM.

Chaoyang also received a notification from the control center: an agricultural meteorological satellite had detected a ballistic missile launched 1500 kilometers away, now entering Canadian airspace, with the supercomputer estimating its total flight time to be about 17 minutes, and separation of the warhead expected in three minutes.

He immediately relayed this message to Ailuodi.

"Those guys sure are punctual, huh? They don’t even want to delay by a minute!" The latter exclaimed indignantly, "Can you open the doors to elevator shafts 4 and 6... open them on every floor!"

"Of course." Chaoyang snapped his fingers, and all the sliding doors of the two elevator shafts opened.

He guessed what Ailuodi was planning to do.

The shortest distance between two points is a straight line, and similarly, the quickest way from the top floor to the ground floor is by jumping, but while anyone else would fall to their death in an elevator shaft, for an Angel who could fly, this was a natural shortcut.

Through their shared vision, he saw Ailuodi shuttle between the corridors at an astonishing speed, smashing through the doors with her Gale Sword, darting in to take those who refused to leave, then dumping them together into the elevator shaft. She would then use Speed of Wind to catch them below before tossing them all out in the underground garage in one go.

Although her actions were not so gentle, she managed to clear all the stragglers in just a minute and a half.

Seeing that everyone was in place, Chaoyang immediately lifted the Labyrinth Ability, and the building once again fell into darkness.

’Stay in the basement and calm those refugees,’ he knew Ailuodi had the ability to calm people down. As long as she was there, the thousands of people crammed at the bottom of the building wouldn’t be able to cause chaos.

’What about you?’

’I want to see for myself if these machines that have awakened their own minds can stop a strategic missile falling from the sky.’

’It won’t be dangerous, will it?’

’Don’t worry, I am the Paradise Master.’ Chaoyang smiled and then called out to Shi Yin, "Like last time, take me to the roof."

"Next time, please add a ’please’, for I am the venerable source of the Primordial Gods," Shi Yin complained, but his movements were swift. In the blink of an eye, he flattened out into a thin pancake enveloping Chaoyang’s body. This mode was the "Combo Technique" they had used when sparring with Kokomoqi; Shi Yin could act as an exoskeleton to move Chaoyang and also provided a certain level of protection.

After the wrapping was complete, Slime leapt out of the window and started climbing up the exterior wall. Each hand and foot anchored into the wall like steel nails, effortlessly scaling to the rooftop.

Overhead at the crossroads, numerous drones were still patrolling, and there were even two tanks parked in the street, their turrets facing in the direction of possible enemies.

It was as if these machines knew their own identities and purposes.

Incredible...

Chaoyang had always had a question in mind: the timing of their infection of nearby machines was not synchronized. For instance, cars were the first to riot, followed by some outdoor equipment such as vending machines and ATMs. Cameras would gradually be infected, but much later. As for billboards and phone booths by the streets, they remained as they were, seemingly not part of the ’machines’, even though they were much more complex than lawnmowers.

The situation inside buildings was clearly better than outdoors.

Even in underground parking lots, there were hardly any cars that suddenly "awoke".

He vaguely felt that this infection varied with the object. In other words, the ’machines’ in the eyes of the God of All Machines might not be entirely consistent with humans’ definition of machines. At the same time, this infection likely didn’t even require physical contact. If there were no Awakening bacteria floating in the air, then the most reasonable deduction left was sight—for this might also explain why there were almost no rebellious machine happenings inside buildings.

And now, he had an excellent opportunity to verify it.

At 1:14 a.m., Chaoyang saw a cluster of light appear in the night sky. It was a bit bluer and brighter than the stars.

A moment later, it began to spread, revealing its true identity—not a cluster, but five bundled points of light.

It was the trail of warheads separating.

The high temperatures caused by friction ionized the surrounding air, making the warheads observed through the atmosphere look like ghostly blue flames.

One had to admit, West University was exceptionally ruthless towards their allies, going so far as to use MIRVs. Even if they weren’t nuclear, the news of them heading into a populous area would be alarmingly sensational.

Considering that M City’s network was disrupted before the electricity, perhaps the people above had already prepared a plan for public opinion management.

"Here it comes!"

Chaoyang sent out a warning to Ailuodi.

What appeared to be distant clusters of stars a moment ago had rushed to the forefront in less than thirty seconds—five warheads dragging brilliant trails of flame plunged into the crossroads area, two of which almost back-to-back fell around the Rainbow Gate, their violent impacts thunderous!

The other three burrowed into a nearby large shopping mall and a gas station, creating three dazzling fireballs in the city in the blink of an eye! Especially the one that hit the gas station, its explosion shot up almost into the clouds, briefly illuminating the entire city for a few seconds! 𝓯𝓻𝒆𝙚𝒘𝓮𝙗𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝒍.𝙘𝓸𝙢

Chaoyang, even though he had Shi Yin seal his ear canals completely, still heard a series of earth-shattering booms through the violent vibrations under his feet. The shockwaves shattered the glass windows of houses within a ten-mile radius and even uprooted street lamps and power poles around the blast center! Flames, smoke, debris, and shockwaves...this area had turned into a hell on earth for a moment.

He himself was not too affected, as he was on the rooftop, and the residential building was not hit directly by the warheads. Moreover, a moment before the explosion, Shi Yin had expanded, constructing a buffer wall to shield him from most of the blast.

Chaoyang realized that his guess was probably right—the two warheads closest to the teleportation gate did not explode! And the speed at which the warheads fell was much faster than the flight speed of the drones; in such a short time, the rebelling machines had no chance to attach themselves to the warheads!

Just then, a faint stream of wishing power flowed into Chaoyang’s body.

He was slightly stunned and looked overhead.

About fifteen almost invisible white threads had appeared in the sky at an unknown time. They seemed like they would snap with a puff of air yet appeared incredibly tough.

Why would there be followers of Paradise here?

Chaoyang stood dumbfounded for a moment before realizing... the wishing power was coming from the refugees inside the building!