Enlightenment: Attaining the Dao at Age 8

Chapter 133: Chapter 109: One City Against the World

As expected, the resistance from Night City proved to be fierce. To prevent the city from breaking through their encirclement, the major corporations began sending more reinforcements to the front lines.

「Six months later.」

The number of corporate soldiers outside Night City officially surpassed one million.

With the Advanced Technology Group backing them, the major corporations were clearly flush with cash. They dispatched several small squads of Transcendents to conduct frantic, small-scale harassment raids in the dead zones outside Night City’s defensive fire coverage.

Due to the unique abilities of Transcendents, neither ordinary soldiers nor even elite troops equipped with cybernetic augmentations were a match for these small Transcendent squads.

Furthermore, that region was a dead zone that Night City’s defense systems couldn’t cover.

This allowed the Transcendent squads to act with impunity, their relentless provocations wiping out every Night City soldier stationed in the area.

After this happened a few times, Night City no longer dared to send anyone into this bloody meat grinder.

Faced with such an overpowered Transcendent force, Night City had no good options other than ceding the territory or gritting their teeth and dispatching the elite Anti-Terrorism Mobile Team to annihilate them.

But they were now on a real battlefield.

If the Anti-Terrorism Mobile Team were deployed, they would undoubtedly be targeted by the corporate armies, who were armed with numerous large-caliber weapons and had been watching the team like a hawk.

Sending them out was easy; getting them back would be another story.

And was it worth trading the lives of elite Anti-Terrorism Mobile Team members for a few dozen corporate Transcendents, who were treated as mere consumables?

Clearly not. In fact, it was a terrible trade—a losing proposition of the highest order.

Therefore, unless the enemy Transcendent squads entered the range of Night City’s multi-layered defense system, the city would never deploy an ace unit like the Anti-Terrorism Mobile Team—a force capable of turning the tide at a critical moment.

The corporate armies seemed to have caught on to Night City’s reluctance to fully commit, dispatching an increasing number of Transcendent squads to harass the front lines.

They were as persistent and annoying as flies.

However, just as the corporate high command was gleefully attempting to wear down Night City’s morale and combat strength bit by bit with their mass-produced Transcendents…

A piece of news that shocked the world suddenly broke.

—The headquarters of the Santania State Military-Industrial Technology Group had been attacked by an unknown organization of Transcendents, and half the entire building was burned down!

The battle at the front was still raging.

And now the military-industrial group’s own backyard was on fire…

The moment this news broke, it put everyone on edge.

But before the various corporations could even investigate who would be so audacious as to attack a corporate headquarters during a time of war…

another, even more explosive piece of news arrived!

—Kangtao Technology, located on the Eastern Continent, had also been attacked by an unknown Transcendent organization! The entire Kangtao Company building was in shambles, and even its president was nearly burned to death!

Two consecutive attacks, so close together, both targeting the headquarters of top-ten global corporations.

No matter how slow the outside world was, everyone could sense a pattern.

—Someone was secretly organizing Transcendents to specifically target the major corporations!

Upon hearing the news, the remaining major corporations immediately bolstered security at their headquarters.

Yet despite these precautions, two more major companies were attacked by unknown Transcendents, suffering heavy losses.

Such a scenario would have been almost unimaginable in peacetime.

After all, the defenses at these corporate headquarters, if not completely impenetrable, were at least tight enough to detect a fly. Yet now, even when on high alert, they were still being successfully breached by Transcendents…

The real reason was that the corporations’ elite forces had all been diverted to the front lines to fight Night City, leaving their home bases vulnerable.

After several attacks, this crazed Transcendent organization finally revealed its name: the Night City Extraordinary Church!

The Night City Extraordinary Church!?

Upon hearing that name, the major corporations saw red.

Even while under siege, Night City had somehow managed to organize a force on the outside to attack their headquarters…

This was both unacceptable and a tremendous humiliation for the corporations.

They intensified their assault on Night City while simultaneously sending envoys to the Advanced Technology Group to ask for help.

To ensure the corporations could continue fighting on the front lines without worry, the Advanced Technology Group had no choice but to reluctantly agree to their request, dispatching several of its most elite Transcendent squads to guard the various corporate headquarters.

Discovering that the corporate headquarters were now defended by Transcendents, the members of the Night City Extraordinary Church shifted their focus, and began attacking the corporations’ branch offices instead.

In less than a month, the Extraordinary Church had caused tens of billions in direct economic losses to the major corporations, with indirect losses being immeasurable.

The major corporations were hemorrhaging money.

But they couldn’t afford to pull forces back to their home bases, so their only recourse was to frantically urge the Advanced Technology Group to dispatch more Transcendents to help with damage control.

In an instant, the global situation descended into chaos, and the thick smell of gunpowder hung in the air everywhere.

Just as the whole world was wondering where the members of the Night City Extraordinary Church would strike next…

「Night City. The rooftop airfield of the Yunxiao Group building.」

Li Chang’an, along with Anna and a few of the Anti-Terrorism Mobile Team’s most formidable fighters, boarded a stealth fighter bound for the outside world.

The fighter jet took off.

A stealth coating developed by Li Chang’an himself shielded it from all prying eyes. The jet vanished without a sound into the smog-filled sky above Night City, heading for the Advanced Technology Group’s headquarters.

Li Chang’an had done many things to create a diversion.

He’d even gone so far as to use Night City itself as part of the bait.

But Li Chang’an’s strategic objective had always been singular: infiltrate the Advanced Technology Group and find the formula for the Extraordinary Potion!

And of course, if time permitted, he might as well pay a visit to the so-called Extraordinary Emperor.

…