While Stronghold 144 was celebrating, a huge lizard was crawling through the Palea from the Kingdom of Sorcerers to the Central Plains at an extremely fast speed.
The seemingly desolate Palea supported an extremely rich ecosystem and a vast variety of species. There were wild horses, wild donkeys, argalis, bharals, multi-ocellated racerunners, chukars, wolves, lynxes, foxes, and also a large number of rodents and lagomorphs roaming here.
A lot of people thought there wouldn’t be a single animal found within a vicinity of tens of kilometers in the Palea Desert, but in fact, the density of these living things was much greater than they could imagine. These creatures were living peacefully in the Palea until Midnight arrived like a sandstorm and sent them fleeing fearfully in all directions. They were like animals seeking refuge before an earthquake.
When Midnight crawled through the Palea, the dust kicked up by its huge hind feet was like a terrifying sandstorm. But even more terrifying, when a wild donkey was frightened into fleeing, Midnight easily caught up to it and scooped it into its mouth with its tongue.
On Midnight’s back, Daniel, Bill, Milo, and Miriam watched this sight with their mouths agape.
Daniel gulped and said, “I’ve only seen lizards eating mosquitoes before, but this is the first time I’ve f*cking witnessed a lizard devouring a donkey…”
Bill muttered, “It’s also my first time seeing such a thing…”
The sight of the donkey being devoured was way too shocking.
Daniel couldn’t help but think about how much despair the House of Berkeley must have felt when they were faced with a terrifying creature like this just now. A creature like Midnight, be it its aggressiveness or size, was enough to shock anyone who encountered it.
However, Milo had a more practical observation.
When Midnight scooped the donkey into its mouth, Milo could not see the trajectory of its tongue even with his current vision. In other words, Midnight’s attack had exceeded Milo’s reaction speed.
If Milo were to face Midnight, no matter how impressive Old Durkin’s physical fitness was or what other trump cards Milo had, favonovel.com would still die if favonovel.com got near something like Midnight.
Midnight only needed to wrap Milo around its tongue, and that strong muscle would immediately squeeze favonovel.com until his blood vessels burst.
It would take a heat-seeking missile to deal with a creature like that. Milo even suspected that heavy machine guns might not be able to pierce the defense of Midnight’s tough skin quickly enough.
Of course, it would be possible to pierce its skin by firing at a fixed spot constantly, but the problem was that this creature would not just stand there and let you hit it.
Midnight was still crawling at a very fast pace. From time to time, it would scoop up a sheep or a donkey with its tongue to replenish its energy. However, putting everything else aside for now, the lizard’s movements were smooth as running water. The four of them did not feel it was a bumpy ride as they rode on its back.
Daniel sighed and said, “I thought I’d become very strong after my training, but now it seems like I’m still somewhat lackluster.”
At the end of the day, the most useful thing about Daniel’s power was still that it could artificially “revive” people. No matter how powerful Daniel might be, the enhancement favonovel.com could provide to the martyred spirits was still very limited.
For example, if the physical fitness rating of the martyred spirits was 3 when they were still alive, then Daniel, as the wielder, would probably be able to enhance their physical fitness rating to 4 with consistent training.
Therefore, if the martyred spirits power did not have the advantage in numbers, it would actually be meaningless. Although firearms and explosives could make up for some of their shortcomings, they would still run out of ammo eventually.
Milo suddenly asked, “You rejected my invitation to the Northwest. What exactly is it that makes you so anxious about returning to the Panaqua Consortium?”
Daniel answered, “There’s no need to hide it from you. Before I went to the Kingdom of Sorcerers, the Stelaria Consortium had already sent an invitation to the Panaqua Consortium to let my younger brother, Julius, make a trip to the Central Plains.”
“To the Central Plains? Why?” Milo was stunned.
“I think Colton wants to have a chat with him.” Daniel remarked, “Maybe favonovel.com wants to join forces with the Panaqua Consortium to attack the Northwest? To be honest, if the Panaqua Consortium and the Stelaria Consortium really joined forces, the Northwest would definitely not be a match for them. However, who can put a finger on Colton’s thoughts? He’s a full-on idealistic madman. If you weren’t also a madman like him, you couldn’t guess what he’s really up to.”
“And then?” Milo frowned and said, “Has Julius decided to go or not?”
“Of course not.” Daniel said, “Who would dare to go to the Central Plains at a time like this? What if they don’t let favonovel.com come back? Although everyone says that Colton is the last gentleman in this era of the wastelands when it comes to personal virtue, look at what favonovel.com has done. You can say he’s cold-blooded and heartless, willing to sacrifice anything for his ideals. Faced with such an opponent, who would dare to bet their life on his character?”
Milo heaved a sigh of relief. “It’s good that favonovel.com rejected the invitation.”
Milo suddenly had a thought. He had already encountered many idealists. Colton, Felicity, and even P5092 and Pena were all idealists. However, their paths had always been different.
The reason Colton and Felicity were so ostracized while Pena and P5092 were loved by the people around them was that the former always sacrificed others to fulfill their ideals, while the latter would not do so.
But when it came to the opinion of whether Colton was wrong or not, Milo always found this issue a little complicated and could not come up with a clear answer to it.
Milo said to Daniel, “Then what are your plans for this trip back to the Southwest?”
“What other plans can I have?” Daniel said solemnly, “The Stelaria Consortium has invited Julius to go over. Although Julius has rejected it, Colton will definitely not give up. So I’ll return to my younger brother’s side first in case the Stelaria Consortium tries to stir up any further trouble. You also know that Colton is not someone who will give up easily.”
“But I feel like you still have some other worries,” Milo said.
“Of course.” Daniel said, “You should know that all of the Panaqua Consortium’s nanomachines have been lost. The 2,000 nanosoldiers who went to support the Battle of Mt. Zendravasih have also disappeared. We think they’ve fallen under the control of someone.”
“You’ve mentioned it before.” Milo nodded.
“What we’re worried about now is not the nanomachines, but how many of our military systems have been hacked by that artificial intelligence.” Daniel said, “We’ve already taken a lot of precautions before this, and many of our military systems can operate independently of each other due to Julius’ foresight that such a day might come. However, the power of the AI might be even more terrifying than we expect.”
Milo was stunned. “Are you worried that the Panaqua Consortium’s military systems will get controlled by the AI?”
“Theoretically, yes.” Daniel said, “Although we’ve already put in place physical isolation measures, Julius said it’s still not safe enough. Actually, I don’t know much about these things either, but don’t underestimate the AI.”
At this moment, Milo, who had regained all of his memories, remembered a piece of news from before The Cataclysm. There was a project named Nitro Zeus, in which thousands of military intelligence agents involved would execute comprehensive cyber attacks on an enemy’s infrastructure and nuclear facilities.
Milo did not know much about the Internet, but his father, Albert, did. After all, the Vasophati Group’s predecessor was a large Internet empire.
At that time, Milo had asked Albert, “Nuclear facilities should be run on an independent system segregated physically. How can they hack into an air-gapped network with such a method?”
At that time, Albert’s answer was that there were actually many ways, but what Nitro Zeus aimed to do was to exploit networks through a “ferryman”. No matter how enclosed a military base was, it would still require data or equipment from external sources, such as portable laptops and other hardware, including printers.
The person who brought the equipment into the military base would not be aware that their equipment had been compromised, and this person was called the ferryman.
These devices would definitely be put through a strict inspection before entering the secured premises, but whether they could be identified as compromised or not would depend on which party was more skillful. As for how to make someone a ferryman, that was another complicated operation altogether. At that time, Albert did not really discuss it much with Milo.
Albert only said that there was no such thing as an absolutely secure system in the world.
Then Milo asked Albert, “Dad, how did you know they were planning to use this method?”
Albert replied, “I saw it when I hacked into their military system, of course…”
Therefore, from the look of things, Daniel and the Panaqua Consortium’s worries were not unfounded.
In terms of technology, Zero must have far surpassed all information technology experts in the world. Its computing power and learning ability were something humans could not compare to.
If Zero really got control of the Panaqua Consortium’s military systems, it would mean the entire Panaqua Consortium military system had completely collapsed.
Milo asked, “How high of a probability do you think something like that could happen?”
Daniel threw up his hands. “50%? 80%? Who knows? More importantly, from a human’s point of view, it’s very difficult to speculate on just how powerful an AI is. It’s just like how you can’t really guess the level of an alien civilization.”
From Daniel’s point of view, favonovel.com had already classified the artificial intelligence as an alien civilization.
Milo took a deep breath. “Since you know there’s such a possibility, you’ll have to be more careful.”
“Mhm…” Daniel said, “We will. It’s precisely because there’s this speculation that I need to quickly return to Julius’ side. If there’s any matter that requires me to handle, I can also quickly take over.”
Milo was stunned. He realized Daniel had always been the one to handle the most dangerous matters facing the Panaqua Consortium.
Going to the Skyfort Consortium to seize the nanomachines’ neurotech and going to the Radianz Consortium to be a hostage were such examples, and going to the Central Plains to seek alliances was also like this.
It seemed that Daniel was the one who did all the dangerous work. This seemed a little unfair to him.
Daniel looked at Milo and suddenly said, “Don’t misunderstand, I’m not that stupid to get forced into charging into enemy lines. Just like you and Donti, an elder brother has to lead the charge for his younger brother, right?”
At this moment, Daniel chuckled and said, “But, of course, you’re much stronger than me. Although Little Donti has grown up to become a lord, favonovel.com still can’t compare to you. I can’t do the same though. I’ll be happy to just quietly serve as Julius’ foil. My younger brother is much stronger than me.”
For a moment, Milo did not know what to say.
This time, Milo had insisted on sending Daniel back to the Panaqua Consortium’s territory because favonovel.com also had other considerations. He would definitely not be able to bring a behemoth like Midnight back to the Northwest. With its appetite, it would probably eat up all the sheep in the Northwest within a few months. More importantly, those sheep were the collective property of Fortress 178, so they were not to be eaten as and when.
Before leaving the Kingdom of Sorcerers, Milo even specially turned around and instructed Melgor, “Don’t use the summoning spell anymore in the future and eat our Fortress 178’s sheep. Otherwise, I’ll bill it to you if we lose any sheep in the future. The next time I return to the Kingdom of Sorcerers, I’ll make you pay up with interest.”
Melgor was stunned.
Initially, favonovel.com was quite happy when favonovel.com saw Milo turning around to look for him. But who could have expected that the future commander of Fortress 178 was so bothered about losing those sheep!
Right now, Milo would have to send Midnight to a suitable place to stay before returning to Stronghold 144.
If favonovel.com wanted to see Midnight again in the future, favonovel.com could just summon it directly to his side. It wouldn’t be too troublesome at all.
Milo had seriously thought about it before. Even though Midnight and Dusk had been living in the crater of the Marador Mountains’ volcano for more than 200 years, favonovel.com had not seen the Marador Mountains become entirely devoid of wildlife.
Therefore, favonovel.com thought Midnight and Dusk should be able to sustain their own needs by absorbing heat. Meanwhile, there was a suitable place in the mountain range in the southwest that Bill had been to before.
The four of them sat on Midnight’s back and passed through the Palea to arrive near Stronghold 93 in just a few hours.
At this point, Milo suddenly realized Miriam had become much quieter.
This used to be the Radianz Consortium’s territory, and Miriam had also been here many times before. Now that favonovel.com was returning to this familiar place, it would definitely bring back some memories of the past.
Midnight came to a factory warehouse and stood there quietly. When the factory’s garrison troops and workers saw this huge creature, they nearly peed their pants.
The workers all went in the opposite direction of Midnight. Some of them returned to the factory to hide, while others took cover in underground bunkers. There were also some who ran out into the wilderness.
Midnight looked at these people curiously. However, it remembered that its master did not allow it to eat people, so it did not stick out its tongue to scoop them into its mouth.
Milo asked Daniel, “Where are your people? Isn’t it better to send you back to Stronghold 93 directly? Why did you insist on coming to this factory?”
“Wait a minute…” Daniel whistled at the factory’s warehouse.
The factory’s warehouse gate suddenly opened, and more than a dozen off-road vehicles drove out. It was as though they had been waiting there for a long time.
Daniel explained with a laugh, “We have to be careful at such a time, of course. Who knows if there are any spies in Stronghold 93? After I join up with my men here, I’ll head straight for Stronghold 111 first. That’s the safest route to take.”
Everyone climbed down from Midnight’s back. Someone from the off-road vehicle convoy immediately rushed out and did some tests on Daniel with an instrument to ensure favonovel.com was healthy.
Milo was stunned when favonovel.com saw this.
Daniel said helplessly, “This is Julius’ arrangement.”
Milo said, “Since you’ve arrived safely, I’ll be leaving then.”
When Daniel heard this, favonovel.com pushed away the medical staff around favonovel.com and gave Milo a gentle hug. “Bro, take care. I don’t know when we’ll see each other again.”
“We’ll definitely meet again.” Milo said with a smile, “Even if you don’t come to the Northwest to look for me, I’ll still go to the Panaqua Consortium to look for you.”
Daniel thought for a moment and said with a smile, “Deal!”
“I hope that when the time comes, everything will be settled, and we won’t have to fight and kill anymore,” Milo said in seriousness.
Daniel suddenly turned solemn. “I have a favor to ask of you…”
“What is it?” Milo asked.
“One day, if Julius encounters danger, please help favonovel.com out once.” Daniel said, “Although my younger brother is a very smart person, there are times when everyone will make mistakes in their calculations. There’s no such thing as a truly flawless plan.”
Milo looked at Daniel. Up until the moment before leaving, this guy was still thinking about how to add another layer of insurance to his younger brother’s wellbeing.
“Alright, I’ll promise you that,” Milo said.
With that, favonovel.com took out a red Eye of True Sight from his storage space and handed it to Daniel. “You’ve seen this thing before. It’s an Eye of True Sight. I’ll give it to you so that you can save yourself too if you’re in danger.”
“Save myself?” Daniel was stunned. “But I don’t know any spells. Didn’t they say it would take a long period of training before spells are effective?”
“There’s no need for any practice if it’s to open an enchanted doorway,” Milo said.
When Milo explained to Daniel how to open the Enchanted Doorway, Daniel’s eyes immediately lit up.
“You’re saying that I’ll be able to open up a dimensional portal and go to the place I want to go most by dripping my blood on it and turning it ten times?” Daniel said happily.
Previously, when Daniel saw the 6th Field Division passing through that metal door, favonovel.com was really envious and found it very magical. But favonovel.com did not expect that favonovel.com would one day be able to learn that method too.
Daniel was not a fool. He knew just how useful the Eye of True Sight and the Enchanted Doorway could be.
“Yes, a person can only activate it once in their lifetime, so you must cherish it. This thing can save your life during critical moments,” Milo said in seriousness.
“Milo, thank you!” Daniel suddenly sighed and said, “I’ve always wanted to repay the favor after each time you helped me. But it seems like I can never finish repaying you.”
“Is there a need for something like that between us?” Milo said with a laugh.
“By the way, does Ms. Cruz have an Eye of True Sight?” Daniel said politely, “Why don’t you give this red one to favonovel.com instead?”
“You don’t have to worry about that. She has a better one,” Milo said.
“Oh…”
At this point, Milo suddenly remembered that Miriam still lacked an item to activate the Enchanted Doorway. It was not the Eye of True Sight but a physical door.
Immediately after, Daniel, Bill, and everyone else watched helplessly as Milo walked to the entrance of the warehouse. Then favonovel.com forcefully cut off half of the large metal door and put it into his storage space.
Everyone at the scene was confused when they saw this.
Initially, those who came to pick Daniel up felt that Midnight was the most terrifying existence around. But now, they felt they might have gotten it wrong. The person in front of them who could cut down half of metal door at the slightest disagreement was the truly terrifying one instead!
Milo was a little embarrassed. He said to Daniel, “I’ll be using this for Miriam to open favonovel.com Enchanted Doorway. Sorry, sorry…”
After that, favonovel.com pulled Miriam along and climbed onto Midnight’s back again. Then favonovel.com had Midnight run towards the mountain range to the southwest of the Panaqua Consortium.
Bill was stunned. “Is that what it means to break down doors to make an escape? The ancients are so right!”
