ACC Chapter 46 Contact

The current status of the city was running me ragged. I had separated from the bald man hours ago, and dealt with as many problems caused by the malfunctioning arrays as I could.

From an entire scraper charged with rampaging lightning strikes, to an entire underground arena having turned into a lake, to an AI that had somehow managed to gain sentience in the chaos and had decided to take a fancy to the profession of a serial killer, to many other such problems.

Though, the AI had been too clever for its own good. If I hadn't used my divine sense after a few minutes of being led around with false clues, then I would have failed to find it. After all, it had taken the body of a droid that could withstand the attack of Core Formation cultivator just by its materials.

And now, I was flying to another area of trouble. Apparently, a water generation runic key had gone haywire, releasing water with such a high pressure that only a Nascent Soul stage cultivator, namely, me, could handle it.

Below me, throngs of people were camping out in the streets, having been warned about the potential dangers within the buildings. The roads themselves, plus their accompanying streets weren't safe too, but at least the dangers could be dealt with promptly when they occurred.

The scene of the situation fell into my eyes barely a few seconds layer, with the water column having bored through three entire buildings at a diagonal angle from the ground.

Apparently, this array had been providing water that kept the entire underground server system that ran the city's defensive ward plus other things that made this a smart city, cooled.

My feet landed upon the cracked pavement, with the bystanders around having created a wide demarcation around the place. Even with the ground wet, I could see the tell-tale signs of blood.

Coupled with the uneasy gazes that the army guys cordoning off the area were subtly giving the place, I hazarded a guess that the deaths must have been particularly gruesome.

Through my divine senses, I noted that below the leakage, there was a pipe transporting water attuned spiritual energy. The runic key had been supposed to alter all that spiritual energy into water, though at a reasonable enough pressure.

But with the planet's systems haywire, that had failed. The pressure control rune had been damaged, leading to this spectacle before me.

I dug underneath the pavement, a ways from the leakage, with a blue pipe etched with a line of runes entering my eyes.

'How should I go about this? Should I redirect it somewhere?' I wondered.

-----

An hour later, I flew towards the center of the city, where all those at my cultivation stage and late Core Formation had been asked to gather by the city lord.

I was exhausted, and not too keen with attending the gathering. From what I had already confirmed, the city lord and myself were the only two Nascent Souls in the city. I was sure that the moment I entered through the door, many eyes were going to fall on me.

That...was an experience I really wanted to get away from. But, there was no excuse I could use. Besides, the reason for the gathering had already piqued my interest.

The office of the citylotd was located upon the tallest skyscraper in the city. A circular monolith with the light from the western Sun glinting off the panes of glass that composed its outer surface. It was the hub where the entire array of the city was controlled from, thereby making the city lord the person with the most authority. It was one of the many things that had irked the Sects and clans, making many of them station themselves outside the cities.

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A glass pane at the highest level slid to the side, allowing me to enter preventing the situation where I would have had to search an entrance myself, allowing me a small sigh of relief, which was smothered the moment I laid eyes upon the figures gathered in the small office, whose stares almost made me flee.

So, I focused upon the decor of the room as a way to distract myself. Two long couches facing each other were on the right and left sides of the room. They were a velvety crimson, with fiery motes of light rising out of the surface like embers, bring a glow to the room. At the far side, there was a table, stony grey, with only the surface being a long flat slab.

It didn't have four legs like the typical kinds, but capillaries of stone wrapping, crossing and weaving into each other creating a network like a spiderweb, until they joined together into the long horizontal slab that was the surface of the table.

Except for the ostentiosness of the guest couches, the rest of the room was modest by comparison, kept simple with greys and whites.

Four people occupied the couches while three were standing, with the city lord himself seated behind the desk.

One of those on their feet, Lily, approached me the moment the pane of glass closed behind me trapping me within this crowd of people.

(Is everything okay?)

She transmitted, gazing at me with eyes that radiated concern. I subtly nodded while making sure to keep my mouth shut because of the attention of the others in the room.

Bald head was one of those on their feet, with his face scrunched up into a scowl that gave away the fact that he would rather have been elsewhere.

The other person on their feet was a young looking woman with dark hair, with a thin long sword hugged close to her bosom. She was leaning on the wall, pointedly closing her eyes in silent meditation after taking a glance at me.

'I wish I could do the same.' The thought rose to the fore, unbidden.

The four upon the couches were the kind of people I disliked being in contact with, extroverts. Well...maybe except for Edmond, the Butler-attired man. He was silent, though I could sense that he was probably exhausted by simply reading the signs on his body.

Another two after him had been part of the Late Core Formation stages that had battled with Lily outside the city, and their eyes were flickering with their heads subtly moving, a sign that they were engaged in conversation. They were a man and a woman, and the way they stuck together already gave them away as a couple.

Then there was the last man. He was tall handsome and had on slight smile. But I could tell that he was gazing at me with slight hostility, all the while sneaking glances towards Lily.

With a resigned withheld sigh, I passed through the middle of the couches and made it to the table where the city lord sat.

All those of us in this room were in the late stages of the Core Formation stage and above.

"So, Sir City lord, what had you urgently gather us? There are still many incidents claiming lives or on the verge of doing exactly that." the handsome man's blatant rudeness brought a slight frown on the city lord's face, but he dismissed it just as fast.

"I have gotten into contact with the higher brass-"

"Have they finally fixed communications?" The woman hugging the sword interrupted, earning a glare from the city lord, which brought a pink blush upon her face. It seems that she had burst out with such words without first thinking upon them, or taking into context the current situation.

Though her question caused all of us to curiously gaze at the man, waiting for his clarification.

"When I said higher brass, I didn't indicate those in Defiant. Instead, an Admiral upon a warship."

"Those huge things... It is possible." I mumbled to myself. Those huge ships had been constructed with the thought that they might have to contend with a Deity Transformation cultivator one day. So every piece of array technology within them was the latest. Any Breakthrough in communications, weaponry, maneuverability, warp travel, space travel, and many other fields would first be implemented upon those ships before anywhere else.

"So, what did they say, Sir?" Lily asked.

"They are coming."

"What?" Bald man barked out.

"That was all they said. Even I can't make heads or tails of that statement."

"Did those words come from the Admiral themselves? And were they female?" asked Edmond, attracting a fair amount of our attention.

"All that is true. Do you have a clue as to the identity?"

"Yes... A troublesome woman is on her way." a sigh loaded with nostalgia was released from Edmund's mouth.

(She's on my list.) I transmitted to Lily.

(You know her?)

(Yes. If she's been called into action, then that means the situation needs her touch.)

(You said that the list has figures I wouldn't like. Is she part of them?)

(Yap. Though, to be fair, she is also out of my comfort zone. But her personality suits the group I want to create.)