261: You haven't bought your tickets yet, what's the rush?

Chapter 261: Haven't Bought a Ticket Yet, What's the Rush? Chen Mo didn't speak.

He moved.

He didn't even take a defensive stance, simply stepping forward.

The two puppets at the very front raised their axes and, against the backdrop of those comical smiling faces, hacked down fiercely toward the top of Chen Mo's head.

Whoosh—

The axe blades tore through the air.

Clang!

The sound of metal clashing made one's eardrums ache.

Chen Mo didn't dodge.

He raised his left hand and directly caught the descending axe blades.

The puppet's movements came to a halt.

Its painted eyes stared fixedly at Chen Mo's palm.

There was no blood.

The axe blades seemed to be embedded in a red-hot steel plate; the contact surface rapidly turned red and softened.

Sizzle.

Molten iron dripped onto the carpet, sending up wisps of white smoke.

"Lend me a light."

Chen Mo flicked his wrist.

Crack.

The axes, forged from fine steel, were snapped by him with brute force.

He gripped a broken axe blade with a backhand and swung it to the right.

Thud.

The head of the puppet next to him flew off. The cut was as smooth as a mirror, its edges already carbonized by the high temperature, without a single wood chip falling off.

The remaining puppets felt no fear.

They were merely killing machines with pre-set programs.

They swarmed forward.

The hall was instantly filled with the whistling of swinging axes and the explosive sounds of wood shattering.

Chen Mo was like a ball of blue ghost fire, weaving through the red tide.

No techniques were necessary.

Anything that touched his body, or anything he touched, would instantly burst into flames.

With one punch,

A puppet's chest was punched through; the gears and springs inside splattered out, burned into iron slag mid-air.

With one kick,

Three puppets flew out like bowling pins, crashing into the wall and collapsing into a pile of burning scrap wood.

In just thirty seconds,

The hall fell silent.

Only the wreckage on the ground and the crackling of the fire remained.

Chen Mo stood in the middle of the flames, brushing the ash off his shoulder.

"Ticket checked."

He spoke to the surveillance camera in the corner, "What's the next program?"

The broadcast remained silent for several seconds.

Then, a round of applause followed.

Clap, clap, clap.

Monotonous, slow, and carrying a certain playfulness.

"Splendid."

The Raincoat Man's voice rang out again. "Since Officer Chen is so impatient, then please, come in. The protagonist always makes his entrance last, doesn't he?"

The double doors at the end of the hall slowly opened.

A cold wind blew out.

The interior was pitch black, like the maw of a giant beast.

Chen Mo did not hesitate and strode inside.

After passing through a long corridor covered in red carpet, the field of vision suddenly opened up.

It was a massive opera house.

There were three levels of circular balconies, a huge crystal chandelier hanging from the dome, and heavy red curtains drawn across the stage.

Just as the Raincoat Man had said,

The place was filled with an 'audience.'

Over a thousand seats, and not a single one was empty.

Those were real people.

Or rather, they used to be people.

They were dressed in all kinds of formal attire—tuxedos, evening gowns, even wedding dresses.

Everyone sat bolt upright, hands on their knees, faces bearing those stiff smiles sewn with needle and thread.

Some had glass balls stuffed into their eye sockets.

Some had their mouths propped open with iron wire.

Lifeless.

But the most eerie thing was the moment Chen Mo walked in.

Swish.

Over a thousand heads turned at the same angle simultaneously.

More than two thousand dead, silent eyes stared at him in unison.

"Whoa."

Ruan Qiushui floated above Chen Mo's head, a hint of gravity entering her voice for the first time. "These aren't just specimens."

"There's something in their brains."

"Some kind of... bug?"

Chen Mo narrowed his eyes.

In his thermal imaging vision, a weak heat source was writhing in the brain position of each of these cold corpses.

"Wang Daoming."

Chen Mo shouted toward the stage, "Stop hiding back there and playing tricks."

"This is called art."

The spotlight on the stage suddenly lit up.

The beam of light hit the center.

The figure wearing a raincoat sat in a chair, still holding that wine glass in his hand.

He took a light sip of red wine, his eyes behind the mask fixed on Chen Mo.

"Chen Mo, do you know what tragedy is?"

The Raincoat Man stood up and spread his arms as if embracing the entire theater.

"Tragedy is when the thing you strive so hard to save is ultimately destroyed by your own hands."

He snapped his fingers.

Click-clack-click.

A dense sound of mechanical engagement came from the audience seats.

The corpses moved.

They didn't stand up; instead, they opened their mouths.

From deep within their throats, black tubes extended, their muzzles flickering with a faint blue light.

Those were Miniature Sonic Cannons.

Over a thousand sonic cannons were aimed at Chen Mo, who stood in the middle of the aisle.

"Now."

The Raincoat Man poured the wine from his glass onto the floor. "Please enjoy the First Movement: Resonance."

Hum—!

The air vibrated.

A massive wave of sonic energy, invisible to the naked eye but capable of shattering internal organs, pressed down on Chen Mo from all directions.

The carpet instantly turned to powder.

The armrests of the surrounding seats cracked and burst.

Ruan Qiushui let out a scream, her form instantly becoming blurred like a television screen with a bad signal. "Chen Mo! This frequency is wrong! He's interfering with your core!"

Chen Mo felt as if his chest had been struck hard by a sledgehammer.

That Nuclear Heart began to beat violently, its frequency fluctuating wildly, even emitting a piercing alarm.

Overload warning.

Magnetic field disturbance.

"Cough!"

Chen Mo knelt on one knee, spitting out a mouthful of black blood.

Before the blood could hit the ground, it was vibrated into a bloody mist by the sonic waves.

"Forty-eight degrees... fifty degrees..."

Ruan Qiushui's voice exploded in his mind. "He's forcibly raising the temperature of your core! He wants you to self-destruct!"

On the stage, the Raincoat Man let out a burst of wild laughter.

"How does it feel?"

"This is a frequency I specifically tuned for you. That heart of yours is your strongest weapon, but also your greatest weakness."

"Like a safe containing a nuclear bomb, as long as the code is found, it can turn you into a beautiful mushroom cloud."

Chen Mo's hand on the ground was trembling.

His fingertips dug deep into the concrete floor.

The vibration conducted through his bones, making his vision double.

Pain.

Every cell was screaming.

But he was laughing.

The smile was hideous and distorted, yet it radiated a mad-dog-like ruthlessness.

"Is this... all you've got?"

Chen Mo gritted his teeth, squeezing out the words from between them.

He forced himself to stand up.

His kneecaps were clicking and popping.

"Ruan Qiushui."

"I'm here, haven't dissipated yet." Ruan Qiushui's voice was weak, but she remained stubborn. "What, want to leave some last words?"

"Do me a favor."

Chen Mo suddenly ripped off his shirt.

The skin on his chest had turned a transparent red, and the Mechanical Core beneath it was spinning frantically, the blue light it emitted illuminating half the theater.

"Shut down... all the Limiters."

Ruan Qiushui was stunned for a moment. "Are you crazy? If you shut them all down, you'll melt instantly! In three minutes at most, you'll be nothing but a puddle of molten iron!"

"Three minutes?"

Chen Mo wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth, the red light in his eyes surging.

"To kill a dog, that's more than enough."

"...Fine."

Ruan Qiushui was also a maniac. "Then I'll be crazy with you this once! I've been sick of looking at these dead people for a long time anyway!"

She plunged into Chen Mo's chest.

Click!

A crisp sound of mechanical unlocking rang out from within Chen Mo's body.

In that instant,

The sonic waves in the theater seemed to pause for a second.

Because an even more terrifying energy fluctuation erupted from Chen Mo's body.

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