136: Ripples of Paradox

No sound.

No light.

When Chen Feng aimed the [schrödingers lockpick] at the exquisite silver shackles on Eve's neck and activated it, the world seemed to have its mute button pressed.

But in the next second, an indescribable sense of disorder erupted, spreading outward with the lockpick as its center!

The air seemed to turn into a viscous liquid, light distorted on the walls into grotesque oil paintings, and the sense of space in the entire laboratory was being brutally pulled and folded by an invisible force.

"For Hanhai! Charge!"

In Slaughterhouse Canyon, Reno's roar was still echoing.

Shadow Chaser-J sat in a comfortable command vehicle, watching the dozen or so moths rushing towards the gun barrels through the holographic screen, elegantly picking up a cup of hot tea.

"Run faster, bugs." His voice, carrying a hint of a lazy smile, spread throughout the canyon via the loudspeaker, "Don't make me wait."

He didn't even order them to fire, instead commanding the snipers to aim precisely at the ground by the survivors' feet; the splashing gravel and dust caused them to stumble repeatedly, looking utterly pathetic.

He was enjoying this game of slaughter.

In the laboratory, the eerie sense of dislocation grew stronger and stronger.

Aris, who was fully focused on operating the reactor, suddenly felt a pang of palpitations; the console before him seemed to pull away and push closer in an instant.

He whipped his head around, his face full of shock and fury: "Von! What is this phenomenon? This isn't resonance!"

"It's the Critical Effect!" Chen Feng roared at him while desperately maintaining the stability of the lockpick. "It's the collision of two laws, the old and the new! A beautiful Critical Effect! Hold steady! Doctor! You must hold steady!"

"Critical Effect?" Aris's anger was briefly suppressed by this new term, and a hint of fanaticism surfaced in his eyes once more.

The effect of the lockpick was intensifying!

With Eve at the center, countless fragmented phantoms, like television static, emerged in the surrounding space. Within those phantoms were burning cities, frozen oceans, and bizarre geometric shapes that didn't belong to this universe... Eve's body began to tremble slightly, and for the first time, a faint yet deep pain flickered in her hollow, numb eyes.

The Spiritual Shackles on her neck began to flash frantically, emitting a "Bzzzt" sound—the screeching wail of an electric current that set one's teeth on edge!

In the canyon, the mobile bomb that Reno and the others were desperately pushing forward was hit by a precise sniper bullet from the cliffside.

"Boom—!"

The bomb detonated prematurely, far from its intended position. The massive shockwave knocked the remaining dozen or so soldiers to the ground, leaving them completely exposed like targets before hundreds of dark gun barrels.

"Fire."

J waved his hand wearily.

"End this farce."

At the very moment his Agents were about to pull their triggers and tear Reno and the others to shreds—

An unrecognizable energy pulse, powerful enough to distort the senses, swept through from the direction of the Higher Academy at a speed exceeding that of light!

"Zzzzt—!"

All the advanced optical sights, fire-control radars, and individual tactical screens of J's unit were instantly overwhelmed by a deluge of static!

A series of ear-piercing malfunction alarms blared frantically within the elite unit's communication channels!

Inside the laboratory, the disorder of the laws reached its peak.

"Warning! Warning! Unidentified law distortion detected in Sector A! Spacetime continuity interrupted! Initiating highest-level lockdown!"

The shrill alarm echoed throughout the entire academy.

Aris Thorne finally realized he had been deceived.

He abandoned the reactor, which could explode at any moment, and slowly turned around. On his face, fury was intertwined with a morbid ecstasy—the kind one feels when discovering a new species—making him look incredibly hideous.

"You... you're not a scholar!"

His voice trembled with extreme excitement.

"You are a living paradox! A walking, breathing paradox! A perfect... experimental subject!"

He roared, like a beast that had discovered its prey, and lunged toward Chen Feng!

Chen Feng's pupils constricted suddenly.

Without a second thought, he kicked over an instrument cart piled with jars and bottles nearby!

Amidst the sound of breaking glass, the cart barely managed to stall Aris for a single second.

Meanwhile, in the canyon, Reno seized that golden second.

Watching the enemies whose ranks were in slight disarray due to equipment failure, he leaped up from the blood-stained ground and, with the last breath in his lungs, let out a valley-shaking roar:

"Now's the time! Charge in!"

Inside the command vehicle, J watched in shock as the screen filled with red garbled code representing "malfunction," seeing his ironclad defense line fall into a moment of fatal chaos due to this sudden, eerie anomaly.

The balance of the battlefield had been completely shattered.