173: Chapter 173 Fireworks Display

Twenty minutes before the official start of the Continental Carnival.

Transport plane after transport plane streaked across the sky above C City.

Beneath the belly of each transport plane hung a specially designed silo.

As the hatch at the bottom of the silos slowly opened, countless tiny particles drifted with the wind like a cascading galaxy.

These particles were the ultra-micro drones that the Hero Association had prepared for the nationwide live broadcast.

They were sufficient to cover the entire sky above C City, enabling a live broadcast with no blind spots.

They could also intelligently interconnect to build an efficient and stable network System, capable of handling the traffic from across the country.

In the end, the previous Monster Hunting event was just a spur-of-the-moment idea.

Now, the Hero Association had finally begun to put all the resources truly prepared for the Continental Carnival into use.

"It's starting! It's finally starting!"

Wang Puchuan shouted excitedly, "Branch President! Hurry up and get those unruly civilians, death row inmates, and antisocial elements we dragged in from all over the place ready!"

"Get the livestream atmosphere heated up quickly!"

According to the established procedure, the first step was to drop the outside participants collected from within the G District into C City to avoid a lull in the early stages of the event.

These participants had been conscripted from other cities by the Hero Association and wore collars equipped with sensor bombs around their necks.

They were given only one mission.

Join the Hunters faction and kill as many people from the Fugitives faction as possible.

They had to kill at least three to prevent their collars from exploding, and the more they killed, the more generous the rewards.

They were also given an initial twenty points so they could exchange for the weapons they wanted before landing.

As for how the event would continue if all the people in the Fugitives faction were killed?

Naturally, half of the Hunters would be randomly selected and converted into Fugitives.

This cycle would repeat a few times until the end time of the Continental Carnival.

The beginning would inevitably be a massive melee covering the entire city, and as the number of people decreased, the points in the participants' hands would increase.

Afterward, the barrier would slowly shrink as time passed.

The final stage would be the collision of the powerful heroes summoned by the participants.

During this time, the Hero Association would also incorporate many live interactive segments at appropriate moments.

As long as everything went smoothly, this Continental Carnival would surely be the most popular one in history.

Not only would the livestream gifts fly, but those big shots from the Superpower Association would also be satisfied.

"I should also head to the teleportation point to get ready. Branch President, I'll leave the command to you from here on out. You know the procedure."

Wang Puchuan tossed this sentence at the Branch President in a hurry and turned to leave the command center.

"Wait!" the Branch President hurriedly stopped him, "What's the situation with the request Wan Chaoren made earlier?"

"He wants to enter the field from the very beginning."

Wang Puchuan was stunned when he heard this, as if he had just remembered, and slapped his thigh, "I almost forgot! Thanks for the reminder; otherwise, if I ran into him at the teleportation point later, I really wouldn't have known how to handle it."

Originally, according to the procedure, no one could have enough points to summon Wan Chaoren at the very start.

Wang Puchuan's previous promise was merely an expedient measure, intended to temporarily coax and appease Wan Chaoren to prevent him from causing trouble.

Later, he was busy with other things, didn't pay attention to this matter anymore, and forgot about it for a moment.

"Quick, check and see where that person Wan Chaoren Lao Ge is watching is located right now!"

Hearing Wang Puchuan's urging, a group of operators began clattering away on the command screens.

Thanks to the micro-drone network covering the entire C City, Chen Moxuan's location was quickly and precisely pinpointed through photo information comparison.

"Why did he run to a place like that?" the Branch President asked, puzzled as he looked at the located Chen Moxuan on the screen.

Chen Moxuan was currently standing on the top of the tallest building in C City, balancing on one foot on the edge of the eaves, gazing into the distance, his clothes whipping in the wind.

Wang Puchuan didn't have time to dwell on that; he pushed past an operator and began operating the display console himself.

Following his operations, the live-action footage gradually transformed into a top-down view outlined in green lines, and several small red dots suddenly appeared in the vicinity, centered on Chen Moxuan.

"Good, the few people I arranged for that task earlier are all nearby." Wang Puchuan's eyes lit up.

He had previously selected a few people and arranged a series of hidden tasks for them to follow Chen Moxuan.

It seemed the temptation of points was indeed great.

Even though he hadn't paid attention to this matter later, these few people were still steadfastly executing the tasks.

"Let me see who has the most points among them... Oh, it's actually the Mayor."

"In the end, just assign him some easy tasks that can be completed effortlessly, and give him some points so he can summon Wan Chaoren Lao Ge to fight for five minutes."

"Under the nationwide live broadcast, five minutes for Lao Ge to kill that kid should be enough."

"Let's do it this way. If he stays in there from the initial stage, it will affect the balance too much."

Wang Puchuan left instructions for the operators and then left the command center without stopping.

Watching Wang Puchuan's hurried back, the Branch President couldn't help but wonder.

Wan Chaoren is one thing, but why is Wang Puchuan in such a rush?

Although Wang Puchuan was the one who proposed the rules for this Continental Carnival event.

But given his abstract hero title and his dismal popularity as the second-to-last A-Rank Hero.

No one would summon him at all.

"Forget it. If I could understand his thinking, I'd be close to resigning."

The Branch President shook his head, wondering why he was trying to understand someone who played with abstract concepts.

He shifted his gaze, focused on the large display screen, and directed the work.

...

After the transport planes finished dropping the micro-drones and withdrew, more modified passenger planes came breaking through the air from the distance.

Inside one of the passenger planes, a young man was checking his rifle, hanging the observation binoculars around his neck, and strapping on the parachute pack he would need in a while.

After confirming everything was correct, he clenched his slightly trembling fists and thought to himself:

"Mom, Dad, I wonder how you are doing now that you have that money?"

"I will definitely survive and come find you!"

His family was poor, and in order to pay for his parents' medical treatment, he had accepted a large sum of money and taken the fall for a murderer.

He hadn't expected that today, one year after being imprisoned, he would be forcibly dragged by the G District Hero Association to participate in the Continental Carnival.

But as long as he could kill three Fugitives and survive to the end, he could be released early.

The scarred man sitting next to him looked over and smiled disdainfully:

"Kid, I can tell at a glance that you're still a newbie, right?"

"Huh?" The young man was stunned by this question.

"Everyone on this plane has at least one life on their hands. You sticking out among us is too obvious."

The scarred man laughed, his eyes revealing a gleam of excitement,

"Relax, killing isn't that hard. Just take that piece of iron in your hand, aim it at someone else's head, and pull the trigger. Once the red, white, and bloody stuff comes out, you're done."

"Once you experience that feeling of killing, you will absolutely forget..."

Before the scarred man could finish his sentence, with a "whoosh," his head suddenly exploded.

For a moment, red, white, and bloody matter splattered everywhere.

Immediately after, the entire plane cabin shook violently.

"The plane is crashing!"

At the critical moment of life and death, the young man's strong survival instinct erupted.

He tried his best to maintain his balance, hit the emergency button on the cabin door, and was swept out of the plane along with the pressure difference.

The parachute he had strapped on earlier came in handy, and the young man fell slowly toward the ground.

Others who hadn't prepared in advance weren't so lucky and could only let out their final wails while plummeting rapidly.

However, during his slow descent, the young man witnessed an incredibly shocking scene.

Streaks of dazzling golden light, like meteors cutting through the night sky, whistled past him.

Accompanied by earth-shattering explosions in his ears, plane after plane burst into blinding fire and plummeted down.

"Could it be... anti-aircraft guns!?"

The young man was startled, hurriedly grabbed the observation binoculars around his neck, and looked around.

Finally, his gaze locked onto a figure on a tall building in the distance.

"That is... a person?"

On top of the tall building, Chen Moxuan casually tore off a brick, applied a little force with both hands, and crumbled it into fine pebbles.

The metal-attribute True Qi within him surged, pouring into these stone fragments, imbuing them with a hardness no less than alloy.

"This might be the most expensive fireworks show I've ever seen."

Chen Moxuan swung his arm with force, and those stone fragments containing terrifying power shot toward the fleet of planes ten thousand meters in the sky like arrows released from a bow.

In an instant, a large number of planes turned into brilliant fireworks amidst fire and thick smoke, plummeting rapidly.