Stronger with More Jobs

Chapter 689 - 293: Taichu-Class Divine Armament, New Beginnings!

Although Chu Kuanglan felt a bit itchy to act, he knew the bigger picture was important. He scratched his head and said, "Alright, let’s listen to Qingzi. We’ll pretend to be low-level thugs for a few days, and once we figure things out, we’ll flip the table."

Seeing everyone reach a consensus, Su Wanqing smiled, "Alright, let’s settle it this way. I’ll contact the Cyan Dragon Gang on the ship, and they’ll be the ones receiving the new recruits at the dock. Once the ship docks, they’ll come to pick us up."

With the plan finalized, they discussed the details a bit more.

It was late into the night when everyone returned to their rooms to rest.

...

Three days later.

The massive hull of the Ark of Hope broke through the ice, sailing on the lead-gray waters of the Arctic Ice Sea.

The bitter cold wind whipped up snowflakes, lashing at everything on the deck.

At this moment, the deck was unusually crowded, with people bustling and clamoring.

Passengers with large luggage surged onto the deck, tiptoeing, craning their necks, trying to catch a glimpse of the sea ahead of the ship.

The air was filled with a mix of anticipation, curiosity, and a hint of unease.

Just moments ago, the captain’s deep voice echoed throughout the ship’s P.A. system: "Attention all passengers, the Ark of Hope is about to reach its destination, the City of Injustice. Please have your belongings ready and prepare to disembark. I repeat, we are about to reach the City of Injustice..."

"City of Injustice? Where’s the city?!"

Chu Kuanglan, carrying a huge tactical backpack nearly half his height, widened his eyes, scanning the vast sea.

Aside from the rolling waves, floating ice shards, and a distant gray horizon, there was nothing in sight. Not a trace of a city?

His booming voice stood out even amid the noisy deck.

There were quite a few passengers equally bewildered as him.

For their first journey to the mythical no man’s land, they envisioned scenes of ghostly fortresses or bustling, chaotic ports, not this vast, desolate ice sea.

Voices of doubt and skepticism rose intermittently among the crowd.

"Is this a mistake? There’s nothing ahead but water and ice!"

"Has the route gone wrong?"

"Is the City of Injustice underwater?"

Fang Qingyu, Wei Banmeng, and others stood in the bow area.

Hearing Chu Kuanglan’s cries, Su Wanqing’s lips curved into a smile filled with mystery and anticipation, "Don’t rush. The spectacle is about to unfold. Get ready to witness one of the most incredible creations."

As soon as her words fell, almost as if to validate her prophecy...

"Boom——!!!"

A deep rumble, as if from the depths of the earth, abruptly drowned out all the noise on the deck.

Approximately a few nautical miles ahead of the Ark of Hope.

The calm was completely shattered.

The seawater roiled and surged as if boiling.

An indescribably massive, curved metal outline emerged with overwhelming force, forcibly displacing billions of tons of seawater, slowly rising from the depths of the icy sea.

It was a...

Metal sphere so enormous that it instantly shattered human comprehension.

So large that the steel giant, the Ark of Hope, appeared as insignificant as a speck of dust by a giant’s foot.

The sphere’s surface was covered with countless geometric, time-worn metal plates.

The gaps between the plates were deep, flickering with cold glimmers of light.

Its entire body had a dark gray-black hue, as if forged from the cores of the oldest stars.

Like a star’s core frozen for eons.

Now, it broke free from its restraints, returning to daylight.

The ascent felt like an entire continent being lifted from the ocean floor to the surface.

The deck was instantly enveloped in dead silence.

Everyone, as if gripped by an invisible hand, stood wide-eyed, speechless, forgetting to breathe.

Countless gazes were fixated on the colossal entity rising, blocking half the view.

Even among the transcendent.

No one had ever encountered something this massive that could still move...

Looking left or right, it seemed endless.

In the face of such an absolute display of creation’s power, both proud technology and transcendent individuals’ strength seemed utterly insignificant.

Fang Qingyu, melted gold’s vertical pupils, burst with an unprecedented light, his heart pounding in his chest.

This is... the Divine Armament "Mirage"?!

The giant sphere had not fully emerged from the sea.

When roughly two-thirds of its volume surfaced from the water, its ascent abruptly halted.

A massive shadow cast over the sea, completely engulfing the Ark of Hope within.

The light on the deck dimmed sharply, as if twilight had arrived prematurely.

In this suffocating silence...

"Buzz... Creak... Creak..."

A low, immense sound of metal scraping came from the upper half of the giant sphere.

Under everyone’s dazed gazes, the thick metal plates on the upper half of the massive sphere began to move, deform, and separate in a precisely engineered, mechanically aesthetic way.

Polygonal, arched metal plates, like mythical slumbering lotus petals, slowly and layer by layer unfolded outward.

Every so-called "petal" unfolding.

Accompanied by the deep metallic rumble and torrents of seawater cascading down.

As the "petals" unfurled layer by layer, the core encased within the sphere was finally unveiled to the world.

It was a city...

A city ablaze with lights, towering skyscrapers, and crisscrossing roads.

It wasn’t built on the inner shell of the sphere.

But appeared to be held aloft by some invisible force in the center of the massive sphere.

The dense mix of buildings varied in height, blending ancient stone fortresses with modern steel skyscrapers in an intriguingly harmonious style.