And the country then

Lin Xi was just about to process the money transfer for Ye Chuan when the entire interrogation room suddenly began to shake violently.

"Warning!"

"Warning!"

The emergency lights overhead flashed frantically, and the nanobot cameras floating in the air began darting around like headless flies.

A piercing, ear-splitting alarm instantly blanketed the entire precinct. It wasn't the absolute highest-level alarm they had, but it still struck fear right into everyone's hearts.

"What's going on?!" Lin Xi stood up abruptly, her face instantly turning deathly pale.

She was far too familiar with this alarm.

This was the Federation's high-level disaster warning, sounded only when a Level Nine or higher Calamity appeared.

"Beep beep beep!!!"

The interrogation room's holographic screen automatically flickered to life, switching to the city's surveillance feed.

At the top of the screen, a line of blood-red text flashed wildly:

[Level 9 Calamity Detected! Code Name: Abyssal Touch!]

[Estimated Time of Arrival: 3 minutes! All combat units must immediately proceed to the defense line! Repeat! Immediately proceed to the defense line!]

"A Level Nine Calamity..." Lin Xi furrowed her brows. "The last time a Level Nine Calamity appeared was fifty years ago!"

She dashed to the window, throwing open the heavy alloy curtains to look outside.

On the distant horizon, a massive black shadow that blotted out the sky was slowly approaching.

It wasn't a biological creature at all, but rather a moving mountain. It stood over a thousand meters tall, its body composed of countless twisting black tentacles and rotting rock!

Its surface was covered in scales that gleamed with an eerie green light, each scale the size of a large truck.

With every step its thousand-meter-tall body took, the entirety of District Seven trembled in response.

"Buzz!!!"

The pale blue omni-directional defense barrier flared to life once more. On the surface of the barrier, countless golden psionic runes flowed frantically, forming an indestructible line of defense.

"Attack!"

In the next second, countless attacks launched into the sky from all over the city, hurtling toward the Abyssal Touch.

From space, orbital cannons equipped with spirit-gathering arrays rained down thick, golden beams of light, slamming viciously into the back of the Abyssal Touch!

On the ground, countless beam missiles roared out, trailing long tails of fire. Their warheads, carved with magic-piercing runes, blossomed into massive fiery explosions against the monster's body!

"Charge!"

However, these attacks, which were powerful enough to wipe out an entire city, only managed to leave shallow marks on the Abyssal Touch's scales.

The tentacles that were severed grew back at a visible rate, becoming even thicker and stronger than before.

It let out a furious roar, and countless black tentacles whipped out, lashing viciously against the defense barrier.

"Crack!!!"

A massive fissure instantly split open across the barrier.

"This is bad! The barrier is going to break!" A panicked shout rang out from the command center.

"S-Class heroes, support the defense line immediately! Where is Nai Guo? Tell Nai Guo to get out there right now!"

"Chief! Lord Nai Guo is still in the hospital undergoing emergency treatment! He was severely injured by that mysterious man earlier and is still unconscious!"

"What?!"

The command center instantly fell dead silent.

District Seven only had one S-Class hero, Nai Guo. He was the core of their entire defense line. Now that Nai Guo had fallen, there was absolutely no one who could stop the Level Nine Calamity, Abyssal Touch.

"Doesn't... doesn't Nai Guo have a skill that automatically heals his injuries when he drinks milk?!"

"It's no use! The injuries are too severe! Even if we soak him in milk, he won't be able to get up and fight anytime soon!"

"We're doomed..." Lin Xi slumped against the window, staring at the widening crack in the barrier, her eyes filled with despair.

The Abyssal Touch's tentacles had already breached the city. A single tentacle swept across, and over a dozen hundred-meter-tall buildings were instantly snapped in half.

Screams, explosions, and the thunderous roar of collapsing buildings intertwined. The once-prosperous District Seven was transformed into a living hell in the blink of an eye.

Countless Transcendents rushed forward in an attempt to stop it, only to be effortlessly crushed by the tentacles like ants.

Golden sword light, blue ice spikes, and crimson flames all seemed incredibly tiny and powerless before the colossal monster.

Lin Xi subconsciously looked over at Ye Chuan. Her lips moved, but she ultimately said nothing.

Compared to the monster outside, the man right in front of her was far more terrifying!

Indescribable and uncontainable.

Why on earth would he step in to help them? For all she knew, he might be eager to see the Federation destroyed by the monster.

Just then, Ye Chuan, who had been leaning back in his chair, felt the earth trembling around him. He seemed to grow a little impatient. "So noisy."

He hadn't even moved into his new villa yet, and it was about to be destroyed?

He stood up.

Lin Xi froze for a moment. "What... what are you going to do?"

Ye Chuan didn't answer. He simply vanished from where he stood.

In the next second, Ye Chuan's figure appeared directly above the Abyssal Touch.

He hovered in mid-air, looking down at the massive monster that was continuously destroying the city beneath his feet. His face was completely devoid of emotion. "Hmm... this aura, it's probably around the Tenth Tier, isn't it? If it weren't for these barriers, this thing could have wiped out half a continent back where I'm from."

The Abyssal Touch seemed to sense his presence. It abruptly raised its head, and countless black tentacles thrust toward Ye Chuan like venomous snakes!

Ye Chuan merely raised his right hand casually and tapped lightly with his index finger.

Time seemed to freeze in that very moment.

"My word is law: Die."

The tentacles thrusting toward Ye Chuan instantly solidified in mid-air. Then, starting from their tips, they slowly turned into gray powder, drifting away with the wind.

Next was the Abyssal Touch's colossal body.

From the top of its head to the bottom of its feet, from its scales to its tentacles, the entire thousand-meter-tall monster dissipated into the air at a visible rate, as if erased by an invisible force.

The Level Nine Calamity, Abyssal Touch, which had just been blotting out the sky and acting invincible, was completely annihilated with a single point of a finger.

Not even a speck of dust was left behind.

In the sky, the black, corrosive mist gradually dispersed, and warm sunlight spilled across the earth once more.

The entire world instantly fell silent.

On the battlefield, all the Transcendents who had been fighting stopped in their tracks, staring blankly at the empty sky.

In the command center, everyone stared dumbfounded at the surveillance screens.

In the interrogation room, Lin Xi's mind was completely blank.

She had no idea what had just happened. Ye Chuan had simply pointed, and the monster had turned to ash.

What a terrifying existence!

The Level Nine Calamity that had plunged all of District Seven into misery was just... gone?

Is... is he even human?

With a flash, Ye Chuan reappeared in the interrogation room.

He sat back down in his original chair, acting as if absolutely nothing had happened, and spoke in a flat tone:

"It's quiet now. Let's get back to what we were doing. Have you transferred the money? By the way, do the phones in this world... no, I mean, do you have terminals or something where I can scroll through short videos?"

Lin Xi snapped back to reality. Flustered, she frantically operated her terminal. Not only did she transfer the one million Alliance Credits, but she also secretly transferred an extra nine million, rounding it up to an even ten million.

Then, she sent the highest-level access codes for the mountaintop villa, along with her own private contact information, straight to Ye Chuan's temporary terminal.

"A-all done! Everything is set!" She handed the phone over, her voice carrying a faint, barely noticeable tremor, her eyes brimming with awe. "The villa is fully furnished, so you can just bring your bags and move right in. If you need anything at all, contact me anytime!"

Ye Chuan took the phone, glanced at the account balance, and raised an eyebrow without saying a word.

He stood up and made his way toward the door.

Upon reaching the doorway, he paused and glanced back at Lin Xi, who was still standing there in a daze. He casually remarked,

"That guy in the gold outfit, I went easy on him. He'll wake up by tomorrow. Also, don't ever point a cannon at me again."

With that said, his figure vanished at the end of the hallway.

Lin Xi stood in the empty interrogation room, staring at the metallic powder scattered across the floor and the city outside the window that had finally returned to its usual calm. She let out a long, heavy sigh of relief.

She picked up her communicator. "Chief..."