The sky over District 9 suddenly lit up.
Not the light of dawn, but a suffocating azure blue. Three massive floating battleships tore through the clouds, hovering over the ruins of the Black Market. Hundreds of drones swarmed out like bees, weaving a net of red laser sights that covered the entire district.
An indescribable heaviness slammed into everyone's heart.
The thugs who were cheering for the "New King" choked on their voices. Madame Red dropped her pipe again. Old Ghost shook uncontrollably.
"Blue... Blue Tier..." Red's teeth chattered. "It really is the Arbiter... We're dead..."
Cade stood by the broken window, looking up at the blue sky. [Silence] was in his hand, but the invisible pressure made his knuckles turn white.
"Is this Divine Punishment?"
A beam of light descended from the flagship. A man in dark blue robes, wearing a silver half-mask, floated down slowly. His feet didn't touch the ground. Rainwater evaporated into white mist three meters away from him.
District 9 Arbiter — Lin. Ability: [Absolute Order · Gravity Field].
Arbiter Lin landed. He didn't look at the kneeling Red or Old Ghost. He didn't look at the trembling thugs. His gaze passed over the ants and landed on Cade. Indifferent. Like looking at a stain on a carpet.
"Sequence 0." Lin's voice wasn't loud, but it exploded directly in everyone's brain via resonance. "You disappoint me." "I thought you would bring a surprise. But you are just a rat... who gathered a few other rats."
"I don't like looking up at people." Cade spoke coldly. He raised his sword. Data streams danced wildly in his black pupils.
[The 0th Law: Repulsion] [Max Output!]
BOOM! The floor beneath Cade exploded. He shot up into the sky like a black cannonball, defying gravity! This slash concentrated all his mental energy, aiming straight for Lin's throat!
"Too slow." Lin didn't even lift a hand. He simply uttered one word: "Kneel."
VMM—!!!
A terrifying gravity, impossible to describe, instantly descended on Cade. Not ten times. Not a hundred times. Five Hundred Times Gravity!
The air was compressed into a solid, emitting a screaming sound. Cade's upward momentum was slapped down by an invisible giant hand!
"BANG!" Cade smashed into the ground. The marble floor pulverized into dust. Cracks spread like spiderwebs.
"Urgh..." Cade grunted, blood leaking from the corner of his mouth. His knees buckled. His bones creaked loudly, sounding like they would snap at any second. But he didn't kneel. He used [Silence] to prop himself up, his spine bent like a taut bow, stubbornly refusing to break.
"Oh?" Surprise flashed in Lin's eyes. "Hard bones."
"BOSS!" Nearby, Titan roared. Perhaps out of loyalty, or perhaps wanting to prove himself to the new master, he charged at Lin with his remaining arm! "Don't touch Lord Cade! I'll kill you!"
Lin didn't even turn his head. He just flicked a finger.
"Noisy."
Splat. No explosion. No flying limbs. Mid-charge, Titan suddenly... collapsed inward. Like a crushed soda can. His bones, flesh, and mechanical arm were instantly compressed into a meatball less than twenty centimeters in diameter.
Blood hissed out from the cracks of the meatball.
Dead silence. True horror. Madame Red and Old Ghost lost their minds with fear. That was Titan! The strongest tank! Gone in a second?
This was Blue Tier? This was a God? Despair drowned them like a black tide.
"See that?" Lin stepped over the puddle of blood, walking toward Cade. "This is Order." "In this world, the weak don't even have the right to try."
He stood over Cade, looking down at the struggling boy.
"I don't understand." Lin shook his head with a trace of pity. "You are a perfect specimen. If you just obeyed, you would be the sharpest blade." "Why insist on having a 'Self'?"
"Self..." Cade trembled. Blood dripped from his chin onto the blade. Five hundred times gravity made every breath feel like swallowing razor blades. Golden text on his retina screamed warnings: [WARNING! Body Integrity Critical!] [WARNING! Mental Energy Depleted!] [The 0th Law... Analysis Failed.]
The level gap was too big. Absolute power crushed any loophole in the rules.
"Cade!!" A scream came from the distance. "BANG!" A kilometer away, a special sniper round screamed toward Lin's forehead.
Lin didn't blink. The bullet stopped one meter away. Then dropped.
"Another little rat." Lin raised his hand and clenched at the air in Jinx's direction.
"AHH!" Jinx's pained scream came through the earpiece. The tower she was on collapsed instantly. An invisible gravity hand pinned her into the ruins, crushing her expensive cannon into a metal pancake.
"Jinx!" Cade's pupils shrank violently. His heart felt like it was being squeezed.
"Don't worry. Your turn is next." Lin lifted his foot and stepped on Cade's hand—the one holding the sword. He ground his heel down.
Crack. The sound of finger bones shattering was clear.
"Now, I ask one last time." Lin's voice was cold as iron, every word a judgment. "Hand over the key to Sequence 0. Or watch your friends turn into meat paste one by one."
Pain. Suffocation. Humiliation.
Cade lay on the ground, vision blurred by blood. Titan was a meatball. Jinx was crushed in the ruins. Red and Old Ghost were crying like babies.
Was this reality? Was this the unbreakable wall? Just because he lacked power, he didn't even have the right to "Refuse"?
"Heh... Heh heh..." Cade suddenly laughed. A raspy laugh, mixed with blood foam.
Lin frowned. "Why are you laughing?"
Cade lifted his head with difficulty. On that blood-stained face, there was no fear. No begging. Only a chilling, bone-deep madness.
"I'm laughing at you..." Cade gasped, his voice weak but unbreakable. "Do you think this is my limit?"
"You said the weak have no choice." "But I choose..."
"Sacrifice."
Lin's pupils constricted violently. An unprecedented sense of crisis made the hair on his neck stand up!
He saw Cade's pitch-black eyes suddenly start to burn. Not a metaphor. They were literally burning. The black was fading, replaced by a terrifying Pale White!
[Host Near Death Detected.] [The 0th Law · Phase 2 Authority — FORCE UNLOCK.] [Cost: Burning 50% Life Force.] [Execute?]
Cade roared in his mind: "EXECUTE!!"
"Even if I burn this body to ash... I will take a piece of your flesh!"
BOOM—!!!
An indescribable pillar of white light erupted from Cade! The 500x Gravity Field pressing down on him... shattered like glass.