Chen Chen continued to hold and look at the shattered head of the mayor of Los Angeles who had turned into a statue. After some time had passed, there were no signs that he had turned into an angel statue.
Was it because the transformation process of the meme was interrupted by him killing the mayor before the transformation could be completed? Or was it his gaze that interrupted the transformation?
With this in mind, Chen Chen looked at the wall behind the statue and evoked Field. With a swift explosion, a large hole was carved into the wall of the mayor’s office by an invisible force!
A large amount of dust was kicked up as sunlight came in through the hole and illuminated the office. When Chen Chen made a flinging gesture, the shattered pieces of the city mayor were flung into the field. It shattered into more broken pieces while another large pit was dug in the center of the field!
The statue pieces were thrown into the pit, effectively concealing it from the view of people coming by the city hall. Chen Chen also created some distance between himself and the statue before he shut his eyes and opened them a second later.
The statue lied idly in the pit, not making the slightest movement at all.
This effectively confirmed Chen Chen’s suspicion that the transformation process could be interrupted by killing someone before they fully transformed into an angel statue.
After concluding this experiment, Chen Chen first relayed this information to Little X before heading back down the corridor of the city hall and kept his eyes on the lookout for more statues.
The Los Angeles City Hall had seen mass casualties today and there was no telling how many more statues lurked in the area. All Chen Chen knew that he did not see a single living person along his way, only more corpses with their necks shattered.
Perhaps as a result of most of the police forces being concentrated in the Herrank Warehouse District, there had not been a single police force member arriving at the scene since the incident occurred. On the contrary, the scene had attracted the curious glances of many passersby. Some of the bold ones among them even stopped what they were doing and got closer to spectate.
Chen Chen frowned irritably when he saw the crowd gathered outside through the window. Things would be very problematic if they happened to capture footage of the angel statues. Just as he was about to pick up a gun that belonged to a deceased security guard and fire warning shots at the crowd to chase them away, another thought came to him.
Perhaps this crowd could double as a cage since their gaze would hinder the angel statues from leaving this vicinity and prevent them from spreading further.
With this in mind, Chen Chen clicked his earpiece and instructed, “X, there’s a group of people outside the city hall with recording devices. Pay close attention to the outgoing network in this area and if you detect any footage of me or the angel statues being uploaded, I want you to destroy them immediately and also log the personal information of the uploader.”
“Understood.”
Little X answered swiftly. There was no need to mention what personal information needed to be logged since Little X should be able to figure that out on her own by this point.
One way or another, some of these onlookers would get a recording of either Chen Chen or the angel statues. If they only captured Chen Chen, then the matter should be resolved with a quick visit from the Black Knights to perform memory erasure. However, if they managed to collect footage of the angel statues, that would also suggest that they had looked at the angel statues in video form, which meant…
It was cruel to take advantage of them this way but the alternative of chasing them away may lead to the angel statues having free reign to escape further into the city which would make it difficult to look for them.
After that, Chen Chen continued heading deeper into the city hall.
Chen Chen assumed that it should be easy to find the angel statues by following the tracks left behind, which were the dead bodies. However, he could not find any signs of another statue even after he had covered the entire floor.
“It looks like I was too late.”
Chen Chen sighed regretfully after making this observation. “If the angel statues were already outside the city hall by the time they were reported, the others must’ve snuck into the city already.”
“That’s true, I just found relevant information online as well.”
There was disappointment in Little X’s voice. “Just half a minute ago, I logged a call made to the police department. It seems someone reported a case of a dead body with a broken neck. There were no reports of any statues at the scene.”
“If I can’t find them in the city hall, then it’s time to look for them outside.”
Chen Chen went to the second floor of the city hall as he said this. At the same time, he heard the sound of blaring sirens coming from afar.
The sirens were getting increasingly hectic. It sounded like there could not have been anything less than ten police vehicles approaching. Additionally, Chen Chen also heard the faint sound made by the rotor blades of helicopters mixed into the commotion.
Chen Chen approached a window and looked at the sky above. As expected, he spotted several black dots drawing closer toward his position. They were none other than the prolific Chinook model helicopters made in the Northern America Continent.
“Reinforcements dispatched from the nearby military base?”
Chen Chen frowned as he thought of this. Since the reinforcements had arrived, there was no reason for him to continue risking his neck like this. After all, he had just taken out the mayor of Los Angeles and in addition, it would be difficult to explain his innocence when he was the only living person among so many dead bodies.
With this in mind, Chen Chen shook his head briefly before charging out through the window of the city hall and soared to the skies above!
“Boom!”
There was a deafening explosion. The only thing the crowd gathered outside the city hall could see was the faint silhouette of a person darting out of the city hall. The sudden appearance of this figure was accompanied by a cloud of mist that stretched and penetrated several hundred meters into the sky above. The figure had vanished instantly!
“Oh my God!”
“Superman!”
The crowd cried out in awe and took as many pictures as they could of what just occurred in hopes of framing what they just witnessed…
By the time Little X issued a warning, Chen Chen was already several thousand meters above. “Sir Godfather, the Northern American police are heading to the city hall, you have to evacuate immediately.”
“I’ve already left.”
Chen Chen took a deep breath and fought for air as he said, “Contact the chief of the police station and tell them to be careful of the mound of dirt in front of the city hall since there’s a killer statue buried underneath. Also, tell them to report the address of any angel statues they discover from here on. I’ll take care of it.”
“But your body…”
Little X was hesitant. “You’ve been doing this for the entire night. This overexertion of Field may increase the risk of brain damage.”
“This is no time to care about this.”
Chen Chen interrupted Little X’s sound advice. “A lot of the surveillance cameras aren’t connected to the Internet. If they are accessed, many more angel statues will be born. You also have to factor in the phones that people record with. If I don’t address this problem myself as soon as possible, a mass breakout will happen and the consequences will be fatal…”
“Understood, I’ll dispatch the Black Knights to coordinate with you.”
Little X said, “So far, there have only been three reports. They are at the ‘Broad Museum of Modern Art’ located 0.8 kilometers west of the City Hall, the ‘Grand Central Market’ located 0.7 kilometers southwest of the City Hall, and the entrance of the church 300 meters northeast of the City Hall.”
Chen Chen immediately went to the church as soon as he heard this report. To prevent being recorded by prying eyes, he used the cloaking device that he had not used for ages to conceal himself.
Since Chen Chen was not in a supersonic state, he managed to arrive stealthily at the entrance of the church without anyone noticing.
This was a medieval Romanesque church. By the time he arrived, a large number of people were gathered in front of the church, forming circles around a corpse. Most of them had their mobile phones out and were taking pictures and videos of the scene.
Chen Chen was speechless when he looked at the amassed crowd. When he looked around, he immediately spotted dozens of angelic statues of various designs arranged across the walls and domes of the church architecture.
The statues were carved into the outer walls of the church, bringing out the prolific Medieval architectural ambiance of the time. However, there seemed to be an unspeakable, threatening aura seeping from these statues.
They all looked one and the same. Nobody could tell which one of these angel statues was real and which ones were not.
Chen Chen remained in his invisible state and stepped into the church. He was immediately greeted by the grandiose sight of the grand cathedral with dozens of pews set across both sides of the hall. The walls were covered with detailed murals that demanded the attention of whoever entered.
Due to the incident that occurred right outside the church, everyone had stepped outside, leaving the church empty at this point.
Chen Chen spotted two more angel statues at the front and center of the church hall, positioned on both sides of the cross of Jesus.
One of the angel statues had its arms stretched outward as if it was readying itself for an embrace with Christ. Meanwhile, another statue sat idly with its arms across its chest as if it were praying.
Chen Chen stood by the entrance and silently looked at the two statues. He blinked.
The statue with its arms crossed vanished in an instant.
Chen Chen’s pupils shrunk. He immediately looked around him and noticed the same statue had appeared approximately thirty meters to his right. It also changed its posture and now had its arms outstretched, its head pointed to the ground.
Chen Chen was ready to react accordingly. It was at this very moment when he felt another chilling sensation coursing through his veins that forced him to turn in the other direction as much as he did not want to. The moment he turned, he saw that the other statue had also advanced toward him. It was now no more than five meters away from him.
Both statues were real!
Chen Chen immediately realized the severity of the situation that could not be put into words. His first instinct was to leap backward. As soon as he took a step back, he felt a subtle jolt in his neck that was soon followed by an indescribable numbness sent across his body!
“Thwack!”
Chen Chen heard a crisp sound of something snap. It was his neck being crushed. Even his Field could not obstruct nor detect this invisible force!
“Bang!”
Chen Chen instinctively triggered his Field and an enormous amount of mist appeared around him as he shot backward instantaneously at supersonic speed. Despite his best efforts, it was too late. His neck was wholly snapped by the memetic force!
Chen Chen’s Field momentum swung him out of the entrance of the church and threw him onto the ground where he rolled and tossed around several times on the ground. Soon after that, his body finally came to rest like a sack of beans!
“Huff… Huff…”
Chen Chen felt waves of throbbing pain inside his head. He wanted to breathe but the air refused to flow downward no matter how hard he strained his lungs. His neck had been completely shattered. There was simply no way for air to flow down his lungs…
That was not the end of it. He was even feeling his senses slowly waning. The lower part of his body seemed to be melting away and his vision started to turn into a mass of blur…
“Sir Godfather, what happened!?”
“Sir Godfather!!”
“Chen Chen!”
The piercing screams of Little X rang in Chen Chen’s ears but there was simply no way for Chen Chen to elicit a response. The cloaking device started to give away as Chen Chen’s full form was revealed, lying on the ground. The sudden burst produced when he was flung out of the church doorstep at supersonic speed gave the crowd outside a tremendous scare!
Most of them were terrified and fled the scene to save their lives but some also kept a safe distance and cautiously approached to investigate…
‘Am I going to die?’
Chen Chen looked at the sky and reflected on his life up till this point. He realized that at this moment, his stream of thoughts was even clearer to him than when he took NZT-48. The events of his life appeared before his eyes like a steady flash of montages. He saw the moment he was born, primary school, high school, and the joyous look on his parent’s face when he made it to a renowned university…
After that, his life took a sharp turn. There was the USB drive, Xia Yin, the experiments, dropping out of school, Little X…
Within seconds, countless memories that took on incredibly distinct forms surged across Chen Chen’s mind. Despite all that, his thoughts were more lucid than ever.
‘Am I going to die?
‘No, I will not die!
‘I have all the power and wealth in the world, enough to rival nations. I have the USB drive that can change the world, how can I allow myself to die!
‘I still need to take care of my parents and grant them immortality. I have to take over the Earth Federation. I have to explore beyond the Earth. I have unlimited time to achieve all of this, why would I ever die?!
‘I will not die!
‘I will never die!’
A powerful will to survive came to Chen Chen in a rush! In an instant, the Field in his mind poured like a flash flood! A second later, the skin on his neck was torn away, revealing the reddish muscle tissue underneath.
At the same time, every vein of muscle in his neck was torn into strings, exposing stems of trachea, veins, and arteries. His two blood vessels were completely torn apart, erupting steady streams of blood everywhere!
What followed immediately was what seemed like invisible hands that pieced his arteries together piece by piece. No, it was not mere healing. It was as if they were bound together by an invisible force that forced his blood to flow appropriately!
The onlookers that saw this shrieked as if they had seen a ghost before them. Some of them held their cameras in front of their faces to record this bizarre scene.
This was the least of Chen Chen’s concerns at this moment. Within seconds, the functionalities of his lungs had been restored. This was achieved by his Field manually pumping his lungs, causing them to contract and expand repeatedly to simulate breathing motions!
After this was done, Chen Chen continued to multitask with his Field. Using another pulse of Field, he pulled his body upward like he was a puppet with attached strings and made himself get back up on his feet!
“Demon, demon!”
After seeing this, the onlookers could not stand the absurdity of what they were witnessing anymore. They cried out in horror and started to run away from this person!