Absolute darkness swallowed the convoy. The dome of flesh and giant, intertwining tendrils above the toll road had completely blocked out the sunlight. The air, which had previously smelled only of ozone and moss, now turned into a thick aroma of copper and rotten methane. This bio-mass jungle wasn't just trapping them; it was preparing to digest them alive. TATATATATATA! A burst of assault rifle fire shattered the deathly silence. The muzzle flashes from the long-barreled guns illuminated the pulsing flesh walls around them. "FIRE! DON'T LET THEM TOUCH THE HOOD!" roared Colonel Badra from the side of the command jeep. The veteran officer's face was beet red, the veins on his neck bulging hard. His hand kept pulling the trigger until hot bullet casings fell onto the moss-covered asphalt. A full-scale ambush was underway. Hundreds of adult-thigh-sized thorny tendrils shot out from

The smoke from the God-Piercer bullet explosions slowly faded, replaced by a thick purple fog that crept up from the bottom of the crater. The smell in the air changed instantly. It was no longer just the foul smell of blood or rotting flesh, but a very sharp, metallic aroma that pierced the nasal cavity and made the lungs feel like they were being sliced with a rusty razor. Elian leaped down from the hood of the command jeep. His boots hit the cracked asphalt. He pulled up the collar of his jacket, making sure his dark aviator sunglasses and military cap were on tight. If he were to release his aura suppressor now, Badra's already exhausted soldiers could literally drop dead from his divine gravitational pressure. "Everyone out! Bring only what's necessary!" roared Colonel Badra, waving his hand at his soldiers. "Leave the vehicles! We're on foot through this jungle!" Budi, Siti, and Tono crawled out of the back seat of

The soft laughter, created from the combination of hundreds of human vocal cords, still echoed from behind the giant steel door. The hair on the back of everyone's neck in the hallway stood on end, except for Elian's. The CEO stepped forward, approaching the pulsing mass of muscle that wrapped around the three-story-high door. His hand reached out. "Everyone, back. All the way to the back wall," Elian commanded without turning around. "Gus, cover Mr. Hendra and the intern group. Vara, get ready to go in." "You're going to split that muscle with lightning, Boss? Did you forget what the old witch said earlier?!" Vara protested loudly, standing alert with her Cosmo Rapier drawn. "One spark of electricity and we're all nuclear fireworks!" "I must reiterate, Big Boss," Arini's voice was cold from behind the Revenant shield. Budi, Siti, and Tono were already crouching tremblingly behind her lab coat. "The

The blinding white light thrashed wildly inside the golden cage. Inside the isolation cube created by Elian's Quarantine Protocol, the Void-contaminated nuclear fusion explosion raged, trying to find a way out to level Banten and Jakarta into a radioactive crater. The transparent, dark golden walls trembled violently. The web of binary code that wove the cube flickered wildly, holding back the pressure of millions of degrees Celsius just five meters from Elian's face. Elian gritted his teeth until his jaw felt like it was going to break. Blood dripped from his nose. The veins on his neck and arms bulged to an extreme. The golden rings in his eyes spun with a painful speed, forcing the Doomsday Ledger's authority to defy the pure laws of thermodynamics. "Just die in there, you bastard," Elian hissed hoarsely. Slowly but surely, the deadly white flash inside the cube began to dim. The destructive energ

The smack of Elian's palm against his own forehead still echoed softly in the Main Reactor Room. The last of the concrete dust and mutant flesh ash hanging in the air seemed to fall silent at the absurdity of it all. "Mr. Hendra," Elian massaged his temples. The golden rings in his eyes had just dimmed, but his head was starting to ache again. "I just saved this nuclear power plant from a nuclear apocalypse, and you're asking a dimensional portal for a building permit? You think this is a stalled shophouse project in Jakarta?" Mr. Hendra didn't flinch. The old bureaucrat stood with his back straight in front of the glowing teal tear. His index finger tapped his plastic clipboard with a constant rhythm. "Administrative order knows no dimensional boundaries, Boss," Mr. Hendra answered without a hint of guilt, adjusting his cracked glasses. "An asset is an asset. If we don't label it now, we'll have trouble tracking its dep