Chapter 299: Vinyl Record

With the circuitry failure, the Aurora Base fell into darkness once again. Fortunately, having had the experience once, they weren't too chaotic this time. Successive footsteps and noisy sounds rang out from afar, as if they were wary of enemies.

Tan Xin returned to the fourth-floor passage, his face full of exhaustion, where a red-haired figure was already waiting quietly.

"Did you kill him?"

"...Yeah."

Hongxiu looked toward the fourth floor. "Killing the Leader shouldn't be that simple."

"I know," Tan Xin nodded. "But it should be able to delay them for a bit... And, I got this."

Tan Xin took a thumb-sized bottle from his pocket, inside which was a strangely shaped miniature tongue... it looked like some kind of sacrificial artifact.

"For these three hundred-plus years, all the test records, research processes, and experimental results the Aurora Base has conducted on the Aurora Lord are in this sacrificial artifact... It replicates every detail of the Aurora Lord and is the crystallization of everyone’s efforts over so many years. Although it ultimately didn't succeed, it can at least provide some reference for other realms."

Tan Xin handed this item to Hongxiu with extreme solemnity.

"In short, if anything goes wrong with it, these three hundred years of the Aurora Realm will turn to nothing... Now it is in your hands."

"You want me to deliver it to other realms?"

"Yes," Tan Xin smiled. "You are the ceiling of our Aurora City’s combat power, the [Asura] leader of the world... There shouldn't be many people on this planet who can snatch things from your hands. Even if the Inter-Realm Train explodes, you can bring it out unscathed...

I trust you the most with this."

Hongxiu put the bottle away solemnly. "You really don't plan on leaving?"

"I'm not leaving. I gave my ticket to someone else," Tan Xin paused for a moment. "You don't need to persuade me... From the moment I ordered the abandonment of the Seven Districts, I was prepared to face this day. Someone has to be responsible for all this, right?"

Hongxiu looked at Tan Xin deeply and didn't try to persuade him anymore, nodding calmly:

"I understand."

"...I should leave the base."

Tan Xin extended a hand, pausing in the air. He looked at Hongxiu and smiled slightly: "It was a pleasure working with you, Chief Hongxiu."

Hongxiu also extended her hand to shake his, answering earnestly:

"...Same here."

Tan Xin withdrew his palm and walked toward the upper levels of the base without looking back. As his trench coat disappeared into the darkness, Hongxiu sighed helplessly...

……

"Have you ever heard of a vinyl record?"

Han Meng leaned against the car in the biting cold wind, looking at the aurora overhead that was so thin it had almost vanished, Tan Xin’s words echoing in his ears once more.

"When the stylus rubs against the fine grooves on the surface of a vinyl record, the vibrations convert the long-engraved song into electrical signals... That song might come from years ago, decades ago. It records the joys and sorrows of a certain period in the past and preserves them forever until someone puts it on a record player, and that past will reappear in the world."

"I want to record Aurora City onto a vinyl record."

"We have studied the Aurora Lord for over three hundred years. Although there haven't been any major breakthroughs during this time, we have discovered some phenomena... The magnetic field around the Aurora Lord can be compatible with human souls after death, which means that human souls are essentially just a special kind of magnetic field... At least in the Aurora Lord’s domain, that is the case."

"Then theoretically, as long as we amplify the Aurora Lord’s magnetic field, we can process human souls, engraving them onto the sky at a certain special frequency, just like a song."

"Using souls to replace sound, using the sky to replace the record, and using the Aurora Lord’s special magnetic field to replace the stylus... Even if the physical Aurora City is destroyed, we will have replicated everything in the sky, preserving it for at least three hundred years."

"If someone manages to crack the secret of the Red Meteor or becomes the second Aurora Lord within these three hundred years, they will be able to read this record again."

"At that time, Aurora City will reappear, and there will be a possibility of saving the three million souls within the city."

"I know this sounds absurd, but it is truly the last method Dr. Yi and I could think of. Moreover, it has a success rate of a full 60%... Since humanity as it stands now cannot save Aurora City, we can only pin our hopes on the future. Perhaps one day, in the future, Aurora City will find its salvation."

"This plan... is the 'Hand of Salvation'."

Han Meng let out a long sigh.

Upon learning of the "Hand of Salvation" plan, Han Meng felt a shock from the depths of his soul for the first time. Turning Aurora City into a "record" was a possibility he had never imagined, but thinking about it carefully... this might be the only way out for Aurora City.

Even if the Aurora Domain disappeared, humanity would still have seven domains left. Perhaps these seven domains could eventually achieve a breakthrough? In any case, this probability was far higher than the 0.001% of the "Reappearance" plan.

Just as Han Meng was still immersed in the shock brought to him by Tan Xin, a figure slowly rose from the lift.

Behind Tan Xin, a black box had appeared on his back at some point. He walked straight up to Han Meng. At this distance, Han Meng could even see the residual bloodstains on his cheeks...

Did Tan Xin go down to kill someone? Who did he kill?

"Han Meng, you still have one last chance to back out." Tan Xin looked at him calmly. "Tell me, what is your choice?"

Han Meng was silent for a moment. "I approve of your plan."

Upon receiving this answer, the corners of Tan Xin's mouth curled up slightly. "Very good. Then you must listen carefully to every word I say next... because from now on, our opponent is the entire law enforcement system."

"Go ahead." Han Meng had no reaction to this, because from the very beginning, he had never been close to the law enforcement system.

Tan Xin's lips parted, laying out his entire plan completely. Han Meng pondered for a long time and nodded slightly.

"I understand."

"Good... then now, go do what you must do."

"And you?"

Tan Xin brushed the snow off the hem of his trench coat, carried the black box on his back, and walked alone into the depths of the cold wind.

"I am going to find the Aurora Lord... and then, kill him."

……

"Using a magnetic field to record a soul record?" After Chen Ling finished reading the narrative about the Hand of Salvation plan, astonishment appeared in his eyes.

"It's surprising, isn't it? That was my reaction when I heard it too." Wen Shilin sighed. "A long time ago, Tan Xin began preparing for this plan, even having the Aurora Base secretly build a magnetic pole amplification controller... though whether it's effective remains to be seen."

"Regardless of whether it's effective, it has to be based on the Aurora Lord's own magnetic field, right?"

"Exactly. And the Aurora Lord's magnetic field, in essence... is his soul."