Lord of Prayer

A few seconds later, a small Any Door materialized. The portal opened, and a square device fell out.

Zhou Chen caught the device and couldn’t help but raise an eyebrow.

Just like the Any Door’s positioning device, the cracking device Tang Ling had sent was also ridiculously simple. It had only a single large red button under a protective cover and nothing else.

"These devices are all foolproof. Just press it to activate."

"Uh... why don’t you give me another Any Door positioning device? I can call for backup inside the Royal Tower. It’ll be faster that way."

"Once the Royal Tower is activated, it seals the space. Outsiders can’t get in, not even with an Any Door. It’s useless for you to take a positioning device inside. The tech department is working on cracking it now."

"Fine... How’s the battle going?"

"I killed the Merchant. He dropped a bunch of Gold Coins."

Tang Ling said, "I’m dealing with the Hermit now. His Secret is a bit tricky... Call me again if you need anything."

The screen went dark. She had disconnected.

Zhou Chen didn’t delay. He immediately uploaded the cracking device to the Prayer Space and had it airdropped into his clone’s hands.

「Royal Tower」

A smile touched the corners of Zhou Chen’s mouth. With a CLICK, he slammed the big red button.

KRRR-CHK-CHK-CHK... Amidst a classic transformation sound effect, the cracking device transformed into a small robot. Its scanner projected a beam of light, scanning the Defense Array’s Matrix.

A dozen or so seconds later, the little robot finished its scan and leaped, crashing directly into the Matrix. It melted into Essence, fusing with the Matrix and spreading through it like a virus.

The light shining from the Defense Array suddenly dimmed. Accompanied by a cracking sound, fissures began to appear on the Matrix, like a vase about to shatter.

CRACK!

With a sharp crack, one of the Matrices shattered, as if setting off a chain reaction. An incessant series of cracks followed as the Matrices collapsed and were destroyed one after another, like popping bubbles.

With the Defense Array breached, Zhou Chen immediately began to operate the instruments. He at least had the knowledge of a professional Alchemist, and since a large portion of the equipment was based on international standards, using it wasn’t a problem. Before long, he reached the final step—entering the secret key, disabling the safeguard, and activating the sealed Matrix Core.

In the distance, a few scholars and the hall manager exchanged glances and secretly relaxed.

The secret key wasn’t a common password, but rather the Essence of Enoch himself and the hall manager. Only with Essence authentication from both of them could the Matrix Core’s safeguard be disabled. By the same token, the same was required to shut down the Power Furnace.

’In other words, this intruder could never successfully enter the secret key!’

But just as they breathed a sigh of relief, they heard a BEEP.

The hall manager, immobilized and unable to move, froze. In his bewilderment, he saw layers of sealed alloy open up, and the Matrix Core sealed within slowly rose. It was a sphere that emitted waves of mysterious light. Countless tiny patterns and characters flowed across its surface, while inside the sphere floated a withered, pitch-black hand.

That was the core of the Fear Matrix, the Hand of the Divine Abomination, which had caused a major disaster in the yet-unsealed North Carolina over a hundred years ago. It was a strange, uncontrollable Forbidden Object. If it were to be contained by the Star Association, it would undoubtedly be classified as B-Level.

At this moment, however, all the scholars were plunged into a state of immense confusion, shock, and disbelief.

’Impossible! How could that intruder have disabled the safeguard?!’

Meanwhile, Zhou Chen’s heart was bleeding. He had used a wish to disable the safeguard, and that single wish had cost him twenty thousand wish points. He had been burning through wish points like crazy recently, and now he didn’t have many left—only 6,690 points remained.

He was about to reach out and grab the core’s light sphere when his vision suddenly blurred. The scene changed, and for some reason, he found himself on the other side of the hall!

By now, Zhou Chen could be considered a seasoned veteran. He immediately realized he’d been affected by an Extraordinary Ability and hurriedly looked toward the Matrix Core, his pupils contracting.

The Painter, who had torn off her disguise, walked step by step toward the Matrix Core. In her hand, she held a dropper filled with an inky-black liquid. It radiated the undisguised aura of the Essence of Calamity—viciousness, decay, death, darkness... as if it contained all the evil in the world.

Wisps of Abyssal dregs leaked from it, making the entire hall grow dim and grim.

Zhou Chen’s expression changed. Just as he was about to step forward and stop her, a pair of hands grabbed his shoulders.

He spun around. It was the Black-robed Man!

"Don’t go over there," the Black-robed Man said in a low voice. "If it hadn’t been for me just now, you’d already be dead."

’When did the Black-robed Man get in here...?’ Zhou Chen calmed down slightly, and only then did he notice something wrong with his body.

The skin on his neck had been sliced open at some point, and warm blood was trickling down.

Zhou Chen looked again more carefully and saw a smiling, black-haired man in the hall. He was a Roman and looked as gentle as jade, with a graceful and refined demeanor. He had a kind, beaming smile, but his eyes were exceptionally sinister, giving off the unsettling feeling of a dagger hidden behind a smile.

"To be able to save someone from stopped time, you have some skill after all."

The man named World had a cold glint in his eyes, but the smile on his face didn’t falter in the slightest:

"Now, let me see just what the infamous Black Death God is capable of—and try not to die too quickly."

At the will of World—

—Time... began to stop!