9 Broken Dreams

With a solemn face, Han Li walked out of the base's hospital.

She had a report in her hand.

The Psychological and Spiritual Safety Assessment Report.

She'd scored an excellent on every item.

The evaluators had believed that this was simply a miracle.

They'd even hoped that they could keep her in the hospital in order to observe her day and night.

Because almost all demon hunters had different levels of psychological and spiritual problems.

But Han Li realized that everything that she'd experienced was an illusion.

The ravings in her ears were becoming stronger and stronger.

Different colors were gradually appearing everywhere she looked.

Sometimes, she would even perceive strange and bizarre things as if she were in a trance.

"If this goes on…," Han Li sighed softly to herself, "I will go crazy!"

However, she had no other options.

She could only walk straight into the darkness along one single path.

...

Elizabeth strode down the stairs.

Pairs of scarlet eyes lit up around her one after another.

Paying no heed to them, she continued to walk forward.

Consequently, countless monsters continued to spring up from the darkness.

"You are just Living Corpses who are hanging onto your miserable existences relying solely on your instincts..." Her body abruptly turned into steel. The steam turbine rolled, pumping in flesh and blood. "Are you worthy of becoming an obstacle in my quest to build an Altar of Steel?"

Her arms morphed into two colossal saw blades.

Amid the surging power provided by the steam turbine, the saw blades spun wildly.

The quantum core fused with her brain accurately located and calculated the position and speed of each Living Corpse.

One slash, one Living Corpse.

In an instant, the massive underground cave had become a slaughterhouse.

A slaughterhouse made of iron and steel.

Five minutes later, Elizabeth stepped on the body of the last Living Corpse, walked to the bottom of the cave, and arrived in front of a rusty steel door.

On the door, the emblem of a bald eagle was stained with flesh and blood.

While behind her, hundreds of Living Corpses had been reduced into minced meat.

These were merely monsters who had been transformed from human beings after having been distorted by the sense of Diablo.

Their individual combat capabilities were even inferior to those of regular people.

They were the type of monster that currently were the most numerous in the world.

They were also the most preferred fodder of the descendants of Diablo.

Facing steel however, they were only worthy of becoming minced meat.

Arriving before the steel door, Elizabeth turned back to look at the scattered chunks of flesh that were still wriggling and crawling without consciousness despite having been shredded into bloody bits.

She shook her head.

The steam turbine continued to whirl, pumping in flesh and blood. Fiery flames were being ejected from her hands.

All the minced meat was soon burned into nothingness.

Finally, she turned around and pressed the bald eagle emblem on the steel door, twisting it lightly.

A keyboard sprang out.

An electronic female voice could be heard coming from a loudspeaker: "This is the combat resource reserve inventory of the Union Army, serial code A130, of the United States of America..."

"Please verify your identity and provide authorization documents!"

Elizabeth smiled when she heard the voice.

This was exactly what she had been looking for.

A place with an abundance of alloyed steel and countless items of machinery.

All the conditions needed for a perfect Altar of Steel were here.

...

At noon, the glasses that Ling PingAn had ordered arrived.

Holding the . item in his hands, he felt that it had been a good purchase.

After trying them on, Ling PingAn finally felt more comfortable.

Having worn glasses for seven or eight years, they had become familiar to his body. Not wearing glasses had all of a sudden really felt uncomfortable.

Now he once again had something protecting his eye sockets.

This made him feel very comfortable.

To celebrate the arrival of the glasses, Ling PingAn decided to update a chapter of his novel.

It just so happened that he had had some inspiration, so he started typing.

He'd soon finished a chapter, hitting exactly 2,000 words.

Not a word more and not a word less.

This was a habit and an instinct that he had cultivated and perfected through many years of online writing.

After proofreading the chapter, Ling PingAn clicked on upload.

Then he waited patiently.

While he was waiting, he turned on the TV out of habit, just in time for the afternoon news slot.

"The foot-and-mouth disease in Beizhou continues to spread..." On the television screen, the announcer seemed to have gotten rather solemn. "According to a report from the Beizhou Kingdom's Grand Secretary of Agriculture, Chen Cong, as of 11:00 p.m. local time in the Xin'an Prefecture of Beizhou, a total of 325 pastures and farms have reported occurrences of foot-and-mouth disease. It seems to be affecting all areas in the central and western parts of the Beizhou Kingdom..."

"Prime Minister Zhou Qingxuan of Beizhou had urgently submitted a proposal requesting Beizhou's Council of Ministers' approval to enter a state of emergency and had also submitted an application to the central government to mobilize Beizhou's Biochemical and Epidemic Prevention Unit."

Watching the news, Ling PingAn sneered, "Looks like this may be the end of Beizhou's current cabinet."

This was a general election year. Not only the central federal Council of Ministers would be up for re-election, but the ministerial councils of each kingdom, the Governor's Districts, and the Special Administrative Regions within the federal territory and autonomous regions would also be up for re-election.

At the same time, the central cabinet of the Federation and the cabinets of the four kingdoms, excepting the Xisong Kingdom, which still had a monarchy in place, were all going to have elections.

In an election year, any issues would become extremely magnified.

However, the collapse of Beizhou's cabinet had absolutely no effect on Ling PingAn.

He was only concerned about one question: How would the central government respond to this matter?

Could they still ensure the stable supply of beef at . per pound?

Sure enough, the news quickly gave him the answer. Zhang Shao, the spokesperson for the Federal Cabinet Affairs, said in response to reporters' questions at the federal cabinet press conference that morning, "The central federal government will take all measures to stabilize beef prices and ensure that no problems will arise with regards to beef supply for the local people within the federal territory. The central government will ensure the stability of the beef prices of grades A, B, C, D, and E. This is the solemn promise of the current cabinet to the people of the Federation and to His Majesty the Emperor!"

Seeing this, Ling PingAn was relieved.

The Federal Empire was particular about upholding promises.

The cabinet's spokesperson had already said that they would ensure the stability of the beef supply and prices. Hence, even if the central federal government were forced to pawn their pants, they would never go back on their words.

Especially because this year was a general election year.

If the cabinet dared to break their promise, people in the purple zone would vote with their feet and send the Datong Party into office.

Therefore…

He could continue to feast on beef at . per pound to his heart's content.

Thinking of beef, Ling PingAn picked up the phone and ordered a dish of Fusang beef teppanyaki.

Then he turned off the television and looked at his computer expectantly.

He opened the author's page and clicked into chapter management.

"There are actually five comments for this chapter." Ling PingAn looked at the comments displayed, which boosted his confidence. "It seems that indeed I am the king of novels chosen by heaven."

"This guy is number six after the Five Titans!" [1]

In the past, the number of comments received by his novels had basically hovered somewhere between zero and three within half an hour after a chapter was published.

And now today there were actually five!

An astonishing growth!

Simply terrific!

He was even tempted to not play games today and write another chapter.

Clicking into the chapter management page, Ling PingAn looked at it with pleasure.

The first comment said, "First!"

The second comment said, "Second!"

The third comment replied to the first two comments, "Are you bots? Why do I see you commenting first and second every single time?"

The first commenter replied, "Heh, heh."

The second commenter replied, "Huh,uh."

Ling PingAn looked at it and smirked, "Huh, uh…heh, heh…"

"Well, no matter what, I'm a man who has five comments on my chapter now!"

He unlocked his phone, took a picture of the screen, went to egame.qq.com, and tapped into the authors' group chat.

He was preparing to send the photo he had just taken and brag about it in the authors' group chat.

He saw a guy whose ID was Chippeja chatting with people.

Chippeja wrote, "Funny readers are seriously gold."

Picture, picture, picture.

Ling PingAn looked at the readers' comments displayed on the pictures sent by Chippeja.

He quietly turned off the authors' group chat.

His dream to become the sixth after the Five Titans had ended before it had even begun.

Since he had suffered a setback with his novel, he could only make it up with his hobby.

Opening the phone, Ling PingAn went into the rift.

******

[1] Five Titans refers to five of the most popular novel writers on the Chinese- novel platform.