Chapter 182: Chapter 172: An Explosive Appetizer In the eastern part of Banzhen stood an imposing royal palace.
A brilliant gold finish covered the palace’s walls and grand gate, making them look as if they were made of solid gold.
A magenta carpet stretched out before the main gate, flanked on both sides by armed soldiers. Before the era of the Apocalypse Rules, handsome ceremonial guards in dress uniforms would have stood here. Now, they had all been replaced by actual combat soldiers.
Times had changed, and the royal palace was no longer as safe as it used to be.
The residents within were none other than the supreme ruler of the Andai Kingdom, Prince Lado XVI, and his family.
As a constitutional monarchy, the Andai Kingdom was different from other countries on Celestial Water Star with similar systems. The country’s leader, the "Prince," held real power and controlled the military; he was not just a figurehead.
At this moment, in the grand hall of the royal palace, Prince Lado XVI sat slumped in a rattan chair, wearing an exquisite robe. He had a long face and looked very displeased.
Standing before him were several middle-aged men in military uniforms, their expressions equally grim.
"So, the Sakura Prayer operation failed? They talked such a big game, even sent out a warship, but in the end, they couldn’t even handle a single Shadow. Useless trash."
Prince Lado had originally thought that letting Sakura Prayer eliminate Shadow would be a perfect solution. He would get his revenge and save face after the attack on the Capital, all without taking any risks himself.
But he never imagined that after all Sakura Prayer’s efforts—deploying a warship, launching missiles, and sending in several special forces teams—the operation would still end in failure.
"Your Highness, our soldiers only found the bodies of Sakura Prayer soldiers in the target area. We found no corpse that could have been Shadow. He’s likely still alive and may be looking for an opportunity to retaliate. You must be extra careful in the coming days."
Prince Lado raised an eyebrow at his words. "What did you say? You want me to be careful? That Shadow wiping out some minor warlord is one thing, but would he dare to attack the royal palace? You’re overestimating that guy."
"Yes, Your Highness. But it’s better to be safe than sorry."
"Hmph. I have plenty of defensive items. What is there to be afraid of? Besides, I don’t believe Shadow would dare to enter the royal palace." Prince Lado sneered. "The Andai Kingdom and North Star are friendly nations. If that guy attacks the leader of a friendly nation, North Star’s government will deal with him before I even have to lift a finger."
"That may be so, but..."
BOOM!!!
The sound of an explosion suddenly came from the palace’s outer walls and roof. The blast was powerful, and countless fragments of brick and stone immediately rained down from above.
One officer didn’t dodge in time and was struck on the head by a stone block, falling to the ground dead on the spot.
This snapped the others back to their senses, and they began to shout.
"Enemy! Enemy attack!"
"Quick, protect the Prince!"
"Soldiers outside, what’s the situation?!"
After regaining their composure, the officers hurriedly responded, while Prince Lado, terrified, was immediately assisted by several guards into a safe room.
Meanwhile, the few soldiers on guard duty outside the palace had no idea how the explosion had happened. It was as if someone had thrown bombs onto the palace, collapsing several walls and the roof.
The soldiers remained vigilant while searching for the attacker. But there was no attacker to be found anywhere nearby; it was as if the bombs had simply fallen from the sky.
RUMBLE...
After the explosion, the palace’s structure was compromised and it began to systematically collapse. Even with several soldiers outside, they could not intervene or stop it, and could only watch helplessly as it crumbled.
Except for a very few who escaped, everyone inside took shelter in sturdy safe rooms. Even so, several more officers were crushed to death.
What was worse, the royal palace was completely destroyed. It was one of the national symbols of the Andai Kingdom and a historic building with over a hundred years of history.
Yet, under the chain of explosions, it collapsed into ruins in just a few minutes. The only things still standing amidst the rubble were a few of the royal family’s exclusive safe rooms.
By the time military armored vehicles arrived to evacuate Prince Lado and the others to a secure location, a shadow, barely discernible to the naked eye, swiftly departed from the area.
Without a doubt, this demolition of the royal palace was orchestrated by Guan Tong.
As the saying goes, give them a taste of their own medicine. The Prince of the Andai Kingdom had allowed Sakura Prayer to send a warship to bombard him with missiles, so it was only natural for him to return the favor with bombs and blow up the royal palace.
Guan Tong didn’t have any bombs, but he did have over four million Sublimation Coins. He could just go buy some on the terminal market, couldn’t he?
On the terminal market, there was a lot of competition for items with special, bizarre functions, but nobody fought over simple destructive tools like "bombs."
The reason was simple: the ones snatching up goods were mostly official government bodies and large organizations. Were they short on bombs? Of course not! They probably had more than they knew what to do with, so there was no need to spend Sublimation Coins to buy more on the terminal market.
As a result, Guan Tong easily spent just under a hundred thousand Sublimation Coins to buy a pile of bombs of varying explosive power.
The common feature of these bombs was that they were either sticky or timed. Guan Tong remotely manipulated his Shadow Line to secretly plant them all over the royal palace, then detonated them.
Whether or not he could kill Prince Lado was secondary. His main goal was to destroy the royal palace and make his stance on revenge crystal clear.
’You can bomb me, and I can bomb you. As for who gets the last laugh, we’ll just have to wait and see.’
Guan Tong wasn’t fixated on killing Lado right now; that wouldn’t be easy.
Even though the Andai Kingdom was a small country, as its Prince, Lado surely had many items that protected against Psychic Power attacks. Invading with his shadow was basically impossible.
To use other methods of attack, Guan Tong would have to go there in the flesh. He didn’t want to take that risk right now. So, he would start by bombing the palace. Further retaliation could wait until he had more methods and greater strength.
As for Lado’s status as a Prince or the severe repercussions of blowing up the royal palace... to be honest, Guan Tong really didn’t care.
He recalled something one of the men who had been tailing him to rob him on his first day in the Andai Kingdom had said. It had left a deep impression on him:
"So what if he’s from North Star Country? I might die under the next rule anyway, so what the hell is there to be afraid of! I’d even rob the King of Soloma if he showed up. The worst that can happen is death, and that’s coming for us all sooner or later!"
Other than the "robbery" part being wrong, Guan Tong felt there was nothing wrong with that sentiment.
Even he couldn’t guarantee that he would survive until the very end; it was possible that he, too, "might die under the next rule."
’In this situation, someone had targeted me and even carried out an actual attack. Do I really need to care who the enemy is or what their status is?’