Neutralization successful, rescue operations begin!

"Truly a masterpiece of God!" Someone couldn't help exclaiming. Indeed, when the arc reactor truly started up, it was breathtakingly beautiful. The current formed a ring like a blue sphere of light, emitting a mesmerizing glow.

Among all colors, the most captivating are blue, red, and purple. Of these three, red represents boldness, purple represents nobility, and blue represents mystery.

"Reactor operating at thirty percent capacity, all systems stable!"

Hearing Kong Yan's words, Zhu Lan nodded in satisfaction.

"General Qin, have your men pull back. The neutralizer is about to begin operation!"

General Qin nodded and spoke to the men nearby.

The order was quickly passed down, and the people stationed near the sinkhole rapidly evacuated.

A normal neutralizer poses no danger whatsoever; the artificial magnetic field it generates is completely tolerable by the antibodies of a normal human body. However, when the magnetic field exceeds a reading of five hundred, the human body's antibodies can no longer withstand the effects brought by such a massive magnetic field. Between five hundred and fifteen hundred, specialized anti-magnetic equipment must be used. If the reading exceeds three thousand, even specially manufactured anti-magnetic gear becomes incapable of resisting such a tremendous magnetic field.

"Report to the Commander, all personnel have successfully evacuated!"

General Qin nodded, turned his head to look at Zhu Lan, and said, "Zhu Lan, we can begin!"

"Understood!" Zhu Lan nodded, turned around, and walked over to the control console. Kong Yan and several engineers were monitoring the reactor's status in real-time.

"Initiate power supply!"

"Yes, Boss!"

"Circuit number one, activate!"

"Circuit number two, activate!"

"Circuit number three, activate!"

"Circuit number four, activate!"

"Circuit number five, activate!"

A powerful electrical current surged directly through the thick cables, discharging the immense power generated by the arc reactor.

Even though the thick cables were wrapped in insulating layers, as the current rushed through, one could clearly see five blue streams of electricity racing rapidly along the wires. Despite the massive floodlights illuminating the surroundings, the currents still formed five distinct blue lines stretching straight toward the sinkhole.

Crack, crack, crack...

A micro-earthquake occurred once again, causing a slight tremor. However, any dirt that fell onto the cables was instantly blasted away by the powerful current.

Now that the arc reactor was supplying power, nothing could approach within the vicinity of the cables. The wires could not even touch the ground because the immense current would instantly incinerate anything nearby; specialized scaffolding was used to bridge the cables across to the neutralizer.

"Reactor operating at sixty percent capacity. Experiencing a slight stutter!"

Zhu Lan frowned. "Kong Yan, activate the neutralizer and begin operation!"

Kong Yan nodded.

Her hand gently pressed down on the massive holographic screen.

At the edge of the sinkhole, the five neutralizers began to emit a brilliant blue glow.

Five blue spheres of light began to flash brightly.

"Red Queen, initiate calibration and data comparison!"

"Understood, Boss. The neutralizers are coordinating, preparation complete!"

"Run the simulation once more to ensure success!"

Still uneasy, Zhu Lan instructed the Red Queen to perform one more comparative check.

The Red Queen did not speak, and the computer screen displayed the status of a renewed scan.

Boom... Boom, boom...

Massive beams of light shot directly downward from the neutralizers.

The entire colossal sinkhole was illuminated by five gigantic blue beams of light.

"Contact, contact!"

"Neutralizer has reached maximum capacity! Neutralizer has reached maximum capacity!"

"Ignore it, keep going!"

Staring fixedly at the computer screen, Zhu Lan completely ignored the Red Queen's warnings!

"Magnetic field is beginning to shift: 500,000, 490,000, 470,000, 450,000..."

Zhu Lan watched anxiously as the magnetic field data slowly ticked downward. Although it had finally begun to drop, Zhu Lan did not feel even a sliver of relief.

Gradually, the magnetic field value plummeted from half a million down to one hundred and fifty thousand—already a remarkably positive result.

"Warning, warning! Data anomaly, data anomaly!"

"Damn it, Red Queen! Cut off neutralizer number four and increase output for numbers three and five!"

"Neutralizer number four disconnected. Output increased for neutralizers number three and number five!"

Roar...

Just as the words left Zhu Lan's mouth, a massive explosion echoed through the air.

Everyone looked toward the source. At one corner of the sinkhole, a violent explosion had erupted.

A sense of foreboding rose in everyone's heart.

"Damn it! Damn it!"

Realizing he was a step too slow, Zhu Lan watched in frustration as neutralizer number four suffered from over-excitation, resulting in extreme heat. When its cooling system failed, it blew up completely.

"Boss! Equilibrium is lost! Equilibrium is lost! The magnetic field is rising again!"

"Damn it!" Zhu Lan's eyes turned red as he watched the readings shoot rapidly back up from one hundred and fifty thousand to two hundred and twenty thousand in the span of just a few seconds.

"Max out all outputs!"

"Boss, if we do that, the cooling system won't be able to handle the massive heat generation!"

"I know! Just carry out the order!"

Having said that, Zhu Lan turned around. "Commander, I request the deployment of freezing bombs. Target: the airspace above the neutralizers!"

Elder Zheng frowned.

"Neutralizer number four has failed. To succeed, we must increase the output of the remaining four neutralizers. But doing so will overwhelm the cooling system with massive heat. We need to boost cooling, but there's no time to modify the equipment now. The best solution is to alter the environment down there!"

"I understand!" Elder Zheng nodded, turning to instruct his men to bring out the freezing bombs.

Bang, bang, bang...

Four freezing bombs exploded directly in the airspace above the neutralizers.

Sub-zero temperatures were generated instantaneously.

Even from a great distance, the intense cold caused people to shiver. Although it was December, they were in the southern region, and nobody was wearing heavy winter clothing.

Even the hardened soldiers could not help but shudder a few times.

The effect produced by the four freezing bombs was extraordinarily effective. The dangerously high heat levels rapidly plummeted under the artificial cold generated by the munitions.

"Reactor operation has reached its limit, Boss!"

Hearing this, Zhu Lan turned his head to look at the reactor not far away, noticing that it had begun to show signs of structural collapse.

"How much time do we have left?"

"Boss, it can only hold out for four minutes. But magnetic neutralization is not yet complete; we estimate it will take at least six more minutes!"

"Dammit!" With a two-minute gap, the arc reactor simply wouldn't hold out.

"Red Queen, is there any way to prolong the reactor's collapse?"

"Boss, we can only reduce the output, but that will extend the neutralization time to ten minutes..."

The Red Queen didn't finish, but Zhu Lan understood.

"Keep outputting power! Ignore the collapse!"

"But..."

"There are no 'buts'! Thousands of people down there are waiting for us to rescue them. Keep going!"

"Yes!"

"Commander, have everyone move back a bit. Keep them away from the reactor. I need to run it in an overload state to ensure the magnetic neutralization succeeds!"

"Is it dangerous?"

Zhu Lan offered a bitter smile. "At worst, the arc reactor will be completely ruined. I'm putting everything on the line here!"

Elder Zheng and General Qin both turned grave.

Especially General Qin, who knew very well that a single arc reactor cost as much as two billion to manufacture, with many of its materials being exceptionally expensive. This specific arc reactor had completely drained Fantasia Technology's entire cash reserves. If not for the Gene Optimization Fluid serving as their financial backbone, Fantasia Technology might have faced catastrophic financial ruin because of this reactor.

"I understand!"

"Pass down the order: evacuate all personnel to a distance of two kilometers!"

"Yes!"

Zhu Lan let out a breath, saying nothing further.

Time ticked away second by second.

The massive artificial magnetic field generated by the four neutralizers slowly neutralized the subterranean magnetic field. The numerical readings continued to drop steadily, falling below one hundred thousand—a very promising development.

Three kilometers away from the sinkhole, at every corner and across all four directions, special devices had been set in place.

The green lights instantly flashed red.

The ring atop each device began to spin furiously.

Boom~~~

A wave of shimmering light shot directly out from the devices, slamming into the ground and kicking up a violent gust of wind that lashed against the surrounding trees.

The earth began to shake.

"Vibration devices activated; the magnetite deposits are beginning to experience disruption."

"Great job!"

"Magnetic field readings are dropping rapidly! Fifty thousand! Boss, we've succeeded!"

"Yeah~~~~"

Zhu Lan's tense heart finally relaxed. "Quickly calculate how much time we have!"

Hearing Zhu Lan's command, the team rapidly crunched the numbers.

"Boss, the magnetite interference is proceeding smoothly. If we rely on natural recovery, it will take at least seven hours. We have an eight-hour window!"

"Good, very good!"

"Commander, we're ready to move out!"

Zhu Lan walked over to Elder Zheng and said with a smile.

Elder Zheng grabbed Zhu Lan's hand. "Thank you!"

Zhu Lan smiled awkwardly.

"Notify the rescue team to deploy!"

"Yes!"

As the order was given, a massive humming sound echoed from the distance.

Following the appearance of the first beam of light, ten appeared, then a hundred.

Beneath the cloak of night, helicopter after helicopter slowly lifted off from the surrounding area, flying toward the great sinkhole.

"This is Sparrow 15, approaching target airspace, initiating descent!"

The sinkhole was enormous, reaching a diameter of four kilometers. The entire Zhujia Town had been widely distributed across the area, and when the sinkhole formed, it instantly swallowed up the entirety of Zhujia Town and its surrounding outskirts, affecting a zone six kilometers wide.

Although the immediate chasm wasn't that wide at the surface, a terrain width of three point five kilometers was more than enough for ten helicopters to land side-by-side.

One hundred and sixty-five helicopters—this was the maximum number of transport helicopters that could be mobilized. To assemble them, military resources had to be pulled from several surrounding military regions.

If they were merely gathering standard transport helicopters, even five hundred could have been assembled in a short time.

However, the situation here was exceptionally unique. The transport helicopters required retrofitting to enhance their resistance to electromagnetic interference. With limited time and exhausting every available resource, only one hundred and sixty-five transport helicopters could be successfully modified in just over a day. The remaining aircraft could not be adapted in such a short window unless civilian enterprises were brought in to help, but that would have compromised safety entirely.

The first batch of thirty helicopters vanished down into the dark abyss of the sinkhole, while the second batch of fifty slowly began their descent as well. At nineteen hundred meters deep, a round trip meant traversing thirty-eight hundred meters—a formidable challenge for helicopters, as they were flying not into the open sky, but deep into the bowels of the earth.