Chapter 182. Experiment Dawn
"Why should I tell you?"
Charles' heart skipped a beat upon hearing Dawn One's reply. "So you know?"
"Make a guess."
Growing increasingly agitated, Charles shot back at the artificial intelligence in the air, "Tell me. What do you want from me?"
"I have no requests. I'm no human, after all. How about you tell me your story? I'm very intrigued by your background. You're clearly not from the subterranean world."
Charles considered his options for a brief moment before he recounted his entire journey of how he came from the surface world to the underground realm. He spared no details since there wasn't really anything to hide.
"I see... No wonder I get a different feeling from you as compared to my worshipers," Dawn One mused. Chart your course back to the origins of this substance at n0v^lbin
"Can you tell me where is the exit to the surface now?" Charles asked again.
"I'm sorry, but I still can't release this information to you."
A wave of frustration and rage surged within Charles. He felt like he had been played. He couldn't be bothered to talk in riddles with the artificial intelligence any longer and turned his gaze onto the towering, twisted skyscrapers around him.
"Fine if you are not willing to speak. There are bound to be other clues within Newbound City. I'll surely find them if I comb the area in detail," Charles declared.
With an entire city sprawled out before him, searching for clues would be like looking for a needle in a haystack. However, he was certain that they surely existed.
"If you take another step, I'll double the speed of my nuclear fusion reactor. I wonder how long humans can survive with a surface temperature of 91 degrees Celsius."
Dawn One's menacing threat made Charles freeze in place. The stifling atmosphere thickened with tension.
"Is the sun in your world huge? Is it perhaps as huge as I am?" Dawn One's voice echoed from the phone's speaker.
After a rapid bout of mental calculations, the weight that had been hovering in Charles' heart settled back down.
"You're bluffing, aren't you? If you could randomly increase the temperature to kill, there was no way the Foundation would hang you up here in Newbound City."
Charles darted into Experiment Dawn Laboratory. His face grew darker by the minute as he combed room after room.
Every scrap of recorded information had been taken away, down to the hard drives from decrepit computers that had long since decayed into uselessness.
After a quick comparison of the dust in the gaps where the hard drives used to be, Charles deduced that they had been taken away only in the last few years.
Who would clean up the Foundation's items? It was clearly abnormal. He could understand if only the documents had vanished. However, the person or group in question had even taken away all the hard disks, which meant that they had a more profound understanding of technology.
As Charles recalled the conversation he had with Bandages, where he was told of the Divine Light Order's attitude toward Newbound City, Charles could only conclude that they were the ones who had pulled it off.
Standing before the Divine Light Cathedral on Hope Island, Hunn wore a cordial smile on his countenance as he watched Charles disembark from the Sky Battler.
"Governor Charles, has the Almighty Light God enlightened you?"
Charles replied with a placid expression, "I need to speak to your Pope."
Soon enough, Charles found himself in a confessional chamber within the cathedral and face to face with that familiar giant statue of the Pope.
"Ah, my child, it's been such a long time. What have you been through in the past three years? You seemed to have changed immensely."
Charles had no time for the superficial pleasantries. Getting straight to the point, he asked, "You instructed your disciples to remove all the files and hard drives in Newbound City, didn't you?"
"Yes, it was my doing," the Pope admitted readily without hesitation.
"Why?" Charles demanded and took a step forward.
The statue of the Pope gestured what looked like a prayer, and wisps of dust floated off him.
"The All-knowing, Almighty Light God has spoken to me. Those things conceal a grave threat. Letting them be known would lead to irreparable doom."
"Stop lying! Dawn One is just a giant power generator and not your so-called Light God!" Charles roared.
The smile faded from the Pope's face as Charles bluntly exposed the truth.
"Governor Charles, I hope you understand one thing—I never lie. The entity above is not the Light God, but He does truly exist."
"I don't care what kind of divine chit-chat you've had with that thing up there, and I don’t care about your faith and beliefs as well. I only want to know the exit to the surface. I just want to go back! It's that simple!" Charles unconsciously raised his voice.