Starting as a Wallfacer, his defection to the Three-Body Problem shocked the world.

The bullet pierced through the jacket but not the bulletproof vest. The kinetic energy impact was also reduced by most of the nanomaterials, but it still knocked Lin Xuan to the ground.

The only injury was to his arm. When he was knocked over by the kinetic energy of the bullet, he instinctively braced himself with his hand on the floor, scraping his skin a little. The medical staff gave him some simple treatment, and he was fine afterward.

With such power, if Lin Xuan's bulletproof vest hadn't been made of nanomaterials obtained from the system, she probably would have died on the spot.

I don't know how Luo Ji in the original story managed to survive wearing only a bulletproof vest. This is probably what they call the protagonist's halo.

Soon, the police officers who were in charge of the pursuit returned.

"Report, Captain Shi, the person has escaped; only this person remains at the scene."

As he spoke, he handed a sniper rifle, about the length of an arm, to Shi Qiang.

Lin Xuan then realized why she had been injured.

In the original storyline, Luo Ji was hit by a pistol bullet, but when it came to himself, it was directly replaced by a sniper rifle bullet.

Fortunately, he didn't skimp on his shock points and redeemed a bulletproof vest made with nanomaterials. Otherwise, with that shot, both the bulletproof vest from PDC and he himself would have been riddled with bullets.

This sniper rifle looks quite miniature; it's a specially designed weapon specifically for assassination. The barrel and all other parts can be easily disassembled, and it's smaller than a tablet computer.

It would be incredibly easy to slip past security personnel. The security system had cordoned off the area within a two-kilometer radius, but its vigilance was much lower beyond that. This shot, fired from the rooftop across the street, was clearly premeditated.

ETO definitely sent more than one person. The person he almost hit earlier was responsible for observing him and Luo Ji at close range, while another sniper was responsible for shooting from a distance. He guessed that the person who shot Luo Ji in the original story was not the same person as him.

Most remarkably, this gun doesn't have a magazine for loading bullets, meaning its sole purpose is to fire a single bullet.

Once the trigger of this gun is pulled, its body is rendered useless.

"It seems to be someone from ETO."

Shi Qiang carefully examined the gun in his hand.

"It would be very difficult for an ordinary assassin to obtain such an ingeniously designed weapon."

"The gun barrel can only hold one bullet, which means that he only had one target for this assassination."

After saying that, Shi Qiang turned his gaze to Luo Ji and Lin Xuan.

Lin Xuan shrugged and returned Shi Qiang's pistol to him.

"It's obvious, he's here to assassinate Luo Ji."

"Shock level from Shi Qiang +4."

"Shock level from Luo Ji +10".

"Why? Kill me? I pose absolutely no threat to the Trisolarans!"

Luo Ji didn't understand.

"Besides, he clearly fired at you just now, so how could he have been trying to assassinate me?"

Upon hearing this, Lin Xuan gave a strange smile.

"Would you like me to help you recall, Dr. Luo Ji?"

"The first time, you were in a car accident this morning. The second time, on your way here, someone left the metal manhole covers along your route half-open. The third time, just now in the meeting, someone tampered with your feet to make you trip. The fourth time... just now, the assassination attempt."

"Shock level from Luo Ji +20".

"Shock level from Shi Qiang +5."

Luo Ji was somewhat incredulous that he had been targeted by so many assassination attempts in just one day.

Of course he didn't know, because apart from the first time, everything that happened afterward was made up by Lin Xuan, and he wouldn't bother to verify the truth of the matter anyway.

Shi Qiang was shocked by Lin Xuan's ability to fabricate stories.

He was a veteran police officer, with an excellent understanding of interrogation and criminal psychology. He could tell at a glance whether someone was lying.

He just didn't understand why Lin Xuan would lie to Luo Ji. Could it be related to his plan to face the wall?

But it doesn't really look like it no matter how you look at it.

After thinking for a long time, Shi Qiang decided to give up guessing the true purpose of this Wallfacer.

Perhaps Lin Xuan has his reasons for doing this?

Of course, it's also possible that they were simply fooling Luo Ji and playing with him.

"Wait a moment, I have some personal matters to attend to."

Lin Xuan suddenly interrupted their conversation and walked straight away into the distance.

He saw an acquaintance.

She was a female college student wearing a beige trench coat, with her long black hair falling naturally over her shoulders, and a confident and sunny smile on her face.

This person is Cheng Xin, another protagonist in the original story of "The Three-Body Problem" and a saintly figure among humans.

After roughly calculating the timeline, Cheng Xin should have just graduated from university and started working for the Planetary Defense Council at this time.

Don't be fooled by her seemingly naive and innocent nature and the foolish things she does later on. She is actually a doctoral graduate from one of the Seven Sons of National Defense University. Right after graduating, she was admitted to the Strategic Intelligence Bureau of the Planetary Defense Council with top honors.

"Cheng Xin!"

Lin Xuan suddenly called out to Cheng Xin, who was about to leave.

Cheng Xin's shock level increased by 10.

The latter had just witnessed Lin Xuan being shot and was preparing to get up and leave this place of trouble as soon as possible, but when he suddenly heard someone call his name, he stopped in his tracks.

She slowly turned her head to look at the man behind her.

A pair of clear eyes, yet with a hint of foolishness, sized Lin Xuan up and down.

"you know me?"

Cheng Xin was certain that she had never met this man before, and being abroad, the chances of running into someone she knew were even lower.

"Heh, I not only know you, I even know you're a guy who's good for nothing and good for nothing."

These were Lin Xuan's true feelings, but he certainly couldn't just say them aloud. Otherwise, who knows what kind of chain reaction it would cause.

I just saw you over there, and I think... you're quite interesting.

Cheng Xin: ? ? ?

What the hell?

Cheng Xin's shock level increased by 1.

She let out a long sigh.

"Excuse me, sir, I'm going to be late for work. It was a pleasure meeting you. If there's nothing else, I'll be going now."

As Cheng Xin spoke, she turned and headed towards the PIA building without waiting for Lin Xuan's reaction.

Watching Cheng Xin run away as if fleeing, Shi Qiang and Luo Ji, who had been observing the situation from a distance, finally couldn't help but burst out laughing.

"Hahaha, Lin Xuan, who taught you to flirt like this? Your way of picking up girls is absolutely hilarious, it's so awkward I almost dug my toes out of my toes."

Shi Qiang walked forward with a smile, patted Lin Xuan on the shoulder, and his expression seemed to say something.

"Young man, you are still too young."

Even Luo Ji, who was standing to the side, teased Lin Xuan with a beaming expression.

"I thought you were all-knowing and all-powerful, but I didn't expect you to make a mistake. How about you beg me, I can go and ask her for her contact information for you."

Upon hearing this, Lin Xuan quickly shook her head.

"No way, you two better stay as far away from her as possible."

Although he knew that Cheng Xin was definitely not the type of woman Luo Ji liked, there was always a chance that things might turn out differently.

Given Luo Ji's womanizing nature, if these two really got together and had a child, the later plot of The Three-Body Problem would be completely ruined.

"Okay, okay, I got it, don't worry!"

Shi Qiang and Luo Ji both wore knowing expressions, leaving Lin Xuan speechless.

What kind of weird expressions are those? What have you figured out this time?

The reason Lin Xuan contacted Cheng Xin so early was that she wanted to meet someone else through her.

Thomas Wade!

This is the most likely candidate to become the second Swordholder after Luo Ji.

The Swordholder is a position that appears in the later part of the story during the Deterrence Era. He/She has the power to destroy two worlds. Luo Ji is the creator of the Deterrence Era and the first Swordholder.

In the later part of the story, it's a pity that Wade didn't become the Swordholder; otherwise, the Deterrence Era would have continued for at least another sixty years.

This guy is definitely a major driving force behind the plot; his methods are not only crazy, but also incredibly imaginative.

If Lin Xuan were to give her opinion, he would be even more suitable to be a Wallfacer than Luo Ji.

After confirming the location of the signal, Lin Xuan casually put the positioning device into his pocket. With this thing, he could monitor Cheng Xin's movements at any time.

At this point, Cheng Xin probably hadn't yet designed the [Staircase Plan], so her meeting with her superior, Wade, was inevitable. He had just seen this girl pass by and had a sudden inspiration to exchange for the tracker from his system.

Then, taking advantage of the moment when he was chatting with the other person, he stuck the tracker on Cheng Xin's body.

After doing all this, Luo Ji and Lin Xuan boarded a plane back to China under Shi Qiang's escort.

On the plane, Lin Xuan began to plan her next move.

Since his system needs to rely on shock value to improve, he has to do something that will shock the world. Ideally, he should do something like before, broadcast it live globally and shock people all over the world.

However, it seems that he has already accomplished all the tasks he could at the United Nations General Assembly. If he wants to do anything more challenging, he either needs to kill Luo Ji now or solve the Three-Body Problem himself.

Neither of these options seems very realistic.

"Hey, right, system, does this shock value have to be caused by me? I mean, can it be that I create it, but no one else knows it was me?"

"can."

The system's answer was quite straightforward.

Upon hearing this, Lin Xuan slapped her thigh.

"Okay, I know what to do now."

He opened the system's exchange list directly and found something in the technology weapons section.

"Sound Demon" weapon [Level 1 Civilization Creation]

This weapon can generate a fixed sound wave within a certain area, and through time-domain superposition, it can achieve a sound wave attack on the same area in a short period of time.

At the same time, the attack will not disappear and has a chance to cause biological spread to the surrounding area.

To put it simply, this weapon is somewhat like a sonic weapon, but it is only similar in its final presentation; its attack method is completely different.

Its principle is more complex; it involves temporal superposition of specific audio data within a region, resulting in an attack.

A person can be subjected to a superimposed attack of a frequency band in a short period of time. After the audio is specifically compressed in the time domain, it will unfold in his brain like a bomb inserted into his body.

The reason this thing is called a "sound demon" is because when it attacks, it inflicts a continuous mental attack on the victim, driving them mad with its cacophony and ultimately causing mental abnormalities, somewhat like the mental pollution in the Cthulhu Mythos.

The Trisolarans also used protons in a similar way, but they interfered with vision.

Projecting a countdown onto his retina caused him severe psychological trauma.

But this thing is designed to kill people; it's a kind of meme weapon. You can set the specific type of target you want to attack when you fire it, and they will eventually form a propagation chain, spreading continuously until they go beyond the weapon's range or kill all the targets.

That's why it's only a technology of a Level 1 civilization.

If it's possible to inflict high-intensity damage on any living being, then it must be at least at the level of a Type 2 civilization.

The system's classification of civilization levels is also quite interesting.

At its current level, Earth's civilization can only be ranked around level 0.7. To truly achieve level 1 civilization, humanity must at least break free of the constraints of the atmosphere.

A Type 2 civilization is similar to the civilization in the Trisolaran world. They have control over the entire star system and possess high-efficiency technology for utilizing stellar energy.

At least until Dr. Ding Yi discovers nuclear fusion, Earth's civilization still has a long way to go before it can leapfrog into a Type II civilization.

As for levels 3, 4, and 5, there were simply too few usable reference points, so even Lin Xuan didn't know what they were like. In any case, with his current level of shock, he didn't even have a fraction of them.

After acquiring the Sound Demon weapon, the next step is to designate a target and the intensity of the attack.

No matter what, this thing is a kind of sonic weapon with a very wide propagation chain. If it is not controlled properly, it could be fatal.

Therefore, Lin Xuan had to carefully consider the placement of this weapon.

Unfortunately, Wang Miao and Shi Qiang's "Guzheng Project" wiped out ETO too thoroughly. The remaining ETO members either fled or disbanded, leaving Lin Xuan with no target to attack.

But soon, Lin Xuan thought of a good place!

Inside a neon-lit shrine in an island nation, used for sacrificial offerings to livestock.

Although the Japanese cabinet has been explicitly condemned by the international community for coming here to pay respects several times, it is notoriously shameless.

The shrine has not only remained open for many years, but the number of people coming to worship it has actually increased.

Amakugawa was one of these worshippers.

Born before the Age of Crisis, he had never truly experienced any war in his life, but the current state of Japan was causing these young people immense suffering.

Japan was once able to keep pace with the United States economically, but an economic bubble plunged the entire future of Japan into stagnation.

Just when all the young people in Japan thought that things would be alright as long as they could get through this difficult period, the appearance of two sophons shattered all their illusions.

The fact that the sophon has blocked the fundamental physics of humanity not only means that it will be difficult for Earth to experience a technological explosion in the future, but also means that the future world order will be solidified.

Japan will never have the chance to be on equal economic terms with the United States again.

Such a hopeless future made Amakugawa lament his bad timing while also harboring a sliver of unrealistic fantasy about the neon lights of the past.

Therefore, he came up with the idea of ​​visiting the Japanese sacred toilet.

May you bless me!

Amakuchi bowed deeply to the person in front of him, just as he was about to raise his head.

Suddenly, a human voice appeared in his ear without warning.

"Eradicate human tyranny, and the world belongs to the Three-Body Problem!"

"what!"

Amakusa was startled and abruptly looked up to look around.

However, there was no one else in this huge latrine except for him.

"Destroy...human tyranny, and the world...belongs to the Trisolarans!"

Another sound!

And this time it was even clearer than before, as if it had exploded in his mind.

"what!"

Amakusa was terrified. He stood up and ran frantically out of the shrine.

But the voice, like a ghost, clung to Amagawa, constantly echoing in his mind, each time louder and clearer than the last.

Finally, the sound exploded in Amagawa's head like a thunderclap.

He finally couldn't bear the demonic sound and smashed his head against a pillar in the sanctuary, dying instantly!

This scene wasn't unique to Amakugawa.

All the Japanese who came to the shrine to worship were attacked by this strange sound to varying degrees.

The shrine was already a ghostly place, and after this incident, almost no one dared to approach it for the entire day.

This situation was quickly reported to Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Koichi Inoue.

For a moment, the entire country of Japan was plunged into an eerie atmosphere of tension.