Across the Timeless City, the apocalyptic thunderclap reverberated like a raging storm, sweeping over everything.
But it was just the start because the next moment, an impossibly thick pillar of black smoke erupted from the top of the Timeless Tower like an upside-down abyss trying to swallow the sky.
Within seconds, it engulfed the city—not fire, not wind, not dust, but something else—dense, churning, and thermal.
It was an unstable magical phenomenon formed by the compression of atomic energy mixed with the thick elemental mana in the air. It blotted out any source of light, flooded the streets, and slithered into every crevice of the city like creeping ink.
Below the Timeless Tower, strange static voices were reverberating...
"Warning: Synchronization link to Timeless Tower Core... disrupted."
"Soul-signature synchronization interrupted."
"Quantum thread relay... failed."
The city-wide network began to fracture. Communication links went silent. Soul monitors went dark. And in their place—static.
The Machina Unit tried to recalibrate the system, but the mutated radiation wasn’t just physical—it carried a form of corrosive signal interference, born from the twisted chaos of Jacob’s weaponry and magic.
It turned order into noise. Because of the terrifying shockwave, the constants felt it first, especially the Constants within the Timeless Tower.
Constant Baron-1 staggered as he dragged his weak body towards the teleportation hall. His face was filled with fear and dread. He never expected that the safe haven, the Timeless Tower, would suddenly be attacked like this.
He had already reported everything, made preparations, and had just begun his slumber to recover when this sudden bomb blast occurred. The magic array he had set up was disrupted and cracked, making his situation even worse.
After all, his floor was right below the top floor, so it naturally suffered the most damage. He wanted nothing but to flee this place because he no longer felt safe.
But when he appeared in the teleportation hall, he was horrified. "W-what—?!" The teleportation hall’s formation was completely gray without any power or fluctuations.
There was no way in or out!
---
Somewhere else, Constant Baron-7 collapsed from her command seat, her eyes wide with panic as her consciousness was pulled out of the Anarchy network.
The constructs began to act erratically, stuttering mid-task, repeating orders, or simply crashing like broken puppets.
Furthermore, at this moment, the radiation smoke started to seep into her floor—not just hers but every floor...
---
The constant assassins across the city froze, leaving them blind without command inputs.
The unthinkable had happened. The Timeless Network was blind.
As the radiation smoke spiraled outward, the sound of the explosion echoed for miles, but the real fear came after.
The silence. No alarms. No announcements. No orders. Just a muffled, thick, suffocating darkness. An ominous pressure descended over the city like a funeral shroud.
---
The Timeless Tower’s top floor had vanished, replaced by a cratered, blackened shell.
Cracks gleamed with molten heat. The energy sealing arrays that lined the outside surface flickered with warning sigils, like a structure bleeding light.
At this moment, Jacob’s figure appeared amid the raging inferno within the blackened shell. The temperature wasn’t a problem for someone like him; even the mutated radiation was little affected.
But what mattered to Jacob was the final outcome. He saw that the entire city had been affected by this explosion, while the Timeless Tower was able to endure the terrifying explosion that could’ve flattened any planet.
’Just as I thought, even my top weaponry from the old world is only capable of causing chaos, not destruction. Good thing I have new insights...’
Jacob didn’t seem frustrated. In fact, looking at the fractured tower and cracks around the structure, his eyes glimmered with devilish intent. The next moment, without any hesitation, Jacob turned into light itself and sped into the molten floor, going downward!
At this moment, Constant Baron-1 was trying to contact the outside world, but the disruption was still not mended. He cursed furiously, "Just what the hell is going on? Who dares to attack the ATLAS? How did they find it?"
These questions were probably raging through all the Constant heads right now.
"It’s quite confusing, right?" Suddenly, an eerie voice whispered in Constant Baron-1’s ears, shaking him to his core because that voice sounded very familiar.
But before he could react, a powerful strike struck behind his neck, almost breaking it, and with his current weak body, he instantly fell unconscious, which would have been impossible before.
The next moment, Constant Baron-1’s body vanished into the infinite space, and Jacob’s figure appeared right behind him.
"Let’s see if you can escape this time..." Jacob sneered before he moved to the next floor. He was intending to capture all the Constant Barons present in the Timeless Tower because they were akin to free lifespan packages.
However, not every Constant Baron in the top hundred ranks was present within the Timeless Tower. Constants were capable of blending in anywhere, and some of them even held high positions in the outside world, like the Serpent King.
Jacob didn’t find Constant Baron-2 and 3, while 4 wasn’t able to avoid the calamity and was captured. Constant Baron-5 was already killed, and 6,7,8 were captured. 9 was like the 5, and 10 wasn’t present in the tower as well.
But Jacob didn’t seem to mind, as he was ’harvesting’ Constants like crops, sending them into the Infinite Space. This shocked Alma when she found that those bodies belonged to legendary kings—there were so many!
Alma could only imagine what Jacob was doing right now and which power had drawn his irony. Nonetheless, she couldn’t think of any power with so many legendary kings; it was simply incomprehensible.
In the end, Jacob swept through the entire Timeless Tower and managed to capture 68 Constant Barons. Although he didn’t search those floors, which should be filled with other treasures yet, he wanted to get his hands on those Constant Barons and the Machina Unit, and once he got them, the entire city would be his to do as he pleased!
Now that the first objective was complete, he looked at the first floor, which was completely fine. The next moment, he gathered his strength in his fist and attacked with full strength!