Ian slowly opened his eyes.
The light in his surroundings was dim, and the air was filled with a faint, aged scent of sandalwood mixed with the smell of dust. It was an unfamiliar place, yet the layout of the building possessed a sense of familiarity—it was a classic Chinese style. By the look of it, he seemed to be inside a Taoist temple.
Immediately, his consciousness connected, and the Transmutation Tablet sub-functional unit within his body sent a response.
It worked!
He breathed a slight sigh of relief, and the corners of his mouth curled up unconsciously. It seemed that the plan to transform his essential information into "seeds" and cast them across the heavens was indeed feasible. This was just one of thousands of information clones. If there was no deviation in the deployment process, this was the Pacific Rim world. In that case, the other clones scattered across various world coordinates had likely successfully descended as well.
His mental sense began to scan the surroundings carefully, confirming that this was indeed a Taoist temple. On the altar directly in front of him, a statue was enshrined. It was not the kind of benevolent-looking deity commonly seen in ordinary temples. The statue was clad in golden armor and a golden helmet, looking majestic and awe-inspiring. It appeared to have a vertical eye on its forehead, ears that reached its shoulders, a golden bow slung across its waist, and a three-pointed double-edged polearm gripped tightly in its hand.
It was the statue of the True Lord of Pure Source and Sagacious Dao, the Illustrious Sage Erlang Shen, Yang Jian.
Ian's mind stirred slightly. His information seed had descended and landed exactly here; perhaps this was a form of unspeakable destiny. Since the information clone required local matter to condense a body after descending, the statue before him was the most suitable choice.
With his mind set, Ian's information essence merged silently into the statue in front of him.
In the next moment, the scene inside the Taoist temple began to change. Aside from the statue infused with his information, every other object—the wooden pillars, the stone floor, the offerings on the altar, and even the walls—began to decompose and vanish silently. It was as if they were being wiped away by an invisible eraser.
The matter was rapidly converted into EMC by the Transmutation Tablet, all of it used for the reconstruction and modification of the statue's body.
Fortunately, the temple was empty at the moment. If there were pilgrims or Taoists present, they would likely have been terrified to death, thinking the True Lord was manifesting or that they had encountered some incomprehensible supernatural phenomenon.
The visible matter within the temple was soon exhausted. Immediately after, the earth beneath the temple began to vanish layer by layer. The conversion process only slowed to a halt once the soil ten meters deep had been siphoned away.
Upon the altar, the statue that was originally made of stone was now different. The substance constituting its essence had been turned into fundamental particles conforming to the rules of Minecraft. An initial body containing Ian's information essence was thus constructed.
Ian stepped down from the empty altar, his feet landing on the remaining ground. He looked around; the temple was now just an empty shell, completely hollow inside. He then entered a side room and discovered that it seemed to have been meticulously maintained recently.
Who was maintaining this Taoist temple that had no Taoist priests?
Just as he was pondering this, a sharp, ear-piercing air-raid siren pierced the city's tranquility. Immediately following, a broadcast voice drifted in from the distance.
Hearing the voice in the broadcast, he understood instantly.
In the Pacific Rim world, coastal cities suffered from the constant harassment of undersea monsters known as Kaiju. To deal with attacks that could happen at any time, regular air-raid and evacuation drills were a part of daily life. Today just happened to be a drill day. No wonder there wasn't a soul in the temple; he had thought it was just a derelict place.
Ian's gaze swept across a corner and found a neatly folded set of deep blue civilian clothes, looking like they had been left by a staff member. With a thought, the majestic golden armor on his body vanished, replaced by the ordinary civilian outfit. Then, after using blocks to fill in the excavated earth, he pushed open the temple doors and walked out onto the street.
The street was empty; not a single figure could be seen. The rolling shutters of the shops were tightly closed, and vehicles were parked neatly by the roadside. The entire city seemed to have fallen into a deep sleep. It appeared all citizens had followed the drill requirements and hidden in underground defense works.
Ian's gaze fell on a bus stop sign by the road. The traditional characters for "Hong Kong" entered his sight.
It was indeed here. Hong Kong, this prosperous international metropolis, always seemed particularly "popular" in monster movies, serving as one of the classic battlegrounds. He remembered that in the plot of the first Pacific Rim movie, Hong Kong suffered more than one Kaiju attack and sustained heavy losses. No wonder this city needed such frequent drills to engrave defense and evacuation into the citizens' instincts.
Just then, a figure wearing a police patrol vest appeared at the corner. When the officer saw Ian standing alone on the street, he froze for a moment, then hurried forward, urging him to enter a shelter in a rushed but polite tone.
Ian did not explain and obediently followed the officer into an inconspicuous underground entrance nearby. The passage extended downward, and the air became somewhat heavy. He observed his surroundings, finding that these underground defense works were built quite sturdily with thick walls. Compared to the impression given by movie frames, they seemed much more reliable. At least from this depth and structure, the probability of a monster easily tearing open the roof of a defense work with a single claw, as seen in the movies, was likely low in reality.
Entering the spacious underground shelter hall, he found quite a few citizens gathered. Although they were somewhat tense, order was well-maintained. On a giant screen at the front of the hall, public information was being broadcast.
Ian's gaze was drawn to the time displayed in the corner of the screen.
January 1, 2025 AD.
His memory began to retrieve data rapidly. If there were no major deviations in the plot, the time when the two Category IV giant Kaiju, codenamed Otachi and Leatherback, teamed up to attack Hong Kong in the first Pacific Rim should be on the night of January 8, 2025.
In other words, there were only seven days left. Seven days later, this land and this city would welcome a devastating disaster.
The image on the screen switched, and a promotional video began to play. In the footage, a giant mecha with a unique and impactful design was being showcased. It was crimson all over, with a head like a mono-eye lens. Most strikingly, it possessed three arms.
It was Crimson Typhoon. The Jaeger mecha manufactured by China and piloted by three people.
Watching the agile and handsome figure of Crimson Typhoon on the screen, a smile played across Ian's lips. He seemed to have thought of a more interesting way to welcome those behemoths about to crawl out from the undersea rift.