Just when X looked at the three people celebrating his birthday with the same expression one might reserve for an idiot, he suddenly noticed that the two sides in the fierce combat on the surveillance screen had stopped fighting. They placed their hands on their chests, smiled, and began to sway their bodies, singing the birthday song so loudly it caused a resonance.
"Wishing you a happy holiday~ Happy birthday to X, wishing you a happy birthday~"
Accompanied by the humming, X saw several friends enter through the door, clapping their hands, followed by a huge holographic projection of a cake appearing midair, complete with colorful fireworks continuously playing.
X's eyes widened as he looked at everything in front of him, and the scan from his Artificial Eye confirmed that they were all real, neither a pretense nor a disguise.
As the song ended, everyone in the room shouted in unison, "Happy Birthday! X!"
Immediately afterward, X's friend and business partner walked out from the crowd towards X.
"How about that? Exciting, isn't it? What do you think of this birthday present? A five-sense real movie experience! Absolutely real, and it cost a pretty penny,"
"I know you appreciate Sun Jack, look, this is the Sun Jack Clone I bought for you, you can use it as a sex slave."
As they spoke, the holographic projection quickly tied a ribbon in a bow on Sun Jack's head and covered him completely with holographic red ribbons, presenting him like a gift box.
Watching the smiling face in front of him, X felt somewhat puzzled and just stood there. He wasn't sure anymore. "What? Was everything that happened today a lie?"
Just as Sun Jack was about to get close to X, suddenly X stretched his hand toward a button next to him and pressed it hard. To everyone's astonishment, he pushed the button all the way down.
A piercing alarm sound, accompanied by flashing red lights, went off like crazy. The camera screens rigged by Tapai were replaced with giant exclamation marks. "Warning! Warning!"
The joyful and lively atmosphere in the room instantly turned ice cold, and the faces of many Holy Grail People went pale.
Those who reacted quickly immediately turned and dashed towards the exit, even though they knew it was futile, but their survival instinct compelled them to flee.
Sun Jack, with a look of shock on his face, rushed to X's side. "How is this possible, how did you find out!"
X showed a resolute smile, "Actually, although all of this is absurd, I wasn't sure if it was real or fake. But I thought if it was fake, then this control room would also be fake, and if it's fake, then this button would also be fake, and pressing it wouldn't do anything. But if it's real, then this button is real too, and regardless of truth or illusion, I had to press it."
After saying these words, X looked at Sun Jack with a crazy glare and pointed at him fiercely.
"Sun Jack! You forced my hand! So let's go to Hell together! Hahaha!!"
"In fact, it may not be so," Sun Jack's face quickly lost its panic, returning to a cold stare.
The next second, Sun Jack's fist smashed into X's face. Along with the flames shooting out from the thrusters on his elbow, the powerful blow slammed X against the wall.
The force was so great it nearly shattered the facial armor X wore.
As X, holding his face, slid down from the wall, the piercing alarm and the big cake suspended midair both vanished, nothing more than holographic projections, and the red button that X had pushed disappeared along with the cake, also a fake.
The real red self-preservation button was revealed in its actual location after the nanoworms covering it flew back to Sun Jack.
The so-called birthday plan was nothing but a cover to disguise a fake button with a holographic projection prop.
Tapai walked over to the control console. Translucent sensing threads extended from his body and, after swiftly operating the controls, the self-destruct button sank back down, and the crisis in the Himalayas finally came to an end.
"Didn't you say before that you enjoyed watching my real-life dramas? Now that you've experienced one yourself, how does it feel?" Sun Jack approached X, looking down on him from above.
Seeing the plan foiled, X changed his attitude instantly. He quickly switched to a more submissive demeanor, looking towards Sun Jack with an expression of extreme humility.
"Wait! Jack! Don't kill me! I now completely agree with your actions! The people at the bottom have it too hard. I am willing to give up everything I have! Unconditional support for you!! Let's go help past me together!"
However, when X saw Sun Jack's mechanical arm slowly turning and ultimately transforming into a black gun muzzle, a hint of despair began to surface in his eyes. "No! Don't kill me! I'm willing to do it!"
"You're not willing; you're just afraid to die," Sun Jack said, pressing the gun muzzle against the other's head.
He wanted to resist, but the Poet, with a trail of afterimages, rushed over and instantly dismembered all the combat prostheses on his body.
Just as X closed his eyes, unwilling to meet his death, he discovered that he was still alive.
He slowly opened his eyes, only to see that the gun muzzle in Sun Jack's hand had reverted back to an arm.
"X, you can leave now, take your company, your capital, and your Golden Stock away from the Himalayas," Sun Jack said to him.
X, wearing a face full of surprise, lifted his head to look at Sun Jack, almost thinking that the other was deceiving him again.
But when he saw his own network communication, which had been disrupted, come back online and received signals from all the top executives of his company again, only then he was certain that Sun Jack was telling the truth.
"Why?"
"Do you know what my nickname was when I used to be a mercenary? Borrow King, whatever I promise, I always keep my word."
Sun Jack reached out to straighten X's split helmet, then pushed on his chest. "Go on, leave the city before I change my mind!"
In the beginning, X didn't believe it and thought Sun Jack was fooling him again, but when he got into the Hover Car half in doubt and emerged through the gaps outside the Himalayas, that's when he knew that the other party was telling the truth.
Watching X's departure, Tapai asked in surprise, "Why? Why did you let X go? Simply because you keep promises?"
Sun Jack watched X's luxury Hover Car leave through the breach and shook his head before saying, "It's not just that. I can't make the whole world my enemy. I need to use X to deliver a message to the people in other cities, that there's no need for mutual destruction when fighting against me. If they genuinely can't beat me, they still have the option to surrender."
And after seeing X's outcome, the last group of the Holy Grail People in the Himalayas directly proposed a ceasefire and indicated their desire to negotiate with Sun Jack.