238: Chapter 239 The List of the Gods' Round Table!

Switzerland, Central District.

The cold morning mist had not yet been dispersed by the rising sun, and the streets still held a bone-chilling cold.

Shen Du had almost no time to catch his breath.

The dozen-plus hours of transoceanic flight yesterday had just ended; he had merely taken a shower in his hotel suite and changed into a crisp, wrinkle-free custom suit.

A heavily modified black armored SUV had already glided silently to a stop right outside the hotel's main entrance.

"Click."

The heavy armored door slammed shut behind Shen Du, completely sealing out the cold air and noise of the outside world.

The vehicle didn't pause for an instant, gliding like a black phantom into the desolate streets before the morning rush hour.

"President Shen, how did you rest?"

The man sitting in the passenger seat turned his head.

He was about forty years old, with an ordinary appearance, wearing an unremarkable gray jacket.

He was the type who would instantly disappear if thrown into a crowd of tourists on a European street.

But his eyes were as sharp as a blade hidden in a sleeve.

This was Honorary Vice President Yan Feng, the nominal Honorary Vice President of the China-Europe Chamber of Commerce stationed in Europe.

In the shadows, however, he was the General Manager of overseas intelligence and resource coordination at a high national security level.

He was also the person meeting Shen Du upon his arrival.

Before Shen Du could offer any pleasantries, Honorary Vice President Yan Feng had already cast out that extremely secretive aura of danger, his voice very low:

"We are currently on our way to the helicopter transfer point. The location for the endgame meeting has been set at the 'Valhaus Mountain Fortress' on the outskirts of St. Moritz."

Hearing this name, Shen Du's eyes narrowed slightly.

Honorary Vice President Yan Feng continued to report the terrain intelligence at a rapid pace, without any wasted words:

"It is the site of a World War I military fortress located on a frigid cliff more than two thousand meters above sea level in the Alps. The reason for choosing such a location for a meeting of this hundred-billion-scale magnitude is, first, to pursue absolute physical anti-eavesdropping, and second…"

He paused, his gaze sweeping over Shen Du and Shen Hong in the back seat:

"It is controlled year-round by private armed forces and has no roads. To get up there, you have to rely on a helicopter, or force a maneuver using an emergency zip line on the back of the cliff."

"Because the group of people who want to see you this time are all old monsters who can truly summon wind and rain throughout Europe. They lack a sense of security, which is why they chose such a remote, life-or-death wasteland."

"Damn it!"

As soon as Honorary Vice President Yan Feng finished speaking, Shen Hong, sitting beside Shen Du, couldn't help but curse in a low voice.

His brows, sharp as knife blades, instantly knitted into a tight knot.

There was no need to hide his displeasure.

Shen Hong leaned forward abruptly, his large hand, calloused from years of work, gripping the back of the passenger seat, staring at the back of Honorary Vice President Yan Feng's head.

His tone was filled with the gunpowder of questioning:

"Hey, when I was handing over intelligence before departure, no one mentioned to me that we were going to hold a meeting in this kind of lawless wasteland."

As the security lead for this European trip, Shen Hong had an instinctive rejection of such uncontrollable environments.

"You need to get the situation straight!"

Shen Hong pointed to Shen Du beside him, his eyes chillingly cold:

"He holds the trump card that can overturn Western semiconductor hegemony; he is now the United States' number one target for erasure! You brought him to a snowstorm cliff two thousand meters above sea level. Once that bunch of old lunatics up there flips the table, that godforsaken place doesn't even have a retreat route. How are we supposed to deal with that?"

This was by no means alarmist.

In a capital game that truly crosses the bottom line, once a consensus on interests cannot be reached, physical elimination is often the most direct and lowest-cost method.

Facing Shen Hong's extremely harsh questioning, Honorary Vice President Yan Feng's face did not ripple in the slightest.

He maintained the composure typical of an intelligence chief.

He pulled a paper briefing without a cover from the passenger seat's storage compartment.

"Regarding security, Old Shen, don't worry."

Honorary Vice President Yan Feng handed the briefing to the back seat, his voice still very low, but every word exuded powerful official confidence:

"I have already obtained airspace authorization from the military. During the meeting, an independent military-grade broadband satellite terminal will be set up on the mountaintop."

He paused, his gaze fixed sharply on Shen Hong: "As long as the signal transmitted from above shows even one second of abnormal interruption, or if an emergency distress signal is received from President Shen, two fully armed international rapid-response mercenary teams backed by the state will immediately cut into the battlefield from the surrounding hidden airspace at the fastest possible speed."

"Our people will arrive before Death."

Honorary Vice President Yan Feng did not give Shen Hong a chance to continue arguing.

His blade-like gaze quickly turned back to Shen Du, his tone becoming even colder and harder.

He threw out the intelligence that was truly suffocating:

"This level of security is by no means making a mountain out of a molehill. President Shen, every person coming to the banquet this time has a behemoth behind them capable of influencing the European and even the global landscape."

The air inside the carriage became viscous because of his next words.

Honorary Vice President Yan Feng extended a finger, beginning to precisely point out the opponents who were about to arrive:

"The chief negotiator of the Pan-Netherlands-German Lithography Consortium, Paul Vanderberg. The Cold Etching Machine in your hands directly smashed their rice bowl worth hundreds of billions of euros. This old guy is now a mad dog on the verge of a breakdown."

"Representative of the Munich German Heavy Industry Alliance, Heinrich von Krenze. The actual helmsman of European automotive and heavy industry, he only looks at interests and has no bottom line."

Honorary Vice President Yan Feng spoke at an extremely fast pace, the names he announced hitting the narrow carriage like heavy hammers:

"The core decision-maker of the Geneva Financial Syndicate, Arthur de Leon. This bloodthirsty vampire represents the oldest hot money and financial noose in Europe. And the proxy for the Paris military-industrial and luxury capital complex, Jean-Pierre."

Speaking to this point, Honorary Vice President Yan Feng's voice suddenly paused.

A trace of apprehension flashed in his eyes that even an old-school agent like him could not completely hide.

"Besides these four representatives…"

Honorary Vice President Yan Feng turned the paper briefing to the last page.

On it, there was only an abstract emblem pattern drawn in scarlet ink.

There was no specific text description.

"Finally, there is one more. Our intelligence network used the highest authority, and could only find that he possesses some ancient 'Duke' title. Because his identity is too special, it even involves underground power rules at a supra-national level. Therefore, it was only specially marked in the internal files, and there is no way to report his real name."

These names and identities, when added together, constituted a "Round Table of Gods" capable of deciding the national technological destiny for the next decade.

This was no longer a business negotiation.

It was a group of top predators who had smelled blood, standing on the edge of the abyss, waiting to carve up their prey, or be killed in return by the prey.

Just as Honorary Vice President Yan Feng announced the last chilling code name.

The black armored car slowed down smoothly and stopped steadily at the edge of a secret helipad that had long been blocked off.

The huge searchlight beam in front pierced through the morning mist.

A twin-rotor military transport helicopter, full of violent aesthetics and painted entirely in dark gray, was parked in the center.

The huge main rotor had already begun to rotate slowly, emitting a low and oppressive "rumbling" sound.

Shen Du looked coldly through the car window at the military machine that represented death and speed.

There was not a ripple on his face.

Facing that list of consortiums that could be called a dragon's den and tiger's lair, and about to step into that snow mountain fortress with no land retreat route.

He didn't even frown.

Shen Du casually threw the paper briefing handed over by Honorary Vice President Yan Feng onto the seat, his slender fingers resting on the door handle.

"Fine."

Shen Du's voice rang out in the narrow carriage, so calm it made one's scalp tingle.

In his deep eyes, there was no fear of the unknown:

"Since they have come with so many heavyweight figures and put on such a big show, as the hosts, we naturally cannot shrink back and lose our momentum."

He pushed open the car door decisively, and the cold morning wind instantly filled the carriage.

"Let's go."

The simple two words were like the first strike of a war drum, carrying an unquestionable aura of a superior.

Facing this kid who dared to break into the "devil's den" single-handedly and was so audacious that it bordered on insanity.

Shen Hong sat in the back row, clicking his tongue helplessly.

He swallowed back the curse that hadn't yet been uttered in his throat.

Without saying any more nonsense, he just skillfully checked the live ammunition magazines in his tactical vest.

Carrying the heavy equipment bag, he followed closely behind and got out of the car.

Facing the strong wind whipped up by the helicopter rotors, Shen Du strode towards the boarding gate.

Inside the cabin.

Shen Du decisively pulled the four-point tactical seat belt, "clicking" himself firmly into the seat.

As the cockpit pushed down the throttle, the twin rotors overhead erupted with a deafening tearing sound.

This military helicopter, having completely shed its civilian disguise, suddenly rose from the ground, whipping up ice crystals into the sky.

Without hesitation, it plunged into the gray, cold air of Switzerland.

"Beep—"

Just after taking off.

Honorary Vice President Yan Feng, sitting opposite, skillfully pulled a military tactical tablet from the inside of his jacket.

The screen's eerie green light lit up.

A real-time airspace radar map covering the whole of Switzerland and the surrounding borders appeared clearly.

On Honorary Vice President Yan Feng's screen, several glaringly bright spots were rapidly taking off from different coordinates such as Zurich, Geneva, and Munich.

Like a school of sharks that had smelled blood, they were all speeding and gathering towards the same center point: deep in the Alps.

"It seems that it is not only us who are feeling afraid."

Honorary Vice President Yan Feng pointed at those high-speed moving coordinates on the screen.

His voice, through the military noise-canceling headset, clearly reached the ears of Shen Du and Shen Hong:

"The intelligence network just sent back news confirming that after you boarded the plane for the mountain fortress, that group of old monsters also all set off. And look at these radar reflection areas and climb speeds; not a single one is a civilian model. They are all military aircraft equipped with bulletproof armor."

Shen Hong stared at the trajectories on the screen, sneering disdainfully:

"A bunch of cowardly old foxes. They all know that place is as remote as a graveyard that could bury people at any time, and they are so afraid of being double-crossed by others that they have to put on a turtle shell just to go out."

Shen Du turned his head, his deep gaze looking through the thickened bulletproof porthole at the rolling mountains below, which were gradually being swallowed by the snowstorm.

"Remoteness, precisely, means absolute isolation."

Shen Du's voice sounded unusually calm in the noise-canceling headset, without a ripple:

"Precisely because not even a single bird can enter that place. So no country's intelligence network and monitoring equipment can infiltrate."

He withdrew his gaze, leaned against the hard back of the seat, and closed his eyes to rest:

"In order to grab a piece of meat from the old plate that Jiyuan Technology smashed, even knowing that the snow mountain fortress is a cage that could lose control at any time, this pack of greedy capitalist hounds will still jump in without hesitation."

The light spots on the radar map were constantly shortening the distance.