117: Chapter 117 Black Panther Squad Assassination

When Chen Fan walked out of the Department of Health building, it was already 12:30 PM.

The sun was shining bright, yet an unusual tension permeated the streets of Magic City. The main downtown thoroughfares, which should have been bustling with traffic at this hour, were now sparse with vehicles. Pedestrians walked with hurried steps, many wearing masks—a rare sight outside of flu season.

On a large screen at a street corner, an emergency news broadcast was playing: "...The omega virus is spreading globally. Our country has activated a Level 1 public health emergency response. A spokesperson for the Ministry of Health urges the public to remain calm and avoid crowded places..."

Chen Fan was about to walk toward his car parked by the roadside when he suddenly paused.

Energy Vision activated automatically.

In his "eyes," the surrounding buildings, vehicles, and pedestrians turned into translucent energy outlines. Most were the pale white halos of ordinary people, with the occasional medical worker or police officer in protective gear showing slightly stronger energy signatures.

But there were three anomalies.

Behind a seventh-floor window of the office building on the left, a dark red energy source was locking onto him through a gap in the curtains. Behind a bus stop sign to his right front, two pale blue energy sources were moving slowly in a flanking maneuver. About fifty meters directly behind him, the engine of a black business van had just cut out; inside sat four beings with energy signatures significantly stronger than average—their muscle density, neural activity, and heart rates far exceeded the scope of ordinary humans.

"Xiao Zhi, scan threat levels."

[7th Floor Sniper: Equipped with a 7.62mm high-precision sniper rifle, threat level B+. Two individuals behind the bus stop: Carrying stun guns and anesthetics, threat level C. Four individuals inside the business van: All special operations personnel who have undergone genetic enhancement; muscle strength estimated at three times that of a normal person, equipped with non-lethal capture gear, threat level A-.]

"Genetic enhancement?" Chen Fan's eyes narrowed slightly. "Alpha Capital certainly has deep pockets."

[Based on intercepted communications analysis, this is the Black Panther Squad from an 'outsourced security company' under Alpha Capital, specializing in high-risk covert captures. Mission directive: Capture Chen Fan alive and bring him to the designated location. Backup directive: If met with strong resistance, crippling is permitted.]

Crippling? Meaning as long as I have a breath left, they don't care if I lose hands or feet?

A cold arc curled at the corner of Chen Fan's mouth.

Perfect, I'll test my current abilities.

He didn't change his route, continuing toward his car with a steady, normal pace. But his Mental Power had already spread out like a spiderweb, covering a radius of one hundred meters.

The sniper on the seventh floor pulled the trigger.

But the instant the trigger was pulled, Chen Fan's Mental Power precisely interfered with the sniper scope's optical system—the target the sniper "saw" suddenly shifted thirty centimeters to the left.

Bang!

The bullet shattered a floor tile on the ground behind Chen Fan's left side, splashing stone fragments.

The sniper was stunned. He had clearly aimed for the thigh when he fired, so how could... There was no time to think. Because Chen Fan suddenly moved.

Not to flee, but to counter-attack.

He took a step toward his front-left; the seemingly casual stride precisely avoided the two people lunging from behind the bus stop. The electrodes from their stun guns shot out, only to be deflected by an invisible energy field ten centimeters from Chen Fan's body, emitting a "sizzle" of a short circuit.

Chen Fan didn't even look at them, simply raising his right hand and closing his fingers in a hollow grip.

"Buzz—"

A low resonance echoed in the air. The two attackers suddenly felt their entire bodies spasm uncontrollably, as if countless fine needles were darting through them. Their vision went black, and they collapsed to the ground—Chen Fan had used his Mental Power to directly interfere with their nervous systems.

Seeing this, the sniper on the seventh floor immediately adjusted his aim, preparing for a second shot.

But he would never get the chance.

Because Chen Fan looked up, toward his direction.

Across a distance of seventy meters and through a glass window, the moment the sniper met Chen Fan's eyes, his blood seemed to freeze. That was not a gaze a human should have—dark gold pupils swirled like an abyss, containing no anger, no fear, only a kind of absolute, cold... looking down.

Then, the sniper "heard" a voice ring out directly in his mind:

"Sleep."

Two simple words, yet carrying an irresistible mental pressure. Before the sniper could even think about what kind of ability this was, his consciousness plunged into darkness like a power cut, and he slumped against the window.

In less than five seconds, the three peripheral threats were neutralized.

Now, only the black business van remained.

The four people inside clearly realized something was wrong. The doors slammed open, and four burly men in black combat gear and tactical masks jumped out. They carried no obvious weapons, but the muscles on their exposed forearms were bulging with veins, clearly having undergone some form of biochemical enhancement.

The leader spoke in an electronic voice processed by a voice changer: "Mr. Chen, please come with us. We don't want to use force."

Chen Fan stopped and sized them up: "Is Alpha Capital that eager to see me?"

The four men's expressions changed slightly; they clearly hadn't expected Chen Fan to expose their identity so directly.

"Since you know, then cooperate." Another man stepped forward, his knuckles cracking. "Our boss wants to talk to you... about the vaccine patent."

"Oh?" Chen Fan raised an eyebrow. "And if I don't cooperate?"

"Then we'll just have to 'invite' you to cooperate." Before the words finished, all four lunged at once!

Their speed was indeed far beyond normal, their movements clean and efficient—clearly highly trained professionals. Moreover, they coordinated perfectly—two attacked high to seize the neck and shoulders, while two attacked low to lock the legs and feet. This was standard special ops capture tactics.

But their opponent was no longer "normal."

Chen Fan didn't even move his feet.

He simply raised his left hand, fingers splayed, and then—lightly clenched it.

Boom!

With him as the center, the air within a ten-meter radius suddenly solidified.

Not as a metaphor, but literally solidified. The four attackers were like people slamming into an invisible rubber wall; their forward momentum came to a dead stop, and they were "pinned" in mid-air, limbs unable to move, and even breathing became difficult.

Chen Fan walked up to them and reached out to pull off the leader's mask. Beneath it was an Asian face in his thirties, currently turning beet red from suffocation.

"Go back and tell your boss," Chen Fan's voice was light but reached everyone's ears clearly, "if you want to play at business competition, I'm game. But if you want to play dirty..."

He paused, his gaze suddenly sharp as a blade: "The next ones you send won't be coming back alive."

As the words fell, the mental field suddenly expanded!

"Bang bang bang bang!"

Four dull thuds rang out as the four burly men were blasted backward like they'd been hit by a truck, crashing heavily into a green belt twenty meters away and falling unconscious.

Chen Fan didn't even give them a second look as he turned and walked toward his car.

While driving, Chen Fan connected to a video call with Su Qingyue.

On the screen, Su Qingyue was in the temporary command center on the roof of Fanxing Technology, surrounded by over a dozen busy technicians. The large screen behind her displayed a real-time epidemic map of Magic City.

"Chen Fan, are you okay?" Su Qingyue asked immediately upon seeing him. "The police just reported an 'unknown disturbance' near the Department of Health, with gunfire..."

"I'm fine," Chen Fan brushed it off briefly. "How is the progress on your end?"

"All the technical data for the vaccine mother strain has been sent to Academician Wang's expert group; they are organizing third-party verification." Su Qingyue pulled up several windows. "The first batch of fifty 'Guardian-II' robots has been deployed around the Songjiang Industrial Park, establishing the first quarantine line. The disinfectant production lines are running at full capacity; the first batch of one hundred thousand bottles can leave the factory by 3:00 PM."

She paused, her tone becoming heavy. "But... the virus is spreading faster than we anticipated. As of 10:00 AM, the cumulative reported cases in Magic City have exceeded eight hundred, with over two hundred showing secondary mutation symptoms. Ordinary hospitals can no longer take them in. More troublingly, some infected individuals have begun to organizedly storm quarantine points. Their intelligence seems... not entirely lost."

Chen Fan's brow furrowed. "Organized?"

"Yes." Su Qingyue pulled up a surveillance clip. "Look here—at 11:00 PM last night, at three outbreak points in the Songjiang Industrial Park, the infected began rioting almost simultaneously. They smashed pharmacies to steal drugs, stormed police stations to seize weapons, then gathered together and moved toward the city center. Although they were eventually dispersed by police using tear gas and high-pressure water cannons, there was clearly someone directing the process."

In the recording, dozens of infected individuals with festering skin and twisted movements displayed startling discipline: some were responsible for breaking doors, some for cover, some for transport... If not for their hideous appearance, they would have looked like a well-trained small special ops team.

"The omega virus is retaining the host's tactical instincts?" Chen Fan murmured. "No, this is more like... some kind of collective consciousness."

He thought of those Aberrations in the Gobi Desert, the triangular brands on their foreheads, and their organized behavioral patterns.

If the virus wasn't just destroying the host's brain but rebuilding a new, unified consciousness network... the thought made Chen Fan shiver.

"Qingyue, notify all frontline personnel. Once infected individuals are found displaying obvious organized behavior, immediately upgrade the alert level. If necessary, authorize the use of the 'Guardian's' lethal weapon modules—anesthetic rounds may no longer be enough."

"Understood." Su Qingyue nodded. "One more thing, your decision to release all research data... it has already exploded on the internet."

She pulled up a social media trend chart. Among the top ten hot searches, six were related to Fanxing Technology:

#Fanxing Technology Makes All Vaccine Tech Public#

#Chen Fan Announces Free Vaccine Patents#

#China Speed: omega virus Vaccine Developed in Three Days#

#Fanxing Technology's Guardian Robots#

#Alpha Capital's Sky-High Vaccine Questioned#

#Thank You Chen Fan#

Clicking on the topics, comments flooded in like a tide:

"Tears in my eyes! This is the true spirit of entrepreneurship!"

"Compare this to Nova Bio's three thousand dollars per dose; the difference is clear as day!"

"Fanxing Technology's robots are already being deployed over in Songjiang. I just passed by and saw them—so cool!"

"Alpha Capital was smearing Chen Fan for stealing technology earlier, and now he just makes all the tech public. Doesn't that hurt their faces?"

"I heard the Department of Health has already granted emergency use authorization. I hope I can get the vaccine soon!"

Of course, there were also voices of doubt, mainly focused on concerns over vaccine safety. But soon, a statement released by Academician Wang on behalf of the expert group shut those people up:

"...After preliminary verification, the vaccine technical route provided by Fanxing Technology is scientific, the data is authentic, and the safety is reliable. We have initiated emergency production procedures, and the first batch of domestic vaccines is expected to be off the line within twenty-four hours..."

At the end of the statement, Academician Wang emphasized: "In this moment where humanity collectively faces an epidemic threat, we call upon global research institutions to set aside sectarian biases, share data, and tackle key problems together. Fanxing Technology has set an example, and we hope other countries and other companies can show the same responsibility."

The target of these words was obvious—it was a direct jab at Nova Bio and Alpha Capital.

"International public opinion is also starting to shift." Su Qingyue pulled up foreign media reports. "CNN, BBC, and Reuters are all reporting on our news of making the tech public. The headlines are basically 'Fanxing Makes Vaccine Patents Public for Free, Challenging Western Pharmaceutical Giants' Monopoly'."

"Any reaction from Alpha Capital?" Chen Fan asked.

"No public response for now," Su Qingyue said. "But our monitoring shows that Nova Bio's stock price plummeted by 42% within the first hour of opening, and the stock prices of other pharmaceutical companies under Alpha Capital have also dropped across the board. Additionally..."

She hesitated for a moment. "Xiao Zhi intercepted some encrypted communications showing that Alpha Capital is urgently convening a board meeting to discuss plans to 'counter the Chinese vaccine impact'. Several terms were mentioned: 'public opinion counterattack', 'political pressure', 'technical blockade', and... 'extreme measures'."

"Extreme measures?" Chen Fan's gaze turned cold. "It seems the attack just now was only an appetizer."

"Chen Fan, you have to be careful." Su Qingyue's voice was full of worry. "Alpha Capital has hundreds of laboratories globally and possesses a vast amount of black technology we don't know about."

"I know." Chen Fan nodded. "That's why we need to be faster. Qingyue, notify Lin Hao to add another production line for the 'Guardian-II'. I want to see five hundred units off the line within a week. Also, initiate the manufacturing of the satellite prototype for the 'Starry Sky Project'—we need our own eyes to watch their every move."

"Building a satellite now?" Su Qingyue asked in surprise.

"We'll refine it as we build." Chen Fan's tone left no room for doubt. "We don't have time to wait for all conditions to mature. The satellite needs to be in space within a month."

"That's... too rushed, isn't it?"

"The virus is rushing, the enemy is rushing—what reason do we have not to rush?" Chen Fan looked out the car window. "Qingyue, in this war, it's not about whose technology is more perfect, but whose actions are faster. Being one step ahead means saving one more person and seizing one more bit of the initiative."

He paused, his voice dropping lower. "We are already on the road, and there is no turning back. We can only move forward, always forward."

The video call ended.

Chen Fan stopped his car at an intersection, waiting for a red light.

Outside, the sky over Magic City was as blue as if it had been washed.

But beneath this blue sky, an invisible war was raging fiercely.

A war between virus and vaccine.

A war between monopoly and sharing.

A war between darkness and light.

The light turned green.

Chen Fan stepped on the gas, and the car merged into the flow of traffic, heading toward the Fanxing Technology building.