121: Chapter 121 Safe House Crisis: 37-Day Countdown

Chen Fan's car hadn't even traveled three kilometers before Lei Zhen's emergency communication came through.

"Chen Fan, there's a situation at the safe house." Lei Zhen's voice was mixed with the sound of gunfire and alarms in the background. "The opponents aren't ordinary mercenaries; they're professionally trained Gene-Enhanced Warriors. Three of our team members are seriously injured, and our defensive line is about to collapse."

Chen Fan jerked the steering wheel, and the car made a sharp turn onto a backup route. "When will reinforcements arrive?"

"The nearest Armed Police unit has already set out, but it will take at least fifteen minutes." Lei Zhen paused. "The enemy's target is clear: it's David. They're using Sonic Interference Equipment, and our communication could be cut off at any moment."

"David cannot die," Chen Fan said in a decisive tone. "He knows too much, and he's the key witness connecting all the clues. Captain Lei, hold on; I'll be there in five minutes."

Hanging up the communication, Chen Fan switched to manual driving mode. The car's speed soared to one hundred and forty kilometers per hour as he wove through the sparse early morning traffic.

"Xiao Zhi, can you access the safe house's surveillance system?"

[Signal interference detected, attempting to crack... First layer of encryption bypassed. Accessing real-time footage.]

The safe house's internal surveillance appeared on the phone screen. The image shook violently, showing Lei Zhen and his team returning fire from behind cover as bullets flew across the room.

David Cohen was huddled in a safe corner behind bulletproof glass, his face deathly pale.

Suddenly, one scene caught Chen Fan's attention—among the attackers, there was one person whose movements were clearly different from a normal human's.

His movement speed was so fast he left afterimages on the monitor, and bullets hitting him only threw up sparks as if they were striking metal armor.

"Gene enhancement to this degree..." Chen Fan's pupils contracted. "Xiao Zhi, analyze his biological signals."

[Abnormal energy fluctuations detected, similar to Stellar Core Energy but with lower purity. Target's muscle density is seven times that of a normal person, nerve conduction speed is ten times, and a Nano-Metal Coating is detected on the bone surfaces. Warning: This target is Danger Level A+.]

"Weaknesses?"

[Energy supply is unstable, with a 0.3-second pulse interval. The nano-coating is sensitive to high-frequency vibrations.]

"Plan the best entry route for me."

[Route planning complete. Turn right three hundred meters ahead to enter the Underground Pipe System; you can enter through the safe house vent. However, there may be an ambush inside the pipes.]

"Then I'll clear them out."

Two minutes later, Chen Fan parked the car in an alley, pried open a maintenance manhole cover, and leaped inside.

The underground pipes were damp and dark, the air thick with the smell of rust and decay. Chen Fan's night vision activated automatically, turning the darkness before him into a clear grayscale image.

He moved quickly along the route planned by Xiao Zhi, while his Mental Power spread out like a spiderweb to detect surrounding life signals.

Thirty meters ahead, three thermal outlines were hidden behind a pipe junction. A standard ambush formation.

Chen Fan did not slow down; instead, he accelerated his sprint. The moment he was about to enter the ambush zone, he suddenly leaped upward, grabbing the metal brackets on the ceiling of the pipe and hanging upside down like a gecko.

The three ambushers clearly hadn't expected this move. By the time they reacted and turned their guns, Chen Fan had already acted.

He didn't fire a gun; instead, he used his Mental Power to condense into invisible spikes, precisely piercing the trio's nerve plexuses.

The three didn't even have time to scream before they collapsed to the ground, temporarily losing consciousness.

This was a new ability Chen Fan had comprehended from Stellar Core Energy—Mental Spike.

Used against ordinary people, it was lethal; against these trained warriors, it could cause at least half an hour of paralysis.

He continued forward.

The end of the pipe was the safe house's ventilation system. Chen Fan looked down through the grate; the battle had reached a fever pitch.

That Gene-Enhanced Warrior was currently dismantling the Lei Zhen squad's final cover with his bare hands—an alloy table was being torn apart in his hands like a piece of paper.

Lei Zhen had been shot in the left arm and was bleeding profusely, but he still insisted on standing in front of David.

"It's over." The enhanced warrior's voice was processed through a voice changer, sounding cold and mechanical. "Hand over Dr. Cohen, and you can live."

"In your dreams!" Lei Zhen raised his gun and fired, but the bullets only left faint white marks on the opponent's chest.

The enhanced warrior seemed to lose his patience and threw a punch at Lei Zhen.

If this punch landed solidly, Lei Zhen would undoubtedly die.

At that exact moment, the ventilation grate suddenly exploded!

Chen Fan dropped from the ceiling like a hawk, his feet precisely kicking the back of the enhanced warrior's neck—the seam of the nano-coating and the node of the energy pulse.

"Crack!"

A crisp cracking sound rang out. The enhanced warrior stumbled forward, sparks flying from his neck.

He spun around violently, his crimson electronic eyes locking onto Chen Fan. "Reinforcements? Just a..."

Before he could finish, Chen Fan's second strike had already arrived.

It wasn't a physical attack, but a mental shock.

Chen Fan condensed all his Mental Power into a single point, piercing into the opponent's consciousness like a drill. The Gene-Enhanced Warrior's body froze, and the red light in his electronic eyes flashed frantically, as if he were experiencing some kind of internal system conflict.

Three seconds later, he crashed to the ground, his body twitching a few times before it stopped moving.

"Is he dead?" Lei Zhen asked, still shaken.

"No, his consciousness was just forced to shut down." Chen Fan knelt down to examine the modified body. "A Control Chip was implanted in his brain; I just used Mental Power to overload the chip's computing unit."

He tore open the enhanced warrior's combat suit, revealing a metal interface on his chest. In the center of the interface, that familiar triangular logo was clearly visible.

"As expected, it's Alpha Capital's handiwork." Chen Fan stood up. "Captain Lei, take David and evacuate through the backup passage. I'll handle things here."

"But..."

"No buts," Chen Fan interrupted him. "David's testimony must be made public at the global press conference. That's our only chance to wake up the world before Christmas Eve."

Lei Zhen looked at Chen Fan and finally nodded. "Take care."

Five minutes later, only Chen Fan and the unconscious enhanced warrior remained in the safe house.

Chen Fan connected to the opponent's Control Chip interface and let Xiao Zhi attempt to crack it.

[Decoding... The chip uses quantum encryption; cracking it will take time.]

"Directly perform a physical read of the memory storage unit."

[Executing... Reading partial memory fragments:]

Images unfolded before Chen Fan's eyes—

A massive underground facility with walls covered in flashing data screens. Hundreds of Cultivation Tanks were neatly arranged, with a human body suspended in each tank, covered in tubes and wires.

An old man in a white lab coat stood before a console; he was one of the founders of Alpha Capital, the mysterious figure known as "The Doctor."

"What are the test results for reaper-8?" The Doctor asked.

"Directional clearance efficiency has reached 97.3%," an assistant reported. "The recognition accuracy for the target genotype is 99.8%. However, there are still errors in the determination of mixed genes."

"The errors are within an acceptable range." The Doctor nodded. "The Christmas Eve deployment plan remains unchanged. Are all forty-three global deployment sites ready?"

"They are in position. But... Doctor, the deployment in the Eastern region has run into trouble. That man named Chen Fan, his vaccines and robots have disrupted our testing rhythm."

The Doctor turned around, revealing a wrinkled face with sharp eyes. "Chen Fan... interesting. Detection shows a faint Stellar Core Energy reaction in him. Could he also be one of the 'Gardeners' chosen by the 'Sower'?"

"Do we need to deal with him?"

"No." The Doctor shook his head. "Don't have a direct conflict with him for now. Our primary task is to complete the 'Harvesting.' As for Chen Fan... if he can prove his value, perhaps he can become one of the managers of the 'New World.'"

The scene switched.

A giant star map appeared, with the Blue Star marked as 'Tr-7 Experimental Field.' Next to the star map was a row of countdown timers: 37 days until the next 'Harvesting.'

Then came the coordinates of the deployment sites—the coordinates of major global cities lit up one by one... The final image was of The Doctor standing before a giant transparent tank.

A constantly changing purple mist-like substance was suspended in the tank—that was the Original Strain of 'reaper-8.'

"A perfect creation," The Doctor said softly. "It will screen out the humans worthy of entering the new era. Eliminate the weak, preserve the strong. This is... evolution."

The memory reading was interrupted there.

The enhanced warrior's body twitched violently, and he began bleeding from his orifices—the forced memory reading had caused irreversible damage to his brain.

Chen Fan stood up, his expression grave.

Alpha Capital's plan was crazier than he had imagined.

They didn't just want to clear out people with specific genotypes; they wanted to reshape the entire human population.

And from The Doctor's words, it seemed to imply that the 'Sower' had chosen more than one 'Gardener.' There might be other forces in other parts of the world making similar preparations for 'Harvesting.'