183: You ruined my masterpiece!

Chapter 183: You Ruined My Masterpiece! The air grew thin.

The blood mist from the exploded substitute, which had been floating in the air, was now being pulled by an invisible hand, rushing frantically toward the four exhaust vents on the ceiling.

"Cough, cough..."

Old Ghost clutched his neck, his face turning the color of pig liver. "Lack of oxygen... He's trying to suffocate us..."

"Smash the window!" Ninth Master roared, grabbing the pig-slaughtering knife and hacking fiercely at the floor-to-ceiling window.

Clang!

Sparks flew everywhere.

The knife, which could cleave concrete, only left a faint white scratch when it struck the layer of "glass."

"It's useless!"

Li Ke's hands trembled as he typed on the keyboard. "This is submarine-grade pressure-resistant material. Unless we have C4 Explosives, we can't blow it open!"

"The oxygen level has dropped to 15%!"

Li Ke looked at the environmental monitoring readings on his watch and shrieked, "The air extraction speed is too fast! We'll suffocate in two minutes!"

"Chen Mo..."

Wang Daoming, visible on the screen, continued his rambling. "Watching your alveoli rupture due to negative pressure, watching the nitrogen in your blood vessels boil... It's a marvelous death experience, isn't it?"

Chen Mo ignored him.

He closed his eyes.

Inside this sealed room, which was about to become a vacuum container, he was listening.

Listening to the flow of air.

Listening to the operation of machinery.

Listening to the vibration frequency of every screw.

All the exhaust fans were drawing air out, creating immense negative pressure.

This meant that the wind speed in the pipes connecting the room to the outside had reached its maximum.

"Fatty."

Chen Mo suddenly spoke, his voice sounding somewhat muffled due to the change in air pressure.

"Do you still have any of that strong acid gel?"

"It's gone! I poured it all into that monster's brain just now!" Li Ke wailed. "Even if I had some now, it wouldn't help. This glass isn't affected by acid!"

"Who said I wanted to corrode the glass?"

Chen Mo opened his eyes and looked toward an exhaust vent in the northwest corner of the ceiling.

That was the noisiest one.

Because its bearing was slightly skewed, the blades lightly grazed the edge when spinning at high speed.

That frequency... was the only flaw in this entire sturdy fortress.

"Old Ghost, give me that bottle of medical ether from your car."

"Ether?" Old Ghost pulled a brown glass bottle from his personal first-aid kit. "This stuff only works as an anesthetic; it can't explode!"

"What about adding this?"

Ninth Master suddenly pulled a small iron box from his pocket.

He opened it.

Inside lay two cigars.

"Cohiba from Cuba." Ninth Master grinned, though the lack of oxygen had turned his lips purple. "I swiped them from that bastard's office last time. I hadn't dared to smoke them yet."

Chen Mo took the ether and the cigars.

"Li Ke, calculate the wind speed."

"This is a negative pressure zone. The suction force of that exhaust vent is equivalent to a Category 12 typhoon."

Although Li Ke didn't know what Chen Mo was planning, he quickly reported the data. "Wind speed is forty meters per second!"

"That's enough."

Chen Mo poured the entire bottle of ether onto the two cigars.

A pungent smell instantly spread throughout the room.

"Light it."

Ninth Master flicked on the windproof lighter.

Whoosh!

The ether-soaked cigars instantly turned into two burning torches.

"What are you doing?" Wang Daoming, on the screen, seemed to sense something was wrong. "Trying to immolate yourself?"

Chen Mo looked at the exhaust vent.

"Don't you know, Director Wang?"

"High-concentration ether vapor, in this confined space, needs only a single spark..."

"Plus that malfunctioning fan that is generating high heat through friction..."

Chen Mo violently swung his arm.

The two burning cigars were accurately thrown into the northwest exhaust vent.

The powerful suction instantly drew the fire source inside.

One second.

Two seconds.

Boom—!!!

A violent deflagration occurred inside the exhaust duct.

The flames traveled against the airflow, instantly igniting the overheated fan motor.

The massive shockwave, unable to dissipate in the narrow pipe, had only one way out—

Bang!

The exhaust vent exploded directly.

Not only did it blow open the vent, but a large section of the ceiling connected to it also collapsed.

A stream of turbid but fresh air rushed in through the large hole.

"Cough, cough, cough!"

Everyone greedily took deep breaths.

"Madman..." Old Ghost cursed while coughing. "Playing with the principle of dust explosion inside a sealed cabin... You're a damn lunatic..."

"The path is clear."

Chen Mo pointed at the large hole still spewing black smoke.

The hole led to the ventilation shaft upstairs; climbing up would take them back to the surface.

"Chen Mo!!!"

Wang Daoming on the screen let out an angry roar, his perfect electronic face distorting into chaotic color blocks.

"You ruined my exhaust system! You ruined my masterpiece!"

"I'm going to kill you! I'm going to tear your eardrums apart!"

"Save it."

Chen Mo walked up to the massive screen.

He pulled a coin from his pocket.

It was the coin he had taken from "Zero" earlier, stamped with the Prometheus emblem.

"Didn't you want to know where I am?"

Chen Mo pressed the coin against the screen.

"I'm listening."

"No matter which server you hide in, no matter how many shells you switch through."

"Even if you turn into electric current, turn into data."

"As long as you have a heartbeat..."

Chen Mo's fingers suddenly exerted force, actually bending and deforming the coin and embedding it deeply into the screen surface.

Sizzle!

The screen instantly went black.

Wang Daoming's roar came to an abrupt halt.

"Let's go."

Chen Mo turned, scooped up the still trembling Golden Retriever, and tossed it to Ninth Master.

"Go find his real lair."

Li Ke glanced at the darkened screen, then at the large hole above their heads that was still shedding dust.

"Brother Mo, I have a question."

"Speak."

"When that substitute exploded just now, it knocked down the wine cabinet over there."

Li Ke pointed to the liquid flowing across the floor in the corner.

"Is that... the smell of gasoline?"

Chen Mo spun his head around.

That wasn't wine.

The broken bottles contained only pale yellow liquid.

That was high-purity aviation fuel.

This office was a gigantic Molotov cocktail from the start.

"Run!!!"

This time, even Old Ghost yelled until his voice cracked.

Just as the four people scrambled into the ventilation duct Li Ke monkeys.

Behind them came a massive explosion loud enough to shatter the entire cemetery.

A brilliant mushroom cloud rose from beneath Phoenix Mountain.

The air blast hit their backsides Li Ke a giant, invisible hand.

"Pfft—"

Ninth Master was the first to be ejected from the exhaust shaft opening hidden among the weeds, Li Ke a pulled wine cork, tumbling onto the dewy grass man and dog alike.

Next was Li Ke, clutching his broken laptop tightly.

Then came Old Ghost.

Finally, Chen Mo emerged.

Rumble—!!!

The ground shook violently.

A pillar of fire, over ten meters high, erupted from the exhaust shaft opening, instantly illuminating the dark night sky as bright as day.

That was the masterpiece created by the mixture of aviation fuel and high-explosive dust.

The massive heat wave instantly scorched the surrounding weeds, and the air was filled with the smell of roasting meat and sulfur.

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