277: Puppet Endgame

Chapter 277: The Puppet's End. "Sounds good."

Chen Mo smiled.

He took a slow step forward. "But I have a bit of a problem."

"What?"

"I'm a bit of a neat freak."

The smile vanished from Chen Mo's face instantly. "I don't take trash!"

Bang!

The floor beneath his feet suddenly shattered.

Like a cannonball fired from its barrel, Chen Mo instantly lunged in front of Wang Daoming.

No nonsense.

The Butterfly Knife drew a silver full moon in the air, heading straight for Wang Daoming's throat.

Squelch.

The blade sank into flesh.

But the sensation was wrong.

It was like cutting into old tree bark; the blade got stuck inside, unable to sever the reinforced cervical vertebrae at all.

"Too slow."

Wang Daoming tilted his head, letting the knife remain lodged in his neck.

He raised his knee and slammed it hard into Chen Mo's lower abdomen.

Thump!

Chen Mo felt as if he'd been hit by a truck; he went flying backward, overturning a workbench, and was showered with various parts.

"Cough, cough, cough..."

Chen Mo spat out a mouthful of bile, his stomach churning.

This monster's strength was even greater than the previous test subjects.

"Your physical functions have dropped by 40%."

Wang Daoming stepped over the debris, approaching step by step. "Your mechanical arm is junk, you have internal bleeding, and two broken ribs. Chen Mo, what do you have left to fight me with?"

He leaned down, grabbed Chen Mo by the throat, and lifted him up.

"Hand over the crystal chip."

Suffocation instantly flooded his brain.

Chen Mo's feet dangled in the air, kicking wildly.

"Let him go!"

Ruan Qiushui screamed, controlling several scattered screwdrivers to fly like throwing knives toward Wang Daoming's back.

Cling, cling, cling.

The screwdrivers hit the raincoat and were immediately deflected.

This monster had alloy armor under its skin.

"Annoying ghost."

Wang Daoming didn't even look, casually waving his other hand.

Zzzzt—

A high-voltage arc of electricity shot from his palm, accurately striking Ruan Qiushui's spiritual body.

"Ah!"

Ruan Qiushui screamed and dissipated, forced back into Chen Mo's shadow.

"Now it's quiet."

Wang Daoming tightened his grip. "Last chance. The crystal chip, or your life?"

Chen Mo's face turned a deep, purplish red.

But he was still smiling.

He struggled to raise his useless left arm and pointed at Wang Daoming's chest.

"Have you... ever heard... your own heartbeat?"

"What?" Wang Daoming was taken aback.

"Your power furnace..."

Chen Mo squeezed the words through his teeth, "It's too noisy... it's giving me... a headache!"

Click.

Chen Mo's seemingly junked mechanical left hand suddenly snapped open.

A dark, hollow muzzle was revealed in the palm.

That was the final insurance he had kept for himself.

It was also the 'surprise' that old madman Li Chunfeng had installed for him—a miniature pulse shockwave bomb.

There was only one shot.

The range was only half a meter.

But the power was enough to shatter any precision electronic components.

"Go to hell."

Boom!

A blinding blue light exploded between the two.

A massive shockwave instantly swept through the entire room.

All the window glass shattered, and furniture was tossed aside.

Wang Daoming didn't even have time to scream before the close-range pulse wave sent him flying, smashing through the adjacent wall and burying him in a pile of bricks.

Chen Mo was also pushed backward by the recoil, sliding until his back hit a load-bearing pillar.

"Cough... cough, cough..."

He felt like his mechanical heart was about to stop.

Static filled his retinas, and the ringing in his ears was sharp and unbearable.

But he had won.

That monster's 'heartbeat' had vanished.

Chen Mo struggled to get up and stumbled toward the large hole in the wall.

In the pile of bricks, Wang Daoming's body was emitting black smoke.

That prosthetic eye was still flickering, but the body could no longer move at all.

The pulse had fried his control center.

"You... you... madman..."

A fragmented synthetic voice came from the monster's throat. "For a... dead person... is it worth it?"

Chen Mo picked up a steel pipe from the floor.

He walked over to the monster and looked down at it.

"She's not a dead person."

Chen Mo raised the steel pipe. "She's my sister."

Bang!

The steel pipe fell.

The monster's head shattered like a watermelon.

The sound stopped abruptly.

Chen Mo threw away the pipe and leaned against the broken wall, gasping for air.

Is it over?

No.

Buzz, buzz, buzz—

Just then, the sound of a phone vibrating suddenly came from the monster's mangled chest cavity.

In the deathly silent ruins, it sounded exceptionally jarring.

Chen Mo frowned.

He crouched down, enduring the nausea, and fished a black communicator out of the pile of mangled flesh and cables.

The communicator had no screen.

Only a connect button was flashing.

Chen Mo hesitated for a moment, then pressed connect.

"It seems my second puppet has also failed."

Coming from the earpiece was still that familiar old man's voice.

Calm and elegant, as if only an ant had died.

"Officer Chen, your destructive power truly surprises me."

Chen Mo gripped the communicator tightly, his knuckles turning white. "Where are you?"

"I'm watching you."

The old man laughed. "Look up."

Chen Mo snapped his head up and looked out the window.

In the rainy night.

On the top floor of the abandoned building opposite, a red light flickered.

Like a crimson eye watching everything here from the darkness.

"The game has only just begun, Chen Mo."

The voice continued, "You've got the crystal chip, but that's only the first key. Do you know what Nian Nian meant by that last sentence in the video?"

Chen Mo's heart suddenly tightened.

That sentence: 'I don't want to be human anymore.'

"She wasn't in despair."

The old man's voice took on a hint of fanaticism. "She was evolving. And you hold the secret to her evolution in your hands."

"Now, the entire Special Investigation Bureau and those underground rats will follow the scent to find you."

"Run, Chen Mo."

"Run for your life, with your broken heart and your sister's 'soul'."

"If you get caught..."

"You'll be begging me to let you die."

Beep—beep—beep—

The call disconnected.

Chen Mo crushed the communicator in his hand.

He looked toward the opposite rooftop; the red dot had vanished.

Piercing sirens echoed from the distance.

More numerous and more urgent than before.

This time it wasn't just the police, but also that low, thunderous engine roar.

It was the heavy armored vehicles of the Special Investigation Bureau.

That old fox Qin Wen certainly hadn't gone far.

"Chen Mo..."

Ruan Qiushui peeked out weakly. "What do we do? We can't stay here."

Chen Mo glanced at the hovel he'd lived in for three years.

He glanced at the pile of valuable scrap metal on the floor.

"Burn it."

He took a barrel of spare industrial alcohol from the cabinet and splashed it all over the room.

Then, he pulled a black backpack from under the bed.

Inside were several tubes of high-concentration energy fluid, two spare pistols, and a stack of non-sequential old bills.

This was the 'getaway bag' he had prepared long ago.

"Where to?" Ruan Qiushui asked.

Chen Mo flicked his lighter and tossed it into the alcohol.

Whoosh!

Flames instantly engulfed the entire room, as well as the monster's corpse.

The firelight reflected on Chen Mo's face, casting a very long shadow.

He turned, shouldered his bag, and strode into the darkness of the hallway.

"To Sin City."

Chen Mo's voice was as cold as if it came from hell. "If they want to play, then we'll play in the most chaotic place."

"I'm going to peel that old geezer's skin..."

"...off piece by piece!"

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