30: Is this a madman's game only just beginning?

Chen Mo's heart sank abruptly.

The "Emperor's" game... it had already started five years ago.

He wasn't looking for fifteen missing people.

He was breaking into a slaughterhouse that a devil had been running for five years!

"They... they are still alive..."

Zhang Haifeng watched the living people, displayed like specimens and covered in tubes, tears streaming down his face.

He dropped to his knees with a thud, smashing his fists against the ground and letting out a trapped beast's sob.

"I failed you! I failed you all!"

Five years of self-reproach and guilt burst forth like a broken dam at this moment.

Just then!

Buzz—Wail—!

A sudden, ear-piercing alarm tore through the deathly silence of the underground space without warning!

All the white lights in the entire base instantly turned an eerie blood-red!

A cold, emotionless electronic synthesized voice echoed in everyone's ears.

[Warning! Unauthorized intrusion detected!]

[The "Purification Protocol" has been activated.]

[The base will undergo high-temperature incineration in ten minutes.]

[Repeat, the Purification Protocol has been activated...]

Boom!

Everyone's minds felt as if they had been hit by a real bomb!

"A trap! This is a trap!" A young Linhai police officer screamed in despair and turned to run out.

"Nobody move, damn it!"

Li Hu roared, abruptly raising the submachine gun in his hand, the dark muzzle pointed at the agitated crowd.

Zhang Haifeng also climbed to his feet, the previous despondency gone from his face, replaced only by the madness of impending doom.

"Quick! Get the people! Hurry and take the people out!"

He charged toward the operating tables like a mad bull.

"Don't touch them!"

Chen Mo's voice rang out, not loud, but like a bucket of ice water, extinguishing everyone's panic.

Everyone's gaze subconsciously focused on the young man.

They saw him standing in the blood-red light; although his face was pale, his eyes were terrifyingly calm.

"Li Ke!"

"Here!" Li Ke's hands were a blur on the keyboard, sweat soaking his glasses.

"Five minutes! I need you to copy all the data from this main control computer for me!"

"Five minutes? Team Leader Chen! There isn't enough time! The data here is too massive!"

"Then make it three minutes!" Chen Mo's voice allowed no argument.

"Su Qingxue, Li Hu!"

"Present!"

"The two of you, take people and guard the tunnel entrance! I need absolute security!"

"Yes!"

The two immediately led their people to set up a defensive line at the cut-open rear of the bus.

Finally, Chen Mo's gaze fell upon the distraught Zhang Haifeng.

"Captain Zhang."

"...Yes." Zhang Haifeng's voice was hoarse.

"Take your men, disconnect the life support systems of those fifteen 'patients', and prepare for transfer."

"But..."

"There are no 'buts'!"

Chen Mo's gaze was like two scalpels scraping across Zhang Haifeng's face.

"You already disappointed them once five years ago.

"Now, are you going to watch them be burned alive here?!"

Zhang Haifeng's body trembled violently!

He grit his teeth fiercely, his eyes bloodshot.

"Did you all hear that, damn it! Move out!"

The entire underground base instantly began running at high speed, like an activated precision instrument.

Chen Mo stood in the center, unmoving.

He closed his eyes, activating the [Heartbeat Positioning] system at full power!

[Scanning radius of 1000 meters...]

[No other life signs detected...]

Good.

There was no ambush here.

This was purely a death trap, designed to destroy evidence and silence witnesses.

"Team Leader Chen! It's not working! Their system has a firewall! I need time to crack it!"

Li Ke's voice was tearful.

A hidden projector on the wall lit up, displaying a blood-red countdown.

08:17.

08:16.

The footsteps of death echoed clearly in everyone's ears.

"Ignore the firewall."

Chen Mo walked over to Li Ke, his voice calm.

"Go for a physical connection, pull out the hard drive for me!"

Li Ke froze.

Then, his eyes suddenly lit up!

That's right!

Who cares about software encryption! I'll just pull the rug out from under him!

He pulled a screwdriver from his toolkit and quickly dismantled the mainframe casing.

Time passed, second by second.

05:00.

"Team Leader Chen! All patient life support systems are disconnected! Ready for transfer!" Zhang Haifeng reported, roaring.

"Transfer them!"

03:00.

"Reporting! Tunnel entrance secured! No enemies detected!" Su Qingxue's voice came through.

01:00.

"Team Leader Chen! I have the hard drive!" Li Ke shouted excitedly, holding up a scorching hot hard drive.

"Withdraw!"

At Chen Mo's command, everyone surged toward the hole at the rear of the bus like a tide.

Just as Chen Mo, the last person, was about to step out of the tunnel.

He abruptly stopped.

He turned back and took one last look at this hell that was about to be consumed by flames.

His gaze fell upon the main control computer, whose hard drive had already been removed.

On the screen, the countdown had entered the final ten seconds.

[10... 9... 8...]

A cold curve appeared at the corner of Chen Mo's mouth.

He walked up to the computer and inserted a miniature USB drive.

[3... 2... 1...]

BOOM—!!!

A blast of heat, enough to melt steel, surged violently from the depths of the tunnel!

The entire mine groaned under the strain!

Boulders and dirt rained down from above like a storm!

"Hurry up!"

Li Hu yanked Chen Mo out, and everyone scrambled out of the disguised mine entrance!

The moment they rushed out.

Behind them, the entire mountainside let out a muffled roar!

The newly dug opening was completely buried by the violent explosion and cave-in!

...On the ground, the area was a mess.

Everyone was covered in dirt, gasping for air, their faces filled with the relief of having survived a disaster.

Zhang Haifeng looked at the completely sealed entrance, his legs gave way, and he slumped onto the ground.

He knew.

If it weren't for this young man.

He, along with the brothers under his command, would now be reduced to charcoal alongside those fifteen living dead.

He slowly stood up and walked over to Chen Mo.

Without any hesitation.

With a thud, he dropped to one knee.

"Team Leader Chen!"

His voice was hoarse, yet filled with the raw awe and conviction of a soldier!

"Starting today, my life, Zhang Haifeng's life, is yours!"

"My Linhai City Criminal Investigation Detachment, all three hundred brothers, will follow your command!"

The Linhai police officers behind him also uniformly lowered their proud heads toward that slender figure.

Chen Mo did not help him up.

He simply looked at the distant horizon, where the sky was already turning a pale white.

"The game is not over yet."

He said softly... Meanwhile.

A thousand miles away, on an unknown island.

In a study decorated like a medieval palace.

A man wearing a black silk robe, whose face was so handsome he looked like a demon, was holding a glass of red wine and watching the massive screen in front of him.

The screen displayed the chaotic scene at the Heifeng Mountain mining area in Linhai City.

A subordinate wearing a silver mask was kneeling on one knee, trembling.

"Master, the Linhai base... has been destroyed as planned."

"It's just... it's just that the test subjects and the data hard drive were... were taken away by them."

"Oh?"

The man swirled the red wine in his glass, showing no surprise, but rather a playful smile.

"As expected."

"If he didn't even have this much capability, he wouldn't be worthy... to be my opponent."

Just then.

A computer in the study suddenly let out an ear-piercing alarm!

A blood-red warning window popped up on the screen.

[Warning! Your internal network has been infiltrated by a virus!]

The smile on the man's face froze for the first time.

On the screen, an arrogant pixelated image, composed of countless skulls, slowly appeared.

Below the image was a line of blood-red, constantly flashing large characters.

[I found you.]

Crack.

The stemmed glass in the man's hand was crushed by him!

The bright red wine, mixed with glass shards and blood, dripped from between his fingers.

"Judge..."

He slowly uttered this name that he both loved and hated.

On that handsome, demonic face, the previous composure was completely gone.

Only the extreme excitement and... madness of meeting a worthy opponent remained!

...On the way back to the Linhai City Municipal Bureau.

Li Ke held the scorching hot hard drive as if it were his own son.

His fingers danced across another encrypted laptop, muttering to himself.

"Oh my god... oh my god..."

"What is it?" Su Qingxue frowned.

Li Ke suddenly looked up, his face as pale as paper.

His eyes behind his glasses were filled with inexpressible horror.

"This... this isn't just ordinary human experimentation!"

He turned the screen toward the others.

On it was an experimental report named [Final Phase].

The title of the report contained only one line of text.

Yet it dropped the temperature of the entire vehicle to freezing point.

[Urban Purification Project — Phase Two: Jiangcheng]

[Target List: Under screening...]

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