353: Chapter 353 The Mist at the Bottom of the River

The dark garage was filled with the pungent smell of ozone mixed with scorched flesh.

Chen Mo collapsed onto the concrete floor.

The muscle spasms caused by the high-voltage electricity left his limbs immobile.

The system interface on his retina flickered with a red warning light.

[host's vital signs are extremely weak.]

[Sin Points settlement in progress. Killed mutated experimental subject (Zhou Jianguo). Reward: 300,000 Sin Points.]

[Current Balance: 367,000 points.]

[System upgrade threshold reached. Core function repair and upgrade program initiated...]

Only a sharp ringing remained in Chen Mo's ears.

Footsteps approached through the darkness.

A flashlight beam hit Zhou Jianguo's corpse before moving to Chen Mo's blood-stained face.

Su Qingxue knelt beside Chen Mo.

She dropped the rifle in her hand and pressed both hands against Chen Mo's chest, feeling his faint heartbeat.

"Chen Mo," she called his name.

Her fingers touched his scalding skin, feeling an alarming heat that far exceeded normal body temperature.

Chen Mo opened his eyes.

His vision gradually focused through a blur of double images.

"Won't die," Chen Mo forced out the two words.

Using the strength from Su Qingxue's arm, he struggled to sit up from the ground.

He looked at the short blade embedded in the back of Zhou Jianguo's neck.

The monster had completely lost all signs of life.

The gunfire outside the corridor had weakened.

The Purifier squad, having lost their commander, began to shrink their formation under Jiang Hong's sniper suppression.

"They're retreating," Jiang Hong said, stepping out from the shadows with her gun in hand.

She looked at Zhou Jianguo on the ground, a muscle in the corner of her eye twitching.

"SWAT reinforcements have arrived. I can hear the sound of helicopters."

Chen Mo used the wall for support to stand up straight.

The soreness brought by the high-frequency vibrations was being slowly repaired by a warm current from the system upgrade.

"Take the tunnel." Chen Mo looked toward the air-raid shelter entrance deep within the power distribution room, its camouflage netting now pulled aside.

Nightingale, dragging the half-dead Craftsman, was already standing at the edge of the entrance.

The five of them entered the narrow tunnel.

404 walked at the very front, scanning the terrain with a portable terminal.

Su Qingxue supported Chen Mo as they walked in the middle.

The air in the tunnel carried the musty smell of decades past.

Chen Mo walked very slowly.

His brain was processing the information the system had just provided.

Zhou Jianguo was dead.

But Tartarus's layout in Jiang City was far from being uprooted.

The Emperor's identity remained a mystery.

"You were being reckless just now," Su Qingxue spoke up in the darkness.

Her hand gripped Chen Mo's arm tightly.

Chen Mo could feel her fingertips trembling.

"The fatal weakness of precision instruments is overload. The neurons in his body were transformed into superconductors by the enhancement serum. High-voltage electricity was the only physical means to short-circuit him," Chen Mo stated the objective facts.

Su Qingxue stopped in her tracks.

She turned her head and looked at Chen Mo.

The faint emergency lighting in the tunnel cast shadows on their profiles.

"You used your own life to test his conductivity?" Su Qingxue's breathing was somewhat hurried.

Chen Mo met her gaze.

"If my judgment had been wrong, we all would have died. This was the optimal probability solution."

Su Qingxue didn't say anything.

She looked at Chen Mo's cold face, raised her right hand, and punched Chen Mo on the right side of his intact chest.

The force wasn't great, but it made a muffled thud in the quiet tunnel.

"Next time you calculate probabilities, include me in them." Su Qingxue withdrew her hand and took hold of Chen Mo's arm again.

They continued walking forward.

Chen Mo did not answer.

The data stream flickering on his retina gradually settled down.

Half an hour later.

The tunnel reached its end.

They pushed open the rusted iron gate.

The river breeze blew against them, carrying damp moisture.

They had arrived at the base of a pier for the cross-river bridge.

A black smuggling speedboat was moored among the reeds.

The current lapped against the concrete pier.

In the distance, Jiang City was brilliantly lit, forming a sharp contrast with the darkness here.

Chen Mo stepped onto the speedboat.

He sat down in the cabin.

404 jumped into the driver's seat and started the engine.

The motor emitted a low roar.

Nightingale tossed The Craftsman onto the deck.

She turned to look at Chen Mo.

"With Zhou Jianguo dead, a vacuum will appear in Tartarus's control over the Far East District. The Emperor will send higher-level Cleaners."

Nightingale wiped the blood off her scabbard.

"We can't stay in Jiang City anymore."

Chen Mo looked at the city's neon lights reflected on the river surface.

"Jiang City is my territory; they are the ones who should leave." Chen Mo pulled the memory card he had carefully stored from his tactical pants pocket.

The original copy that Chen Changhe had traded his life for was now in his hands, perfectly intact.

Su Qingxue sat opposite Chen Mo.

She looked at the card in Chen Mo's hand.

"Are you planning to hand this over to the Provincial Department?" Su Qingxue asked.

Chen Mo spun the memory card in his hand.

His thumb rubbed along the edge.

"Handing it to anyone could lead to a second Zhou Jianguo. The value of this thing is enough to make anyone betray their principles."

Chen Mo put the card away.

The speedboat cut through the river water, heading toward the center of the river.

Chen Mo closed his eyes.

His consciousness sank into the system.

The blue light screen after the upgrade expanded once more.

[Advanced Function: Heart Voice Eavesdropping (Initial Level) unlocked.]

[System Description: Within a physical distance of ten meters, consume 10,000 Sin Points to briefly eavesdrop on the target's intense surface thought activity.]

Chen Mo opened his eyes.

His gaze fell upon The Craftsman lying on the deck.

The Craftsman was not yet completely dead.

His faint breathing was still audible amidst the noise of the motor.

"You said before that the Emperor is not human," Chen Mo looked at The Craftsman.

"What is he?"

The Craftsman kept his eyes closed.

He did not answer.

Chen Mo issued a command in his mind.

"Activate Heart Voice Eavesdropping. Target: The Craftsman."

10,000 Sin Points were deducted.

A chaotic electronic synthesized sound flooded into Chen Mo's brain.

This did not belong to the vocal cord vibrations of a normal human.

This was the feedback from the deepest memories in The Craftsman's mind.

Images appeared in Chen Mo's mind.

A massive metal dome built on the seabed.

Countless giant server arrays flickering with red lights.

A figure sitting in a wheelchair seen from behind.

The back of the head was plugged with a dense network of neural interface cables.

That person turned their head.

The face had no skin, only exposed metal skeleton and electronic eyes.

That voice echoed through the undersea hall: "Protocol initiated. The human purge plan... needs to be accelerated."

Chen Mo cut off the eavesdropping, and the system interface dimmed.

He leaned against the side of the boat.

The river breeze blew the stray hairs on his forehead.

The Emperor was not any specific "person."

Instead, it was a digital lifeform that had uploaded its brain into a supercomputer, completely abandoning its carbon-based physical body.

The ultimate goal of Tartarus was not worldly power or money at all.

The speedboat carved a white wake on the river surface, disappearing into the vast night.

Chen Mo knew that the mist belonging to Jiang City had been blown away.

But the true storm was only just taking shape in the unseen abyss.

And he would be the only sniper of this storm.

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