356: Chapter 356 The Writer and the New Beginning

The light from the fire gradually receded overhead.

Chen Mo looked at Su Qingxue's cheeks, which had turned purple from holding her breath. He supported the back of her neck with his right hand and sprinted upward with her.

The moment they broke the surface of the water.

Cold wind mixed with the scorched stench of burning poured into their lungs.

Chen Mo turned his head and spat out a mouthful of river water mixed with streaks of blood.

He paddled with one arm, dragging Su Qingxue toward the riverbank covered in man-high reeds.

His boots stepped into the slippery silt.

Chen Mo pushed Su Qingxue onto the shore.

Su Qingxue lay face up in the mud, her chest heaving violently as she greedily gasped for oxygen.

Her fingers still gripped the handle of that assault rifle, with murky river water dripping from the barrel.

Chen Mo knelt on one knee beside her, wiping the water stains from his face with his right hand.

His left shoulder was empty; the soaked bandages had come loose, revealing charred neural interface ports.

Fifty meters ahead, the water churned.

Jiang Hong dragged the dog-tired 404 onto the beach.

Nightingale stepped out from the shadow of a bridge pier further away, holding a dripping military spike in her hand.

"Equipment damage rate is seventy percent." Jiang Hong turned the thor sniper rifle upside down, pouring water out of the barrel.

She tore off the waterproof magazine pouch from her tactical vest. "All communicators are scrapped. We're completely disconnected from the outside world."

Chen Mo stood up.

Water droplets dripped down his well-defined jawline, splashing onto his mud-covered military boots.

"Only the blind need to contact the outside world." Chen Mo glanced toward the shipyard in the distance, which was being swallowed by fire.

"The Emperor's Scavenger will soon be searching along the river surface."

Nightingale sheathed the military spike back into the scabbard on the outside of her thigh.

Her gaze lingered on Chen Mo's shoulder where he had lost his left arm.

"Going to Pier 7? On what grounds? Based on the fact that you can't even hold a gun steady right now?"

Nightingale's tone held the cruelty of reality. "The Imperial Guards in exoskeleton armor could turn us into sieves in a single encounter."

Chen Mo ignored Nightingale.

He turned and walked toward the wreckage of an abandoned sand-dredging boat by the riverbank.

The rusted iron plates blocked the river wind.

He leaned against the iron plate, closed his eyes, and sank his consciousness into the system panel.

[sin value Balance: 357,000 points.]

[Missing limb detected in host. Tactical Mall has unlocked the high-grade prosthetic exchange channel.]

Chen Mo's consciousness slid quickly across the virtual light screen.

It stopped on a grayish-black product icon.

[Asura-grade Liquid Metal Prosthetic (Left Arm): Costs 200,000 sin value points. Traits: Nano-neuron interface, adaptive deformation, built-in high-voltage surge module.]

"Exchange," Chen Mo commanded in his mind.

The numbers on the panel instantly evaporated by 200,000.

A stream of black particles, undetectable to ordinary people, seeped out from the void and attached itself to the stump of Chen Mo's left shoulder.

It felt like countless tiny scalpels cutting through necrotic flesh, forcibly suturing metal threads to his own ganglia.

Chen Mo gritted his teeth, the muscles on both sides of his jaw bulging high.

Cold sweat from his forehead mixed with river water and flowed into his eyes.

He never let out even a muffled groan.

Five minutes later.

The black liquid metal extended downward from his shoulder, reshaping clear muscle textures, bones, and joints, finally settling into a black arm with a cold, hard metallic texture.

Its surface shimmered with a matte, eerie hue.

Chen Mo tried clenching his left fist.

The five metal fingers closed in sequence, producing a tooth-aching sound of mechanical friction.

Its power was more than an order of magnitude stronger than that crude civilian mechanical arm from before.

Footsteps approached.

Su Qingxue rounded the wreckage of the sand-dredger, carrying a spare first-aid kit she had scavenged from 404's waterproof bag.

Her pace halted when she saw Chen Mo's brand-new black left arm.

The river wind blew through the reed marsh, making a rustling sound.

"Where did you get this from?" Su Qingxue's gaze shifted back and forth between Chen Mo's face and the mechanical arm.

Her fingers tightened around the plastic handle of the first-aid kit.

"Smuggled goods from the bottom of a shipwreck," Chen Mo casually made up an excuse.

He raised his left arm and spread his five fingers. "It just happened to be the right size."

Su Qingxue didn't press further.

She walked up to Chen Mo and placed the first-aid kit on the rusted iron plate.

Opening the box, she took out a waterproof shot of adrenaline.

"Turn around." She held the syringe.

Chen Mo turned around, revealing a back covered in bruises and small scratches.

Su Qingxue's thumb pressed against a muscle to the right of Chen Mo's spine, searching for the injection point.

The warmth of her fingertip against his cold skin transmitted an indescribable throb.

The needle pierced in.

The liquid medicine was pushed into the muscle.

Chen Mo closed his eyes, feeling the effects of the drug spread through his blood, driving away the hypothermia brought by the river water.

"After this shot, your body will be overdrawn to its limit."

Su Qingxue pulled out the needle and threw the discarded syringe into the mud.

She walked back to face Chen Mo. "When we get to the pier, don't charge ahead alone again."

Chen Mo looked into her eyes.

In those eyes that were usually calm and restrained, there was now a hidden tension that even she herself hadn't noticed.

He raised his right hand, curled his index finger, and used the back of it to gently rub off a smudge of black mud on Su Qingxue's cheek.

"As long as I don't die, they will be the ones who do."

Chen Mo withdrew his hand and pulled the water-logged tactical pistol from his thigh holster.

He removed the magazine with one hand and pulled back the slide to eject the dud round from the chamber.

"Let's go. Time to take down the Emperor's server."

Half an hour later.

A stolen, dilapidated pickup truck was driving along the riverside road leading to Jiangcheng's Pier 7.

The night rain began to fall at this time, and the windshield wipers scraped across the glass with a harsh noise.

404 held the steering wheel with both hands, eyes fixed on the muddy road ahead.

Chen Mo sat in the passenger seat.

His black mechanical left arm rested on the edge of the car window, rain hitting the metal casing and splashing.

In the back seat, Jiang Hong was wiping the sniper rifle's scope.

Su Qingxue loaded the remaining magazines with bullets one by one.

Nightingale leaned against the car door, resting with her eyes closed.

"Three kilometers from the target." 404 stepped on the brakes and parked the pickup truck behind an abandoned toll station.

Chen Mo pushed open the car door.

His leather boots stepped into a puddle.

The lights of Pier 7 appeared blurry through the curtain of rain.

Massive shipping containers were lined up along the riverbank like a steel jungle.

An oceanographic research vessel painted in black and white was moored by the innermost pier.

That was the "eye of the deep sea."

Chen Mo closed his eyes and activated the advanced system function.

[Heartbeat Eavesdropping activated. Scanning area within a one-kilometer radius.]

Ten thousand sin value points were deducted.

A jumble of electronic sounds and heavy human breathing intertwined and flooded into Chen Mo's brain.

He quickly filtered out the useless information.

He locked onto three hidden outposts located in the container area.

"Twelve o'clock direction, on top of the red container, two people. Equipped with thermal imagers."

"Three o'clock direction, crane control room, one sniper."

"Nine o'clock direction, passage entrance, four patrol soldiers. Crossing every two minutes."

Chen Mo called out the precise positions.

The moment he opened his eyes, his gaze was like an unsheathed blade, cutting through the curtain of rain before him.

Nightingale drew her twin blades, her fingertips sliding along the edges.

"How do you know so clearly?"

"Because I can smell that rotten electronic scent on them."

Chen Mo drew his tactical dagger with a reverse grip, his black mechanical left arm shimmering with cold killing intent in the rain.

"Jiang Hong, take out the one on the crane. Everyone else, follow me in."

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