366: Chapter 366 The Night Before Departure

At three in the morning, only a few low-intensity spotlights embedded in the corners of the Genting Sky Palace remained lit.

404 was dozing off in front of the terminal, saliva dripping down the edge of the keyboard.

Li Ke leaned against the nearby sofa, cradling a laptop where unfinished code still flickered on the screen.

Jiang Hong and Nightingale took turns guarding the entrance, swapping positions every half hour with seamless coordination.

The Banker had been placed in a VIP lounge at the innermost part of the club. The door was fitted with an electronic lock Li Ke had temporarily modified; without Chen Mo's fingerprint authorization, it couldn't be opened from the inside.

Su Qingxue sat on a high stool behind the bar, holding a cup of cold coffee. Her gaze followed the silhouette by the window that hadn't moved for two hours.

Chen Mo faced the floor-to-ceiling window, his right hand in his pants pocket and his left arm hanging at his side.

Every few seconds, a faint ripple of light would pulse across the surface of the liquid metal, synchronized with his heartbeat.

Su Qingxue set down the coffee cup. The bottom clinked sharply against the marble countertop.

Chen Mo's shoulders shifted, but he didn't turn around.

"You should get some sleep," Su Qingxue's voice carried across the empty hall, rough and raspy from staying up late.

"I can't sleep."

"How's the wound? Does it still hurt?"

"It doesn't."

Su Qingxue hopped off the high stool and walked barefoot across the soft carpet until she was right behind him.

She looked at Chen Mo's face reflected in the glass; his features were harder than they had been months ago, the line of his jaw sharp as a blade.

"You're thinking about your father."

It wasn't a question.

Chen Mo remained silent for a few seconds before pulling the brass key from his pocket and flipping it between his fingers.

"He was a policeman his whole life. Everyone thought he died in the line of duty."

The key stopped at his fingertips, the three-ring brand on the handle appearing and disappearing in the dim light.

"But his true identity was likely a core technician for Tartarus."

Su Qingxue walked up beside him, leaning sideways against the metal frame of the window, less than half an arm's length away.

"So what?"

Chen Mo tilted his head to look at her.

Su Qingxue met his gaze. Her eyes held no hesitation or scrutiny, only a nearly stubborn certainty.

"What he did doesn't matter. What he left behind for you is what matters."

She reached out, her fingertip lightly touching the key in his hand.

"This key, this arm, and the very fact that you're alive—these are all things he left for you."

"A truly bad man wouldn't run out of a sea of fire while clutching his child."

Chen Mo's fingers tightened. The teeth of the key pressed into his palm, leaving a row of shallow red marks.

He didn't speak, but his breathing slowed by half a beat.

The silence lasted for over ten seconds.

Just as Su Qingxue was about to turn and leave, Chen Mo spoke.

"When we enter Sector 07 tomorrow, you stay here."

Su Qingxue's feet froze in place.

"Say that again?"

"Your leg injury hasn't healed. In a vertical environment eighty meters underground, your mobility will be compromised. You'll stay up here to provide backup."

Su Qingxue turned around. This time, instead of leaning against the window frame, she stood directly in front of Chen Mo.

The distance between them was so close she could smell the lingering scent of gunpowder and the cold, metallic tang on him.

"Chen Mo, the last time you left me behind, you almost died on that research ship."

"I didn't die."

"You had a puncture wound in your right shoulder, two of your three broken ribs were snapped clean through, and your sin value hit zero—and you're still trying to argue that you 'didn't die'?"

Chen Mo looked down at her. From this close, the tiny scar on her forehead from a shard on the research ship was clearly visible.

"If you follow me down, I'll be distracted."

When those words left his mouth, he spoke quickly, as if afraid he would regret them.

Su Qingxue's eyelashes fluttered.

At the other end of the hall, 404 rolled over, mumbled something in his sleep, and drifted off again.

"What did you say?" Su Qingxue's voice dropped half a tone, the end of it hooking upward.

Chen Mo looked away, staring out at the distant river.

"The Mimics in Sector 07 have liquid metal abilities similar to mine. Conventional weapons have limited effect on them."

He changed the subject, his speaking speed returning to normal.

"I need Nightingale to go down with me. Her close-quarters combat skills and familiarity with Tartarus technology will be more useful underground than yours."

"Jiang Hong will stay on the surface and control the third passage—the steel mill exit. If something goes wrong underground, you two will break in from the outside."

Su Qingxue bit her lower lip. She knew this deployment was tactically flawless.

But she knew even better that Chen Mo's previous sentence hadn't been a tactical analysis.

"Fine," she finally uttered a single word.

Then she reached out her right hand and poked Chen Mo's chest where the bandages were wrapped, with moderate force.

"But you'd better come back alive."

Her fingertip lingered for two seconds, feeling the heartbeat beneath the fabric, before she withdrew her hand and turned toward the bar.

Chen Mo watched her back, his right hand clutching the key as his knuckles slowly relaxed.

"404," he suddenly called out.

404 bolted upright from the terminal, frantically wiping the corners of his mouth.

"Huh? Brother Mo? I wasn't sleeping! I'm monitoring!"

"You're coming down with me tomorrow."

404's hand froze in mid-air, the saliva stains on his mouth not yet wiped clean.

"Me? Down? Down into that eighty-meter underground tomb?"

"The core of Sector 07 is a decommissioned nuclear facility control center. The electronic equipment and data storage units inside are your specialty."

Chen Mo walked to the sofa and picked up a clean shirt to put on.

"Furthermore, while the Mimics have liquid metal abilities, they are based on technology from over twenty years ago. They have a fatal flaw."

404 swallowed hard, his hands wringing together.

"What flaw?"

"They need an external electromagnetic field to maintain the metal's activity."

Li Ke had woken up at some point. He pushed up his glasses and sat up on the sofa, the code on his screen still flashing.

"If I'm not mistaken, there should be an independently operating electromagnetic generator in Sector 07. That's what's keeping those Mimics 'alive'."

He looked at Chen Mo.

"Boss, you want 404 to shut down that device."

Chen Mo nodded.

"Shut down the electromagnetic field, and the liquid metal on the Mimics will lose its activity, turning into ordinary alloy fragments."

"Killing the signal is equivalent to killing all the ghosts."

404's expression flickered between fear and excitement, eventually being overtaken by a certain curiosity unique to tech geeks.

"Alright, Brother Mo, I'll go with you." He slapped his own face hard to focus himself.

"But you have to promise that while I'm dismantling the equipment, those ghosts won't dismantle me for parts."

"They won't." Chen Mo walked to the door and tapped twice on the metal frame.

Nightingale's voice came from outside the door without any delay.

"I heard. We leave at dawn."

Chen Mo looked back at the night sky outside the window. A faint line of grayish-white was already appearing on the eastern horizon.

"No need to wait for dawn."

He hung the brass key around his neck and pushed open the door leading to the rooftop helipad.

"We're leaving now."

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