24: Chapter 24 Underground Steel

The air in the underground garage was thick with concrete dust and an indescribable, fishy-sweet scent. Commander Lin Dong lay prone at the edge of the ramp leading from B2 to B3, observing the darkness below through his night vision goggles.

The world through the night vision goggles was a landscape of varying shades of green. He could clearly see the silver-grey heavy truck parked quietly in the open area thirty meters below—the base vehicle. It was nearly twice as long as a standard heavy truck, its twenty-two-meter body resembling a small train in the night vision view. The front design was highly aggressive, featuring a wedge-shaped armored cab, bulletproof glass windows, and two sensor arrays on the roof whose functions he couldn't yet identify.

But at this moment, it wasn't the vehicle that caught his attention, but the infrared human figures surrounding it.

Seventeen. No, eighteen.

Commander Lin Dong counted silently in his head. One of the silhouettes was exceptionally burly, with a body surface temperature significantly higher than the others—a typical characteristic of an Esper channeling their power. A Strength-type. He made the judgment internally, his fingers unconsciously tapping the concrete floor. This was a habit he had developed in the Reconnaissance Company; with every tap, he recorded a data point in his mind.

"Three hours and forty-seven minutes until base vehicle deployment," the system's cold voice echoed in his mind. "Current deployment progress: 32%. Threat units detected approaching. Recommendation: Clear threats before continuing deployment."

Commander Lin Dong didn't respond to the system. His gaze moved past those figures and settled on the walls further away. There were several rows of vertical, elongated objects—fire hydrants. His brain began to automatically calculate: distance forty-seven meters, seven abandoned cars in between as cover, grenade trajectory needs to clear the roof of a van, landing deviation no more than fifty centimeters.

"Captain Lin." A whispered voice came from behind; it was Li Na. She was clutching the wound on her shoulder, her face appearing unnaturally pale through the night vision goggles. "Those people... I saw them holding Old Chen and the others. There's blood on Old Chen's arm."

Commander Lin Dong didn't look back. His gaze was locked onto a thin man wearing glasses among the group. The man wasn't carrying a weapon and stood at the back of the crowd. He had been staring at the base vehicle for a while now, unlike the others who were cursing or trying to smash the doors; he was just watching.

"See the Man with Glasses?" Commander Lin Dong's voice was extremely low, transmitted to the three people behind him through his throat mic.

"I see him." The reply came from Zhang Hai, a thirty-four-year-old Sergeant and former armored corps soldier. He had only had time to throw on a bulletproof vest when Commander Lin Dong dragged him out of the dormitory. "Doesn't look like a thug, looks more like a tech guy."

"He recognizes this thing," Commander Lin Dong said. "So they won't easily destroy the base vehicle."

This was both good and bad news. The good news was that the base vehicle was temporarily safe; the bad news was that the enemy had bargaining chips—Old Chen and two other soldiers had been captured. Old Chen also happened to have Type AB blood, making him the only one who could provide a transfusion for Li Na.

"Captain Lin, let's move." Another voice spoke—Zhao Liang, a young man in his early twenties. His face still held the naivety of a recent college graduate, but the hand holding his gun was steady. "Old Chen and the others can't wait."

Commander Lin Dong still didn't speak. He was waiting.

Those from the Reconnaissance Company understood the weight of the word "waiting" better than anyone. Waiting for the enemy to show a weakness, waiting for the light to shift, waiting for the wind to change. Now, he was waiting for the wind—the air circulation in the underground garage followed a pattern. There were several broken windows on the B2 level, and the night breeze would blow in from there, traveling down the ramp. He needed to determine the wind direction to calculate the diffusion of smoke after the grenades exploded.

Three minutes. Five minutes.

The wind direction finally shifted. A faint chill brushed his back, and Commander Lin Dong's nostrils flared slightly as he caught the scent of rotting zombies from the streets outside.

"Wind direction Northwest, wind speed zero point five meters per second," he recited internally before pressing his throat mic. "Zhang Hai, your firing position is behind that SUV on the right; you're responsible for suppressing the left wing. Zhao Liang, you flank with me from the left; use grenades to force them toward the center. Li Na—"

"I can still shoot," Li Na interrupted him, her voice carrying a trace of ruthlessness. "I can still pull the trigger with my left hand."

Commander Lin Dong was silent for a second. "You're responsible for rear security. Prevent anyone from flanking us from the depths of B3."

This was a compromise and a form of protection. Li Na's position at the top of the ramp, shielded by concrete pillars, was relatively safe, while her field of vision could cover the depth of B3.

"All units, in position." Commander Lin Dong began the countdown. "In thirty seconds, Zhao Liang throws first. Target: the right side of that silver van. Five seconds later, I'll throw the second. The target is—"

His gaze fell on the largest cluster of heat in the group. That Strength-type Esper.

"—that big guy."

Twenty minutes ago, Commander Lin Dong had originally been prepared to lead the team out of the underground garage.

Deploying the base vehicle required six hours. Nearly two hours had passed, with progress at 32%. According to his plan, he should have cleared all threats within a two-hundred-meter radius before the progress reached 50%. They had already searched B1 and found only a few wandering zombies, which were easily dealt with. B2 was an office area and was completely empty.

The problem was B3.

B3 was the lowest level of the underground garage, originally intended as an equipment floor with a few reserved parking spaces. But when Commander Lin Dong led Li Na and Zhang Hai to the entrance from B2 to B3, he heard human voices.

It wasn't the meaningless growls of zombies, but actual human voices—cursing, laughter, and the sound of metal clanking.

Commander Lin Dong immediately signaled, and the three of them pressed against the wall to hide. He slowly peeked out, and the image that appeared in his night vision goggles made his blood pressure spike instantly.

Forty-seven people. At least twelve guns. Five of them were wearing police uniforms—no, not police, but prison guard uniforms. Convicts.

What made his heart tighten even more was that in the center of the crowd, three people in military uniforms were kneeling on the ground. Old Chen, a veteran from the cooking squad, forty-five years old, was clutching his left arm with his right hand as blood seeped through his fingers. The other two were young soldiers he had rescued from the second-floor dormitory; one had a facial injury, with blood at the corner of his mouth.

"—I'll say it one more time. What's inside that big truck?" The speaker was a bald man, at least one hundred and eighty-five centimeters tall. Veins bulged on his exposed arms, and even from twenty meters away, Commander Lin Dong could see the abnormally high thermal radiation from the man's body. A Strength-type Esper.

Old Chen didn't speak.

The bald man kicked Old Chen's shoulder. Old Chen groaned and rolled onto his side, but he gritted his teeth and didn't cry out.

"Not talking, huh?" The bald man crouched down and grabbed Old Chen's hair. "I'm incredibly strong now; I could crush your head by accident. Tell me, where did that truck come from? Is it some secret military weapon?"

Old Chen coughed twice and spat out a mouthful of blood. "If you... crush me, you'll know even less."

The bald man laughed in anger, but just as he was about to strike again, a voice came from the back of the crowd. "Boss, don't kill him yet."

Commander Lin Dong's gaze immediately locked onto the speaker. It was the Man with Glasses, thin, wearing a dirty white shirt, and holding a tablet—the tablet actually still had power. The man walked over to the base vehicle and tapped the vehicle's armor with his tablet, producing a dull thud.

"This isn't an ordinary military vehicle," the Man with Glasses said, his voice tinged with a certain fanaticism. "Look at this welding craftsmanship, this armor thickness, and these sensors—this is something I've never seen in any public data."

"So?" the bald man asked impatiently.

"So this thing is worth a fortune." The Man with Glasses turned around. "Whether we sell it to other survivors or dismantle it for research, it's worth a fortune. But if you kill those soldiers and the vehicle happens to have a self-destruct system, we'll get nothing."

The bald man stared at the Man with Glasses for a few seconds, then released Old Chen's hair and stood up. "Fine, we'll do it your way. Tie them up and wait until we can open this truck."

Commander Lin Dong withdrew his gaze and slowly moved back behind cover. His brain was working at high speed.

Forty-seven people, twelve guns, one Strength-type Esper, and one Man with Glasses who seemed to be a technician. On his side, four people, five guns—Li Na's gun was still usable—over three hundred rounds of ammunition, and four grenades.

A direct confrontation offered little chance of success. Even if they won, it would surely be a pyrrhic victory. Li Na's injury couldn't wait, and the base vehicle's deployment time couldn't wait either.

He had to win by outsmarting them.

He signaled, and the three of them silently retreated back to B2.

Countdown: five seconds.

Commander Lin Dong gripped the grenade with his right hand and held down the safety pin with his left. His gaze pierced through the darkness, precisely locking onto the bald Esper's position. The man was currently standing to the right of the base vehicle, his back to the ramp, cursing at several subordinates for being too slow at prying open the vehicle doors.

He had summarized the data on the weaknesses of a Strength-type Esper when he dealt with that Speed-type Mutant in Chapter 18—they required a cooldown period after a burst. For a Speed-type, it was 2.3 seconds; for a Strength-type, it would only be longer, at least three to four seconds. During this time, aside from being a bit stronger, they were no different from ordinary people.

The problem was how to force him to burst and how to survive those few seconds.

Three seconds.

Zhao Liang's grenade left his hand first, tracing a low, flat arc and landing precisely three meters to the right of that silver van. Seven or eight people happened to be gathered there, surrounding a pile of supplies scavenged from elsewhere.

Boom!

[part:gemini-3.1-flash-lite]

The flash of the explosion lit up the entire B3 level.

In the glare, Commander Lin Dong clearly saw the bodies of those few men thrown back by the shockwave, their screams instantly drowning out all other sounds.

"Enemy attack!" someone shouted.

The crowd fell into instant chaos.

Some dove to the ground, some hid behind pillars, and others fired wildly, bullets thudding into the concrete.

But the bald man didn't hide.

He let out a roar, turned to face the ramp, his eyes bloodshot, and the muscles on his body expanded at a speed visible to the naked eye.

This was the effect he wanted.

The second grenade was released.

Commander Lin Dong's throwing style was completely different from Zhao Liang's—it wasn't a high arc, but a near-horizontal direct shot; the grenade flew like a shell leaving a cannon, heading straight for the bald man's face.

The bald man roared and threw a punch, actually slamming his fist into the grenade!

Boom!

The shockwave knocked the bald man back three steps, his entire right arm dripping with blood, yet it hadn't broken.

Commander Lin Dong's pupils constricted slightly—the physical durability of a Strength-type Esper was even higher than he had estimated.

According to the panel data, an ordinary person's arm would suffer a compound fracture from such a hit.

But the bald man had paid a price, too.

His right arm was temporarily useless, and—one second, two seconds, three seconds.

Commander Lin Dong counted silently in his heart.

The bald man's muscles rapidly shrank back to their normal state after the explosion, a sign that his Supernatural Ability burst had ended.

Now he had a window of four, maybe five seconds.

"Zhang Hai, suppress them!" Commander Lin Dong growled into his throat mic, while simultaneously darting out from behind cover, speeding along the route he had already calculated.

Rat-tat-tat-tat—Zhang Hai opened fire.

His marksmanship was precise, his bursts of fire pinning down the few prisoners on the left flank who wanted to lift their heads, making them afraid to show themselves.

Zhao Liang also charged out from the other side, firing as he ran, drawing some of the enemy fire.

Commander Lin Dong's running path was a zigzag.

He had simulated it twenty-seven times in his mind beforehand—using seven abandoned cars as cover, exposing himself for no more than 0.8 seconds each time; the enemy's reaction time was at least 1.5 seconds, which was enough.

Three seconds.

He had already passed the position of the fourth car and was less than twenty meters from the bald man.

At this moment, the bald man was using his left hand to grab a crowbar, glaring around with bloodshot eyes, searching for a target.

Four seconds.

Commander Lin Dong suddenly changed direction, not continuing his straight charge, but lunging toward the front of an SUV on the right.

Almost at the same second, a string of bullets struck the car door where he had just been, sparks flying everywhere.

Five seconds.

The time window was about to close.

Commander Lin Dong's body sprang up from behind the front of the SUV, the Type 95 in his hands steady against his shoulder, the sights locked onto the bald man's left knee.

Bang.

The bald man screamed and fell to his knees.

A mist of blood exploded from his left knee, and his entire body lost balance, toppling forward.

But the moment he hit the ground, his right arm began to expand again—the cooldown for his Supernatural Ability had ended.

Commander Lin Dong didn't give him a chance.

He lowered the muzzle, aimed at the bald man's right shoulder blade, and fired two more bursts.

Bang! Bang!

The bald man was completely sprawled on the ground, three of his limbs disabled, with only his left hand still uselessly clawing at the floor.

"Nobody move!"

Commander Lin Dong's voice echoed in the empty garage.

He had reached the bald man, stepped on the hand that was still moving, and pressed the muzzle against the back of the bald man's head.

The entire B3 level suddenly went quiet.

The prisoners who were still resisting watched as their boss was stepped on, unsure of what to do.

Zhang Hai and Zhao Liang's muzzles were still spitting fire, and two more men fell with screams.

"I said, nobody move." Commander Lin Dong repeated, his voice not loud, but carrying something that made people afraid to disobey.

"Whoever fires again, I'll kill them first."

The bald man lay on the ground, panting heavily, and suddenly laughed: "Fine... you're a badass... but do you have any fucking idea who I am?"

Commander Lin Dong didn't answer, instead looking toward the back of the crowd.

The thin Man with Glasses was quietly retreating, trying to blend into the darkness.

"Zhao Liang, stop that Man with Glasses." Commander Lin Dong said.

Zhao Liang immediately turned his muzzle, rushed over in a few steps, and pressed his gun against the Man with Glasses's back: "Don't move."

The Man with Glasses froze, the tablet in his hand falling to the ground with a clatter.

Only then did Commander Lin Dong lower his head, looking at the bald man beneath his feet: "I don't know who you are, and I don't want to know.

I'm only asking you one thing—where are those three soldiers?"

The bald man grinned, revealing a mouthful of bloody teeth: "Behind... behind the pillars... but one of them might not make it..."

Commander Lin Dong's heart constricted sharply.

He kicked the bald man's hand away and shouted to Zhang Hai: "Go check on Old Chen!"

Zhang Hai immediately rushed over.

A few seconds later, his voice came back: "Team Leader Lin, Old Chen is still alive, but he's lost too much blood... he needs a transfusion immediately!"

Commander Lin Dong took a deep breath, forcing himself to calm down.

He scanned the surrounding prisoners—there were over thirty still alive, seven or eight of whom were wounded.

In their eyes, there was fear, anger, and confusion.

"Everyone, throw your weapons into the center, put your hands on your heads, and squat against the wall."

Commander Lin Dong's voice was unquestionable.

"I'm counting to three.

One—"

No one moved.

"Two."

The bald man struggled to lift his head from the ground, only to be stepped back down by Commander Lin Dong: "You fuck—"

"Three."

Commander Lin Dong pulled the trigger, a bullet grazing the bald man's ear and striking the ground, sparks splashing onto the bald man's face, burning him until he screamed.

Clatter—the sound of weapons hitting the ground rang out in unison.

Commander Lin Dong did not let his guard down.

He signaled to Zhao Liang with his eyes to collect the weapons, while he continued to step on the bald man, the muzzle pressed against the back of his head.

Only when all the weapons were piled up and all the prisoners were squatting against the wall did he breathe a slight sigh of relief.

"Zhang Hai, what's Old Chen's blood type?"

"Type AB." Zhang Hai's voice was heavy.

"He needs a transfusion immediately, or he won't last an hour."

Commander Lin Dong's heart sank.

Of the six of them, not one was Type AB.

His gaze swept over the prisoners squatting by the wall.

Forty-seven people—there had to be someone with Type AB, right?

But just then, a low humming sound came from the direction of the base vehicle.

Everyone was stunned, including Commander Lin Dong.

He turned his head to look, only to see two beams of light suddenly ignite from the front of the silver-gray heavy truck—the headlights had turned on automatically.

Immediately after, a synthesized mechanical voice rang out in everyone's minds:

【Commander's vital signs detected.

Interruption in base vehicle deployment progress detected.

Initiating emergency protocol: Automatic Defense System activated.

After a countdown of sixty seconds, a clearance procedure will be executed on all unverified targets.

Please, Commander, complete identity verification before the countdown ends.】

Commander Lin Dong's pupils constricted sharply.

Automatic Defense System?

Clearance procedure?

He looked at the prisoners squatting by the wall, then at the base vehicle.

The two sensor arrays on the roof, whose functions he hadn't recognized before, were now slowly rotating, emitting a low buzzing sound.

Sixty seconds.

Fifty-nine seconds.

Fifty-eight seconds.

The Man with Glasses suddenly screamed: "I knew it!

I knew this thing wasn't simple!

It's going to kill us all!"

The prisoners became restless, and some tried to stand up and run.

Countless thoughts flashed through Commander Lin Dong's mind in this second.

Verify identity?

How to verify?

What if verification fails?

If verification succeeds, what happens to these prisoners?

Old Chen is still waiting for a blood transfusion—

He suddenly lowered his head, looking at the bald man beneath his feet.

The bald man's eyes were wide open, filled with fear.

Forty-seven seconds.

Commander Lin Dong suddenly released his foot, grabbed the bald man by the collar, and dragged him toward the base vehicle.

"What the fuck are you doing?!" the bald man struggled in terror.

Commander Lin Dong didn't answer.

He dragged the bald man to the front of the base vehicle, faced the two blinding headlights, and roared with all his might:

"I am Commander Lin Dong, former Company Commander of the Reconnaissance Company of the Army Mechanized Infantry Brigade, military ID number XXXXXX!

I request identity verification!"

Silence.

Three seconds.

Five seconds.

The prisoners stopped their commotion, everyone staring blankly at this scene.

Then, the synthesized mechanical voice rang out again:

【Identity information verification in progress...

Verification successful.

Welcome back, Commander.

Initiating Commander privilege transfer procedure.

Automatic Defense System disengaged.】

The humming stopped.

The sensor arrays on the roof slowly reset.

Commander Lin Dong released the bald man's collar, letting him slump to the ground.

He turned around, looking at the dumbstruck prisoners, and then at the dying Old Chen in Zhang Hai's arms.

"Among you," his voice was hoarse and weary, "who is Type AB blood?"

The crowd was silent for a few seconds.

Then, a thin young man timidly raised his hand: "I... I am Type AB.

But... but I haven't killed anyone, I really haven't killed anyone..."

Commander Lin Dong looked at him and slowly nodded: "Come here.

Everyone else, whoever dares to move, I guarantee the next round of the clearance procedure will not be disengaged."

He walked toward the base vehicle and reached out to touch the cold armor.

The metal surface emitted a slight vibration, as if it were the heartbeat of some colossal beast.

And behind him, the Man with Glasses, taking advantage of everyone's attention being on Commander Lin Dong, quietly crept toward the tablet that had fallen on the ground.

His fingers slid swiftly across the screen, pulling up an audio file he had just recorded—it was the military ID number Commander Lin Dong had just shouted out.

A faint, imperceptible smile appeared at the corner of his mouth.

【End of Chapter】