11: The water treatment plant is hiding evidence of my father's crimes? The school beauty cried and hugged me tightly!

The wide-open door was like a gaping maw, and the darkness inside was unnaturally deep.

Su Chen didn't rush in; instead, he picked up a piece of broken brick and tossed it inside.

Clack.

The echo was hollow, with no sound of zombies lunging for food, only a thick layer of dust being stirred up.

"Except for Lin Mengyao, everyone else stay on the bus and keep watch. Teacher Qin, you're in command."

Su Chen tossed the car keys to Qin Ya, his gaze sweeping over Zhao Wanting, who looked like she was itching to follow.

"Especially those who are emotionally unstable—don't cause trouble for me."

Zhao Wanting bit her lip and stared fixedly at the black hole. Her face was as pale as paper, yet she surprisingly didn't argue.

Lin Mengyao gripped the corner of Su Chen's shirt tightly, her palm sweating against the USB drive that held the map.

The two of them stepped into the deathly silent area one after the other, the sound of "crunch, crunch" constantly coming from beneath their feet.

Su Chen looked down; the floor was covered in golden-yellow shell casings, 5.56mm caliber.

There were also many bloodstains that had long since dried on the concrete floor.

"This place was cleared out, and with heavy firepower."

Su Chen had a better idea of the situation now.

The absence of bodies meant they were either recovered, or... the people here evacuated in an orderly fashion.

Following the map on the USB drive, they passed through a corridor riddled with bullet holes and headed straight for the central control room on the third basement floor.

It wasn't the pitch-black power outage they expected; the backup power seemed to still be functioning.

Just as they pushed open the control room door, the massive LCD screen in the center suddenly flickered twice. Blue light instantly illuminated the room, causing Lin Mengyao to shrink into Su Chen's arms in fright.

"Don't be afraid, it's motion-activated."

Su Chen patted her stiff back, feeling her delicate body trembling slightly under his palm.

The screen didn't show a system interface; instead, an encrypted video window automatically popped up.

It seemed that because it detected the "highest clearance" signal from the USB drive in Lin Mengyao's hand, a high-definition surveillance recording began to play automatically.

The footage showed a dust-free laboratory.

Two middle-aged men were standing in front of a massive holographic blueprint.

The one on the left wore a crisp Major General's training uniform, his square face naturally commanding authority.

That was Zhao Wanting's father, Zhao Jianguo.

The one on the right wore an exquisite handmade suit and gold-rimmed glasses, his scholarly air tinged with the shrewdness of a businessman.

That was Lin Mengyao's father, the helmsman of the Lin Clan Conglomerate.

"Is this... the prototype of the survival bus?"

Su Chen narrowed his eyes, looking at the familiar bus schematic on the holographic blueprint. However, it wasn't packed with comfort features, but rather weapon hardpoints and life-support circulation systems.

The voices in the video came through clearly.

"Old Lin, the vehicle modification for 'Project Ark' has been completed."

Zhao Jianguo's voice sounded cold and heartless.

"But the screening module must be adjusted. According to simulations, the uncontrollable violence index of males in extreme environments is too high, which is not conducive to establishing a new order."

Lin Mengyao's father adjusted his glasses, his tone sounding as if he were discussing a business deal that wasn't quite profitable.

"So, you plan to activate the 'Gender Screening Module'? General Zhao, this involves variables for billions of people; my board of directors will need an explanation."

"This is for the purity of the sparks of humanity."

Zhao Jianguo took a document out of his briefcase and slammed it onto the table, his finger pointing at a line of red text.

"When the transmission begins, the system will automatically filter out 99.9% of Y-chromosome carriers. This is called—a necessary sacrifice."

The video stopped abruptly, the frame freezing on a bright red 'Top Secret' seal on the document.

A deathly silence filled the control room.

Lin Mengyao felt as if the bones had been sucked out of her body. Her legs went weak, and she collapsed onto the floor.

"My dad... funded this?"

She murmured to herself, her eyes terrifyingly hollow.

"What do you mean 'necessary sacrifice'? What do you mean 'filter'? Is he... is he a murderer?"

She had always thought her father was a scholarly businessman who navigated the seas of commerce but held the world in his heart.

Even when the apocalypse arrived, she firmly believed the contingencies her father left behind were meant to save people.

But now, the cruel truth was like a slap in the face, making her very soul tremble.

"So this is why I'm the only male left in the whole class."

Su Chen leaned against the console, a mocking, cold smile curling at the corner of his mouth.

This wasn't some apocalyptic survival; it was clearly a long-premeditated game of raising a 'Kingdom of Women'.

Unfortunately, these big shots played it too far and turned their 'New Order' into a monster's playground.

"Ugh..."

Lin Mengyao finally broke down, covering her face and sobbing loudly. The immense sense of guilt made it almost impossible for her to breathe.

Su Chen sighed and knelt down.

Reasoning was useless at a time like this; he needed to use some 'physical means'.

He pulled the slumped campus belle into his arms, his warm, broad palm pressing directly against her cold back.

Extreme Yang Sacred Body, activate.

A warm current surged dominantly into Lin Mengyao's body. This wasn't simple comfort; it was more like a shot of adrenaline, forcibly calming her chaotic internal energy.

As the Yang Energy was injected, Lin Mengyao felt her mind clear. Some kind of locked memory seemed to be forcibly burst open.

"Ding—Identity verified. Playing additional audio recording."

The electronic voice suddenly rang out from the console again. This time it was a noisy audio clip, filled with alarms and screams in the background.

"Seventh Logistics Department reporting! The system is out of control! Monsters... those monsters are coming through the transmission channel! This isn't filtering; this is a massacre! General Zhao, you must stop the command to purge all male samples! You must—"

With a burst of static, the audio cut off.

Just then, the control room door was suddenly burst open.

Zhao Wanting stumbled in; clearly, she had heard everything from outside.

She lunged at the console like a madwoman, her hands frantically smashing at the keyboard, oblivious to her nails splitting.

"It's a lie... it's all a lie!"

She howled, tears blurring her usually proud face.

"The day my mom went missing... was exactly when this video was recorded! She didn't die of illness... she discovered this and was silenced! Silenced by my father!"

"Clack!"

With her frantic smashing, a hidden compartment in the console suddenly popped open.

Inside lay a dark green military ID card.

Zhao Wanting picked it up with trembling hands. The photo showed her father in his youth, but in the issuer's column below, Lin Mengyao's father's name was clearly signed.

At that moment, the worldviews of both girls collapsed simultaneously.

Li Sisi, who had been eavesdropping at the door and providing technical support, pushed up her glasses and walked in.

She held a tablet that had just finished copying data, her expression as sour as if she had swallowed a fly.

"The logic holds up."

Li Sisi's voice was cold, almost cruel.

"Zhao Jianguo was the executor, and Chairman Lin was the financier. They tried to create a purely female utopia, attempting to continue human civilization by controlling variables. But they overestimated the system's stability and underestimated the erosion from the other dimension. The system went out of control, causing a deviation in the transmission, and we... became lab rats."

"So..."

Qin Ya leaned against the doorframe, her lips devoid of color.

"The fact that Su Chen is the only boy left in our class isn't luck or an accident. It's because Su Chen's constitution is special, or rather, he's some kind of... fish that slipped through the net?"

The atmosphere in the control room was so oppressive it was suffocating.

Two once-aloof daughters of heaven were now broken; one curled into a ball from guilt, the other's faith shattered by betrayal.

Su Chen watched this scene, his gaze growing deeper.

To others, this was despair; to him, it was the perfect opportunity to take complete control of this team.

He helped the still-sobbing Lin Mengyao up, his fingers gently wiping away the tears from the corners of her eyes. His movements were tender, but his tone carried an irresistible power.

"Have you cried enough?"

Su Chen's voice was low, echoing in the hollow room.

"Now you know. This apocalypse is a hell created by your father, and a cage guarded by hers."

Lin Mengyao looked up, her tear-filled eyes reflecting only Su Chen's silhouette.

"But as long as I'm here, this isn't a dead end."

Su Chen leaned down and whispered into her ear.

"I will lead you out of here alive, even if I have to punch a hole through this hell."

These words were like the last straw for a drowning person to grasp.

Lin Mengyao suddenly threw her arms around Su Chen's waist, hugging him so hard it felt as if she wanted to merge herself into his body.

She pressed her forehead tightly against Su Chen's chest and choked out a sentence:

"Don't leave me... Su Chen, please... don't leave me..."

[Lin Mengyao's loyalty has soared. Current status: Die-hard (Sole mental pillar).]

Su Chen gently patted her back, but his gaze went over her shoulder, through the glass window, looking at the gloomy sky outside.

Outside the water plant, atop the towering cooling tower.

A military drone, entirely black and without any markings, hovered silently in mid-air.

Its lens slowly rotated, emitting an extremely faint hum.

That speck of crimson laser silently crossed several hundred meters, locking onto the license plate of the bus parked at the factory entrance.