13: Now, you are mine.

Su Chen didn't speak; he casually reached beside the gear shift, pulled out a high-intensity flashlight, and clicked it on. A cold white beam of light shone steadily onto the tiny roll of film at Li Sisi's fingertips.

Li Sisi squinted and rummaged through her tactical bag to pull out a small bottle of developing solution—a treasure she had previously scavenged from the chemistry lab.

Her movements were extremely fast, almost with the neuroticism of a mad scientist, as her fingertips brushed rapidly over the film.

A few seconds later, several lines of micro-written penmanship were clearly projected onto the car's ceiling under the direct beam of the flashlight. The handwriting was vigorous and powerful, yet carried a sense of urgent chaos.

"The Seventh Logistics Department did not defect; we were ordered to destroy the 'Gender Screening Module' prototype. The Lin family tampered with the system's underlying commands, intending to sacrifice all male genes to establish a new world of only women."

"If my daughter Wanting sees this letter, leave the man surnamed Su immediately. He is the system's only loophole, extremely unstable!"

This message was like a shock bomb, freezing the air inside the vehicle.

Su Chen glanced at the lines of text, the playfulness in his eyes deepening.

"A loophole?"

So, in the eyes of those so-called big shots, he, the only surviving real man, was just a bug the system hadn't cleaned up properly.

Zhao Wanting stared at the text, as if struck by lightning; her military ID card dropped to her feet.

She yanked open her collar and pulled out an old, bronze-colored pocket watch she kept close to her body.

That was what her mother had shoved into her hand, gripping it tightly, just before she died.

For all these years, she had only thought of it as a memento, never imagining it held any hidden secrets.

With trembling hands, she pried open the back cover of the pocket watch. There was no photo inside, only a string of micro-engraved laser numbers. The frequency and sequence were exactly the same as the checksum on the edge of the film!

"My dad... he was protecting me all along?"

Zhao Wanting's voice trembled uncontrollably, and her eyes turned red instantly—the agonizing pain of her faith collapsing and then being rebuilt.

"He bore the infamy of a traitor and led a team to bomb the prototype... just to prevent that crazy plan from succeeding?"

Qin Ya sat beside her, gently hugging the class monitor who was usually as stubborn as iron.

Her fingertips brushed across Zhao Wanting's cold shoulders as she sighed, her tone gentle yet carrying a worldly, weary sorrow.

"Wanting, your dad was afraid you'd be silenced by the Lin family, so he made you stay away from all males. Because in such a plan, the existence of any male would become a target for the Lin family to eliminate—including himself."

"What a deeply touching display of father-daughter affection."

Su Chen's deep voice broke the melancholy inside the vehicle.

His slender fingers tapped rhythmically against the steering wheel, making a 'tick, tick' sound, like some kind of death-inducing countdown.

"However, I'm afraid General Zhao also didn't tell you one thing."

Su Chen pulled the USB chip with the crushed casing from his pocket and casually inserted it into the console's port.

The previously black navigation screen flickered twice, and an audio waveform popped up.

It was the voice of Lin Mengyao's father, carrying the coldness typical of a businessman.

"General Zhao, the cleanup protocol has been issued. All Y-chromosome carriers must be erased the moment they are transmitted. Do you understand?"

Immediately following was a heavy breath. Zhao Jianguo's voice remained as steady as ever, yet it betrayed a sense of calculation.

"Chairman Lin, I can execute it, but according to the system closed-loop theory, a purely single-sex system will lead to evolutionary stagnation."

"I will retain one strongest sample as a 'backup.' Otherwise, once the system determines the risk of species extinction, it will directly initiate a Great Purge, and none of us will survive."

Lin Mengyao's already pale complexion instantly turned the color of transparent paper.

"So... my dad wanted to kill all men, and your dad... intentionally kept you?"

She stumbled toward Su Chen, her voice trembling.

"Su Chen, you... you knew all along? Do you hate me? Because of my dad, you became the 'backup' hunted by the whole world?"

Su Chen didn't answer, only let out a cold snort. The Yang Energy of his Extreme Yang Sacred Body, which had been accumulating in his body for a long time, suddenly erupted.

The temperature inside the vehicle soared instantly. That sweltering heat didn't come from the air, but from a tremor deep within the soul.

Before Lin Mengyao could react, Su Chen grabbed her wrist. With an overbearing strength that brooked no refusal, he pressed her directly onto the scorching hot hood.

"Hiss—"

Lin Mengyao gasped, her back hitting the metal casing. Through her thin shirt, she could feel the engine compartment beneath her feet growing slightly hot.

"Hate?"

Su Chen leaned down close to her ear, his scorching breath instantly dyeing the campus belle's neck a seductive pink.

His slender fingers lifted her chin, his eyes so deep they seemed to want to devour her.

"Lin Mengyao, put away your cheap guilt."

"In this hell, who is whose savior, and who is whose test subject—does it matter?"

Su Chen's palm slowly moved down, pressing against her chest, where her heartbeat was shockingly fast.

"Now, you are mine."

"Your life is mine, and your sins are mine too. I will settle this score with those two old things myself."

Su Chen's voice wasn't loud, but it carried an arrogance that transcended the rules.

All the girls in the car gasped, and the previously stifled crying came to an abrupt halt.

Such a declaration would be considered thuggish in a civilized society, but in an apocalypse where one could lose their life at any moment, this sense of absolute control was like a poisonous shot of adrenaline, giving their suspended hearts a foothold.

Zhao Wanting took a deep breath, wiped away the tears from the corners of her eyes, and her gaze became clearer than ever before.

She walked silently to Su Chen and handed him the pocket watch with the password.

"The last six digits of the password are my mom's birthday."

She looked at Su Chen, her eyes flickering with a flame of resolute determination.

"If... if you really are the only loophole in this damn system, then please, pierce through this hell completely."

Su Chen took the pocket watch; it felt cold to the touch, with the texture of a military medal.

"Boom—!"

A violent explosion suddenly came from the distance, causing the ground to tremble.

Through the dusty windshield, everyone saw that on the ridge a few kilometers away, the second drone, which had just been arrogantly searching for them, was now falling headlong like a kite with a broken string, trailing long black smoke.

Immediately following, a burst of intense gunfire, which definitely didn't belong to zombies or monsters, drifted over with the mountain wind.

"That is..."

Qin Ya frowned; her sensitivity as a teacher made her realize something was wrong.

"Gunfire? Besides us and the drones, there are other living people?"

Su Chen narrowed his eyes and tucked the pocket watch into his pocket, a cold glint of a predator flashing in the depths of his eyes.

"It seems this area is livelier than we imagined."