114: Chapter 113 I've Found You

When the sunlight squeezed through the gaps in the curtains, Lin Yi was already awake.

He hadn't been woken up by noise.

Baize's background processes finished running a batch of data analysis in the early hours of the morning, and the results were automatically pushed to his ocular implant's field of view.

He scanned through them—nothing new. The signal distribution hadn't changed significantly compared to last night, and the list of MAC addresses for devices on the Heavy Hearts's underground floors was identical to what he'd collected yesterday.

He archived the analysis results and turned his head to look at his side.

V was still asleep, curled up in the blanket, with only a small tuft of messy hair visible.

Last night, she had rolled away half the blanket. Lin Yi couldn't be bothered to fight for it, so he lay there half-covered and half-exposed all night. The weather was fine, so he didn't feel cold.

He got out of bed quietly and went to the bathroom to wash his face.

He looked alright in the mirror. Last night's meal had replenished his "hunger level," and all of Baize's monitoring metrics had returned to the green zone.

When he wiped his face and walked out of the bathroom, V was already awake, leaning against the headboard with half-open eyes. Her hair was a bird's nest, and she looked at him with that "give me a reason not to get up" expression.

"What do you want for breakfast?"

"...Coffee." V's voice was as raspy as if it had been rubbed with sandpaper. "Strong."

Lin Yi picked up the room terminal to order breakfast, then went to knock on Jackie's door.

He knocked three times; no response. He knocked three more times, and a rustling sound came from inside, followed by Jackie's muffled voice from behind the door: "...Who?"

"Your brother. Open up."

The door opened.

Jackie stood at the doorway shirtless, his eyes half-closed, looking like he had been sleeping soundly.

This guy had slept shirtless all night.

"What time is it?"

"Almost eight."

"...So early?"

"It's not early." Lin Yi turned to walk back. "Wash your face and come over for breakfast. We have things to do after."

The door closed, and the sound of a faucet came from inside.

Half an hour later, the three of them were sitting in Lin Yi and V's suite eating breakfast.

The Heavy Hearts's room service was more professional than most hotels outside; breakfast was delivered quickly.

Jackie stuffed half a synthetic bread roll into his mouth and asked indistinctly: "What's the plan for today?"

"We'll split up." Lin Yi picked up his coffee and took a sip. "I'm going to find the entrance to Little Beidou. You two stay in the hotel, wander around, eat, don't let anyone get suspicious. Hansen returns this afternoon; today is one of the few times we have to scout freely."

"How exactly are you going to find it?" V asked.

Lin Yi put down his cup and projected a map onto the table. "I reviewed the intel Yorinobu gave us last night. The Little Beidou facility was built by Militech during the Unification War, later taken over by the Federal Intelligence Agency, and then abandoned. After Hansen occupied Dogtown, he reactivated it. The channel network left by the Federal Intelligence Agency has a certain pattern—entrances and exits are usually chosen in inconspicuous, abandoned buildings, close to the main facility but not directly above it, for easy, covert entry and exit. There aren't many areas in Dogtown that fit these criteria."

He circled a location on the map. "Cres Street, the abandoned commercial building on the east side. High building density, low foot traffic, and space underground."

Jackie leaned over to look. "How are you sure it's there?"

Lin Yi thought: I can't exactly say I have god-mode enabled. "I'm not sure, so I have to take a gamble. If it's not there, I'll find somewhere else."

V thought for a moment. "How long will it take?"

"If it goes fast, a morning."

V glanced at him and didn't ask further.

Cres Street is on the east side of Dogtown. When Lin Yi left the Heavy Hearts, he specifically changed his clothes—a dark hoodie with the hood pulled up to cover half his face, and ordinary cargo pants that were neither new nor old, the kind that would disappear into a crowd in three seconds.

He didn't take the main road but followed the alleys around to the back of Cres Street.

From a distance, he saw the building.

About ten stories, concrete frame, with most of the exterior paint peeling off, revealing the gray-black cement underneath.

The windows were all smashed; some were boarded up, others left open, dark and hollow like a row of missing teeth. In front of the building was a potholed vacant lot with two military trucks parked there.

The truck bodies had no markings, but the tire wear and chassis were clearly military models.

Two squads of Wraiths soldiers stood in the open lot.

Lin Yi stopped at the alley entrance, leaned against the wall, and slowly poked half his head out.

It wasn't the lazy kind of guard duty.

They were actually patrolling seriously—crossing routes, staggered timing, ensuring there were no blind spots.

He counted; there were at least twenty people at this guard post alone. He couldn't get in from the front.

He turned and went around to the side of the building.

There were no patrols, but there was a three-meter-high chain-link fence with a "No Entry" sign hanging on it, so rusted the words were illegible.

He didn't climb the fence—there was a gap about two meters wide between the fence and the building's outer wall, and fresh tire tracks were on the ground.

Not trucks, but tire tracks from small to medium transport vehicles, matching in width and depth.

Lin Yi crouched down to check the direction of the tracks.

They extended from the direction of the guard post on the other side of the fence and disappeared into a ramp entrance at the back of the building.

He stood up, activated his Optical Camouflage, and followed the tracks inside.

A transport vehicle happened to be slowing down at the guard post at the ramp entrance, so he took the opportunity to climb onto the back of the vehicle and slipped in.

The ramp led downward, with explosion-proof lights hanging on the walls on both sides, casting a pale, stark light.

At the entrance was a rolling shutter door, half-open, just high enough for a transport vehicle to pass through.

Lin Yi squeezed inside.

The parking lot wasn't big, with a few military trucks and armored transport vehicles parked there.

The air was filled with the smell of diesel and burnt rubber, and overhead pipes were dripping; the ticking sound was exceptionally loud in the open space.

Just as he was about to move further in, the sound of an engine came from behind him.

A transport vehicle drove down from the ramp, its headlights illuminating the entire parking lot. Lin Yi ducked behind a pillar and made himself small.

The transport vehicle drove past him and stopped at the other end of the parking lot.

The door opened, and two soldiers in work uniforms got out and started unloading cargo from the back—military green metal boxes with Militech codes printed on the labels.

While the two were busy unloading, Lin Yi moved quickly to the freight elevator at the end of the parking lot.

The elevator door was open, with several cargo boxes piled inside.

He squeezed into the gap between the cargo boxes and heard footsteps approaching from a distance.

A soldier walked over, pressed the elevator button, and turned back to continue unloading. The elevator door closed and began to descend. The numbers on the display flickered—B1, B2.

The elevator stopped at B2 for a moment, the door opened, and someone pushed a cargo box out.

The door closed and continued to descend. B3.

The elevator door opened.

Lin Yi poked his head out from between the cargo boxes.

A massive underground warehouse.

The ceiling height was at least four stories, and the area was as big as half a football field.

Overhead were dense pipes and cables, and on both sides were rows of huge metal shelves stacked with military green boxes and pallets.

Baize's scanning was running at full power; temperature, humidity, electromagnetic radiation, network signals—all data was being captured and analyzed in real-time.

And then he saw it.

Right on the level above—a Chimera.

Militech's heavy automated combat platform, its six hydraulic legs folded and retracted, its rotating turret lowered, its entire body covered in composite armor.

It sat quietly in the corner of the warehouse, like a giant beast in slumber.

Lin Yi stared at the Chimera, and all the clues in his mind suddenly connected.

Hansen's armory.

This wasn't some secret experimental facility—this was where Kurt Hansen stored heavy weapons.

That Chimera, he had seen it in the game.

The one that went out of control, the one that went berserk in the armory.

Now it was sitting here, quiet, sleeping.

He compressed this information into a short data string, stored it in Baize's buffer, and continued walking past the shelves.

He moved between the shipping containers.

Baize's scanning continued to run in the background, capturing any anomalous signals.

Temperature, humidity, electromagnetic radiation, network signals—and then he found it.

Between the gap of two shipping containers, behind a partially empty container, there was a door.

It wasn't locked.

Lin Yi pushed the door open.

Behind the door was a narrow corridor with exposed concrete walls on both sides. Half of the overhead fluorescent lights were broken, and the remaining ones buzzed, the light flickering on and off.

He walked about fifty meters inside.

At the end of the corridor was another door, thicker, heavier, with a surface painted in standard Militech gray.

The door was locked, but it didn't need a key.

He stood there and scanned every inch of the surrounding space, confirming there were no hidden traps or surveillance, before slowly exhaling.

This wasn't the core area of Little Beidou—but it was definitely related to the plan.

"V, this is Lin Yi." He pressed the comms button. "I've found the mission objective. It's not the main facility entrance, but the direction is right. There are traces of the Blackwall Protocol being used."

"Copy that." V's voice came through the earpiece. "Hansen's convoy is almost at the Dogtown gate, hurry up."

"Already retreating."

Retreating was faster than getting in.

Lin Yi returned the way he came—through the corridor, around the shelves, past the sleeping Chimera, and into the freight elevator. As the elevator ascended, he pulled up Baize's logs, compressed all the data, encrypted it, and synced it to V and Jackie's terminals.

The elevator stopped at B1.

Someone pressed the button.

The door opened, and a Wraiths soldier walked in, back turned to him.

Lin Yi stood in the corner of the elevator, Optical Camouflage on, unmoving. The soldier didn't notice at all, leaning against the elevator wall and yawning, then pulling out his terminal to watch something.

Lin Yi tilted his head to look—the screen was playing a video, not a military tutorial, not classified material, but "educational material."

He almost couldn't help it; he watched the thing intently. This soldier was interesting.

Then he glanced at the soldier's Bluetooth earpiece model, connected to it using Baize, and turned the volume to the max—playing it out loud.

The guy didn't notice at all, still thinking the noise cancellation on the earpiece he bought this time was pretty good.

Just as Lin Yi walked past him and left the guard post shortly after.

Behind him came the sound of a terminal being dropped on the ground and shot, followed by a loud, cursing voice.

Lin Yi's mouth curled slightly, and he disappeared into the parking lot exit.

When Lin Yi returned to the room, V was leaning against the window drinking coffee.

Seeing him push the door open, her shoulders visibly relaxed—her expression didn't change, but her fingers holding the coffee cup were no longer so tense.

"Done?" she asked.

"Done." Lin Yi took down his hoodie, sat on the sofa, and let out a long breath.

Jackie came over from the next room, holding a glass of some liquor he'd swiped from somewhere. "How was it? Did you find it?"

"Found it." Lin Yi projected Baize's data onto the table. A 3D map unfolded in mid-air—from the Heavy Hearts to Cres Street, from the ground to underground, from the parking lot to the armory, from the armory to that iron door. Every turn, every node was clearly marked.

"The entrance to the Little Beidou facility is down the middle section of the corridor," Lin Yi said. "Going in from there should lead to what we're looking for. But that underground warehouse is Hansen's armory, and there's a Chimera parked inside."

"A Chimera?" Jackie put down his glass. "What the hell is that?"

"Militech's automated combat equipment, not activated, right?" V explained it briefly to Jackie, then asked Lin Yi.

"Right. Still in sleep mode, but no one can guarantee when it will be activated. We have to bypass the core area of the armory when we go in."

V stared at the map for a while. "Hansen will meet us in a bit. This meeting is an opportunity but also a smokescreen—you handle him, and Jackie and I will use this time window to scout the perimeter routes again."

"Right," Lin Yi said. "Since Hansen is back, his attention will be focused on the negotiating table. You two—"

Before he could finish, there was a knock at the door.

Three knocks, neither light nor heavy, with a steady rhythm.

The three of them exchanged glances.

Lin Yi got up to open the door.

Standing at the door was a middle-aged man in a suit, with a Wraiths badge pinned to his lapel, his expression respectful and professional.

"Hello. Colonel Hansen has returned to the Heavy Hearts. The Colonel hopes the three of you will do him the honor of coming to the private room for a talk."

Lin Yi glanced at him, then looked back at V and Jackie behind him.

V nodded slightly. Jackie put down his glass.

"Fine," Lin Yi said. "Lead the way."