5: Chapter 5 Night Flight to Rust Harbor

Twelve hours.

Like a massive, slowly descending guillotine blade hanging over Lin Feng's head, every passing second was accompanied by a suffocating countdown.

He bolted upright from the hospital bed, the sharp pain in his side seemingly suppressed by a powerful sense of crisis. He couldn't wait any longer! He had to leave this place immediately!

>> ETA: 11H 54M 12S...

In the corner of his vision, the crimson countdown ticked coldly, urging him on without mercy.

His gaze quickly swept across the ward. The middle-aged woman in the next bed and the other patients had long since fallen into deep sleep; only the faint electronic pings from the nurse's station drifted in from the corridor. At night, security in the ward area was relatively lax.

Now was his only chance.

He took a deep breath and, moving as gently as possible, pulled out the indwelling needle from the back of his hand, pressing down on the puncture site with a spare cotton swab. He lifted the blanket and stepped onto the cold floor; a wave of weakness washed over him, but he forced himself to stand steady.

His personal belongings—the blood-stained, damaged "Swift Wind Quick Pine" jacket and some change—were kept in the bedside cabinet. He quickly changed into the jacket and stuffed the change into his pocket. By the time he finished, he was slightly out of breath, and cold sweat beaded on his forehead.

>> Warning: Vital Signs Fluctuating. Adrenaline Level Elevated.

>> Suggestion: Avoid Intense Activity.

The blue prompt characters flickered with concern, but to Lin Feng, it was nothing more than nonsense. He gritted his teeth, ignoring his body's protests.

The biggest problem now was: how could he avoid all the surveillance cameras and night patrol security guards to leave the hospital silently?

He tiptoed to the ward door and cautiously poked his head out. The corridor was empty, the lighting adjusted to night mode, leaving it dim. A single camera hung from the ceiling at the end of the hallway, rotating slowly from side to side; its red indicator light glowed in the darkness like a dormant demon's eye.

>> Accessing...SecCam_Hallway

>> Status: Active / Recording / Motion_Detection_Enabled

>> Live Feed: [View]

>> Controls: [Loop Feed?] [Disable Temporarily?] [/////]

Almost instinctively, when he focused his mind on that camera, the familiar interface surfaced once again. This time, the options had become more specific!

Loop feed? Disable temporarily?

Lin Feng's heart pounded. He didn't have time to ponder why this ability seemed to have become more "obedient"; his entire will was concentrated on the [Loop Feed] option.

>> Command: Loop Last 120s Feed.

>> Overriding...Requires Auth_Lvl2...Bypassing...

>> Executing. Feed Looping. Estimated Undetected Time: 300s.

It worked!

The lens of the camera at the end of the corridor, which had been rotating regularly, paused for a fraction of a second before continuing its movement. But Lin Feng knew that the footage it was now capturing and transmitting back to the security room would be a five-minute loop of the empty hallway!

He didn't dare waste these precious five minutes. He immediately stayed low and moved through the corridor like a ghost. Relying on the vague impressions he had from when he was admitted, he felt his way toward the emergency evacuation exit.

Along the way, he encountered two more cameras and a yawning mechanical security guard on night patrol. Using his previous experience, he repeated the process.

>> Loop Feed (60s)...Executing.

>> Disable Audio Sensor (Temporary)...Executing.

His actions grew increasingly proficient, and the consumption of his mental energy seemed to gradually decrease with each success. He could even spare some attention to make the blue characters in his vision semi-transparent, so they wouldn't obstruct his actual line of sight too much.

This ability... it was as if it possessed a life of its own, rapidly adapting to him and synchronizing with him.

The journey was fraught with tension but devoid of actual danger. He successfully slipped out of the inpatient building. The cold night wind, heavy with moisture and the smell of rust, instantly hit his face, jolting his spirit.

The hospital's back alley was piled with black medical waste bags, and the air was thick with a strange scent of disinfectant mixed with decay. There was no surveillance here; it was a blind spot.

He had made it! He had escaped!

But Lin Feng didn't dare linger for a moment. The twelve-hour countdown remained like a maggot in his marrow, flickering coldly in the corner of his vision. "ETA: 11H 22M 08S..."

Old Port District! He had to go there immediately!

He pulled the hood of his jacket tight to cover most of his face, identified his direction, and plunged into the intricate, dark alleys on the edge of the city where the neon lights struggled to reach.

Unlike the glitz and glamour of the city center, the further he got toward the Old Port District, the more obvious the city's scars became. Broken roads collected murky sewage, walls were covered in graffiti, and the air was filled with a mixture of machine oil, stagnant water, and the smell of cheap energy bars. The skyrail tracks ended abruptly here, leaving only massive, rusting piers standing in silence.

Occasionally, modified hover-bikes roared past with ear-piercing noise. The riders, dressed in bizarre outfits with the glow of cybernetics flickering on their bodies, cast ill-intentioned glances his way. Lin Feng would always lower his head immediately and quicken his pace, hiding himself deeper in the shadows.

Relying on the occasional vague road signs and the faint memories he had of the city's outskirts, he struggled to navigate toward the harbor.

>> ETA: 10H 41M 15S...

Time was slipping away second by second.

His physical exhaustion was extreme, and his wounds began to protest more violently; every breath brought a burning pain. Hunger and thirst were like parasites, constantly gnawing at his will.

Just when he felt he couldn't hold on any longer, a strong, salty, fishy smell of sea breeze overpowered all other odors.

He was there!

He rounded a corner piled with abandoned shipping containers, and the view suddenly opened up.

A massive, long-abandoned wharf stretched out before him. The pitch-black seawater rose and fell silently under the night sky, reflecting the blurred neon glow of the distant city like a flowing oil painting. Huge cranes stood like the skeletons of prehistoric beasts, rusting silently under the night sky. Broken jetties extended into the darkness, as if leading to an unknown abyss.

This was the Old Port District. It was terrifyingly quiet, with only the sound of the wind and the waves gently lapping against the rocks.

Pier 3... the waste cable bollard...

Using the faint light, Lin Feng carefully wove through the shadows of the massive containers, avoiding oil slicks and puddles on the ground. His heart was racing, both from physical exhaustion and from his alertness to the unknown.

Who exactly was that nurse? Why did she help him? What kind of organization was "Dark River"? Could this be a carefully laid trap?

Finally, beside a mountain of tangled, rotted, and blackened waste cables, he found an exceptionally thick, rust-covered bollard. Half of it was sunk into the ground, and the part exposed above was covered in the marks of time and various faded graffiti.

This was the place.

But there was nothing.

No door, no entrance, nothing that looked like a "Darknet access point." Only cold metal, decaying rope, and boundless darkness.

A massive surge of disappointment and panic instantly seized Lin Feng. He had taken such a huge risk and used his last ounce of strength to come here—was it all just a joke? Or... was he too late, and they had already left?

>> ETA: 10H 18M 33S...

The countdown continued its merciless ticking.

Just as he was about to be swallowed by despair, his gaze was suddenly drawn to an extremely faint scratch at the base of the bollard, one that almost blended in with the rust.

It wasn't a random mark, but an extremely simple geometric symbol consisting of two nested triangles—it looked like an abstract eye, or perhaps a tiny door.

>> Symbol Recognized. (Unknown Origin. Local Database Incomplete)

>> Interface Potential Detected. Attempt Connection? Y/N

The blue characters surfaced proactively once more, offering an unprecedented option!

Connect?

Lin Feng's heart skipped a beat. Without any hesitation, he focused all his mental energy and issued a command of confirmation toward the "Y" option.

>> Connecting...

>> Establishing Secure Link...(Protocol: Obsolete_DarkNet_Whisperv2.1)

>> Sending Anonymous Handshake...

>> ...

>> ...

>> Connection Established.

It felt as if an imperceptible current instantly flowed through the rusted bollard. Immediately after, a pinprick-sized blue light flickered once at the center of the symbol before vanishing.

At the same time, a cold, distorted, and heavily encrypted synthesized electronic voice sounded directly in the depths of his mind without warning, each word sounding like it was scraping against rusted metal:

"Verify."