164: Chapter 164 Sanctions Become Waste Paper, the Hunter's Rules

On the three-thousand-acre construction site in Jiangcheng.

Old Zhou's palms were slick with sweat. He gripped that scorching-hot phone tightly. He looked at the missed calls constantly popping up on the screen, then turned his head to look at Lu Chen, who was leaning back in a canvas chair, smoking.

"Brother. Are we really going to leave them hanging for three whole hours?" Old Zhou asked, lowering his voice.

"If these foreign devils don't have a layer of skin peeled off, they won't remember the pain." Lu Chen didn't even lift his eyelids.

Da Biao grinned from the side. He reached out and grabbed the walkie-talkie on the folding table.

"Director Li. My big brother's exact words: get someone to take a big broom to the provincial compound gate and sweep. Make sure that concrete ground is swept clean." Da Biao shouted into the microphone.

A helpless yet excited voice came from the walkie-talkie: "Alright. I'll dispatch a water truck over there to wash it down right now."

The excavators at the bottom of the deep pit rumbled incessantly. Soil was hauled out truckload after truckload. One hundred thousand manual laborers took turns swinging shovels.

Time ticked away second by second. Old Zhou's phone screen lit up and went dark, then lit up again. Dozens of encrypted overseas numbers bombarded him in turns. Without Lu Chen's nod, Old Zhou didn't dare answer a single one.

Old Zhou paced back and forth under the canvas shed. One moment he looked at the clouds in the sky, the next he looked at the watch on his wrist.

"Old Zhou. You're making me dizzy with all that pacing. Sit down and rest for a while." Da Biao tossed a gnawed apple core onto the muddy ground.

"How can I sit still? These are the big shots who control our national shipping lifeline. They're all kneeling over at Director Li Jianguo's place. My heart is pounding." Old Zhou wiped the sweat from his forehead.

"What are you afraid of? Didn't you see that the aircraft carrier on the other side has turned into dead iron?" Da Biao scoffed.

Exactly twelve o'clock noon.

The chipped Casio watch on Lu Chen's wrist beeped twice to signal the time.

Lu Chen opened his eyes. He threw the cigarette butt in his hand onto the ground and crushed out the spark.

"Answer the phone." Lu Chen said.

Old Zhou hurriedly used his thumb to slide open the green answer button on the screen. He then tapped the speakerphone function.

Extremely heavy, ragged breathing immediately came from the phone's speaker. This was followed by a string of extremely stiff Chinese.

"Mr. Lu. God bless. You are finally willing to answer the phone." The person on the other end was trembling violently. Their words were laced with a thick, sobbing tone.

"God has no jurisdiction over this piece of land in Jiangcheng." Lu Chen fished out the plastic lighter from his pocket. Click. He relit a double happiness cigarette.

"Yes, yes. You call the shots in Jiangcheng. We admit defeat. We completely admit defeat." The representative on the other end of the line was incoherent. "There is less than half an hour left in the sanctions countdown. Please, have mercy. Immediately retract that demonic electromagnetic weapon. Our fleet's navigation is completely ruined. The radar is blind. The crew members on the sea are going crazy."

Two crisp slapping sounds came through the speaker.

Da Biao's eyes widened. This foreign representative was actually slapping his own face on the other end of the phone.

"The documents I asked you to sign, have you signed them?" Lu Chen exhaled a puff of blue smoke.

"Signed, everything is signed. All core assets in the Asia-Pacific region. The gratuitous transfer agreement has already been faxed to Director Li at the provincial compound." The representative's voice was filled with deep despair. "The order to lift the maritime blockade has just been issued to the 12-nation joint fleet. You can verify it at any time. Please, show mercy."

"Go back and tell the people at The Pentagon." Lu Chen's gaze was cold and hard, leaving no room for negotiation. "My ships leave port whenever they want. Whoever dares to block me on the sea, I will make the radar in that maritime area become useless scrap forever."

Beep. Following Lu Chen's signal, Old Zhou hung up the call directly.

Old Zhou let out a long, heavy breath. He felt his hands and feet go weak. Those capital tycoons who controlled the global economic lifeline were weeping, kowtowing, and begging for mercy right inside this beat-up phone. If this had happened yesterday, he wouldn't have believed it even if he were beaten to death.

There was movement from the direction of the deep pit. Da Biao quickly climbed up from the bottom of the pit along the rough rope ladder on the muddy ground.

Da Biao was shirtless. His thick-soled military boots were covered in yellow mud.

"Big Brother." Da Biao walked under the canvas shed and shook the muddy water off his arms. "The red light on the chassis is still flashing. Does that iron lump need to keep charging? I don't think Old Man Song can hold on much longer. The machine's casing is scorching hot."

"Disconnect the physical connection." Lu Chen stood up. "One deterrent is enough. Save the excess source energy. Tell the workers to hurry up and catch up on the infrastructure progress. Any foreman who stops work for a minute gets half a month's pay deducted."

"Got it." Da Biao grabbed the walkie-talkie and roared, "Old Man Wei. Pull the plug. The boss said no more charging. Hurry up and bring the men out to move bricks and lay the foundation."

In the thirty-meter-deep pit underground, the violent purple light gradually dimmed. The stellar-level pulse stopped releasing completely.

The moment the light completely extinguished, a translucent azure system panel popped up on Lu Chen's retina. Only he could see this light screen.

The data bar at the very top scrolled and updated rapidly.

[Regional Absolute Deterrence achievement unlocked.]

[tech points critical hit credited: +5 million.]

[Hidden achievement activated: Embryonic Empire.]

[Successfully unlocked blueprint for primary infantry Exoskeleton.]

A cold glint flashed in Lu Chen's eyes. Five million tech points. Enough to exchange for a large batch of precision machining machine tools. More importantly, that Exoskeleton blueprint. Once these one hundred thousand laborers finished laying the eight-thousand-acre foundation, the factory area would be sealed off. Two thousand security personnel would all be equipped with Exoskeleton armor. By then, even if a top-tier regular armed company came to suppress them, they would only be on the receiving end of a beating.

A symphony of extremely harsh car horns suddenly erupted from the perimeter of the industrial park.

Old Zhou ran toward the main gate. Within two minutes, he came scrambling back.

"Brother. Those twelve financial conglomerates in Jiangnan have completely lost their minds." Old Zhou pointed at the main entrance. "Over three hundred heavy-duty trucks have blocked the national highway outside completely."

"Those bastards still dare to come and cause trouble." Da Biao grabbed a shovel from the corner of the tent.

"Cause trouble, my ass. They're lining up to deliver gifts." Old Zhou panted heavily. "The news that we rubbed the American nuclear-powered aircraft carrier into the water leaked out. These local tycoons were scared out of their wits. They cleared out all their building material warehouses overnight. High-quality special steel, high-grade cement, truckload after truckload, all being sent over for free."

"What do the truck drivers say?" Lu Chen's expression didn't change.

"The drivers all say they will leave immediately after unloading the goods. They don't even dare to ask us for a drop of water." Old Zhou wiped the sweat from his face.

"They still have some sense, at least." Lu Chen sat back in the canvas chair. "Accept everything on the list. Count and inventory it. If even one steel bar is missing, I'll hold them accountable."

The massive supply chain formed by the Jiangnan financial conglomerates had completely become a free logistics supply station for Chenguang Electronics Factory. With this batch of materials, the construction speed would directly double.

Two thousand kilometers away from Jiangcheng. Beijing.

Deep inside an extremely secret Red Flag garage, in a huge space converted from an underground air-raid shelter, the air was cold and damp.

Secretary Zhou was wearing a faded gray work coat. He kept his head bowed low, gripping a large broom with both hands, sweeping the oil residue on the concrete floor stroke by stroke. This former big shot in Beijing, who once enjoyed boundless prestige at the provincial compound, was now so humble that he didn't even dare to straighten his back halfway.

A steel door was half-open in the innermost dark room of the garage.

A middle-aged man wearing a black wool coat stood in the shadows. In his hand, he clutched a few sheets of newly printed top-secret A4 paper. The paper was densely packed with peak monitoring data from that electromagnetic pulse in Jiangcheng.

The middle-aged man stared fixedly at the fluctuating curves on the paper. His breathing became increasingly heavy.

"One person. One factory. Turned the arrogant 7th Fleet into dead iron on the sea." The middle-aged man's voice was extremely hoarse, laced with suppressed fear. "This kind of power is simply not controlled by conventional physical laws."

His right hand clenched violently, crushing the pages of top-secret data into a ball.

In the corridor outside, Secretary Zhou's sweeping motion paused abruptly. The rustling sound of the broom rubbing against the floor vanished instantly.

"Secretary Zhou." The middle-aged man didn't even turn his head.

"Here." Secretary Zhou hurriedly threw down the ragged broom. He jogged over two steps and stood respectfully outside the steel door of the dark room, holding his breath as much as possible.

"You've been to Jiangcheng before. You've dealt with him." The middle-aged man casually tossed the ball of paper into the tin trash can next to him. Clang, a dull sound echoed. "What kind of person do you think Lu Chen really is?"

A layer of cold sweat instantly broke out on Secretary Zhou's back. He calculated his wording rapidly in his mind.

"Reporting to the Chief. He is just a madman who has no bottom line and doesn't follow any rules at all." Secretary Zhou swallowed hard. "But he is extremely protective of his own. Whoever dares to touch the workers under him or his factory, he dares to risk his life directly against them. He even dares to poke a hole in the sky."

"A madman is not scary at all." The middle-aged man turned around slowly. The weak incandescent light in the corridor illuminated his cold, rock-hard jawline. "What's scary is that this madman holds a national treasure in his hands that even our entire department cannot understand."

The middle-aged man reached into his coat pocket and pulled out a pure black metal walkie-talkie with no brand logo.

His thumb pressed directly onto the red encrypted call button.

"Pass the order. Have the 'Red Flag' Shadow Guard go to Jiangcheng." The middle-aged man issued the command into the microphone, his tone cold and leaving absolutely no room for negotiation.

Two very short, sharp tapping sounds immediately came from the walkie-talkie, signifying receipt of the death order.

"I want to know his ultimate trump card for sure." The middle-aged man stared coldly at Secretary Zhou outside the door. "If he is willing to obediently be a sharp knife held in our hands, then everyone is safe. We can give him as much territory as he wants."

The middle-aged man paused for a moment. His gaze drifted over the top of Secretary Zhou's head, looking at the thick ventilation pipes above the garage.

"But if he becomes a sword that could stab us at any moment..." The middle-aged man's fingers gently rubbed the chamfered metal edge of the walkie-talkie. He didn't finish the sentence.

Secretary Zhou shuddered violently. He understood the bloody killing intent hidden behind these words. The most unfathomable hidden power in China had finally bared its fangs at that local tycoon in Jiangcheng.

At the same time.

Inside a top-secret garage somewhere underground in Beijing, a pure black SUV with its license plate completely manually erased roared to life.

The thick exhaust pipe erupted with a low, terrifying roar.

Two beams of stark white light from the headlights instantly tore through the darkness, heading straight for the hidden exit of the garage.

In the driver's seat and the passenger seat sat two robust men wearing black baseball caps. They stared straight ahead, their bodies completely silent. Even their breathing patterns were shockingly synchronized.

Target: Jiangcheng. Chenguang Factory.