170: Chapter 170 This is money earned by risking one's life

The large surveillance screen was automatically split into two sections.

On the left was the steel charge led by Da Biao, and on the right was Director Zhao's violently trembling hand.

At the moment of impact, mud and water splattered everywhere.

The first Hive monster ejected a half-meter-long sharp bone blade from its right arm, creating a piercing whistle as it slashed directly at Da Biao's neck.

The speed was so fast that the naked eye couldn't possibly track it.

Director Zhao instinctively closed his eyes. He didn't want to see the bloody scene of a head rolling off. The files were very clear: this type of biological weapon could tear through the armor of an armored vehicle with its bare hands.

"Clang!"

A deafening metallic explosion blasted from the speakers.

Director Zhao snapped his eyes open.

Da Biao didn't dodge at all. That half-meter-long sharp bone blade landed squarely on the dark gray titanium alloy armor on his neck.

A long string of dazzling sparks sprayed into the rainy night. Not even a sliver of the base paint was scratched off.

Da Biao tilted his neck, and the metal joints emitted a muffled sound of mechanical operation.

"What kind of crappy blade is this? Are you scratching an itch for me?" Da Biao roared at the top of his lungs.

The monster had no rationality; it raised its left arm's bone blade again and stabbed toward Da Biao's chest.

The hydraulic pump on the outside of Da Biao's thigh instantly erupted with a beast-like low growl. His thick mechanical arm brought up a layer of water mist and shot out like lightning.

Without any superfluous fighting moves, Da Biao locked onto the monster's throat.

"Bang, bang, bang." The monster's bone blade continuously struck the chest armor, leaving only a few shallow white marks.

Da Biao fully spread the fingers of his left hand and forcibly shoved them into the gap in the bone plates on the monster's back.

"Get up for me!" Da Biao roared.

The source energy shimmer instantly surged. Two tons of thrust were pulled to the maximum on the spot. Da Biao violently tore his arms toward both sides.

"Crack..."

The hair-raising sound of metal tearing echoed across the outer defense line.

Da Biao forcibly ripped the titanium alloy spine of that biological weapon, along with the dense mechanical nerves inside, directly out of the monster's back.

Dark green high-concentration nutrient solution sprayed three meters high from the severed opening.

The monster's massive body twitched violently twice, then collapsed limply into the mud and water, completely still.

Da Biao casually threw the slime-covered metal spine onto the ground and spat.

"Brothers, smash them all. Don't leave a whole corpse." Da Biao stepped on and crushed the monster's head.

"Yes, Brother Biao."

The remaining forty-nine heavily armored security guards charged forward simultaneously. With twelve monsters, that broke down to four people beating one.

This was a purely physical act of violence.

One security guard swung a half-ton I-beam, sweeping it horizontally toward the side of a monster's knee.

"Bang." The monster's titanium alloy leg bone snapped on the spot, and it knelt on one knee.

The other three security guards immediately surrounded it, raising the counterweight iron blocks and excavator track pins in their hands, and frantically smashed them against the monster's head and chest reactor.

The clanging sound of metal striking metal merged into a continuous noise.

"Dig out that glowing stone for me."

"This iron skin is too hard. Get the hydraulic cutters. Dismantle its arms."

The security guards cursed while smashing. Industrial power achieved the most thorough crushing of biological mutation.

The once arrogant Hive monsters had become lambs waiting for slaughter in front of this group of unreasonable steel infantry.

In less than three minutes.

The remaining eleven Hive monsters were all smashed into mechanical parts and pieces of rotten flesh scattered all over the ground.

Lone Wolf lay in a mud puddle in the distance, completely forgetting to stand up. The special forces he brought out were all open-mouthed, unaware that rainwater was pouring into them.

A young soldier shivered as he crept up to Lone Wolf and whispered, "Company Commander, these security guards are way more ruthless than us."

Lone Wolf wiped the mud and water from his face and swallowed hard.

"You call this security?" Lone Wolf stared at Da Biao, who was kicking the monster's parts with his foot. "This is a descent of heavenly soldiers and generals."

Across the ocean. New York. Manhattan underground command room.

The high-definition satellite screen hanging in the center of the wall instantly turned into a patch of blinding static.

The twelve vital sign signals connected to the biological weapons dropped to zero one after another within two minutes.

Anderson was still clutching a half-broken goblet in his hand. He stared fixedly at the static, his mind completely blank.

"Wiped out..." Anderson's lips trembled, his teeth biting his lower lip until it bled. "This is absolutely impossible. How could the Hive lose to a pile of tin toys?"

A wave of intense, twisting pain surged into his chest.

Anderson's vision went black, and a mouthful of dark red blood sprayed directly onto the control keyboard in front of him.

He didn't even have time to press the distress button before he fell backward, stiff as a board, crashing to the floor along with his leather executive chair, and passed out.

Jiangcheng, in the monitoring room.

It was deathly silent. The only sound left in the speakers was Da Biao and his men kicking the scrap metal on the ground.

Director Zhao's hand holding the teacup was trembling uncontrollably. The scalding tea spilled all over his thigh, but he couldn't even feel the pain.

The two accompanying commissioners behind him had completely weak legs; they slumped onto the terrazzo floor, lacking even the strength to stand up.

Those were the ultimate monsters capable of triggering a global military panic. In the hands of Lu Chen's security guards, they lived worse than stray dogs on a construction site.

Director Zhao panted heavily, his eyes fixed on those dark gray steel frames glowing with blue light on the screen.

Lu Chen clicked off the walkie-talkie in his hand.

He turned his canvas chair, his gaze falling on Director Zhao's bloodless face.

Lu Chen pulled the crushed pack of double happiness from his pocket, pulled out one, bit it in his mouth, and lit it with a plastic lighter.

The crisp sound of the flame igniting made the two commissioners slumped on the floor tremble all over.

"The roadshow is over." Lu Chen exhaled a cloud of grayish-white smoke, his tone casual. "Director Zhao, what do you think of the quality of my stock?"

Director Zhao's Adam's apple bobbed frantically. He reached up and wiped the cold sweat from his forehead.

"Factory Director Lu, this individual Exoskeleton indeed exceeds our evaluation limits." Director Zhao swallowed hard, forcibly suppressing the fear in his heart, attempting to regain the dignity of an official representative. "I retract what I said earlier. The higher-ups will take this entire batch of equipment."

Lu Chen leaned back in his chair, watching him without speaking.

Director Zhao gritted his teeth and continued, "Let's stick to the price you mentioned earlier. One hundred million per set. Two thousand sets, two hundred billion. I will contact the General Logistics Department in Beijing immediately and transfer the payment to you in batches. Do you think this shows enough sincerity?"

Old Zhou stood to the side, his hands grasping the pipe wrench sweating. Two hundred billion—the number made one dizzy just hearing it.

Old Zhou looked at Lu Chen, thinking this earth-shaking deal was done.

Lu Chen flicked the ash from his cigarette.

"One hundred million per set. That was the price half an hour ago." Lu Chen paused in his action of flicking the ash.

Director Zhao was stunned. His pupils contracted violently: "Lu Chen, what do you mean?"

"I said it just now." Lu Chen's gaze turned cold abruptly. "You came with sincerity, one hundred million. You came with arrogance to rob me, and even slammed the table and threatened me. That requires extra money."

"You want to jack up the price on the spot?" Director Zhao became anxious and shouted, "Two hundred billion is already the limit of liquid funds the higher-ups can mobilize. How much more do you want?"

Lu Chen held up five fingers.

"Five billion." Lu Chen looked into Director Zhao's eyes, enunciating each word.

"Five billion plus two hundred billion. A total of two hundred and five billion. We can find a way for this amount of money." Director Zhao breathed a slight sigh of relief.

"If you can't understand human language, go treat your ears." The cold sneer on Lu Chen's lips widened. "I said: five billion for one set of stock. No blueprints, no after-sales service. If it breaks, find a piece of scrap metal and weld it yourself."

The monitoring room fell silent instantly.

The pipe wrench in Old Zhou's hand dropped to the floor with a "clang."

Five billion per set. Two thousand sets. That's ten trillion.

This number already exceeded the scope of human commercial concepts. This was a price that would hollow out half the national treasury.

"You're crazy." Director Zhao completely broke down. He braced his hands on the folding table, staring fixedly at Lu Chen. "Lu Chen, do you know what ten trillion means? You are openly blackmailing the state. Do you really think that with a few thousand sets of tin, you can act lawlessly?"

"You don't have to buy it." Lu Chen threw the half-burned cigarette butt on the ground and stepped on it to extinguish it. "Nobody is forcing you."

Lu Chen stood up, braced his hands on the desktop, and leaned forward, less than half a meter away from Director Zhao. An extreme sense of oppression instantly enveloped Director Zhao.

"Those twelve dead dogs outside." Lu Chen pointed to the surveillance screen behind him. "Your Red Flag Department's intelligence network should know their origins better than I do. Freemasons have even thrown out their bottom-of-the-barrel biological weapons."

Director Zhao's back turned cold. He certainly knew what this meant.

"If they can send twelve today," Lu Chen stared into Director Zhao's eyes, "tomorrow they can send one hundred and twenty. One thousand two hundred. Directly air-dropped onto the main roads of Beijing."

Director Zhao opened his mouth, but couldn't say a single word.

"Besides these few thousand sets of tin of mine," Lu Chen's tone was chilling, "can those conventional weapons in your hands stop them?"

The monitoring room was so quiet that only the heavy breathing of the two commissioners could be heard.

Lu Chen straightened up.

"Five billion per set. It's selling you all your lives; that's not excessive, is it?" Lu Chen pulled open a drawer, took out a blank supply contract, and tossed it casually in front of Director Zhao.

Director Zhao looked at the contract, his hands and feet cold. This wasn't doing business at all; it was holding a knife to the throats of the entire Chinese leadership to cut flesh. And yet, this knife—they had no choice now but to accept it.

"Factory Director Lu." Director Zhao's voice was hoarse and dry. "Ten trillion. A capital mobilization of this magnitude must be personally approved by the highest level. I simply don't have this authority. Even if you took me apart and sold me, I couldn't come up with that much money."

"I know you don't have this authority." Lu Chen pulled out the office chair and sat down. "So I won't make it difficult for you."

Lu Chen tapped on the pure black metal briefcase on the folding table. Inside the case still lay the two halves of the torn-up fifty-billion check.

"Call the person in charge above you." Lu Chen looked at Director Zhao, his tone leaving no room for negotiation. "Make the call right here. Turn on the speakerphone."

Director Zhao was trembling all over. With shaking hands, he took out a red encrypted mobile phone from his inner pocket and dialed the number.

"Beep... beep... beep..."

The speakerphone sound was piercing in the quiet monitoring room.

The call connected.

"Old Zhao, have you figured out the situation?" A low, dignified voice came from the other end of the line. It was the exclusive frequency of the Beijing Defense Chief.

Director Zhao glanced at Lu Chen, who was sitting in the chair, cold sweat dripping from his chin onto the table.

"Chief, the situation has changed." Director Zhao's voice trembled. "Lu Chen's equipment. The actual performance far exceeds expectations. Freemasons' Hive monsters were completely wiped out by them within three minutes."

There was silence on the other end of the phone for a full five seconds.

"Good. That's great." The Chief's voice was filled with excitement. "Give him the fifty billion. Take over the production line and blueprints immediately. Arrange for special forces to transport them back to Beijing overnight."

Director Zhao felt all the strength drained from his body.

"Chief. He won't sell the blueprints. He won't hand over the production line either." Director Zhao gritted his teeth and blurted it all out in one breath. "He only sells the stock now."

"Then buy the whole lot." The Chief's tone remained strong. "Give him a twenty percent premium on the cost price. Tell him the state will record a first-class merit for him."

Lu Chen suddenly laughed. He reached out and pressed the phone in Director Zhao's hand directly against the speakerphone microphone.

"Chief, right?" Lu Chen spoke into the phone, his tone flat. "I don't want a first-class merit. I said it just now. Five billion per set for the stock. I want ten trillion. Cash."

The other end of the phone instantly fell terrifyingly silent.

"You are Lu Chen." The Chief's voice dropped to freezing point. "Young man, arrogance must have its limits. Ten trillion. You are demanding the life of the entire national treasury. Do you know who you are talking to?"

"I don't care what your name is." Lu Chen completely ignored that. "I am marrow-sucking right now. If you want the capital to survive, trade it for real gold and silver."

Lu Chen reached out and tapped heavily on the table, making a crisp sound.

"I will only wait ten minutes. If there's no result after ten minutes," Lu Chen issued an ultimatum directly into the microphone, "I will open the gates. I'll pack up those pieces of tin and send them to The White House. I think Anderson would be very willing to spend money to buy this scrap metal that can smash his precious monsters."