176: Chapter 176 Countdown! Death in the Depths of the Ocean

New York Presbyterian Hospital. Intensive Care Unit.

The short, sharp prompt for launch confirmation completely dissipated into the air.

Anderson slipped, his strength failing him. He collapsed onto the cold tiles beside the hospital bed.

He gasped for air heavily. The whites of his eyes were terrifyingly red, filled with dense bloodshot veins. The wound on the back of his hand, where the IV had just been pulled out, was still bleeding. Drops of blood splattered onto the white floor tiles.

The hospital room door was kicked open roughly.

Two emergency doctors rushed into the room, accompanied by four hospital security guards.

"Hold him down," the lead doctor commanded loudly. "Prepare a high dose of sedatives. The patient has completely lost his mind."

The four burly security guards surrounded him.

Anderson scrambled backward on his hands and feet. His back slammed hard against the metal cabinet in the corner.

With his right hand, he pulled a dark gray pistol from his chest. The muzzle was aimed directly at the doctor who had rushed to the front.

"Get away," Anderson wheezed, his voice hoarse and grating. "Don't anyone move. Whoever comes closer, I'll kill them."

The doctor and the security guards froze instantly. They slowly raised their hands above their heads and retreated toward the door, step by step.

Anderson ignored them. He pressed the muzzle against his own chin and turned his head, staring fixedly at the briefcase that was still emitting a faint glow.

The green indicator light for the launch sequence remained steady.

Password locked. Physically disconnected. The irreversible launch command had already burrowed deep into the ocean.

Anderson's Adam's apple bobbed twice. A grimace that was meant to be a smile pulled at his cracked lips.

"What does winning even matter? We'll all die together," Anderson muttered, cursing. "Lu Chen. I've saved a spot for you in hell. Bring your Chenguang Electronics with you. Come down and keep me company."

The command took effect. A devastating strike from three strategic nuclear submarines was about to cross the Pacific Ocean and slam into Jiangcheng.

At the same moment. Jiangcheng. The data control room on the second floor of Chenguang Factory.

Outside the window, the pitch-black night sky slowly began to brighten with a pale morning light. The torrential rain that had fallen all night had finally stopped.

The control room was filled with the smell of burning cheap tobacco.

Wu Dong slumped entirely into his worn-out office chair. He tilted his neck back, staring at the white-gray ceiling.

His hands hung by his sides. His ten fingers were still uncontrollably twitching back and forth.

On the main wall screen, the green confirmation pop-up for the acquisition was still flashing incessantly. In the back end of the 100,000 offshore accounts, there was an additional cash balance of hundreds of billions of RMB. The control of several of the world's top multinational giants was all contained within it.

Lu Chen sat on that tattered leather sofa.

He reached into his pocket and pulled out a plastic lighter. He sparked the flame and lit the half-finished double happiness cigarette.

The spark lit up a red dot in the dimly lit room.

Lu Chen exhaled a puff of gray-white smoke. He lifted his foot and used his old, mud-stained leather shoe to kick the wheels of Wu Dong's chair.

"Sit up straight," Lu Chen said in a cold tone. "Never seen money before?"

Wu Dong swallowed hard. He quickly braced his hands on his thighs and sat up straight.

"Boss, it's really not about the money," Wu Dong said, raising his sleeve to wipe the cold sweat from his forehead. "In the last few dozen minutes, we've wiped out most of the Americans' net worth. Companies with hundreds of thousands of employees—they all listen to us now. This feeling is so unreal."

"Have some ambition," Lu Chen said, pointing at the mechanical keyboard on the table. "Go check the ledgers. Finish the job before you rest."

Wu Dong pushed up the glasses that had slid to the tip of his nose. "Boss, what else is there to check? The equity transfer has all gone into our accounts. All the foreigners' bottom positions are empty. Wall Street didn't even have a chance to resist."

"Take over the underlying databases of the rare earth and titanium alloy parent companies we just bought," Lu Chen said, flicking ash onto the coffee table. "Foreigners love to bury landmines and cook the books in these multinational companies. Run a system-wide comprehensive scan for me. Don't even let their toilet maintenance fees slip by."

Wu Dong took a deep breath. He placed his hands back on the keyboard.

"Understood," Wu Dong said, typing forcefully. "These bastards must have hidden plenty of private money. I'm going to flip their bottom line right now."

The sound of typing filled the empty room.

Utilizing the super-strong computing power after the system speed boost, Wu Dong began to forcibly scan the deepest, darkest accounts of these two giant companies.

The progress bar on the main screen ran quickly. Ten percent. Forty percent. Eighty percent.

Everything was unobstructed. A large amount of hidden capital flows and betting contracts were dug out.

The more Wu Dong looked, the brighter his eyes became.

"Boss, they have an evil amount of shell projects listed under the titanium alloy parent company," Wu Dong said, staring at the scrolling English code. "Just one fake project called 'Deep Sea Geological Exploration' costs nearly three billion US dollars every year. This is typical internal money laundering."

Lu Chen didn't speak. He smoked quietly.

Wu Dong continued to click down into the details page. His brows suddenly furrowed.

"These accounts aren't right," Wu Dong said, his expression turning serious. "Boss, this exploration project didn't buy drilling platform equipment at all. The incoming invoices are all for military-grade anti-radiation coatings. And ultra-high-pressure titanium alloy load-bearing plates. This isn't exploration. This is building heavy weapons."

Before he could finish speaking, the dozen or so screens hanging on the walls of the data control room suddenly emitted a harsh crackle of static.

All the green code scrolling on the screens froze. The next second, all the screens flashed simultaneously with a blinding blood-red color.

A piercing air-raid siren blasted directly in the control room through the loudspeakers. The enamel tea mug on the table was shaken, rattling back and forth.

Wu Dong shuddered violently. He almost tumbled off his office chair onto the floor.

Right in the center of the screen, a massive pop-up window with a black nuclear radiation symbol forcibly appeared.

Several lines of bold English jumped frantically on the screen. Warning prompt. Detected auxiliary military asset requesting launch command. Target locked. Huaxia region. Coordinates locked to Chenguang Factory in Jiangcheng. System countdown started. 03 minutes 00 seconds.

Wu Dong's brain went numb instantly. The cold sweat on his back soaked his shirt through in an instant. The icy fabric clung tightly to his skin.

"Bo... Boss," Wu Dong stammered, his voice completely changed. "Something happened. Something deadly has happened."

Lu Chen remained leaning against the back of the sofa, unmoved. The cigarette in his hand didn't even tremble.

Lu Chen lifted his eyelids slightly. "Read it."

"Something is about to launch," Wu Dong said, his hands pounding frantically on the keyboard, desperately tracing the source of the signal. "The alert says it's an auxiliary military asset requesting to fire. And the locked target is the factory area where we are."

Three-minute countdown. The red numbers jumped blindingly on the screen. Two minutes fifty-eight seconds. Two minutes fifty-five seconds.

Wu Dong's eyes were almost pressed against the screen glass. He managed to extract a line of underlying physical encryption address hidden at the very bottom.

"Found it," Wu Dong roared, his voice completely altered. "The signal launch site is in the Pacific Ocean. On the edge of the Mariana Trench. This asset is listed under the deep-sea geological exploration account we just found."

Lu Chen picked up the lighter and toyed with it in his hand. "See clearly what the details are. What exactly is it?"

Wu Dong retrieved the last hidden configuration list. His face turned deathly pale. There wasn't a drop of color left.

"It's submarines," Wu Dong said, his lips trembling back and forth. "Three of them. No serial numbers. Viper-class strategic nuclear submarines that are completely off the international registry."

The control room was terrifyingly quiet. Only the piercing air-raid siren echoed all around.

Wu Dong slumped into his chair and didn't move.

"Nuclear submarines," Wu Dong muttered these three words repeatedly. "These people are all true lunatics. Under the financial accounts of a civilian company, they hid strategic nuclear submarines capable of piercing the continental shelf."

The countdown continued to decrease mercilessly. Two minutes forty seconds.

Wu Dong turned his head abruptly. He stared fixedly at Lu Chen on the sofa. His eyes were filled with panic.

"Boss, this is a suicide attack," Wu Dong said, scrambling to grab the landline phone on the table. "Anderson knows he won't survive. He pressed the switch. Even though we just bought his company, he still wants to drag us to death with him. When the time is up, the missiles will launch. We can't escape."

Wu Dong thought his boss would immediately jump up and order the evacuation of the entire factory, or call the military colonel stationed outside to quickly find a way to intercept.

But Lu Chen didn't even show any intention of standing up.

Lu Chen slowly extinguished the finished cigarette butt in the glass ashtray. It made a faint sizzling sound.

He stood up from the tattered sofa. His hands were tucked into the pockets of his black jacket.

Step by step, Lu Chen walked behind Wu Dong's office chair. His footsteps were steady and heavy. There wasn't the slightest bit of panic.

Lu Chen looked up. He watched the blinding blood-red warning across the entire wall. He watched the nuclear radiation symbol. He sneered.

"Anderson thinks... this is still a weapon he can command," Lu Chen said calmly. His voice was very low.

Wu Dong was stunned on the spot. He completely failed to understand what this sentence meant in the current situation.

"Boss, there's only two and a half minutes left. Jiangcheng is going to be gone," Wu Dong said, grabbing the phone receiver. "Da Biao and the others are still on Underground Level 3."

Lu Chen reached out one hand. He pressed it directly onto Wu Dong's shoulder. The strength in his hand was immense. He pressed Wu Dong back down firmly into the office chair.

"You just said... these three submarines on the seabed... are listed under which business?" Lu Chen looked down into Wu Dong's eyes.

Wu Dong was completely confused by this question. "Deep-sea geological exploration business."

"This business is a wholly-owned subsidiary. Right?" Lu Chen continued to ask.

Wu Dong nodded.

"Then, who is the 100% absolute controlling shareholder of this titanium alloy parent company right now?" Lu Chen's tone grew colder and colder.

Wu Dong suddenly understood in his mind. A bold, crazy idea instantly pierced through all his panicked emotions.

"It's us," Wu Dong said, his throat rolling dryly. "Chenguang Holdings. Half an hour ago, we used hidden accounts to go through the strong liquidation channel. We bought this entire parent company."

Lu Chen withdrew his hand. He pointed at the launch confirmation request and the countdown on the large wall screen.

"The game of capital only recognizes rules. It never recognizes emotions," Lu Chen said, staring at the screen. "All fixed assets and hidden weapons, as long as they are listed on the company's books, only recognize the ownership of the underlying system keys."

Wu Dong slowly put the phone receiver he had dropped back down. He placed his two hands back on the keyboard. His fingers were no longer shaking. Blood rushed back to his face.

"Boss, I understand," Wu Dong said. A fanatical light lit up in his eyes.

"Anderson does want to die. But the trump card he used in his madness to drag us down with him changed owners half an hour ago," Lu Chen said, pulling that tattered cigarette pack from his pocket. He pulled out a new one and put it in his mouth. "Attacking my place, while using my submarines? He doesn't have that qualification."

"Boss, there are two minutes left in the countdown," Wu Dong said, pointing to the bright red 02 minutes 00 seconds on the screen.

"The titanium alloy parent company is ours," Lu Chen said, pressing the lighter to ignite the cigarette. "Since the company is ours, the nuclear submarines hidden under the company are naturally our private property as well."

Lu Chen threw the plastic lighter onto the table. It made a crisp sound.

"Block that foreign devil's launch request. Kick him out," Lu Chen gave the final order. "Take over control. Give those three iron lumps on the seabed a new password."

Wu Dong nodded heavily. His ten fingers smashed heavily onto the keyboard.