179: Chapter 179 Dimensional Absolute Domination, the Military's Gods

He swallowed hard.

His rough right hand rested on his belt buckle. He turned his head, looked at his completely stunned adjutant beside him, and patted the adjutant on the shoulder.

"Take photos." Chen Dingbang's voice was extremely hoarse, as if his throat were spitting sparks. "Capture those words on the hull clearly. Use the highest-level encrypted data link."

The adjutant shuddered, his hands trembling as he reached for the terminal equipment.

"Transmit it to the Beijing General Command." Chen Dingbang gritted his back teeth. "Also, forward a copy to the Jiangcheng garrison. Tell them to go ask that Factory Director Lu... what exactly he is playing at."

A few minutes later.

Jiangcheng High-tech Zone. Outside the perimeter of the 8,000-mu construction site.

The heavy rain had stopped. There were muddy puddles everywhere on the dirt road.

Lone Wolf was wearing soaked camouflage. His feet were firmly planted in a mud puddle.

He held a military communicator in one hand, listening to the top-secret briefing from the East Sea frontline being replayed in the earpiece.

"Target confirmed as unnumbered strategic nuclear submarines... three ships... all surfaced... sailors tied up... the words 'Chenguang Factory Assets' painted in red on the side of the hulls..."

The electronically synthesized voice echoed in Lone Wolf's ears over and over again.

Lone Wolf's mind went blank.

He maintained the posture of holding the walkie-talkie for a full three minutes. As the cold wind blew, he shuddered violently.

Three top-of-the-line strategic nuclear submarines. They were originally headed here to wipe Jiangcheng off the map.

In the blink of an eye, they had become private factory fixed assets with names painted on their hulls. They even had to sail themselves to the East Sea defense line to deliver the goods obediently.

This completely exceeded the limits of human history of warfare and common logic.

Lone Wolf cut off the communicator, turned around abruptly, and ran frantically through the mud toward the dilapidated office building of Chenguang Factory.

The iron door of the control room was not closed.

Lone Wolf rushed into the room, his boots leaving a trail of wet footprints on the floor.

Lu Chen was sitting on that broken leather sofa, holding half a double happiness cigarette, looking down at a text message on his phone.

Da Biao was standing by the window, wiping rainwater off his mechanical arm with a rag.

Wu Dong was sprawled in his computer chair, eyes closed, breathing heavily.

Hearing the hurried footsteps, none of the three in the room looked up.

Lone Wolf stood at attention, legs pressed tightly together.

"Slap."

Lone Wolf raised his right hand and gave Lu Chen a standard military salute.

The veins on the back of his hand were bulging.

He looked at the young man in the black jacket on the sofa, his eyes full of morbid awe. He was looking at Lu Chen now as if he were a god who could overturn the world with a flip of his hand.

"Factory Director Lu." Lone Wolf's voice trembled; he couldn't control the shaking of his vocal cords.

Lu Chen exhaled a puff of gray-white smoke and raised his eyelids to glance at him.

"A call came from the East Sea." Lu Chen said in a flat tone.

"Yes." Lone Wolf lowered his hand and swallowed hard. "The East Sea Fleet... has taken full control. The three big black fish are now being escorted to the deep-water naval port."

Da Biao threw the rag onto the windowsill and scratched his bald head.

"Boss. The foreigners actually delivered the tin toys we just bought right to our door." Da Biao's loud voice shook dust from the ceiling. "Can this stuff be dragged back to the factory for steelmaking? I just tested it, the special steel on the hulls of these big black fish is harder than the bones of the Hive monsters."

Hearing Da Biao's words, Lone Wolf nearly choked.

Steelmaking.

Those were doomsday fortresses capable of lurking in the deep sea and executing nuclear strikes at will. Across the globe, the number of countries capable of building these things could be counted on two hands.

In the mouth of this security captain, they were only fit to be sent to a blast furnace to be melted down.

Lone Wolf stared fixedly at Lu Chen, waiting for this man who controlled the whole situation to give a reasonable explanation and handover plan.

Lu Chen crushed his cigarette butt into the glass ashtray.

"That thing is too big. It takes up space if we transport it back to Jiangcheng. And the factory doesn't have a deep-water pool for it to dock."

Lu Chen picked up the plastic lighter on the table and twirled it twice in his hand.

"It's just a freebie that came with buying a crappy mining company. It's of no practical use to me here."

Lu Chen looked up at Lone Wolf, his tone calm. "Say hello to the General Command for me. Consider those three pieces of junk a donation from my Chenguang Factory to the country. You can take them and dismantle them for fun. By the way, check if there's any good technology in them that can be used."

Lone Wolf's legs went weak. He almost knelt directly on the composite floor of the control room.

Donated.

Dismantle for fun.

Words that could change the balance of global naval power were spoken by Lu Chen as easily as if he were casually throwing away a rotten green onion he didn't want after buying groceries.

Lone Wolf opened his mouth, wanting to say something, but found that any words were pale in front of this man.

"Guarantee to complete the handover and relay the message." Lone Wolf saluted again, turned around, and walked out with big strides. He gently closed the control room door behind him, his movements so soft as if afraid of disturbing something.

At the same time.

Beijing. Houhai courtyard.

The air after the rain was cold and clear.

The old man sat at the rosewood desk in the study, holding a red-headed briefing that had just been transmitted through the military's highest-level encrypted channel.

Beside him were two high-definition color photos that had been printed out.

In the photos, the five words "Chenguang Factory Assets" on the side of the black nuclear submarine were strikingly red. It was visually shocking.

The old man stared at the photos for a full minute.

Suddenly.

The old man burst into a very loud laugh.

He slammed the desk, the immense force directly overturning the purple clay tea tray on the table. Boiling hot tea splashed all over the floor.

"Good." The old man's face was glowing, his voice full of absolute dominance. "This slap was solid. It stripped Anderson, that old madman, down to his underwear."

Outside the door, the middle-aged man from the Red Flag Department who had been waiting pushed the door open. Seeing the mess on the floor, he quickly lowered his head.

"Go." The old man pointed at the middle-aged man and issued a direct order. "Draft a special document immediately. Issue the highest level of operational immunity and defense privileges to Jiangcheng Chenguang Factory and Lu Chen himself."

The middle-aged man shuddered.

"Chief. Isn't this too big a deal?" The middle-aged man whispered, trying to dissuade him. "Highest immunity. This is equivalent to creating a one-way street for him against national law."

"They threw three heavy national weapons away in the East Sea for us to dismantle for free. We don't even dare to give this little privilege?" The old man's eyes were sharp as knives. "Notify everyone. From today on, whoever dares to set up checkpoints in Jiangcheng to block any business operations of Chenguang Factory, don't bother with a trial. Deal with them directly according to military law."

"Understood. I will handle it immediately." The middle-aged man stood at attention and retreated.

Jiangcheng. Chenguang Factory.

Lu Chen sat on the sofa. A crisp, electronically synthesized voice suddenly sounded in his mind.

"Beep."

"Detected that the host has successfully eliminated the threat of extreme nuclear physical strikes."

"Demonstrated overwhelming foundation that transcends international common sense. Successfully triggered the highest-level escort endorsement at the national level."

"System determines defense rating has jumped significantly."

"Reward: 5 million tech points. The effective coverage of the full-power absolute defense system is permanently expanded by two hundred kilometers."

Lu Chen brought up the semi-transparent system panel and took a look.

The balance of tech points in the upper right corner had broken through the eight million mark. A long string of zeros looked very comfortable.

However, now was not the time to enjoy the victory and count the spoils.

Lu Chen closed the panel, stood up from the sofa, and walked to Wu Dong's desk.

"Old Zhou." Lu Chen patted Old Zhou, who was checking financial accounts nearby.

Old Zhou immediately looked up: "Boss. The accounts are checked. Not a single cent is missing."

"Arrange for equipment to connect the transoceanic video line." Lu Chen flexed his finger joints, making a cracking sound. "We bought the shell company on the other side. Nominal control has already entered our account."

"Now." Lu Chen's eyes turned cold. "It's time to pick their worms and powerful executives out of the meat."

Old Zhou immediately ran to the corner to move out a military-grade high-definition video call terminal. He quickly connected it to the interface of the main display screen.

Wu Dong, however, sat up straight. His fingers tapped a few times on the keyboard, bringing up an all-red interception log.

"Boss. Something is wrong." Wu Dong pointed to the English code scrolling on the screen, looking troubled. "Just now, while the underlying system backdoor hadn't been closed, I went to pull the administrative management backend permissions of the other side."

"Can't get in." Wu Dong wiped the sweat from his forehead. "The foreigners are very cunning. Their financial ledgers were indeed swallowed by us. The shares are also in our hands. This is set in stone by global financial rules."

"However." Wu Dong took a deep breath. "They have performed the highest level of physical disconnection on the entire personnel appointment system and business approval system. All data has been disconnected from the external network and locked inside the local area network server of the Manhattan headquarters building."

Lu Chen looked down at the screen: "Trying to renege on the debt."

"A very straightforward reneging." Wu Dong nodded. "They know they can't turn the tables in the financial market. Now this group of foreign executives is playing a shameless trick. Relying on being overseas, with the ocean separating us by tens of thousands of kilometers. We hold the shares here, but we can't intervene in any actual operational operations inside the building."

Lu Chen took out his lighter and lit a new cigarette.

"Is the channel for the video conference set up?" Lu Chen asked.

"It's through. We are using the parent company's highest board of directors forced entry point. The other party can't cut this line." Wu Dong pressed the Enter key hard with both hands on the keyboard.

The large screen covering the entire wall of the control room flickered twice.

The image changed.

It cut directly into a luxurious, highly oppressive overseas large conference room.

Outside the floor-to-ceiling windows was the gray sky of Manhattan.

Both sides of the ten-meter-long top-grade walnut conference table were filled with more than thirty white executives in suits and leather shoes. In front of each person was a pure gold nameplate.

This group of people were the core power brokers controlling the world's top rare earth and precision titanium alloy supply chains.

The moment the image connected, these thirty-plus people simultaneously cast their gazes toward the camera side.

No fear. No panic of bankruptcy or acquisition.

Even carrying extreme, arrogant mockery.

A white old man in his fifties sitting in the main seat had his hair combed meticulously back. He held a thick Cuban cigar between his fingers.

He didn't even sit up straight. He was still leaning in the genuine leather swivel chair. His two feet, wearing high-end leather shoes, were propped directly on that expensive conference table.

The white old man blew a thick puff of cigar smoke at the video camera. The corners of his mouth slanted.

Lu Chen stood on this side of the screen, looking at the arrogant face in the picture.

His finger rested on the control position of the keyboard.