233: Chapter 233 Make Way, or Die

The hydraulic thrusters around Da Biao's knees suddenly flared with a blinding blue light, and the dark blue exhaust flames scorched the expensive moisture-proof pallets on the floor.

The monster had keen reflexes; the mutant creature on the left, covered in compound eyes, exerted force with its hind limbs. Its massive body brought with it a foul stench as it lunged instantly at Da Biao's face.

Its sharp front claws dug fiercely into the titanium alloy armor on Da Biao's chest, causing a long string of blinding sparks to erupt in the dark vault, accompanied by a harsh, grating sound of metal.

Da Biao didn't dodge at all; he even stepped forward, bearing the brunt of the impact.

Two of the monster's claws snapped on the spot, causing it to let out a sharp hiss of pain.

Jiangcheng, Underground Level 3 control room of Chenguang Factory.

Through the shared tactical visor feed, Zhang Qiang saw everything clearly, his entire body pressed against the screen.

"Da Biao, you bastard."

Zhang Qiang grabbed the communication microphone and roared, "That's my prey! Leave one for me. I didn't get enough of a fight with those bastards in the Pacific Ocean; don't hog everything for yourself."

Da Biao grinned, his smile sinister beneath the visor.

"Get lost. Any bones you leave behind are mine to gnaw on today. You just stay put underwater."

Before Da Biao finished speaking, his left mechanical arm flipped upward.

Five tons of single-arm thrust erupted instantly, and his metal fingers clamped tightly onto the monster's chin, the immense force instantly crushing its jawbone.

The monster struggled frantically, its four hind limbs kicking violently at Da Biao's waist armor, while acidic, rotting drool dripped onto the magnetorheological defense layer, hissing and emitting white smoke.

"Put some effort into it, didn't you eat?" Da Biao laughed loudly.

The high-frequency oscillation combat knife gripped tightly in his right hand instantly erupted with a piercing roar, the dark red blade slicing through the air, causing the surrounding air to heat up.

Without mercy, Da Biao gripped the combat knife and thrust it straight down the monster's throat, all the way through.

A violent shockwave exploded inside the monster's chest cavity; the monster's screams stopped abruptly as a massive gush of green pus and blood sprayed out.

Da Biao lifted his foot and kicked the monster's corpse off the blade, sending it crashing heavily into the pile of gold bricks.

"Don't just watch, get to work." Da Biao shook the green blood off the blade and roared into the communication channel.

Two hundred Death Squad Soldiers moved; there was no tactical positioning, nor was any fire support needed.

Two hundred heavy black Exoskeletons completely filled this massive vault.

The other two monsters hadn't even figured out the situation before they were pinned to the ground by dozens of Exoskeletons. No matter how they hissed or struggled, the dozens of tons of physical weight pressing down on them made it impossible for them to move a single finger.

"Hold them down, don't get the gold dirty." A Death Squad Soldier shouted in the channel.

A dozen high-frequency oscillation combat knives were raised simultaneously and then swung down mercilessly.

Three minutes, just three minutes, and the remaining two monsters were hacked to pieces, with slime and severed limbs scattered all over the floor.

In the control room, Wei Jianguo watched the screen, stamping his feet in anxiety and slapping the tabletop repeatedly.

"Don't hack them to pieces, you bunch of brutes! Collect the tissue samples! Those are high-dimensional biological remains; refining the Genetic Enhancement Fluid depends entirely on this stuff. Leave some intact bones!" Wei Jianguo cursed into the microphone.

Da Biao walked forward and kicked aside a twitching monster limb near his feet.

"Old man Wei, quit your nagging. The meat is already shredded, but I've saved the bones for you. Take them back and make yourself some soup."

"Boss, the rats have been cleared out." Da Biao turned and reported.

Lu Chen leaned back in the control room chair, twirling that transparent plastic lighter with his fingers.

"Load it up."

"Copy that."

Da Biao waved his hand, and the Death Squad Soldiers pulled large silver nets from the tactical compartments on the backs of their Exoskeletons.

These were specially made titanium alloy nets, with cords thicker than an adult's thumb.

The two hundred heavily armored Death Squad Soldiers had now become the most violent movers.

They didn't pick them up one by one at all, instead using their massive mechanical hands to scoop into the pile of gold bricks, stuffing them by the handful into the titanium alloy nets, along with the moisture-proof pallets.

Some gold bricks stained with monster blood and organ fragments were scooped up without a second glance.

"This job is way more satisfying than hacking people up." Someone shouted in the channel.

"No kidding, this is all money. Fill it up, pack it tight." Zhang Qiang swallowed hard as he listened in the channel.

The sound of metal clashing was deafening in the vault.

A single net held over a dozen tons of physical gold, and the Exoskeletons' mechanical arms lifted these nets effortlessly.

In the control room, Wu Dong was furiously typing on his keyboard, calculating the total weight in real-time using the load data transmitted back by the Exoskeletons.

Strings of numbers jumped frantically on the screen, and Wu Dong's breathing grew increasingly rapid.

"Boss, the data compilation is complete."

Wu Dong pushed up his slipping glasses, his voice trembling.

Lu Chen lit a cigarette.

"Report."

"Three thousand tons. Exactly three thousand tons of high-purity gold bricks."

Wu Dong swallowed, staring intently at the screen. "Boss, Sakura Country has buried half of their strategic reserves right here underground."

Wei Jianguo, listening nearby, gasped.

"If this haul of physical gold were dumped directly into the international financial market, it could strip the Federal Reserve bare."

Lu Chen exhaled a puff of blue smoke, his eyes devoid of any ripples.

"Move it all out. Put it in our own pockets. Notify the submarine, prepare for extraction."

"Understood." Wu Dong immediately hit the enter key.

On the outskirts of the Mount Fuji area, the torrential rain gradually eased.

The ruins on the surface were overturned once again as two hundred pure black heavy mechs, carrying massive titanium alloy nets, leaped one after another from the underground tunnel a hundred meters deep.

Every time one of these metal monsters landed, it smashed a deep crater into the mud.

The weight of three thousand tons was distributed among two hundred people, with each Exoskeleton carrying an average load of fifteen tons, well within the normal operating load of the engines.

This mechanical troop carrying the gold sprinted rapidly through the night. No one could stop them, and no one dared to stop them; the remnants of the Self-Defense Forces along the way had long since fled without a trace.

Forty minutes later, the team arrived at the open sea off the Deepwater Port of Tokyo Bay.

The massive black hull of the viper no. 3 nuclear submarine slowly surfaced, its huge cargo deck already opened.

Da Biao was the first to jump onto the deck, slamming the net he was carrying into the cargo hold.

The Death Squad Soldiers lined up in two rows, efficiently dumping all three thousand tons of gold, along with the monsters' bones, inside.

The cargo hold doors closed silently, and seawater washed over the submarine's fairwater planes.

Just as Da Biao was preparing to lead his team into the airlock, a sudden change occurred.

In the control room, the main screens in front of Wu Dong suddenly flashed crimson, and a piercing, highest-level air defense alarm echoed throughout the entire Underground Level 3.

Wu Dong's fingers immediately smashed onto the keyboard, and cold sweat broke out instantly.

"Damn it, the deep-sea monitoring array picked up high-frequency abnormal signals. They've forcibly cracked our perimeter shielding," Wu Dong shouted.

Lu Chen sat up straight.

"Explain clearly."

"The 7th Fleet. A Ticonderoga-class cruiser is approaching the outlet of Tokyo Bay at full speed, speed thirty knots, five nautical miles from our submarine."

Wu Dong pulled up the satellite imagery from low Earth orbit and zoomed in quickly. A massive grey-white warship was positioned right in the middle of the deep-water channel, the heavy cannons on its bow already raised.

"Not only that, they've activated full-spectrum sonar jamming. They've just locked onto the acoustic signature of the viper no. 3." Sweat beads from Wu Dong's forehead dripped onto the keyboard.

Lu Chen crushed his cigarette butt into the ashtray on the desk.

"Are they hailing us?"

Wu Dong immediately clicked on an audio file that had just been intercepted.

"Unknown submarine, this is the exclusive defense zone of the United States 7th Fleet. You are suspected of stealing extremely dangerous strategic materials. Immediately stop engines and surface for joint inspection. Repeat, immediately stop engines and accept joint inspection, shut down power systems, or we will take destructive measures to sink you."

A standard, heavily arrogant American English voice echoed throughout the control room.

The audio signal was transmitted via an encrypted network, reaching the ears of Da Biao, who was standing on the submarine's deck.

Da Biao gripped his combat knife, laughing in extreme anger.

"Those beggars from the United States sure have keen noses. They can smell money from half a Pacific Ocean away. This is clearly a case of them coming over to commit highway robbery."

Zhang Qiang's voice came from the submarine's internal command cabin, his tone extremely grave.

"Boss, they came prepared. It's not just the cruiser on the surface. Radar shows two Los Angeles-class attack submarines flanking us at a depth of fifty meters. Their torpedo tubes are all open, locked onto our course. If we dare to leave the deep-water zone for even a step, they will definitely open fire immediately."

Surrounded on three sides, blocked by firepower—their retreat was completely cut off.

Lu Chen stood up and grabbed the red communication microphone.

"Old Wu, forcibly patch into that cruiser's shipboard public channel."

Wu Dong's hands flew over the keys. Three seconds later, "Boss, firewall breached. Connection established."

Lu Chen didn't bother with any unnecessary pleasantries; his voice was cold.

"Move aside, or die."

In the cruiser's command cabin, the US Navy captain heard this sentence from the loudspeaker, paused for a moment, and then laughed wantonly.

"Mysterious Easterner, you might not understand the situation. If your submarine dares to move even an inch, my two brother warships underwater will tear you to pieces. Hand over the gold obediently, and we might consider leaving you a whole corpse."

Lu Chen cut off the communication directly, not even bothering to give a rebuttal.

"Da Biao, Zhang Qiang."

Lu Chen stared at the three red dots representing the enemy forces on the screen.

"Here!" The two shouted simultaneously in the channel.

"Teach this bunch of robbers a lesson. That ship—don't leave it intact."

Lu Chen turned around and tossed the lighter onto the desk.

Da Biao ripped a piece of camouflage netting off the submarine's hull and tossed it into the sea.

The electronic eyes beneath his visor instantly turned a deep, purplish red, and the Exoskeleton's auxiliary thrusters roared again with a low rumble.

Da Biao slowly raised his combat knife, the blade pointing directly at that behemoth five nautical miles away.

"Brothers, we're tired from being movers just now. Now, let's go cut up some big sheets of scrap metal to loosen our wrists."

Da Biao licked his lips, his voice filled with an irrepressible, bloodthirsty madness.