251: Chapter 251 Armed Debt Collection, Live Broadcast Globally

In the control room on Underground Level 3 in Jiangcheng, Wu Dong stared intensely at the black interface before him and slammed the Enter key.

The notification sound of a successful transmission echoed through the spacious room, sharp and jarring.

Wu Dong felt a shiver run straight up his spine to the top of his head. He turned his head to look at Lu Chen, who was standing to the side with a cigarette butt between his fingers, expressionless. His voice sounded a bit dry.

"Boss, it's been sent. I didn't even miss a single punctuation mark."

"As long as it's sent, that's fine."

Lu Chen leaned against the edge of the sheet-metal table, which reeked of machine oil, his tone icy.

"Give them some time to scrape the money together. If they dare to touch my sea territory, they better be prepared to pay a hefty price."

Old Zhou was still sitting on the floor, unable to recover, his face deathly pale.

"Boss, are we really going to the United States' home base to collect debts? If this goes wrong, we'll lose everything."

"Go wrong?"

Lu Chen raised an eyebrow and stubbed out his cigarette in the ashtray on the corner of the table.

"In the way I, Lu Chen, do things, that word doesn't exist."

Lu Chen turned to look at Wei Jianguo, who was standing to the side in a daze.

"Old Wei, stop staring at the screen. Since we've got the Extreme Pressure Soft Gold, hurry up and take your people to smelt it. That anti-gravity chassis can't wait too long. Hurry up and get the 'Iron Shirt' armor plated onto it for me."

Wei Jianguo slapped his forehead and hurriedly grabbed the dirty towel draped around his neck to wipe off his sweat.

"Understood. As soon as the material is ready, I'll handle it myself. I guarantee I'll make that chassis so hard that even armor-piercing shells won't be able to make a dent. I'm going to do it right now."

Wei Jianguo turned and trotted out of the control room.

...

Thirty minutes later.

Washington, D.C.

The Pentagon underground combat hall.

The dull sound of the alarm was still echoing in the corner of the hall; the atmosphere here was suffocating to the extreme.

Defense Secretary Smith clutched a fax sheet that had just been printed from an encrypted port so tightly that his face turned crimson, and the veins on his neck stood out one by one.

There was only one line of pure Chinese text on the paper.

Smith stared at the English notes provided by the translator below it, trembling with rage.

"Depreciation fees, mental distress compensation… who does Lu Chen think he is?"

Smith roared through gritted teeth, tearing the urgent fax to shreds with both hands.

He grabbed the torn paper scraps and slammed them hard into the face of the technical director in front of him.

"Mr. Secretary, you must calm down."

A Four-Star General stepped forward from the side, his voice filled with unconcealable trembling.

"This is absolutely not normal. Our three Ghost experimental aircraft, as well as those three hypersonic missiles—their data links were cut off instantly."

"That was extreme weather. They encountered atmospheric turbulence caused by an underwater volcanic eruption," Smith retorted, his eyes bloodshot.

The Four-Star General shook his head repeatedly.

"Sir, everyone knows in their hearts, how could ordinary air currents cause aircraft data to vanish instantly without even a second of delay? That was an entire squadron."

The technical director, who was crouching on the floor picking up the paper scraps, spoke while shivering.

"I've checked the frequency bands from the radar's underlying feedback. There was no thermal radiation from any explosion. Those three fighter jets, and the missiles... they were all evaporated."

The technical director swallowed hard, his voice thick with tears.

"They were completely erased on a physical level."

The combat hall fell into instant, dead silence.

A dozen core generals looked at each other, their eyes filled with extreme panic.

They had seen countless cutting-edge weapons, but they had never heard of any technology capable of making matter disappear instantly without leaving a trace of residue.

Smith was equally terrified, but he knew he could not back down. If the President blamed him, he wouldn't even have the chance to face a military tribunal.

"Keep your mouths shut tight!"

Smith slammed his hand onto the alloy console.

"What evaporation, what erasure—it's all nonsense. The official story, both internally and externally, is that the Ghost fighter jets lost contact due to extreme weather. If anyone dares to leak a single word, I'll personally execute them."

Smith turned and pointed at the technical director, who was covered in cold sweat.

"Immediately cut off all civilian ports on the submarine fiber optic cables connected to China. Right now! Raise our highest-level financial firewalls and seal off all their external channels."

Smith ordered, gasping for breath.

The technical director was somewhat bewildered.

"Sir, doing this will trigger global protests over communication blockades."

"Go do it! I don't want to hear another byte of garbage from Lu Chen's side. I want to turn Jiangcheng into a complete information island," Smith roared, pointing at the door.

The technical director scrambled towards the operating area.

...

One kilometer beneath the Chenguang Factory in Jiangcheng, outside the air-raid shelter.

Da Biao and Zhang Qiang walked side-by-side into the control room. They still carried the heavy, fishy scent of the deep sea from ten thousand meters down, and their clothes were dripping wet, clinging to their bodies.

"Boss, it's done."

Zhang Qiang wiped the water droplets from his face.

"All the cargo has been handed over to Chief Engineer Wei."

Da Biao shook his arms, which had been scorched black and hardened by lava from mining with his bare hands, his face full of displeasure.

"Boss, I can't swallow this anger."

Da Biao shouted in a booming voice.

"The brothers were being roasted by thousands-of-degrees lava down there, and as soon as we surfaced, we were chased and bombed by missiles. Just now in the decompression chamber, those frustrated men were so angry their eyes were bloodshot."

Lu Chen glanced at Da Biao and pulled out a folding chair to sit down.

"No need to swallow it. We'll go to their home base and settle the score."

Lu Chen's tone was terrifyingly calm.

Zhang Qiang was stunned and took a step forward.

"The home base? We're just going to sail our submarines straight over there?"

"Sailing submarines is too slow, and it makes us seem too low-key."

Lu Chen tapped his fingers on the table.

"Old Wu, open the gate."

Wu Dong sat before the console, his hands flying rapidly across the keyboard. He silently recited a command, pulled up the system permissions, and ruthlessly deducted the 30 million tech points he had just saved up.

With a crisp 'ding,' Wu Dong spoke into the microphone.

"Boss, the channel module is fully loaded."

To the right of the control room, the heavy, thirty-centimeter-thick explosion-proof alloy wall emitted a rumbling sound of mechanical friction as it slowly rose to both sides. Inside was a previously empty underground cavity the size of a basketball court. At this moment, a huge silver ring device stood silently in the center of the cavity.

"Boss, they've cut off all civilian fiber optic cables," Wu Dong reported while staring at the screen.

"The Defense building's financial firewalls are also fully maxed out. They clearly want to play the turtle, thinking that with the ocean between us, we can't do anything about them."

Lu Chen sneered, a mocking arc appearing at the corner of his mouth.

"Playing the turtle depends on whether the shell is hard enough."

Lu Chen stood up and pointed at the silver ring.

"Da Biao, the good stuff Old Wei prepared for you is in there. Take your two thousand brothers and have everyone re-equip."

A fierce light flashed in Da Biao's eyes, and he turned and strode toward the cavity. In the corner of the cavity were two thousand black, all-metal heavy storage crates stacked neatly, and Wei Jianguo was directing a few workers to unpack them.

"Old Wei, what is this stuff? It looks even heavier than the previous Mecha."

Da Biao walked over and kicked an opened crate.

Wei Jianguo's face was covered in grease, and he grinned triumphantly.

"You have no taste. This is the third-generation Hellhound Mecha Exoskeleton. Just now, when smelting the Extreme Pressure Soft Gold, I mixed all the scraps into the titanium alloy liquid for this batch of outer armor."

Zhang Qiang also followed over and reached out to touch the pure black metal coating, which was ice-cold to the touch.

"Does it work?"

"It works wonders," Wei Jianguo promised, patting his chest.

"The defensive capability has increased fivefold. That kind of armor-piercing shell flying in the sky earlier? If it hit this armor now, it wouldn't even be able to scratch the primer."

Upon hearing this, Da Biao threw his head back and laughed wildly.

He turned around abruptly and roared at the two thousand Death Squad Soldiers with dark cyan skin who were filing into the cavity.

"Did you all hear that? Put on the gear. This time, we're going to the United States for a 'zero-dollar' shopping spree."

The Death Squad Soldiers let out a deafening low roar, their eyes filled with irrepressible bloodthirsty fervor. Two thousand monsters with bulging muscles began to quickly put on the menacing black armor.

Lu Chen walked to the edge of the cavity, watching this legion of slaughter, and beckoned.

Da Biao, wearing the third-generation Hellhound Mecha heavy armor he had just put on, walked over with heavy steps, the ground thumping with every stride.

"Listen to the rules."

Lu Chen stared into Da Biao's eyes.

"Within twenty-four hours, reach the gates of The Pentagon."

"Understood. Go in and kill everyone," Da Biao replied in a muffled voice.

"Use your brain."

Lu Chen interrupted him.

"This trip is purely armed debt collection. Remember clearly: don't touch a single civilian. Unless the enemy's regular army fires first, you are absolutely forbidden from attacking. Just camp with the brothers at their main gate."

Da Biao scratched his helmet.

"Just hanging out at the gate? That's so frustrating."

"Old Wu will prepare something for you."

Lu Chen pointed to the operating area behind him.

Wu Dong smiled with a cheeky expression, carrying a two-meter-high, three-meter-wide oversized polymer metal plaque as he ran over. In the center of the plaque was a huge, extremely conspicuous, clear, and even somewhat glaring black-and-white QR code.

"Brother Da Biao, the payment QR code is ready for you."

Wu Dong patted the plaque.

"Once you get there, use the high-temperature welding torches on your Exoskeletons to weld this thing firmly onto the main gate of the Defense building."

Zhang Qiang watched from the side, dumbfounded.

"Just holding up a sign? Once they lock the gate, we'll be out there starving. They've even cut the internet; who's going to pay attention to you?"

Wu Dong sat back at the console, his fingers circling over several glowing red Enter keys.

"Cut the internet? I've already anticipated that move."

Wu Dong's eyes were filled with ruthlessness.

"I've seized the permissions for the core servers of all major global media outlets, as well as the underlying backends of those social media platforms."

Wu Dong looked up and grinned.

"The moment Brother Da Biao shows his face at the gate of the Defense building, I'll force a stream and cut the signals. Five billion mobile phone screens worldwide will simultaneously broadcast a live stream of our Chenguang Electronics Factory debt collection team. If they try to default and don't pay, tomorrow the whole world will see them acting like deadbeats."

Lu Chen checked his watch.

"If they're short even a cent, just keep waiting at the gate. If anyone dares to remove the sign, chop off their hand."

Lu Chen lowered his arm and waved at Da Biao.

"Go do your job."

Da Biao gave a muffled roar and turned to walk toward the legion.

"Let's go, time to collect the money."

The entire underground cavity erupted with a terrifying roar.

The silver ring device activated, and a massive amount of high-voltage current surged through the thick cables underground into the core of the ring. In the basketball-court-sized interior area, space began to twist violently, rippling and emitting bursts of blinding, pure white light.

This type of spatial channel technology, which ignored physical distance, completely overturned human common sense.

Da Biao didn't hesitate for a second. He was wearing that extremely menacing black Hellhound Mecha, covered in dark red energy patterns, which made a clacking sound as its metal parts rubbed together.

He was the first to walk to the front of the ring, facing that blinding white light.

Behind him were two thousand silent killing machines, each exuding the oppressive aura of a prehistoric beast.

Da Biao took a deep breath of the murky air in the basement, suddenly lifted his right leg, which was covered in an Extreme Pressure Soft Gold coating, and stepped into that torn space.