296: Chapter 296 Critical Hit Settlement, Base Ignites

"Is there any engineering structure we dug below Mine Pit No. 1?" Lu Chen stared at the blinding blue cursor on the big screen and asked Old Zhou.

Old Zhou shook his head repeatedly, slapping his thighs in anxiety. "Boss, absolutely not! Everything down there is the hardest dead layer of granite. We only dump waste there, and we haven't even drilled down! This signal definitely cannot be ours."

Wu Dong tapped on the mechanical keyboard, his face covered in sweat. "Boss, I can't intercept it! This signal frequency ignores all physical logic. It doesn't use our network; it went straight through the rock layer."

Wei Jianguo leaned toward the screen, his eyes bloodshot. "This clearly means there is a physical receiving relay down there. Could those rats from Freemasons have buried a backup plan under our feet?"

Lu Chen leaned back in his swivel chair, his expression unchanged. "Regardless of what is buried down there, the fact that it's lit up now means those guys on the moon are desperate."

Lu Chen paused. "Shield all frequency spills in this area. First, put the lid on the cage. As long as our aerial defense is maxed out, the dirty things underground won't be able to stir up any trouble."

As soon as he finished speaking, the space teleportation ring behind the control room erupted with a blinding white light.

Space tore open, and Da Biao stepped out, accompanied by nine pitch-black Cangqiong Mecha.

The moment the mecha landed, the mechanical arms released.

Hundreds of specially packaged heavy metal crates slammed onto the alloy floor with a dull thud.

"Boss, five hundred tons of high-purity enriched uranium, not a gram missing." Da Biao took off his helmet and wiped the sweat from his bald head.

He turned around, and the mecha kicked the tattered sack dragged on the ground.

There was a struggle inside the sack, and Michael rolled out, his face covered in blood, his high-end suit reduced to rags.

He saw the fully armed personnel in the control room and trembled in fear, but immediately started screaming hysterically.

"Lu Chen! How dare you kidnap me! I am the Defense Chief of the United States! This is a declaration of war against us!"

Lu Chen didn't even glance at him, turning instead to shout at a group of foreigners in white lab coats nearby.

"Chekov." Chekov immediately ran over.

Lu Chen pointed at the pile of metal crates. "The fuel is here. Within ten minutes, I want to see Reactor No. 1 filled."

Chekov saw the radiation warning signs on the metal crates, his eyes nearly popping out. "Boss, this is the purest Uranium-235! If material of this purity goes directly into the reactor, the chain reaction won't be contained, and it will melt straight through the Earth's core!"

Chekov waved his hands. Wei Jianguo slapped Chekov on the back.

"What would you know, you foreigner! Our reactor has an extreme-pressure inner wall created by the material molecular micro-reconstruction chamber! Forget five hundred tons; even if you stuffed a thousand tons in, it wouldn't even crack!" Wei Jianguo roared.

"Hurry up and fill it! If you don't finish in ten minutes, you're going to dig coal tomorrow!" Chekov swallowed hard and quickly signaled his team to pick up the crates and run.

Da Biao kicked Michael in the rear. "Cut the crap and shut your beak." Michael rolled twice and struggled to get up.

"Lu Chen! You will regret this! Our Fourteen-Nation Allied Forces will never let you go! Let me go immediately!" Michael screamed at the top of his lungs.

Lu Chen walked over, crouched down, and looked calmly at Michael.

"You were pretty tough when we were two hundred meters underground." Lu Chen spoke. "Did you think that just because you cut the network, I couldn't do anything to you?"

Michael forced himself to lift his head. "You wouldn't dare kill me!"

Lu Chen smiled, stood up, and took a half-step back. "Wu Dong, start a global forced broadcast." Lu Chen gave the order. "Zoom in on this old man's current appearance as much as possible. Let those cabinet big shots hiding behind the scenes and watching the show see how tough their Defense Chief is right now."

Wu Dong's fingers flew. "Understood. The underlying protocol has been modified. Five billion connected devices globally are being forced to connect. The feed is locked."

Lu Chen tilted his chin. "Da Biao, some dirty signal got into Mine Pit No. 1 earlier, and we need someone to scout the path. This old man has decent stamina; let him go down and join Smith for a table."

Michael's eyes widened in horror. "What are you doing! No! You have no right to do this to me!"

Da Biao didn't waste words. He grabbed Michael by the back of his collar with one hand and dragged him across the floor, his shrill screams echoing through the corridor.

The scene cut to the radioactive Mine Pit No. 1, where glaring radiation warning signs were erected everywhere.

Michael was thrown into the air by Da Biao and landed on a pile of waste, getting a mouthful of sour black mud.

Just as he scrambled to his feet, a heavy dump truck tipped over a full load of glowing green special ore, the dust making him cough violently.

A gaunt old man wearing tattered work clothes and a face covered in black mud walked over, carrying a large shovel.

Michael focused his eyes and was completely stunned. "Smith?!" Michael's voice went completely out of tune. "What are you doing?!"

Smith's dead, listless eyes turned, and he stared intently at Michael. "Michael?! They dragged you in here too?"

Smith dropped the shovel and lunged at Michael, grabbing his clothes.

Michael looked at Smith's left hand, which had been welded to a nuclear briefcase and a steel bar; the wrist was so rotted it was unbearable to look at, and he was scared out of his wits. "Your hand... how did your hand become like this!"

From above the camera, the sound of Da Biao's loudspeaker slammed down. "Cut the damn chatter! Ten tons per person per day! If you don't meet the quota, you're all going hungry today. Move!"

Hearing this voice, Smith shivered violently as if by reflex. He released Michael and scrambled to pick up the shovel on the ground.

"Michael, stop screaming and get to work." Smith whispered, his tone full of numbness and despair. "If we don't work, they really will kill us. Yesterday, Old John from the UK moved two tons less stone and was hung on a winch for two hours in the cold wind. There is no cabinet here, only laborers. If you want to die, keep cursing."

Michael collapsed completely into the mud. He looked at the mud-covered Smith, then looked up at the towering explosion-proof walls surrounding them. He covered his face and sat in the trash heap, wailing.

In the control room, Wu Dong pointed at the data surging in the background. "Boss, the comment system has completely exploded, and the external servers have crashed three times in a row."

Wu Dong said while performing emergency repairs. "The security gateways of the fourteen Western official channels have been smashed by hackers. Those leaders who were clamoring to sanction us earlier are now all playing dead and staying silent."

Lu Chen picked up his tea mug and took a sip of strong tea. "Freeze the feed and give them a 24-hour high-definition loop. Whoever dares to disconnect, you follow the network cable over and pull the plug on their country's civilian power grid."

As soon as he finished speaking, Chekov rushed back into the control room, sweating profusely. "Boss! The Reactor No. 1 matrix is fully loaded, all safety locks are disengaged, the energy circuit is fully connected, and it's ready for ignition at any time."

Wei Jianguo pressed his hands on the console, staring intently at the various data panels. "Boss, the foundation strength test is perfect. There is no physical stress rejection."

Lu Chen put down the tea mug and walked to the main console. The physical activation button with the red skull icon sat quietly under the bulletproof glass cover. Lu Chen flipped open the cover.

"Factory-wide announcement." Lu Chen spoke into the main microphone, his voice echoing through every corner of the underground base pit and simultaneously covering all factory areas of the Twelve Major Heavy Industry Bases outside. "Stop all work in your hands and look up at the sky."

There was silence in the control room, save for the low-frequency hum of giant machinery.

The Colonel stood with three thousand soldiers on the perimeter of the base pit, all the Death Squad Soldiers stopped their heavy lifting, and four million workers in the open squares of various factory areas looked up simultaneously.

Lu Chen's finger pressed firmly onto the red skull. "Ignition." Click. A slight, crisp sound.

Deep inside Base Pit No. 1, the giant base, built with massive amounts of materials and the blood and sweat of countless people, instantly erupted with a low roar.

A massive flow of energy surged through the tungsten steel foundation, and the air was ionized by this energy, emitting dense crackling sounds.

Boom. A deep blue beam of light pierced directly through the camouflaged mountain above the base pit. The blue light shot straight into the clouds, penetrating the atmosphere.

At an altitude of ten thousand meters, the beam stopped and then rapidly expanded in all directions.

The blue light transformed into an extremely thin, yet visible, energy film. This film spread along the edge of Jiangcheng, extending across the entire central region of China, firmly enclosing the entire airspace of the Twelve Major Heavy Industry Bases.

The night sky vanished, replaced by a holographic firmament emitting a ghostly blue glow. Jiangcheng was as bright as day.

Countless citizens ran onto the streets, standing on the roads, staring blankly at the scene in the sky.

On the perimeter of the base pit, the Colonel and his three thousand soldiers tilted their heads back, too stunned to even notice their automatic rifles dropping to the ground.

Four million workers across different factory areas erupted into earth-shattering cheers, and the air across the entire land vibrated.

In the control room, Old Zhou collapsed to the floor with a thud, clutching his chest and gasping for air. "Good heavens... what on earth is this..."

Wei Jianguo laughed wildly while shedding tears. "It's a success! The ignition of Base Pit No. 1 was perfect! The shield energy consumption is stable, and the reverse thrust is normal! This energy film, let alone meteorites, could withstand even if they threw all their remaining strategic nuclear weapons at us!"

Lu Chen watched the screen as the system sound rang out.

[Ding, Great Wall Dome Base Pit No. 1 successfully activated.]

[Epic engineering construction achievement reached, triggering a ten-million-fold critical hit settlement.]

[tech points received: three billion.]

[Current total staff loyalty has exceeded the limit, production capacity has entered a zero-loss explosive growth state.]

Three billion tech points. Lu Chen's lips curled into a cold smile; the ticket money was secured.

"Boss! Look at the screen!" Wu Dong turned his head abruptly, his expression changing drastically.

Lu Chen walked over. On the deep space detection grid on the big screen, the red cloud belonging to the three hundred thousand nuclear bombs, which had been approaching at a constant speed...

...but at the moment the Jiangcheng No. 1 shield rose, the speed of the red cloud skyrocketed. Immediately afterward, the signal from the mysterious relay beneath Mine Pit No. 1 suddenly emitted an abnormally sharp, garbled response.

Wei Jianguo shouted anxiously. "Boss! Our energy shield blocked the sky, but it has trapped the underground signal, causing it to reflect back and forth! The ground is resonating!"

Lu Chen's eyes were icy. "Old Wei, how much spare energy does the backup reactor have?" Lu Chen turned.

"It's full! Enough for the Aerospace Carrier to initiate space jumps at full power!" Old Wei roared.

Lu Chen grabbed the lighter from the table and shoved it into his pocket. "Call Da Biao, assemble the troops." Lu Chen's voice was filled with brutality. "Forget about the pile of junk underground; seal it off completely. I'm going to the moon right now to teach those brain-dead idiots how to follow the rules."