21: Chapter 21 Zero is investigating him

One week later.

Torch Base.

Liu Yuyan stood before the altar.

A white shirt, black trousers, and a low ponytail. No jewelry, no makeup.

She was different from when she first stepped in here ten days ago.

Back then, she had cried before the murals, stood before the stone pillars, and lost her composure beneath the ancient tree.

She didn't even remember the sound of her tears hitting the stone bricks.

That wouldn't happen now.

Her gaze had deepened.

The shock from ten days ago had been crushed, digested, and compressed into something else.

Su Chen sat on the stone steps beneath the ancient tree.

A half-mask, a black trench coat, his back against the ancient tree.

Golden light shattered through the branches and fell onto his shoulders; he wore every ray with an air of absolute entitlement.

"President."

Liu Yuyan bowed; the movement was slight, but the arc of her spine was so precise that no one could find fault with it.

It wasn't the empty politeness of the business world; it was a courtesy etched into her very bones.

"The Liu family has prepared five billion in liquid capital. Three overseas shell companies have consolidated the funds; they will not go through any public accounts and can be accessed at any time."

She paused for a beat.

"I hope this can be of help to the organization."

Su Chen sat on the stone steps, his composure beneath the mask nearly shattering.

Five billion.

Last night, he had finished two bowls of instant noodles in his rental apartment; the third bowl sitting on the corner of the table was left untouched—that was tomorrow's breakfast.

The number on the banking app was 89.35 yuan.

It was twelve yuan less than last week because he had bought a bottle of mineral water for three point five.

He had hesitated for two seconds at the supermarket checkout before finally grabbing the cheapest brand.

And now, the actual controller of a hundred-billion-dollar empire was placing five billion at his feet with the tone of "I hope this can be of help."

Su Chen's Adam's apple bobbed.

The mask was good; the mask could hide it.

"Very good."

His voice was as steady as the stone steps themselves.

He stood up and turned to face the ancient tree, leaving his back to Liu Yuyan.

It wasn't for show.

It was because he was afraid that if he faced her, she might catch the sub-millimeter twitch at the corner of his eye.

"The base needs to be expanded."

Su Chen raised his hand, pointing toward the virtual silhouette of ruins in the distance.

"The number of members will continue to grow. This is the headquarters, and it requires functional spaces: a training ground, a medical zone, an intelligence center, and a supply warehouse."

His finger traced the direction of a patch of broken walls and ruins.

Those were all 50-point background textures that would clip if you walked too close.

But Liu Yuyan didn't know that.

"The courtyard outside is the residential area for members; renovate and expand it to the highest standard."

Liu Yuyan nodded.

"I will provide a complete plan within three days."

Crisp and efficient.

No one would think it an exaggeration for the executive power of a hundred-billion-dollar group to be compressed into three days.

Su Chen silently did the math in his head.

Allocating one million from five billion for infrastructure was more than enough.

The remaining four billion, nine hundred and ninety-nine million—he nipped that thought in the bud.

A millennial Flame Keeper does not covet money.

A millennial Flame Keeper with a balance of 89.35 does not covet money.

Liu Yuyan did not leave.

"President, there is something I need to report."

Her voice dropped by half an octave.

"The Liu family's intelligence department has detected that Sun Bonian hired an external hacker to breach the core medical system of Xinghai Hospital."

Su Chen's fingers froze.

"Grandfather's complete medical records regarding his recovery from cancer, blood sample IDs, and the attending physician's communication logs have all been extracted."

Liu Yuyan's jawline tightened.

She pulled a tablet from her inner coat pocket, lit the screen, and handed it over.

On the screen was the intrusion log intercepted by the Liu family's technical department.

Within the dense stream of data, there was one line that was extremely conspicuous.

Before leaving the system, the intruder had left a string of characters at the end of the access log.

It wasn't code; it was a sentence.

"Your firewall needs an upgrade. — 0"

Liu Yuyan's voice was very low.

"The hacker's codename is — Zero."

Su Chen stared at the "0" on the screen for three seconds.

The shortlist in Chapter Nine of his notebook—the one he had circled, the one without a name.

The legend who reversed a national-level cyberwar in three minutes three years ago.

The person the Red Hacker Alliance had chased for half a year without even catching a glimpse of their shadow.

He had spent two weeks agonizing over how to find her.

After scouring old posts on dark web forums, the only clue was a single, extremely cryptic phrase.

And then Liu Yuyan told him—this person was tracking him.

Su Chen smiled.

Hunter and prey had swapped places.

"Did the Liu family's technical team intercept her?"

"We tried our best to stop her."

There was a rare hint of bitterness in Liu Yuyan's voice.

"We couldn't block her. The way she entered and exited our firewall was like—"

She paused for a second and glanced at the sentence on the tablet.

"She said it herself. Pushing open a door."

Su Chen was silent for three seconds.

Then he smiled.

It wasn't the restraint from behind the mask.

It was the curve of his eyes peeking out from the edge of the mask—something Liu Yuyan was seeing on him for the first time.

Interest.

"Let her investigate."

Liu Yuyan's eyelashes trembled.

"President?"

"Even if she tracks it to the old residence, so what? This is a dimensional space."

Su Chen tilted his head, his gaze falling on the pale golden halo at the entrance of the stone corridor.

"On a physical level, it's an abandoned courtyard; on a digital level, it doesn't exist in any database. Can she break through a dimensional barrier with a keyboard?"

Liu Yuyan didn't smile.

She read another layer of meaning into it.

The President wasn't being indifferent. He was waiting.

Waiting for a fish that had already taken the bait but didn't know it was a fish.

"Understood."

Liu Yuyan didn't press for more. She took the tablet, put it away, bowed, and saluted.

"I will begin the base construction immediately."

She turned and took two steps. She stopped.

"President."

She didn't turn back. Her low ponytail hung down her back, and her shoulder line was held very straight.

"The incident at the Eastern Chemical Plant last week—it was you who took action."

It wasn't a question.

Su Chen turned his face.

"The steel structure order for that chemical plant was a Liu family project. After the incident, news spread that an unidentified creature had appeared and someone had defeated it."

Liu Yuyan turned around, her gaze clear.

"That night, the bronze piece you gave me was burning hot for a full three minutes. It was in my pocket, and I could feel it through my shirt."

She paused.

"The only person capable of doing something like that is you."

Su Chen didn't deny it.

The bronze piece would react to his release of supernatural energy—he knew this.

Although the bronze piece he had given Liu Yuyan was a nine-point-nine yuan blank from Taobao carved with a utility knife, it had been imbued with the golden radiance of the ancient tree within the base's space.

The supernatural aura had seeped into every groove of the bronze surface; when the distance was close enough and the energy release large enough, it would generate a faint heat response.

This wasn't in his plan.

But the effect was better than planned.

"The rifts have already begun."

His voice dropped a degree.

"There will be more invasions. This time it was an exotic beast; next time, it could be something even more ancient."

He looked at Liu Yuyan.

"There isn't much time left for us."

Liu Yuyan's breath hitched for half a beat.

The figures on the murals whose faces had been worn away, the nameless ones who charged forward one after another into the black tide—the images surged up from the depths of her memory, slamming into her chest.

"Next time."

Her voice was half a beat faster than usual, but she forcefully suppressed it.

"Next time, I want to be with you."

Su Chen looked at her for two seconds.

"It will be very dangerous."

"I am already a person of Kindling."

Liu Yuyan's spine was held straight.

"People of Kindling do not retreat."

There was a quiet beat.

"Good. Next time, I'll take you."

Liu Yuyan bowed. When she straightened up, there was an extra layer of light in her eyes.

She turned and walked into the stone corridor.

Her footsteps were half a step faster than when she came, and the echo of her steps on the stone bricks was crisp and decisive.

Two things burned in her mind.

First, the President wanted that hacker.

It wasn't defense; it was a layout.

The person who had been chased by the whole world for three years without being found was actively approaching Kindling.

The President was smiling.

She had to keep up.

The second thing made her pace even faster.

Sun Bonian, Zhao Dingtang, Chen Jingyuan.

Three snakes had smelled the scent of blood and were crawling toward the direction of the Liu family.

These things could not be allowed to worry the President.

The footsteps in the stone corridor grew distant.

The old wooden door creaked and closed.

Su Chen took off the mask and placed it on his knees.

His twenty-five-year-old face was revealed—dark circles under his eyes, chapped lips, and stubble emerging on his chin.

He opened his notebook and added a small line of text next to the circled name "Zero": "No need to look. She is looking for me."

The pen tip moved down two lines.

Sun Bonian, Zhao Dingtang, Chen Jingyuan.

The three names had already been recorded several pages back, and their motives had been analyzed.

Su Chen didn't copy them again.

He drew a horizontal line under the three names, and below the line, he only wrote five words: "String them together with one thread."

He closed the notebook.

His stomach growled.

Balance 89.35.

A millennial Flame Keeper of Kindling, and lunch was still not secured.

Su Chen glanced at the half-bronze face on the mask, which was illuminated with solemnity by the golden light of the ancient tree.

"...Next time, I'll have Liu Yuyan bring some food."

He stood up and stuffed the mask into the inner pocket of his trench coat.

He stopped for a moment when he reached the entrance of the stone corridor.

Zero is investigating him.

Following the medical records, the Liu family's capital movements, and the tracking trajectory toward the old residence.

She would track it to the western suburbs.

She would track it to that village road without even a signal.

She would track it to an abandoned courtyard.

And then—she would hit a wall.

Not a firewall, but a dimensional barrier.

The world's strongest hacker, encountering something on her keyboard that she couldn't break through for the first time.

The corners of Su Chen's mouth curved.

She will come.