148: Chapter 148 With Money, Continue Upgrading the Base

The alloy doors of the underground training ground closed tightly, completely sealing off the retreating footsteps of The Pentagon delegation.

The air still held the lingering scent of gunpowder and machine oil. Chen Yuan stood alone before the massive steel gate, sealed with yellow and black hazard stripes, his gaze so deep it seemed capable of piercing through the thick crust of the earth.

Ten billion dollars in cash flow, plus the inspection-free privileges from The Pentagon.

This was no longer simple capital accumulation, but a lever of such extraordinary scale that it could shift the very tectonic plates of the Earth. He no longer needed to hide in abandoned factories playing small games.

"Red Queen, connect to Zola." Chen Yuan pressed his earpiece.

Less than three minutes later, accompanied by the harsh screech of an elevator emergency stop, Dr. Zola rushed out like a hyena that had caught the scent of blood.

He hadn't even buttoned his lab coat correctly, and his bloodshot eyes were filled with a near-manic excitement.

"Boss! Victor said we received an unlimited check?" Dr. Zola was gesticulating wildly with excitement, his voice cracking, "Did those idiots in the military really pay an exorbitant price for a bunch of 'scrap metal'?"

"Not scrap metal, but epoch-making individual weapons."

Chen Yuan corrected him, a cold smile, typical of a capitalist, tugging at the corners of his mouth. He casually tossed the top-level military procurement authorization onto the console.

"The money has arrived, and the privileges have been secured. Now, bring out all those craziest, most anti-human architectural blueprints in your head."

Dr. Zola lunged at the console, his withered fingers greedily caressing the authorization document.

"Boss, how deep do you want to dig?"

"Dig until not even a nuclear bomb can penetrate it."

Chen Yuan walked to the holographic projector, his slender fingers slashing downwards through the air. The blueprint for the original five-level underground base instantly extended deep toward the mantle, like an inverted skyscraper.

"I want to build a real 'Umbrella' here."

Chen Yuan's voice echoed through the empty hall, carrying a chilling ambition, "A self-sufficient underground kingdom, completely independent of surface civilization."

The project officially launched. The power of capital in America was displayed to the fullest at this moment.

Under the cover of the military's inspection-free channel and the night, hundreds of heavy-duty trucks continuously transported thousands of tons of aerospace-grade titanium alloy, high-strength explosion-proof concrete, and top-tier industrial machine tools into Elysium Manor.

Outsiders had no idea what kind of crazy miracle project was underway beneath this luxurious manor.

Hundreds of engineering-type Tyrants were thrown onto the front lines of the excavation.

These tireless biochemical machines were equipped with high-frequency plasma cutting saws on their left arms and heavy-duty hydraulic drills on their right. Ignoring the high temperatures and lack of oxygen underground, they tore through the hard rock layers like a swarm of terrifying steel worker ants with savage efficiency.

One month later.

Chen Yuan stood in a transparent levitating elevator, overlooking the newly completed underground miracle.

A sense of weightlessness accompanied the elevator's rapid descent, but his heart was surging with emotion.

It was magnificent.

Before him lay a massive underground abyss, hundreds of meters deep, with a perfect hexagonal honeycomb structure. The cold, silver-gray titanium alloy walls were covered in dense, eerie blue LED energy circuits, like the pulsating veins of this underground city.

Countless fully automated transport drones crisscrossed the air, trailing blue exhaust flames. Massive central air circulation fan blades rotated slowly at the bottom of the abyss, emitting a low roar like the breathing of a giant beast.

This was a pure, breathtaking aesthetic of cyberpunk heavy industry.

"Welcome to the real Umbrella, Boss."

Dr. Zola stood beside Chen Yuan, the fanaticism on his face nearly overflowing. He pointed to the massive facilities passing by outside the elevator, his tone filled with the pride of a creator.

"Underground levels one through three are the highest-level living quarters and ecological circulation zones."

"We have utilized underground rivers and artificial sun technology to establish a completely closed ecological loop. Even if World War III breaks out on the surface, the water and food here are enough for a thousand people to live for two hundred years."

The elevator continued to descend, the blue lighting gradually shifting to a pure white full of technological sophistication.

"Levels four through six are our core experimental areas and weapon forging zones." Dr. Zola rubbed his hands together, pointing to those massive transparent compartments.

Through the glass, rows of automated biochemical cultivation tanks could be seen.

"The Tyrant production line has been fully upgraded. As long as the nutrient solution keeps up, we can now 'grow' a company of T-103 Mass-Produced Tyrant soldiers every week!"

Chen Yuan nodded with satisfaction. Money makes the world go round; the ancients did not deceive me.

But what he cared about most was not these conventional forces.

"What about the bottom level?" Chen Yuan asked.

The elevator stopped at the seventh underground level. The moment the elevator doors opened, the originally bright lights instantly turned into a highly oppressive dark red alarm hue.

The air temperature here was extremely low; one could even see the white mist of their own breath.

There were no automated drones here; the walls on both sides of the corridor had been completely replaced with one-meter-thick depleted uranium armor plates, and every isolation door was equipped with an independent high-voltage electromagnetic field.

"The seventh level, we call it the 'Absolute Containment Zone'."

Dr. Zola's voice subconsciously lowered, carrying a hint of awe.

"Every cell here can withstand a direct hit from a tactical nuclear weapon. It was prepared specifically for those… 'god-level' experimental subjects that cannot be controlled by conventional means."

Chen Yuan walked down the dark red corridor, his military boots clicking on the metal floor, creating hollow echoes.

On both sides were hundreds of massive, empty, transparent containment pods. They stood silently in the darkness like gaping maws of an abyss, waiting to devour the most terrifying monsters in the world.

The base was too big.

So big that walking inside it made one feel incredibly insignificant.

Chen Yuan touched the cold explosion-proof glass, his mind already beginning to conceive what kind of giant bio-mecha, or mythical beasts, he should use to fill these empty cages in the future.

He enjoyed this thrill of building an invincible force from scratch.

Just as he was immersed in his grand plans for the future, Dr. Zola beside him suddenly scratched his messy white hair.

The doctor looked around at this dead-silent and exaggeratedly large containment zone; the empty echoes made him feel a bit uneasy.

He turned his head and looked at Chen Yuan, his eyes revealing the extreme hunger of a mad scientist for fresh experimental materials.

"Boss, the expansion is finished, but the space is a bit large—doesn't it seem a bit empty?"