139: The Price of Talent

"Boom—!"

Accompanied by the deafening sound of metal snapping, the out-of-control freight platform slammed hard onto the transfer station on the level below. The entire platform tilted to one side, nearly throwing them into the abyss further down.

"Is everyone still alive?!" Chen Feng was the first to scramble up from behind the twisted railing. The violent impact made his vision go dark, and his throat was filled with the metallic taste of blood.

"Cough... cough cough... I'm alive!" Reno's voice was hoarse. He struggled to his feet and pulled up the soldier beside him. "Heishan! How are you?"

"I'm fine, Boss!" The heavy weapons specialist named Heishan spat out a mouthful of bloody phlegm and shook his head.

Chen Feng had no time to check his injuries. He looked up, and his heart sank.

Dozens of dark figures were using rappelling devices, descending rapidly from the edge of the plaza where they had fallen, like predatory spiders.

"They're coming after us!" Reno roared. "Find cover!"

"Bang!"

A high-energy sniper round whizzed past Chen Feng's ear, leaving a fist-sized molten hole in the container behind him.

"Sniper!" Chen Feng rolled on the spot, hiding behind a row of giant cargo crates, and growled into the terminal on his wrist, "Reno!"

"I see him!" Reno knelt on one knee, using the smooth surface of his tactical knife to precisely catch a glint of light from a lens on a red crane in the distance.

"Heishan!" Reno's voice exploded over the comms channel. "Twelve o'clock, red crane! Use your last grenade to suppress him!"

"Copy that!" Heishan didn't hesitate for a second. He shouldered the grenade launcher and pulled the trigger toward that direction.

"Lao Mo!" Chen Feng's voice was so fast it seemed to be burning. "Map! We need a route! Can we take the B-13 Freight Passage?"

"Boss, the data there is a gray blind spot!" Lao Mo's anxious voice came through the terminal. "But according to the port's standard layout, it should be a main road leading to C-4 Commercial Street!"

"We're going that way!" Chen Feng ordered decisively. "Reno, lead the way! Move!"

"Follow me!"

The fire from the grenade explosion burst in the distance, briefly suppressing the sniper's vision. Reno led the remaining soldier and Heishan, while Chen Feng carried Eve and rushed into the steel maze of containers.

They rushed into the B-13 Freight Passage. Both sides of the narrow passage were piled high with unknown cargo, and the air was thick with a strange smell of machine oil mixed with some kind of spice.

However, at the end of the passage, everyone's hearts sank to the bottom.

An energy fence flickering with blue electric arcs completely blocked the path ahead.

"Damn it!" Reno punched the wall beside him. "It's Hecate's blockade! This is a standard military-grade barrier; it's impossible to open from the outside!"

"Lao Mo, is there a way?" Chen Feng's voice had a trace of a tremble that no one noticed.

"No! Boss, unless you can shut down the energy core from the other side, otherwise..."

Before Lao Mo could finish, the rapid and dense sound of footsteps from behind was already clearly audible.

"They'll be here in less than thirty seconds!" Heishan shouted in despair.

"Prepare to charge!" Reno's eyes were bloodshot as he raised his pulse rifle. "I'll go first! Stay close! We'll get through as many as we can!"

He knew that ramming his flesh and blood into this energy fence would only result in being turned into charcoal. But it was their only choice.

Just then, Eve, who had been protected behind Chen Feng with a numb and dazed expression, jerked violently, stimulated by the humming sound of the energy fence.

She slowly raised her head, those hollow, unfocused silver eyes focusing on a single point for the first time.

She raised a finger and pointed to an inconspicuous, palm-sized gray box on the upper side of the fence.

"Overload..."

Her voice was as soft as a sleep-talker's, slurred and dry from not having spoken for a long time.

"Feedback... burn it..."

"What?" Reno looked back, not hearing her clearly at all.

But Chen Feng heard it.

He didn't even spend a tenth of a second thinking about the logic of those words. In that instant, he chose to believe in the value hidden within this girl—the value he had gambled everything on.

"Reno!" Chen Feng's voice left no room for doubt. "Listen to her! Hit that Repeater! That gray box!"

"Boss, that's just an energy Repeater. Hitting it will only make the fence more stable..." Reno roared.

"Execute the order!" Chen Feng's voice was as cold as ice. "Shoot!"

Reno's muscles tensed instantly. He didn't understand, but he chose to trust Chen Feng.

He suddenly jerked his gun around and pulled the trigger almost instinctively.

"Bang!"

A precise shot hit that inconspicuous Repeater dead center.

There was no violent explosion, only a muffled cracking sound.

A second later, a chain reaction occurred.

That Repeater, like a detonated virus, frantically released erroneous overload signals into the entire area's power grid! Sizzling electrical sparks burst from the wiring in the walls, and the lights along the entire street began to flicker wildly.

"Boom!"

With a loud bang, the energy fence overloaded and self-destructed, turning into a cloud of scattering electrical arcs.

The entire area instantly fell into a deathly silent darkness.

"Go!" Chen Feng roared, grabbing Eve and being the first to charge into the darkness.

Just as they rushed out of the passage and reached C-4 Commercial Street, their path was blocked by another group.

"Put down the holy relic!"

It was a group of fanatics dressed in strange monk robes—the Gene Purification Cult from the auction. Their eyes burned with fanatical fire as they stared intently at Chen Feng and Eve, whom he was pulling along.

"You filthy mongrel! How dare you lay hands on God's creation!"

They didn't give any chance for explanation and roared as they raised their weapons.

At that moment, the Shadow Chaser-J Agents caught up from the other side.

"Target sighted!"

"Op—"

Before J's order could be given, those lunatics had already launched an indiscriminate attack on both Chen Feng and the Alliance Agents.

"Purify all heretics!"

"Boom!"

A new wave of chaos erupted in an instant.

"Damn it! These lunatics!" J's adjutant cursed. "Split the fire and suppress them!"

Chen Feng seized this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and roared at Reno, "Left alleyway! Retreat!"

He pulled Eve and rushed frantically toward the alley.

Stray bullets whistled around them, and the fire from explosions cast a pale light on everyone's faces.

"Cover Eve!!" Reno roared, using his body to shield their side.

"Pfft—!"

A muffled sound.

At the moment they were about to rush into the alley, Heishan, the heavy weapons specialist, took a stray bullet intended for Eve. His entire back jerked violently, and a spray of blood erupted from his chest.

"Heishan!" Reno let out a heart-wrenching roar.

Chen Feng looked back only to see Heishan fall straight down, blood instantly staining the ground beneath his feet.