86: Chapter 86 Operation Termites III: Preparation and Detonation

"Preparation."

Yan Zheng pushed this command into the Mental Link, and the three Skeleton Soldiers stopped their original actions simultaneously.

The wind outside snaked through the gaps in the loading platform, carrying the damp smell of river water, the scent of scrap metal, and the smell of diesel, turning cold by the time it blew against Yan Zheng's neck.

He clamped the scalpel in his palm and reached out with his other hand to pull out his pocket watch for a glance.

3:37 AM.

It was still too early for the two hours the supervisor mentioned.

But the X-23 waveband was still decaying.

Yan Zheng: ( ꐦ ㅍ ꈊ ㅍ )

"Things like schedules have to give way when they run into the shelf life of rotten goods."

"Gentlemen, we're closing shop early."

No. 6 removed a rib in the power distribution room.

The bone fragment was very thin, its edge embedded into the heat dissipation vent of the main power cabinet.

The Undead Energy converged along the inside of the bone fragment, not leaking out, just waiting for Yan Zheng to activate it.

A second phalanx was jammed behind the wiring harness of the external communication cabinet.

A third vertebral fragment was stuck onto the fan vent of the monitoring host.

Yan Zheng did not touch the independent cold chain circuit.

The sample cabinet needed to stay alive.

At least, it needed to stay alive until he opened it.

"No. 6, confirm."

No. 6's phosphorus fire flashed once.

Yan Zheng: ( ˵ ꐦ ✧ ω ✧ ˵ )

"Very good."

"The equipment department can resign immediately tonight."

"Of course, provided there is still someone who can pay their wages."

No. 4 was waiting against the wall outside the duty room.

It disassembled two phalanges, sliding them near the door hinge and the monitoring cable duct, respectively.

Not to kill.

It was to make the door jam at the critical moment and to make the monitoring screen show static before the delayed black screen.

No. 5 crawled along the experimental area corridor to the stairwell, finding the fire door leading to the third underground level.

The door had a mechanical latch on the inside.

The latch was thick and the lock body was new, but there was a gap at the hinge.

No. 5 removed a small leg bone fragment, extended it into the door gap, and pressed it against the latch tongue.

"Don't open it."

"Wait until I reach the south emergency exit."

"Leave the door for me."

No. 5 remained still.

The groaning on the third underground level became clearer.

A woman was crying.

Someone was also knocking on the metal wall with a weak voice.

Three times.

Stop.

Three times.

Yan Zheng pushed up his glasses, his expression devoid of excess emotion behind the lenses.

"Save your strength."

"The undertaker isn't collecting semi-finished products tonight."

"Everyone who can still breathe, get in line."

He opened his canvas bag and checked the tools inside.

Folding scalpel.

Three tranquilizers.

Portable cooler.

Disposable sterile bag.

Lock-picking tools.

A pair of spare gloves.

And the old route sketch obtained from Liu Kun.

Yan Zheng: ( ˵ ꐦ Ծ ᴗ Ծ )

"Professional service, door-to-door with certification."

"I drew the certificate myself, not a big problem."

He crawled out from under the loading platform and hugged the shadows towards the south side of the chemical plant.

There were cameras around the exhaust shaft of the south boiler room, but No. 4 had already mastered the monitoring rotation pattern.

The camera turned once every six seconds.

Yan Zheng vaulted over the low wall during the gap of the third turn, landing with slightly bent knees, his soles stepping onto the damp weeds as moisture seeped through his pant legs onto his skin.

The term "ice-cold" couldn't be used for the exhaust shaft casing, so he changed his thought.

The temperature of the iron sheet was lower than the night wind.

The raised rust spots on the surface scraped against his gloved palms, feeling like sand grains.

He didn't rush to open the emergency exit.

The Knight and the Brute were still on standby in the Hells Kitchen Underground Room, but they could be short-range transferred to the outskirts of the Red Hook District via the Undead summoning anchor point.

The cost was the pressure on his Mental Power.

Yan Zheng lowered the control frequency of the three internal Skeleton Soldiers by half a notch, leaving a channel for the Knight and the Brute.

In the Mental Link, the Knight's golden pulse lit up.

The Brute's dark red pulse followed up.

Yan Zheng: ( ꐦ ≖ ‸ ≖ )

"Gentlemen, don't be impatient."

"The door hasn't opened yet, don't treat Brooklyn like a gym."

3:52 AM.

Yan Zheng arrived outside the south emergency exit.

The iron door was disguised as an abandoned exhaust inspection door, covered in dust on the outside, but the lock body was new.

He inserted the lock-picking tool into the keyhole.

He focused his hearing inside the lock cylinder.

The tumblers clicked softly, the sound source of the objects clear, fine, close, the rhythm controlled by his fingers, with a slight echo coming from behind the sealed iron door.

Two minutes later, the outer lock opened.

But there was still a latch on the inside.

"No. 5."

"Get ready."

No. 5 did not move at the stairwell of the second underground level; it needed to wait for the third underground level door.

Was the latch on the inside of the emergency exit guarded by No. 7? No, that was wrong, there were only three inside.

No. 6 descended through the cable shaft to the inside of the emergency passage and removed a phalanx at the latch position.

Yan Zheng said in a low voice.

"No. 6, open the latch."

The bone finger pressed against the bottom of the latch, slowly pushing it up.

The sound of metal friction was muffled, coming from inside the door, close, and slow in rhythm.

Yan Zheng paused for a second, hearing no footsteps nearby.

The latch lifted.

The emergency exit opened a crack.

He did not go in.

Wait for the detonation point first.

3:59 AM.

In the E.S.S. supervisor's office, the middle-aged man left his seat, picked up his access card, and took two researchers toward the third underground level.

No. 5 saw his back.

Yan Zheng narrowed his eyes.

"Supervisor, access card, going to the sample area."

"Very good."

"He's opening the door for me."

4:03 AM.

Yan Zheng issued the general attack command.

"Detonate."

The positioning anchor inside No. 6's sternum lit up to the maximum.

In the power distribution room, the rib fragments in the main power cabinet expanded a second time, jamming into the wiring harness and heat dissipation slots, with the Undead Energy twisting the metal structure.

Electric sparks sprayed out.

The inside of the main power distribution box burned out, and the lights in the entire underground facility were cut off.

The phalanx in the communication cabinet snapped, piercing into the relay core, and the external connection signal was cut off.

The monitoring host fan was jammed by the vertebral fragments, and the screens in the duty room jumped to static, then went black.

There was no big commotion.

Only the short sound of equipment, the scream of current, and the stopping of fans.

Then darkness swallowed the underground corridor.

Yan Zheng: ( ˵ ꐦ ✧ ꈊ ✧ ˵ )

"Beautiful."

"Civilized destruction, no after-sales service."

Three seconds later, the emergency lights lit up with red light.

The alarm sounded.

The source of the sound spread across the top of the corridor, sharp and continuous; the underground space was enclosed, and the echoes bounced back and forth, forcing people's heart rates to accelerate.

Two security guards in the duty room grabbed their rifles.

Two other security guards in the direction of the truck passage also began to fall back to defend.

"Power outage."

"Communication is cut."

"Go to the passage."

"Protect the sample area."

Yan Zheng had already crawled into the emergency exit.

The iron door closed behind him, the humidity in the passage was heavier, the walls were seeping water, there was dust on the ground, and his soles made a soft sound when stepping over it.

He moved down along the passage, his left hand against the wall, his right hand gripping the knife.

At the other end of the Mental Link, the Knight and the Brute arrived outside the truck passage.

The Brute made the first move.

The 2.3-meter-tall petrified body slammed into the rolling shutter door, its arms hooking into the door gap, tearing it open to the sides by force.

The metal door deformed, the guide rails snapped, the sound was dull, and it could be heard from far away.

The Knight stepped in from behind the breach, the light ball in its chest lighting up.

The first security guard raised his gun and fired.

The bullets hit the Petrified Scales, sparks flew, and the metal warheads deformed and fell to the ground.

The second security guard shouted.

"Monster!"

Yan Zheng: ( ꐦ Ծ ⌓ Ծ )

"The wording is not professional enough."

"That is called high-end after-sales recycling equipment."

The Knight raised its hand, and the Photon Ray swept across the truck passage.

The white-gold beam swept across the wall, melting the concrete surface layer, the metal handrails turning red; the two security guards were grazed by the beam, their bodies falling against the wall, their weapons slipping from their hands.

Yan Zheng did not let the Knight pursue the head.

"Shoot the legs."

"Leave them for questioning."

The Brute rushed into the passage, its shoulder knocking over the van door, the vehicle body overturning by half a meter, and the restraint stretcher inside fell out.

The two security guards in the duty room were blocked by No. 4 jamming the door hinges, unable to push the door open, and could only shoot out from the window.

No. 4 disassembled into bone fragments and slid onto the ceiling, avoiding the trajectory, then a piece of leg bone smashed down, breaking one of their wrists.

The other person wanted to press the backup alarm.

No. 4's phalanx was already jammed into the button gap.

It couldn't be pressed down.

"Very good."

"Mr. No. 4, you have a performance bonus tonight."

The experimental area was in chaos.

Researchers ran out of the rooms, some holding documents, some pushing cold storage boxes, and others trying to rush to the third underground level.

No. 5 poked out from the side of the stairs and swept its leg across.

The first researcher fell, their knees hitting the ground.

The second was pressed by a bone hand on the back of the neck, their head hitting the door frame, losing the ability to resist.

Yan Zheng quickened his pace in the emergency passage.

The emergency red light shone in from the gaps below, the walls alternating between light and dark, water stains reflecting dark red spots, the metal ladder surface was rough, and every time he grabbed a rung, he could feel the rust spots and moisture.

At the entrance to the third underground level, the middle-aged supervisor had already swiped open the door.

He looked back at the alarm light above.

"Lock down the sample area."

"No one is allowed to enter."

Yan Zheng heard this, raised his scalpel, and adjusted his grip in the darkness.

Yan Zheng: ( ˵ ꐦ ≖ ᴗ ≖ )

"Thank you."

"Someone swiped the ticket for me, the service experience has improved."

No. 5 jammed the third underground level fire door, preventing it from closing again.

Yan Zheng pushed the door open from the end of the emergency passage and entered.

Ahead was a corridor flickering with red light.

At the end of the corridor, the supervisor was running toward the sample storage area with two researchers.

In the isolation room on the left, living people were tied to metal beds.

Someone looked up, a broken cry for help squeezing out of their throat.

Yan Zheng did not stop.

He only looked at the alloy door at the end of the corridor that was labeled "Low-Temperature Active Samples."

The system panel popped up a notification in the corner of his vision.

[High-activity Mutant sample waveband confirmed.]

[ID association: X-23-07.]

[Status: Decay accelerating.]

Yan Zheng pushed up his gold-rimmed glasses, the red emergency light falling onto the lenses.

"Gentlemen."

"It's time for collection."