82: Chapter 82 Thirteen assassins? No, it's twelve rats and one... bug!

In the command center, everyone's gaze was fixed firmly on the lone, flickering scarlet light point in the underground parking lot of the Ministry of State Security headquarters.

Deputy Director Qin's expression darkened abruptly, his face growing long.

This was a disgrace! It was a humiliation unlike any the Ministry of State Security had ever seen since its founding!

The enemy had already held a blade to their throats, and yet they had been completely unaware.

"Impossible!" Gao Jian retorted instinctively.

"The headquarters is one of the most secure locations in the entire country. Forget a person—even a fly wouldn't be able to get in without being identified!"

Deputy Director Qin said nothing, but his tightly clenched fists betrayed the turbulent storm within him.

"Gao Jian is right." Su Che's voice was calm. He walked over to the electronic sand table, reached out, and tapped the strange red dot, enlarging its 3D model.

"Therefore, it isn't a person at all."

On the screen, the red dot, once parsed and enlarged, revealed a thumbnail-sized, miniature model that resembled a mechanical spider.

"This is the 'Ghost Spider' biomimetic infiltration unit, the latest development from Sakura Country's Ida Heavy Industries."

"It's made entirely of composite materials with zero metallic response. It's extremely small and equipped with optical camouflage and thermal signal shielding. Conventional security gates and detectors are useless against it."

Su Che pointed to a tiny module on the model's abdomen. "It communicates internally via directional ultrasonic waves and doesn't rely on any radio signals, so our signal jamming is ineffective."

"It can even determine the distribution of personnel and movement routes inside by analyzing the micro-vibrations of the building."

"So, it's not twelve assassins and one infiltrator." Su Che looked up, scanning the stunned crowd, and corrected them.

"It's twelve rats responsible for drawing fire."

"And one... bug, truly carrying a lethal poison, preparing to bite through our information artery."

Deputy Director Qin took a deep breath, forcing himself to calm down. He looked at Su Che, his eyes no longer filled with scrutiny, but only absolute trust.

"Engineer Su, give the order."

"Dragon Shadow and the Ministry of State Security are now under your command."

Su Che nodded, showing no hesitation. He walked over to the scarred colonel.

"Colonel, the twelve rats are yours, Dragon Shadow." He handed over a data terminal.

"This contains their real-time locations, predicted movement trajectories, and all available police, traffic, and surveillance resources within a three-kilometer radius."

"I have only one requirement." Su Che looked into the scarred colonel's emotionless eyes. "Take them alive."

"Yes!" The scarred colonel didn't waste a single word; he took the terminal, turned, and waved his hand. "Dragon Shadow, move out!"

A dozen black figures vanished silently from the command center doorway like phantoms. The entire process took less than ten seconds.

"Director Qin." Su Che turned to Deputy Director Qin. "Now, it's time for us to go to the basement and crush that bug."

... Ministry of State Security headquarters, fourth underground level, parking lot. The air was cold and damp.

Deputy Director Qin led the team personally, with Qin Lan, Gao Jian, and ten of the Ministry of State Security's top operative members advancing slowly toward the target area in a tactical formation.

In everyone's earpiece, Su Che's voice, calm and without a ripple, came through.

"Target located at parking space 37 in Zone C, under a black Audi A6."

"Attention, it has sensed your approach and is moving toward the ventilation duct."

"Qin Lan, five meters to your front left, look up. Behind that fire hydrant is the entrance to the ventilation duct."

Upon hearing this, Qin Lan immediately raised her gun and aimed. Sure enough, in the shadow of the fire hydrant, an inconspicuous ventilation grille shifted ever so slightly.

"Gao Jian, go around the back and block the other exit."

"Everyone else, form a fan-shaped perimeter. Don't let it escape."

Su Che's voice was like a player with a full-map hack, directing a group of novices.

"It's coming out." No sooner had he spoken than a black shadow, almost impossible to track with the naked eye, flashed out from behind the grille, fast as lightning, lunging straight for the ceiling!

"Bang!" Qin Lan's reaction was extremely fast; she pulled the trigger almost the instant the black shadow appeared.

A specially made electromagnetic pulse round struck the ceiling precisely next to the black shadow, bursting into a cloud of blue electric arcs.

That "Ghost Spider" was swept by the aftermath of the pulse, its body stalling in mid-air before falling down.

"Screech—" It emitted a harsh electronic noise, its eight mechanical legs twitching, seemingly damaged.

But it didn't stop; it flipped over and charged toward the wall on the other side with even greater speed!

"Trying to run?" Gao Jian had long been waiting there, and a specially made, ultra-resilient electromagnetic capture net was cast down over it!

The "Ghost Spider" was trapped tightly. It struggled frantically, cutting at the mesh, sparking a series of flashes.

"Don't let it self-destruct!" Deputy Director Qin growled.

An operative member lunged forward and, using a specially made signal shielding box, clamped the entire net and the "Ghost Spider" inside.

Inside the box, the final sounds of struggle came to an abrupt halt.

Deputy Director Qin let out a long sigh of relief and wiped the cold sweat from his forehead. He turned back and glanced in the direction of the surveillance camera, his eyes full of awe.

Too strong. This feeling of having a god's-eye view, seeing all the enemy's movements, was simply a dimensional strike.

In the command center, Su Che watched the screen as the twelve red dots representing the "rats," under the encirclement of Dragon Shadow, extinguished one by one, turning green to represent "captured."

The last red dot was pinned down in a ramen shop. The entire process took thirty-seven minutes.

Not a single shot was fired, and not a single civilian was harmed. "Beautiful," Su Che praised sincerely.

Just then, Deputy Director Qin returned to the command center with the sealed "Ghost Spider." "Engineer Su, mission accomplished."

"Good work." Su Che took the shielding box and walked directly to a high-precision analyzer. He didn't rush to open it.

Instead, he placed the box into the analyzer and initiated a non-destructive scan at the quantum level.

On the main screen, the 3D structural diagram of the "Ghost Spider" was peeled back layer by layer. From the external biomimetic structure to the internal micro-power unit, and then to the core control chip...

Everyone held their breath. "Found it."

Su Che's gaze locked onto an independent storage unit inside the "Ghost Spider," smaller than a grain of rice.

He didn't attempt a physical hack; instead, he directly mobilized the computing power of the Pangu Quantum Computer to conduct a brute-force data intrusion on that storage unit.

A few seconds later, a file encrypted hundreds of times was forcibly decrypted. When the file content appeared on the main screen...

The command center was deathly silent; no one made a sound. It wasn't an assassination list, nor was it instructions for stealing intelligence.

It was a piece of... code. A virus attack code based on quantum logic, possessing the ability to self-replicate and evolve.

At the end of the code was a note written by Ida Yuji himself. [A gift for Su Che.] [Since I cannot eliminate you physically, I will let your Pangu Quantum Computer play a requiem for you.] [This is the true face of the 'Amaterasu' project.]

Deputy Director Qin's face turned deathly pale in an instant. He finally understood. Everything before had been a feint.

The ultimate goal of this "bug" was to infiltrate the Dragon Country's most core confidential network and upload this code into the Pangu Quantum Computer!

If it had succeeded... the consequences would be unimaginable!

"A bunch of lunatics!" Lieutenant General Peng's back teeth were almost ground to dust.

Su Che, however, stared at the code. Far from fear, his eyes... lit up with a glint of excitement.

"Quantum virus..." He muttered to himself, like a child who had discovered a new toy. "Interesting."

He looked up at Lieutenant General Peng. "General, it seems our Dragon Chip, having just been born, is about to face its first whetstone."

"Doesn't Ida Yuji want to hear a requiem?"

"Then I will send him a grand gift."

"A... super gift sufficient to make the entire Sakura Country accompany him to hell!"