The call was cut off, and Lan Bo and Bai Chunian lost all contact.
“What happened?”
Han Xingqian immediately closed his laptop. Seeing Xiao Xun’s face peering at him, he let out a sigh of relief and whispered, “The situation is serious, but I can’t leave right now. There are still quite a few samples left to test. You’ll have to go back to headquarters for me.”
“Alright.”
Xiao Xun went to Aphid City in Han Xingqian’s place. The IOA headquarters had already received word that Bai Chunian and Lan Bo were in danger, and the Special Operations Unit, Technical Department, and Medical Association were all conducting an emergency investigation into the matter.
Xiao Xun brought back some liquid samples and tissue sections extracted by Han Xingqian. The Medical Association began further analysis as soon as they received the samples, while members of the Special Operations Unit’s Search Division combed the area near the Shaojin Mansion for any clues. Meanwhile, the Technology Department relied on the faint signals from their communicators to track down the two men’s whereabouts.
Duan Yang, head of the Technical Department’s Cybersecurity Division, had also returned from the PBB military base on short notice. His first task was to perform maintenance on the IOA network to check for any overlooked security vulnerabilities.
Due to the sudden disappearance of Bai Chunian and Lan Bo, all of Bai Chunian’s responsibilities had fallen squarely on Bi Lanxing’s shoulders. While busy tracking Bai Chunian’s whereabouts, Bi Lanxing also had to handle a mountain of work, his fingers flying across the keyboard.
Suddenly, an email appeared on the screen. The cover was unusual, featuring a crawling black worm icon. All their electronic devices had been encrypted by the bigwigs in the Technology Department, so under normal circumstances, they wouldn’t receive any emails. Bi Lanxing’s heart sank; he had a bad feeling about this.
He opened the email, but it contained only a single simple sentence: “Come to the F117 lounge. I have something for you.”
The F117 lounge was located inside the IOA headquarters building. Bi Lanxing slipped his communicator into his ear, grabbed his coat, pulled a gun from under his chair, and tucked it into the outer side of his thigh, concealing it with his coat. He silently made his way upstairs.
However, the situation wasn’t as dire as he’d imagined. When he arrived, Xiao Xun was already standing outside the lounge door.
“Looks like you got the email too,” Xiao Xun said indifferently.
“……” Bi Lanxing’s nerves remained taut; his hand rested on the holster on the outside of his thigh.
The one who came to open the door was an Omega teenager with a lollipop in his mouth. His reptilian hands were tucked into the pockets of his hoodie as he glanced at them. “Are you the successor chosen by the Divine Messenger?”
Bi Lanxing froze slightly. “What?”
Xiao Xun wasn’t surprised; he followed them inside.
Ever since the Shaojin Mansion had been attacked, the Chairman had taken in several wounded individuals and housed them in the headquarters’ lounge. Aside from some restrictions on their personal freedom, they weren’t treated like prisoners.
“He’s technically a prisoner, yet he’s acting so brazen.” Bi Lanxing scrutinized the omega in turn. A worm-like logo was printed on the back of his hoodie—the same animated black worm from the email—so it seemed he was indeed the one who sent it.
This Omega had a sharp, no-nonsense demeanor and wasted no time. He swiveled his laptop screen toward them, revealing a silver barrel on the display, accompanied by a brief description.
Weapon Name: Silent Liquid Nitrogen Capture Net
Composition: Pressurized liquid nitrogen and Arctic shrimp gland extract.
Rarity: 3 stars
Special Ability: A new type of weapon that combines the differentiation capabilities of Arctic shrimp glands with extreme freezing within a liquid nitrogen projectile. It can freeze a target within three seconds, rendering it immobile for 24 hours. After 24 hours, the target will automatically thaw and awaken due to its self-healing abilities. If an ordinary human is hit, they will shatter and die instantly.
Drawbacks: Small magazine, slow reload, short range, high cost, consumable; firing two rounds in quick succession will render the barrel unusable.
Bi Lanxing said, “So Chu and the others were ambushed by this weapon? Why didn’t they die…”
As soon as he finished speaking, a string in his mind suddenly tightened.
Back in M Port when facing the Golden Thread Worm, Bai Chunian had also been hit and wounded, yet he hadn’t been affected by the special weapon in the Golden Thread Worm’s hands.
Seeing the astonishment in his eyes, the Reptilian gave an unexpected cold laugh: “What? Didn’t the Divine Messenger say you were his successor?”
The Crawler turned to look at Xiao Xun: “You don’t seem surprised. Looks like you’re the more reliable one. Come here; I’ll teach you how to use this program.”
“Deputy Captain.” Xiao Xun gently nudged Bi Lanxing with his shoulder, giving him a subtle, cold-eyed reminder not to show any weakness.
Bi Lanxing took a few deep breaths and leaned over toward the Reptile.
“I’ve copied this program onto these watches. Take one each and put them on. You can search the directory by appearance, or simply scan with the watch’s camera. You can look up the functions and power of every weapon in the world. If anyone develops a new weapon, I’ll update the database.” ” The Reptile spoke rapidly and demonstrated the operation just as quickly. Fortunately, Bi Lanxing and Xiao Xun had both undergone Bai Chunian’s grueling training, so they were just barely able to keep up.
“There’s another program inside,” the Reptile said. “It’s a test subject index. Enter a code number to find the corresponding test subject profile. I’ve included the coding rules inside; just cross-reference them to search.”
A dense array of coding rules appeared on the watch’s electronic screen.
- First-digit coding rule [Glandular Organism Prototype]:
0: Plant-type gland
1: Snake-type gland
2: Insect-type gland;
3: Lizard-dragon-type gland;
4: Virus-type gland;
5: Hoofed-type gland;
6: Non-living gland
7: Bird-type glands
8: Fish-type glands
9: Beast-type glands
……
Median Coding Rules [Degree of Mimicry]:
0: No mimicry
1: 10% mimicry; eye mimicry or skin mimicry
2: 20% mimicry, tail mimicry or ear mimicry
3: 30% mimicry, horn mimicry, or tail and ear mimicry
4: 40% mimicry, wing mimicry
5: 50% mimicry, half-body mimicry
10: 100% mimicry, i.e., full-body mimicry
Last-Digit Coding Rules [Primary Ability]:
0: Guidance
1: Restriction
2: Energy Wave
3: Tampering
4: Stealth
5: Space
6: Summoning
7: Matter Manipulation
8: Infectious Disease
9: Form Shift
10: Network-Dependent
11: Silence
12: Teleportation
13: Attribute Conversion
14: Defense
15: Tracking
……
“Thank you.” ”Bi Lanxing was astonished by the comprehensiveness of this data and couldn’t help but grow even more wary of the Crawler. “There shouldn’t be a network here.”
The Crawler wore a mocking expression: “My innate ability is unlimited Wi-Fi. There isn’t a system in the world I can’t hack into… well, except for the equipment in the IOA Technology Department. Who’s your security officer? I’d be very interested in meeting them.”
“……It’s Senior Duan Yang.” This wasn’t a secret; every hacker had heard of Duan Yang. Young up-and-comers took pride in attempting to breach Senior Duan Yang’s security systems, though unfortunately, no one had ever succeeded. It was said that Duan Yang was Instructor K’s student, and he had taken over the Technical Department after Instructor K retired.
“I meant, if you have time, could you introduce me? What’s with that look of suspicion on your face?” Crawler shrugged mockingly. “I’m here of my own free will. Do you think I can’t get out? These two programs would be worth hundreds of millions if sold on the black market, yet I wrote them for you for free. If it weren’t for the President and the Divine Messenger, I wouldn’t want to stay here lecturing you two kindergarteners.”
“My apologies, I’ve offended you.” Bi Lanxing nodded slightly in apology, though the eavesdropping function on his communicator remained active—he was always cautious.
The Crawler could, of course, sense that the device on him was still running, but he couldn’t be bothered to make a fuss over it; he merely wrinkled his nose in disdain and let it go.
The Medical Association’s investigation progressed quickly, as Dr. Lin Deng had previously voluntarily submitted a document detailing the drugs he had developed or proposed.
Among them was an “infection agent,” abbreviated as “in agent”—a special formula Lin Deng had been preparing to design and develop before leaving the research institute. However, the experiments were only halfway through when he was fired. It appears that after he left the research institute, Aileen took over the development of the “in” infection agent.
The records indicate that the “in” agent is blue in color, with its main components being hydrogen cyanide and blue pigment extract. If injected into the glands of a test subject, this agent would trigger a systemic infection within ten minutes, leading to death.
Due to the resignation of the International Prison Warden, the research institute was forced to undergo an inspection. Many test subjects that did not meet safety requirements had to be destroyed as quickly as possible to avoid scrutiny, so it’s likely that Aileen is now struggling to manage everything. It seems she has successfully found a good method for disposing of useless test subjects other than incineration.
After fully understanding the situation, Bi Lanxing and Xiao Xun walked out of the headquarters building together and leaned against a secluded corner of the garden to speak in hushed tones.
Bi Lanxing rested his chin on his hand against the wall, examining the watch given to him by the reptilian, while Xiao Xun sat on the case of his sniper rifle.
“Divine Messenger…” Bi Lanxing murmured the codename, attempting to enter it into the watch.
A detailed profile appeared on the watch’s digital screen.
Special Operations Weapon 9100—Divine Messenger. Below the name appeared a photo of Bai Chunian, along with a description of his abilities. However, according to the Reptilian, the watch could only display known data, so it couldn’t be relied upon as a comprehensive encyclopedia.
“Just as I thought. I’d actually suspected as much.” Bi Lanxing slipped the watch into his pocket and rested his hands behind his head. “It’s not surprising, though. He’s so strong—it’s beyond what a human can achieve.”
Xiao Xun ran his fingers over the surface of the gun’s magazine and said calmly, “Perhaps the effort he put into training was a hundred times greater than ours. His current strength is simply what he deserves.”
“You knew all along?”
“The Universal Dashboard can detect a test subject’s rank. Brother Chu is a Level 9 test subject, and Lan Bo is Level 8.”
“Are you afraid?”
“I used to be, but not anymore,” Xiao Xun said. “We’re essentially no different. Fear stems from our own weakness; it has nothing to do with Brother Chu.”
Bi Lanxing laughed. “I was just wondering how to convince you. Now I only need to figure out how to convince Ayan.”
Xiao Xun raised his eyelids: “What do you think the situation is right now?”
“Based on the clues we’ve gathered so far, Brother Chu and Lan Bo were captured by the liquid nitrogen net and taken away. If the other side wanted them dead, they could have just injected them with the infection serum—there’d be no need to risk taking them away.” Bi Lanxing rested his chin on his hand, deep in thought. “They must be planning to make Brother Chu work for them.” ”
“The surveillance across the entire Aphid City didn’t pick up a single clue. They most likely took the water route, but all vessels—large and small—returning from the sea have been stopped and inspected. The numbers match up, and none were carrying suspicious cargo.”
Suddenly, the two exchanged a glance, seemingly reaching a consensus.
“Let’s go check it out.” Bi Lanxing wrapped his vines around the high wall and scaled it, Xiao Xun following close behind, carrying his sniper rifle case. Their communicators were equipped with tracking functions, so the tech department could monitor their location at any time.