After stocking up at the maximum level, all the handsome men in the apocalypse are looking for suppo

Chapter 226 Breakthrough and Pursuit

As soon as everyone rushed out of the mall, a deafening roar like an earthquake erupted behind them.

The wailing of reinforced concrete and the shattering of glass curtain walls merged into a symphony of destruction as the entire building collapsed inward, stirring up a cloud of dust.

A massive cloud of energy, a mixture of purple and blue, shot into the sky from the ruins.

The figure of "Night" shot out from the energy cloud, so fast that it left only a blur.

His biomechanical armor was damaged in several places, revealing the flowing energy beneath, but the core belonging to the subway on his chest was more active than before.

"Hand over the core and the anchor point!" His furious roar echoed through the empty streets. "You cannot understand the consequences of stopping me!"

At his command, the plants on both sides of the street, which had already been modified by radiation, instantly came to life, their twisted vines breaking through the ground and lashing out at the crowd.

From the shadows, dozens of long-lurking mutants roared and pounced.

"Split into two groups!" Xiao Ran decisively ordered over the radio. "Main force, follow me and draw him away!"
"Lu Zhao, take Su Wanqing and Lin Che through the underground passage!"

Lu Zhao didn't reply. He just grabbed Su Wanqing, supported the unconscious Lin Che with his other hand, and rushed straight towards an abandoned subway entrance not far away.

The dark tunnel was filled with the smells of mildew and rust. The three people's footsteps echoed clearly in the empty passageway.

Su Wanqing held Lin Che in her arms and could clearly feel his unusually high body temperature; it felt burning hot even through his clothes.

By the light of her tactical flashlight, she could see the blue lines on Lin Che's skin appearing and disappearing with his rapid breathing, like some kind of unstable circuit.

"hiss--"

A spider-like mutant lurking on the ceiling suddenly pounced down. Without even looking up, Lu Zhao shoved Su Wanqing behind him and fired a short burst from his rifle. The mutant screamed and crashed onto the railway tracks.

Before he could catch his breath, more rustling sounds came from deep within the tunnel.

"Damn it, we're running low on ammo." Lu Zhao cursed under his breath as he changed magazines.

During the breakout, his arm was cut by vines and was bleeding.

After repelling another wave of mutants pouring out from the side ventilation opening, Xiao Ran's anxious voice suddenly came through the communicator, mixed with the sounds of intense gunfire and explosions: "Lu Zhao!"
He knows your route! A large number of mutants are gathering at your location in the subway system!
Revise the retreat plan and proceed immediately to point B to rendezvous!

The chase that followed became even more chaotic. They abandoned the subway tunnel, climbed a maintenance ladder into an abandoned office building, and then traversed a flooded underground parking garage.

No matter how they changed their routes, the pursuers of "Night" seemed to have navigation systems installed, always managing to block their path precisely.

At an intersection, a massive mutant crashed through a wall, blocking their path.

Lu Zhao had just raised his gun when he realized he had already fired the last bullet.

Just as the mutant was about to pounce, Lin Che in Su Wanqing's arms suddenly moved. He opened his eyes with difficulty, his pupils unfocused, but he weakly squeezed out a few words, while pointing with all his might to the back of an inconspicuous row of storage cabinets on the right.

"There... a safe house..."

Following his pointing finger, Lu Zhao pushed open the dusty storage cabinet, revealing a metal door that blended almost seamlessly with the wall color.

He smashed the electronic lock with the butt of his gun, and the three of them immediately slipped inside.

The room was small, resembling a small laboratory. Lu Zhao quickly closed the door, pulled out a device from a control panel on the wall, and pressed the switch.

After a slight buzzing sound, he breathed a sigh of relief.

"This can temporarily isolate the core's energy signals, but it can only last for a few hours at most."

We need to develop a plan for the next steps.

Su Wanqing gently placed Lin Che on a cot before looking around the room.

The place is filled with various research materials and equipment. A group photo hangs on the wall, showing several young people in research coats surrounding a refined man wearing gold-rimmed glasses.

The man's appearance was exactly the same as the face that "Night" had constructed with energy.

She picked up an open digital diary from the table, written in Lin Che's handwriting. The last entry read: "The director's theory is too radical. Activating all three cores at the same time could lead to unpredictable spacetime distortions, but no one heeded my warnings."

I secretly backed up some of the data, so that if the experiment really gets out of control, there might still be a chance to salvage the situation...

The confirmation of the core memory's authenticity left her speechless for a moment. She then turned to her system interface and pulled up the analysis data for the second core.

On the screen, complex energy flows overflow from the core, through her jade bracelet, and then slowly flow into Lin Che's body.

[Warning: Target Lin Che's nervous system has been detected to be being reconstructed in a disordered manner by core information fragments.]

]
“Something’s not right with him.” Lu Zhao finished bandaging his wound and walked over, pointing to the wildly fluctuating waveform on a monitoring device next to him, his brows furrowing slightly. “This isn’t the treatment process we’re familiar with… His brain activity patterns are being reconstructed, like… like he’s receiving some kind of external instruction or memory.”

We need to figure out what this means before he is fully awake.

“Something’s not right with him.” Lu Zhao finished bandaging his wound and walked over, pointing to the wildly fluctuating waveform on a monitoring device next to him, his brows furrowed slightly. “This isn’t the treatment process we’re familiar with… His brain activity patterns are being reconstructed, like… like he’s receiving some kind of external instruction or memory. We need to figure out what this means before he fully wakes up.”

Su Wanqing squatted beside the cot, looking at Lin Che. The blue patterns on his body appeared and disappeared with his rapid breathing, and his burning body temperature seeped through his clothes into her palm.

His eyes were tightly closed, his brow furrowed, and his lips moved silently, as if he were having a silent nightmare.

Suddenly, Lin Che's body trembled violently, and he opened his eyes. His eyes were blank and unfocused.

He grabbed Su Wanqing's arm with astonishing strength. "Allen, look at the data," his voice was hoarse and urgent, as if he didn't recognize the person in front of him at all, "The director's theory is flawed... the three cores can't be activated simultaneously... it will break the isolation layer..."

"Lin Che? Wake up! Look at me!" Su Wanqing shook his shoulders hard, trying to pull him back from his confused state of mind.

Lu Zhao also stepped forward, remaining on guard.

"Allen?" Lin Che finally focused his gaze on Su Wanqing's face, his confused expression gradually replaced by shock and fear. He released his grip, raising his hands in disbelief, looking at the faint blue patterns on them. "I...I'm not just test subject S-7, I was once a member of the project team...but why am I...?"

Fragments of memories flooded in like a tidal wave, causing him to curl up in pain, his body trembling violently.

Su Wanqing gave him some water and waited until he calmed down a bit.

During this period, Lu Zhao successfully hacked into the military's encrypted communication channels using the equipment inside the safe house.

The crackling of electricity and intermittent reports came from the speakers.

"The initial goal was to resist the 'Weaver' civilization." Lin Che leaned against the wall, his voice weak but clear, his eyes staring into the void as if recalling something extremely distant. "They are the oldest intelligent life in the universe, controlling countless galaxies... The Orion civilization fled to Earth, bringing us technology and seeking refuge at the same time."

He raised his hand, trembling, and pointed to a filing cabinet in the corner of the studio: "The director... who is now 'Night'... he discovered that the core can not only create defensive shields, but also... can rewrite the timeline. He betrayed his original intentions; he wants to use the core to transform himself into a time manager, an eternal being."

Lin Che closed his eyes, his face full of pain: "On the day of the experiment, I discovered his plan and tried to stop him, but it was too late... After the explosion, he captured me and... transformed me into what I am now, a container to provide a host for his digital consciousness."

Just then, a clear emergency report came through Lu Zhao's loudspeaker: "The subject and the core have exhibited an unprecedented symbiotic relationship, able to directly contact the core and transmit information regardless of radiation... She claims that she can now 'hear' the core's voice and repeatedly mentions that 'the Weaver has locked onto the coordinates'... It is recommended that the subject and the core be immediately transferred to Alpha Base..."

In the background of the report, an unusually calm child's voice came through—it was Xiaoling's voice: "Time is running out. They will arrive in 72 hours, and your weapons cannot stop them..."

Lu Zhao cut off the communication and looked at Su Wanqing and Lin Che with a solemn expression. "Xiao Ling may have been affected by the core energy and become some kind of medium or mouthpiece. If what she said is true, then the 'Weaver' civilization is indeed approaching Earth, and the situation is more urgent than we imagined."

Upon hearing this, Lin Che gave a wry smile and nodded: "This is the perfect excuse for 'Night's' advance plan. He will claim that only by gathering all three cores can the invasion be resisted, but in reality, his plan will only lead to a greater disaster... We must find Xiaoling and the cores before the military moves them."

As he spoke, Lu Zhao had already completed the scan of Lin Che's body, and a complex energy structure diagram was projected onto the screen on the wall.

“The Orion sequence is already deeply integrated with your DNA,” Lu Zhao analyzed, “which is why the separation process is so dangerous.”

“Yes, I’m not entirely human anymore…” Lin Che looked at the data chart with a complicated expression, “but that’s also our advantage.”

He struggled to his feet, supporting himself against the wall, and walked to the experimental table in the center of the room. “‘Night’ needs three cores, but it needs a stable anchor point even more—Su Wanqing,” he said, looking at her. “You are the best candidate he has selected.”

Without an anchor point, even if the cores are assembled, the system cannot be stably started; if he forces it to start, the result will only be another catastrophic explosion and a new wave of virus spread..."

Lin Che's fingers flew across the dusty experimental equipment, and a complex energy model appeared on the screen.

“But we can use this to our advantage, because the sequence within me can interfere with the core’s synchronization.”

Just as he was about to explain further, a piercing alarm suddenly blared throughout the safe house, and red warning lights flashed incessantly.

On a small radar screen on the wall, red dots representing hostility are rapidly approaching from all directions.

"Less than 500 meters away!" Lu Zhao roared. Outside the window, the footsteps of the search team and the roars of the mutants were getting closer and closer.

Lin Che suddenly turned to Su Wanqing, his face showing unprecedented anxiety and seriousness.

“Listen, we don’t have much time left. You need to know the most important thing—” He grabbed Su Wanqing’s hand, which was adorned with a jade bracelet, “This jade bracelet is not just a trading system; it’s a small core controller!”

"Night" gave you this to mark you with an anchor, but it's also our only hope!"

He spoke rapidly: "You must find the third core before he collects all three, and then use the jade bracelet to create a seal, not activate them! This may be our only chance..."

Before he could finish speaking, a violent explosion came from the outer wall of the safe house.

The whole room shook violently, the overhead light tubes shattered, and rubble and dust fell in a shower.

Gravel and dust fell from the hole in the ceiling, and the piercing alarm mingled with the increasingly clear roars and footsteps outside.

The entire safe house was shaking slightly.

“It’s too late,” Lin Che swept aside the messy instruments on the lab table and took out a palm-sized metal disk covered with complex circuits from a hidden compartment under the table. “We must split up and buy some time.”

He handed the disc to Lu Zhao: "This is the core energy replicator I designed back then. It can temporarily simulate the core's signal. Lu Zhao, you and Su Wanqing take the second core and retreat to the north of the city. Activate this device along the way to create energy fluctuations and lure 'Night' and his troops into pursuit."

"What about you?" Su Wanqing immediately objected, "Your injuries haven't healed yet, it's too dangerous for you to go alone."

Lin Che shook his head and pointed to the faint blue markings on his body: "And I, using the Orion sequence remaining in my body to cover my signal, infiltrated the military base to rescue Xiaoling and the third core. Because I have the Orion sequence in my body, the military's core detection equipment will regard me as a 'friendly force' and will not trigger the highest level of alarm. This is our only chance."

Without hesitation, Lu Zhao took the duplicator, turned around and began rummaging through the supply boxes in the safe house, quickly integrating all available resources.

Several simple electromagnetic pulse devices and signal jammers quickly took shape in his hands.

Meanwhile, on another device at his disposal, he had already cracked the military's communications and intercepted encrypted intelligence streams.

“Found them,” Lu Zhao said without looking up. “Xiao Ling and Core have been placed at a temporary outpost in the east of the city. They are scheduled to be transferred to the Alpha Base deep in the mountains in six hours. Our window of opportunity is extremely limited.”

He projected a city map onto the wall and traced several lines highlighted in red with his finger: "Su Wanqing and I will retreat along this abandoned industrial pipeline, moving north and creating disruptions along the way. This should buy Lin Che three to four hours. Lin Che, you must complete the rescue within this time."

He pointed to another spot on the map, “and then we met up under the abandoned overpass.”

With the plan finalized, the three quickly split up to prepare.

(End of this chapter)