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Chapter 257 Countdown

Inside the fortress command center, the air seemed to freeze. The blue markings on Lin Che's left arm had stabilized, but the eerie calm only made everyone uneasy.

Whether he was still completely Lin Che was a question that lingered in everyone's mind, but no one dared to ask it aloud.

"I don't have time to think about personal matters." Lu Zhao's voice broke the silence.

He pushed up his glasses, swiped his finger across the control panel, and the main screen instantly switched views.

A city map lit up, overlaid with three striking red skull icons, two of which covered the city's core area, while the third was precisely pinned to the area where the Southwest Dam they had just left was located.

Beside it, a countdown timer relentlessly ticked: 47 hours, 58 minutes, and 12 seconds.

"The intelligence intercepted by the military, after being cross-verified by me, is 99% accurate."

Lu Zhao spoke quickly, without a trace of extra emotion, "Three tactical nuclear warheads, the delivery plan has been finalized. They call it the 'purification protocol'."

Su Wanqing didn't speak. She gently clenched her left hand at her side, and a pale blue interface that only she could see unfolded on her retina.

She brought up the system's built-in city map and entered the equivalent parameters given by Lu Zhao.

In an instant, the red blast radius on the map expanded outwards, followed by purple representing high-intensity radiation, and yellow representing deadly radioactive dust, like a slowly blooming flower of death that devoured the entire city.

The system displayed a cold message: [Simulation results: 95% of the city will become uninhabitable.]

Analysis of the military's evacuation list indicates that the evacuation plan only includes 7832 "critical personnel" and their families listed in the "Noah's Ark" mission.

"Important personnel?" Xiao Ran's voice was low, as if he was suppressing something.

He looked at the countless gray dots on the screen representing ordinary residential areas, densely packed in the area that was about to be "purified".

"What about the others? There are at least three million civilians left in the city..."

“They are the price.” Lu Zhao answered the question that no one wanted to say aloud.

With a loud "bang," Xiao Ran slammed his fist on the metal tabletop, shaking the entire command room.

“This is not a price to pay! This is a massacre! How dare they!” His eyes were bloodshot, and his chest heaved violently.

“Anger won’t solve anything.” Su Wanqing’s voice wasn’t loud, but it calmed the agitated Xiao Ran down.

She pointed to the screen, "We can't stop the nuclear bombs from falling; the missile silos aren't in the city. But we might be able to get some people out before the countdown ends."

Her words were like a shot in the arm, giving everyone a focus amidst their despair.

“Let’s divide the work.” Su Wanqing’s thoughts were clear and quick. “Lu Zhao, I need you to hack into the city’s emergency broadcast system and cellular network.”

"At the last moment, we must let everyone know the truth, instead of letting them listen to the government's lie about 'seeking refuge' and waiting to die." Lu Zhao nodded, his fingers already flying across the keyboard: "Give me three hours, and I can get top-level access."

“Xiao Ran,” Su Wanqing turned to him, “we need to contact your contacts in the military. We need to know their precise evacuation schedule, the troop deployment at all checkpoints, and the rotation patterns. Any detail could determine how many more people we can save.”

Xiao Ran let out a heavy sigh and wiped his face: "Understood. I have a friend in the logistics department; he should be able to get the transportation route maps."

“Lin Che, the two of us will be in charge of planning the route.” Su Wanqing pulled up another, more detailed map of the underground pipe network and abandoned facilities. “If the surface route is blocked, we’ll go underground. We need to find the safest and most efficient evacuation route to connect to the safe zone outside the city.”

As soon as she finished speaking, the system interface automatically began calculations. A few seconds later, a new line of data appeared: [Based on the assessment of existing resources, time constraints, and hostile threats, the probability of successfully evacuating more than 10,000 civilians is: 4.7%]

Su Wanqing pursed her lips slightly. This number was even more devastating than she had anticipated.

Just as everyone was about to take immediate action, Xiaoling and Xiaoyu, who had been quietly holding hands and standing in the corner, suddenly made a move.

Xiaoling's body trembled slightly, her eyes lost focus, and a faint purple light shone in her pupils.

She opened her mouth, but what came out was a completely unfamiliar, mature female voice with a slightly ethereal echo:
"I saw it... in the city center... tomorrow at noon... a purple lightning bolt will strike the clock tower in the central square... time will be torn apart there... a door to another world will open..."

Her voice made the temperature in the command room drop a few degrees.

“I…I saw something coming out of the crack…” Xiaoling’s body trembled even more violently, her face filled with fear. “They’re not creatures of this world…their forms are blurry…they’re searching…searching for an ‘anchor point’…they’re looking for us…”

Her younger sister, Xiaoyu, gripped her hand tightly, her face pale, and nodded, adding, "Sister is right. Those things... can smell time. The fluctuations in time on us are like lighthouses in the night for them."

Lu Zhao immediately recorded everything, quickly pulled up the structural diagram and related data of the central square on the screen, his brain working at high speed.

"A new variable. If the time rift does appear, the energy it releases could greatly accelerate the mutation process in the city's core area."

Once the military's monitoring systems detect energy fluctuations of this level, they will likely determine that the situation is out of control and thus... execute the 'purification protocol' ahead of schedule.

The countdown to a nuclear strike could be shortened at any time.

“The plan needs to be adjusted.” Su Wanqing made a decision immediately. “We must allocate some resources to monitor the central square. If the crack really appears, we cannot sit idly by; at least we must try to control the situation and delay its impact.”

Lin Che, who had been silent all along, suddenly spoke. His right eye was still human brown, but his golden left eye was staring at the prophecy notes recorded by Lu Zhao: "If the basic structure of those creatures is also related to mutation, or is of the same origin as the Weaver's technology..." He raised his left arm, and the blue patterns on it seemed to sense his thoughts and lit up slightly.

"Perhaps my abilities can influence them."

All eyes were on him. This proposal brought that dilemma back to the table.

Lu Zhao looked at the countdown on the screen, then at Lin Che's eye, which was no longer entirely human, and ultimately did not voice his objection.

The situation, in just a few minutes, became more complex and critical than anyone had imagined.