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Chapter 265 Mysterious Intruder

The day after the water pollution was prevented, a low humming sound came from the ventilation ducts of the underground fortress.

Su Wanqing stood in front of the command center console and pushed the task list to Xiao Ran: "Lu Zhao, keep an eye on the technical system. You are in charge of reinforcing the outer defenses. Lin Che, go to the purification zone and keep an eye on the purification devices. Xiao Ling, help with logistics and supplies."

Xiao Ran glanced at the list and fastened his tactical gloves to his belt: "Understood. The reinforcement materials for those mutation sites will be delivered within half an hour."

"Wait a minute." Su Wanqing called out to him, pointing to the surveillance footage on the wall, "The ventilation vents in East Zone 3 are corroded. Take two people and deal with them first."

As Xiao Ran nodded and left, Lin Che came in carrying the water quality test report: "The purification efficiency is 5% higher than yesterday, but the pollutants over at the mine are crystallizing."

"Write this down." Su Wanqing swiped a couple of times on the tablet. "We'll have a meeting at 3 PM to discuss this."

After Lin Che and Xiao Ling left, only Su Wanqing's breathing could be heard in the command center.

She stared at the city's surveillance footage, and a red dot at an abandoned substation suddenly flashed three times—that was an abnormal area marked by the system.

"drop--"

When the red light on the control panel flashed, the hairs on the back of Su Wanqing's neck stood on end.

The system's mechanical voice boomed in my ear: "Advanced intrusion detected, source unknown, target locked on user terminal."

She rapidly typed on the keyboard, and suddenly a black slit was torn open in the torrent of code on the screen.

A figure stepped out from the darkness, dressed in a tight-fitting black combat suit, expressionless, even his pupils were gray.

“Time Watcher, codename ‘Shadow’,” the other party spoke, his voice like sandpaper scraping metal. “Hand over the jade bracelet.”

Su Wanqing took a half step back, her hand resting on the tactical knife at her waist. The jade bracelet on her wrist was burning hot; it was the only personal item she had brought from the system space. "Why should I?"

“It doesn’t belong to this timeline.” Shadow raised his hand, a cloud of black mist condensing at his fingertips. “I’ll give you ten more seconds.”

The system kept beeping: "Intrusion level upgraded to S level, 70% of the defense program has been breached."

Su Wanqing reached for the emergency button below the control panel, but the moment her fingertips touched the button, the shadow's black mist wrapped around her wrist.

The jade bracelet suddenly emitted a blinding white light, and the black mist hissed like plastic being heated by fire.

“Interesting.” Shadow tilted its head. “It’s protecting you.”

"System!" Su Wanqing shouted through gritted teeth, "Activate Level 2 defense!"

The laser mesh on the ceiling suddenly fell, the shadow disappeared on the spot, and when it reappeared, it was standing behind the control panel.

He reached out to grab the jade bracelet, but Su Wanqing spun around to avoid it, and her tactical knife cut his hand—there was no blood, only black liquid seeping out.

"Xiao Ran!" Su Wanqing shouted into the walkie-talkie, "Command Center!"

As footsteps echoed down the corridor, Ying's movements quickened noticeably. He gripped Su Wanqing's wrist, the white light from the jade bracelet almost burning their skin.

Su Wanqing felt a cold consciousness drilling into her brain, like countless fine needles piercing her temples.

"Let go!"

Xiao Ran's roar made the control panel buzz. When he rushed in, his muscles were bulging, and golden lines ran beneath his skin—powers he had never fully unleashed.

The shadow was thrown by this force and crashed into the wall, where spiderweb-like cracks appeared.

"This is the first time I've seen you go all out." Su Wanqing rubbed her wrist, which had been pinched red.

Xiao Ran didn't reply, staring at Ying. The other person slowly straightened up, black liquid flowing from his seven orifices. "Warning. Your time is running out."

Before the words were finished, Ying's body began to disintegrate, like ashes scattered by the wind.

When Su Wanqing rushed over, she only found a thin piece of metal on the ground with a line of small characters engraved on it: "The five anchor points will eventually be annihilated."

The system notification sounded again: "Intrusion terminated, defense program repair complete."

Su Wanqing clutched the metal piece, recalling the words Ying had spoken before disappearing. Five people: her, Xiao Ran, Lu Zhao, Lin Che, and Xiao Ling.

Why were there five of them? Yesterday in the sealed cabin, the system also indicated "five core members," so this couldn't be a coincidence.

"Wanqing?" Xiao Ran handed her a bottle of water. "Are you alright?"

"It's nothing." Su Wanqing put the metal piece into her pocket. "Go and call Lu Zhao over so we can see what this is."

She turned to look at the damaged control console, and a message suddenly popped up on the screen: "Abnormal contact detected. We recommend strengthening anchor point defenses."

The roar of machinery could be heard outside the window; it was Xiao Ran leading his men to reinforce the defensive fortifications.

Su Wanqing touched the jade bracelet on her wrist; the temperature had already dropped.

She knew that what happened today was just the beginning.

The morning after the "Shadow" intrusion, a red alert suddenly popped up on the command center's monitoring screen.

Su Wanqing was tying her tactical boots when she heard a noise and looked up—dozens of red dots were moving on the main road on the edge of the city.

"Lu Zhao, check the heat source in the southwest ring road." She pushed the tablet over.

Lu Zhao tapped the keyboard twice, and the monitoring screen switched to a real-time satellite image.

In the green belts on both sides of the main road, camouflage tents are being set up, soldiers are arranging reflective cones in a serpentine pattern, and the tracks of armored vehicles are leaving dark gray ruts in the morning mist as they roll over the asphalt.

“The system has detected military activity.” Lu Zhao pushed up his glasses. “There are also three troop carriers and two riot control armored vehicles at the highway entrance on the east side.”

Su Wanqing held the pen and drew circles on the map: "Intercept their communications."

The keyboard clattered for half a minute before Lu Zhao suddenly stopped. A static noise came through the headphones, followed by a hoarse male voice: "General Li, all checkpoints are deployed."

"When will the lockdown begin?" Su Wanqing leaned closer.

"The city will be completely locked down within 48 hours." Lu Zhao pulled up the written record. "The original words were 'No one is allowed to enter or leave, and violators will be dealt with according to military control regulations.'" The surveillance switched to the command tent, where a middle-aged officer wearing a peaked cap was on the phone.

The stars on his epaulets gleamed in the morning light, and his voice leaked from the loudspeaker: "Yes, sir, using 'military exercises' as an excuse for civilians? No notification for now."

Su Wanqing put her pen on the table: "They already knew about the infection."

At noon, the long table in the command center was full of people. Xiao Ran crumpled his tactical gloves into a ball, Lin Che's cuffs were damp, and Xiao Ling was holding a notebook with flour still stuck to the cover—she had just finished sorting supplies for the logistics department.

"With a deployment of this scale, the higher-ups must be suppressing even worse news."

Xiao Ran tapped the military map on the table. "When I was in the army, I only saw similar operations in biological and chemical leak contingency plans."

Lin Che opened the water quality report: "The pollutants in the mine pit have crystallized, and seven more small pollution points have appeared in the city."

He pointed to the blue dots on the map, "They're scattered throughout the old town and the university area, like someone deliberately laid them out."

Lu Zhao pulled up the hospital data, and 27 case numbers popped up on the screen: "These are the ones that were reported; the actual number may be three times higher."

He pushed up his glasses. "I hacked into the nurses' station system. A night shift nurse wrote in her log: 'Last night, the emergency room admitted eight people covered in black markings, and they were all sent to the isolation ward.'"

Su Wanqing spread out the map and circled four places in red: "Medicine at the medical center, grain at the food distribution center, parts at the electronics market, and steel in the industrial zone."

She looked up and scanned the crowd. "These must be brought back before the military seals off the city."

The division of labor was quickly decided: Xiao Ran would take two trucks to the military warehouse, Lin Che would wear a white coat and work at the medical center, Lu Zhao would carry a computer bag and go to the electronics market, and Xiao Ling would go to the food warehouse with Su Wanqing.

Su Wanqing crossed out 1000 rebate points, and the system notified her that the driverless truck was waiting in the underground garage.

At three o'clock in the afternoon, Lin Che's medical mask smelled of disinfectant. He walked through the medical center corridor, where the benches along the walls were full of people.

A girl in a school uniform was curled up in a corner, with faint black lines crawling on her wrists, extending towards the back of her hand like tree roots.

"Temperature 39.5 degrees Celsius." The nurse pushed the wheelchair past. "The family said she was lively and energetic just yesterday."

Lin Che touched the girl's IV tube, and the moment his fingertips touched the water, goosebumps rose on the back of his neck—it wasn't ordinary venous blood, but more like glue mixed with ink, sticky and gooey.

The door to the medicine storage room opened a crack, and Lin Che squeezed in to stack the vaccine boxes onto the cart.

Just as he was about to leave, a soft cough came from behind him: "Comrade."

He turned around and saw a doctor wearing gold-rimmed glasses, with three pens tucked into the pocket of his white coat, the top pen cap stained with blood.

The doctor handed him a USB drive, which was very light: "It contains abnormal cases from the past three months, as well as blood sample analyses."

Lin Che held the USB drive, its plastic casing slightly warm: "You..."

"My surname is Zhang, I'm from the emergency room." Dr. Zhang glanced at his watch. "I'll be making rounds in ten minutes, please leave as soon as possible."

He paused, then said, "I know someone is investigating these things; someone has to bring the truth out."

Lin Che stuffed the USB drive into his sleeve and, as he pushed the cart out, he heard Dr. Zhang whisper, "If there's an organization called 'Green Ark,' please pass on a message for me."

Xiao Ran's situation was even more complicated. Four sentries stood guard at the main entrance of the military warehouse, rifle butts resting on their shoulders.

He went around to the back wall and sent a text message to his old comrade-in-arms: "Old Chen, can you open the back door?"

Five minutes later, a hand reached out from the crack in the wall and shook a key.

Xiao Ran crouched down and crawled inside. The warehouse was filled with boxes of bulletproof vests, and several soldiers were loading assault rifles onto a truck.

"They're pressuring us," the porter said, wiping his sweat. "They said they need to clear out the warehouse in a couple of days."

Xiao Ran disguised himself as a porter and carried three boxes of tactical vests and two boxes of hand grenades.

As soon as I pushed open the door, a sharp shout came from behind me: "Stop!"

Four soldiers surrounded them, their bayonets gleaming coldly in the lamplight.

Xiao Ran put his hand on his waist, ready to force his way in—when suddenly someone patted him on the shoulder: "General Li's men, let him go."

Colonel Wang arrived, and his epaulets had one more star than Xiao Ran remembered.

He waved to the soldiers, and only lowered his voice after the crowd dispersed: "The higher-ups are discussing 'extreme measures'."

He pointed to the armored vehicle outside the window, "If you have family, take them out now."

As Xiao Ran loaded the supplies onto the vehicle, a tightness gripped the back of his neck—Colonel Wang hadn't specified what the "extreme measures" were, but he'd heard similar terms in the army, usually associated with incendiary bombs and biological weapons.

At 6 p.m., driverless trucks began to drive into the underground bunker.

Lu Zhao was carrying three hard drives, Xiao Ling's truck was piled with boxes of compressed biscuits, Lin Che's cart was loaded with vaccines and blood plasma, and Xiao Ran's truck bed was covered with a tarpaulin, underneath which were bulletproof vests and rifles.

“I’ve done the tallying.” Su Wanqing flipped through the list. “We have enough medicine for three months, enough food for thirty people for ninety days, enough spare parts to repair three generators, and enough steel to reinforce half a layer of the fortress.”

She closed her notebook. "But the lockdown is progressing faster than expected. There are only two roads left to leave the city now, and they may be completely closed tomorrow."

The lights in the command center dimmed a bit. Xiaoling finished stacking the last box of supplies, looked up and said, "Sister Wanqing, I have something to say."

Su Wanqing pushed the list aside: "Go ahead."

“Yesterday, ‘Shadow’ mentioned ‘five anchor points’.” Xiaoling touched the silver bracelet on her wrist. “Today, when we were moving supplies, I felt like I could sense you guys—when Brother Xiao Ran was in the warehouse, my wrists felt hot; when Brother Lin Che entered the medical center, I heard the sound of water; when Brother Lu Zhao was hacking the system, my temples throbbed.”

She looked down and twisted her fingers. "Maybe... the five of us really do have some kind of connection?"

Lin Che looked at the blue markings on his arm, Xiao Ran touched the gold spots on the back of his neck that hadn't completely faded, Lu Zhao pushed up his glasses, and Su Wanqing's jade bracelet felt slightly warm on her wrist.

No one answered, but it was as if a thin string had been added to the air, which would hum if plucked lightly.

"Go and rest, everyone." Su Wanqing stood up. "We'll continue the rush to transport goods at seven o'clock tomorrow morning."