Did the world end today?

Chapter 164: This is enough.

"Break in! Breach in!"

Qi Yuan shouted the order and charged toward the entrance of the Ares ground station, braving the howling wind.

"Try to keep them alive! If you can't see their faces clearly, whatever you do, don't kill David Julius!"

Lin Xu shouted again, but Qi Yuan answered without turning his head:

"Don't worry! I know what I'm doing!"

Do you know what's going on?
No, what do you even know?!
Judging from your expression, you're clearly aiming to kill everyone here. Can you please tone it down a bit?
At this moment, Qi Yuan had already rushed into the entrance, and Lin Xu followed closely behind.

The heavy isolation door, scorched by the high temperature of the detonating engine, was twisted and deformed. In the low-oxygen environment and high temperature, eerie flames were burning at the entrance.

Lin Xu stepped across and entered the Ares ground station, where he found himself in a completely different world.

This is indeed a base that has been painstakingly built.

The internal facilities are complete and the security facilities are comprehensive.

Following the massive impact, the base's emergency equipment was immediately activated, and the level two and level three isolation doors also initiated their locking procedures.

Unfortunately, the isolation door could not close as fast as the shockwave could reach it.

The unique structure of the lava tube cave allows the shock wave to travel across a wide passage, almost blowing everything in its path away.

The traces of overpressure crushing stretched from near to far, as if an invisible ghost was spreading along the eastern front of the base.

The staff who hadn't had time to put on their spacesuits were first thrown into the air by the shockwave, and then left to linger in the unprotected Martian atmosphere.

They had lost the ability to resist—but even the faster-reacting security personnel could not withstand the relentless assault of Qi Yuan's commando team.

"Bang bang bang-"

The sound of rifle fire rang out continuously, and Qi Yuan's every burst of fire accurately hit the target.

Just as he promised Lin Xu, when he couldn't see the person's face clearly, all his attacks were aimed at non-lethal parts.

Blood soaked through the security personnel's spacesuits and then quickly gushed to the ground.

The battle erupted to its peak the moment everyone entered, and this isolated ground station finally paid the price for their reckless actions.

Clearly, after sending most of their forces to attack Jiang Xingye, the defenses here were extremely weak.

"Faster! Faster!"

"Search and fight simultaneously! Ensure proper identification!"

Qi Yuan's voice came again, and the assault team members who were slightly behind him lifted the masks off the faces of the wounded who were lying on the ground one by one, trying to find David Julius's whereabouts.

Lin Xu and Bai Mo were doing the same thing. The group advanced forward, and with powerful firepower and seamless teamwork, they reached the end of the ground station in less than 10 minutes.

"not found!"

"did not find!"

As the voices of the various assault team members rang out, Lin Xu frowned deeply.

did not find?
How can it be?

David isn't here?
"How many people were there in total? Including the injured and the dead?"

Lin Xu asked.

"22!"

Bai Mo answered immediately.

At this moment, she was trying to access the control system of the Ares space station, but due to the impact of the explosion, the energy network in the base also seemed to have problems. The power supply was unstable, the system kept restarting, and she was unable to enter successfully after several attempts.

"I need someone to go to the energy module to restart the energy supply!"

She shouted the order, and Qi Yuan responded immediately, but Lin Xu was rapidly calculating the number of personnel at the Ares ground station in his mind.

The number 22 is clearly incorrect.

Based on the number of "evaluation questionnaires" he had seen before, the total number of personnel at the Ares ground station and space station should be 90.

Since the Ares space station is confirmed to have 46 people, there must be at least 44 people on the ground station.

After deducting the 12 mercenaries who have already been sent out on missions, there should still be at least 32 people here.

There is a shortage of 10 people.

Where are these people?
At this point, the spacesuit had 19 minutes of life support remaining.

Lin Xu spoke quickly and asked:
Are there any cabins that haven't been searched yet?

"no!"

Qi Yuan replied:
"The entire base is like a tubular tunnel! We've already seen every single compartment along the way!"

"wrong!"

Lin Xu said in a deep voice:
"They must not have seen everything yet; there must be a hidden door."

"They simply didn't have time to leave after the explosion; there must have been a hidden safe house or a branch passage!"

"Search! Scan the entire base!"

"understand!"

Qi Yuan also knew that time was of the essence. Without hesitation, he immediately led his men back to the entrance and began searching each cabin from beginning to end.

Lin Xu, on the other hand, checked the scattered paper materials from end to end while reuniting with Qi Yuan's team.

Everyone was busy, but Bai Mo was engrossed in trying to access the system to decode it.

A moment later, a report suddenly came over the radio.

"Energy system repair!"

In an instant, the flashing lights inside the space station stabilized, and the emergency interlocking procedure, which had been partially activated, resumed operation.

Seeing that Qi Yuan and the others were about to be locked outside the isolation door, Bai Mo instantly hacked into the Ares ground station's system.

"Control takeover!"

"There's a branch passage!"

"Enter through the hidden door in the mid-section living quarters!"

"I'm about to open the secret door! Everyone, get into position and assemble immediately!"

"received!"

Qi Yuan's voice came, and Lin Xu put down what he was holding and ran quickly towards the living quarters. When he arrived, Bai Mo was already waiting there.

"No, how did you get into their system?"

"We've lost contact with Zhiyun. You didn't just get lucky and entered the password correctly on your first try, did you?"

"Does the absence of artificial intelligence mean we can't work?"

Bai Mo chuckled and said:

“They have people there, and we have people here.”

"I was just betting they hadn't deleted the evacuees' permissions, and it turns out they hadn't."

Wow. What kind of big-budget spy drama is this?

Indeed, it would be truly suspicious if two important facilities, both closely related to apocalyptic research, didn't send spies to each other.

At this moment, Qi Yuan and his assault team had also arrived.

With Bai Mo's action, the hidden door opened instantly.

Almost simultaneously, fierce firepower roared out from the hidden door.

"Be careful!"

Qi Yuan shouted a reminder, and the two assault team members threw two offensive grenades into the hidden door at a very small angle.

In this environment, the effectiveness of stun grenades is extremely limited, far less beneficial than directly deploying offensive grenades.

"boom!"

"boom!"

After two muffled thuds, Qi Yuan took the lead and rushed into the hidden door.

With a series of gunshots, the enemies inside the hidden door were cleared out in less than 10 seconds.

"Safety!"

"Safety!"

A report came through the earpiece, and Lin Xu immediately followed.

At this moment, Qi Yuan suddenly shouted:
"Target found!"

"David Julius is here!"

Lin Xu's heart skipped a beat.

at last!

Still no luck!
This proves at least two things.

First, although the information revealed by Ayana was misleading, Zhou Yue must have also incorporated some real information when constructing such misleading intelligence.

Secondly, David Julius was definitely not just an ordinary researcher!
"Take him to the living quarters! Seal all hatches!"

"Restore the base's life support systems! Prepare to begin the interrogation!"

At this moment, there are 21 minutes left in the countdown to the end of the world.

But the spacesuit only had six minutes left to sustain its life.

The life support system at Ares ground station must be restored; otherwise, everyone will have to be taken back to the landing ship for interrogation.

The space there is too small, and the methods that can be used are extremely limited.

Fortunately, this ground station still has a certain degree of resilience.

After the energy supply was restored and the isolation doors were relocked, the oxygen content in the living quarters rose rapidly.

Lin Xu ripped off David Julius's helmet, then took off his own and stared directly into his eyes.

"Neural Trojan horse".

Lin Xu asked directly:
"You used to say you didn't know who told you the term 'neural Trojan horse,' but now you do?"

As soon as he finished speaking, David, who had been trembling with fear, suddenly froze on the spot.

"How...how...how did you know??"

Seeing his reaction, Lin Xu realized that he had asked the right question.

This is the best entry point to break through his psychological defenses!
"how could I know?"

Lin Xu sneered.

“The whole of Mnemosyne is nothing but a conspiracy.”

"You think you're the driving force behind the plan, but in reality, you're just a tool in the process!"

"Haven't you noticed that you've forgotten more and more things over the past ten years or so?"

Lin Xu's words were pure boasting; he had no idea how the Mnemosyne technology worked, nor what equipment was needed to implement it.

But given his "shallow" understanding of the Western Alliance, it's unlikely they'll let this key figure go.

Sure enough, after he finished speaking, David stared in astonishment.

"how do you know"

How did you know?

"Never mind."

Lin Xu reached out and grasped David's shoulder.

Even through the flexible spacesuit, he could feel how thin this nearly 80-year-old man was.

You've been used.

"You're not even yourself anymore."

"From the moment you hear the words 'neural Trojan horse,' your personality has already begun to subtly change."

"You just haven't realized it yet!"

"Therefore, you are not who you are now."

"Helping Ximeng is not your true intention."

"Now, we need your cooperation!"

We're going to save you!

"At the same time, it is also about saving all of humanity!"

"Tell me, what exactly is the Mnemosyne Plan?"

"Ayana, how exactly did she become the Goddess of Memory?"

David struggled to sit up and looked directly into Lin Xu's eyes.

You won't get any information from me.

“I’ve forgotten a lot of things, and like you said, I’ve been changed.”

"I can only remember how to operate it."

"That's right. I'm just a tool."

David's eyes were filled with an almost desperate sorrow.

But Lin Xu's eyes lit up instantly.

I only remember how to operate it?
whee.

This is all I need!

(End of this chapter)