Searching for someone in northern Myanmar, and you call that earning tuition fees?

The passage was pitch black, like the throat of a giant beast, bottomless.

Zhao Gang led the way, his tactical flashlight beam compressed into a narrow beam, his gun muzzle lowered, proceeding cautiously step by step.

The air was thick with the smells of engine oil, dust, and a faint, almost imperceptible odor of blood, creating a stifling and oppressive atmosphere.

"Left front, seven o'clock position, infrared trigger."

"There's pressure on the third stone slab under your feet, go around it."

Su Ming's voice wasn't loud, but it was as precise as a scalpel, carving out a safe path for everyone in the darkness.

Zhao Gang's back was soaked with sweat.

He was now certain that without Su Ming, their entire team would have perished within a hundred meters of entering this place.

After passing through a long passageway, the view suddenly opened up before us.

This is a huge underground cavern that has been converted into a small military base. Rows of shipping containers serve as barracks, next to which is an armory, and two dune buggies are parked in the corner.

The base was unusually quiet, with only a few emergency lights emitting a faint green glow.

"Their main force should be in the core area, this is the outer residential area," Zhao Gang said in a low voice.

"Ding...ding...ding..."

The eerie knocking sound became clearly audible here, its source pointing directly to a container at the deepest part.

Zhao Gang made a hand gesture, and the two bodyguards immediately spread out, forming a crossfire, and slowly moved towards the target.

The container door was sealed shut with a heavy electronic lock, and a fully armed Black Fox mercenary stood beside it, impatiently cursing in English at the door.

"...Damn bitch, if you hit me again I'll chop your hand off!"

Zhao Gang's eyes turned cold, and he made a "throat-slitting" gesture to Su Ming beside him, preparing to make his move.

Su Ming shook his head, pointed to the cable at the mercenary's feet, and then pointed to the power box not far away.

Zhao Gang understood immediately.

He crept up to the back of the power box like a cat, and at Su Ming's signal, he swiftly cut one of the main cables with a dagger.

"Sizzle!"

A blinding arc of electricity exploded, plunging the entire base into utter darkness in an instant.

"Fuck! What's going on?" the mercenary cursed, turning around warily.

Just as he turned around, a figure slid out from the darkness, skimming along the ground.

Instead of attacking directly, Zhao Gang cut in from the side and rear at a tricky angle, locking the opponent's wrist holding the gun with his left arm like an iron clamp and bending it upwards, so that the muzzle of the gun was pointing upwards.

At the same time, the dagger in his right hand was already pressed against the carotid artery on the side of his neck. With a twist of his wrist, the sharp blade silently sank in.

The mercenary's body went limp, without making a sound.

The whole process was clean and efficient.

In the darkness, Su Ming walked to the electronic lock, took out two thin copper wires, and precisely inserted them into the emergency power interface of the lock cylinder.

He deftly shorted the circuit, triggering the lock's emergency reset procedure.

With a "click," the lock cylinder popped open, and the military electronic lock was physically broken.

Inside the door was a prison cell that had been converted into a makeshift laboratory.

Gu Weiguang sat in the center of the laboratory.

She looked much more haggard than in the photos; her once-handsome face was now covered in grime and exhaustion, and her oversized research gown looked loose and baggy on her.

Only those eyes were strikingly bright.

At this moment, she was stubbornly tapping the alloy table legs in front of her with a geological hammer.

—Morse code, a distress signal.

The dozen or so monitors around her were black, with only a few indicator lights flashing on backup power.

A blond, blue-eyed white man in a lab coat stood in front of her, a hint of impatience on his face.

"Dr. Gu, my patience is limited." He said in fluent Chinese, "As long as you calibrate the last piece of data and restore the 'ground listening' node to stability, you and your companions can survive."

Gu Weiguang raised his head, his bloodshot eyes filled with mockery: "And then bury us alive like you did with the search and rescue team? Don't dream about it! I'd rather die than let you scum do whatever you want on our land!"

She had given up hope.

Trapped for half a month, with her companions' fate unknown, she has survived to this day thanks to her professional skills.

She knew that the moment her value was completely drained would be her death.

Striking out distress signals was her last act of defiance.

"If you won't listen to reason, you'll have to suffer the consequences." The white man's face darkened, and he pulled out a pistol, pointing it at Gu Weiguang's head.

"I'll give you three last seconds. Three..."

The cold muzzle of the gun pressed against his temple, and the chill of death instantly spread throughout his body.

Gu Weiguang slowly closed his eyes, and smiled with relief.

It's over...that's good.

"two……"

Just then!

"Snapped!"

With a soft sound, the laboratory lights suddenly turned on, making everyone squint.

The white man was startled and instinctively turned around.

At the entrance, a young man was standing there, seemingly out of nowhere.

He was wearing a faded T-shirt, carrying a worn-out backpack, and wearing ordinary sneakers, looking so clean that he seemed out of place in this dirty underground cell.

He stood there with an innocent look on his face, like a deliveryman who had accidentally wandered into a gang fight.

The white man was stunned, and so was Gu Weiguang.

In the last second before her death, she witnessed the most absurd scene of her life.

The boy glanced around at the complex array of equipment in the room, his gaze passing over the gun barrel before finally settling on her face. Then, as if confirming something, he asked:

"Gu Weiguang? Your dad sent me to pick you up. This is a platform order; please remember to click the 'five-star review' button."

Before the words were even finished, a piercing alarm suddenly blared throughout the entire underground base!

The red warning lights flashed wildly, and the metal gates began to fall, blocking all exits.

From the loudspeaker, an enraged voice roared in English:

"Alarm! Alarm! Intruders detected in the Gamma Sector! All units! Seal off all passages! Eliminate them!"