In the apocalypse, I hoarded goods and handed over my storage space to the government.

Zhou Hang pushed another set of data onto the big screen.

"Consultant Su, there's another point. Before the terminals went offline, there was a brief period of signal noise."

"Signal noise? How short is it?"

"Eighteen to thirty-six seconds."

Zhou Hang pulled up the waveform diagram.

"Shield first, then penetrate."

The shielding is to prevent our Pangu supercomputer from receiving real-time abnormal alarms;

The purpose of a breakdown is to render the terminal completely unusable and prevent the resending of cached data.

The process was very professional.

Mo Yun looked up at Su Ran.

"Brother Su, what we're facing might very well be..."

Before he could finish speaking, Su Ran interrupted him.

"That's right, it should be just as you thought."

His gaze swept across the southwestern region of North America.

"Pangu, run through all the related data!"

Mo Yun entered the highest level of privileges.

[Pangu Subsystem Takes Over.]

[Target: The disappearance of Awakened in North America.]

[Variables: Time of disappearance, scale of camp attack, waveform of terminal loss, satellite trajectory, ground communication blind spots, and Freedom Beacon patrol routes.]

[Begin the debriefing.]

On the large screen, twenty-seven red dots were extracted.

Timeline unfolds.

The first one happened ten days ago.

The second incident occurred nine days ago.

The third incident occurred nine days ago, on the night before last.

The red dots spread out southward along the Great Lakes region, with irregular intervals, but each time they were placed inside the window where the camp was attacked.

"These rats aren't randomly choosing their campsites."

Mo Yun stared at the timeline, a cold glint flashing in his eyes.

"They don't touch the core strongholds or the Great Xia's overseas observation posts; they only select medium-sized camps."

The camp is filled with Awakened Ones, but its air defenses, radar, and heavy firepower are incomplete.

"There's enough meat, but the bones aren't hard enough."

Su Ran said coldly, "We only pick the fattest pieces that are easiest to eat."

These words, though not harsh, sent a chill down many people's spines.

In the apocalypse, the mastermind isn't after crystal cores or equipment; all they want is to kill people.

Its purpose is not hard to guess.

The side door opened again.

Li Guodong strode in.

His military jacket wasn't buttoned up yet, clearly indicating he had come from the central command center.

"What's going on?"

Su Ran turned around and gave a concise explanation of the case.

"...Ninety-seven Awakened Ones have gone missing in North America. Old Luke reported it himself."

Li Guodong walked to the screen, read the three summaries, and his face darkened.

"Are you sure it was done by someone?"

"That's right, and they had a contingency plan; their methods were very professional."

Su Ran continued, "Signal shielding, directional pulse, chip destruction—all three steps were completed in one go."

Li Guodong turned to look at Su Ran, his thick eyebrows furrowed.

"Is it possible that something is going on inside the Beacon of Freedom? Is old Luke trying to play the 'thief crying 'stop thief'' trick?"

Su Ran shook her head.

"Old Luke didn't have the guts, nor the technical skills. More importantly, he voluntarily handed over the data."

Li Guodong spoke in a low voice, his heart churning with anger, "Then there's only one answer left."

Mo Yun raised her hand and zoomed in on the blurry photo.

Low-temperature camouflage uniform, unmarked helmet.

There is a gray number on the shoulder and arm.

E-17.

Looking at the number, Li Guodong asked sternly, "What is this? Is it a military organization?"

Mo Yun accessed the old-era North American military and police database.

"It's not in the publicly available database either. Our technical department speculates that it might be an internal number for an underground facility, or an experimental group."

Li Guodong clenched his fists so tightly they cracked, and growled in a low voice, "They're truly parasites on humanity!"

Pangu's calculations have ended.

[Abnormal association completed.]

[The 27 incidents share common characteristics of the same modus operandi.]

The spatial distribution of the missing persons points shows a fan-shaped spread.

[Fan-shaped convergence direction: Southwestern inland North America.]

[Recommended key search area: the desert region bordering Nevada, Arizona, and New Mexico.]

The map zooms automatically.

Deep in the southwestern part of North America, a yellowish-brown desert has been marked out.

Mo Yun overlaid the satellite trajectory.

Li Guodong stared at the desert and squeezed out a few words through gritted teeth.

"The underground government of the United States."

The truth is out in the open.

This is not a simple local security incident.

This is the underground legitimate government of the United States, which, taking advantage of the chaos on the surface, has extended its reach to the Awakened system led by Great Xia.

"The Eden Bunker has been playing dead since the outbreak of the catastrophe and has not had any contact with Great Xia."

Su Ran pulled out a piece of preliminary intelligence.

"After the Australian nuclear strike, they also remained silent to the outside world."

Now they've started mass-capturing surface-dwelling Awakened. It shouldn't be hard to guess what they're up to.

"They are conducting human experiments."

Li Guodong spoke in a deep voice, slamming his fist heavily on the metal tabletop.

"Those bastards hiding underground! The nuclear weapons we dropped on Australia last time should have been dropped on them first."

Su Ran stared at the desolate desert, her eyes revealing a chilling killing intent.

"Since they dared to abduct ninety-seven Awakened Ones with impunity, this will not stop."

Once their appetite is inflated, the next round of arrests will soon follow.

Mo Yun took a deep breath and asked, "Brother Su, should we issue a global alert?"

"Send it, but make the movements natural, so as not to alert the enemy."

Su Ran raised her hand and gently tapped the screen with her fingertips.

"Notify all camps in North America that, effective immediately, Awakened Ones are strictly prohibited from going out alone to carry out any missions."

When a camp is attacked, awakened individuals should prioritize gathering to avoid being isolated.

The terminal has added an anti-interference alarm threshold; if a blockage occurs for more than twenty seconds, Pangu will immediately be marked in red.

Zhou Hang immediately interjected, "Advisor Su, the threshold can be changed, but that will increase false alarms."

"A false alarm is better than a disappearance."

Su Ran looked at Mo Yun.

"Send an internal order to the Beacon of Freedom. Tell Old Luke to cooperate, keep quiet, and not arrest people indiscriminately."

"Leave this matter to Great Xia."

Mo Yun nodded emphatically, "Understood."

Li Guodong looked at Su Ran and asked, "Who do you plan to send to handle this?"

"No rush, let's wait until Pangu predicts the next high-risk camp."

Su Ran raised her hand and connected the twenty-seven red dots in chronological order.

"They arrest people in a rhythmic, methodical, and predictable manner. As long as they want to continue collecting samples, they will eventually show themselves."

Mo Yun stared at the fan-shaped trajectory and murmured, "Fishing?"

"That's right."

Su Ran closed the photo, leaving only that desolate desert on the screen.

"Don't these people like to capture awakened individuals for experiments?"

He paused for a moment, a glint of something unsettling in his eyes.

"Let them have a really good bait."

……

At the same time.

Deep underground in North America.

Inside a windowless laboratory, four awakened individuals, strapped to metal beds, are still struggling.

Outside the glass wall, Dr. Steven looked at the newly delivered samples with great satisfaction.

"The feedback from the first phase of Project Shadow Mouse is even more perfect than we imagined."

The assistant spoke in a low voice, "Doctor, will Great Xia find out about this large-scale arrest?"

Steven put on his gloves, a cold smile playing on his lips.

"The people of Great Xia will certainly find out."

He pushed open the lab door and strode in. "So, we need to move faster!"