(XVII: Vitality)

"These crazy people!"

Qingze Eichi seemed to be possessed by his boss Chi Wei, gritted his teeth and cursed - it was no longer a condescending moral criticism, because he himself had already been involved in the dire straits.

The progress bar of the self-destruct procedure was only a few minutes, and it was impossible for the personnel in the huge fortress to be evacuated. Obviously, the unimportant "own people" have also become outcasts.

All the energy pipes connecting the central control room are active. At the end of the pipeline, there are many miniature pulse bombs buried under the ground in the energy storage center of the central control room. As soon as one is ignited, the flames and shockwaves will spread down the energy pipes to every part of the building, burning the fortified fortress to the ground.

There is no doubt that hundreds of "experiments" in the fortress, innocent people taken captive, and important evidence of crimes will be burned to the ground. No, don't even think that far ahead - before that, they would be the first to die in the explosion along with their rescue targets, who were locked up in the core and unable to escape.

Their guess was not wrong. Gao Shengjia is indeed a "reverse scale" - making the evil dragon prefer to cut off one of his wings to prevent future troubles.

The door to the central control room slowly opened under the violent hacking. Countless cold mechanical and electronic devices were arranged among them, and the dense energy transmission pipes were filled with blood-colored light, which dazzled people's eyes for a while.

Qing Ze rushed forward with his head in confusion, as if he wanted to cross the diameter of the central control room with his feet dozens of meters in diameter, and go to the other end to open the door for his teammates. As soon as he took two steps, a familiar voice suddenly sounded faintly in the rustling of electricity.

"Hey, stand there and don't move, what's the panic?"

As if opening the eyes of the sky, the voice of the red reed Huangzhi came out slowly, still with a very personal hoarse and lazy character.

"Don't rush to get your blood up. Have you forgotten our informant's report?"

As the words fell, the opposite door suddenly rose, revealing the appearance of the three people who had just separated.

Their battle uniforms were stained with dust and blood, and they had clearly just experienced a vicious battle. The inspector standing behind the leader threw aside the person he was dragging in his hand as if he were throwing garbage, and threw away the identification card that was used to open the gate.

"The new head of the fort, I saw it on the road and grabbed it. He said lightly, as if he had picked up a radish in the field. He strode to the nearest computer and swiped his card upward.

"The head of the branch has the highest authority, whether it is self-destruction or self-detonation, it should be stopped, right?"

(XVIII. Lies)

The bright red countdown was still beating.

Red Reed's expression gradually changed from calm to stunned. He looked at the no-permission prompt that popped up on the screen, as if he had thought of something, and his face suddenly became ugly.

"That bastard scares me!!"

(19. Quest)

It doesn't matter anymore whether the informant betrayed the Ministry of Public Security, or simply been blinded by a cunning enemy.

The information obtained from the hacking of the security system clearly showed that the supreme authority of the fortress had not been handed over two weeks earlier, and that the so-called new sub-minister was just a front.

The failure of the life-saving means did not seem to impress the Shenyu Investigator. He looked around and asked in a deep voice, "Qing Ze, can you hack the self-destruct program through the main console?"

"I'll give it a try. The public security investigator gritted his teeth.

The three-man team at the southern end stopped shouting and rushed to the central platform, on which the main console of the entire fortress sits. Nishihori, who was running at the front, cautiously opened his energy shield and was about to step on the stairs, when a hurried shout from behind him suddenly sounded from behind him.

Nishibori didn't even react to what his teammates were saying, and he was slammed away with a force. The humming sound suddenly exploded in his ears, almost like the roar of some monster, and Nishibori instinctively shivered and stood on end.

Hot blood splattered on his helmet. Nishihori turned his head to look at it, and he was suddenly frightened, "Xingyu senior!!"

The laser piercing of the shoulder blade did not affect the Shower Investigator's movements. As if she didn't feel pain, she grabbed Nishihori by the collar and jumped backwards before the second chilling hum, the power of the waveguide bursting blue light beneath her feet, carrying the two of them narrowly out of the laser's range.

"Former ...... Senior ......"

The uninjured man's voice trembled in fright, but the injured calmly put the young man who was much taller than himself aside and threw an empty Poké Ball over casually.

The laser erupted, shattering the Poké Balls to smithereens—countless yellow and black laser emitters poking out their fangs from the gaps between the walls and ceilings, and they looked like a colony of giant needle bees.

This small laser weapon, named "Poison Bee", has always been strictly controlled by the Alliance due to its extremely lethal power, but I didn't expect it to appear here in large numbers.

With the guidance of the motion capture system, no one can make it through the laser's network to the main console - perhaps this is one of the reasons why the enemy dares to lock them up here.

The blooming blood sparked the eyes of the other team leader from afar, and the empathy flareed out of place, causing the pain to almost cross the space and act on his body. He suddenly quickened his pace, and the person didn't even have the conditioned reflex to cover the wound with his hand, turned his head and asked calmly, "Qing Ze, can you hack into the laser defense system?"

"Yes—but there's no time. The hacker's voice came through an electromagnetic signal, "There are a little more than three minutes to explode, and I can't write a new program, so I can only briefly interfere with its operation." ”

"How long?"

"Five seconds at most. ”

The Starrain Investigator glanced at the other team that was speeding towards this side, and continued to ask, "Can the main console be controlled remotely?"

"I'll try. ”

Qing Ze replied succinctly, and the dark green characters dancing at his fingertips sank into the ocean of the Internet one by one. The large screen of the main console, which surrounds 360 degrees, suddenly lit up, the screen flickered, and the complex safety locks were lifted one after another. The fake minister's identity card in Chi Wei's hand also exerted the last bit of residual heat, and he used the authority of an ordinary member to skip one of the protections against time.

After a moment, Qing Ze's movements stopped.

"No, the last password is a mix of sixteen characters, and even if I misappropriated the computing power of the main console, I wouldn't be able to try the correct password for a while. And...... From this point on, the remote control has become ineffective and must be entered manually. He thumped the pillar hard.

The Starrain Investigator was suddenly stunned. A guess slammed into my mind, and the moment it landed, it took root.

The final password, a mix of sixteen characters......

The email from a friend of the mind reader still flickered vividly in front of her eyes.

(20. Disaster)

"Qingze, listen to me. ”

The eternally calm voice of the woman reached everyone's ears through the tactical helmet.

The Divine Feather Investigator's footsteps staggered suddenly—a chilling premonition that had been lingering in a nightmare for a long time.

"When I get to the platform, stop the laser defense for five seconds, can you?"

She heard Nishibori's screams and her best friend's anxious cries. However, at the moment of making up your mind, all sounds are nothing more than "noises".

[Absolute Calculation On]

[Goal: Penetrate the laser defense line as fast as possible while maintaining the ability to act within the next five seconds]

(21. Reversal)

The blue light bloomed. The figure was like a moth flying in the sea of swords and fire, bathed in life-threatening light, dancing calmly and decisively.

Even the best people with the best dynamic vision couldn't see what was happening in that moment. The laser rain poured down, and the blood of the moths spilled on every staircase, but they still reached the other side of the storm with their broken wings.

Combat boots, dipped in crimson, gently stepped on the edge of the platform. At the same time, Qing Ze gritted his teeth and typed the last line of code, and the laser rain suddenly stopped.

Under the psychological suggestion of the absolute calculus, all emotions and pain are excluded.

The performer of the task calmly raised his hand, his jumping fingertips leaving blood marks on the surface of the light screen.

The characters on the big screen change suddenly.

[Correct password - enter manager mode]

[00:00:05]

She knew she only had time to enter three commands.

The first directive.

[Energy pipeline No. 1-18 is running at full power to deliver energy to the central control room]

The shimmering pipes suddenly glowed. It was a huge amount of energy that could support the operation of the entire fortress for more than a month, and it burned through the weak points of the pipeline almost instantly under the random mobilization. In order to protect the central control room, the intelligent system automatically disconnected the pipeline interface in the core area, turning the energy system of the central control room into a "safe" island.

At the same time, the protective gas overflowed, the fireproof door fell with a bang, and the high roof opened with a loud noise.

The light dimmed. The artificial lighting from the ceiling is extinguished in turn, and in its place is the endless night. The stars twinkled in the sky, sprinkling a hazy glow.

The Starrain Investigator raised his eyes slightly.

Even though her vision was blurred, even though the lighting system was on the verge of a strike, the man's figure was still as dazzling as a glow, and she could even see a wisp of silver slipping from her helmet.

She is in the light, he is in the darkness.

Walls are descending, separating the world at both ends.

She stared at him.

- It's like a reverse performance when we first met.

(22. Reminiscence)

She once thought that when people faced a desperate situation, they would think of the most important images for themselves, whether it was happiness, pain, happiness, or regret.

But as the blood-red chronograph numbers beat slowly, all she remembered was the most mundane routine.

The silver-haired young man sat on the piano bench, the melody of the spring pouring out with the beating of his fingertips. Cohabitants in the living room are holding thick reference books, enjoying the sound of the piano while wrestling with the Spanish language.

The afternoon sun shone through the window, gentle but not dazzling, imprinting a little spot of light on the two of them. On the coffee table is a fresh fruit plate, and the light fruity aroma enters the nose dimly.

Miao Meow mischievously runs around the carpet and rolls the cat hair all over the place. One of them did not pay attention, and they ran out of the drawing-room, and hit the young man's ankle one after the other, causing the sound of the piano to be confused.

The two looked at each other, and then smiled at each other with a tacit understanding.

It's like, family.

(Twenty-three: Goodbye)

[00:00:03]

The second directive.

[Forced Air Clearance Control Room]

The violent shock wave centered on the main console spread out in all directions. The people who were caught off guard were shocked from afar, crashing all the way backwards into the corridor, and fell to pieces.

She knew that the other party could no longer be seen—there were too many barriers between them that they couldn't cross, helmets, walls, spatial distance, and life and death. Still, she raised the corners of her mouth and smiled as usual.

Say goodbye to that person.

Her first best friend in this life, the closest to her family, the person who made her settle in this world when she was confused.

Her only captain.

- Her "North Star".

(24. Final)

[00:00:01]

The third directive.

[Start Emergency Ejection Command]

The man who fell on the edge of the corridor was shocked to see the circular central control room soaring into the air like a spaceship as the ground shook and the mountains shook. A huge tail flame lifted the behemoth, sending it soaring into the endless starry sky.

[00:00:00]

The "central control room ejection system" was originally the "Noah's Ark" used by the creator of the fortress to preserve himself in a desperate situation. However, it ultimately does the exact opposite.

On that day, many people saw a meteor rising from the bottom of the mountains of Ibuki and turning into brilliant fireworks in the night sky.

（？？·？？）

Yes.

What a beautiful ...... Starry sky......