“Where is he?”
Ding Liwei frowned as he looked into the deep and dark tunnel.
The trump card of the Second Militia, the renowned power armor company of Shangjing, stood behind him. The purpose of this unit built before the war was to maintain stability after the war. However, in terms of equipment configuration, it was based on the configuration of the Pan-Asia Army Infantry Regiment-level combat unit. Except for the lack of a support unit, the company was well equipped.
The reason for this configuration was because experts from the Academy of Social Sciences determined that the war may last for twenty or even forty years until the end of the century. However, no one expected that the war of three years would have exhausted the last glimmer of hope of the civilized world.
When they woke up, they were not faced with hungry refugees and violent separatists, but zombies and mutants. Equipped with advanced technologies from before the war, they swept the wasteland. Ding Liwei, with the aid of the power armor company, defeated the mutated humans force in Shangjing and facilitated the establishment of the Survivors Alliance.
The wait was long, and when Ding Liwei began to feel impatient, a figure walked out from the dark tunnel.
The moment the footsteps sounded, the rifles immediately aimed at the entrance.
“It’s me.”
When the searchlight was turned on to reveal the face, Ding Liwei’s frown disappeared and he indicated to his subordinates to lower their weapons. Just as he was about to criticize why Wan Peng showed up so late, Wan Peng’s poor state made him swallow his words.
“You’re finally… What happened to you? Where is Su Xiang?”
“He can’t come.” Wan Peng wiped the blood from his mouth with his sleeve, and said with gloom, “We encountered some trouble on the way.”
His gray suit was completely ruined, and the left-hand sleeve was shredded into strips, and revealed the cuff of his white shirt. There were a few bruises on his face. From his unkept appearance, it was obvious that something terrible happened.
“Russians?” Ding Liwei said with a stern look.
“It’s that idiot called Sura. Even till death, he wanted to press down Pan-Asia Cooperation’s coffin.” Wan Peng cursed, then spat out spit mixed with blood. “But we better hurry. As long as the Russians are not deaf, and they should have found out about the oddness of Line 27.”
“What about the card?”
“On me.” Wan Peng pointed at his chest.
Ding Liwei took a deep breath, looked back at his subordinates and made a gesture to his first officer, then he looked back at Wan Peng.
“What are we waiting for?”
Power armors took the lead, Wan Peng and Ding Liwei walked at the back of the team. There was no extra nonsense as the group continued to venture into the deep tunnel.
The steel armors stepped on the concrete road, making loud crashing sounds and echoing in the empty tunnel.
Soon they came to the end of the tunnel.
Ding Liwei raised his hand and everyone stopped.
Right in front of them was a circular steel gate.
Just like a huge gear, it was engraved at end of the tunnel, like a shield that guarded the last and biggest secret of Pan-Asia Cooperation.
This secret should have been guarded for fifty years. According to its initial plan, it would reproduce the glory of Pan-Asia on this devastated land. However, with countless ill-intentions, the people who guarded it must unshackle its chains ahead of schedule.
The two lines painted in white quietly engraved on the cold steel looked like the solemn and great dogma of the gods, carrying out the covenant of the Asian countries since the Cold War era.
[Pan-Asia Cooperation, For the Glory of Our Ancestors]
[Subway Line 0]
Wan Peng stepped forward, took a deep breath and restrained the complex emotions in his heart. Then, he took out the dark green card from his pocket.
However, when his hand touched the steel threshold, the tyrant felt a bit melodramatic.
He looked back at Ding Liwei.
“Are you ready?”
“Do we have any other choice?” Ding Liwei grinned.
Wan Peng nodded.
“Makes sense.”
He pushed the card to the card slot on the gear.
The earth trembled and the dust shook off the top of the tunnel.
With a muffled and far-reaching bang, the gear slowly rotated. Like the wheel of history, it rolled the future into an unknown and destined direction…
…
“Can you do it?” Jiang Chen squatted down next to Yao Yao and looked down at the string of characters flashing on the holographic screen, giving him an headache.
“No problem! Leave it to Yao Yao!”
Yao Yao was sitting in the corner of Ding Liwei’s office in the Pan-Asia Cooperation Building with a tablet in her hands. Her slender fingers were flying across the screen, and her clear pupils reflected lines and symbols unfitting of her age.
From the moment when her hands touched the tablet, her soft and cute temperament disappeared. The petite body seemed to be possessed by the program and a savviness Jiang Chen had never seen before shone out of her eyes.
They always said that men are attractive when they are serious. Could this also apply to women?
Or, it’s just the contrast…
Just as Jiang Chen was seriously debating this notion due to boredom, Yao Yao pressed the last button. Her hands left the tablet as she leaned back against the wall. As she wiped off the sweat from her forehead, her lovely mouth showed a smile that spelled victory.
“Done!”
“Successful?! So fast!”
“HUMPH, it’s okay to be surprised,” said Yao Yao, who raised her small chest, proud. She moved her fingers around before she pushed the holographic screen in front of Jiang Chen. “I got the security permission. The surveillance video is here… oh? Strange, why did the monitoring in the elevator go missing? Was it removed?”
On the holographic screen, Wan Peng went into the elevator. With a look of astuteness, Jiang Chen smiled.
“It seems that it’s the elevator.”
The cameras of the entire building were in operation except for the camera in the elevator. Jiang Chen did not believe for a second that the elevator was fine.
“I think so…wait, there are traces of intrusion in the security system,” Yao Yao frowned. “The IP and device numbers are unknown. The intrusion time was one hour ago. Someone has entered the security system after getting security system permission, encrypted as a subsystem of ‘conference room table and chair purchase record’.”
“You mean, someone invaded the security system of the Pan-Asia Cooperation Building an hour ago?” Jiang Chen frowned.
“Yes.”
“How is the technology of the other party?” Jiang Chen asked.
“Their ability should be comparable to mine.” Yao Yao, with a serious expression, nodded. She then thoughtfully said, “But my hardware equipment should be better than his. After all, Lin Lin helped me upgrade it.”
If Greyhound heard that a girl who looked around 12-year-old said their ability was similar, perhaps he would suicide by hitting his head against a wall.
But it made sense. Almost twenty years had passed since the start of the apocalypse. Other than survivors like Yao Yao without the need to worry about survival, who would spend time practicing their programming skills? It would make sense for the survivors that just woke up from hibernation, but for those that survived the Third World War, their professional knowledge had long disappeared.
“It doesn’t matter who intruded into the system,” Jiang Chen said, “Is there a way to track where Wan Peng went?”
“I was not able to before, but now I can,” Yao Yao said, thrilled. Her fingers began flying on the tablet, “if we can’t find footprints of the prey, then follow the footprints of the hunter. If the person that invaded the system has the same purpose as us, then we only need to track the clues left by him in the security system. We can definitely find something – FOUND IT!”
Before she finished speaking, Yao Yao waved her fist in excitement.
Jiang Chen quickly peeked past her head and looked at the holographic screen.
“This is?”
“The correct use of the elevators in the Pan-Asia Cooperation Building! By using the specific search-through floor button, you can reach the negative twenty-first floor that does not exist! Then you’ll find the emergency escape route of the Pan-Asia Cooperation officials…”
