466: Chapter 466: Fire at the Research Institute (A Big Chapter for Monthly Tickets) 466: Chapter 466: Fire at the Research Institute (A Big Chapter for Monthly Tickets) The thick tal door slowly retracted.
Revealing what lay beyond.
Shattered bone armor, incomplete corpses.
Standing behind the security door of the negative sixth floor stairwell, Zadi watched the changes in the corridor through the monitoring tablet in his hand.
As soon as the tal door was opened, he verified his identity, and imdiately retreated to hide behind the security door.
The screen on the tablet was silent; no one ca out from the vault, and no sound emanated from within.
It was as if the vault was empty, devoid of anything.
Gone?
A sliver of doubt rose in Zadi’s heart.
The tal door, sensing no people, began to close automatically.
Once the door was fully closed, Zadi glanced at the two rcenaries following him and said softly, “Follow .”
He had specifically chosen these two subordinates, each ard with a C-VII Strengthening Potion, embedded in their special combat suits, ready for imdiate injection in case of danger.
Having said this, Zadi once again pulled open the security door and approached the vault.
He verified his identity once more, entering the password.
The heavy tal door gradually opened.
This ti, Zadi’s body was pressed against the door, moving along with it, and then he glanced at the rcenary before him and signalled with his eyes.
The rcenary hesitated montarily, then, under Zadi’s gaze, carefully stepped forward, entering the interior of the vault.
He looked around briefly, his gaze sweeping over the dead bodies on the floor, then passing over the supercomputer and the refrigerator, before finally shouting loudly, “Chief, there’s no one here, only the corpse of a…
monster.”
Hearing this, Zadi signaled another rcenary at his side with his eyes.
That rcenary also steeled himself and walked into the vault.
After a brief inspection, he quickly reported, “Chief, there’s really no one inside.”
“Oh.”
A light response ca from behind him, followed by sothing hard pressing against his helt.
Bang—
With a soft noise, a bullet penetrated his bulletproof helt, shattering his skull.
The soldier who entered earlier reacted imdiately, turning around while trying to inject the Strengthening Potion, but the person behind him didn’t give him the chance.
Another gun fired instantly, breaking his skull as well.
Bang, bang—
With the thud of two bodies falling, Zadi put away both guns.
The tal door behind him closed slowly.
The standard-issue bulletproof helts provided by the Stars rcenary Corps were actually not bad; they could protect against bullets from light handguns at close range and ordinary rifles at a distance.
But for Zadi, who carried an enhanced pistol capable of killing C-level Transcendents, the helt was as fragile as paper.
Zadi crouched down, opened the injection devices on the rcenaries’ wrists, and took out the two Strengthening Potions already loaded in the syringes, tucking them inside his clothes.
Then he looked around the vault, confirming that it was indeed empty.
He breathed a sigh of relief, stood up, and walked over to the corpse on the floor.
Most of the body was covered with hard bone armor, including the face.
However, the bone armor on the face had already fallen off.
Zadi lifted the bone plates, looking at the bloodied face and those familiar eyes.
He paused for a mont, a smile appearing on his face.
Then he suddenly drew the pistol he had just reholstered at his waist and fired several shots at that face.
Until that already indistinct face was completely obliterated.
He walked to the refrigerator, the door hanging open, the Strengthening Potions and Life Elixirs within long gone.
“Is it for these things?”
He cracked a smile, “Seems like that guy has already left, no idea how he sneaked in…
but it’s convenient for now.”
He turned around, took out a sealed bag from his pocket, and then took out an extrely thin leather glove from the bag.
He put on the glove and powered up the supercomputer.
As the startup screen lit up, his expression grew serious.
What was stored in this computer was the most valuable thing in the Research Institute.
The computer quickly entered the biotric identification interface.
Zadi took out a black, bar-shaped device from his pocket, then pulled out a dagger from his waist, pried open the chassis of the supercomputer, and plugged the device into a port inside the chassis,
“Didn’t think I’d get to use this thing right after making it.”
Then he returned to the screen and placed his gloved hand on the biotric sensor below it.
Accompanied by a green fra lighting up, a virtual keyboard popped up on the screen.
After the biotric identification was successful, a password had to be entered.
Zadi was not at all flustered; he took out a black ring and slipped it onto his fingertip, then felt around the screen with it.
Quickly, he used the ring to extract a very fine sensor from the gap on the bottom edge of the screen, as tiny as a fine needle.
He raised his wrist and inserted the sensor into the side of his wristband.
With a flicker of flowing light, it seed the wristband was reading the data within the sensor.
After a brief wait, a thirty-six-character password, composed of both numbers and letters, appeared on his wristband.
“Success.”
Zadi breathed a sigh of relief and started to quickly input the password in line with his wristband.
After entering the last letter, he paused for a mont, checked the password for errors, and then pressed the enter key.
The next second, the brilliance on the screen slowly shifted, and an upside-down mariti constellation emblem appeared in the display.
This was the emblem of Stars Pharma.
Soon after, a series of software icons popped up on the screen.
“These bastards at Stars Pharma really have a lot of tricks, getting their stuff is not easy.”
Zadi quickly clicked on an external drive icon, which seed to be the device he had just inserted into the computer.
After the drive was clicked, it began to run automatically, and a copying interface appeared on the screen.
Zadi’s eyes fixated on the copying interface, drops of sweat seeping out from his forehead.
And he, engrossed in copying the data, failed to notice that in the shadow beneath him, a pair of calm eyes was silently watching him.
The data transfer rate of the supercomputer’s data interface seed very high; in less than thirty seconds, all the computer’s files were copied onto the external drive.
Zadi opened the computer’s file interface and, after confirming all the files were copied, walked over to the computer case and unplugged his bar-shaped device.
He placed the device back into his pocket, then took out several thumb-sized high-performance miniature bombs from behind his back, sticking them in various positions on the case.
After setting the tirs on these bombs, he walked over to the bodies of the two rcenaries who were dead, took out the grenades and miniature bombs they were carrying, walked to the tal door, and once again opened the tal door to leave.
As the tal door was closing, he looked back at the corpses in the vault and smiled, then shot and destroyed the caras at level negative six from a blind spot.
After that, he attached miniature bombs to every door on level negative six and set their tirs.
Then he made his way to the upper levels.
He didn’t take the elevator but went up to level negative five via the stairs.
There were many rooms on level negative five, and the doctors who had clearance to enter had already evacuated, leaving the floor empty.
Before entering the floor, he shot and destroyed the surveillance on the level.
Zadi pushed open the doors to each room on this level one by one, revealing rows of silver freezers inside, and through the glass windows of the freezers, he could see neatly arranged ‘organs’ in silver tal boxes.
He walked to the innermost part and opened the farthest door.
Then he dragged out white tal barrels, tore off the ‘Flammable Explosive’ labels on them, and lifted the lids to reveal the colorless transparent liquid inside.
This was a mixture of alkanes produced by a chemical plant, a type of liquid battery.
Because of its relatively stable explosion resistance and ease of storage, it was widely used by the Federation as reserved energy.
It could be poured into fuel generators to be quickly converted into electrical energy.
It also had a special na that had been passed down from the Era of the Great Cataclysm, gasoline.
Of course, it wasn’t just for generating electricity; it also had extrely high combustibility.
Zack lifted these gasoline barrels and sprinkled the transparent liquid in each room.
Then he lifted the last barrel, kicked it over, and walked into the stairwell.
He looked down at the stench-filled fifth sub-level, pulled out the dagger strapped to his waist, and without hesitation stabbed it deep into his own shoulder.
Bright red blood instantly splattered out.
Then, turning around, he dashed upstairs, tossing a grenade behind him as he went.
After Reid’s death, he was the only person in the entire Research Institute who could monitor the fifth and sixth sub-levels.
No one knew exactly what had happened on these two levels below.
The grenade’s tallic casing clinked crisply against the slippery floor, and then an explosive roar reverberated throughout the space.
Zadi, unable to dodge in ti, was sent flying by the blast wave, hitting the wall before he struggled to his feet and made his way upstairs, pulling open the security door to the fourth sub-level.
“Commander!”
A team of rcenaries rushed to his aid, propping up the security door, and reached out to help Zadi up.
The sounds of violent explosions continued downstairs, and the raging fire began to climb the stairs.
“It’s Pete!
Pete isn’t even at ‘ho’,” Zadi spat out a mouthful of blood and said with difficulty, “Run, tell everyone to run, he’s gone mad!
He wants to kill everyone!”
Pff—
He Ao, who was standing in Zadi’s shadow, casually took a paper cup of water from the water dispenser on the fifth sub-level and was about to take a breather when he heard this, and instantly spit out the water in his mouth.
He was certain that Zadi hadn’t discovered him; it was just that now he made the perfect scapegoat and had been directly used by Zadi.
Although this guy was rambling, he wasn’t entirely wrong either.
“Mr.
Reid was killed by Pete, and that guy is likely already on his way up.”
Zadi wiped the water droplets off his face, thinking the fire suppression system had activated.
He struggled to his feet and said, “We’re pulling out to the ground level, contact the corporation, make contact imdiately.”
He Ao, standing behind him, silently took another sip of water.
They all moved quickly upstairs.
After all, ‘Pete’ was a legitimate C-level, and at this mont, most of the Research Institute forces were dispatched to ‘Pete’s ho.’ The rcenaries left in the institute were just a small part of the force, and Zadi was one who had returned en route.
These rcenaries weren’t the most elite of the bunch, and they were paid to work, not to fight to the death against a strong Transcendent like He Ao.
At Zadi’s command, they all scrambled upstairs, and so even slipped into the flas below.
The entire situation beca chaotic in an instant.
During the chaos, Zadi took the opportunity to press an ergency button on his wristband.
······
“Ahh!!!”
Just as everyone reached the surface, chaotic shouts filled their ears, followed by the roaring flas closing in.
In the ti it took for everyone to get upstairs, the buildings on the ground of the Research Institute had already been engulfed in flas.
Countless rcenaries and institute personnel were thrown into disarray.
The sunlight was now pouring down from the sky.
The raging fire filled all the spaces above, and seemingly, the lights on the ceiling had been damaged by the flas, as heavy smoke billowed forth.
“Soone’s setting fires; is Pete not alone?”
One of the rcenaries huddled next to Zadi, coughing as he peered into the blaze.
“It’s possible Wel’s dogs snuck in, colluding with Pete, damn those bastards, they’re the worst.”
A burly rcenary covered his mouth and cursed softly beside them.
Zadi, wounded, looked up at him.
The group groped their way forward.
None of the automatic fire suppression systems were working, and there was no water in the fire boxes, which seed to have been deliberately sabotaged.
Zadi ordered his n to scatter and escape.
The number of people with him dwindled.
At the end, only the two rcenaries who had just spoken remained.
“Who?”
The tall rcenary raised his head and looked into the depths of the flas.
Bang—
A gunshot rang out behind him.
The other rcenary turned his head, and another shot fired.
“Boss.”
Zadi stood up, holstered his gun, and as two figures rushed out from the curtain of fire, they handed him a breathing mask.
The three of them shattered a pane of glass and rushed out of the fire scene.
By now, the fire engines of the city hall had already arrived with their piercing alarms.
Zadi straightened up, looked back at the Research Institute ablaze against the night sky, removed the breathing mask from his face, and limped away into the darkness with the two n beside him.
······
“If you guys had been any later with the decryptor, I would have ended up blending in with the Research Institute bosses.”
On the dark path, beneath the canopy of trees, the quiet night breeze rustled the evergreen leaves, with Zadi leaning against the wall while a subordinate bandaged his wound.
“The group had to develop the decryptor based on the data you collected,” one of the subordinates said with an awkward smile, “so it took a little longer.”
“So boss, did you get the data?” another subordinate asked quietly.
“Got it,” Zadi looked up at him, “If it weren’t for that blockhead Pete who insisted on picking a fight with Reid, I might not have had such a good opportunity.
Reid is too cautious; although he gave access, he was always watching my every move.”
“Boss, the bandaging is done.”
The subordinate bandaging him retracted his hands.
You guys have worked hard over these years.”
Zadi glanced at him, then suddenly spoke slowly.
“It’s our duty···”
The subordinate blinked and responded instinctively.
However, before he could finish his sentence, a sharp dagger pierced through his neck.
The other subordinate realized sothing was wrong and turned to run.
But before he could get far, a flying dagger pierced his throat, and he fell forward to the ground.
Zadi slowly approached the subordinate who had tried to run, pulled the dagger from his neck, and said, “Don’t bla for being ruthless; the top brass said you knew too much.
Rest assured, your families will get every bit of your severance pay, enough for them to live comfortably for the rest of their lives.”
He took out a handkerchief and wiped the blood off the dagger.
The subordinate lying on the ground opened his mouth, seemingly wanting to say sothing.
His mouth moved slightly, but he made no sound as blood poured from his mouth with his ebbing life.
“Of course, it wasn’t who killed you, but that Mr.
Pete.
It’s quite normal for the crazed Mr.
Pete, after attacking two employees of the Research Institute, to have turned on you,”
Zadi smiled, “Co to think of it, I really should thank him.
Without him, many things tonight would have been difficult to handle.”
“If gratitude is in order…cough…”
A hoarse voice echoed not far in front of him from the darkness.
“Who?”
Zadi abruptly raised his head.
“Sorry, got a nasty throat from the smoke.”
A slender figure holding a paper cup slowly erged from the black night, “Now, where were we?
Oh,”
he said with a smile, “If gratitude is owed, it’s better face to face.”
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