The Third Rebirth (REBIRTH)
But now was not the time to dwell on this issue.
Ling Chen and the other two put away their military flashlights, donned their Night Vision Goggles, and proceeded down the stairs.
The staircase leading to the basement level was long, indicating that this hidden floor that was absent from the map, had been excavated to a considerable depth. Ye Xiao's hand was clasped with Ling Chen's, and he could feel the slight dampness in the other's palm.
He was somewhat distracted, thinking that although Ling Chen appeared completely indifferent, he was actually afraid, wasn't he? Afraid that he had arrived too late and afraid that Ling Dingnan was already dead...
He didn't have much of a concept of the word "parents". Wait, Ye Xiao thought of Bai Hengyun. She would help him straighten his clothes, smooth out the slight wrinkles, and with dark circles under her eyes, she would reach out to tidy his somewhat messy hair.
She was gentle, a gentleness completely different from Ling Chen's.
Is this what a mother is like?
During this period of distraction, the three had already reached the end of the staircase. Ling Chen stood at the front and asked Jiang Mu in a low voice, "Is the communication signal still normal?"
Jiang Mu shook his head, "There's no signal anymore."
Ling Chen nodded.
He speculated that Ling Dingnan must have reached the basement level, and then the signal suddenly cut off. After that, perhaps he encountered some accident and had been unable to leave the basement level.
In front of them was a closed silver metal door, painted with a large black skull, which together exuded a chilling aura.
Ling Chen said coldly, "The black skull symbol indicates a chemical hazard. It's highly likely that there are chemical weapons inside."
Taking out the transparent protective suits and portable oxygen supply devices prepared in advance, Ling Chen first helped Ye Xiao get dressed properly while instructing, "Once inside, you cannot take this off, and the oxygen supply device must not be removed."
Ye Xiao agreed, "Alright."
After all the protective gear was properly worn, Jiang Mu stood in front of the metal door and swiftly dismantled the access control system. Half a minute later, the metal door opened a gap wide enough to pass through. Jiang Mu placed the air detector by the door and reported after a few seconds, "The air is not contaminated."
After the three entered through the gap, they found that there were actually three more layers of access control inside. Each door was painted with a black skull.
Ling Chen's expression grew increasingly grim, until the last door opened, and he was met with the dark muzzle of a gun. Surprisingly, Ling Chen's expression relaxed.
There were living people inside.
At the same time, Noah's prompt sounded in Ye Xiao's mind, "Target person detected, remaining time, six minutes."
Ye Xiao tilted his head and directly asked the person holding the gun opposite him, "Are you Li Su?"
Li Su was also wearing a protective suit. His skin was dark, his eyes slightly slanted, and he was holding a machine gun, alertly saying, "Put down your weapons and step back!"
Ye Xiao didn't need an answer. His figure was almost entirely hidden in the darkness, even his breath was undetectable. In just two blinks, the machine gun in Li Su's hands was knocked to the ground, and Ye Xiao's Long Blade was already at his neck.
Ye Xiao didn't act immediately. He first adjusted his slightly askew Night Vision Goggles, then looked at Ling Chen, "Captain, there are five minutes left, ask your questions quickly."
Ling Chen knew he was referring to the remaining time to complete the mission and didn't waste words, "Where are Professor Ling and the other seven people?"
Hearing this, Jiang Mu glanced at Ling Chen—perhaps even Ling Chen himself hadn't noticed, but because Ye Xiao had mentioned dealing with Li Su, Ling Chen had subconsciously already regarded him as an enemy.
Li Su's smile was sinister, "He's dead."
Ye Xiao quickly confirmed, "He's not dead."
Ling Chen's expression remained unchanged. He carefully observed Li Su's demeanor and suddenly said, "You're a World Hater."
World Haters, a term that emerged about twenty-five years ago, referred to a loose organization that gradually developed around this ideology.
People with this ideology were called "World Haters". They believed that the rapid changes in the natural environment were becoming unsuitable for human survival, and this process was irreversible and unstoppable. Therefore, since the entire species would eventually go extinct, it was only a matter of time before everyone died, so why struggle to survive?
During that period, various research institutions were surrounded and protested by World Hater organizations and demanding the cessation of all meaningless research. Some even went as far as to destroy large areas of crops, shouting wildly.
Ling Chen hadn't expected that among the people Ling Dingnan and his group had taken when they defected, there would be a World Hater, and they had brought him here.
When Li Su heard the term, his slanted eyes carried a sneer, "Figured it out?"
A sudden surge of inexplicable anger erupted in Ling Chen's heart.
His peripheral vision caught the bandage on Ye Xiao's wrist and the steady hand gripping the Long Blade. His voice was low, filled with hidden rage, "Many people live a thousand, ten thousand times harder than you, and they've never thought of giving up easily."
"Don't make excuses, you're just weak."
Ye Xiao looked up at Ling Chen with a sharp ache in his chest. He moved his lips but couldn't make a sound and just finally gave Ling Chen a faint smile.
At that moment, Ye Xiao suddenly sensed something. His wrist twisted and almost instinctively controlled the Long Blade to slash diagonally downward. With a "clatter", the blade hit something, and then it fell to the ground.
Jiang Mu focused his gaze, "A bomb timer."
The blade had grazed the web of Li Su's hand and the back of his hand, and blood quickly welled up, dripping to the ground. Knowing his biggest trump card was gone, his eyes bloodshot as he he glared at Ye Xiao, who had once again placed the Long Blade against his neck, and hissed, "Even if I die and become a ghost, I'll crawl back to haunt you!"
Ling Chen frowned, "Little Fuzzball, let me do it."
Ye Xiao thought for a moment. Noah had only said to kill Li Su, without specifying who should do it, so he nodded.
This time, Ling Chen pressed the gun barrel against the other's forehead, his tone calm, "See clearly, it's me who's killing you." With that, he pulled the trigger without hesitation.
Soon, Li Su disappeared from the spot. Noah's voice reappeared in Ye Xiao's mind, "Congratulations, mission accomplished."
Ye Xiao asked in his heart, "Was Li Su going to detonate the bomb?"
Noah rarely gave a definitive answer, "Yes. After detonation, none of you would survive."
Ye Xiao said sincerely, "Thank you."
At the same time, Ling Chen took Ye Xiao's hand and continued walking forward while softly comforting him, "Don't be afraid, Little Fuzzball. Even if he really becomes a ghost, he won't come after you."
He never believed in ghosts or gods, but when it came to matters concerning Ye Xiao, he didn't dare take even the slightest risk.
Ye Xiao tilted her head to look at him, "Captain, don't be afraid, I'll protect you!" As he spoke, he waved the Long Blade in his hand with the wooden rabbit hanging from the scabbard swaying back and forth.
"Alright."
Upon entering the final door, the three of them fell silent.
With the help of Night Vision Goggles, they could see the interior was arranged with long experimental benches, followed by transparent glass isolation chambers, inside which—
Upon seeing clearly, Ling Chen's pupils contracted sharply!
Inside the sealed glass isolation chamber, Ling Dingnan along with seven others in combat uniforms lay on the ground as if unconscious, silent and motionless.
Only after confirming from the slight rise and fall of their chests that they were still breathing did Ling Chen's tense muscles gradually relax. He closed his eyes for a moment and asked Jiang Mu, "Can the compact power source we brought sustain the operation here?"
After calculating, Jiang Mu replied, "Yes, but only for ten minutes."
Ling Chen rubbed his fingers together, "I temporarily judge that Li Su initially wanted to lure General Jian and his men through Professor Ling, then kill everyone with a bomb. But his intention was detected by Professor Ling, so Professor Ling temporarily trapped General Jian and his group in the secret room, though he himself was also locked in the glass isolation chamber. Li Su had been waiting for General Jian and his men to arrive, but in the end, it was us who came."
Jiang Mu agreed, "You make the decision."
Three seconds later, Ling Chen said, "Restore the operation of this laboratory then find a way to wake the people inside, and determine if there are any harmful Chemical Gases in the sealed isolation chamber."
Jiang Mu immediately sprang into action. He took out a rectangular compact power source from his military backpack and connected it to the laboratory's main line. Five seconds later, white lights came on, followed by a "beep" as various instruments resumed operation.
Jiang Mu: "Countdown ten minutes, starting."
As he spoke, he stood in front of the equipment to scan the isolation chamber. Thirty seconds later, the results came out, "The interior is filled with a gas that causes unconsciousness, concentration level A." His fingers moved so fast they almost left afterimages, "Executing gas evacuation, ...3—2—1, gas evacuated, 0E3 type analytical gas injected simultaneously, Professor Ling and the others should wake up in one minute."
Every second dragged on excruciatingly slowly. When the countdown on the screen turned to "0", the people inside the sealed isolation chamber finally showed signs of movement.
Ling Dingnan opened his eyes with his gaze focusing. When he saw Ling Chen standing outside the glass isolation chamber, he first showed a bit of surprise, then smiled warmly, "Thank you for coming to save me, son."
Ling Chen raised an eyebrow, "Professor Bai ordered it, thank her when we get back." He then quickly asked, "The problem now is, the laboratory's power can only last for a little over eight minutes, how should I get you out?"
Ling Dingnan, helped up by the person next to him, spoke rapidly upon hearing Ling Chen's words, "In the mainframe, there should be a file named DS3, that's the data we're looking for this time, find it first!"
Jiang Mu lowered his head and quickly began searching.
Hearing the name, Ling Chen's eyelids twitched, "DS? Mustard gas? Blistering chemical weapon?" He suddenly understood the reason for the four consecutive security doors outside, each marked with a black skull.
The corrosive chemical weapon, upon contact with the skin, would cause widespread rashes, blisters, erosion, and necrosis in less than a minute. The toxins would then enter the bloodstream before spreading throughout the body within minutes.
Ling Dingnan nodded, "The sixth-generation improved version is far more powerful than its predecessors. If it were to be released from this lab, humanity wouldn’t even need natural disasters to commit self-genocide."
Ling Chen’s expression tightened, his voice resolute, "It cannot be taken out."
He was certain that he wouldn’t be tempted, and neither would Ling Dingnan, Bai Hengyun, or Jian Yun. But he couldn’t guarantee that others would resist the allure of such a formidable weapon.
He had never trusted human nature.
Ling Dingnan nodded, "I’ve made the same decision. This data cannot leave here."
At that moment, Jiang Mu successfully breached the layers of security and infiltrated the core database.
Lines of code streamed across his retina like flowing water. Suddenly, his gaze sharpened, "Found it."
He looked at Ling Chen, "Should I execute the destruction command?"
Ling Chen nodded, "Execute."
The button was pressed, and a dialog box popped up. Jiang Mu clicked "Confirm Destruction."
Meanwhile, Ling Chen motioned for Ling Dingnan and the others to step back.
He aimed Li Su’s submachine gun at a specific spot and fired. Soon, cracks appeared on the glass. After a few more shots, the glass shattered with a loud crash, scattering shards across the floor.
Once they emerged, they noticed that Ling Dingnan and the others hadn’t eaten for a long time. Ling Chen retrieved some nutrient solution and distributed two tubes to each person. He also casually pulled out two milk candies and handed them to Ye Xiao.
Seeing that Ling Dingnan’s complexion improved after drinking the nutrient solution, Ling Chen asked, "General Jian and the others were locked in the secret room. That must have been your doing."
Ling Dingnan’s voice was weary as he confirmed, "Yes. After I arrived here and connected to the concentrated power source, I located the files. But I quickly realized that Li Su was problematic—he’s likely a World Hater."
"When Li Su took me hostage, I discovered Jian Yun’s location through the monitoring system. While Li Su wasn’t paying attention, I temporarily trapped them in the secret room. I knew that since I had lost contact earlier, Xiao Yun would definitely send reinforcements."
This was the only way he could ensure that Jian Yun and the others wouldn’t come looking for him and just safely wait for reinforcements in the secret room.
Too many lives had already been lost during this time. Moreover, if he were to die, Bai Hengyun could still complete his unfinished work. But Jian Yun’s authority and influence in the military were irreplaceable.
Noticing Ling Chen’s gaze shift to the soldiers standing nearby, Ling Dingnan quickly added, "Li Su used me as leverage and had a bomb. They didn’t have many options at the time."
Ling Chen gave a curt "Hmm" and averted his gaze. Ling Dingnan clearly sensed the seven tall young men around him collectively relax.
In the final thirty seconds before the power was completely drained, Jiang Mu straightened up, wiping the sweat from his forehead, "Destruction complete!"
"Good, let’s move!"
However, as they hurriedly ascended from the basement to the first floor, Jiang Mu sniffed the air and froze before urgently exclaiming, "There’s a chemical gas leak!"
"Damn it!" Ling Chen cursed, "Identify the type of gas!"
Jiang Mu held the air detector with his fingers moving swiftly as he reported, "V4-type synthetic gas, an air concentration of 1% will cause an explosion!"
Ling Chen had a bad feeling: "What's the current level?"
Jiang Mu: "0.8%!”
"Run! Everyone, head for the exit!" Ling Chen shouted, while simultaneously removing the blast-proof armor he was wearing and slipping it onto Ling Dingnan.
Then, he tightly grasped Ye Xiao's hand and sprinted toward the exit!
Jiang Mu continued to call out the readings as he ran, "0.83... 0.92... 0.95... 0.98... 0.99—"
"Boom—"
A deafening explosion shook the ground as the scorching air erupted with immense force. In an instant, countless fragments of rock fell and accelerated by the shockwave, turning into deadly projectiles. Immediately after, the entire testing site began to collapse once more with flames filling the space and cutting off everything.
The last memory Ye Xiao had before losing consciousness was Ling Chen shielding him tightly in his arms with his burning lips pressed against Ye Xiao's ear, each word seemingly carrying the heat of blood and fire.
"I love you."
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