Chapter 265 Mysterious Intruder

On the second day after preventing water pollution, a low humming sound came from the ventilation ducts in the underground bunker.

Su Wanqing stood in front of the control console in the command center and pushed the task list to Xiao Ran: "Lu Zhao will monitor the technical system, and you will be responsible for the reinforcement of the outer defenses. Lin Che will go to the purification area to monitor the purification equipment, and Xiao Ling will help with logistics and supplies."

Xiao Ran glanced at the list and buckled his tactical gloves onto his belt: "Got it. The reinforcement materials for those mutation points will be in place within half an hour."

"Wait." Su Wanqing stopped him and pointed to the surveillance footage on the wall. "There is rust on the ventilation vents in the East Third District. Take two people and deal with that first."

When Xiao Ran nodded and went out, Lin Che came in holding the water quality test report: "The purification efficiency is 5% higher than yesterday, but the pollutants over there in the mine are crystallizing."

"Write this down." Su Wanqing swiped twice on the tablet, "Let's have a meeting to discuss this at 3 pm."

After Lin Che and Xiao Ling left, the only sound left in the command center was Su Wanqing's breathing.

She stared at the city surveillance screen, and the red dot of an abandoned substation suddenly flashed three times - that was the abnormal area marked by the system.

"drop--"

When the red light on the console suddenly lit up, the hair on the back of Su Wanqing's neck stood up.

The system's mechanical voice exploded in my ears: "Advanced intrusion detected, source unknown, target locked user terminal."

She tapped the keyboard quickly, and the torrent of code on the screen was suddenly torn into a black gap.

A figure stepped out from the black gap, wearing a tight black combat uniform, with an expressionless face and even his pupils were gray.

"Time observer, codename 'Shadow'." The other party spoke, his voice like sandpaper scraping metal, "Hand over the jade bracelet."

Su Wanqing took a half step back and put her hand on the tactical knife at her waist. The jade bracelet on her wrist was hot. It was the only personal item she brought out from the system space. "Why?"

"It doesn't belong to this timeline." Ying raised his hand, and a ball of black mist condensed from his fingertips. "I'll give you ten more seconds."

The system prompts continuously: "The intrusion level has been upgraded to S-level, and the defense program has been cracked by 70%."

Su Wanqing reached for the emergency button at the bottom of the console. As soon as her fingertips touched the button, the shadow of black mist had already wrapped around her wrist.

The jade bracelet suddenly emitted a blinding white light, and the black mist sizzled like plastic being roasted by fire.

"Interesting." Ying tilted his head, "It's protecting you."

"System!" Su Wanqing gritted her teeth and shouted, "Activate the second-level defense!"

The laser net on the ceiling fell down, and the shadow disappeared on the spot. When it reappeared, it was standing behind the control console.

He stretched out his hand to grab the jade bracelet, but Su Wanqing spun around and the tactical knife cut the back of his hand - there was no blood, only black liquid seeping out.

"Xiao Ran!" Su Wanqing shouted into the intercom, "Command Center!"

When footsteps came from the corridor, Ying's movements became faster. He held Su Wanqing's wrist, and the white light from the jade bracelet almost burned their skin.

Su Wanqing felt a cold consciousness drilling into her brain, like countless fine needles piercing her temples.

“Let go!”

Xiao Ran's roar made the control console buzz. When he rushed in, his muscles bulged and golden lines flowed under his skin - that was an ability he had never fully released.

The shadow was blown away by the force and hit the wall, causing spider web patterns to appear on the wall.

"This is the first time I see you fully open." Su Wanqing rubbed her wrist which was pinched red.

Xiao Ran didn't respond, staring at Ying. The other party slowly stood up, and black liquid flowed out of his seven orifices. "Warning. You don't have much time."

Before he could finish his words, Ying's body began to disintegrate, like ashes blown away by the wind.

When Su Wanqing rushed over, she only found a piece of thin metal on the ground, with a line of small words engraved on it: "Five people anchor point, will eventually be annihilated."

The system prompt sounded again: "The intrusion has been terminated and the defense program has been repaired."

Su Wanqing pinched the metal piece, thinking about what the shadow said before it disappeared. Five people. She, Xiao Ran, Lu Zhao, Lin Che, and Xiao Ling.

Why are they five? Yesterday in the sealed cabin, the system also prompted "five core members", this can't be a coincidence.

"Wanqing?" Xiao Ran handed over a bottle of water, "Are you okay?"

"It's okay." Su Wanqing put the metal piece into her pocket and said, "Go call Lu Zhao over to see what this is."

She turned to look at the damaged console, and a line of words suddenly popped up on the screen: "Abnormal contact detected, it is recommended to strengthen the anchor point defense."

There was a roar of machinery outside the window. It was Xiao Ran and his men reinforcing the fortifications.

Su Wanqing touched the jade bracelet on her wrist and found that the temperature had dropped.

She knew that what happened today was just the beginning.

On the morning of the second day after the "Shadow" invasion, a red alert suddenly popped up on the monitoring screen at the command center.

Su Wanqing was tying the laces of her tactical boots when she heard some noise and looked up—dozens of red dots were moving on the main road at the edge of the city.

"Lu Zhao, check the heat source of the southwest ring road." She pushed the tablet over.

Lu Zhao tapped the keyboard twice, and the surveillance screen switched to a real-time satellite image.

In the green belts on both sides of the main road, camouflage tents were being set up, soldiers arranged reflective cones in a snake shape, and the tracks of armored vehicles rolled over the asphalt road, leaving dark gray ruts in the morning mist.

"The system has detected military activity." Lu Zhao pushed up his glasses. "There are also three troop carriers and two riot control armored vehicles at the eastern highway entrance."

Su Wanqing drew a circle on the map with a pen in her hand: "Intercept their communications."

The keyboard clacking sounded for half a minute, and Lu Zhao suddenly stopped. There was a noise of electricity coming from the earphones, followed by a hoarse male voice: "General Li, the deployment of each checkpoint is complete."

"Blockade time?" Su Wanqing moved closer.

"The city will be completely sealed off within 48 hours." Lu Zhao pulled up the written records. "The original words were 'No one is allowed to enter or leave. Violators will be dealt with according to military control regulations.'"

The surveillance cut to the command tent, where a middle-aged officer wearing a wide-brimmed hat was talking on the phone.

The stars on his shoulder straps gleamed in the morning light, and a voice leaked out of the loudspeaker: "Yes, sir, using 'military exercises' as an excuse for civilians? No notice for the time being."

Su Wanqing put the pen on the table: "They knew about the infection a long time ago."

At twelve o'clock noon, the long table in the command center was full of people. Xiao Ran crumpled his tactical gloves into a ball, Lin Che's cuffs were stained with water, and Xiao Ling was holding a notebook with flour on the cover - she had just helped the logistics department sort out the supplies.

"For a deployment of this scale, the top brass must be suppressing worse news."

Xiao Ran tapped the military map on the table. "When I was in the army, I only saw similar actions in biochemical leak emergency plans."

Lin Che flipped open the water quality report: "The pollutants in the mine have crystallized, and seven small pollution points have appeared in the city."

He pointed to the blue dots on the map and said, "They are scattered in the old city and the university town. It seems someone scattered them there on purpose."

Lu Zhao pulled up the hospital data, and 27 case numbers popped up on the screen: "These are the reported numbers, the actual number may be three times higher."

He pushed up his glasses. "I hacked into the nurse station system and found a night shift nurse wrote a log - last night the emergency department admitted eight people with black lines all over their bodies. They were all sent to the isolation area."

Su Wanqing spread out the map and circled four places with a red pen: "Medicine from the medical center, food from the food distribution center, parts from the electronics market, and steel from the industrial zone."

She looked up and glanced at the crowd, "We need to get these back before the military seals off the city."

The division of labor was quickly decided: Xiao Ran took two trucks to the military warehouse, Lin Che wore a white coat and went to the medical center, Lu Zhao carried a computer bag and ran to the electronics market, and Xiao Ling and Su Wanqing went to the food warehouse.

Su Wanqing deducted 1,000 rebate points, and the system prompted that the driverless truck was on standby in the underground garage.

At three o'clock in the afternoon, Lin Che's medical mask smelled of disinfectant. He walked through the corridor of the medical center, and the benches along the wall were full of people.

There was a girl in school uniform curled up in the corner, with light black lines on her wrist, extending to the back of her hand like tree roots.

"The temperature is 39.5." The nurse pushed the wheelchair past. "The family said she was still alive and kicking yesterday."

Lin Che touched the girl's infusion tube. The moment his fingertips touched the water, goose bumps appeared on the back of his neck. That was not ordinary venous blood, but more like glue mixed with ink, sticky.

The door of the medicine storage room opened a crack, and Lin Che squeezed in and loaded the vaccine boxes onto the cart.

Just as he was about to leave, he heard a light cough behind him: "Comrade."

He turned around and saw a doctor wearing gold-rimmed glasses. There were three pens in the pocket of his white coat, and the cap of the top pen was stained with blood.

The doctor stuffed a light USB into his hand. "It contains abnormal cases from the past three months, as well as blood sample analysis."

Lin Che held the USB drive, the plastic shell felt a little warm: "You"

"My name is Zhang, I'm from the emergency department." Doctor Zhang looked down at his watch. "I'll be making rounds in ten minutes, please leave as soon as possible."

He paused, "I know someone is investigating this, someone has to get the truth out."

Lin Che stuffed the USB drive into her sleeve and pushed the cart out when she heard Doctor Zhang whisper, "If there is an organization called 'Green Ark', please tell them a message for me."

Xiao Ran's situation was even more troublesome. Four sentinels stood at the main entrance of the military warehouse, with rifles resting on their shoulders.

He went around to the back wall and sent a text message to his old comrade: "Old Chen, can the back door be opened?"

Five minutes later, a hand stretched out from the crack in the wall and shook the key.

Xiao Ran crouched down and went in. The warehouse was filled with boxes of bulletproof vests, and several soldiers were moving assault rifles onto a truck.

"The higher-ups are pushing us hard." The porter wiped his sweat, "They said we have to clear the warehouse in two days."

Xiao Ran disguised himself as a porter and moved three boxes of tactical vests and two boxes of grenades.

As soon as I opened the door, I heard a shout from behind: "Stop!"

Four soldiers approached with guns drawn, their bayonets glinting coldly in the light.

Xiao Ran put his hands on his waist, ready to force his way in - suddenly someone patted his shoulder: "He's General Li's man, let him go."

The person who came was Colonel Wang, and there was one more star on his shoulder strap than what Xiao Ran remembered.

He waved at the soldiers, and waited until the crowd dispersed before lowering his voice: "The top brass are discussing 'extreme measures'."

He pointed to the armored vehicle outside the window and said, "If you have family, take them out now."

As Xiao Ran loaded the supplies into the car, the back of his neck tightened - Colonel Wang did not say what the "extreme measures" were specifically, but he had heard similar words when he was in the army, usually related to incendiary bombs and biological and chemical weapons.

At six o'clock in the evening, driverless trucks drove into the underground fortress one after another.

Lu Zhao was holding three hard drives, Xiao Ling's truck was piled with boxes of compressed biscuits, Lin Che's cart was loaded with vaccines and plasma, and the back of Xiao Ran's truck was covered with a tarpaulin, with bulletproof vests and rifles underneath.

"We've counted it." Su Wanqing flipped through the list. "There are enough medicines for three months, enough food for thirty people for ninety days, enough spare parts to repair three generators, and enough steel to reinforce half a floor of the fortress."

She closed the notebook and said, "But the lockdown is progressing faster than expected. Now there are only two roads out of the city, and they may all be closed tomorrow."

The lights in the command center dimmed. Xiao Ling stacked the last box of supplies and looked up and said, "Sister Wanqing, I have something to say."

Su Wanqing pushed the list aside: "Speak."

"Yesterday, 'Ying' said 'five-man anchor point'." Xiao Ling touched the silver bracelet on her wrist, "When I was moving supplies today, I kept feeling that I could sense you - when Brother Xiao Ran was in the warehouse, my wrist felt hot; when Brother Lin Che entered the medical center, I heard the sound of water; when Brother Lu Zhao hacked the system, my temples throbbed."

She lowered her head and twisted her fingers. "Maybe there is some connection between the five of us?"

Lin Che looked at the blue lines on his arm, Xiao Ran touched the gold spots on the back of his neck that had not completely faded, Lu Zhao pushed up his glasses, and Su Wanqing's jade bracelet felt slightly warm on her wrist.

No one responded, but it felt like there was a thin string in the air, buzzing when plucked lightly.

"Everyone go and rest." Su Wanqing stood up. "We will continue the transportation at 7 o'clock tomorrow morning."