"Hold them!" Lao Qiang's voice was like the horn of hell, cold, decisive, and filled with monstrous rage. "Activate the 'sting' trap! All heavy firepower, aim at their joints and thrusters! Tear them to pieces outside the iron felt!"
"Yes!" Iron Bear roared, turning and charging towards the weapons pile. A fierce glint flashed in Viper's eyes, and he quickly disappeared down the stairs leading to the upper firing point. Like a sleeping beast awakened, the entire Iron Fortress erupted in a deafening roar! Engines roared, weapons were loaded, and the savage roars echoed one after another.
Lao Qiang's gaze finally shifted from the hairpin, like two sharp swords tempered by ten thousand years of ice, and for the first time truly fell on Wen Shifei's face. His gaze was so heavy it nearly staggered her, filled with scrutiny, suspicion, and a bottomless, fatherly pain and determination.
"You," the old gun's voice was like a heavy iron block hitting the ground, "lead the way. Go to the edge of B-7. Now."
He no longer looked at anyone. Clutching the small alloy hairpin, he turned and walked, his steps still unsteady, but with a determination to crush everything, towards the armory deep within the fortress. His empty right sleeve swayed slightly in the dim light.
Wen Shifei's heart raced. Lead the way? To that hopeless drop point? Gazing at Lao Qiang's back, as if headed for destruction, she knew she had no choice. Ajie needed medical attention, Qingyi and Zero's fate hung in the balance, and the fury of the lower city was already ignited. She took a deep breath, suppressed her turbulent emotions, and followed. The steel ground beneath her feet was cold and solid.
Cold.
A biting cold, mixed with the strong smell of rusted metal and some cheap disinfectant, was the only sensation Qingyi felt as she regained consciousness. Then, a deep, bone-deep pain spread, particularly in her left shoulder, as if it had been repeatedly crushed by heavy machinery. Every breath she took was accompanied by a ripping pain between her ribs.
She struggled to open her heavy eyelids. Her vision was blurry, and it took several seconds for it to come into focus.
Dark. It was an extremely small space, its walls clad in cold, scratched, and darkly stained metal. A pale emergency light overhead emitted a crackling sound, its light flickering and filling the entire space with a sense of instability. The air was stagnant and stagnant, carrying a strong smell of rust and a faint... whiff of blood. She found herself lying on an equally cold metal platform, her body tightly bound by several thick, rough-padded alloy restraints, her wrists, ankles, and waist locked tightly. Her range of movement was extremely limited.
Memories flooded into her mind like a tide: the explosion at the edge of the fortress, the Executioner's crimson eye, Zero's cold embrace as she fell, and... Zero's silver eyes, devoid of any human emotion, that lit up in his last moments...
"Zero..." Qingyi's cracked lips moved silently, her voice hoarse and weak. She twisted her neck with difficulty and looked to her left.
Zero was beside her. Also fastened to another cold metal platform, the restraints were even thicker, and additional energy suppressors flickering with a faint blue light were installed at her joints. Her eyes were closed, her face expressionless, like a delicate yet cold porcelain doll. Only her long silver hair, a faint luster flowing in the dim light, was the only hint of color in this icy cage. Her breathing was so shallow that her chest could barely rise or fall.
"Zero! Wake up!" Qingyi's voice was filled with anxiety. She struggled to reach out her hand, but the restraints dug into her flesh tightly, making her unable to move.
"Save your energy, little girl. She won't wake up." A hoarse, greasy voice with a strong downtown accent and undisguised malice suddenly sounded in the small space.
Qingyi looked in the direction of the sound. In the shadows of a corner of the cage sat a man. He wore dirty overalls stained with an unknown oil and a frayed synthetic vest. His exposed arms were muscular, covered in old scars and fresh tattoos—twisted venomous snakes entwined around broken gears. His face was the most striking feature: a deep scar, visible to the bone, stretched from the corner of his mouth to the base of his ear, giving him a sinister look when he smiled. In his hand, he toyed with a serrated dagger that gleamed with a cold light. The blade occasionally drew a cold arc under the pale emergency light.
"Who are you? Where is this?" Qingyi forced herself to calm down, her voice wary. She noticed a few empty nutritional cream packages and several murky water bottles piled in a corner, and a few dirty decks of playing cards hanging on the wall. This place looked more like a makeshift detention center than a chaebol's official prison.
"Me?" The scarred man grinned, revealing his jagged yellow teeth. "You can call me 'Viper.' As for here..." He casually tapped the cold metal wall with the tip of his dagger, making a dull clang. "Welcome to the 'Iron Coffin,' a temporary guesthouse converted from an abandoned air filtration unit on the edge of the fortress's B-7 area. It's prepared for 'distinguished guests' like you."
"A chaebol's lackey?" Qingyi stared at him coldly.
"Running dog?" Viper let out a shrill cackle as if he had heard something funny. "Don't confuse me with those lumps of steel in black leather suits! I'm from the 'Gear Gang'! I do things for money! Got it? Someone paid a huge sum of money to 'take care' of these two young ladies in this godforsaken place, especially..." His malicious eyes swept over Qingyi's pale face, finally landing on the unconscious Zero. He licked his cracked lips, "...this silver-haired beauty. Tsk tsk, the bigwigs of the chaebol really have unique tastes."
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