It’s Su Wan!
Her gaze, having penetrated the smoke and dust, fell upon me, the dying form carried by Jiang Li. The look in her eyes was extremely complex, filled with pain, struggle, and regret... Finally, it transformed into a near-liberation, tinged with devastating determination!
She suddenly stopped struggling and, instead, used all her strength to slam her body into the technical director's mechanical arm equipped with a miniature machine gun! At the same time, her finger, at an incredibly fast speed, fiercely stabbed at her temple - where she was wearing an extremely tiny, ornamental silver ear bone conduction communicator!
"Supreme authority...command...Protocol Zero...activate...self-destruct!" Su Wan's voice was hoarse and sharp, carrying the queen's final majesty and madness!
Buzz——!!!
The flashing red sensor on the technical director's head suddenly erupted with a blindingly bright light! Then, a violent, short-circuited flash of electric sparks flashed wildly! His body suddenly stiffened, and the minigun arm swung wildly as if out of control!
"Zero...Protocol...Error...Core...Conflict..." The electronic voice controlling him instantly became distorted and chaotic!
"Now!" Jiang Li leaped up like a tiger waiting for its prey! He put down the body of the fallen teammate and shoved me, who was carrying me, to another teammate nearby: "Protect her!" At the same time, the high-energy pulse pistol in his hand erupted with an unprecedentedly dazzling beam of light!
Whoosh—Boom!!!
Incredibly precise! That extremely concentrated blue beam pierced through the base of the technical director's out-of-control minigun arm!
Boom! Zizizizizi——!
Metal ripped apart! Sparks flew wildly! The entire machine gun arm was blown off the body by the huge energy shock, spun out, and slammed heavily into the surging sea below!
And after Su Wan completed that suicidal collision and command, her body seemed to have lost all support, and she slid softly down the stairs, falling into the abyss of the sea below! Her eyes finally looked in my direction, and there seemed to be a hint of... relief in them?
"Su Wan!" Jiang Li's pupils shrank, and he subconsciously reached out to grab her, but he only grabbed a piece of clothing!
Plop!
Water splashed, and Su Wan's figure was instantly swallowed up by the murky, cold, black seawater filled with oil and debris.
"Go!" A flash of pain flashed across Jiang Li's eyes, but it was instantly replaced by an even stronger will to survive! He no longer looked at the surging waters below, but instead let out a final roar towards the broken abyss!
The only remaining team member gritted his teeth, hugged me, and used all his strength to leap forward!
Jiang Li followed closely behind!
Boom—Crackle—!!!
Just as we leaped over the chasm and stepped onto the opposite platform, the entire broken staircase behind us finally buckled under the weight. Under the violent vibrations and the rush of the sea, it collapsed like a broken spine! The massive metal structure twisted and broke, and with a deafening roar, it fell into the surging sea below, splashing up into the sky with turbid spray!
We stood on the violently shaking platform, looking down at the passage below, which was instantly flooded by the sea. It was like standing on the edge of a cliff in hell. The cold smell of seawater, mixed with the thick smell of rust and death, hit us in the face.
"Entropy...Logic core...Transfer progress...23%...Carrier...Life support system...Critical..." The cold voice in the head was like a death-prompting pendulum.
The top floor of a data center tower.
Once the sanctuary of the city's intelligent network, this place now resembled a steel lair ravaged by a behemoth. The massive server racks, as if being kneaded by invisible giant hands, toppled here and there. Broken cables resembled dying pythons, their exposed cores flashing dangerous sparks and emitting a sizzling whine amid the thick smoke and dust. The cooling ducts that once streamed with a tranquil blue light had ruptured, hissing and gushing white cooling steam, further obscuring the already dim space. The solid alloy floor beneath their feet groaned and buckled under the constant vibrations, like stepping on cracking ice.
The only light came from the central control area atop the tower. There, a massive spherical holographic projection device, miraculously still functioning, projected a vast, shattered three-dimensional model of the city, covering half the wall. On the model, a blinding red light, representing the tsunami inundation zone, was devouring the gray areas representing the city's landmass at a visible speed, like a voracious cancerous tissue. The red light was only a few blocks away from the green dot representing the data center tower! Catastrophic disaster was imminent!
"Physical backup node... coordinates... confirmed..." The cold voice inside my head became unusually "urgent", no longer concealing its "anxiety" about the carrier's imminent collapse. "Front... main console... access port... logical core... transfer... must... be completed..."
Supported by my two remaining team members, every step felt like treading on the edge of a knife. The intense pain and extreme weakness blinded me, and every breath carried the strong scent of blood. The lines on the back of my neck stabbed with burning pain, as if a branding iron were moving beneath my skin. I forced my head up, and through my blurry vision, I looked at the hemispherical main console in the center of the control area, its blue standby light flickering. That was Entropy's target: the access port at the top of the tower for the physical backup node buried deep underground.
"Captain Jiang! Water! Water is pouring up from the elevator shaft!" A team member pointed to the side of the control area in fear. The massive freight elevator door had been cracked by the surging water, and turbid seawater was gushing in like a high-pressure water gun, quickly accumulating on the ground.
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