Damn it! A nerve agent capsule implanted subcutaneously! He committed suicide!
I abruptly let go of my grip and quickly stepped back. The agent leader's body, like a snake with its bones removed, collapsed to the ground, twitching violently a few times before falling completely still. His bloodshot eyes remained wide open, staring blankly at the ceiling, which was covered in pipes, a final lingering trace of fear and madness.
The battle within the "nest" was drawing to a close. With the combined efforts of Leah, Wrench, Hook, and the other members who had reacted and joined the fray, the remaining Corporate agents were quickly subdued. Two were seriously injured and unconscious, one had his wrist severed by Leah, and another was knocked unconscious by a powerful punch from Wrench. The price paid was that two more of our team members suffered serious injuries in the melee, adding to the two who had been ambushed at the door and were lying on the ground, the casualties were heavy.
The thick stench of blood, the ozone from energy weapons, and the faint almond scent of the agent leader's corpse combined to create a sickening odor that permeated the already oppressive "nest." The brief respite from surviving the ordeal was quickly replaced by a heavy sense of sorrow and exhaustion. The muffled groans of the wounded, the heavy breathing of the survivors, and the subtle gasps of Leah as she gritted her teeth while "Screw" urgently tended to her shoulder wound formed a cruel, post-war tragedy.
I stood there, the rapidly cooling corpse of the agent leader at my feet. Raindrops dripped down my soaked hair onto the cold metal floor, making a faint patter. The "Data Heart" in my chest beat steadily, the gentle current of energy from the "Oasis" still flowing slowly, bringing a chilling clarity. But deep within my consciousness, the symbol of torn wings (the Raven's Mark) and the agent's final, frantic whisper ("Did you see the Oasis?") tightened around my heart like two icy shackles.
Raven not only knew about Ethan's terminal, he even knew about OASIS! The primary goal of the hounds he sent out was to eliminate anyone who might have access to OASIS's secrets! Ethan's death... the ambush we suffered... the infiltration of the base... Behind all of this, stands the ghost who was supposedly long dead! His shadow is greater and more pervasive than we imagined!
"Boss..." Leah's voice, a hint of weakness and hoarseness, interrupted my thoughts. Her face was pale, and her forehead was covered with fine beads of cold sweat. The wound on her shoulder had been temporarily treated by "Screw" with emergency gel and bandages, but the blood was still glaring. She pushed away Screw who wanted to support her and struggled to walk to me. Her eyes swept across the body of the agent at my feet and then fell back to my face. Her eyes, which were always full of energy, now contained bottomless fatigue and a kind of determination that was pushed to the edge of a cliff. "What should we...what should we do? Ethan...he..."
Her voice choked, and she couldn't finish the rest of the sentence. But her eyes, and the gazes cast upon me by all the surviving team members—a mixture of sadness, fear, and confusion, finally coalescing into a single, faint glimmer of hope—pressed on my shoulders like a heavy mountain.
I raised my head, my gaze slowly sweeping over the faces stained with blood, rain, and fatigue. Wrench clutched his ribs, his face bruised, his eyes still fierce. Hook, with a cut on his arm and hastily bandaged, was vigilantly checking the prisoners. Screw's face was greasy, his hands still stained with blood from bandaging Leah. Matrix sat against the wall, his glasses shattered, his face pale, but his fingers still unconsciously tapped his knees, as if reviewing data... And then there were the wounded lying on the ground, his fallen comrades...
The ashes of mourning had barely cooled when new bloodstains covered them, but this time, cold anger replaced the numb sadness.
I took a deep breath. The air, tinged with the scent of blood and gunpowder, filled my lungs, igniting the "data heart" within my chest. It pulsed powerfully, faintly resonating with the imprint of the "oasis" deep within my consciousness. I walked to the main console—it was also in ruins, but the core equipment was miraculously intact. I activated the backup power source and quickly swiped my fingertips across the dusty and scratched touchpad, bringing up the base's global surveillance.
The screen lit up, splitting into dozens of small windows. Most displayed real-time footage of the base amidst the storm. Empty, with only the pounding of rain against the metal buildings, it was deserted. But one window showed a view from a hidden lookout point on the outskirts of the base—the camera focused directly on the blurred outlines of a city in ruins in the distance, shrouded in wind and rain.
I tapped my finger on the window, enlarging it to fill the entire screen. Then, as everyone stared in bewilderment, I slid my finger upwards! The image zoomed up dramatically, piercing through layers of gray rain clouds, as if entering low-Earth orbit!
Finally, the picture freezes.
The screen no longer displayed a specific location, but an extremely abstract diagram of a vast network structure composed of countless light and dark lines and points of light! It was like the neural network of the universe, complex, vast, and full of unknowns. This was the largest topological map of the "Hive" and its area of influence that the "Deep Diver" had mastered, but it was incomplete and filled with dark areas.
With unquestionable resolve, my finger tapped heavily on the edge of a distant, dark zone on the topological map, marked "High Entropy Zone - Unknown." There were no known nodes there, only a crimson hue representing chaos and danger. But the moment I tapped, a faint, almost imperceptible golden light, like a newborn star in the dark universe, flickered faintly yet firmly in the depths of my consciousness, at the point connected to the "oasis"!
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