Chapter 153 Rebooter Base - 10 *** ……
***
Tang Bufan crawled through the dark ventilation duct with his heart pounding. He tried his fastest speed, but his body was too big and he was squeezed by the duct, making it very uncomfortable. He had to desperately adjust his limbs to get through corners, so his speed was greatly limited.
Fortunately, he had already figured out the route of these ventilation ducts in advance, and successfully jumped to the logistics lounge on the same floor in the darkness and suffocation.
The research institute was very large, so each floor had its own sanitation manager. The grandfather on this floor and the aunt downstairs had gotten together and he spent almost all his time at her place, so Tang Bufan could use the old-fashioned computer here without worry.
Not everyone on this island can have a personal AI. Due to the shortage of supplies, these logistics personnel can only use old-fashioned computers, but even though they are old-fashioned, they are still much more advanced than those of the 21st century.
Tang Bufan quickly sat down in front of the old table, pressed his finger on the metal sphere in front of the table, and a virtual screen popped up.
The login screen for the institute's internal employee accounts popped up. Tang Bufan quickly took out the ID card he had snatched, carefully compared it with the card, entered the long ID number below, and then entered the password he had memorized: 097453.
"Your account has been locked and you are prohibited from logging in."
A mechanical yet gentle electronic female voice sounded.
At the same time, near the operating room door, an AI notification popped up in front of Zero: "Target Tang Bufan has been located in the logistics lounge on the second basement floor."
The four people at the operating room door immediately looked towards the lounge.
***
"Damn it...damn it!" Tang Bufan couldn't help but curse, slamming his fist on the table as he looked through the wall toward the operating room.
The next second, without hesitation, he threw away the ID card in his hand, rushed back to the bottom of the ventilation duct, jumped with all his might, grabbed the high ventilation duct with his sweaty hands, and crawled back in.
With his ID card locked, he couldn't unlock Anderson's door remotely... Tang Bufan crawled through the pipe, his body trembling. He thought Anderson would probably get electrocuted by Zero because of him.
But he can't go back; if he does, his head will be shaved and his brain sawed open... Just a different body? What a joke!
Tang Bufan gritted his teeth, enduring the feeling of suffocation, and climbed quickly through the incredibly narrow pipe, his body drenched in sweat.
***
Zero opened the door to the lounge and strode inside. The dark room was illuminated by the glow of a virtual screen, and an old wooden chair stood crookedly in the corner.
The broken ID card with its lanyard on the table proved that Tang Bufan had been there a few minutes earlier. Zero then looked up at the tall vent, where the fleeing mouse had fled in such a panic that it hadn't even bothered to close the cover.
Zero could crawl inside, but he didn't want to. First, the pipe was dirty, and second, his robotic arm wouldn't be able to function properly in such a narrow space.
"You think you can escape?" Zero sneered, pointing his finger at the air, about to activate the AI robot to capture Tang Bufan, when suddenly the lights in the corridor and the old computer in the corner went out.
The entire research institute was plunged into darkness, and panicked screams could be heard from not far away.
"..." Zero was silent. The power outage meant that the research institute's local area network disappeared. Now, because the satellite access to the East District Underground City had fallen into Fang Yue's hands, and Fang Yue was under pressure from Guo Shen, he was also unable to use satellite data transmission.
When people are extremely angry, they can actually laugh out loud. Zero pushed up his glasses in the dark and felt a little bit of admiration for Tang Bufan for the first time.
***
Tang Bufan, panting, cut the last thick wire. After the entire research institute was plunged into darkness, he breathed a long sigh of relief.
The disappearance of the local area network at least ensured that Anderson would not be electrocuted for the time being. Tang Bufan put away his knife, crouched down in the dark, and rummaged through a pile of wires to find the cell key he had hidden earlier. This was a spare key he had stolen while chatting with the old man in the research institute's security department.
The security guard will probably get yelled at because of him. Tang Bufan felt quite guilty, but he composed himself and climbed back into the ventilation duct from the electrical room, following the narrow duct wall towards the toilet.
Although he had the key, he didn't intend to go to Anderson's place, fearing he'd be caught lying in wait. Tang Bufan climbed to the top of the toilet on the seventh basement level, kicked a large bag of quick-drying cement out of the drainpipe, and then jumped down.
Quick-drying cement can harden rapidly in minutes and is often used for emergency repairs. Tang Bufan stole it when he was helping the older brother at the research institute plaster the walls.
Tang Bufan's idea was simple: create chaos. But compared to setting fire... it was better to have the research institute block the water. Fires are too destructive; if they get out of control, dozens or even hundreds of people will die, and the sin would be too great.
If you're going to block the water, you should block the toilets, and ideally, let it leak into the labs so the researchers are busy salvaging equipment and experiments and won't have time to arrest you.
Tang Bufan used a knife to cut open the cement bag and poured it into the toilet in the corner, but before he finished, someone came in from outside.
That person was quite bold, daring to use the toilet in the dark.
Tang Bufan steadied his racing heart and remained calm as he chatted with the man: "Dude, what's going on? Power outage?"
"Yeah, I was halfway through writing my report when it suddenly disappeared." The man complained. He didn't quite recognize Tang Bufan's voice, but he didn't think much of it. "The island's power is probably running low again. We've been moving around a lot lately, haven't we?"
"Where are the Western Federation's aircraft?" Tang Bufan asked tentatively, hoping to get some information out of Lu Yi.
“Still in the South China Sea.” The man went into a cubicle near Tang Bufan and closed the door. “The ocean is so vast, and we can become invisible, he can’t catch us. Once the mutated poison people multiply a bit more and attack the Western Federation, he won’t have time to look for us.”
He said this as he took off his pants and sat on the toilet.
There was a thumping sound coming from the toilet, but it wasn't coming from his stall; it was coming from the cubicle where Tang Bufan was.
"Dude, you're making a really loud noise when you poop," the man complained.
"I have diarrhea," Tang Bufan said, shaking the cement bag in his hand and pouring in the last bit of quick-drying cement.
"Oh!" the man responded, then heard a rustling sound coming from the ceiling. He sat on the toilet in the dark and looked up. Through the wide gap above the stall, he was shocked to see a dark figure crawling on the toilet ceiling! Its eyes were even faintly glowing!
"Aaaaaah!" A man's terrified scream came from the toilet.
Why didn't you flush the toilet? Tang Bufan muttered as he crawled back into the ventilation duct, and heard the man stumble and run away.
***
"Where's the key to the AI Mechanical Lab?" Zero asked the security guard with a frown. Although the power system was down, the various labs could still be opened with keys. He just needed to manually start the robots that had power.
As for the people in the research institute... Zero didn't expect them to be able to beat Tang Bufan. One of the researchers who was kicked by Tang Bufan had a broken rib, and the other had internal bleeding. The older one also injured his back.
Although Tang Bufan looks thin and weak, it is clear that his explosive power has far exceeded that of humans.
"Strange, it should be here." The security guard was extremely anxious, frantically flipping through the keychain in his hand.
Seeing that he couldn't find him for a long time, Zero thought for a moment and asked, "Has Tang Bufan been here before?"
The security guard was stunned for a moment, then his face turned red and he clapped his hands: "Oh!"
Zero already knew the answer, and he was slightly agitated. At this moment, the crowd that had come to the lobby on the first floor due to the power outage started to stir, and many researchers hurriedly ran to the stairwell.
"What's wrong?" Zero asked a researcher next to him.
The researcher said, "It seems the toilets are clogged, and sewage has overflowed on many floors. Everyone, go back and salvage the equipment and experimental materials."
Water and electricity aren't the same system, so how could it suddenly get clogged? Zero frowned, while the old man next to him with the keychain was quick-witted and immediately remembered: "I saw Xiao Tang plastering and repairing walls for someone the other day, could it be that he poured cement into the toilet?"
When the old man called Tang Bufan "Little Tang," Zero glanced at him coldly. The old man coughed awkwardly, while Zero clicked his tongue in a gloomy tone.
***
Listening to the chaotic sounds from the research institute, Tang Bufan carefully climbed back to the operating room on the second basement level.
There were no laboratories nearby, so it was relatively quiet. Tang Bufan quietly peeked out from the ventilation vent in the darkness and looked into the operating room, but he didn't see his clone.
Could it still be upstairs? Tang Bufan frowned, thinking that the layout of the research institute upstairs and underground was very different. He had heard that the upstairs was built to the scale of a hospital for the purpose of disguise, while the actual research institute underground was dozens of times larger than the one upstairs.
How can I get upstairs? Tang Bufan pulled his head back into the ventilation duct, worried. Zero must have already sent people to repair the water and electricity system. He had to hurry.
"Can I go up the elevator shaft?" Tang Bufan wondered, then tiptoed down the ventilation duct. He knew he couldn't go down the stairs anyway, as they were full of people going up and down.
However, as soon as he stepped out of the operating room, he saw someone using a wristband as a flashlight in the corridor. Tang Bufan's heart skipped a beat, and he retreated back into the operating room before the person shone the light on him.
The spotlight shone in front of him a few times, and Tang Bufan listened intently to the sounds outside. Thanks to his enhanced hearing, he heard the sound of the person's footsteps slowly walking away.
The flashlight's light then disappeared.
Tang Bufan peeked out and made sure the person was far away before leaving the operating room again. He crouched down in the darkness and quickly went to the elevator. He hesitated for two seconds, looking at the two closed elevator doors in front of him, before trying to pry them open with his hands.
He was certain that if it were Lu Yi or Anderson, they could both pry open the elevator door, but he wasn't sure if he could. Although he had been working out for the past six months, prying open an elevator door was still a stretch for him...
"Squeak—" The elevator door made a teeth-grinding sound as it slowly opened a crack.
Wow! Wow! We broke it open! Tang Bufan's face flushed with excitement. He inserted two fingers into the gap in the elevator door and used even more force. Then, the veins in his arms bulged, and he pushed the two metal doors apart with force.
Ahead was a dark shaft. Tang Bufan looked down with a ghostly light in his eyes and vaguely saw the top of the elevator, which gleamed with a metallic silver light. It was stopped at about the eleventh or twelfth basement level.
Tang Bufan looked up again and was surprised to see the top of the elevator shaft, which was very low.
He then remembered that there was only a button for floor "0" in the lobby, and the rest were labeled "-1-2-3..."
The upstairs and downstairs elevators weren't connected. Tang Bufan frowned, about to leave and think of another way, when he heard two people's footsteps again!
"Where is the disinfectant placed again?" asked a middle-aged man.
"The medicine room, perhaps," another man said. "This way."
They walked towards the passage where Tang Bufan was!
Tang Bufan gritted his teeth and used his ears to estimate the distance. It was too late for him to hide back in the ventilation duct. Helpless, he slipped into the dark elevator shaft.
"Huh? Why is the elevator door open?" a man said.
"Is there a power outage?" Another man approached the door, trying to shine his wristband inside.
"Don't go any closer!" His companion quickly pulled him back. "It's pitch black, what if you fall in?"
"Uh... let's go then." The man also felt that this behavior was a bit dangerous, so he gave up on leaning over to watch.
"..." Tang Bufan, hiding at the bottom of the elevator shaft, was pounding his heart. He struggled to step on the small, raised concrete beams of the next floor, and like a rock climber, he used his fingertips to cling to the small recesses in the wall to keep his body in place.
The two people slowly walked away, but Tang Bufan then heard the footsteps of other people.
They all seem to be looking for 84 disinfectant on this floor... because he blocked the toilet and made sewage everywhere.
After a slight hesitation, Tang Bufan looked down at the elevator on the eleventh or twelfth basement level, took a deep breath, and then lightly leaped towards the middle, his hands and feet immediately attaching to the elevator's metal suspension cables.
Damn, my palms are sweaty. Tang Bufan crossed his legs and locked them to the metal cable, then used his hands to wipe the sweat off his body before starting to slide down the cable.
Falling from that height would either kill or maim him, but Tang Bufan was more worried about a sudden power outage that would cause the elevator to rise abruptly and crush him to death on the top floor. So he descended very quickly, his palms burning from gripping the metal cable as he slid down rapidly.
In less than half a minute, he slid to the top of the elevator car. Tang Bufan wiped his burning hands on his body, looked up at the elevator door on the upper floor, which was about two meters away from where he was standing, making it very inconvenient to pry it open.
He then crouched down and carefully examined the elevator with his glowing eyes, and soon his hands touched the safety window of the elevator.
Many elevators do not have safety skylights; only a few models have them. Tang Bufan learned about this by watching spy movies. Overjoyed, he immediately opened the skylight and jumped down.
The jump startled him greatly, because there was a medical stretcher in the elevator, and a pale-faced person was lying quietly on it.
He himself.
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