Chapter 106 - 101: Tool Man Victor

At the Saint Group headquarters building.

When Adeline, Signal, Quit Gaming, Trouble, and Ye Se arrived with the unconscious Ian, the lobby was a complete mess.

The floor was littered with the wreckage of robots and androids, all violently torn apart or smashed to pieces. The walls were riddled with holes from heavy firearms, and the smoke and dust had yet to settle. Most of the fluorescent tubes on the ceiling were shattered. A half-destroyed robot with its head tilted on the ground was still mechanically broadcasting.

"Highest... directive... kill Vic... tor..."

The voice was intermittent, like a jammed cassette tape.

"What happened here?" Signal asked.

Quit Gaming nudged the half-destroyed android with his foot. "Were these androids trying to intercept Victor? Aren’t they on the same side?"

Adeline immediately thought of Blossoming Prosperity. She hadn’t shown up at all. Could she be here? Was this all her doing?

Before they could figure out the situation, the roar of engines came from outside the main entrance. The Saint family’s reinforcements had arrived.

"Lock down the building! No one goes in or out. If you see the Rebel Army or illegal trespassers, kill them on sight!"

Immediately after, the scattered wreckage in the lobby suddenly turned their heads in unison, facing the main entrance.

"Directive updated. Kill all unauthorized personnel entering the Saint Building!"

A chill ran down Adeline’s spine. "Retreat first!"

"Retreat? To where?" Trouble asked. "Outside is swarming with Saint’s men, and there are robots upstairs and downstairs." He paused and asked Ye Se to hand Ian over to Adeline. "You take him down to kill S704. Only your Shadow Instant Teleportation can bypass these obstacles. We’ll stay here to monitor the situation and hold them off for as long as possible."

Signal nodded. "Right, we’ll stall them!"

Quit Gaming switched his gun to his left hand and wiped the sweat from his palm on his trouser leg. "Our Extraordinary Abilities aren’t as strong as yours, and we aren’t as smart as you. Naturally, the most important task falls to you."

Adeline looked at them, wanting to say something, but Ye Se gave her a push. "Go! It’ll be too late if you don’t leave now!"

Adeline couldn’t help but marvel that although Nan Jiamu’s teammates lacked overwhelming strength, every single one of them possessed impeccable character. They truly lived up to being the protagonist’s crew. She propped up the unconscious Ian. Shadows surged from beneath her feet, enveloping them both before they vanished.

Signal, Quit Gaming, Trouble, and Ye Se exchanged glances. They each loaded their Weapons and hid behind cover, waiting for the Saint Group’s reinforcements to enter the building.

"Strange, why aren’t the Weapons in this building attacking us?" Signal cast a puzzled glance at the machine gun mounts on the ceiling, failing to notice a camera in the corner pointed directly at them, its indicator light flickering faintly.

Adeline arrived at the elevator shaft supporting Ian. At a glance, she saw the forcibly pried elevator doors. Only Victor could do something like this with his bare hands. She slipped through the torn doors. This elevator shaft only went down to the tenth underground floor. Below that, each floor had different elevators that were not interconnected.

The walls on both sides of the corridor on the tenth underground floor were blasted with craters, and the ground was covered in a layer of shattered glass and bullet casings. More than a dozen military androids were torn to pieces, their remains scattered in the middle of the hallway.

Adeline hugged the base of the wall as her shadows scouted ahead. She found the elevator shaft leading further down. The dense sound of gunfire echoed from below; Victor was on the eleventh floor.

Just as Adeline was debating whether to go down and face Victor directly, a camera at the edge of the laboratory corridor turned toward her. Yin Zhen’s voice rang out from the speaker.

"Bai Qiang, let’s make a deal."

Adeline looked in surprise at the source of the voice. She had never expected Yin Zhen to call her by her name in Ancient Abyss. She always thought she had hidden her Identity perfectly; even Nan Jiamu hadn’t found out who she was.

How did Blossoming Prosperity know? Had they met in Ancient Abyss?

Adeline tossed Ian aside, feeling a bit agitated. "Are you threatening me?" Calling her Bai Qiang instead of Adeline—wasn’t the underlying message, "I know your true Identity, so you’d better not play any tricks on me"?

"You can also see it as a form of honesty."

"I’ve never seen anyone force honesty one-sidedly!"

"I have a voice recording here. It concerns the truth behind the death of Lucia’s mother. I need you to hand it over to Victor and have him intercept the Saint Group’s reinforcements to buy me some time. Afterwards, I can do one thing for you, as long as it doesn’t go against my conscience."

Adeline scoffed. "I really don’t understand what you’re doing right now. You know full well the importance of this plan to Ancient Abyss, and you clearly chose to protect Ancient Abyss. So why are you assisting S704?"

"I have my reasons, and I must do this."

"What about Ancient Abyss? You’d rather let the world be destroyed just to achieve your own goals? How did I never realize you had an antisocial personality?"

"Ancient Abyss will not be destroyed."

"What makes you so confident? You’re not even the protagonist of Ancient Abyss!"

The voice from the speaker fell silent. Adeline placed her hands on her hips, so angry she actually laughed. She wasn’t angry about Blossoming Prosperity’s ambiguous stance; she was annoyed that, at a critical moment like this, she inexplicably felt a bit biased toward her. It felt as if her best friend had suffered a massive grievance but refused to talk about it no matter how much she was asked, opting to pick a fight instead. But what could she do? Reasoning was useless when emotions ran high. She could only let her friend finish what she needed to do and vent her emotions before asking for the reason.

She thought, "Bai Qiang, you must be crazy!"

Adeline glanced at the unconscious Ian, frantically trying to justify things to herself. S704 and Ian, these star-crossed lovers, hadn’t done anything wrong either. They were also trying to eradicate the Blood Clan and liberate oppressed humanity. Furthermore, Ian was doing all this for the sake of the same Huaxia in a different world.

To be honest, it was very hard for her to raise a hand against this tragic couple. Harming the innocent would give her an intense sense of guilt.

If S704 could resolve the source of the Blood Plague, Chi Hai would lose its so-called ’divine’ Strength and wouldn’t be able to immediately invade Ancient Abyss. This was the fourth transmigration. If Nan Jiamu wasn’t lying, there were still three more transmigrations left to find a way to solve the problem. They didn’t necessarily have to resort to such extreme measures. However, if she refused to help Blossoming Prosperity now, it would likely push her to the opposing side, personally creating a formidable enemy for Ancient Abyss.

"I want to meet you face-to-face honestly in Ancient Abyss. Aside from that, no deal!"

Static buzzed from the speaker. Yin Zhen remained silent for a full dozen seconds before speaking again.

"Alright. Turn on your communication bracelet. I will send you the recording. Also... stay safe!"

Yin Zhen’s final word of concern smoothed out some of Adeline’s irritation. She quickly activated her bracelet and, sure enough, received an audio file. After listening to it, Adeline frowned, then relaxed her brows, and finally, the corners of her mouth curled up as a wicked idea surfaced in her mind.

On the eleventh underground floor.

Victor leaned wearily against the wall. His bulletproof vest, embedded with shrapnel and shattered glass, was torn off and carelessly tossed onto the ground. The corridor behind him was lined with robotic wreckage on both sides, strewn haphazardly across the floor. Some were still smoking, while others twitched in malfunction.

Pooling all the blood in his body toward his legs, Victor stepped over the remains of an android. Using the wall for support, he trudged step by step toward the elevator doors at the end of the hall.

"Victor."

Victor turned around, only to see Adeline standing alone amidst the sprawling wreckage, holding up a communication bracelet.

"Lucia asked me to give you this recording. Once you listen to it, you’ll understand exactly why she fled the Guard Team to cooperate with us trespassers. Her goal has always been to completely destroy the Saint Group to avenge her mother. This is something you’ve never been able to do, and she is very disappointed in you!"

Inside the secret underground laboratory, Lucy was still hacking the security protocols for the brain in the vat. Zoe stood motionless before the white brain, having maintained that posture for nearly an hour.

Yin Zhen stood before a monitor, silently observing the conversation between Adeline and Victor.

When it came to psychological warfare, Bai Qiang was the true professional!