Su Yu felt like she was going to explode.
She had just recovered from a serious illness, and it was rare for her to go out, so she was actually quite happy.
But who would have thought that today, just by taking the subway, she would encounter a monster attack and then be besieged by狂热 fans.
A combination of blows left her feeling mentally exhausted.
‘No matter what, I need to get out of here as soon as possible… I really can’t take it anymore…’
After barely managing to deal with this new group of fans and making an excuse to escape, the Association staff came looking for her.
“Excuse me, are you Lady Valkyrie? I’ve heard so much about you. I’m a staff member from the Hero Association. You can call me Xiao Zhang.”
Su Yu, who had been singled out, paused and simply covered her face, regret churning inside her.
Only after calming herself did she take a deep breath and turn to face the Association staff.
“Is there something?”
The girl spoke coldly, her face like a dead person’s.
Although her figure was somewhat petite, the chilling aura emanating from her still made the staff member involuntarily shiver.
“It’s like this, Lady Valkyrie. Although the monster has been dealt with, according to protocol, the Hero Association needs to make a public response to every attack. Since you’re here, if you don’t have anything particularly urgent, I wonder if you could come back with us for an interview? We’ll handle the cleanup here. It won’t take much time, I promise.”
Su Yu didn’t answer immediately.
Instead, she muttered to herself internally.
‘After all, I agreed with the higher-ups of the Hero Association to make a public appearance today as a form of self-promotion. But with this incident, I’m already too late. I’ll definitely be late. I can’t even imagine what will happen if I stand so many people up as a newcomer, but not going seems even worse.’
After some thought, she agreed anyway.
‘Oh well, I’ll go along. I happen to have some business at the Association.’
—
The girl’s troubles came one after another, but she seemed to enjoy them.
Meanwhile, in the underground laboratory, due to insufficient power, Lin Mo had already disconnected from the drone.
He couldn’t continue accompanying Su Yu for the rest of the journey.
However, he wasn’t worried about anything unexpected happening.
After all, Su Yu was a grown woman who couldn’t treat him like a child forever.
Besides, compared to that, he had something more worthy of attention now.
“Nightingale, set the laboratory to maximum security level. For any external interference, reject everything except Su Yu’s emergency call.”
“Understood, sir. Executing command.”
With the AI’s emotionless voice fading, the lights in the entire laboratory dimmed slightly.
“Alright, now it’s time to study this uninvited guest properly.”
Lin Mo shifted his gaze to the piece of flesh stored in a culture dish not far away.
This was exactly the unfortunate monster that Su Yu had recently killed with her Superpower Bracelet.
By the time Metal Storm arrived at the scene, the crisis had already been resolved.
Adhering to the principle of “never returning empty-handed,” he simply brought the monster’s corpse back for research.
He was quite interested in the Liquefaction Ability the monster had displayed.
If he could figure something out, it would be worth the trip.
As for the hatred the monster kept repeating…
Lin Mo could only express his apologies.
He had no recollection of such a character at all.
In his eyes, everything the monster had meticulously planned was nothing but self-humiliation.
“Starting the first experiment…”
He took a deep breath and was about to press the button on the Control Console when the AI butler’s alarm sounded in his ear.
[Warning! Warning! Detected an unknown source of network intrusion. Firewall activated.]
“What?”
The sudden change caught Lin Mo off guard, but he quickly reacted.
He immediately stood up and walked to the terminal console to check the situation.
Seeing the screen full of red warning pop-ups, he realized the severity of the problem.
The opponent’s computing power far exceeded his current equipment.
The firewall he designed wouldn’t hold for long.
If he didn’t take any countermeasures, the other side would likely succeed soon.
“…”
“Immediately perform an emergency shutdown.”
After a brief silence, Lin Mo issued the final command.
This was the last resort.
An emergency shutdown would severely damage his equipment, but if he didn’t do it, the opponent would soon crack his Core Database, and he would risk losing his experimental data.
He knew which was more important.
“Executing command. Performing emergency shutdown. AI system going offline…”
The AI butler’s report echoed in his ears again and again.
One by one, the equipment in the laboratory stopped functioning.
Finally, even the power supply system gradually ceased operation.
With a click, the lights in the base went out completely.
The base was plunged into darkness.
Lin Mo analyzed the current situation while manually turning on the emergency power.
Although he was now as blind as a bat, the good news was that the opponent’s attack had also come to an abrupt halt.
He felt a bit irritated.
For a mysterious scientist who never revealed his true appearance, the leakage of information was his greatest worry.
This meant that his current base’s location had been exposed, and he had no choice but to activate another backup base.
“Who could it be…”
Lin Mo’s hands began to tap on the keyboard while his mind searched for who had such capabilities.
Unfortunately, after much thought, he couldn’t recall anyone with such high computing power.
Forced by circumstances, he could only try to contact someone he hadn’t dealt with in a long time.
That person might have some information.
‘I hope this is the right move…’
If it weren’t necessary, Lin Mo really didn’t want to deal with this guy again.
But he had no choice now.
He took out a long-dusty communicator from the storage box, using an encrypted communication channel—very secure, no fear of eavesdropping.
Beep… beep… beep…
The communicator rang many times.
Lin Mo waited silently.
Fortunately, after the last ring, a slightly sleazy voice came through.
“Hello…?”
“…”
Just from that one word, the greasy feel seemed to seep through the communication signal.
“Duya.”
Lin Mo used the guy’s industry alias.
“I don’t have time for nonsense this time. Time is tight. I need your help.”
…
“Ah, is that so? What kind of help do you need?”
The other party didn’t respond immediately.
His tone was flustered, unlike usual, which aroused Lin Mo’s suspicion.
“Duya, is someone with you?”
“Huh? Me? How could that be? Why would you think that?”
Despite his words, the nervousness spilling out was hard to ignore.
“Heh… With your current state, it’s hard not to suspect that someone is holding a gun to your head.”
“Damn, how did you…”
Bang!
Lin Mo heard a dull sound of a blunt object hitting flesh, then nothing more.
“Sigh…”
He knew this was trouble.
The base’s location had probably been leaked by Duya.
After all, Duya had helped with the construction of this base and knew some things.
It wasn’t surprising.
But Lin Mo hadn’t expected someone to kidnap Duya just to find him.
More importantly, he still didn’t know what these people wanted from him after all their efforts.
In the silence, the communicator sounded again.
Lin Mo steadied his mind and maintained his usual calm tone.
“May I ask, is Duya still alive?”
…
“He’s alive.”
It was a forceful and dignified voice.
Lin Mo felt an inexplicable familiarity.
“Aren’t you going to introduce yourself first? Let me know who you are, then we can talk. Otherwise, I won’t waste any more words.”
The other party clearly made an annoyed sound but ultimately didn’t lash out.
His voice revealed weakness.
“After all these years of running wild, don’t you even remember your own father’s voice? Lin Mo.”
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