Sky-cracking Rider

It was hard enough to catch two captives, but then one slipped away and the other committed suicide, making all efforts pointless, a total waste of energy.

Chen Fei was ready to capture two more live targets for interrogation when, before he had taken two steps, a shrill alarm began to blare.

Beep... beep... beep...

The wailing warning quickly intensified, and the corridor filled with the sound of chaotic footsteps as a dozen mutants, referred to by the two previously caught captives as "Spiky Armored Beasts," simultaneously pounced towards Chen Fei.

He was covered in the scent of fresh blood, which the keen senses of the mutants detected immediately.

He met them with his White Steel crowbar, striking fiercely. Brains splattered over the walls, the ceiling, and the floor, leaving grimy specks everywhere. Without their brains, the mutants could no longer be fierce, and one by one, they collapsed to the ground.

A line of fire shot straight towards Chen Fei. He was about to summon "Personal Armor Basic Body Level 1 (Light Armor Mode)" to enhance his defense when a faint light screen suddenly appeared in front of him, followed by another.

"Jiu!"

From the Dragon Guard's tactical helmet brain case, Xiao Jiu had finally woken up and promptly released two Light-based Spells shields one after the other.

Boom! ~

In the semi-enclosed environment of the corridor, the explosive power of the rocket increased by nearly double.

The shockwave and flames were brutally pushed to both ends of the corridor, sweeping away the strewn mutant remains as if a Level 14 Hurricane had passed through.

The outermost Light System Magic Shield instantly collapsed, turning into countless light spots that dissipated with the blast wave. The second Light System Magic Shield flickered wildly for a while. After enduring the initial brunt of the rocket's explosion, it barely held up, clearing the dense smoke and pungent smell of gunpowder for Chen Fei.

"Jiu!"

Xiao Jiu's voice carried exhaustion; it hadn't rested enough and wasn't fully recovered yet.

"Evolve, laser cannon!"

Chen Fei activated his Skill, pulling from the "Physical Evolution Database," the same Laser Cannon originally mounted inside the F-22 "Raptor" jet fighter, which now was fitted with a temporary casing, transforming into a two-meter-long, single-soldier Portable Laser Cannon with a maximum diameter of about 0.3 meters, its thumb-thick cable connecting to the Dragon Guard's Tactical Armor.

The original Dragon Guard armor had never carried such a weaponry system, but that didn't matter, for with "Adam" the AI it was more than enough. Even if it couldn't handle it, let alone the Dog System.

Adam: Laser Cannon! Laser Cannon? Where is it? I don't have it... Ah, where did this Laser Cannon come from, what is going on ah ah ah!

The inexplicably appearing Portable Laser Cannon nearly caused the artificial intelligence AI to go haywire; this was just unscientific!

System: Ding! Portable Laser Cannon connected, fully charged, current "Electric Energy Reserve" good for 10 full-power shots!

Adam: What am I doing?

The occurrence of such bizarre incidents had nearly driven the artificial intelligence AI "Adam" mad.

As the dust settled a bit, the situation ahead became hazily visible.

Two Spiky Armored Beast mutants stood on either side, like Door Guardians serving as fleshy barricades, while two humans in sealed protective suits peered out from behind a single infantry rocket launcher.

As the eyes of both parties met mid-air, the ones in protective suits were stunned. They couldn't fathom how someone who had just withstood a direct rocket blast could emerge unscathed; did they really believe that the preceding violent explosion was a mere fifty-cent special effect?

Chen Fei didn't hesitate to press the firing button, and a faint green beam instantly illuminated the entire corridor.

Thirty meters away, the two mutants acting as meat shields instantly turned into two fireballs. Shortly thereafter, the infantry rocket launcher exploded violently, a larger fireball engulfing the two humans operating it, along with the mutant fireballs in front of them.

The violent airwave and shockwave once again swept through the entire corridor.

System: Portable Laser Cannon full-power firing count 9/10!

System: Electric Energy Reserve: 1080 kWh (90%) | Full charge time remaining 18 minutes and 47 seconds.

Fortunately, as long as there was enough time, there was no worry of running out of ammunition.

Adam: I'm done here, goodbye!

Goodbye? Where could it go? Apart from Chen Fei who could manually delete this version of the compilation, it couldn't do anything else; all its permissions were tightly restricted by the Dog System, making it impossible for it to cause any mischief.

Carrying the Portable Laser Cannon, Chen Fei strode forward, passing through the still-burning remnants of the blaze, with the alarm still sounding nonstop.

Since sneaking around to catch informants didn't work, the only option left was a frontal assault.

The tightly sealed blast door before Chen Fei, offering only a few Energy Points, otherwise proved utterly useless.

In no time, Chen Fei had thoroughly scouted the Mutant Artificial Breeding Ground.

Aside from the four people who had died directly or indirectly by his hand, five others had taken their own lives at the first opportunity.

By the time he found these five, it was too late: they lay in a row, sitting upright on chairs. One had suffered a gruesome head explosion, while the other four had poisoned themselves, drinking just a sip of a toxin that would kill them within ten seconds, beyond any hope of salvation, even for a god.
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The main control system of the breeding farm had initiated a ten-minute countdown to self-destruct, with many pre-set nodes installed with high-explosive devices. Once detonated, almost the entire breeding farm would be buried under the rubble.

For Chen Fei, even this wasn't the most troublesome issue.

What truly beset him was that all the mutants, as long as they were mobile, had been released. Stirred up as if provoked, they frenziedly attacked anything living, not even sparing their own kind, engaging in a chaotic struggle where corners clashed and chaos reigned.

The self-destruct program of the Mutant Breeding Farm didn't last a second in front of the artificial intelligence AI "Adam." It randomly targeted a data port with the Universal Data Transceiver and the self-destruct system instantly went kaput. The countdown was cancelled, control changed hands, and "Adam" hadn't even applied much force before the opponent lay down flat, rendering the situation rather dull.

Even though the self-destruct program had been shut down, during the countdown, the destruction of the database had become irreversible and could not be recovered.

Beyond software-level soft formatting, there were also physical self-destruct mechanisms that completely pulverized the data storage mediums. Unless time could be reversed, there was no possibility of retrieving the destroyed data.

What regretted Chen Fei was that among those surviving pieces of data "Adam" extracted, the most core and crucial information no longer existed, leaving only some not-so-important daily work logs, each essentially similar to the next.

The breeding mother of the mutant artificial breeding ground did not survive, but was silenced—first injected with a fatal poison, then burned by flames exceeding 1000 degrees Celsius into solid carbon, turning to ash, leaving not even a speck of complete DNA to be extracted.

Chen Fei only found a Flesh Mushroom the size of a palm, likely a self-division offspring that, due to hiding in a concealed corner and being slightly malnourished, had gone unnoticed when the hasty self-destruct was activated and thus became the lucky one that slipped through the net.

From within the Mutant Artificial Breeding Ground, Chen Fei quickly discovered a path leading directly to the space where the Manor Main House currently stood. The Spiky Armored Beast mutants were unable to pass through it, yet humans could traverse it unimpeded. The entrances and exits at both ends were extremely concealed. If not for the obvious mismatch between accumulated human activity traces and the surrounding environment, it indeed wouldn't have been easy to notice.

Three hours had passed.

Most of the people gathered in the first-floor hall of the Manor Main House remained silent, speaking only in deliberately hushed tones, fearing that a louder voice might startle the mutants and trigger a new wave of assault.

"Chirp!"

A faint glow wrapped around a Little Bird as it flew into the hall, immediately attracting many gazes.

"The Pure Light Sparrow, it's back!"

"What about its owner? The Pilot from the Jiu Defense Company, could it be?"

The return of the bird without its human companion carried significant implications.

Many hearts sank. The welfare of Chen Fei wasn't of much concern to most people, but he was the first to venture outside. If something untoward had happened to him, it meant that the dangers outside were unpredictable and their chances of staying trapped here were more likely to be slim.

"Xiao Jiu, where is 'Rookie'?"

Hanna Gagel, who was resting, opened her eyes and spread out her palm for the Little Bird to land on.

"Chirp, chirp!"

The little creature hopped around cheerfully.

"Ms. Hanna, could Mr. Chen Fei have..."

"No!"

As Thompson, the Manor Butler, began to ask with a probing tone, Hanna Gagel interrupted him without any politeness.

Hanna Gagel said with utmost certainty, "Xiao Jiu is in good spirits, its feathers aren't ruffled, meaning it hasn't been through battle, he'll be here in a bit."

She could see many clues from Xiao Jiu.

"I'm back!"

Chen Fei stepped into the hall with large strides.

Many people stood up, looking at him in astonishment.

"What's it like outside?"

"What exactly is going on?"

Unable to restrain their impatience, many inquired. It was the reality everyone most urgently needed to know.

Unsettled by the sudden relocation, along with the house, to this godforsaken place, nearly every person was feeling uneasy.

"'Rookie', did you find anything?"

Holding Xiao Jiu, Hanna Gagel was the first to welcome him.

Since Xiao Jiu couldn't speak, asking it was pointless, so they could only get a clear picture of what was happening outside by asking Chen Fei directly.

"This is a Spiky Armored Beast Mutant Artificial Breeding Ground."

Chen Fei said just one sentence, and with a query count of 233, the bustling hall, lively as a marketplace, fell silent in an instant, all noise abruptly ceased.

Many exchanged puzzled looks.

"We've caught a big fish!"

Hanna Gagel, however, was thrilled.

The last joint operation organized by the Blue Star Global United Defense Committee had to be abruptly concluded with the detonation of a Dragon Slayer Missile to prevent the uncountable mutants from surging out of the ground, leading to uncontrollable consequences.

But this time, it seemed they would be able to secure a complete scene.

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