At a certain spot outside the base.
Silver, Judy and Stola weren’t the only Merciless operatives on this planet. They had agreed to meet on this spot, and everyone had shown up as agreed upon.
They were acting unusually quiet, however.
The brown rain video and the famous music “Rhapsody of a Rainy Night” were playing on Judy’s microcomputer right now. It was currently ascending toward the climax. Had she chosen to play the video of her own accord? Of course not. Her microcomputer had begun playing on its own without warning. It had been hacked by the alien signal, and she was utterly incapable of stopping it. This was the first time she had even seen a signal type like this. She had never been this stumped even when she was taught a lesson by her older brother, Juno. The only way to stop it was to shut down the microcomputer completely.
Her companions didn’t blame her. One look at her face was enough for them to realize that Judy was incapable of stopping this at all.
“Who on earth is doing this?” Someone asked in a low tone.
Silver and Stola didn’t say anything. They knew for certain that the mysterious duo they ran into was connected to this. For one, the video and music had begun playing not long after the duo had left. Two, they had disengaged from the fight very abruptly when both sides were still relatively even. They now knew why they had done what they did.
“It’s definitely not the military. It cannot be the work of the old foxes on the government either. Hell would turn cold before those old foxes in the government would involve themselves in the huge mess that is Miracle, especially not in these times. But... who else could it be if not them?” Another Merciless operative asked.
If it wasn’t the military, the politicians, the Grim Reapers, the Mist or the Merciless, who else was capable of such a feat? It couldn’t be those reckless hunters, could it?
One thing was certain, however. For those who survived today’s incident, especially those who were infected by the virus, they would never be able to listen to “Rhapsody of A Rainy Night” the same way again. In fact, they wouldn’t even be able to face a rainy day without thinking of today’s incident, which was probably the point. Whoever engineered this wanted their victims to panic at the mere sound of raindrops. They wanted the trauma to accompany them for a very, very long time to come. They would most likely get their wish.
“Enough. This isn’t our business. We can figure this out after we get out of this planet. If we dilly dally, we may as well lie down on the ground and let the virus consume us,” said a Merciless operative while patting a transfixed Judy on the shoulder.
Silver turned off the microcomputer and said, “Let’s go. GAL is a big place, and Juno certainly isn’t the only top-tier hacker in GAL. The only reason we haven’t heard of them is because they keep a lower profile than him.”
“That being said, maybe this wouldn’t have happened if Juno was the one who wrote the defense network,” Stola added.
A long time ago, Juno had given an outdated program into Miracle’s hands. They hadn’t cooperated with each other afterward. Miracle had reached out to Juno when the research base was in its foundation stage, but the latter had turned them down. Grim Reaper had never displayed a clear cut stance or ideology, so no one knew what they were really thinking.
Judy neither agreed nor disagreed with Silver and Stola’s comments. They didn’t have her depth of knowledge after all. Not only couldn’t she analyze the alien signal, she couldn’t even intercept or obtain a copy of the data. If all she could do was watch the signal, she wasn’t sure if her older brother, Juno could’ve done much better in her place.
While Judy and her allies were busy being shocked by the alien signal, Wheeze was sitting on top of a tall building and observing everything that was going on inside and outside of the base where Mo Heng was imprisoned. Together with Czedow, it had also disabled the defense network of all nine research bases. Right now, many patients were attempting to escape the base due to the rising chaos caused by “Rhapsody of a Rainy Night”.
Cillin had exploited the openings created by the musical banquet of his own making and slipped into Mo Heng’s research base. It barely took him any effort to avoid the guards with Wheeze and Czedow guiding him.
Cillin had stolen a set of work clothes and even manifested some brown spots on his skin to blend in better. Although most people in the base were wearing face masks and making it difficult to identify anyone by face, he did it anyway to minimize suspicion. Amidst this chaos, it was extremely unlikely that anyone would find him out of the place without careful observation.
The base guards currently had their hands full, and not only because the patients were attempting to escape the base. While there were no failed test subjects in this base for him to exploit, there were a lot of unfinished robots and large machineries. Long story short, it would be a long time before the guards could extricate themselves and come looking for him.
Cillin followed the road map he received from an encrypted message and quickly made his way to Mo Heng’s prison room. The prison room was located in a key research department of the base, and there were far less people here than almost anywhere else in the place. After all, most of the personnel had run off to god-knows-where, and those who chose to self-isolate had made sure to seal their doors and protect themselves with modified defense shields. It would be incredibly difficult to get in or out of the rooms without a specific tool.
Cillin wasn’t worried about being captured on screen. The cameras had already been blacked out.
Unfortunately, the lifts had stopped working for one reason or another, so Cillin had no choice but to climb the stairs. When he was at the third floor though, he slammed right into a person who was running down from above. The runner had missed a step when he saw Cillin, and he would’ve rolled all the way downstairs if Cillin hadn’t caught him.
The man didn’t raise his head. He was also wearing a face mask that masked most of his features. After he caught himself and steadied his breathing, he tried to continue on his way only to find himself being lifted onto Cillin’s shoulder and carried downstairs.
The man’s only response was to swing a plier he produced from god-knows-where and stab Cillin in the side. He never even made a sound throughout the attack. Cillin caught it firmly before it could do any harm, however.
“You look pretty lively, Master Mo,” Cillin said while running downstairs.
Mo Heng was fishing for another tool to stab his kidnapper with when Cillin’s comment caused him to stop whatever he was doing. He examined the young man closely and puzzledly. He couldn’t see Cillin’s face from this position, and he was pretty sure that the guy’s body shape was nothing like what he remembered, but that tone! Who else but that little bastard would speak to him like that?
Is he really Cillin? It has to be him, right? He’s the only one who would address me as Master Mo.
Mo Heng neither asked for confirmation nor tried to pull down his “kidnapper”’s face mask to reveal his face. This was hardly the right time or place to be compromising one’s identity after all. Plus, he didn’t sense any hostility from the young man whatsoever. In fact, he felt a kind of familiarity he hadn’t felt in a very long time.
Oh well, we can do this after we get out of this place. At the very least, I’m one hundred percent certain that this guy isn’t Anbixin’s lackey.
Mo Heng obediently allowed himself to be carried away like a sack of potatoes after arriving at the resolution. He was happy to meet Cillin—assuming that the young man was Cillin—but he was also very worried. The base, hell, the entire planet was under siege by the virus right now. It would be an understatement to say that this place wasn’t the ideal reunion spot he envisioned.
On his way out, Cillin received a transmission from Czedow.
“What is it?” Cillin answered while running and observing his surroundings. Although the base personnel’s attention had been directed elsewhere, the corridor he was in was mostly empty, and the cameras were all blacked out, but he hadn’t made it this far by being careless.
“All the failed test subjects have been injected with the drugs, and most of the base researchers are trying to escape. However, there are a lot more guards than there are failed test subjects and researchers, and I don’t think the chaos will last for much longer. Should we bring forward the next step of the operation?” Czedow asked.
“Do it. I’ve found our man, and we can leave the moment we get out of here.”
“Alright, I’ll contact Wheeze and Shusag right away. Oh, there is one more thing I need to tell you. A small group of people is approaching this planet, but I don’t know which side they belong to.”
Cillin thought for a moment before asking, “You can’t get any ID confirmation from them?”
“No. I don’t think they wish to reveal themselves.”
“They can’t be Miracle then.”
“That is correct. Should I intercept them with the satellite arrays?”
“It’s fine. They probably belong to the First Army.” Cillin thought of Yue Lou and guessed that the group might be his saviors. It was just as well. It meant that he could unload all the troublesome stuff on the First Army.
“How long will it take for them to arrive?” Cillin asked again.
“Half an hour.”
“I’m almost out. Fetch us a spaceplane so we can leave this place.”
“Roger that.”
After the transmission was over, Cillin checked his surroundings one more time before quickening his footsteps.
Mo Heng frowned from Cillin’s shoulder. Again, the voice didn’t sound like Cillin, but that tone… by now, the old man was absolutely certain that Cillin was Cillin. He couldn’t help but feel a sense of guilt, however. A virus outbreak was hardly a good time to mount a rescue.