Chapter 455: Nursery Rhyme (Please Subscribe)
The director's brows furrowed deeply. Although the Despair Heavenly Girl was no longer part of the plan, it could still proceed, but the grand fireworks he had prepared for the Federation would greatly lose their luster.
He directly used his personal intelligence terminal to dial Zhen Hao's phone.
Zhen Hao's face bore a closer resemblance to Westerners, with a head of disheveled silver-white hair, a high nose bridge, sharply defined features, and deep, bright black eyes, shining with wisdom and fervor.
After the video projection of the man appeared, he furrowed his brows, "What the hell are you doing? Didn't you confirm before the operation? How could you not even recognize a cloned body?"
The director opened another video on the side, showing 'Lin Rui' entering the 'Sky Wing 520' luxury car, surrounded by many bodyguards, after completing a TV program at 'City Voice Television.'
Everything seemed normal; there was no discernible anomaly in the video.
"I'm not sure, but I suspect they must have top-tier illusionists, shielding our intelligence personnel's perceptions."
A person's flesh and gene can be replicated, and their cloned body manipulated with biological chips, but their cultivation spirit mechanism and ether characteristics can't be copied so simply.
'Moon of the Abyss' Lin Yi made her move from eight kilometers away, unable to determine if this person was real or fake.
'Hidden Moon' was the same, sitting in her own office, tracking others through various cameras and scientific instruments.
"Now is not the time to assign blame. Lin Rui isn't dead, and we can't trigger the Despair Heavenly Girl. Do you have any ideas?"
'Hidden Moon' was gripped by the throat, paralyzed.
However, when she heard this, her pupils shifted ever so slightly.
Neither the director in the video nor Zhen Hao noticed 'Hidden Moon's' change. Zhen Hao, with a thoughtful frown, said, "Has she awakened her memories now? If she has, seal them again, and use the maximum intensity to lock away her memories."
The director's eyes lit up at hearing this, "Old Zhen, do you mean, have the Suffering Heavenly Girl, after awakening, make another move to deal with Lin Rui? Is it possible?"
"No problem," Zhen Hao crossed his arms and sneered with confidence, "The pain in her soul should last for a while even though she doesn't know where this pain comes from. And my homemade biological control chip, when the Heavenly Venerate of Suffering descends to 20% state, should be able to control her actions. However, her memory must be reinforced and sealed. Also, you must give me the final data; this is the basis for our future cooperation, understand?"
"I understand!" The director nodded and then instructed the two researchers beside him, "Did you hear? Begin the operation to seal the memory—"
Before the director could finish speaking, the surrounding alloy walls emitted a 'crackle' sound. The high-strength alloy, which could be used to build a battleship, began to show faint cracks.
The director was unconcerned, attributing it to Lin Yi and her Battle Dragon's Abyss Concept leaking out, affecting the entire base and making every material therein twist.
This had happened many times before, and the situation was not yet severe; the various systems inside the base were designed with some redundancy and could hold up.
However, at that moment, the Zhen Hao in the video showed a pained expression, "You idiot! Someone has invaded your side, and it has extended to me through the communication link."
Zhen Hao's voice came mixed with 'static' electronic noise, and as he tore off the intelligence terminal bracelet from his arm, the video communication was abruptly cut off.
The director's face turned slightly pale, contemplating when their base might have been invaded.
He commanded three SS-class hackers within his base; were they all dead? Why was there no reaction whatsoever?
"Minister Max, help me confirm the status of the three supercomputer rooms, and check on the guys in there—"
After contacting his security department's deputy minister, the director also ordered the people around him, "The situation outside might be very bad. We need to evacuate now; forget about the experimental data, full evacuation! Stop the anesthetic injections."
After giving the order, the director was the first to stride out, with the rest following behind him.
As the director exited the room, he remembered 'Hidden Moon', "Make sure to bring that girl with us."
This was an SS+ class hacker and a 7SS-class mechanic.
Once this girl undergoes Dragon Transformation and gains enhanced reflexes and computing power, her hacker abilities may step up to the SSS level.
Such a person was hard to control, but Zhen Hao was about to complete a much more powerful biological control system, sufficient to restrain this young girl.
However, just as the director's words fell, they saw the Sixth Realm guard who had grabbed "Hidden Moon" by the neck suddenly let out a groan. He actually let go of "Hidden Moon," clutching his head and groaning in pain.
The director's face couldn't help but change slightly, knowing that "Hidden Moon" had used her hacker abilities to disrupt the electromagnetic signals of some of the guard's armaments, causing him to lose consciousness and combat capabilities.
"Damn it! Someone grab her, don't let her escape—"
The girl's figure was incredibly agile, and she darted into a nearby corridor in an instant, disappearing without a trace.
The director couldn't afford to focus on this Hidden Moon for now; he could only arrange for two people to pursue her, then continued toward the escape corridor.
Even worse news came. It was from a deputy minister of the security department named Max, whom the director had just contacted.
He didn't use the base's internal quantum communication of the smart terminal but instead used the wired communication system.
"Director, our situation isn't looking good. The three hackers in our supercomputing room have all been killed—the door is open, and someone sneaked into the room and directly took their heads off."
"Also, my current state is also pretty bad. I feel a bit of weakness and numbness in my limbs, and I'm likely poisoned. Judging by the modus operandi, it's probably the Children's Song Killer."
"Furthermore, there must be a problem with the monitoring room; it's been completely taken over. The external defense systems probably have completely fallen apart too. I suggest we retreat as soon as possible."
When the words "Children's Song Killer" reached everyone's ears, everyone present, including the director, changed their color.
In Ninth Base City, the "Children's Song Killer" was undoubtedly a demonic figure that caused people to panic at the mere mention of his name.
This person possessed extremely advanced skills in creating poisons and had several powerful accomplices.
Since appearing, he had committed numerous murders in the span of half a year, reportedly slaughtering over ten thousand people, causing all sides, including the Federation Security Bureau, to be plagued with headaches and fear, unable to find his whereabouts to this day.
Since Thunder Admiral replaced You Ming and took charge of the Children's Song Killer task force, he simply gave up pursuing this criminal.
However, after Thunder Admiral launched the "Light of Brightness" anti-crime operation, the Children's Song Killer's frequency of crime began to decrease. In the last 25 days, the Children's Song Killer had only launched two operations, killing more than 600 gang members.
This made the media of the Base City jubilant and full of praise, acknowledging that although Thunder Admiral hadn't found the Children's Song Killer, his direction was correct. Not only did he strike against the gangs, securing the safety and life of the civilians, but he also prevented the Children's Song Killer from committing crimes on a large scale.
Unlike the previous You Ming, who mobilized an overwhelming force, wasted the people's resources, and used a massive amount of public security resources to protect some gang members, that left the police exhausted and also triggered public outrage.
And now, with the Children's Song Killer unable to find targets, he had turned his attention to them.
"Whether it's the Children's Song Killer or not, we evacuate as soon as possible! Try to see who can still contact the outside world and notify the police as soon as possible. Let the Security Bureau and police handle them. And the Suffering Heavenly Girl, I'll add a stimulant to wake her up soon—"
The director instinctively wanted to call the police but found that the quantum communication on his personal smart terminal had already failed.
It must have been the work of a top hacker who had infiltrated and preemptively shut down the communication module within their terminals.
The director's face was extremely grim as he connected the terminal's electromagnetic communication with the base's internal network, trying to use his authority to personally operate and add a stimulant to the Suffering Heavenly Girl, only to find that his authority had been removed.
Moreover, he had clearly set to stop the injection of the anesthetic before leaving, and now it had started injecting again.
"Damn it! Damn it!"
The director's face was clouded with anger as he continued to stride toward the direction of the escape corridor. What slightly eased his mind was that along the way, he gathered several powerful subordinates.
Due to the continuous crimes of the Children's Song Killer, the base's internal ventilation and air exchange system had been significantly enhanced. The director even spared no expense to design three independent air exchange systems.
Thus, although these few Dragon Transformation experts could clearly feel the symptoms of the anesthetic, they were still barely able to maintain consciousness and retain a certain level of combat strength.
But just as he was about to approach the entrance of the escape corridor, the director heard someone humming a simple, cheerful, yet unfamiliar children's song not far away.
"Two tigers, two tigers, running fast—"
The director's pupils instantly contracted severely, and his scalp tingled.
—It really is the Children's Song Killer!
His hands instinctively pressed against the pistol at his waist. It was at this moment that the director saw a flash of red light, and the two Sixth Realm Dragon Transformation experts guarding him were sliced by a brilliantly flashing blade. Their bodies were cut in half, their heads cleanly severed!