Chapter 1 The Hostage

The mainframe room was located in the core area of the headquarters, storing a large amount of classified information. Cerberus had the authorization and closed the defenses, leading Han Xiao into the mainframe room.

Rows of large hard drives were neatly arranged, like bookshelves, with various indicator lights flashing continuously. At the end of the mainframe room were monitors and operating positions. The mainframe room here was simpler than the underground mainframe of Stardragon’s Thirteenth Bureau.

Cerberus opened the mainframe, obediently entered a dozens-digit password, and authenticated his fingerprint and iris. In fact, there was a secret alarm measure here. Entering a fixed password was a secret alarm command to prevent high-level personnel from being threatened, but for his own safety, Cerberus had no intention of causing trouble at all.

He believed that Han Xiao could easily kill him before being caught, and he didn't want to take risks.

So this alarm method became a decoration.

It had to be said that Cerberus was extremely bold and lawless when conducting experiments, but when it came to his own life, he immediately became timid as a mouse.

"What do you want to see?"

"A complete map of the headquarters," Han Xiao said.

Cerberus operated the computer, and a structural diagram of the headquarters appeared on the screen.

Han Xiao took out the Viper · Modified helmet from the equipment bag, photographed the map and entered it into the chip database, automatically constructing a 3D map model. During this time, he was also quickly memorizing the map, and soon found the place where Aurora was being held.

Thinking of the Child of Destiny he had just mentioned, Han Xiao wanted to see what was going on, but Cerberus said that only the leader had the authority to open the door to the Child of Destiny, so Han Xiao had to give up the idea.

"Open your classified intelligence database."

Cerberus did as he was told, and classified information was displayed to Han Xiao without reservation. Germination's trump cards were all revealed.

Another goal of his visit to the Germination headquarters was for this information. The plot had been changed by him, and Germination naturally had some new secrets that he didn't know about. Moreover, he was just a player in his previous life, and the information could not be comprehensive, such as the parameters of various experiments, the actual deployment of various plans, and so on.

Han Xiao saw the exoskeleton structure of the Super Soldier, which was indeed a technology developed from the light-duty power arm he had once left behind, treating what he had left over as a treasure.

Han Xiao recorded all the intelligence, especially the detailed information of the Dead Hand System, which would give the Six Nations an unparalleled advantage and cut off Germination's last retreat. The greater the role of the intelligence he provided, the higher his mission progress would be.

And that's not all.

The Six Nations and Germination both possessed some advanced knowledge, and opportunities to loot a burning house like now were rare.

His goal was advanced knowledge!

…

Han Xiao always liked to maximize his benefits. He was not simply trying to save people, but also for intelligence and advanced knowledge.

"Open the knowledge repository."

Three series of advanced knowledge of martial arts, superpowers, and machinery appeared on the screen. Seeing the dense professional knowledge, Han Xiao breathed a long sigh of relief and was secretly excited. After a few months, he could finally acquire new advanced knowledge again.

Germination's mechanical advanced knowledge was [Neural Link] of the control branch.

[Detected Mechanical Advanced Knowledge: [Neural Link], do you want to consume 2 potential points to learn it?]

"Confirm."

[Learning in progress, please do not terminate...5%...43%...78%...]

[Learning successful! You have mastered [Neural Link]!]

New knowledge emerged in his mind, and Han Xiao closed his eyes to feel it for a while, secretly delighted.

As the name suggests, [Neural Link] is an important technology of biomechanics, reading the nerve signals of living beings, and using thoughts to remotely control machinery. This is an upgrade of control technology, and the reaction speed has increased by several orders of magnitude. A new advanced knowledge represents an exponential increase in the types of combinations. Mastering a new technology can fuse more blueprints, which undoubtedly improves him.

"Not easy, finally got the second advanced knowledge. The last one was advanced material science that I got from Stardragon almost a year ago."

Han Xiao didn't waste any time and recorded the other advanced knowledge of martial arts and superpowers as well. He couldn't use them himself, but he could sell them to players in the future. The benefits were self-evident.

Mastering the source of technology was a monopoly, and it was also a capital to attract players. This thing was a core ability, and the sales were huge.

When the players' levels were high and they began to need advanced knowledge, they would find that Han Xiao could wholesale it here. Han Xiao couldn't help but worry about whether his panel could hold it.

Intelligence and knowledge, this trip was a great harvest.

Cerberus watched the whole process, and suddenly felt a chill in his heart. He trembled and asked, "You... are you an Esper?!"

After this period of research, the major forces discovered that Espers had the ability to learn quickly. Han Xiao's performance just now was a bit suspicious, and Cerberus suddenly thought of this possibility.

Han Xiao suddenly had a bad idea, smiled, and deliberately misled: "What do you think?"

Cerberus suddenly felt cold all over.

The organization's nemesis was actually an unkillable Esper. What was the point of dealing with him?

Shit!

How could he fight this!

He was completely done for!

"But... you appeared much earlier than the Espers," Cerberus said halfway, suddenly changed his expression drastically, and looked at Han Xiao as if he had seen a ghost.

Could it be that Zero was the first Esper?! The Esper phenomenon was actually spread by Zero, and it was actually his ability?!

Ignoring Cerberus, whose brain was wide open and getting further and further away from the truth, Han Xiao checked the intelligence again, confirmed that it was correct, and asked, "Does your mainframe have a self-destruct program or something like that?"

"Who would be stupid enough to set up a self-destruct in the headquarters, are you crazy..." Cerberus wiped his sweat.

At this time, the Viper · Modified chip completed the construction of the three-dimensional map and was ready. So Han Xiao pulled Cerberus up and shouted, "Turn off the defense measures in area A-4 and freeze all surveillance cameras."

Cerberus hurriedly did as he was told, and suddenly realized that area A-4 was the place where the little girl with life-force power was being held?

"What do you want to do?"

"I want that little girl, let's go." Han Xiao pushed Cerberus out of the mainframe room.

Cerberus was stunned. He could understand Han Xiao's behavior of snatching intelligence, but Aurora was the organization's secret. Han Xiao didn't look at the intelligence carefully just now, but seemed to have known it all along.

So, choosing him as a hostage was also because he knew that he would cooperate obediently?

Cerberus felt a chill.

This feeling of being completely seen through was like a fear that penetrated into the bone marrow, gnawing at his mind.

…

Cerberus was a useful talisman. The two arrived at area A-4 smoothly. After a winding corridor, they finally came to the passage to Aurora's cage. The defense measures had been turned off in the background.

The two came to the gate, and the guard stopped them.

"Open the door." Cerberus tried to appear calm.

The guard asked suspiciously, "Mr. Cerberus, I didn't receive authorization."

"Just a routine blood draw."

"But, someone is already drawing blood..." the guard hesitated. Seeing Cerberus's impatient expression, he opened the door anyway.

Walking into the room, Han Xiao finally saw Aurora. She was thin and small, her skin was pale from not being exposed to the sun for many years. She was locked in a glass-walled room, like a beast being exhibited in a zoo.

The little girl was curled up in a corner, hugging her knees, looking timidly at several people in white coats outside the wall. The people in white coats were pushing a small cart full of tools and were preparing for the blood draw.

Another blood draw today. Aurora had vivid memories of the pain. She bit her lip, only hoping that the waiting time could be extended to eternity, but she knew that these people in white coats would come in sooner or later and insert needles into her blood vessels and bones, watching her life force turn into a scarlet torrent and leave her body along the catheter.

Aurora had fantasized that her sister could save her and leave this place, but she knew that it was just wishful thinking. She didn't want her sister to be in danger in order to save her. All she could do was to appear optimistic and cheerful in front of Hela so that her sister wouldn't be even more uncomfortable and reduce her pressure.

At this time, she saw the door open again, and two people walked in. She only saw a few flashes of cold light, and the people in white coats and the guards fell down bleeding.

Aurora blinked her eyes, full of confusion, and stared blankly at the glass wall that was hindering her freedom, which was so easily opened.

A fierce-looking and hideous man walked in and stretched out his hand.

"I'm here to save you, come with me."

Aurora's body froze. She had fantasized and begged for it, but when freedom really came, she was stunned.