Chapter 1 The Alarm

Dee--dee--

As the steel plate cracked, the containment breach alarm blared. Immediately afterward, emergency steel plates around Room 096 shot out at high speed, covering the cube.

However...this only delayed it for less than two seconds...

Two seconds later, 096 broke through the second layer of steel plate and tore "Dr. Jonathan" into pieces with lightning speed.

"Oh! God!" The security personnel in B7 all saw this terrifying scene through the surveillance footage, and their faces were filled with horror.

"Damn it! Don't look!" The next second, Steven shouted loudly.

Unfortunately...his warning came too late. Except for him, all the security personnel in the B7 monitoring room saw ***-096's face without exception.

Even though Steven himself reacted in time, averted his gaze, and issued a warning, it was too late to change anything...

Contrary to ***-173, 096's habit is...as long as you see its face, even if it's just a fleeting glance, it will hunt you to the ends of the earth, until one of you dies.

Boom--boom boom--

Soon, a series of muffled sounds of metal walls being breached came, getting closer and closer.

"Vice Captain Gore!" Steven immediately picked up the intercom and called out, "***-096 has breached containment! Repeat...***-096 has breached containment! It's advancing towards the B7 monitoring room! Please bring people over to support immediately!" As he issued the order, his eyes were lowered, deliberately avoiding all the surveillance footage around him.

He had just finished speaking when there was a loud "bang," and the thick wall of the monitoring room was smashed open.

And what appeared behind the hole in the wall...was naturally ***-096.

"It's over..." In that instant, that was the only thought that flashed through Steven's mind.

When the monster, more than two meters tall and strangely shaped, appeared, the security team members looked over in unison. In less than two seconds, someone opened fire, because after breaking in, 096 directly attacked the closest target.

The huge monitoring room quickly fell into chaos, and a bloody, one-sided massacre began.

096's combat style was extremely brutal. Unlike 173's efficient killing method (instant movement + neck twisting), its attack could be described as "frenzied." Amazing speed and unparalleled power allowed it to easily "tear humans apart" and destroy its targets into nothing.

In addition, 096's defense capabilities were also extremely astonishing. According to a previous accident report, neither machine gun fire nor anti-tank weapon bombardments could stop its actions. 096 seemed completely unaware of its own injuries, and even if its body was riddled with blood and flesh, or exposed to sub-zero temperatures, it could continue killing as if nothing had happened.

"Ah--God! My leg!"

"Help! Someone, save me!"

Before long, the screams rose and fell, echoing the gunshots, and the emotions of fear and despair spread rapidly throughout the room.

But in the midst of this chaos...there was still one man who remained calm.

Almost at the same time as the wall was breached, he had quietly and quickly begun to act...First, he rolled on the ground, took advantage of the momentum to arch his body and move his arms, shifting his handcuffed hands from behind his back to the front; then, he quickly got up, lowered his head, and ran towards the metal table where the puppet was placed; then, he picked up the puppet and sprinted towards the hole that 096 had smashed open...

This entire process took less than ten seconds. There was not a single superfluous movement, nor the slightest hesitation or delay...as if this person had practiced this series of actions thousands upon thousands of times.

"Stop! Austin!" Among the crowd, only Steven noticed Jue Ge's actions, but he was powerless to stop the other party from escaping. Because all of this happened too quickly, by the time Steven reacted, Jue Ge had already run behind 096. If the former insisted on raising his gun to aim, his line of sight would likely sweep across 096's face. In that case...it would be tantamount to signing his own death warrant.

At this point...the play that Feng Bujue and Billy had cooperated to complete could be considered "basically successful."

The reason it was said to be "basically successful" was because this result did not meet Jue Ge's expectations for the plan...He had originally thought of two plans. If the already happened events were called "Plan A," then "Plan B" was—to directly approach 096's containment room through the emergency safety passage, have Billy shield the nearby surveillance, then walk out of the passage, kill the security personnel at the door, then undo the shielding, and then have Billy stand under the camera and use his clairvoyance to lure 096 out of its containment measures.

The problem with this Plan B was...in actual operation, it was impossible to ensure that everyone in B7 would look at the monitoring screen at the "right time." If the time to undo the shielding was too late, it was likely that only a few people would see 096's face; but if the time to undo the shielding was too early, Steven would most likely react and issue a warning to the others.

Therefore, Jue Ge chose the more complicated Plan A...

From the moment he entered the monitoring room, he and Billy had been constantly conducting psychological guidance on everyone in the room. They made full use of Steven, a Level 4 personnel's understanding of various projects, made a big deal about ***-1998, and later used the broadcast, the puppet, and Jue Ge himself to constantly guide the attention of the people in the monitoring room.

According to Feng Bujue's original idea, this Plan A should have allowed everyone in the B7 monitoring room to be tricked, causing the entire base to fall into a state of semi-paralysis with no one in charge. Unexpectedly...Steven ultimately escaped this disaster.

Of course...even if the plan was not completely successful, the heavy damage suffered by the B7 monitoring hub was serious enough. On the other hand...the B9 staff were also unfortunate enough to see 096's face, and it was estimated that they would also suffer soon. Therefore, Steven was obviously unable to keep a close eye on Jue Ge's movements for a while.

…………

"Whoa~ that's really a tragedy..." Seven minutes later, Feng Bujue arrived at the door of 096's containment room. By this time, he had already used the tools he had hidden on the puppet to unlock his handcuffs.

"You wouldn't have kicked the bucket, would you?" Jue Ge squatted down beside Dr. Jonathan's corpse and muttered.

It was said to be a "corpse," but there was not much left, only some fragments of flesh and blood remaining inside the white coat.

As he spoke, Jue Ge quickly placed the puppet on the white coat, and then waited silently...

Twelve seconds of waiting...felt like twelve minutes.

Twelve seconds later, "Puppet Billy" opened his eyes again.

"I hate this universe..." This was the first line he said after returning to his body.

"Heh..." Jue Ge breathed a sigh of relief when he saw that the other party was still alive, "How do you feel?"

"Feel?" Billy sneered, "To put it in terms you can understand...my survival value is now less than 20%, and it's still decreasing..."

"Hehe...same here." Feng Bujue said with a smile.

"Hmm?" At this moment, Billy noticed something, "You...you've been shot?"

"There were bullets flying everywhere in that room; it's to be expected that I'd be hit by a stray bullet..." Feng Bujue glanced at the wound on his waist, and said with a nonchalant smile, "Don't worry...there's enough time, I can hold on!"

After saying that, he grabbed Billy and ran for more than ten meters, using his access card to open a hidden door...

"Are you sure you still have the ability to overcome the obstacles ahead?" After entering the safety passage again, Billy looked at Jue Ge's pale face and asked with some concern.

"More than enough." As Feng Bujue spoke, he took out a pistol from his pocket and waved it in front of Billy, "This is what I picked up from the two people you stabbed to death; there are enough bullets."

"Just relying on a pistol?" Billy asked again.

"I said...more than enough." Jue Ge still seemed confident, "On the way to find you, I conveniently released ***-625 (the ankle snatcher); I estimate...those little guys are already cleaning up the security personnel in B6." He paused for half a second, "I think...it won't be long before those dying wounded will lure 106 out of its lair again..."

"Hmm..." Billy murmured thoughtfully after hearing this, "The monitoring and command systems are paralyzed, and multiple containment measures have issued breach alarms...everything is indeed ready."

"That's right, the only obstacle standing in our way is one..." Feng Bujue said, "...that is, the two guards standing at the door of the ***-914 research unit."

"Sorry, I don't think you should use 'we'; you should use 'I' instead." Billy replied, "The current me...can no longer assist you. It's already good enough that I can maintain this 'active' state; in another ten minutes, if I'm still in this body, the collapse of consciousness will begin..."

"I don't need your help." Jue Ge shrugged, "I was planning to handle it myself anyway."

"Hmm..." Billy hesitated for two seconds, and then said, "Feng Bujue, there's one more thing I don't understand..."

"What?" Jue Ge replied.

"You should have already thought of it...at this moment, I have returned to my body and once again meet the standards of an 'Anomalous Item.'" Billy said with a complicated tone, "Right now, if you ignore my life and death and leave the base directly through this passage, you can complete the main quest, can't you?"

"Yeah." Feng Bujue responded casually. It was not difficult to see from his expression that he had indeed thought of this.

"Uh...given your unfathomable moral bottom line and consistent style of doing things..." Billy asked with some hesitation, "Why didn't you sacrifice me in exchange for clearing the level?"

"Ha! Hahahaha..." Feng Bujue laughed out loud when he heard this. He immediately turned to look at Billy, revealing a sinister expression, "If you could guess what I'm thinking, what I'm going to say, and what I'm going to do...then would I still be Crazy Jue?"