Author: 长洱 / Chang’er
Translator: Kinky || https://kinkytranslations.com/
Chapter 291
On the screen, the map was constantly changing.
It sometimes expanded and shrank, moved from one area to another, or crossed the entire hemisphere from top to bottom.
Gradually, the map no longer changed at a speed invisible to the naked eye; it had slowed down, steadily zooming into a fixed location.
Mountain ranges loomed, rivers were faintly visible, and the outlines of human cities began to appear.
The person in front of the screen had stopped furiously typing on the keyboard. He leaned back in his chair, his finger accurately pressing on the mouse button. He wasn’t looking at the map but observing the data stream on the right side of the screen, waiting for the appearance of his prey like the most experienced hunter.
Suddenly, his gaze, the map, and the data all froze. A line of computational results appeared.
“N (75°66″), E (23°11″).”
Looking at the computed coordinates, Wang Chao’s calm yet excited shouts echoed clearly in the night sky.
……
Hongjing Municipal Bureau, Command Center.
Xing Conglian wasn’t on the scene—not on the rooftop, not anywhere. He seemed to have disappeared from the world, but he hadn’t really left the city. He had returned to the Criminal Police Team’s office, hung up the phone, turned on the light, booted up the computer, and pulled out a chair to sit down.
The monitor quickly lit up, and windows popped up like bamboo shoots after a spring rain. He looked at the screen and took out a pair of headphones from a desktop cabinet. On the cabinet was a pot of mint bought by Lin Chen, with veins in the leaves almost transparent under the desk lamp.
Wang Chao’s voice came out mixed with the sound of the high wind, rumbling. “Boss, I’ve located their server. It’s in Mailin.”
“Mailin is one of the areas where it’s impossible to conduct a dragnet search.” Xing Conglian said, “Moreover, we don’t have enough time to call in favors and check with every server hosting provider.”
“So what do we do?”
“What do you need?”
“I need all the information stored on their server!”
“Give me the exact location of the server. I’ll handle the rest.”
……
Tens of thousands of kilometers away.
A regular box truck had slowly driven out of a farm on the outskirts of Mailin.
The country road was quiet, and the livestock had all gone to sleep.
The truck driver was a typical junk-food eater; he wore his duckbill cap very low, and a large fried chicken grease stain on his T-shirt made him look exactly like a tacky farmer.
Except for the truck.
The truck’s body was painted with the words “CHICK’S Specialized Frozen Food Delivery,” which made it look like a professional refrigerated truck, unless you opened the layers inside the refrigerated cabinet and found out it wasn’t frozen chicken filets but live people inside.
The people were silent, the compartment layers sprang open, and rows of chilling weapon cases sprang out. Infrared sight, thermal induction sight, individual battlefield radar, various boxes, and miniature explosives filled the layers, shining under the white light of the cabinet, looking dark and chilling.
The commander had just received a transoceanic call.
The other party asked them to help control several servers and demanded immediate action. “Immediate” meant that the other party didn’t even know the exact location of the servers, yet they had to head to the city center right away.
He held his earpiece, listening to the orders from the other side.
“The target this time is somewhere in the city center, and we will receive the exact location within 15 minutes.”
“Action time, 5 minutes.”
“5 minutes later, the Mailin police will receive an alarm. After that, we will have 10 minutes to withdraw. Don’t worry about this; someone will hold back the police.” The young commander in the truck was chewing gum and holding a wireless earpiece as he issued commands.
“Guys, hurry up. If everything goes well, you can still go back to sleep with your wives for the second half of the night.”
“Boss, what if I don’t have a wife?”
The commander carefully wrapped up his gum, put it in his pocket, and said grumpily, “Then jerk off by yourself!”
A light laugh spread throughout the cabin.
The commander said seriously, “This operation concerns the safety of countless people. We must achieve complete victory!”
“Yes!” The neat responses echoed along the line.
……
The second hand ticked by while the interrogation room fell into unprecedented silence.
The atmosphere was like a string pulled to its limit, ready to break at any moment. At this moment, Shen Lian was no longer the carefree little girl she had been pretending to be.
She had reverted to the cold-blooded killer, as calm and precise as she was when conducting experiments, as decisive as when she stabbed her knife into Tan Kang’s heart.
“Is this interesting?” she asked.
“Everyone interprets ‘interesting’ differently.”
“It could have ended, but you’ve outsmarted yourself and brought it back to square one.”
“Of course, some people would find this uninteresting, but their opinions don’t matter. People will interpret things in their own ways, and that’s enough.”
“So why are you still sitting here?” Shen Lian asked. “Even if there’s such a thing as a moral brake, God must have forgotten to install one in my brain.”
“I’m waiting for you,” Lin Chen said.
……
The APC building is located five kilometers southwest of the red light district in Mailin.
According to the registration information, APC wasn’t a server hosting provider or a telecommunications service company. It was a subsidiary of a real estate company in Mailin.
But these days, which company didn’t make profits from illegal side businesses?
At three in the morning, even thieves and robbers were asleep, and the streets were deserted.
A vehicle delivering early-shift ingredients for a fried chicken company ran over a white trash bag and parked in the alley next to the fast-food restaurant across from the building.
An old homeless man by the trash can was awakened by the sound of the car engine but didn’t feel any threat. He rolled over and went back to sleep.
The sound of electric currents was completely isolated inside the van, and the freezer was mostly empty. The walls of the van returned to their previous smoothness. Only the previous commander and IT specialist were still in the van. He expertly severed the surveillance system of the other party’s building and replaced it with a looped video.
Thousands of miles away.
Green lines outlined a 3D model of the APC building. Thermal imaging outlined all objects inside the building above 32 degrees Celsius in red.
Light fixtures, guards, and server locations were all included…
Xing Conglian leaned back in his chair. He had a panoramic view of the whole building.
A clear report came through his headphones. He leaned forward and said indifferently, “Target location, 18th floor of the APC building.”
“Team A will enter from the 25th floor of the Hill Hotel to the top floor of the APC building. Team B will control the sniper position. Team C will be responsible for the alert. Action will begin in thirty seconds. Good luck to everyone.”
……
Meilin.
The old homeless man by the trashcan felt as if he was in a dream.
The dream started with a gust of wind. Two black birds spread their wings and jumped down from the hotel roof.
The Hill Hotel was already famous for its ominous and terrifying murders, so everything related to darkness was extremely fitting.
The wings adjusted with the wind and with the night, providing perfect camouflage. The wind brought about the scent of death.
The guards on the rooftop of the APC building didn’t notice the anomalies in the darkness behind them in time. But even if they had, it would have done them no good.
After all, they had been firmly locked onto by the infrared sight from the 25th floor of the building. The reason they could still breathe fresh air was because they still had value.
……
“What are you waiting for?” Shen Lian asked calmly in the Hongjing Detention Center.
“A day and night have passed, Shen Lian.” Lin Chen said wearily.
Behind him, the television that had been working for a day and a night was still tirelessly broadcasting news, but the volume had been turned down to a minimum, sounding very much like a snake’s hiss.
The dark web’s vote results were on the screen. Over 89% of the people rejected the proposal to execute the criminal and end the event. The will of the dark world was clearly more united.
But their decisions were clearly not based on altruistic values. They simply thought that a few lives were not enough to fill the gaps in their teeth. Even some big spenders boldly stated that if the matter were to end like this, they would spend their own money to buy some other entertainment.
These messages, encrypted and gathered on a server high in the sky, were widely spread in the underworld.
In the overworld, they accumulated and made the interrogation room even more ominous.
“Have I not been moved by your chicken soup for a day and a night?”
“No.” Lin Chen shook his head. “You believe in the conflict between ‘selfishness’ and ‘altruism’. I am not prepared to persuade you otherwise.”
“Then why are you still here, wasting your words with me?”
“I have two purposes.” Lin Chen held up a finger. “First, to prove to you and him that thousands of years of evolution have changed the structure of the human brain to some extent, and the ‘balance on the tightrope’ you believe in will never return.”
Shen Lian remained absolutely cold. “What’s the second, Consultant Lin?”
……
“23rd, Report the situation on the roof.” A string of Mailin language came out of the walkie-talkie of the deceased guard.
The wings landed on the ground along with the color of brain matter and blood, staining the concrete floor in a mess.
Someone came and folded their glider, bypassed the puddle of blood, picked up the walkie-talkie, and stuck a microchip on the back of it.
Inside the truck at the base of the building, the communication officer who had been collecting information from the building’s intercoms immediately imported a segment of voice.
The Mailin language echoed again in the walkie-talkie, indicating that everything was fine, and the other side easily joked.
On the rooftop, a young man in a fried chicken company uniform clipped the walkie-talkie to his waist, unlocked the rooftop lock, and walked downstairs.
The building was complex and intricate.
His teammate chose a safe corner and began to set up individual battlefield radars.
The young man, however, continued to move forward calmly and steadily.
“After 10 meters, at two o’clock.”
Clear instructions came from the earpiece.
The young man didn’t slow down, held his gun tightly, confirmed the silencer, and pulled the safety.
……
“Second, I want to know where your bottom line is,” Lin Chen said.
Shen Lian blinked. “I don’t understand.”
“Thirty long hours told me that you are still alive, not because I gave you the steps or you particularly wanted to know the result, but for other reasons.”
“What reason?” Shen Lian showed a faint smile.
“Just like I am tolerating you because I have something I want to get from you.” Lin Chen paused and said, “So do you.”
……
A bullet hole burst open in the forehead.
The corridor guard had no time to react and collapsed.
The young man took the opportunity to support the other’s body and gently lay it down.
“Watch out for the laser barrier.”
The calm and orderly command came from the headset. The young man looked up naturally, with a red laser looming above.
A teammate coming from another assault route turned around the corner and crouched down like he had rehearsed a thousand times so he could step on his shoulder and go up.
Two prism reflectors were carefully placed, and the air vent suddenly became clear.
The young man gestured downward, and then, with a push of his two feet, he crawled into it.
……
“If there’s something I want but haven’t gotten yet, is there room for negotiation?” Shen Lian asked quietly.
Lin Chen nodded. “Since you are not willing, and I am not willing, then we can still have an exchange.”
Shen Lian found this somewhat unbelievable. “So you waited so long, just to confirm that I am still not satisfied?”
“That day at the Zhourui building, you weren’t willing to commit suicide, and today, after the vote fell through, you’re still not willing to leave the world like this. My chance to move you has become greater.” Lin Chen sincerely said, “You know, for me now, increasing the success rate by one percent is precious.”
Shen Lian didn’t ask further. At that moment, she leaned back on the chair, seemingly accepting.
“What else can’t you let go of, Shen Lian?” Lin Chen asked seriously, “At this point, you know that whatever you ask will usually be agreed to.” He said calmly, “But before you make a request, it’s best to first prove your worth.”
As Lin Chen said this, he gently pushed the pen and paper on the table in front of Shen Lian.
……
The air vent was dim, dusty, and cold.
The young men crawling in it were like creatures of the night, making no sound.
Soon, the rumble of a large number of servers was already coming through the ventilation duct.
When he reached a certain point, the precise command came again from the earpiece. “Three meters away from the exit. Be careful, there’s a patrol post below.”
The young man looked forward and down. Through the red laser covering the air vent, he saw the star-like twinkling server lights.
In the dark, those twinkling lights were as brilliant as stars.
……
There was no hesitation.
Shen Lian glanced at the blue pencil and white paper in front of her, picked up the pen, and wrote the first character.
……
APC Building.
Two guards were successively taken down.
A four-man team jumped down in single file from different air vents. In front of them were countless server equipment.
The young man at the front pushed his windscreen and silently whistled. “Bigger than imagined.”
A calm voice came from the headset. “Connect. Wang Chao will find the right server location.”
The young man waved his hand backward, and the four of them started to work separately.
A moment later, the young man went to a cabinet, put down his backpack, took out a laptop, pulled out a long wire from the cabinet, and connected it to the laptop.
With a light ‘ding’, the notebook screen lit up. An empty progress bar was displayed on it, and it started to slowly move forward.
“Two more minutes.”
…..
Not long after, Shen Lian had already left an array of chemical formulas on the white paper.
The woman still held the pencil, using it to tap the white paper before pushing it back.
Lin Chen took out his phone, nodded to Shen Lian, and then a flash flickered softly. The photo was sent to the laboratory that was carrying out the drug research.
…
The window facing the Hill Hotel had already been opened. Another person was standing at the window. The signal light in his hand flashed twice, and he made a gesture.
Two seconds later, a steel claw connected to a steel cable flew over from the opposite side, firmly grasping the window frame. The building was quiet inside and out. Rows of servers flashed with faint lights, like stars in the sea. The young man stared at the screen with an unusually serious expression.
Two minutes later, the progress bar had reached the bottom, and the screen changed instantly. A large amount of data scrolled across the screen like a waterfall, and for a moment, the “constellations” shone even faster.
As if by magic, the data kept changing, and a flat structural diagram began to appear on the screen, outlining the entire layout of the machine room.
Forty seconds later, there was another soft beep, and a spot in the upper right corner of the screen began to emit a red light.
The young man identified the position of the red light and led the other two to it without hesitation.
Thirty seconds later, the alarm echoed throughout the building, and between the APC building and the Hill Hotel, four shadows carrying large packages swept by.
……
At this moment, some places were waking up, and some were still bathing in the atmosphere of drunken gold.
In the red-light district of Mailin City, people were still seductively posing in the window, while some government officials were enjoying special “business communication” services in high-end clubs.
The golden iron door was tightly closed, and through the colored glass, one could vaguely see the seductive scene inside.
Just then, a plainly dressed Mailin man came from the end of the aisle and stood in front of the restless guard.
“I want to see the director,” the ordinary Mailin man said.
The sounds of sexual pleasure continued to come from the luxury boxes, once again making the security guards at the door uncomfortable.
However, only the people in the box knew what discomfort was.
A simple silencer stretched out from the darkness, firmly pressed against the forehead of a privileged figure.
No man could maintain his energy under such a threat. He had completely softened, but the woman on him was still moving.
Both men and women were sweating profusely—their faces showing despair that they couldn’t hold on.
Just then, the phone in the corner rang.
“Could you please answer the phone and tell the people at APC not to disturb the police chief with minor matters at night?” The ordinary Mailin man standing in the darkness said softly with a smile.
……
Time passed by every minute and every second.
Lin Chen sat across from Shen Lian.
The excitement in the laboratory formed a stark contrast with the calm in the interrogation room.
Lin Chen put his phone on the table to ensure that Shen Lian could also see it.
During the roughly half hour, the two of them didn’t say a word—long enough for the refrigerated truck in a foreign country to reach a safe area.
At some point after that, the phone screen on the table suddenly lit up.
—Confirmation. Key parts are missing.
The reply was very short.
Lin Chen stared at the screen. “What do you want?”
Shen Lian asked casually, “Is Duan Wanshan dead?”
This was a very common question, but Lin Chen was taken aback and looked up at Shen Lian abruptly.
The woman had a knowing look in her eyes. Without any hesitation, she grabbed the blue pencil on the table, stabbed it into her mouth, then threw her head back heavily, hitting her face on the table!
She did it swiftly and with extreme determination, then repeated it again.
A loud crash echoed in the cell as bright red blood splattered in front of Lin Chen. At that moment, he clearly heard the sound of something shattering.
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Kinky Translations 
so cruel omg…
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WTF THAT WAS SUDDEN
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DAMN
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