Chapter Fifty-Three: Countdown to Crisis

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At the very moment Xu Yan identified the mole—

“WEE-OO—WEE-OO—WEE-OO—!!”

A shrill alarm, sharp enough to tear the eardrums, exploded through the chamber!

Every light inside the training module instantly turned blood-red and began flashing wildly, like the spasms of a dying beast. This was no routine warning. It was the highest-level destruction signal!

A cold electronic voice, like a death knell, ruthlessly crushed every other sound in the air:

“Warning! Unauthorized forced access to core data detected! Ultimate security protocol activated! Training module self-destruct sequence initiated! Countdown: sixty seconds!”

“What?!”

Duan Peng’s eyes bulged with fury, but his roar was drowned out by the piercing alarm.

“All exits have been forcibly locked! Control-system privileges have been revoked!” Wu Mingjie reported urgently. With one hand, he uselessly pounded at the console, its surface completely blood-red and constantly flashing access-denied warnings. Each strike produced only a dull, desperate thud.

The massive alloy doors crashed down like executioner’s blades. Multiple internal locking mechanisms slammed into place with a grating metallic roar. The ventilation outlets sealed shut in an instant.

Within seconds, the training module had become an iron tomb, utterly cut off from the outside world.

“Fifty-nine!”

“Fifty-eight!”

The holographic projection went completely dark. Only the rotating red emergency lights remained, slicing the faces of the enraged and terrified group into shifting patches of light and shadow. The darkness writhed like struggling ghosts.

“Fuck! It’s that mole!” Duan Peng roared, kicking the unresponsive casing of a nearby instrument. The recoil sent a lance of pain through his injured body, but it was nothing compared with the fury boiling in his heart.

“We have to stop the self-destruct! Find the manual override port!” Ouyang Nan forced down the violent palpitations and involuntary trembling brought on by her returning memories, her eyes sweeping anxiously across the walls.

“There isn’t one! This is a hard-wired destruction sequence triggered by the highest authority! Every backup circuit has been severed!” A rare trace of despair entered Wu Mingjie’s voice as sweat slid from his temple.

Xu Yan’s face had turned ashen. His pupils contracted beneath the blood-red light.

The mole had not only sensed the danger of exposure; they had acted with ruthless decisiveness, immediately initiating the most thorough purge possible. They intended to turn Xu Yan and the others, along with the newly developed breakthrough system, Cocoon Weave 2.0, into ashes.

“Forty-seven!”

“Forty-six!”

An even greater crisis surged toward them like a tsunami.

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Outside the training module, the general alarm throughout the entire Stardust Base began to howl as well, piercing the heavy soundproofing. The broadcast system carried the rumble of explosions, the shriek of energy weapons exchanging fire, and chaotic shouting:

“…Warning! The base is under intense assault! Repeat, unidentified armed forces have breached the outer defenses! They possess overwhelming firepower! They are advancing toward the training module in Section C! Requesting supp—”

The transmission cut off abruptly, swallowed by an even more violent explosion.

Redeem’s assault.

Its timing was chillingly precise, launched simultaneously with the internal self-destruct sequence.

The mole had coordinated an attack from within and without. They intended not only to destroy the people who knew the truth and the fruits of their research, but also to provide support for the external forces and deal the Stargate Project a devastating blow at its core.

Inside the training module, the self-destruct countdown ticked forward with icy indifference, every second pounding against their hearts.

Outside, Redeem’s elite assault team was tearing through the hastily assembled defensive line at terrifying speed, its objective aimed directly at them.

Attacked from within and without. Surrounded on all sides. A hopeless situation within an already hopeless situation.

“Thirty!”

“Twenty-nine!”

Xu Yan’s gaze swept over his comrades: Duan Peng’s face twisted by fury and pain, yet still unyielding; Ouyang Nan, pale but forcing herself to remain calm; Wu Mingjie, supporting himself with one arm while still concentrating on finding the faintest thread of survival.

At last, Xu Yan’s eyes fell upon the fragment of the Star Pillar in his hand. It was faintly warm, almost resonating with his heartbeat.

The heavy trust and expectation General Mu Chengzhu had placed in him when he entrusted him with the fragment now transformed into boundless courage and resolve.

Deep within his consciousness, he and Covetous merged at unprecedented speed, transcending language, like two surging rivers of stars crashing together and fusing into one.

“Covetous! Calculate the core energy nodes of the self-destruct system! Reverse-engineer the point of greatest structural weakness!” Xu Yan’s command roared through the mental plane.

“Calculating… Requires an inverse surge through the training module’s low-level energy circuits using ultra-high computational power. Risk coefficient: 98.7 percent. May trigger a premature energy detonation…”

Covetous’s response remained cold, but its speed had reached an extreme.

“There’s no time to weigh the odds! We’ll bet on the 1.3 percent! Duan Peng, with me! We’re forcing open the third maintenance panel on the port side! Ouyang, Mingjie, use the residual energy in the environmental simulation system to create optical and thermal interference and blind the enemy sensors outside the door! We—”

Xu Yan’s roar was violently cut short by a nearer, more tremendous explosion.

This time, the attack came directly from the outer wall of the training module.

The thick alloy wall visibly bulged inward and twisted. Waves of scorching air and the smell of gunpowder poured through the gaps.

Redeem’s forces had reached the door.

They were using heavy weapons to blast their way inside.

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The countdown continued its merciless descent.

The shadow of death, as tangible as icy water, engulfed everything.

“Twenty!”

“Nineteen!”

Time was a compressed spring, every second bursting with sparks of death. Under the sustained bombardment, the outer wall of the training module groaned under the strain. The superheated bulges in the metal had already turned red, as though they would be melted through in the very next instant.

“The third panel on the port side!” Xu Yan shouted.

He and Duan Peng charged toward the section of wall marked as an energy-maintenance area, like beasts pouncing upon prey.

Duan Peng let out a roar. The muscles of his uninjured right arm bulged as he seized the slightly deformed alloy cover and tore it away with sheer force, without even pausing to look for a tool. Sparks flew in every direction.

Beneath it lay a dense web of energy-line interfaces, interwoven in different colors.

“Covetous!” Xu Yan cried out mentally as he pressed his palm against the lines, as though he could pour his will directly into them through physical contact.

“Self-destruct core energy flow identified… Path locked! Preparing inverse energy surge… Synchronized strike on physical structural weakness required! Coordinates marked!”

Covetous’s stream of consciousness surged forward at unprecedented speed. A precise point instantly appeared in Xu Yan’s visual nerves and on Duan Peng’s tactical visor.

It was an inconspicuous weld above the chamber wall.

“Duan Peng! There!” Xu Yan shouted.

Duan Peng did not hesitate for even a moment. He did not ask why.

He abruptly stepped back, raised his heavy military boot, and with all the strength in his body—and a roar laced with pain—kicked the marked point with brutal force.

Boom!

The sound was dull, not the crack of ruptured metal but the explosive roar of an energy imbalance.

The point Duan Peng had struck was like an acupuncture point in the entire self-destruct circuit. The inverse surge collided violently there with the energy of the self-destruct core.

The entire training module shook violently.

Blinding arcs of electricity erupted from the panel interfaces, lashing through the air like blue serpents. The blood-red warning lights overhead flickered madly several times, then half of them abruptly went dark.