The Eve of the Storm

"Don't move!" the soldier barked in a low voice.

Despite Andre's repeated warnings, the First Squad soldiers' actions were still undeniably rough. This was simply unstoppable—even if Andre was right in front of the soldiers, watching them with his tiger-like eyes, he couldn't make their movements any gentler.

What else could they do? If they didn't treat him roughly, were they supposed to speak softly and carry him away in a sedan chair?

Come on! This person was a suspect in the murder of Captain Kevin!

And in the eyes of most people, there was no difference between a [suspect] and a [criminal]. Ordinary people's understanding didn't involve the presumption of innocence; they only knew revenge.

The Poison Cocoon soldiers silently observed the situation outside through the peephole on the dormitory's iron door, and what they saw was the scene just now.

Immer was dragged away, bound hand and foot. They tied the rope around his neck and dragged him. He had no dignity at all, just like a dead dog.

Few were angry, most were relieved—thank goodness, one person does things, one person bears the consequences. Although they still didn't know what had happened outside, since the suspect had been taken away, it was probably fine, right?

After hesitating for a moment, a Poison Cocoon member quietly opened a crack in the door and poked his head out.

But before he could make any move, his head was hit hard by a First Squad soldier's iron rod.

The Honkai beast-shaped mask was instantly smashed in half, blood splattering like a waterfall. The soldier who had done it hadn't expected this, and took half a step back in fright.

When Andre looked over after hearing the scream, the iron door had already closed again. Only the shattered mask and large amounts of blood on the ground silently recounted what had just happened.

The soldier stood there at a loss. Andre waved at him, signaling him not to make a fuss, and the group hurriedly left the Poison Cocoon dormitory area and sealed it again.

With a tooth-grinding creak, the iron fence of the dormitory area closed again, and silence once again enveloped the darkness behind the fence.

"Tsk… Your mother's [a Chinese curse], that was heavy!"

The wound on his forehead gradually closed with the influx of Honkai energy. Michael waved his hand, and all the blood was wiped away silently, leaving no trace. He quietly sat in front of the computer.

Even though network communication with the outside world was cut off, Poison Cocoon still had its own intranet. The intranet terminal was located inside the dormitory area. Fire Moth couldn't cut it off from the outside, and were unwilling to enter the dormitory area to cause trouble. Of course, whether they knew about this was still a question.

In such a strange and tense situation, Michael was very curious about what these people would say on the intranet, as it determined the direction he could steer the incident in.

"Rustle rustle—"

A struggling sound came from behind him. Michael warned without looking back, "Make another sound, and your right pinky finger will be gone too."

The person instantly quieted down, but Michael continued to talk to himself:

"Speaking of which, am I being too merciful? Perhaps killing you directly is the most trouble-free way."

Hearing these words, the original owner of this room began to whimper and struggle again. Michael was true to his word. He was clearly sitting in front of the computer, typing away, but the person felt a chill on his tied hands.

Then warm blood flowed out, followed by piercing pain.

"Ugh!"

"Ugh!"

Michael rubbed his forehead, let out a long sigh, directly knocked the person unconscious, and threw him into imaginary space.

This was not harming the innocent. This person was originally a pawn of [SEELE]. If it weren't for Michael's intervention, Kevin and Mei, with no guard…

Looking at the screen again, the function of the intranet was very simple. In the chat room with a black background, lines of characters refreshed rapidly, like a waterfall flowing backwards. If it weren't for Michael's excellent eyesight and reaction speed, it would be almost impossible to see clearly what these people were saying.

[Who knows what the hell happened!!!]

[Where's that son of a bitch Vasak! Come out and explain!]

[You idiot, he must be in trouble! Otherwise, who would dare to touch us!]

[Is there something wrong? Can you send us some breakfast first?]

…

"Tsk…"

Michael took a deep breath and touched the stubble on his chin thoughtfully.

"It seems… everyone's fear and anxiety have decreased instead of increased after Immer was taken away?"

This was indeed something Michael hadn't expected…

But he quickly realized that he really didn't know enough about these serious criminals…

It was best to do some warm-up exercises before exercising, and for these Poison Cocoon members, the previous words were just standard warm-up exercises.

As the conversation gradually opened up, everyone's state gradually improved, so all kinds of foul language came out. Michael couldn't bear to see, hear, or even think about those words, and naturally he would not repeat them.

What was even more excessive, through the thick walls, starting with a roar, Michael heard a sound he seemed to remember—along with a few violent hammer blows, almost at the same time, came the sound of "clatter clatter" like something scattering on the ground.

This was… smashing the keyboard?

Michael looked at the screen again. Excessively agitated words flashed before his eyes, this time he really couldn't see them clearly.

Why was this happening?

This was probably the social nature of humans.

One person's anger was ultimately insignificant. No matter how furious they were, they would ultimately sober up under the control of reason.

However, when a person found that everyone they knew, everyone, and the entire organization they were in, were emanating the same anger as them, that rationality was ultimately like a thin fuse, easily burning and breaking.

After all, compared to reason, the so-called anger, this excessively emotional emotion, was truly driven by human, or rather animal instincts.

But it wasn't enough.

Michael pulled out an overly long stubble.

What he wanted was a violent storm, and the current Poison Cocoon was at most just a cloudy sky, without even a breeze.

Coincidentally, the task assigned by [SEELE] to the original owner of this dormitory was also the same: [In necessary circumstances, please sacrifice yourself to trigger a bloody conflict].

As expected, anger alone was not enough.

As an instinct, there were also priorities within it. What was the highest priority instinct—the will to survive.

No choice, no choice…

He sighed softly.

His right fist loosened and tightened, tightened and loosened again, as if reflecting his hesitant inner thoughts.

But since things had already reached this point, casualties were inevitable.

What's more, he had even finished the preparations for the next step!

But for Michael, personally hurting someone was always more difficult to justify than indirectly hurting someone. It was the latter that made him feel at ease.

In the end, it was necessary to bring out the most shameless and effective excuse—

[As long as the goal is achieved, all these sacrifices are worth it!]

"Hmph…"

The day passed by unknowingly. During this period, Fire Moth seemed to finally remember its work negligence, and sent lunch and dinner to Poison Cocoon in one go.

It was actually compressed biscuits for wartime rations, because according to Vasak's original order, except for the martial law troops and a few departments, all personnel stopped working, naturally including the canteen.

Ato didn't correct this, and the reason was very simple—eating biscuits only made the tongue and stomach suffer, but if the canteen, which already had complex personnel, started working when the situation was still unclear, if someone really poisoned the food or something, the situation would escalate again.

But the Poison Cocoon members didn't know this, and some people even argued with the First Squad soldiers for a long time through the dormitory's iron gate.

One didn't dare to go out, and the other couldn't get in.

Michael was peering through the peephole.

Until late at night…

A straight corridor was not an ideal hiding place, but someone could hide their figure in the shadows under the dim fluorescent lights.

No one knew how that Venomous Worm managed to open the iron fence and rush out.

He beat up more than a dozen First Squad soldiers along the way. Naturally, other soldiers couldn't just watch him escape, and they pulled the triggers one after another, but he circled behind the mechs, using the slow-turning mechs to block the bullets for him.

But that was as far as it went. Just as he stepped on a mech's shoulder and prepared to climb into the air conditioning duct, his movement slowed down for a split second, and he was pulled down by the mech under his feet.

The mechs and soldiers immediately surrounded the man, but he took out a grenade from somewhere.

After a violent explosion, the man and three First Squad soldiers who couldn't dodge were instantly blown into pieces of flesh and blood, and more than a dozen soldiers suffered varying degrees of injuries.

It was naturally difficult to leave a whole body in an explosion, but perhaps he was too lucky, the First Squad found a small section of a little finger in the pile of corpses.