Chapter 81

Chapter 81 – Countdown to Truth

"Fifty-eight seconds!" Mo Chen barked, hands flying across the decryptor's interface.

Sweat trickled down his brow as lines of encrypted code danced across the screen. Beside him, Bai Xueqing scanned the room for vulnerabilities—servers, vents, anything that might lead to the data core.

Yanshang was already sprinting toward the open trap door. "I'll go after Zhou Wei."

"Be careful," Xueqing called after him. "He's desperate. And desperate men don't fight fair."

Yanshang gave a sharp nod and disappeared into the tunnel.

Back in the server chamber, Mo Chen cursed under his breath. "He's layered this with a recursive security loop. If I miss a single line—"

"You won't," Xueqing said, gripping his shoulder. "You're the best."

The lights flickered. Thirty-five seconds.

A sharp beeping sounded from the central tower as it began to heat up—coolant systems failing, the server core ready to implode.

Mo Chen's fingers blurred. "I'm rerouting the firewall to isolate the core partition."

Xueqing grabbed two emergency coolant cartridges from the wall and hurled them into the tower's vent. The hiss of gas filled the chamber, slowing the overheating by precious seconds.

"Twenty-three!" she shouted.

"Almost—done—" Mo Chen whispered, then pressed a final key.

ACCESS GRANTED

The screen flashed green.

Xueqing exhaled. "You got it?"

"I've locked the data dump. Backing up everything to my external drive now. Seven seconds to complete."

A tremor rumbled beneath their feet. "That sounded like—"

"An engine," Mo Chen finished grimly. "Zhou Wei's pod is launching."

---

Meanwhile…

Yanshang raced through the maintenance corridor, wind slicing past him. Up ahead, the silhouette of Zhou Wei climbed into a compact stealth pod.

"Zhou Wei!" he yelled, throwing a stun blade.

It clipped Zhou's arm, but not enough. The pod door sealed shut. Lights flared as the engine powered up.

Yanshang leapt, grabbing a rear handle on the pod's hull just as it launched down a magnetic rail.

His body slammed against the surface, held only by strength and sheer fury. "You're not getting away that easy."

---

Back in the chamber…

"Download complete!" Mo Chen shouted.

He grabbed the drive and pulled Xueqing toward the exit as the countdown hit 00:03… 00:02… 00:01—

The room erupted in a surge of light and pressure.

But they were already clear.

The reinforced door slammed behind them, buffering the shockwave. Xueqing landed hard, Mo Chen shielding her.

"Tell me you didn't break that drive," she said breathlessly.

He held it up. "Unscathed. Like my pride."

Xueqing laughed—short, sharp, real. "Let's go help Yanshang before he decides to ride that pod to the moon."