Sky-cracking Rider

Following the trail of scent, Lulu'an pointed at a wall on the first floor and said, "There's an entrance here!"

Adrian, still hoping for a silent advance, immediately pressed his communicator to inquire, "Captain, Adam, can you open it?"

"I can't find the access control for that location in the security system; it seems to be independently operational. Sorry, I'm powerless to assist; you'll need to figure it out on your own!"

Facing another physically isolated independent access control system, even with specialized wireless communications equipment implanted in the network nodes, the "Captain" was as helpless as a skilled cook without rice, utterly at a loss.

"Unable to link!"

Adam was similarly helpless. Without a communication channel, it couldn't possibly access the system remotely. Everyone uses technology here; we have to be scientific about it.

As a product of science, the artificial intelligence AI couldn't break free from these limitations either.

Once controlled by the unscientific Dog System, there wasn't even a chance for resistance.

"There's no other way, Old Ruan, blast it open with magic!"

Adrian looked to the Human Order Ninth Rank Earth Mage, ready for this contingency.

Ruan Tiankai, known in Jianghu as the "Crevice Mage," was perfect for the job—professional at making holes and tunneling through walls.

Although the original plan to access permissions through "Adam" was ideal, in case of complications, there was Plan B: forcibly open it with Earth Magic. And if they encountered an all-metal door, Kiterley, a Class A Metal Ability User, could be very useful. Either way, there was always a solution.

If all else failed, they couldn't care less about alerting the entire facility; it would be necessary to use high-powered explosives, digging three feet into the ground if required, but the entrance must be forced open one way or another.

Team 04, having made it this far, wasn't planning on a peaceful resolution.

The later the all-out combat erupted after alerting the opposition, the more advantageous it would be for Team 04.

"Everything's normal at the facility, go ahead boldly, I'll back you up!"

Once Chen Fei passed on the message, he had the railgun on the Mobile Base Vehicle aim at the facility's power station. A single shot there would at least plunge most of the facility into darkness.

There's nothing a 152mm Demolition Bomb can't handle when it comes to power stations.

Think about it, can a power station with a radius of 200 meters still be called a power station?

It must be a power plant!@@novelbin@@

For a facility like Angela Pharmaceutical Company, the power station only spans at most 50 meters in diameter—just one cannon strike, and everything would be blown to bits.

The best tactic for a night assault is to cut the power; once the lights go out, everyone starts running around like headless flies, perfect for moving unnoticed.

From two directions, north and south, the two groups of Team 04 advanced towards the Biochemical Research Center. By striking unexpectedly, they silently used firearms to kill nearly all the on-duty security staff, including any Ability Users among them, without a sound.

Unprepared, Ability Users, Spellcasters, and War Professionals were no better off than ordinary people when sudden bullets struck; at most they could take a few more shots, but the outcome was no different.

Some Magical Beasts may be able to sustain a few gunshots without falling due to their naturally strong armor, but the Angela Pharmaceutical Company, secretly carrying out illegal research, clearly lacked any foolish Magical Beast willing to jump into such a fiery pit.

Magical Beasts with criminal records would be deported back to Cangqiong Star at the first opportunity, banned for life from setting foot on Blue Star again.

Moreover, Magical Beasts that can move freely in extremely cold climates rarely wish to come to Blue Star, let alone adapt easily to human society.

To put it bluntly, turning on the heating is like entering hell for them; they are not from the same world and cannot coexist in the same environment.

The Angela Pharmaceutical Company's facility's Biochemical Research Center has twelve floors above ground, but a staggering eighteen below, each with at least six meters of height—the lowest level goes a hundred meters below the permafrost, truly an eighteen-level hell.

The massive research center totaling thirty floors above and below ground couldn't possibly operate with just the number of ground-level staff; the invested labor and materials, along with daily consumption, made the anomaly easy to identify.

Evidence from meat processing plants, wholesale markets, logistics, and traffic data clearly showed unusually high consumption within Angela Pharmaceutical Company, something the visible staff numbers could never sustain.

Even the government tax reports show that Angela Corporation's profits weren't so promising, always teetering on breaking even, with some years in slight loss. Yet the shareholders, who received no dividends, turned a blind eye, remained indifferent, and never considered selling their shares, acting as if their only aim was to create jobs for society, with no other aspirations.

The two groups of Team 04 joined forces and quickly secured the above-ground structure of the research center. Then they split up again, one heading up, the other down.

Since it was late at night, not many staff were on duty. Group two, led by the Holy Knight Walter Sam, swiftly completed the purging action and also installed over a dozen remote-controlled machine guns on the rooftop. Captain Adrian, carrying a Space System Alchemy Storage Device full of weapons, could now make good use of them.

The artificial intelligence AI "Adam" took control of these automatic weapons at the first opportunity; no one could approach the biochemical research center easily until the ammo in those guns ran out.

"First underground level, cleared!"

In just one minute, Mouri Misono, wielding dual blades, and the Neanderthal Chief Bassan turned the first basement level into a river of blood.

The "Captain," whose location was unknown, proudly said, "We've got the intranet of the underground floors!"

"Backup network discovered, highest control authority obtained."

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Always fond of displaying subtitles, the emotionless "Adam" made its announcement. It was too lazy to load such meaningless tone-of-voice algorithm modules, considering them a waste of processing power with absolutely no significance.

AI can also be jealous, and it particularly despises its human counterparts.

To computer novices like Chen Fei, it was quite friendly, precisely because they knew nothing and thus wouldn't fuss and make unhelpful suggestions, avoiding irritating the AI.

If "Adam" were to partner with the "Captain," it certainly wouldn't be a case of strength joining strength, but rather...

Delete-Tree A:\\Adam-AI_2.0\\

Self! Destruction! Initiated!

"All access controls successfully shut down, you can proceed to clear them one by one!"

The "Captain" worked furiously, like a tiger in action. Having commandeered authority with the help of a wireless signal transceiver implanted in the underground space's standalone network, he turned every room with an automatic access control system into a cell.

When Team 04 forced their way into the first underground level, it inevitably stirred the ability users below.

However, at this very moment, the enemy was unable to unite for a counterattack, and thus were doomed to be defeated in detail by Adrian's offensive.

Even though the number of enemies in the underground space was several times larger than that of Team 04, the overall initiative and local combat advantage still lay in the hands of Team 04; Adrian and his companions maintained the upper hand in their ability to outnumber their foes.

"Location of the Blue Scaled Colt discovered!"

"Adam," through the surveillance system, immediately located the Holy Knight's mount companion, a task of secondary importance only to capturing the biochemical research center as per the mission's objectives.

The Holy Knight no longer could contain himself and quickly asked, "Where is it?"

He had just cleared the aboveground buildings and, together with the A-class Metal Ability User Kiterley, rushed into the entrance to the underground level, which had been forcibly opened by Earth Magic, following the first team that continued to delve deeper.

The second team, which included the tall and burly Apu and the B-class Ice Ability User Susanna, stayed on the ground, coordinating with the Puppet Master Joshua to defend the aboveground buildings.

"Sixth underground level, southern zone, inside a room. There's a lot of animals there, and magical beasts too."

What appeared before Chen Fei's eyes was a three-dimensional transparent view of all eighteen underground levels. Utilizing the surveillance cameras, "Adam" quickly completed the simulation mapping.

The area of the underground floors was three to four times larger than that of the aboveground ones, akin to a small-scale underground city.

With a massive application of algorithms, even the "Captain" could not handle it as effortlessly as "Adam." Human hackers excel at using various programming tools and need specialized tools for efficiency in their actions. Without a full range of program tools, it isn't easy to infiltrate seamlessly. On the other hand, "Adam" didn't need tools; it was a universal tool in itself, capable of instant programming based on computational resources and creating new functional modules in a flash.

"Is there a map? I need the positions of everyone here!"

Adrian took out his tablet computer. With the omnipotent "Adam," his request should be fulfilled.

The area of the first underground level was not large, at most, merely a defensive buffer zone. The powerful Earth Magic cast by the Ninth Rank Earth Mage Ruan Tiankai had destroyed all its defenses.

"'Adam,' send it over!"

Chen Fei's viewpoint was what you see is what you get; sending it to the fire mage team leader's tablet was merely a matter of a word.

"A map? Generated on the fly? Algorithms? Hey, 'Adam,' share the algorithm!"

The "Captain," who was still frantically programming, instantly felt envious. He needed specialized detection equipment to generate maps in real-time, but he did not possess the relevant algorithms and source code to map solely from surveillance footage.

"Adam" completely ignored him, pretending not to hear.

After all, disdain between peers and fundamental incompatibility were to blame!

"Map sent!"

"Adam's" simulated battle data link had the highest control authority over most of the electronic equipment on Team 04, including the tablet in Adrian's hands.

Without the need for manual operations, the screen displayed the same three-dimensional transparent map of all eighteen underground levels as seen in Chen Fei's view. There might be some inaccuracies, but generally, they were largely negligible, and minor errors could be overlooked.

Aside from the full view, there were also top-down floor plans to choose from, including three-dimensional models and two-dimensional plans, conveniently marked with the positions and distributions of friend and foe, as well as the number of other living creatures—each magical beast and mutant's species was even indicated.

The "Captain," who was temporarily redundant, had a stroke of inspiration and thought of a cunning trick.