CH 135

IOA headquarters had issued an urgent mission, at the same time, they had also sent a request to PBB for assistance. Bai Chunian and He Suowei pushed open the door to the dormitory almost simultaneously and the two looked each other in the eye knowingly.

While fastening his buttons, Bai Chunian asked, “How many people were dispatched on your end?” 

He Suowei glanced at his watch. “For this sort of investigation, we can’t show our faces. We can only get y’all to sneak in, while we provide support from the outside.”

“Ok.”

The PBB special forces represented the stand of the military base, and could not conduct any sudden raids without conclusive evidence. However, with the IOA secret service, it was different, as they specialized in doing things that nobody did on the surface, but that everyone did in secret.

The Berna Pharmaceutical Factory was built in a hidden village on a remote tropical island. Many people did not even know of the existence of such a pharmaceutical factory. The area was naturally shielded and concealed by the terrain, had cheap labor, and land that was suitable for growing medicinal crops.

According to the resources sent back by the IOA secret service, the Berna Pharmaceutical factory was a circular building, consisting of three concentric circles from the outside to the inside. The nearer you got to the center, the stricter security would be. The outermost circle only sold patented medicines, what the inner circles did, was uncertain.

This time around, Bai Chunian brought a few more personnel with him and divided them into two groups. One group, led by Han Xingqian, would consist of Firefly, Xiao Xun and Lu Yan. The other group, led by Bai Chunian, consisted of Rimbaud, Bi Lanxing and the Hydro-Oxy twins, Tan Qing and Tan Yang, for support. Each group would separately approach the island that the pharmaceutical factory was situated on by helicopter and communicate via micro-communicators.

With Han Xingqian’s M2 ability, Hurricane’s Eye, for protection, the helicopters could approach the island without getting their signals detected. Under the cover of night, they would sneak onto the island.

“Check your watch.” Bai Chunian switched on his headset, “We’ll go in and check the situation first.” 

Han Xingqian, “Ok.”

Bai Chunian turned his head and told Rimbaud off,” Turn off the light on your tail, don’t keep it lit and expose our location.”

“What a bother.” Rimbaud flicked his tail and the dark blue light running through his tailbone suddenly went out.

“Ojczlcu.” 

Lfjglcu tlr cjwf mjiifv, Dl Ojczlcu lwwfvljafis qfgxfv eq, “Tfr.”

“Yt, ajxf la fjrs. Qtja vb sbe atlcx lr atf yfra kjs obg er ab fcafg atf lrijcv?”

After careful thought, Bi Lanxing replied, “En…I’ve seen the map before, this pharmaceutical factory has a total of six entry and exit points. Entrance F is near the corridor, we can…uhm…enter through F.”

Djl Jtecljc  “Qtja jybea atf rfmeglas rsrafw?” 

Dl Ojczlcu, “Pa klii yf afwqbgjglis rtbga-mlgmelafv, atf beafgwbra ijsfg bo rfmeglas qgbyjyis lrc’a abb aluta.”

“Ok, you’ll direct us then.” Bai Chunian stepped back a little to make way for him.

“Me?” Bi Lanxing stiffened and said awkwardly, “I don’t have any actual combat experience.”

“You’re now gaining some experience, aren’t you?” Bai Chunian patted his shoulders from behind and pushed him two steps forward. “What did I send you to learn combat tactics for? You can’t always rely on me. Relax, I’ll be just behind you, if there’s anything wrong, I’ll remind you.” 

Bi Lanxing settled down and took a few deep breaths. He steeled himself and pressed down on the micro-communicator, and said in a deep voice, “Bi Lanxing, taking over the line of command.”

Although his nervousness made his voice slightly unsteady, it was still a pretty good imitation and Bai Chunian was rather satisfied.

Entrance F was usually accessed by cargo trucks receiving and delivering goods and there were relatively less security guards. It was also nearer to the inner warehouse. They just needed to find a good opportunity to avoid infrared detection.

Rimbaud crawled along the floor, noiselessly scaling the outer wall of the building. Following the wall, he climbed to Entrance F, and was in charge of tasing the security guards to sleep, and then short circuiting the monitoring equipment. 

Bai Chunian and the others waited in a discreet hiding place. Not long after, Rimbaud crawled back.

“So fast?”

“There was nobody there, the infrared detection device was also broken. When I went over, the instrument indicated that I could pass.” Rimbaud spread open his hands, “This was on the floor. I picked it up and brought it back.”

Bai Chunian took the item and examined it. It was a commonly seen leather cardholder that could be hung around the neck. There should have been a card inside it, but it appeared that the card had already been taken away by someone else. 

“…Did anyone arrive ahead of us?” Bai Chunian made an estimation of the time, “Or is it that someone is deliberately luring us in, but this shouldn’t be, how could the news of our movements be leaked so quickly?”

Bi Lanxing hesitated before asking, “Chu-ge, do we still go in then?”

“You can decide, you’re the leader.” Bai Chunian pocketed the cardholder.

Bi Lanxing weighed the options for a while and decided to go deeper into the factory, then check the situation again. The outer section of the Berna Pharmaceutical Factory was an ordinary reinforced concrete structure, even if they got trapped, they would still have the ability to conduct an evacuation. 

Entering via Entrance F, there was indeed nobody there. The light in the corridor remained on, and a one-man tall plaster statue of an angel hugging an hourglass was erected in the doorway. The hourglass seemed to be made of glass, inside it, the sand was even still flowing.

“This thing is pretty artistic.” Bai Chunian praised it sincerely. If he brought it back with him and gifted it to Uncle Jin, he would definitely be very happy.

Bi Lanxing contacted Han Xingqian, “We’re at Entrance F, have you taken control of the security control room?”

Han Xingqian, “I’m in the security control room and I can already see your group. The whole procedure was very smooth, I didn’t meet anybody, it’s kind of odd.” 

“En, keep an eye on the monitor, help us find a safe route.” Bi Lanxing had Tan Qing and Tan Yang follow him into the warehouse next to the door. Bai Chunian and Rimbaud went to investigate the warehouse in the corner.

It was extremely dark in the warehouse, one could faintly make out that the shelves were stacked fully with goods, with some scraps and random items piled up on the floor. Bai Chunian picked up Rimbaud’s tail and poked it back and forth twice to spark an electric light, holding it in front of him to illuminate the way.

“Be more careful, don’t fall down.”

“As long as you don’t take hold of my tail, there’s no way I will fall down.” 

In the corner was a set of table and chairs and a warehouse entry log was placed on the tabletop. Bai Chunian set Rimbaud’s tail down on the surface of the paper to illuminate it and began flipping from the most recently dated entry.

The newest entry was recorded this morning. A batch of fresh fruits were brought in for the cafeteria. There was a large variety of fruits, almost anything one could think of. After all, on tropical islands, fruits were cheap and cost next to nothing.

The latest shipments out of the warehouse were just some generic medicines. The record book was as thick as a fist, but fortunately, Bai Chunian read quickly and flipped to the shipment records from two years ago. Amongst the densely packed and hard-to-pronounce names of medicines, a distinctive name could be found.

“Specter Hourglass.” 

Bai Chunian had an excellent memory and he had once heard this name from He Suowei.

He Suowei had said that in the file they obtained during the ATWL Exam, one lab report wrote “Special Operations Weapon 613, Specter Hourglass.”

The first number 6 of the experimental subject code name indicated that it was an inanimate prototype, the middle number 1 represented 10% mimicry, and the last number 3, indicated that it had a altering-type ability.

RImbaud was basically unable to help with the portions of the mission that required one to have an IQ, so he looked around boredly and discovered that there was a water dispenser next to the table. He just so happened to be thirsty, and took a paper cup from the side to get a cup of water. 

The shape of the disposable paper cups here was quite special. Normal paper cups had a large mouth and a small base, but the paper cups here were just the opposite, with a small mouth and a large base.

However, this did not affect the water’s drinkability. Early on, Rimbaud had learnt to use water dispensers and elegantly pressed on the cold water handle, waiting for the water to flow into the cup.

From the water pipe, a stream of sand flowed out.

Rimbaud looked at his cup filled with sand, and was stunned for a while. Then, he threw the cup to the side and directly picked up the water container of the water dispenser and poured it into his mouth, before eating the empty container. 

“What did you all find?” Bai Chunian asked.

Bi Lanxing, “There’s an old newspaper clipping from last year stuck on the wall, saying that the Wanzong group‘s founder, Qiu Wanzong, had a son at the age of 80, and confirmed it was his own through a paternity test.”

“…Ah.” Bai Chunian was used to seeing rare things, so he wasn’t too surprised. Usually these situations were of old husbands and young wives, and when a young wife cheated and brought home a child, most families would think it scandalous, why would there be a family who would spread it around through the newspaper?

“Nothing else?” 

“No, this warehouse has not much inside it, there’s a really old mango on the table, it’s already shriveled.”

“Let’s go upstairs and take a look.” Bi Lanxing said.

“Don’t move. Don’t come out.”

Han Xingqian’s voice sounded from the communicator. 

A few of them felt a squeeze in their heart. They held their breath and silently hid themselves behind the bunker nearest to them.

Han Xingqian’s eyes were fixed on the monitor screen. The CCTV nearest to Bai Chunian was pointed straight at the angel statue in the doorway. On the screen, the hourglass in the angel’s hand gradually emptied of sand, and two skulls wearing security helmets appeared in the glass hourglass.

The plaster layer on the angel’s body slowly shattered. His arms and legs began to move, stretching out his body bit by bit to remove the lid of the hourglass and forcefully crush the two terrifying skulls. The bones of the skull and security cap both disintegrated into snow-white sand that slowly leaked down the hourglass through the narrow pipe in its center.