The air in the Yanjing International Financial Center's command center was heavy as iron. On the holo-sand table, the signal light dot representing the 'Aurora' team's last known position pulsed stubbornly at the edge of the city center, like the last navigation beacon in a storm. Beside it lay the enemy distribution map sent back by Wang Lei, meticulously annotated, and the target circled in prominent red—the Yanjing International Financial Center.
General Li Yunpeng's gaze lingered on the virtual building for a long time, his bloodshot eyes filled with unconcealable exhaustion and a deeper resolve. He slowly raised his head, looking at the few remaining senior officers in the tent and Dr. Lin Man, who had been urgently summoned.
"Everyone," his voice was hoarse, but carried unquestionable power, "we paid a heavy price and temporarily secured this position. But we all know this is just the beginning. That 'Main Brain' is still active, and the main force of the Corpse Tide is intact. Passive defense is a dead end."
He pointed to the Financial Center: "The intelligence 'Aurora' team traded their lives for points here. This is very likely the enemy's command center, the lair of that 'Main Brain'."
Silence filled the tent, broken only by the low hum of the generator. Everyone understood what this meant.
"Therefore, I have decided," Li Yunpeng said, word by word, his voice resonant, "to assemble all remaining operational mobile forces of the base into a task force. Objective: Yanjing International Financial Center. Mission: At all costs, confirm and destroy the 'Main Brain'!"
This was a near-suicidal decision. With the base's remaining strength, a frontal assault on a strategic location deep within the Corpse Tide would have a minuscule chance of success. Yet, no one objected. Everyone knew this was the only possible chance to turn the tide.
"Operation plan, codename 'Decapitation'," the Chief of Staff immediately followed up, beginning to sketch preliminary routes on the map. "We will concentrate all remaining armored forces as the tip of the spear, with infantry providing support, and artillery offering limited fire support... But the biggest problem is our lack of understanding of the building's interior, and... how to effectively counter the 'Main Brain's' mental interference capabilities."
All eyes turned to Lin Man.
Lin Man took a deep breath and stepped forward. Her complexion was still pale, but her eyes were exceptionally bright. "General, everyone. We are not entirely without countermeasures against the 'Main Brain's' mental interference." She brought up data on her tablet. "Based on the reverse analysis of the energy field data generated during Comrade Qin Feng's confrontation with the 'Main Brain' during 'Thunderfire-1'... we've found a combination of specific electromagnetic wave frequencies that might produce a localized shielding effect."
She displayed a sketch of a hastily modified device resembling a large signal jammer. "We can try equipping the task force with high-power mobile 'Neural Shielding Units'. They won't completely block the 'Main Brain's' influence, but might buy the assault troops a precious few tens of seconds of clarity at critical moments. Simultaneously, based on our research of 'Mind Controller' signals, we are also trying to develop a directional 'signal deception' device that might cause temporary confusion among the lower-level Zombies controlled by the 'Main Brain'."
These plans were full of uncertainties, theoretical struggles. But in this desperate situation, they represented hope.
"How much time is needed for preparation?" Li Yunpeng asked directly.
"The shielding units... will require at least twenty-four hours for modification and testing. The signal deception device... needs more data and cannot be guaranteed to be ready before the operation," Lin Man replied truthfully.
"I'll give you twenty hours," Li Yunpeng stated decisively. "Twenty hours from now, Operation 'Decapitation' will commence on schedule!"
In the underground observation post, Wang Lei switched off the satellite communication equipment, his face showing no trace of relief after completing his mission. The intermittent distress signals from the warehouse survivors echoed like ghosts in his mind.
"...They are hunting us... They are different..."
"Different?" Li Xiao wiped the lens of her sniper rifle, her frosty voice breaking the silence. "Does it refer to new mutants, or... something else?"
Zhao Hai anxiously checked the dwindling medical supplies and ammunition. "Brother Lei, our supplies won't last much longer. The way back... is almost impossible. Going to find those survivors is too risky."
Wang Lei remained silent, his gaze sweeping over the three remaining comrades beside him. Li Xiao's calmness, Zhao Hai's worry, and the deep-seated fear in the eyes of another special forces soldier. He knew Zhao Hai was telling the truth. But could they stand by and do nothing? Those survivors might possess crucial information about the 'different' enemy, possibly even related to the success or failure of the entire operation.
Qin Feng's face flashed in his mind, as did the faces of comrades who had fallen along the way. What had they come this far for?
"We can't just leave them to die," Wang Lei's voice was low and firm. "Besides, they might know something. Finding out what 'different' means might be more useful than us mapping a hundred terrains."
He looked at Li Xiao. "Can you pinpoint the general direction of the signal source?"
Li Xiao nodded, pointing to the complex city streets below the observation post. "The signal is very weak and intermittent, but the general direction is... opposite to the Financial Center, towards the northwest, in that old residential area."
That was in the opposite direction of their ultimate goal.
Wang Lei didn't hesitate. "Alter the operational plan. Prioritize searching for survivors and gathering intelligence. Then, depending on the situation, we decide the next step."
This was a gamble, a gamble on the value of the information the survivors might possess, and on their ability to find and extract themselves before their supplies ran out. The four-person squad re-checked their gear, carefully divided the last few high-energy compressed rations, and then, like ghosts, slipped silently down a ventilation shaft, disappearing into the perilous ruins of the city.
Inside the isolation chamber, it was dead silent.
Qin Feng lay motionless on the cold metal floor, like a lifeless shell. The dark red patterns on his body no longer glowed, having faded to a dull sheen, like scorched circuitry. The monitoring equipment had long been damaged during the black tide, and no one knew his current condition.
However, in the depths of his consciousness, it was not absolute emptiness.
There were no clear thoughts, no complete personality, only a chaotic sea of fragmented, surging memory echoes and cold whispers.
Echoes: Wang Lei's carefree laughter... Li Xiao's calm gaze behind her sniper scope... Zhao Hai's focused expression while bandaging a wound... the resounding oath taken upon joining 'Thunderfire'... the blurry, warm faces of his parents...
Whispers: "Destruction... Fusion... Obedience..." (From the 'Main Brain's' cold will, like continuous background noise) "Hunger... Blood... Slaughter..." (From the virus's instinctive maddened roars, like a persistent parasite) "Persevere... You are... Qin Feng..." (Faint, almost indistinguishable, a cry from the last bastion of his soul).
These conflicting "voices" clashed and intertwined within his fragmented consciousness. He was like a drowning man, surfacing and sinking in the icy sea, sometimes grasping a piece of driftwood called "memory" for a moment of clarity, only to be dragged back into the abyss by an undertow called "instinct."
He couldn't feel the passage of time, nor the pain in his body. His only "perception" was still that invisible, collective consciousness network. He could vaguely "sense" Wang Lei's team moving like faint sparks in the city's shadows; he could "sense" a powerful, death-defying will gathering in the direction of the base (the task force); he could also "sense" that deep within the Financial Center, the colossal consciousness like a black hole (the Main Brain), after a brief period of chaos, was once again stabilizing, becoming cold, and... it seemed to be shifting more of its "attention" towards the direction Wang Lei's team was moving, and towards the base's unusual activity.
A primal, instinctual premonition flashed through his fragmented consciousness like a faint electric current.
Danger... Greater danger was brewing.
He tried to gather his remaining strength to warn Wang Lei, to warn the base, but his fragmented thoughts were like scattered sand, unable to coalesce. He could only "watch" helplessly in the endless chaos as the invisible storm slowly gathered once more.
And he didn't know that, during his intense confrontation with the 'Main Brain's' will, the highly mutated virus within his body was slowly and irreversibly continuing to remodel his physique. Certain physiological indicators were quietly sliding towards a point of complete inhumanity that even Lin Man had not anticipated...