The Internet Surveillance has already switched to criminal pursuit mode; the reinforcements will become more terrifying, forming an inescapable net and alarming one sophisticated hacker leader after another...

Finally, it's the state police's turn to act.

If it can get even worse.

Red prohibition signs will descend from the sky, followed by the special task force taking over the scene as per the anti-terror procedure.

Swish—

The sudden sound of brakes interrupted John's train of thought.

He was drawn by the side mirror:

The two cars behind closed in from the left and right.

Wearing Laser Glasses, with slicked-back hair, and dressed in a black suit, the Internet Surveillance agents leaned out, raising intelligent rifles.

Electromagnetic rounds ricocheted off the armor.

Blue arcs of electricity danced over the metal panels, while the intelligent system made an ominous sound.

Buzz, buzz, buzz.

The ominous engine noise rang in their ears.

John raised his revolver and fired out the window, the gunpowder smell blowing back in the wind, scorching his nose and eye sockets...

Sparks flew from the hovercar.

It was a holographic projection of the Internet Surveillance logo, the metal hatch opened, and fully armed agents crouched and shot.

Bam, bang—

The car window shattered in a blink.

John felt his shoulder and thigh hit by bullets.

The saturation of his subdermal armor plummeted.

He quickly maneuvered the car, using a drift swerve to wedge himself between the two cars, trying to reduce the threat from the hovercar.

"Ah, damn you, you lunatic!"

Oulos suddenly screamed.

She jerked her chest as if electrocuted, then quickly cut off the network connection and took off her glasses.

John followed her gaze to the back seat.

Hugo lay between the front and back seats, his condition unknown, the artificial leather on the back of his head peeled away, a reddish metal data line connecting his deep dive port to the Internet Surveillance equipment.

"This bastard blew a hole at the network border."

Oulos grabbed the handrail, tearing off her sunglasses, trying to explain to John while surveying the surroundings.

"We were hotly fighting with Internet Surveillance, and this guy quietly let a rogue AI into the middle of the battlefield. If I hadn't reacted quickly... well, just look outside."

She gestured her chin toward the window.

The bullet rain on the armored car disappeared instantly.

The agents on the hovercar let out simultaneous screams, then dropped their weapons and clutched their heads.

Blood spurted from their throats.

A clear electric spark ran through their brains, breaking through the helmet from the temples and exposing the charred, dull-colored brain tissue to the air.

Bodies fell one after another.

The hovercar lost power, the emergency autopilot system beeped but still crashed at a fatal angle.

The Internet Surveillance agents slumped over the car window, blood dripping from their arms, the windshield smeared with a stain of blood.

The two cars, now out of control, veered and eventually crashed and exploded on the road.

Orange-red flames reflected off John's face through the rearview mirror.

He appeared shocked.

Hugo harbored resentment towards his old employer, Internet Surveillance, at least compared to Raqi Industry.

Secondly, he definitely showed symptoms of cyber psychosis.

This bastard is a lunatic!

John floored the accelerator, speeding up the bypass, then left the Eden City District, passing through the checkpoint, leaving behind the long wails of sirens and towering skyscrapers.

Barren yellow sand and drought-resistant plants came into view.

No further attacks occurred along the way, and the spherical tracker tailing them had long vanished.

"Ugh, cough, cough, cough!"

Hugo got up from the floor of the armored car.

He breathed heavily, his eyes bloodshot, removing his tattered jacket to wipe away the blood seeping from his ears and nostrils.

Click.

Hugo unplugged the deep dive line from the back of his head.

The Internet Surveillance equipment he brought out was already smoking, which he casually tossed out the window.

The wild wind roared in, engulfing all three inside the car.

Hugo squinted out the window, not speaking with them, his frail body wrapped in a loose shirt, the fabric flapping against his bones.

He wore a tired yet bizarre smile.

"The state police and his lackeys are handling the AI, and they must think we're perishing together. I've used my backdoor; there's no chance for another shot, but it was all worth it."

Hugo muttered.

John and Oulos each stared in a different direction, neither responding to his words.

The navigation system continued to operate.

The armored vehicle was parked by a desolate hill.

Hugo and John got out of the car.

He staggered, looking around in the yellow sand, finally pointing to a cement pipe protruding from the ground.

John followed him to a rusty metal door.

Above them was a massive signal tower, seemingly some sort of neglected public facility, with Eden City's municipal warning signs still visible on the frayed metal sheets.

"It's all a disguise."

Hugo kicked the door open.

John followed him into the cold, dark tunnel, made two turns, and saw an intersection equipped with monitors and scanners.

All the devices were shut down.

Hugo nonchalantly used biometric access to pass through the gate, opening a brand-new passage beside the wall.

John noticed:

The employee information on the display was not Hugo Pa, but another unfamiliar name.

It must be the Internet Surveillance agent he had just killed.

[Mission Target Updated]

[Copy Pandora Algorithm. (Optional)]

[Await in Place. (Optional)]

Hugo nodded towards John: "Give me your gun; you probably won't want to know the next part."

He took the rifle, checked the magazine, and walked unsteadily into the depths of the facility like a living corpse.

John stood at the entrance.

A deep blue light illuminated his entire body.

He couldn't find the light source because the depths of the facility were terrifyingly dark, with various pipelines of unknown use running from ceiling to floor. Equipment beeped, and pale indicator lights flickered in the damp air.

Bang.

John suddenly flinched.

There was a flash of fire deep inside the facility.

Hugo seemed to be killing people.

The Internet Surveillance agents didn't put up any resistance, perhaps because some unknown cyber attack had trapped their consciousness in cyberspace.

Or worse...

A thought crossed John's mind.

Hugo might have already killed everyone inside the facility on the way there, making this execution feel like pointless venting.

When he reappeared in front of the two, there were splashes of blood on him, and blood spots on either side of his thin cheeks, yet his eyes had regained a bright and determined look, as if awoken from sleep.

"Is it done?"

John asked.

Hugo came back to his senses, lifted his head, and actually smiled at him.

Oulos was in low spirits.

She made no secret of her disdain for Hugo and prepared to go her separate way after confirming the algorithm was copied.

Before leaving.

Oulos said she completed the deal with John, and he had to handle the rest himself; if John was still alive in a few days, they could negotiate further cooperation.

John was somewhat worried.

He felt that without Oulos' restraint, Hugo might silently eliminate him, especially given the terrifying means of hackers.

"Don't worry; both of us are wanted now."

Hugo answered while leaning against the armored vehicle, over a dozen meters away from them.

He must have some form of eavesdropping method.

Oulos sneered twice and said nothing more, getting into an autonomously driven car that arrived and leaving the scene.

The silence near the yellow sand was frightening.

The armored vehicle was too conspicuous and inconvenient.

The two decided to take rail transport back to the city center, quickly abandon the vehicle after passing through the checkpoint again, conceal their identity information, and muddle the ECPD's warrants...

They openly sat in the intercity train.

Hugo said he wanted to rest for a while.

He wanted to sit down and have a good talk with John.

He said he actually had children in Europe, and his original wife had even been blackmailed by Internet Surveillance.

But it was only last year that he got the news.

His family had actually all died in a car accident, but anyone could guess it was a man-made accident.

"Who did it?"

"I don't know."

Hugo shook his head, leaning back on the metal seat.

He had left Internet Surveillance for too long, out of the information loop, but that feeling of having everything ruined resonated deeply with John.

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