Light Fortress
Chapter 131 - 119 Escape

Chapter 131: Chapter 119 Escape

"Something has gone wrong..."

Just as Gu Shen stood on the thirty-ninth floor, waiting for the elevator to ascend, Chu Ling’s voice rang out once again.

This time, her voice was extremely grave.

"Someone has taken over command. It’s an individual of extreme danger."

Gu Shen narrowed his eyes. Tonight was a special night. He dared to infiltrate the South Bay Building and cause such a commotion because Crow’s challenge on the riverbank had successfully sparked the anger of everyone from the Sincere Heart South Hall... And given that guy’s combat abilities, it should have been Chen San’s so-called four foster sons rushing to the riverbank.

Under such circumstances, who else could be the individual of extreme danger?

"Chen Mei... Have you heard of this name?" The moment Chu Ling spoke, Gu Shen’s heart skipped a beat.

"...The person coming is Chen Mei?"

Gu Shen was somewhat at a loss.

Shouldn’t Chen Mei be heading to the battle on the riverbank?

Why would the Sincere Heart South Hall’s top enforcer appear in the South Bay Building?

"I’ve connected to external surveillance... When you infiltrated the building, Chen Mei was buying coffee at a convenience store not far from here. The power outage at South Bay Building drew the attention of the entire street, including his," Chu Ling’s voice had a hint of complexity, "And so, Chen Mei stepped in to take command."

"...Is that even possible?"

Sweat broke out on Gu Shen’s forehead.

He couldn’t help but smile wryly.

At this point, he no longer knew whether he was lucky or unlucky. He had discovered the closed-circuit mainframe on the thirty-ninth floor, but the abnormality caused by the power outage had attracted the attention of a super-strong being even fiercer than Crow.

"He hasn’t discovered us yet."

Chu Ling used "us" once again.

"Chen Mei must have seen through your plan. He is currently manipulating the elevators... Security personnel are gathering on the first floor, and the emergency exits are being closely watched. This building has been manually sealed off."

Was this a thorough search?

Gu Shen’s expression grew solemn. "There are still some staff in this building. If they can’t escape, I’ll have to consider blending into the crowd, but I’ve exposed my facial features on the initial surveillance. If he checks, he’ll find me soon."

"I’ve erased the facial information exposed in the surveillance for you... But I agree with your concerns," said Chu Ling. "Chen Mei’s insight is profound. Trying to blend into the crowd is a very bad plan. Once discovered, there will be no chance of escape."

Upon hearing the first part, Gu Shen sighed in relief.

"With the current situation... Do you have a workable plan?"

"Yes."

After a pause, Chu Ling slowly said, "The transfer of Deep Sea’s authority must not be exposed. Helping you erase your facial features may already have aroused Chen Mei’s suspicion... But now that I’ve taken over the building, he still relies on Deep Sea’s surveillance, so the last... 6 minutes will be our time to escape from South Bay Building."

Once the real "Deep Sea" system returned, he would lose his last chance.

A "clang" sound echoed.

The elevator opened on the thirty-ninth floor.

"Although Chen Mei is manipulating the elevators... I’ve disguised the true floor of this elevator. To outsiders, this elevator appears to be descending, just pausing occasionally. In reality, it has stopped on the thirty-ninth floor."

Without hesitation, Gu Shen entered the elevator.

"Buzz—"

The elevator began to descend slowly.

"Next, twelve elevators will arrive on the first floor at the same time."

"You need to hide at the top end of the elevator car. I will inform you of the location of ’Heavenly Eye’ cameras set up in the building’s walls. Destroy the Heavenly Eyes, so even if the authority is transferred and Deep Sea takes over control of South Bay Building, it won’t be able to pinpoint your location in a short time."

"In the last minute before the authority vanishes, I’ll trigger the high-level alarm in South Bay Building to draw everyone’s attention... If the plan goes smoothly, Chen Mei will be distracted as well."

"That will be your best opportunity to act."

Gu Shen took a deep breath.

He activated Jingzhe Breathing Technique; his muscles tensed as he pried open the alloy top plate of the elevator car, slowly moving it aside to create a space big enough to climb out. Howling winds buffeted, with countless cables stretching inside the elevator shaft like a wild dance of serpents in a dark sea.

Inside the warm elevator, it felt like a gentle breeze.

Standing atop the car, though, the dizziness was overwhelming, as if he could be tossed out at any moment.

Gu Shen crouched down and restored the alloy plate to its original place. His face was somewhat pale, looking a bit better only after summoning Chi Huo. The rapid descent gave him a floating sensation of weightlessness.

"Do you see those red dots?" Chu Ling reminded, "They are ’Heavenly Eye’ cameras embedded in the walls of South Bay Building. Once the authority is transferred, Deep Sea will see you at once. Destroy them now."

Gu Shen held his breath, squinting his eyes as Truth Ruler transformed into a glinting handgun.

"Bang!"

"Bang!"

"Bang!"

Perhaps aided by his spiritual power, Gu Shen’s marksmanship was extremely accurate. Even crouched atop the rapidly descending elevator car, he precisely hit his targets. The faint sound of gunfire was almost inaudible amidst the roaring wind of the falling elevator, and the red dots shattered into mottled fragments, lost in the dark and long elevator shaft.

"You shoot very accurately."

Chu Ling seriously complimented him but sounded somewhat regretful as she said, "It’s a pity you don’t have sufficiently powerful bullets, otherwise you could consider taking Chen Mei out with a single shot."

Gu Shen felt helpless, not sure if she was joking or being sarcastic. "Are you serious... Me? Take out Chen Mei?"

"Of course! Don’t you have confidence?"

Chu Ling chuckled, "Within seven steps, the gun is fast. Closer than seven steps, the gun is both fast and accurate. Killing a High Order Transcendent with specialized bullets isn’t an unheard-of occurrence."

"Unless he’s right beneath my feet... And trapped in the elevator with nowhere to hide..." Gu Shen was about to say this when the elevator began to slow down.

It was nearly reaching the first floor.

As it decelerated, the previous weightlessness changed abruptly, a tremendous pressure surged, and at that moment, Gu Shen felt as if he was being crushed by a thousand pounds of stone, almost lying flat atop the elevator car.

"Clang—"

The elevator reached the first floor.

Gu Shen wrapped his spiritual power with Chi Huo at the center of his brow, concealing every bit of his presence. This move proved very effective when he had trailed Shi Li; even the Compass belonging to the owner of Blood Fire had failed to detect his existence.

Even so, he was still incredibly tense at this moment.

Through the slight gaps spilling faint light, he could vaguely see the scene outside the elevator—dozens of people had surrounded the first floor, guarding the security passage and inspecting the elevator malfunction.

...

...

"The elevator’s surveillance camera melted from the high temperature."

"There are burn marks on the elevator’s inner walls, along with a small, punctured hole."

Chen Mei stood in front of the twelve elevators, silently listening to the reports from the inspectors.

He was quite certain... if the intruder was inside the building, then at this moment, there wouldn’t be the slightest chance of escape.

As for escaping from the exterior,

that would be even easier to catch... If the intruder really was a Transcendent, daring to jump out of the window or off the building, making such a commotion, then capturing them would take, at most, half an hour.

The only way to break free was to deceive him.

"No abnormalities on the first floor..."

"No abnormalities on the second floor..."

"No abnormalities on the twenty-ninth floor..."

After hearing the report from each floor, even Chen Mei, convinced that the intruder was in the building, began to waver and doubt.

With this method of search, even a mosquito would have nowhere to hide.

If someone had infiltrated during the time the building’s power went out, where could they have hidden?

Or perhaps... was he being overly sensitive, and this was nothing but a prank from start to finish, after all, there was no evidence to prove someone had really infiltrated the South Bay Building.

For the floors above thirty that required special clearance, the surveillance footage was completely normal.

During the blackout, the identification system was paralyzed, and forced entry was the only way in... but those rooms were all intact.

"Major incident in the building! Major incident in the building!"

"Major incident in the building! Major incident in the building!"

An alarm suddenly sounded, its piercing red light started spinning wildly, the alert echoing in every corner of the building.

Chen Mei’s eyes lit up.

"Reinforcements needed on the thirtieth floor!"

"Reinforcements needed on the thirty-first floor!"

"Reinforcements needed on the thirty-second floor..."

The moment the alarm sounded, without needing any orders, all the security personnel rushed towards the upper floors, the sequence of events mobilizing manpower, the forces originally dispersed across various floors, all gathered together in the first-floor lobby as the elevators descended.

The building flickered with red lights.

Chen Mei silently approved the actions of these people.

Including himself, no one believed Deep Sea’s alarm was mistaken, and clearly, the intruder’s true ruse was now revealed—it was the upper floors of the South Bay Building that the trespasser was targeting.

Starting from the thirtieth floor, which required special clearance, each floor experienced the "major incident" alert indicated by Deep Sea.

In just ten seconds, all the forces Chen Mei had left on the first floor sprinted to the upper floors to provide backup.

He left two security guards to watch over the first floor.

Then he pressed the elevator button.

Chen Mei entered the elevator... He didn’t press the button for any floor but instead intently gazed at the elevator’s alloy wall that had been penetrated by Chi Huo.

Chen Mei stretched out a hand, carefully caressing the smooth edges of the hole.

It was caused by a fire of extremely high temperature.

If the security guard at the entrance, codenamed "9527," had been hypnotized by a Spiritual Transcendent,

then the hole in the elevator’s alloy wall must have been the work of someone with natural abilities... In that case, could there have been two people breaking into the building?

Or maybe, even more.

Chen Mei slowly looked up, staring at the ceiling above him.

His gaze seemed to penetrate the elevator, looking toward the extremely high level.

Separated by a layer of alloy steel,

Gu Shen crouched above the elevator cabin, his back soaked with cold sweat. Through that very fine gap, he had seen Chen Mei enter the elevator...

The current "gaze" made him unsure if he had been exposed or not.

Wrapped in Chi Huo, his breath was reduced to the lowest.

Also with the aid of Chi Huo, he felt as if he could see everything inside the elevator.

Especially, Chen Mei’s eyes.

They were empty, emotionless eyes of a dead fish.

Yet they seemed to see through everything.

The young man in the elevator was looking up.

In fact, the "up" he was gazing at... simply referred to a direction.

Upward.

That was the topmost floor of the South Bay Building.

Chen Mei withdrew his gaze and slowly pressed the button for the thirty-ninth floor.