The Golden Countdown

Old Zhou is very busy.

Three days after leaving Ankang, while his identity documents for going to Japan were still being reviewed by the intelligence department, Sing Sing first rushed to Guizhou to inspect the Tiankeng Village connection project.

With the addition of the Sand Rat some time ago, he and the Toad have worked together to bring the Tiankeng Village project closer to completion.

With the joint efforts of the two, the 860-meter-long karst tunnel has been completely completed.

The lighting inside the cave extends deep into the mountainside, and workers are dismantling the last section of temporary support.

There were zero major water inrush accidents and zero casualties throughout the entire process.

On the day the tunnel was completed, many construction teams from the city and county came to visit and invited the Toad to join their projects.

Lao Mo has become much more diplomatic now, neither agreeing nor refusing outright, indicating that everything depends on the leader's decision.

Lao Sha left the project half a month ago and joined an old urban area renovation project.

His abilities made many leaders envious, and more than a dozen top and second-in-commands of the city personally went to the conference room of the 749 Bureau to argue and demand his return.

The Toad and the Sand Rat were also extremely grateful to Old Zhou, wishing they could immediately acknowledge him as their godfather.

If it weren't for Old Zhou, the two of them would still be scavenging for food in the sewers right now.

After a free meal and drinks, Old Zhou rushed to the construction site on the north bank of the Qiongzhou Strait Cross-Sea Channel.

Unsurprisingly, Sing Sing got another black eye from Polaris.

Therefore, Old Zhou personally cooked a meal to satisfy her.

As always, Xiao Ruan thoughtfully offered Old Zhou some flavorless ice cream, using it as an ice pack.

This moved Sing Sing, who had been beaten up, and it rekindled their idea of earning extra money.

While strolling around the project site, Sing Sing also ran into Director Chen had previously insisted on taking Polaris with him.

The two didn't argue this time. Director Chen was incredibly enthusiastic towards Sing Sing, even wanting to become sworn brothers with him.

Old Zhou saw right through the other party's little scheme; wasn't he just trying to keep Polaris here a little longer?

The joyful atmosphere didn't last long; Sing Sing received a call from Wang Pangzi.

Director Wang only said four sentences.

A strong earthquake struck southwestern China, affecting twelve townships and leaving several villages without contact.

All available special personnel who can participate in the rescue should assemble immediately.

Old Zhou, who was originally unhappy about being assigned to work in Japan, suddenly stood up and quickly notified Polaris and Soft Serve to set off.

With the bureau's special plane arranging for them, the three quickly arrived at their destination.

Riptide, Toad, Sand Rat, Wandering Girl, Wolverine, Deep Abyss, Prophet, and the Spot have arrived one after another.

Even Storm hadn't finished her training, and Anton, whose codename Full Bars, came along.

Sing Sing scanned the queue.

The Mayfly is still receiving neural connection therapy.

The Oasis is too old to withstand long journeys.

The ability of Flower Buds is not suitable for rubble rescue.

Geggebu and the Moon-Boy cannot make public appearances at this time.

Baobao is afraid of crowds and loud noises; forcing him into such situations will only plunge him back into his nightmares.

With the addition of Polaris and Soft Serve brought by Sing Sing, almost all the Mutants he recruited participated.

Director Wang stood on the roof of the command vehicle and spread the disaster situation maps sent by various departments onto the hood.

The red circles cover twelve townships, the number of villages that have lost contact is still increasing, and the golden rescue time has begun to count down.

"The road team will be handled by Polaris in conjunction with the traffic engineering team; the water resources team will be assigned to Riptide and Deep Abyss; and the construction team will include the Spot, Toad, Sand Rat, and Wolverine."

"The medical team receives the Soft Serve, the communications and transport team is led by Full Bars and Wandering Girl, and Storm joins the weather reconnaissance team."

The team did not rush into the ruins in a concentrated manner. Each person had different limitations, and misusing their abilities would only cause a second collapse.

At this point, he glanced at Sing Sing.

"You'll stay at command post and be in charge of coordination."

Sing Sing swallowed his rebuttal. With over a dozen abilities scattered across different areas, someone had to keep an eye on who was exhausted, who needed a replacement, and which group could provide temporary support. At this moment, rescuing two people from the rubble was easy; ensuring everyone remained calm was the real challenge. He grabbed the walkie-talkie. "Each group reports every twenty minutes. Follow the instructions of the on-site engineers. No one is allowed to tamper with load-bearing structures without permission. No reckless use of abilities!"

Polaris was relocated to the entrance of Yingxiu Town.

The collapsed steel bridge blocked the only passage, and dozens of ambulances were parked on the mountain road. She raised her hands, and the steel bars in the bridge structure detached one by one from the rubble.

The control skills honed through training on 10,000-ton immersed tunnel sections are being applied here, with the steel beams slowly moving away close to the ground.

Soft Serve stands guard at the makeshift medical station.

Instead of ice cream cones, ice packs were piled up around the wounded soldiers' bedsides, and insulin and plasma were placed in the makeshift cold storage area she maintained.

At the same time, she is also creating ice cream with various effects for people to eat to restore their strength.

The task assigned to Riptide was on a tributary of the Min River.

Rocks blocked the river channel, and the floodwaters had already overflowed into the downstream resettlement area. He used a jet of water to send the floodwaters into the newly dug diversion channel.

The stream avoided the tents and the wounded, running along the earthen slopes on both sides towards the low-lying area.

Firefighters only need to follow behind to reinforce the breach, reducing the work that would normally require more than a dozen water pumps to just a few minutes.

Deep Abyss stood beside the broken road.

After touching the puddles barefoot, they closed their eyes. The location of the underground seepage and cavities traveled back along the soles of their feet, allowing the construction team to avoid two sections of the roadbed that were about to collapse.

The third feedback prompted him to raise his hand and stop the excavator.

The regular water ripples beneath the mud layer were blocked by something. After digging it open, the rescue team found seven villagers who had been sheltered by the culvert.

The Toad remained on the collapsed exterior wall of the health center.

His tongue slipped through the gap, wrapping around the wounded man's waist as the engineers slowly pulled him out.

As the broken bricks fell from above, the tongue transformed into a safety rope.

Sand Rat are responsible for creating lateral lifelines.

After the geological team provided the angle, he drilled into the soil next to the collapsed building, leaving a hole with walls smooth enough to lay support slabs.

The passage, which would normally take two hours to clear, was opened in just over ten minutes, and the first stretcher was placed inside.

When he crawled out, his face was covered in mud. He only had time to drink a couple of mouthfuls of water before moving on to the next location.

The Spots followed the structural engineer on his street inspection tour.

He observed the load-bearing columns and floor slabs only through the safety line; no expanding crack escaped his notice.

Less than three minutes after the three rescue teams withdrew according to his markings, an aftershock caused a load-bearing wall to collapse into the original work area.

Wolverine is the most violent.

Once a location is identified, the Adamantium claws are used to tear apart any objects blocking the way, while rescuers behind them rush forward to save the person.

The Prophet remained at command post.

In her eyes, the crowd was connected by countless lines, and the connection between the rescuers and the trapped people became the most direct direction of the search.

The constant use of her abilities was taking a toll on her young body; blood dripped from her nose onto her clothes as she refused Sing Sing's offer to take her back to the medical station, instead taking out her walkie-talkie to continue communicating with the rescue team.

Anton stood guard next to the mobile base station, where radio waves were continuously amplified, allowing intermittent communication to be reconnected to the command platform.

What usually gives Sing Sing the most headaches—his obsessive-compulsive disorder about finances—has now become his most reliable safeguard.

This kid remembers exactly which team hasn't responded for how long, and which channel is experiencing interference.

Edith, Wandering Girl, was assigned to short-distance transport.

She held the hands of the seriously injured and medical staff, moving them back and forth between the ruins and the makeshift surgical area.

Each landing point was marked in advance, and the ground was covered with a conspicuous yellow positioning cloth to prevent her from veering off course when she was fatigued.

The high-calorie foods on the table were disappearing faster than the medicine. Every time she came back, she would stuff chocolate into her mouth, swallowing without stopping, her hand already grabbing the next stretcher.

Storm did not create rain.

The loosened mountains in the disaster area could not withstand more water, so she rose into the low sky, sending the dust and sultry air trapped in the valleys to the uninhabited mountainous areas, creating a stable weather window for the rescue teams.

By analyzing wind field changes, airflow, smoke, and temperature differences, the airflow direction can be corrected to help determine the situation in certain areas and deliver clean air to the rescue teams that are continuously operating.

At this point, there was no longer a distinction between ordinary people and Mutants; everyone was striving for the same goal.