Nagi Saijo furrowed her brows, considering whether to clear the area by force.
"Don't worry about it. The main program just has a minor malfunction. We'll be fine once we disable it in the Command Room. Please rest assured, I don't want to die either." Qi Ming stepped forward.
His heartfelt calmness greatly eased their emotions. Yamanaka, standing nearby, remarked, "Being handsome really is amazing. His words work better than the chief of staff's."
And so, Qi Ming led the way, calming the panicked ordinary staff members and having them remain where they were, while bringing along technical personnel like Dr. Yao, who believed they could "help."
But when they reached the Command Room, they discovered that the door had been locked from the inside.
Kishida took out a tactical cutting saw and traced a rectangular outline on the door before starting flame cutting.
However, the Command Room's door had been designed to nuclear defense standards and was five centimeters thick. Under normal circumstances, it would take at least half an hour to cut through it.
And there was only one minute left before the self-destruct program activated!
Nagi Saijo asked Kishida, "Don't you have any C2 Explosives on you?" She wanted to blast the door open directly.
Kishida was sweating profusely. "No. And forget C2—even C4 would have a hard time blowing this door open."
"Is this where it ends?" Even the normally composed Nagi Saijo became anxious.
With the main control system shut down, the completely sealed Sea Base was about to become an iron coffin that buried everyone inside.
Quite a few people were drenched in cold sweat. The torment of waiting for death nearly drained them of all strength, and they could barely remain standing.
"I'll do it." Qi Ming stepped out of the crowd, took a deep breath, and kicked the spot Kishida had just cut with all his strength.
Dr. Yao said, "Team Member Qi Ming, don't waste your strength. Human power can't possibly work in this situation... Am I dreaming?!"
With a thunderous bang, before everyone's stunned eyes, the door—said to be capable of withstanding a nuclear bombardment—was kicked inward, leaving a small dent.
"The Defense Team's equipment is pretty solid after all." Qi Ming glanced at his shoes and kicked again and again, deepening the dent with every strike.
The deafening booms echoed continuously through the narrow corridor, making everyone's heads buzz.
Witnessing this, Emi murmured, "This is practically superhuman."
Yu Tsuchihashi looked at Mamoru Shirogane. Where had he found this godlike man?
Yamanaka said, "This isn't scientific!"
Kishida swallowed, his eyes filled with horror. "From a physics standpoint, creatures capable of kicking a six-ton door do exist. But biologically speaking, such creatures generally aren't called humans."
At that moment, the two of them realized that Qi Ming had already held back greatly during their earlier "sparring match" in the Command Room.
If he had gone all out, he probably could have cracked open their skulls.
Dr. Yao's expression was equally complicated. Having previously paid attention to news about Qi Ming, he had heard that the new Defense Team member had clashed with his seniors. He had even wanted to comfort Qi Ming, tell him that Japan was just like this, that everyone had gone through it back then, that he needed to get used to it and endure it until it passed.
But now it seemed... perhaps you were the one bullying others.
"Team Member Qi Ming, this will take less effort." Emi handed him an ordinary Battering Ram, a simple solid metal cylinder with two handles.
She explained that there were no Hydraulic Door Breakers available at the moment, so they could only make do with this first.
"This is good." Qi Ming gripped the handles and swung the cylinder. After ten seconds of smashing, he forcibly broke through the door, opening a gap large enough for someone to crawl through.
Once he was done, he patted Kishida on the shoulder. "People's physiques can't be compared across the board. You don't need to feel inferior."
Kishida said, "I'm not feeling inferior!"
With the base on the verge of destruction, Nagi Saijo was in no mood for jokes. Whether Qi Ming was human and whether he was normal would be clear if he was willing to take part in the full medical examination two days later.
Holding her gun, she crawled into the Command Room and met Dr. Tsuchihashi's dumbfounded gaze.
Wait, you managed to open this door too?
Dr. Tsuchihashi was the only one in the Command Room. The sunglasses-wearing woman who had protected him earlier was nowhere to be seen.
Yamanaka, the second to crawl through, fired a tranquilizer round and brought Dr. Tsuchihashi down.
Emi and Kishida immediately activated the backup system and canceled the self-destruct program.
The deadly countdown stopped. Across the Sea Base, people who had been terrified out of their wits gasped wildly, filled with the relief of surviving a disaster and feeling that being alive was such a wonderful thing.
Chief of Staff Kiriyama finally relaxed as well. He patted Qi Ming on the shoulder. "Team Member Qi Ming, you saved everyone at TPC. You are a true hero of humanity."
Qi Ming found a place to sit down. "Emi and Kishida also contributed a lot."
His words surprised Kishida and the others. Based on Qi Ming's overbearing behavior as they saw it, this was when he should have accepted the praise without hesitation and said something like, "Of course I did."
Now he was suddenly being so modest... Was he putting on an act because Chief of Staff Kiriyama was here?
That did not seem right either. Earlier, he had dared to beat up his seniors right in front of the higher-ranking Chief of Staff Gondo. He really was impossible to predict.
At that moment, Mamoru Shirogane somehow brought Dr. Tsuchihashi briefly back to consciousness, allowing him to barely retain his sense of self instead of remaining a puppet of the Birah Star Alien.
"Be careful. There is... an alien's insider among us!" His first words after waking made everyone's hearts tighten.
Before you continue