"We can't send any more trains out of the depot. If the trains on the main line get too tightly packed, rear-end collisions will happen in a matter of minutes! Dispatch won't be able to react in time either.
Yae, you and Mei stay behind and make sure all those drivers obediently remain in the dispatch room and don't go anywhere! Alysia, Pardofelis, Fu Hua, I need you to help me with something."
"Go on."
Alysia's expression was extremely solemn. After all, the first stage of the plan had basically failed completely. They couldn't even detect the faulty train! All they could say was... Xia Ya had outplayed them.
"Once an accident occurs, every department of the Mode Capital Metro has to respond quickly! The only people capable of coordinating everything are the senior leaders at Group Headquarters.
"You've never worked at a state-owned enterprise, so you might not understand. No matter how urgent the situation is, this bloated organization simply can't operate quickly.
"Too much time will be wasted as orders are passed down through layer after layer! And what we're most short of right now is time.
"We need someone to issue orders! Only by taking control of and coordinating all available resources will we have any chance of handling the situation before us. We need someone fast enough."
Alysia's expression turned a little strange. In fact, she really wanted to say, Why don't you do it?
But she quickly thought of one of the iron laws of state-owned enterprises—seniority decided everything.
Xu Qi was far too young. No one would be willing to follow the orders of some wet-behind-the-ears kid, but if that was the case...
"Chief Engineer Xia is the current chief engineer of the Group... Go find him! Tell him everything about what Xia Ya intends to do and how we plan to respond. He'll understand."
······
The car sped all the way to Meilong. After Xu Qi set out, all the leaders and cadres of the six departments followed behind him. The situation this time was simply... far too terrifying.
Xu Qi shoved open the doors to the Meilong Control Center.
As expected...
Countless leaders had already arrived in the hall. And standing at the very front among them was—Chief Engineer Xia!
Chief Engineer Xia's gaze passed over the crowd and locked onto Xu Qi in an instant.
A trace of surprise appeared in his eyes—so young...
Fu Hua and Pardofelis were there as well. The moment they saw Xu Qi, they hurried over and said, "The plan went very smoothly. We only had to explain it once, and Chief Engineer Xia understood everything."
"Mm... Where's Alysia?"
Their expressions turned somewhat strange.
"She... She made some decisions of her own. She told you not to ask too many questions."
Xu Qi frowned, but didn't suspect anything.
Although Alysia was usually somewhat unreliable, she could always be counted on at critical moments. Xu Qi trusted her completely in that regard.
"Xu Qi?"
Chief Engineer Xia slowly walked over to Xu Qi. Everyone present, whether leaders or employees, turned their gazes toward him as well. Clearly... they were curious about who had enough influence to alarm Chief Engineer Xia.
"Chief Engineer Xia, I'm Xia Ya's disciple—Xu Qi."
"Mm." The stern look on his face softened slightly. Chief Engineer Xia nodded and said, "Your response was excellent, and it was correct."
"Engineer Xia! Train 956 has reached Jinhai Road! It only needs five minutes to catch up with the train ahead!"
Chief Engineer Xia, already advanced in years, waved his hand and shouted with booming authority.
"Have all the trains been cleared of passengers!?"
"All trains have been cleared!"
All the trains had been cleared of passengers?
Xu Qi stared blankly at Chief Engineer Xia. Could it be that he...
"With things having reached this point, we can't keep operating, can we... What did Romieu say when he died? 'I'm an employee of the Mode Capital Metro. My job is to protect the safety of the citizens!' That's right, isn't it?"
Xu Qi nodded heavily.
"I'll take full responsibility for suspending operations and clearing passengers from Line 9. I'll bear all the losses myself. Now... go do what you want to do, young man."
34, that's Hack Rabbit, right... It has to be Hack Rabbit.
Go do what I... want to do...
It was hard to imagine hearing words like that in a state-owned enterprise where seniority came before everything else...
Xu Qi clenched his fist and struck his chest three times. He passed Chief Engineer Xia and walked straight to the front of the crowd. Time was precious, and he had no time to offer some speech or exchange pleasantries.
"Everyone, listen carefully. My name is Xu Qi. Initiate the Level One Special Situation Response Plan! I'm the person in charge here now. If anything happens to me, Chief Engineer Xia will take over."
The crowd looked at one another, temporarily unable to make sense of the situation.
Then Chief Engineer Xia said in a deep voice, "His orders are my orders!"
Could this guy be Chief Engineer Xia's illegitimate son...?
But no one dared to defy Chief Engineer Xia. He had been promoted to Group Chief Engineer just two years ago and was the most senior veteran in the entire Mode Capital Metro Group!
Even the Group President had to treat him with respect.
"First, except for Train 975 ahead of Train 956, all trains are to return to the depot!"
"Er... Mr. Xu Qi!"
A leader from the Engineering Department raised his hand stiffly.
"What is it?"
Xu Qi recognized him. He was the head of Engineering, yet now he had to listen to a twenty-four-year-old young man issue orders—it was a rather strange feeling.
"Not long ago... an abnormal situation occurred at the Group's Network Control Center... We can no longer control the switches..."
"!"
Chief Engineer Xia rushed up to him, grabbed him by the collar, and shouted, "Why didn't you say so earlier!?"
"I..."
The Engineering leader was rendered speechless. Faced with Chief Engineer Xia's oppressive gaze, he could only tell the truth.
"Because this was too serious. At first, I thought it was just a minor anomaly, but... I never expected the entire switch system on Line 9 to have developed an abnormality..."
"Bastard!"
Chief Engineer Xia cursed viciously. Everyone present had at least worked their way into the leadership ranks, and being called a bastard in front of all these people... But there was nothing they could do.
The Engineering leader could only sneak a glance at Xu Qi.
Xu Qi, however, remained unusually calm. In this respect, he didn't seem like a young man who was only twenty-four at all.
After learning that the switch system had been hijacked, he drew a deep breath. Just as I thought... If this was the result at the Network Control Center, then clearly, the substations must have...
Xu Qi looked directly at the leader of the Power Department. "Can you cut power to the area?"
The moment he finished speaking, the Power Department leader received a phone call.
"The control system at the Line 9 substation... has been hacked."
Chief Engineer Xia was so furious that he had to take several deep breaths before finally suppressing the urge to curse. Right now, he really wanted to ask...
What the hell is the Information Security Department doing!?
Xu Qi's phone vibrated. He looked down.
Coder: The substation has been hacked. It's an expert. We can't resolve it in a short time.
V2V Isn't Just for Show: The Network Control Center too. I suspect it was done by the same person.
Coder: It's a blue rabbit, right?
V2V Isn't Just for Show: That's confirmed. It has to be that guy—Hack Rabbit.
······
Inside a rather ordinary residential building, a little girl sat in front of a computer, her hands flying back and forth across different keyboards. The various monitors in front of her displayed different levels of intrusion.
The little girl in a rabbit-eared hood and black hoodie, whose height was clearly no more than one hundred forty centimeters, was the one who had plunged Golden Courtyard's two computer experts into a bitter struggle.
She was known throughout the underground world as—Hack Rabbit.
"Impressive... The person at the substation actually managed to make me feel a hint of pressure... But that's all."
One person, two threads. Even so, she still wasn't at any disadvantage. Judging by Hack Rabbit's appearance, she was handling it with ease.
When the phone on the desk rang, she even had enough time to answer it and turn on speakerphone.
"How are things on your end?"
It was a woman's voice. If Xu Qi had been there, he might even have found it somewhat familiar.
"I ran into some resistance, but nothing serious. What about you? I heard you lost to a young man?"
"When saying that, Bronya, you should remember that you're only fourteen years old, right?"
"Ah, yes, yes, whatever you say."
"All right. Since things are going smoothly on your end, I'm relieved."
"Relieved about what?"
"Relieved that I can leave the stage."
"Huh?"
Bronya wanted to ask more, but the call had already ended. The only answer she received was the sound of "beep, beep, beep."
"Tsk!... What a strange woman."
······
"The train can't leave the main line, and the power can't be cut! Are we supposed to let it run until it dies!?"
"A train that never stops... A train that never stops..."
No one could remain calm under these circumstances. Train 956's speed was still climbing continuously. If they let it keep running like this...
It wouldn't even need to collide with the train ahead. It wouldn't be able to enter the turnaround line properly and would shoot straight off the tracks!
Everyone on the entire train... could die aboard it.
"Quiet!"
As panic began to spread, Xu Qi's roar plunged the hall into a brief silence.
"Normally, every one of you acts arrogant, thinking you understand and can do everything. Yet now, you can't even maintain basic composure. And you still have the nerve to call yourselves the elites of the Mode Capital Metro!
"What a joke."
Faced with Xu Qi's mockery despite his young age, no one dared to say anything to refute him.
The truth was... standing at the very front at that moment, Xu Qi radiated an aura that seemed even more frightening than Chief Engineer Xia's! Just looking at him made people afraid to speak back.
"Without the system, you don't know how to change tracks or cut the power? What a disgraceful bunch!"
Xu Qi's words brought the panicked leaders back to their senses one after another.
"Now is the time to show some nerve... Get into the tunnels! Manually close the breakers and cut the power. Change the switches! No matter what... we have to stop Train 956!
"And another thing! Why haven't we received any news about the passengers aboard Train 956? Where's Communications? Why can't we contact the passengers!"
"We... We don't know. We haven't been able to establish communications, but before the connection was cut, we seem to have received a brief distress signal.
"It said... they had been... hijacked by terrorists... But at the time, Train 956 hadn't developed the inability to brake, so we..."
"So you ignored it, right?"
Xu Qi drew a deep breath.
Chief Engineer Xia glanced at the man from Communications. He truly... didn't want to say anything more.
When did the Mode Capital Metro... become like this?
Heh... Perhaps it was already too late for him to start thinking about that question. If the system hadn't become so rotten, how could all these things have happened?
How could Xia Ya possibly... have planned an attack like this just because one of his disciples had died?
This was revenge—revenge against the Mode Capital Metro...
"This might not be revenge, Engineer Xia."
Before you continue