Just as the group fell into thought, they heard footsteps coming from above. A crowd of armed men rushed in, pushing Peach in front of Hao Shuai and the others.
"One of the guards was clever. He didn't take the poison your grandfather gave him," explained an old man in a gentleman's hat, seated in a wheelchair.
"Peach, are you all right?" Hao Shuai hurried over to steady her and asked with concern.
"If I'm not mistaken, you're Adolf," Jack said confidently.
"How did you know?" Adolf asked, looking astonished from his wheelchair.
Jack pulled out the dagger that had been stuck in Elsa's grandfather's back. "Because your name is engraved on it. You're the clever guard. You didn't take the poison."
"So you were the one who killed my grandfather," Elsa said furiously.
Adolf's face twisted with anger. "Your grandfather wasn't a good man. He tricked us into taking poison, and when he saw I hadn't taken any, he beat me until I was crippled. Do you know how long I've been waiting? All this time, I've been waiting for today."
"But this gold belongs to the United Nations," Ada innocently interjected.
"As long as the gold is here, I'm its owner," Adolf declared.
"How do we get out?" the mercenary leader asked Adolf, turning around.
"I remember the way out is this way."
With guns pointed at them, Hao Shuai and the others had no choice but to lead the way. Knowing there was no danger ahead, Hao Shuai casually stepped onto the stairs first. Ever since the mercenaries had come in, he had kept his telekinesis wrapped around the group, so he had nothing to fear.
"Jack, who are they?" Ada asked nervously, a gun trained on her.
"They're mercenaries."
"They work for me," Adolf said from behind them, voicing his displeasure at Jack's answer.
"They work for money," Jack added, not missing a chance to sow discord.
"Quit trying to turn us against each other!" one of the mercenaries behind them jabbed Jack in the butt with his gun.
Jack instantly clammed up. Then he noticed that Hao Shuai and the others had already entered a small doorway. Seeing the corpses at his feet, he hooked one of the skeletons with his heel and kicked it toward the mercenaries behind him.
Startled, the mercenaries stumbled backward. Seizing the chance, Jack darted through the doorway and pulled it shut.
By the time the mercenaries recovered and fired wildly at the small door, the group had vanished.
They immediately grabbed flashlights and charged after them. Everyone ran blindly through the darkness. Hao Shuai grabbed Peach and followed Jack as they weaved through the corridors—what a rush.
Adolf came after them, shouting, "Mark! Mark!" He pointed in one direction. "I remember there's a generator over there. Get someone to start it."
At his command, Mark said, "Ben, go start the generator. The rest of you keep chasing them."
"Yes, sir!" Ben, an extra, went to start the generator.
Thanks to Jack's ingenious maneuvering, Hao Shuai and the others seized the mercenaries' weapons and got rid of them. Unfortunately, with Elsa being such a useless teammate, their advantage turned into a fistfight.
Hao Shuai and Jack drew the attention of most of the mercenaries, while Peach and the other two stuck together and ran.
Hao Shuai wanted to keep the mercenaries around in case he got a chance to take the gold later, so he didn't knock down the men chasing him all at once. Instead, he copied Jack, dashing around the base and toying with his pursuers.
Jack didn't have Hao Shuai's skills, so all he could do was fight for his life against the pursuers.
Just as Hao Shuai was having the time of his life, Mark, the mercenary leader, showed up with a gun and put an end to the ridiculous brawl. He lined up Hao Shuai and the others. To avoid any further complications, he raised his gun, ready to kill Jack and the others.
When Jack saw Mark pointing the gun at him, he hurriedly said, "Think this through! Having the key won't do you any good. I'm the only one who knows how to use it."
At that, Mark pointed his gun at Elsa. She hurriedly explained, "My grandfather used my mother's birthday as the secret code. I'm the only one who knows her birthday."
"I'm the only one who knows the steps to unlock it!" Ada said, waving her hands when she saw the gun pointed at her.
Hao Shuai was next in line. Just then, Mark happened to see Adolf being pushed down to them, so he asked, "Is it really that complicated?"
"Of course," Adolf replied. "Let's see the gold first. There's a passage just a little farther ahead."
"Kid, you walk in front. Don't try anything, or I'll shoot your friend first." Mark pointed his gun at Hao Shuai.
Lucky you, Hao Shuai thought. Otherwise, I'd make sure you never even saw the gold.
Under duress, Hao Shuai led everyone to the vault door.
Hao Shuai had already visited the door in the earlier chaos. Unfortunately, it was integrated with the base, so he couldn't put it into his dimensional space. Otherwise, he would have taken it already.
Mark pointed his gun at the tightly shut door. "What's the code?"
Ada said, "The key has three sections, and each one uses a different code."
Elsa said, "My mother's birthday is September sixteenth."
Mark turned to the subordinate holding the key, ready to open the door. "Nine-one-six."
The man nodded to show he understood, then began unlocking it.
As the key turned to the first code, six machine guns emerged from the ceiling and opened fire on the two mercenaries unlocking the door.
After a burst of gunfire, the two mercenaries had been riddled with bullets and were completely dead.
The shaken group slowly emerged from behind the wall.
Mark was furious. "You lied to me!" he shouted, preparing to shoot them.
Jack raised his hands. "We didn't lie to you."
"That's right. We told you everything we knew."
"My mother's birthday really is September sixteenth," Ada and Elsa hurriedly explained in alarm.
Adolf could see the gold right in front of him, but the door kept him from getting inside. Frustrated, he demanded, "Did you forget anything?"
"Enough. No more talk. You lot, go." Mark pointed at Jack and the others.
With no choice, they slowly walked toward the door. Along the way, Elsa and Ada continued arguing about whether the code was right.
"Jack, do you remember that number plate we took from Elsa's grandfather?" Hao Shuai prompted him.
Hao Shuai's reminder made Jack suddenly see the light. "Oh, right! Why didn't I think of that?"
Jack took out the number plate and examined it. One side was engraved with 6 5 3, and the other with 5 7 6. He couldn't decide which to use.
"Try turning it over," Hao Shuai prompted him again.
At his suggestion, Jack flipped the plate. As it turned, the numbers 6 9 8 appeared.
Jack gathered his courage, put the key into the lock, and began to turn it.
With Hao Shuai's reminder, Jack narrowly avoided disaster...
A crackle of electricity sounded, and the door opened.
The mercenaries behind them hurried forward to open the entire door.
Seeing only a cramped space of seven or eight square meters behind it, Mark turned to Adolf. "I thought you said the gold was in here?"
Adolf gave Mark the look one reserved for an idiot. "It's an elevator, fool."
"Come on. Everyone inside." Mark held back his anger at the insult, but silently added Adolf to his death list.
The group took the elevator to the level below the base. Two mercenaries entered the room first, and Hao Shuai and the other four were marched in after them.
The moment they entered, they saw gold glittering across the floor. Everyone's eyes widened.
"Pull off the tarpaulin! Hurry! The tarp up there—go pull it off!" Adolf shouted impatiently.
The nearest mercenary, a dark-skinned man, dropped the gold in his hands, hurried up onto the platform, and pulled off the tarp.
A dazzling golden light instantly blinded everyone. The entire room glowed gold.
"There really is this much gold!"
"Two and a half tons are mine."
Ada and Jack stared at the gold and murmured without thinking.
The mercenaries were also blinded by the gold. They all broke into a strange, incomprehensible dance.
Hao Shuai was probably the only one in the base who kept his head and wasn't blinded by the gold. He had seen even more of it, after all. Still, he was delighted. The more than two hundred tons of gold were 99.99% pure, saving him the trouble of refining them again.
Now Hao Shuai had to figure out how to take the gold and the weapons and ammunition in the base.
He wanted to kill the mercenaries and take the gold, but then he wouldn't be able to explain himself to Jack and the others. After spending so many days together, he had grown attached to them and didn't want to fall out with them.
After thinking it over, Hao Shuai decided to follow the plot and wait until the base was about to explode before coming back to take the gold.
While Hao Shuai was distracted, Jack had already snatched the pistol from the mercenary's waistband and pointed it at Adolf's head, ordering the mercenaries to put down their weapons.
Before you continue