Slade's Speculation

Negative Fourth Floor, a small command and surveillance room.

Every floor had a surveillance command room overseen by a major. As a colonel, Slade was the highest-ranking person in the entire Underground Research Institute.

'Bzzzt...'

A jumble of electronic static came through the intercom.

Slade's face turned livid. His knuckles whitened as he gripped the radio.

"Ba Miu Luo Di!"

That alien really was the monstrously dangerous beast his instincts had warned him about.

He had exploited Jenny's feelings and even let them cripple him, all to lower Slade's guard.

He had willingly given them so much technological knowledge, all to probe the psychology of every one of them.

Jenny!

Dean Bo Li!

Himself!

Even General Vick had been toyed with in the palm of his hand.

Even paralyzed in a wheelchair, he had remained utterly confident, pretending to be calm and detached, as though all he wanted was to spend the rest of his life with Jenny.

He had constantly fed them so-called "Kryptonian culture," making them grow accustomed to it.

From beginning to end, all he had wanted was to bask in the sun, activate his genes, and regain the ability to move.

'Bang!'

Fire burst from Slade's eyes. His face darkened as his furious fist slammed down on the desk.

The old Dean Bo Li beside him, along with the soldiers in the surveillance command room, flinched in fright.

"Close every passage on the Negative First Floor, including the stairwells and the connections to the surface. Seal the Negative First Floor and release Vick's Poison Gas."

Slade gave the order in a cold roar.

The order made the soldiers' hearts pound, and they hesitated for a moment. It was simply too terrifying.

A single spoonful of Vick's toxin vaporized into the air would be enough to kill everyone across eight city blocks. Anyone who had seen The Rock—the movie with twenty green glass spheres filled with VX toxin—knew just how horrifying the stuff was! Once released, everyone on the Negative First Floor would die.

If the seal leaked even slightly, everyone in the entire Underground Base, including the military base above, would be wiped out.

Dean Bo Li's expression changed. Panicking, he said, "No, Colonel. We can escape. We should get out first. Look, Jenny is still there."

"If Ba Di comes down by elevator, we'll go up the stairs. If he comes down the stairs, we'll take the elevator."

"Take me with you. Take Jenny too. General Vick won't want the results to disappear. There will definitely be gene serums in the future. No matter how powerful Ba Di is, we can capture him."

The elevator and stairwell were at opposite ends, so Dean Bo Li's reasoning was sound and logically organized, impossible to refute.

Jenny was indeed still alive. She was still breathing.

The warehouse surveillance feed showed Jenny clutching the small red box containing the ring in both hands, as though holding a priceless treasure. Curled up miserably and alone in a pool of blood, she looked utterly pitiful.

The camera even showed her lips moving constantly as she muttered to herself, while bloody tears streamed from her eyes.

Major Larry beside them also looked terrified. "Colonel, there are still many scientists and soldiers on the Negative First Floor!"

Slade drew a deep breath through his nose, as if the two of them had jolted him awake. He rescinded the order that might have destroyed the entire military base.

His mind was in chaos.

He had been led around by Ba Di, plotted against at every turn. He had remained vigilant the whole time, yet Ba Di had still succeeded—and now he was about to unleash slaughter here.

"Slade, we need to leave quickly. Ba Di wants to come down and kill us. We can trap him on the Negative Fourth Floor. Sooner or later, we'll capture him." The old Dean Bo Li spoke in frantic haste. Ba Di's battle on the Negative First Floor had scared him out of his wits. Bullets could not even hit him, and dozens of soldiers had died in mere seconds. Before the surveillance cameras were shot apart, everyone who saw Ba Di move had sucked in a cold breath. Dean Bo Li was even more terrified.

"Shut up!"

Slade barked coldly, his face dark.

His gaze fell on the only remaining surveillance feeds from the Negative First Floor: the warehouse camera focused on Jenny, and the sole camera left from the battle in the hall. This camera seemed to have been deliberately spared by Ba Di.

He had shot out every other camera, leaving only one that showed the whole scene, as if to display his terror. Even surrounded by soldiers, his steel-pillar frame made them too afraid to act, forcing Slade to watch him slaughter them step by step.

"Why is he coming down to the Negative Fourth Floor?" Slade reined in his anger and regained his usual calm composure, a sharp gleam flashing in his eyes.

"He wants to kill us! We imprisoned him. We studied him."

Dean Bo Li answered in fear without hesitation. Did that even need thinking? Anyone imprisoned for a year and three months, having their blood drawn, forced to reveal the knowledge in their head, and stripped of all freedom, would have the urge to kill them.

Slade gave the old Dean Bo Li a cold glance that made his skin crawl.

From the instant Ba Di stood after basking in the sunlight,

Slade had known that Ba Di was an intensely goal-driven person who would not do anything pointless. What they had done to him during his imprisonment was vile? Of course it was vile! But compared to freedom, his endurance and year-and-three-month plan had all been for freedom. Killing them was simply not worth mentioning.

Of course, if Ba Di knew Slade had deployed an elite force on the surface and knew he could not escape upward, so he had come down to slaughter them instead, Slade would have nothing to say.

But Slade did not believe it. He did not believe Ba Di had endured for a year and three months merely to massacre them.

If it had been Slade, even if the chance was only one in ten thousand, he would have charged for the surface, left the Underground Base, and fought for that one-in-ten-thousand chance at freedom.

So Slade believed Ba Di would not be so foolish as to let rage blind him, come down to the Negative Fourth Floor, and let himself perish here, unless...

A flash of insight struck Slade.

Unless there was something on the Negative Fourth Floor that could help him escape! "Dean Bo Li, is there anything from Ba Di's spacecraft that could help him get out of here?"

Slade's voice was chillingly grim. He believed his deduction was correct. They had never truly understood this alien's real face. The technology he possessed, even everything he had said about "Krypton," was all fake.

The old Dean Bo Li trembled at Slade's voice, then shook his head frantically. "His spacecraft is so badly damaged that not a single thing is intact. Colonel Slade, you know what was in the spacecraft too. I really can't think of anything he could use."

"I'll go look... Maybe it can make Ba Di hesitate and keep him from killing us."

The old Dean Bo Li looked extremely anxious as he nervously walked out of the command room.

Dean Bo Li hurried out of the command room.

After getting some distance away from the command room, he slowed down. With a grave expression, he slipped his hand into the pocket of his white lab coat.

The moment he touched the cold key, his breathing stalled slightly, and conflict flickered in his eyes.

He had a feeling.

Ba Di was looking for this "key."

The old Dean Bo Li's eyes struggled. What he struggled with was not whether to hand it over, but whether keeping it could save his life—whether he could use it to beg Ba Di to spare him.

"Is that so?" Slade murmured thoughtfully, his eyes narrowing. He had also seen some of the restored remnants of the spacecraft, and he had never felt those scraps contained anything worth Ba Di obtaining.

If there was nothing usable in the spacecraft, was he truly brutal enough to massacre everyone in the Underground Base? A fierce light flashed in Slade's eyes as he looked at the panoramic surveillance feed from the Negative First Floor. Ba Di had Major Atherton lifted by the throat like a kitten, surrounded by countless soldiers. Slade activated the Negative First Floor's broadcast.

"Carry out the order, soldiers!"

"Fire!"