What Happened

Negative Fourth Floor, a small armory established to prevent unexpected accidents, stocked with enough equipment to arm a hundred people.

No one had expected it to actually be used.

All the soldiers on the Negative Fourth Floor were here—nearly ninety elite troops rapidly gearing up, preparing to fight an asymmetric war.

Soldiers rushed back and forth without pause. The swishing of equipment and the clicks of safeties being released rang out continuously as they hurriedly readied themselves.

"That's impossible!"

"The stairway door is made of two layers of ten-centimeter composite alloy steel—a total of twenty centimeters of alloy steel. Forget ten tons of force; even twenty tons couldn't force it open."

Dean Bo Li said in disbelief.

Ba Di had already destroyed the elevator. They had no way to escape upward, and only by defeating Ba Di at the stairs could they find a way to survive.

What Dean Bo Li wanted even more was to hole up on the Negative Fourth Floor and wait for the ground forces to advance step by step and overwhelm Ba Di. That way, they could get through this safely without having to leave.

Slade slid the camouflage-colored Intruder Military Knife into the belt at his back. He also carried a Desert Eagle that had only just finished development in 1981, a powerful firearm he particularly loved.

After placing the Desert Eagle and Intruder Military Knife where they were easy to reach, Slade looked over the many standard-issue weapons before him: M9 Pistols, M16 Automatic Rifles, M4 Carbines, RPG-7 Rocket Launchers, and MKⅡ Hand Grenades.

Slade suddenly felt that none of the firearms here might be able to kill Ba Di. His gaze swept across the weapons before a Samurai Sword deep within the racks caught his attention.

Moved by the thought, he strapped the Samurai Sword to his back.

At the same time, he took an M4 Carbine from the armory and shoved it into Dean Bo Li's arms. He said coldly, "Dean Bo Li, no matter how sturdy that alloy steel stairway door is, it can only secure a few points. I believe Ba Di will find a way to open it. If you don't believe me, you can hide in the command room and watch him slaughter everyone on the Negative Third Floor before coming down here."

Dean Bo Li fell silent. A sense of dread flashed through his heart, and he instinctively accepted the M4 Carbine.

But with his marksmanship, how could he possibly hit Ba Di? Even if Ba Di stood still, his hands would probably shake too badly for him to hit anything.

Dean Bo Li refused to believe that Ba Di could blast through nearly twenty centimeters of composite alloy steel by staying here. How could twenty centimeters of thick alloy steel possibly be broken through by a living creature? Clutching the M4 Carbine, Dean Bo Li anxiously made his way to the surveillance command room.

In the blink of an eye, he saw Ba Di's body flash across the monitors like a demon, as elusive as a phantom.

On the Negative Third Floor, Ba Di had no intention of holding back or leaving anyone alive. On the Negative First Floor, he had only spared a few people because Jenny was there, delaying them until someone came to rescue her.

But on the Negative Third Floor, he was a complete savage beast. In the blink of an eye, he sent people flying with a punch, and bullets could not track his movements at all.

The entire Negative Third Floor became a mountain of corpses and a sea of blood in less than a minute. Every researcher and soldier had been killed.

Even those hiding in secret places were dragged out by Ba Di based on the sounds of their breathing and heartbeats, then sent to their deaths.

Watching soldiers get brutally blasted away by Ba Di on the monitors, their chests crushed by his fists until even their eyeballs popped out and splattered against the cameras, Dean Bo Li's face turned deathly pale and his legs went weak.

When he saw Ba Di enter a chemical laboratory and emerge carrying a test tube of dark yellow liquid, then smash it against the electronic lock he had designed, corroding a huge hole through the steel around it—

"That's impossible!" Dean Bo Li's vision went dark, and he nearly fainted.

Even the strongest corrosive chemicals could not damage composite alloy steel, yet Ba Di had simply entered a chemical lab, made some chemicals, and corroded the electronic lock Dean Bo Li had painstakingly designed. He was so furious he nearly spat blood.

If Ba Di had used programming to unlock the electronic lock, Dean Bo Li would have admitted he was inferior and praised the alien technology for being so far ahead of Earth's.

But now Ba Di had so easily burned a hole through it with chemicals. Dean Bo Li's emotions were tangled beyond words.

Still, no matter how complicated his feelings were, Dean Bo Li knew that this beast, Ba Di, truly intended to kill those who had researched on and imprisoned him.

Once the fear of death arose, one would flee blindly for one's life.

In his panic, Dean Bo Li muttered to himself as he spun in circles, then rushed out of the command room and into Jenny's laboratory, where he hid that tube of Gene Serum first.

Then he hid the "key" somewhere else. Hugging the M4 Carbine, he still hoped in his panic that if Ba Di saw him, he would spare his life because he knew where the two items were.

Ba Di adjusted his collar and rolled his shoulders. His clothes rubbed against his skin like sand. The camouflage uniform on him made him look especially fierce, his heroic bearing tinged with cold indifference.

The deep scar made him seem even more cruel and violent beneath that coldness.

When he passed through the changing room on this floor, he had found clothes that fit and changed into a camouflage uniform.

There was no longer a single living thing on the Negative Third Floor besides him.

An M9 Pistol and a camouflage military knife hung at his lower back, while several magazines were attached to his belt. He held a standard-issue M16 Automatic Rifle in his left hand.

The stench of corroded steel rose in wisps of smoke. Ba Di frowned slightly. With his Super Smell, the corrosive chemical that was even stronger than aqua regia made him feel very uncomfortable.

Only after the corrosive effect had faded somewhat did he step forward and forcefully pull open the door, which weighed nearly ten tons.

Passing the corpses of white-coated researchers and soldiers strewn along the bloody path behind him, Ba Di pulled the heavy door open with the sound of grinding machinery and stepped into the stairwell, bright as day.

He walked down indifferently. The stairs were padded with white rubber, giving them the springy feel of soft rubber beneath his feet. He paused.

Bang.

Wisps of smoke rose from the muzzle of the M16 Automatic Rifle. The surveillance camera crackled as sparks flew, its surface glass shattered, and the fragments fell onto the rubber-padded stairs without making a sound.

Ba Di continued downward.

After turning past the landing in the middle of the stairwell, Ba Di looked toward the alloy-forged stairway door, which gleamed with a cold metallic light.

Ba Di's eyes were merciless, but the corner of his mouth curved upward.

Standing on the stairway landing, he could already hear intense heartbeats reaching his ears.

Ninety soldiers stood on the other side of the door, weapons in hand, waiting for him to come out.