Later that evening, Han Xiao learned that a transport team had brought a large quantity of ammunition and munitions from a supply warehouse closer to headquarters and would be returning in twenty minutes.
Han Xiao targeted a transport truck driver, lured him out with a different face, and then snapped the driver's neck when he was alone. He then switched the driver's face and clothes. Disposing of a corpse was a troublesome task, so Han Xiao chose a bloodless method, avoiding any gore. His method was rather unconventional: he directly approached the players, used his credits to assign them a task, and left the corpse for the players in the area to dispose of. The task was signed "Unknown Identity," but the players didn't care about that; seeing the substantial reward, they immediately accepted the task and helped.
"That's convenient," Han Xiao exclaimed, having a new idea: players could potentially aid him in his infiltration.
Even if the faction relationships among the Germinal players are solidified, they still retain the freedom to accept quests and are potential allies, a fact that the Germinal themselves are unaware of.
Disguised as a driver, Han Xiao quickly received orders. The vehicle's navigation system indicated the route, and Han Xiao followed the convoy. Half a day later, they arrived at the supply warehouse. Han Xiao continued to gather new intelligence in this manner.
After traveling and changing identities several times over two days, Han Xiao finally arrived at a position near the headquarters.
Beyond the barbed wire fence, one could see a dark cluster of bases in the distance, imposing and vast in scale, covering an area no smaller than a medium-sized city. This was the headquarters of Germinal. Han Xiao knew that the true core area was hidden underground.
Han Xiao inquired about intelligence from the garrison here. To enter the underground headquarters, conventional methods were almost impossible, so it was necessary to find some targets with special identities.
Fang Yun slowly woke up to find himself lying on a hospital bed in a medical tent, surrounded by wounded soldiers. A doctor, seeing him awake, came over and asked, "I've treated your wounds; you were unconscious for a day."
"How is Miga Town doing?"
"The reinforcements arrived in time, the enemy was routed, and some escaped. We are currently assessing the casualties."
"Let me see..." Fang Yun coughed weakly a few times. The doctor hurriedly picked up the water bottle to feed him, Fang Yun snatched it away, tilted his head back, and gulped down a large mouthful, panting heavily.
As a superhuman, Fang Yun naturally received excellent treatment. Soon, someone brought him the battle casualty statistics. He eagerly flipped through them and saw that all his teammates had been confirmed dead. He couldn't help but feel grief and anger. His face turned ashen as he flipped to the enemy death statistics, when suddenly his gaze sharpened.
"One enemy is missing." Fang Yun realized that the missing one was Kanruisi. His superiors quickly sent him intelligence about the battle, which consisted of images from the fight. The enemy's appearance was compared with the database to confirm their identity. Most of the named superhumans in the Germinal were in the database.
"It was him, the younger one was called Kanruisi, I saw him die with my own eyes."
The officer frowned. "But according to our eyewitness accounts, Kanruisi escaped and is alive and well, and we haven't found Kanruisi's body."
A chill ran through Fang Yun's heart; he immediately thought of that "refugee."
In the Germinal underground headquarters, the leader was silently studying the tactical map.
The map is marked with red and blue areas. Red represents the forces of the Six Nations, and blue represents the organization's power. The red forces are surrounding the blue forces, constantly shrinking the blue territory. This is the predicament of the Germinal organization, a sign of its declining fortunes. However, the leader is not concerned with the gains and losses of individual cities and territories. He has not committed all his combat power to the front lines but has secretly prepared a counterattack. However, it has not yet been implemented because there is a prerequisite: the "predictive" Zero must be eliminated first. Otherwise, the plan would be meaningless if it were exposed.
Although the Child of Destiny asserted that Zero would walk right into the trap, the details and the Tu Shu needed to be completed by the leader. He deliberately left some gaps in the deployment on the main battlefield, so that if Zero wanted to infiltrate the headquarters, he would likely take these routes. However, the messages sent back by the hidden spies disappointed the leader time and time again. No one actually managed to sneak through those gaps into the combat zone.
Han Xiao's infiltration method indirectly avoided the leader's eyes and ears.
The longer it dragged on, the more anxious the leader became. The "foresight" of Zero hung like a sword of Damocles over the group and the organization, hindering its actions.
"They haven't arrived yet..." The leader asked his informant as usual, but was disappointed once again. He couldn't help but begin to doubt whether the Child of Destiny's prediction had failed.
He simply couldn't understand why Zero needed to come to headquarters, and he couldn't figure out what Han Xiao's goal was.
He would never have imagined that Han Xiao's target would be Aurora; there was absolutely no warning.
Industrial fumes and thick, dark clouds painted the sky a leaden gray. The heavy cloud-covered mountains seemed poised to collapse at any moment, looming over the sky for dozens of miles. Faint rumbles of thunder echoed within the clouds, while lightning was trapped inside, unable to penetrate. Looking up, the Germinal soldiers felt a sense of oppression.
The ground headquarters is a magnificent and heavily fortified base complex, with vehicles coming and going and sentries guarding various intersections to check all kinds of documents. The central base is a huge steel fortress, with menacing metal towers piercing the sky, like a miniature gray-black mountain range.
The entrance is a huge alloy door, with side doors on both sides serving as personnel passages and a central passage for vehicles to enter and exit. It is spacious enough for three tanks to drive side by side. Helicopters are also built on the outer walls of the fortress, and they take off and land from time to time.
The gate was bustling with activity, with troops coming and going, and rows of guards patrolling the area to maintain security.
One of the guards was Han Xiao in disguise, his eyes darting around as he surveyed his surroundings, his gaze sharp and piercing.
The Smart Optical Simulation Mask was highly effective, and this method of infiltration was unpredictable. After many operations, he finally obtained an identity that allowed him to enter the headquarters. In order to become a guard, Han Xiao waited patiently for several days. It goes without saying where the original owner of this identity went. When necessary, Han Xiao never hesitated.
When it was time to change shifts, Han Xiao followed the troops into the ground headquarters. The space was vast and magnificent, with the first floor being more than ten meters high. Upon entering, there was a wide-open space where vehicles were loading and unloading cargo, and officers were directing operations. It was noisy and chaotic, with engines roaring and exhaust fumes filling the air. The air quality was extremely poor, with the PM2.5 index probably off the charts.
The west side is the garage entrance, inside which are numerous ground vehicles parked; the other directions are pedestrian walkways.
Han Xiao knew the basic structure of the Germinal Headquarters. The surface headquarters was connected to the underground headquarters. By using an ID card to identify someone in the elevator, they would be taken to the underground headquarters. There were quite a few people with authority in the surface headquarters, even some players who passed by had authority (due to faction affiliation). Han Xiao quietly locked onto a suitable target, changed the target's identity in a secluded corner, entered the elevator with the new ID card, swiped it on the reader, the green light lit up, and then the elevator stopped on the ground floor. Inside was a metal passage leading to the underground headquarters.
He opened the door and stepped inside. The underground headquarters was solemn and quiet, with winding corridors unlike the bustling surface. The air was filled with a serious atmosphere, and the members coming and going had expressionless faces and hurried steps, all indicating that they were very busy. Han Xiao's eyes flashed as he concealed his inner strength, pretending to be an ordinary person, turning up his collar and walking discreetly, while his mind was calculating his next move.
Reaching the underground headquarters is half the battle won!
Ah, now that's what you call infiltration! Master Kang can rest in peace now.
Delaying for too long would be disadvantageous for him. If his identity were exposed, his situation would immediately turn into that of an assassin. Han Xiao touched his equipment bag, feeling slightly relieved.
The defenses must be disabled through the mainframe backend in order to rescue the people at headquarters. Moreover, his other target also needs to access the mainframe, so a high-ranking person with the authority to operate the mainframe is needed as a hostage. Han Xiao had already identified a person with sufficient authority.
Cerberus.