Chapter 229: Violent Breakthrough

Inside the elevator, Yao Haiping swallowed his saliva with difficulty, his thoughts racing.

What should I do!

He stared nervously at the long sword in Lin An's hand.

He knew that sword was extremely fast, capable of slaying him from afar.

He was considering whether to continue holding his gun to threaten Zhang Hai, forcing these outsiders to let him escape...

Or should he immediately kneel and beg for mercy?

Before him.

Dressed in a black combat uniform with a long sword slung across his back, Lin An looked extremely impressive, a faint smile playing on his face.

But in his eyes, that smile was unusually cold.

It was just like a cat looking at a mouse.

Could he escape?

There was hardly any possibility.

Even if he threatened everyone that he would shoot Zhang Hai to death, triggering the lockdown order.

That would also require forcing everyone into the elevator.

Otherwise, once the elevator went up it would lock, and he would still die.

So, this situation had no solution.

Letting the people from the Research Institute go up with him, he wasn't worried that anyone would hold a grudge and kill him.

These guys were all researchers, basically lacking the courage, and they wouldn't have such thoughts.

But...

If he let this mysterious powerful man into the elevator, wouldn't he die instantly?

He had indeed witnessed Lin An's violent methods.

In less than a second.

After thinking it through, Yao Haiping unhesitatingly threw down his pistol.

"Plop."

He instantly knelt on the ground, sincere expression, speaking rapidly to explain:

"Sir!"

"The nuclear bomb inside the Research Institute is about to detonate!"

"It only takes two minutes to go up by elevator from here!"

"I was just momentarily confused earlier; please spare me!"

"You are Military Region rescue personnel, right! I am willing to return to the Military Region and face a military court, accepting judicial judgment!"

His voice hoarse from exhaustion, his heart pounding.

He had already said everything he could.

As long as Lin An and the others are Military Region personnel, they certainly wouldn't kill him now.

Once they reached the Military Region, with his status as a researcher, preserving his life should still be possible.

Hearing that, Lin An's heart sank, and he quickly glanced at the surrounding screens with his peripheral vision.

"8 minutes 36 seconds"

The red countdown was not very conspicuous; he had just rushed into the monitoring room, never expecting this to be a self-destruct countdown.

"Holy shit, this thing's about to explode!"

"Who the hell ordered the self-destruct? Didn't you see we'd taken care of the monster!"

Zhang Tie's heart suddenly tightened, and he hurriedly looked at the screen.

Zhang Hai gave a bitter laugh, then forced himself to speak and explain:

"We thought..."

"You couldn't handle the monster..."

"If we didn't initiate self-destruct, using a nuclear blast to wipe out the monster. Once the monster escaped, the consequences would be unimaginable."

"Exactly!"

The crowd quickly chimed in agreement,

"Back then..."

He had barely spoken halfway when his tone suddenly shifted.

They also felt embarrassed to admit that infighting had broken out among them.

In the crowd, many people looked at the leading Lin An with awe and curiosity:

"Which Military Region are you from? Are you from the Wangjiang Fourth Military Region?"

"Were you sent here by higher command?"

"Why didn't you inform us before arriving, and why won't you listen to our opinions?"

Seeing Lin An not respond, Zhang Hai secretly sighed, then spoke solemnly:

"Comrade, I am Zhang Hai, Director of the Fourth Equipment Test Institute."

"If you are Military Region rescue personnel, please evacuate with us as soon as possible!"

He turned his head to look at Yao Haiping kneeling on the ground, a flicker of coldness in his eyes, yet he still spoke to advise:

"Our test institute has indeed encountered some problems, but please take him back to the Military Region for handling afterward."

Lin An frowned, without responding.

His mind was filled with irritation.

He originally wanted to take the weapons and equipment here to arm Long'an Base.

He was determined to get the heavy weapons and various experimental equipment here.

But there was simply no time to move so many weapons.

Even with a space ring to load the weapons all at once.

But.

Eight minutes, after subtracting the time to go up and escape.

The time left for him was simply not enough.

Damn it, why did these two operations go so badly?

Even if the military region outpost had few weapons and equipment, that would be tolerable, but they also encountered the ghost infant incident.

Upon arriving here, not to mention encountering an indestructible Asura-like life form, after dealing with it they actually ran into a nuclear bomb self-destruct.

He forcibly suppressed his irritation.

Lin An no longer hesitated, intending to move as many weapons as possible.

Just as he was about to ask where the equipment warehouse was, the silently standing Chu An behind him suddenly spoke:

I can disable the self-destruct program.

?

Lin An turned in surprise and delight toward Colonel Chu behind him, his eyes full of hope:

Are you sure!!

Chu An gave a slight nod, but this drew Zhang Hai's skepticism:

This comrade.

We're short on time; please don't speak nonsense about this.

Our Research Institute's self-destruct program cannot be cracked; it is encrypted with the AES-1024 algorithm, making brute-force cracking impossible!

Even using a supercomputer to continuously attempt cracking for fifteen thousand years would still be impossible!

Strictly speaking, only by using the highest-level biometric comparison could one possibly halt the self-destruct program!

Zhang Tie listened, utterly bewildered, and looked at Colonel Chu with some doubt:

What does this old man mean? Colonel Chu, can you crack it or not?

Chu An seemed not to have heard Zhang Hai's dissuasion, walking calmly to the console and operating his fingers rapidly.

For a moment, everyone in the control room was at a loss.

Lin An glanced at Chu An somewhat unexpectedly, pondered briefly, then let him proceed with the cracking.

In Lin An's impression, Chu An was almost like a robot.

If he said he could crack it, Lin An would believe him.

But others did not think so.

Seeing that the explosion was imminent, this group of outsiders actually dared to try to crack the self-destruct program?

Among the researchers, several senior researchers suppressed their dissatisfaction:

It's meaningless!

There is absolutely no way in this world to crack the highest-level encryption; otherwise, what point would the self-destruct program have?

To brute-force the password, at least 10^1024 operations would be needed to have a chance!

That's an astronomical number! Never mind that we don't have a supercomputer; even if the world's combined computing power were added together, it still couldn't crack it!

Speaking frankly.

Lin An also knew how extreme the AES-1024 encryption method was.

Simply put, to crack such a password, it's like unlocking a phone—you can only try one by one.

An 8-digit password has 100 million combinations, a 9-digit...

So a 1024-digit password would have roughly 3083 digits?

So it's no wonder these researchers don't believe Chu An can crack it at all.

Because it's absolutely impossible.

Seeing Chu An actually inputting on the control panel, Zhang Hai couldn't help but feel furious and laugh bitterly.

It's not that he looks down on Chu An; it's that Chu An is purely 'insulting' his intelligence.

This comrade! Please stop this foolish behavior immediately!

Manual cracking is absolutely impossible!

Moreover, after three wrong inputs, the self-destruct program will immediately detonate the nuclear bomb!

There is only one way to stop the self-destruct program!

Zhang Hai paused a moment, his gaze falling on the rank insignia on Chu An's shoulder.

The man before him is merely a colonel, a rank inferior to his own by a notch.

He took a deep breath and continued:

There is only one way to terminate the self-destruct!

That is...

That is... the Capital Military Region's commanding general personally verifying identity...

Before he could finish speaking, a cold mechanical voice suddenly sounded.

Beep.

The self-destruct program has been terminated.

Terminator: Capital Military Region General Chu An

The red self-destruct countdown on the screen stopped, and the monitoring room instantly fell into an eerie silence.

The test facility's staff felt their hearts skip a beat, staring in shock at the halted numbers.

Chu An slowly turned his head toward Zhang Hai, a half-smile on his face:

"What did you say?"

Having said that, he ignored the nearly dumbfounded crowd, walked straight up to Lin An, and bowed respectfully.

"Sir, the procedure has been terminated."

"Do you need me to open the Research Institute's highest authorization for you?"