Chapter 53: The Invisible Force

Sister Yang walked silently ahead, and in a short while the two arrived at the office at the end of the corridor.

Inside the retro-style office, the atmosphere was antique, with sandalwood incense curling upward.

After pushing the door open, Sister Yang pointed to the wall behind the sofa and said, "The money is there. The technique to open the hidden compartment is quite complex; I must do it myself."

"Go ahead," Lin Qing said.

Only then did Sister Yang step forward. Enduring the pain, she knocked on the wall more than ten times in succession, opened the hidden compartment, and revealed the safe door.

Immediately afterward, after passing fingerprint and iris recognition, she gritted her teeth tightly, forced strength with difficulty, and pressed the safety button on the safe door with some trouble, finally opening the door.

Inside the safe, indeed, lay a large quantity of coins, which appeared to be made of rare metals brought by extraterrestrial civilizations.

"If these coins were placed on the black market, their total value would be around forty-one million," Sister Yang said.

Lin Qing glanced at them, continued pointing the gun at her, and said, "Go get the Hyper-Sense Original Fluid."

Sister Yang turned around instead, gazed at him silently, and took no action.

"Hm?" A sound of questioning emerged from Lin Qing's nasal cavity.

"... I know. Once I bring out the Hyper-Sense Original Fluid, I will be killed by you," Sister Yang said through gritted teeth.

Lin Qing narrowed his eyes.

"I do not want to die."

Sister Yang took a deep breath and said, "So... if you want the Hyper-Sense Original Fluid, put away your gun and stay far away from me. After I complete the iris and fingerprint recognition, you must let me obtain the Hyper-Sense Original Fluid first."

She said in a low voice, "Once I discover you intend to kill me, I will immediately crush the Hyper-Sense Original Fluid. Its evaporation speed is very fast; once it spills out, you will have no chance to inject it."

Lin Qing looked at her expressionlessly.

"If you do not agree, then just kill me directly."

Sister Yang seemed not to see the gun muzzle; she simply stared straight into his eyes. "Otherwise, the instant the safe is opened, it will also be my time of death."

Lin Qing said nothing; he simply retreated slowly a few steps and placed the gun back into its holster.

Sister Yang sighed slightly in relief, then stepped forward, opened a hidden compartment on another section of the wall, and revealed the safe door.

Immediately afterward, after passing fingerprint and iris recognition, she was about to press that button when her body swayed slightly, as if blood loss and pain had left her somewhat weak.

In that instant when her movements were slow—

"Whoosh!"

Sister Yang suddenly heard the wind rise sharply; immediately afterward, she felt a force collide with her body, sending her flying, and she crashed directly into the wall nearby.

After she endured the pain and clumsily climbed up from the ground, she was startled to find that Lin Qing had already stood in front of the safe again, the muzzle of the revolver in his hand pointing directly at her.

"You!" Sister Yang's face turned pale; she stared fixedly at Lin Qing and said in a trembling voice, "You do not keep your word!"

Lin Qing glanced at her. "I never promised you, and besides, you were too slow."

He indeed could not let this woman go, but before killing her, he still needed to confirm whether the Hyper-Sense Original Fluid was truly inside the safe.

Sister Yang gritted her teeth tightly, her eyes filled with regret and unwillingness.

With one hand, Lin Qing pointed the gun at her; with the other, he reached toward the door-opening button on the safe.

At this moment, although Sister Yang's expression was grim, she could not help but sneer mockingly in her heart:

"People indeed die from greed..."

She knew very well.

Inside this safe, the Hyper-Sense Original Fluid was indeed stored.

But there was also a small device.

Except for that fixed time point every day, if the door is opened at any other time, a very high concentration of nerve gas will spray out at high speed immediately.

This toxin, originating from the Wisdom Star Group, means that unless one is a person who has undergone poison-resistance genetic modification like her, or has cultivated the original Chaoyang method, the poisoned person is basically doomed to die! From the very beginning, she had never thought of making any deal to stay alive.

She could see that the other party would not feel at ease without killing her and was extremely cautious, so she lured the other party step by step to this place, making the other party believe she truly intended to take the Hyper-Sense Original Fluid out of the safe to protect herself.

In addition, the safe containing the money was also real, further strengthening trust.

Until just now, she deliberately pretended that her movements were slightly slow due to injury and blood loss, giving the other party a chance to catch her mistake.

Every step was carefully calculated.

This entire process was a response method she had imagined long ago for encountering such a situation.

Unless one encountered a legendary telepathic awakener who could directly penetrate the safe with telepathy, failure was basically impossible.

But the Boss had said that nowadays, free telepathic awakeners were extremely rare; each one could only hide and dare not expose themselves, and she could not provoke enemies at that level.

And now, this young inspector had indeed fallen for the trap! Sister Yang watched Lin Qing's fingertips press bit by bit toward the button to open the cabinet door, and her heart also became extremely expectant:

"Open it. The instant the door opens, it will be your time of death!"

Just then, Lin Qing suddenly stopped.

【Current Order Level decreased by 0.7 levels】

【Current Order Level increased by 0.7 levels】

A line of blood-red prompts and a line of green prompts suddenly appeared continuously before his eyes.

This made Lin Qing slightly stunned.

Why did the Order Level drop so suddenly, yet recover immediately? What situation was this? Lin Qing could not help but glance at the woman named Zhou Yang beside him.

Only he and this Zhou Yang remained alive in this underground boxing arena; everyone else had either fled or died. But previously, Zhou Yang had only caused the Order Level to drop by 0.6 levels, belonging to the threat level of a squad leader; let alone now that she had been crippled and posed no threat.

If there were threats brought by another powerful person, they would not appear only now, appearing and then disappearing.

Unless...

Lin Qing suddenly turned his head and looked at the safe before him.

Suppose this safe contained a trigger-type bomb or something similar; once he attempted to open it, it could also cause the Order Level to drop significantly.

However... the Wisdom Star Group monitors the entire world; isn't the use of bombs and similar technological killing weapons prohibited?

Lin Qing tried to extend his hand and open the safe again.

But the Order Level did not drop.

That inexplicable intuition did not warn him again either.

Lin Qing felt increasingly strange.

Meanwhile, Sister Yang beside him grew somewhat anxious.

This person was about to open the door just now; why did he stop again? Seeing Lin Qing maintain his vigilance made her even more impatient; her condition was worsening, and she was waiting for Lin Qing to be poisoned and paralyzed so she could deliver a fatal blow with her last resort.

But if Lin Qing did not open the cabinet door, she would have no chance at all.

"I can only gamble..."

Sister Yang took a deep breath, a trace of determination appearing in her eyes; she then used her tongue to gently rotate and twist out one of her back molars.

She then held it on the tip of her tongue as mysterious energy within her body began to flow slowly.

This was her last resort.

—The "Tongue" technique from the Battle Method Divine Transformation series, besides possessing a miraculous sense of taste, could also spit hidden weapons from the mouth; their power approached that of a bullet, their speed was extremely fast, and under a sudden surprise attack, the threat was immense.

"Pfft!"

In the next instant, a white afterimage suddenly erupted from Sister Yang's mouth!

Lin Qing maintained the Battle Method "Agility" and reacted immediately, but the two were less than three meters apart; at such a close distance, this tooth, erupting like a bullet leaving the chamber, needed only 0.01 seconds to traverse that gap! By the time Lin Qing reacted, he could only retreat a step to dodge.

However—

The target of this bullet was not him personally, but the safe beside him!

"It succeeded!"

Sister Yang sneered inwardly.

She had seen the speed and reaction of this young Inspector; even at close range, she had no confidence in a successful surprise attack.

Therefore, her target was the door-opening button on the safe beside her! As long as she could open the cabinet door, under the device's ultra-high air pressure, the poison gas would spray out at nearly one hundred meters per second; even if Lin Qing only inhaled a tiny bit, it would be enough! "Clang!"

The white afterimage instantly struck the safe's door-opening button, and the massive rebound force caused the safe's door to spring open violently!

Is there really something fishy inside this safe?

Lin Qing's expression changed; he instantly turned into a blurred phantom and retreated backward at maximum speed! At the same time, he casually pulled the trigger, firing a shot at Sister Yang while retreating violently.

"Bang!"

The gunshot echoed.

A flower of blood instantly bloomed on Sister Yang's chest, but she merely stared fixedly at the opened safe, expecting the scene of pale purple poison gas spraying out from it at high speed.

However—

After the safe door sprang open, there was only silence; no abnormal situation appeared, only wisps of cold air diffusing outward.

Sister Yang was stunned.

Meanwhile, Lin Qing instantly retreated violently to the office doorway, ready to close the door, but since the Order Level did not drop, he felt reassured again and couldn't help but frown as he looked at the opened safe.

Inside the open safe, a pale blue syringe fixed on a transparent base was visible.

Other than that, there was nothing.

Lin Qing couldn't help but frown and glance at Sister Yang; what was this woman doing? Using such a surprise attack method just to help him open a cabinet door? "Impossible... impossible..."

After being shot, foam mixed with blood had already surged from the corners of Sister Yang's mouth, but she merely stared fixedly at the open cabinet door, utterly unable to believe everything before her eyes.

Where was the high-pressure poison gas? Where was the exquisite poison gas device she had schemed and prepared so carefully??

Why didn't it trigger??? No... impossible!

Sister Yang barely supported her body with both hands, struggled to climb up from the ground, and walked unsteadily toward the safe.

"Bang!"

After a gunshot, a bloody hole exploded on her forehead, and she fell backward onto the ground.

In her eyes, indescribable terror and a trace of realization still lingered.

In the final instant, she saw the reason clearly.

On the nozzle of that poison gas device, the piston, which should have been popped open directly by ultra-high air pressure due to pressure changes, was actually trembling slightly just now.

As if...

An invisible force was forcibly suppressing its explosion.

(End of this chapter)