Chapter 359: Unexpected Incident!

While the internet was in the midst of a heated discussion, inside an abandoned factory in the Manhattan district of New York.

The old incandescent light bulb buzzed and crackled.

The faint light was nowhere near enough to illuminate the entire room.

At this moment, a man wearing a black hoodie with the hood up was standing in front of a giant whiteboard, staring motionlessly at the floor plan of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the security system dot matrix, and the profile photos of every member of the Expert Group!

These photos were collected from social media, news screenshots, and leaked channels from the Federal Bureau of Investigation; each one had facial features circled in red marker, with names, positions, personality traits, and behavioral habits noted on the side!

Under Liu Xuemin's photo, it was written: 【Cautious, suspicious, core decision-maker】.

Under Henry's, it was written: 【Decisive, strong execution, but prone to falling into fixed patterns of thinking】.

Under Chen Xiong's, it was written: 【Experienced, but overly reliant on intuition】.

Under Lin Xu's, it was written: 【Technical genius, but overconfident in his own analytical tools】.

After receiving the new Main Quest issued by the system, Chu Chen came here.

He had rented this factory using a fake identity.

Because it was very close to the Federal Bureau of Investigation headquarters building, he would go to the coffee shop next door every day to drink coffee while monitoring the movements of the building's sentries.

After figuring out the basic patterns, he directly stole the information of an internal Federal Bureau of Investigation staff member and successfully blended in.

And the reason he infiltrated the Federal Bureau of Investigation was not just to deliver that letter of challenge, but more importantly, to get close to Henry!

Because only by getting close to him would Chu Chen have the opportunity to install the Anti-Tracking Eavesdropping Program he purchased from the System Mall onto his phone.

The eavesdropping program sold in the System Mall was extremely high-tech!

Its implantation did not require physical contact with the target, nor did it require taking the phone apart.

As long as he entered the target's vicinity, he could connect to the phone system and complete the implantation!

The eavesdropping program would not be detected, nor would it be tracked!

When not needed, it could be destroyed remotely at any time without leaving any traces.

The whole process was completely undetectable.

It was very buggy!

It was precisely because of this eavesdropping device that Chu Chen figured out their action plan and found the loopholes within it!

Now, everything was ready!

Looking at the map on the whiteboard, Chu Chen raised his wrist, glanced at the time on his digital watch, and then decisively packed up his gear, preparing to head out.

Before leaving, he took two buckets of gasoline, poured them onto the whiteboard, and then set it on fire with a single spark!

One hour later!

Over at the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Less than two hours after the meeting at the Command Center ended, the Metropolitan Museum of Art had already been placed under their strict surveillance!

From the north wall of the exhibition hall to the freight elevator on the west side of the museum, all staff passages along the route were blocked off.

At every corner stood at least two uniformed agents.

The elevator had been converted into a mobile vault; the four walls of the car were reinforced with steel plates, and the door lock had been replaced with a dual-key electronic lock.

One key was in Henry's hands, and the other was in Hank's.

The two of them had to turn their respective keys at the same time, in the same place, for the elevator to operate.

Immediately after, the original of *Famine of Samaria* was taken down from the wall.

The two museum staff members who took the painting down wore masks and gloves, and their identities had been verified repeatedly; there were no issues.

Their movements were slow and precise.

They lifted the frame from the hooks on the wall, moved it horizontally several dozen centimeters away from the wall surface, then turned it in a direction with the painting core facing up, and laid it flat in a specially made transport box lined with acid-free foam.

There were latches at the four corners of the box, with padlocks hanging on the latches.

The key to the padlocks was in Liu Xuemin's pocket.

Hank stood at the elevator entrance, holding a tablet computer in his hand, with the screen displaying the complete route map from the exhibition hall to the underground vault.

The route map marked the location of every surveillance camera, the blind spot of every corner, and every hidden point that could be utilized.

Liu Xuemin stood next to the transport box, his eyes behind his silver-rimmed glasses fixed on the painting until it was placed into the elevator by the staff.

After the transport box entered the elevator, Chen Xiong, Zhou Yun, and Zhuang Yan, the three Pursuit Captains, also walked in.

"We are in position," Zhou Yun said into the walkie-talkie after walking in.

Subsequently, the elevator doors slowly closed.

Immediately after, Henry swiped his key on the control panel.

Then, Hank swiped his as well.

A line of green text popped up on the screen: Authorized.

Before long, the floor button lit up, displaying B4.

The fourth basement level.

That was not a public area of the museum, but a vault specifically used for storing temporary exhibition items, and it was not usually open to the public.

The vault door was thirty centimeters thick, made of special steel, and the combination lock changed its random code every sixty seconds; it could only be opened when the museum's Security Director and the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Field Commander were both present!

After the elevator doors closed.

The elevator finally began to descend.

The numbers on the display jumped from 1 to B1, from B1 to B2, and from B2 to B3.

But just as it reached B3, the lights in the elevator suddenly went out!

"What's going on?" In the darkness, Zhou Yun's voice came through.

"Could it be a problem with the circuit..." Chen Xiong replied while picking up the walkie-talkie to contact those outside: "Hello, Liu Lao, can you hear me? Hello!"

The walkie-talkie also had no signal.

Seeing this, Zhuang Yan took out her phone, wanting to turn on the flashlight.

But strangely, no matter what she pressed, the phone could not be lit up.

She felt very surprised.

Because before setting off, she had specifically checked her phone and confirmed repeatedly that the battery was full.

"Team Captain, can you turn on your phone?" she asked Zhou Yun.

Hearing Zhuang Yan say this, Zhou Yun immediately took out his own phone to check.

Unsurprisingly, his phone could not be lit up either; he pressed the power button several times, but it was no use.

"This is really strange, how could this happen? My phone doesn't seem to turn on either, but I clearly remember the battery was full..."

Zhou Yun's phone could not be turned on either.

Immediately after, Chen Xiong's was the same: "What on earth is going on?"

The darkness continued.

At this moment, it was also chaotic as a pot of porridge outside!

Seeing the elevator stuck at B3, Henry in the Command Center roared into the walkie-talkie: "What's going on? What happened?"

"The elevator seems to have malfunctioned, the staff are currently investigating!"

At the museum scene, Liu Xuemin replied while holding the walkie-talkie.

"Why is it like this?"

"I don't know, maybe there's a problem with the power supply. It shouldn't be a big issue, they said they would fix it immediately!"

"Can you contact our people?" For some reason, a bad premonition suddenly arose in Henry's heart.

"Cannot contact them for the time being, there is no signal," Liu Xuemin replied.

Another minute passed.

The lights suddenly came on.

At this time, the elevator continued to descend.

It finally stopped at B4.

The next second, the door opened.

The two staff members and the three Pursuit Captains were still there, but that transport case had vanished without a trace!