Chapter 450: The Upcoming Contact

The downpour didn't stop.

The spotlights of three transport aircraft sliced the ruins into stark white fragments, and the rotor‑driven airflow churned the rain into sheets of water walls that pounded the broken Reinforced Steel Bar and rubble.

Su Ming leapt down from the hatch.

The landing point was directly opposite, twelve meters away.

Chen Shao was half‑kneeling in the rubble, his hair a total mess, wet black strands clinging to his forehead, rain mixed with blood dripping from his chin. His right hand propped his knee, his left hand hung at his side, the fingertips still twitching irregularly.

Xu An stood three steps behind him, his left arm dislocated, a ruler planted in the ground as a cane. Blood seeping from his sutured lips was washed down by the rain, trailing down his neck into his collar.

The remnants of the Spade Unit were scattered farther away; some were moaning, some had already fallen silent.

Su Ming's gaze swept over the wreckage and finally settled on Chen Shao.

The two locked eyes.

Between the sheets of rain, the spotlights' white beams stretched their shadows long. Special Forces soldiers had already poured out of the transport aircraft, forming a dark line behind Su Ming, all barrels pointed toward Chen Shao.

Yet no one opened fire.

Because Su Ming lifted his hand.

"Put down your guns," he said to those behind him.

Then he took three steps forward.

Chen Shao lifted his head; the crimson glow of his Demon Eye had dimmed by more than half, the fissures around his eye sockets were startling, like cracks on broken porcelain. He looked at Su Ming, a twitch at the corner of his mouth.

"That was slow enough."

Su Ming gave no reply. He was watching the ground.

The basement entrance had completely collapsed, rubble and twisted Reinforced Steel Bar piled into a small mound. The air retained an indescribable scent, not the smell of blood but something deeper, a tingling that numbed the back of the head.

Rules lingered.

And the concentration was absurdly high.

"Where's Zhang Yuanqing?" Su Ming asked.

Chen Shao didn't answer immediately. He propped his knee and stood up, moving slowly, like a person run over by a truck relearning how to stand. Rainwater streamed down his face, washing over the still‑bleeding wound at his mouth corner.

"He ran."

Two words. Plain and decisive.

Su Ming's pupils narrowed slightly.

"You didn't stop him?"

Chen Shao wiped the blood off his face, his movements carrying a rare weariness. He stared at Su Ming; the crimson in his Demon Eye was slowly recovering, but far from its usual oppressive intensity.

"My seven‑layer telekinetic barrier, zero‑point‑three seconds, shattered completely."

He said it in an even tone.

It was calm.

Su Ming knew Chen Shao. The man never showed weakness before an enemy, nor would he voluntarily disclose his defeats. Unless—

"He has Quasi S-rank, even power beyond that," Su Ming said.

It wasn't a question.

Chen Shao nodded.

"He didn't change. He obtained something." Chen Shao's voice was pressed low, almost swallowed by the rain, "Energy injected out of nowhere mid‑battle. Across space. Precise."

A chill ran down Su Ming's back.

He thought of something.

"You mean—there's someone behind Zhang Yuanqing."

"Not 'someone else'." Chen Shao corrected him, his tone showing for the first time an emotion Su Ming had never seen in this man.

It wasn't anger, nor resentment.

It was dread.

"Something granted him the authority to create Weirdness. He kills by creating Weirdness."

"Otherwise, Zhang Yuanqing should have been stronger from the start, at least far beyond that Sai Men you encountered."

The rain filled the silence between them.

The spotlights' beams crossed overhead, illuminating every detail of the ruin. Su Ming stood still, rain sliding down his hair strands, soaking his combat suit, yet he seemed oblivious.

He was processing the information.

"So Zhang Yuanqing…"

"He's just a test subject," Chen Shao finished for him, "or, to put it bluntly—a pawn."

Su Ming closed his eyes briefly.

Rain struck his eyelids, icy and bone‑chilling.

He recalled many things: the Strange Rule that accompanied the first appearance of the Cavity Person, the unbelievable Space Distortion ability of the Ghost Wall, the terrifying global spread speed of the Smiling Dummy, and the concept‑based unsolvable infection pattern of Midnight Nightmare.

One Weird after another was released into the world like products on an assembly line.

Each was precise. Each lethal. Each carried some…design sense.

"Weird…" Su Ming opened his eyes, his voice barely audible over the rain, yet each word clear, "It wasn't born naturally; some entity is driving all this."

Chen Shao didn't deny it.

The two stood in the downpour, twelve meters apart, separated by countless battles of blood‑filled hatred, and by the irreconcilable stance clash between the Federation and Eden Garden.

Yet at this moment, they looked toward the same direction.

The void fissure where Zhang Yuanqing vanished had long since sealed without a trace.

"I'll investigate," Su Ming said.

"I'll do the same," Chen Shao said.

There are no extra words. No handshake reconciliation scene. Chen Shao turned, Xu An silently followed, the remaining soldiers of the Spade Unit helped each other as they gathered from the ruins.

Su Ming did not order an interception.

The Special Forces soldiers looked at each other, but no one dared to question.

Chen Shao disappeared into the depths of the rain curtain with his men.

Su Ming stood in place, watching those figures being swallowed by darkness. The searchlight chased for a moment, but he waved it off.

"Chief," the voice of the Special Forces Captain came through the Communicator, "Do we pursue?"

"No pursuit."

Su Ming turned and walked toward the transport aircraft. His steps were steady, but the joints of the fingers holding the Communicator were white.

There are things more important than chasing Chen Shao.

At the same time.

Jiang Hai City, fourth underground level of Yunhu Technology Industrial Park.

The Core database of Eden Garden headquarters is empty at this moment.

The entire Spade Unit was deployed, the resident technicians were reassigned to support frontline communications, and the huge server room was left only with the low‑frequency hum of operating servers and the airflow noise from the air‑conditioner vents.

And a person who should not exist.

Xu Chen sat upright in front of the central control console.

His posture was perfect, back straight, both hands flat on the console. If someone walked in now, they would only see an ordinary Eden Garden technician working overtime—badge, uniform, access card, everything flawless.

But his eyes were off.

Those eyes had no focal point. Deep within the pupils a faint, almost invisible gray ripple spread, like something moving beneath a calm lake surface.

Xu Chen's ten fingers began to move.

It wasn't a typing motion. It was a downward press, then—penetration.

The fingertips sank into the metal surface of the console as naturally as a hand into water. Immediately, countless invisible black threads spread from his fingertips, coursing along circuit boards, fiber optics, data buses, permeating the entire server cluster with capillary‑like density.

Physical firewall? Nonexistent.

When your intrusion method itself transcends physical laws, all defenses built on physical logic are mere decorations.

Xu Chen—or, Chu Che, who was watching all this through Xu Chen's eyes—began to work.

The target was clear: the Level‑One encrypted command personally issued by Chen Shao.

"Conduct a thorough investigation of the Weird origin in Jiang Hai City."

Reverse trace.

Not tracing the command itself, but tracing who triggered the command. Chen Shao would not issue such an order without cause; someone upstream must have pushed it.

The encrypted protocol peeled away layer by layer.

Until the biometric binding revealed Chen Yao's voiceprint and private communication records.

Xu Chen's mouth twitched. That curve did not belong to the character "Xu Chen," but to the man at Jiang Hai City First Hospital who was flipping through medical records.

Concept overwrite.

"Chen Yao's communication records" as a concept was redefined—from "restricted to top‑level admin access" to "authorized access." The system did not raise an alarm, because in its cognition this access was legitimate from the start.

All this information ultimately linked to a student of Qiu Ce Yuan.

Name: Lu Yu.

Jiang Hai City First Hospital, Cardiology Examination Room.

Chu Che was writing a prescription for a patient who was not very adept with a smart device.

The fountain‑pen tip traced smooth characters on the paper, each stroke as neat as printed type. Opposite him, a middle‑aged patient babbled about his symptoms; Chu Che occasionally looked up, offering a perfectly timed caring smile, and a timely "mm" to show he was listening.

Then he saw it.

Through visual sharing, the image in Xu Chen's eyes was transmitted directly into his consciousness.

Text on the screen. Terminal information. Associated personnel.

Lu Yu.

Chu Che's pen tip paused for 0.3 seconds.

Just that 0.3 seconds.

Then he continued to finish the prescription, slid the paper across the desk, and gave the patient a gentle smile: "Take this dosage, come back for a check‑up in a week. Remember to eat less greasy food."

"Ah, good, good, Dr. Chu, you really are......"

"You're welcome, take care."

The door closed.

The Examination Room fell silent.

Chu Che set the pen down, leaning against the chair back. The gold‑rimmed lenses reflected the white light of the overhead fluorescent lamp, masking the emotions at the bottom of his eyes.

Lu Yu.

Qiu Ce Yuan Elementary Department, Class A student.

In B09 Weird Domain, he eliminated a high‑level Weird teenager. The child that Su Ming brought back for "guardianship," harboring a Quasi‑S entity within.

Chu Che originally had only three percent interest in this name.

But now it is different.

It is Lu Yu, who proactively used Chen Yao to mobilize Eden Garden's intelligence network to investigate the Weird origin.

A fourteen‑year‑old student.

Under the Federation's surveillance.

Evading Su Ming's watchful eyes.

He borrowed Chen Shao's resources.

Go check — the contacts and appearance tracks of the Cavity Person, the "ghost wall", and the Symbiosis before and after their emergence.

What are we checking?

We're checking who is creating the Weird.

We're checking him.

Chu Che stood up and walked to the whiteboard in the corner of the Examination Room.

The whiteboard is usually used to draw diagrams for patients to explain conditions, and at this moment it still bore the simple heart‑structure sketch drawn that morning. Chu Che picked up the eraser and, unhurriedly, wiped all the content clean.

Then he drew a red marker from the pen holder.

He pulled off the pen cap, producing a crisp "Snap!"

In the exact center of the whiteboard, he wrote two characters stroke by stroke.

Lu Yu.

The handwriting was neat, the strokes strong enough to pierce the paper.

Then he stepped back and used the red marker to draw a circle around the two characters. The circle was huge, almost filling the central area of the whiteboard. The pen tip scraped the whiteboard surface, emitting a squeaky friction sound that rang sharply in the quiet Examination Room.

Chu Che tilted his head and stared at his work for a while.

Interesting.

A fourteen‑year‑old can deftly manipulate information flow within the double squeeze of the Federation and Eden Garden. He can precisely judge the core proposition that the Weird is not naturally born. While everyone is still chasing Zhang Yuanqing, he has already turned his gaze deeper.

This is not explainable by talent.

This is experience.

An abundance of experience that surpasses his age, even surpasses the cognitive level of this era.

Chu Che lifted his hand to push the gold‑rimmed glasses on his nose bridge; behind the lenses, his eyes held no anger, no vigilance, not even a murderous intent.

There was only pure, academic curiosity.

Like a biologist discovering an entirely new species.

"Qiu Ce Yuan, huh."

He whispered the three words, his tone steady, with a hint of playfulness.

The two characters "Lu Yu" on the whiteboard were encircled in red, glowing a dazzling color under the fluorescent light. Chu Che watched them, his lips slowly curving upward.

The smile was warm, appropriate, harmless.

In any setting, it is the kind expression a good doctor should have.

But if anyone could see the depths of his eyes at this moment—the part hidden behind the lenses—they would find a churn inside that has nothing to do with "kindness".

"It seems—"

Chu Che returned the marker to the pen holder, brushed off nonexistent dust from his hand, and sat back at his desk. He opened his computer and pulled up Qiu Ce Yuan's public recruitment page.

School doctor position.

Now recruiting.

Requirements: medical‑related majors, at least three years of clinical experience, no criminal record.

Chu Che stared at the recruitment info on the screen, his long fingers lightly tapping the desk, the rhythm unhurried.

"I need to be a school doctor once."

He said it with a smile.

Outside, the sky over Jiang Hai City was gloomy, the clouds pressed low. In the distance, an ambulance siren wailed, mixing with the city's endless clamor.

The fluorescent light in the Examination Room buzzed.

The blood‑red circle on the whiteboard waited quietly in the light for its owner to step into the trap.

Only—

Who, after all, is the hunter and who the prey?

The answer to that question, perhaps even the person themselves does not yet know.