Chapter 530 - 40: Abundant Harvest

The command room was in complete disarray.

Gray smoke billowed from the shattered remains of equipment. The metal walls were riddled with dents and fractures, and a carpet of glass shards—blown out by the shockwave—littered the floor.

A few workstations had miraculously survived and were still running. Streams of data cascaded rapidly across their screens, casting a flickering, unsteady light throughout the room.

Destruction, scorch marks, and raw terror... The air reeked of a pungent mix of burnt ozone and copper blood, making throats tighten.

A deathly silence hung over the underground base’s command room, broken only by the occasional BZZZ of sparks leaping from severed cables.

STEP. STEP.

Yet, amidst this stifling quiet, the crisp sound of approaching footsteps echoed.

The Rebel members huddled in the corners of the command room trembled. Subconsciously, they raised their heads, peering through the gaps in the wreckage.

A figure in a long black coat strode through the corridor and past the mangled metal doors. In his hand, he dragged a headless corpse.

A long trail of blood smeared behind him down the hallway. His face was obscured by the shifting shadows, revealing only the silhouette of a burly, heavily muscled physique.

In an instant, the air seemed to freeze. The command personnel hiding in the corners shuddered. Driven by sheer panic, they instinctively squirmed backward, trying to bury themselves deeper behind the equipment.

"You, come here," Lu Chao said calmly, his voice shattering the silence.

A middle-aged man huddled behind a server rack in a white technician’s suit flinched.

"C-Come... over there?" his voice trembled on the verge of tears.

Lu Chao didn’t repeat himself. He merely stared silently at the man’s hiding spot.

One second. Two seconds. Three seconds...

In that brief, suffocating silence, the middle-aged man scrambled to his feet. He stumbled forward awkwardly, closing the distance.

His legs shook violently; every step felt like he was walking on cotton.

As he passed Tan Shanzhong’s mutilated corpse, his pupils contracted uncontrollably, and all remaining color drained from his face.

"S-Sir..."

"Open this base’s database." Lu Chao’s tone was impeccably calm, as if he were asking about the weather.

The middle-aged man froze for a second before the demand registered.

Not daring to delay, he scurried over to the command room’s central terminal. His hands flew across the console, bringing up a bright holographic screen displaying a login prompt.

The technician quickly bypassed the initial password and iris scans using his own credentials, but he hit a wall at the final biometric security layer.

"S-Sir," he stammered, pointing a shaking finger at the holographic screen. "This requires identity verification from Supervisor Tan."

Lu Chao casually hauled Tan Shanzhong’s corpse forward and pressed the dead man’s thumb against the scanner, clearing the final lock.

Seeing this, the middle-aged man gulped. Any lingering sliver of hope evaporated from his mind, and his knees nearly buckled beneath him.

Crushed under the sheer weight of Lu Chao’s gaze, he didn’t dare waste another second. His fingers flew across the keyboard. Layers of restricted data immediately unfurled across the screen.

Encrypted files, experimental logs, tactical deployments... a dense waterfall of information cascaded down the monitor.

[Biochemical Toxin — Third-Generation Refined Formula], [Bio-Armor Augmentation — Rebel Headquarters Technical Briefing], [Northern Territory Wasteland — Western Stronghold Distribution Map (Encrypted)]...

As the files flashed by, Lu Chao’s gaze hardened. He ordered the man to copy them.

"I can’t, sir. If I try to copy these files, it will trigger the headquarters’ failsafe and initiate an immediate wipe," the middle-aged man explained frantically, his forehead slick with cold sweat.

Lu Chao frowned. Settling for the next best option, he ordered the technician to open the files one by one so he could manually back them up using his own enhanced memory.

Soon enough, one particular file caught his eye: [Super Energy Medicine Crystal — Fourth Experimental Protocol]. His gaze locked onto the title. With a subtle shift in his expression, Lu Chao ordered him to open it immediately.

It was a production schematic for a potion still in its experimental phase. Everything from the material ratios and extraction steps to the temperature controls and crystallization parameters was documented in meticulous detail.

He thought, "This is... a Basic Nutritional Potion. No, the materials required here are double those used for Life Essence. Could this be graded at Basic Excellence?"

Lu Chao’s gaze sharpened as a theory quickly formed in his mind.

This Nutritional Potion formula was far more valuable than Life Essence. Even though it was still in the experimental phase and lacked a finalized version, its effects would undoubtedly eclipse those of an ordinary Basic Potion.

More importantly, it gave him a clear direction forward.

With his expertise as a Biological Alchemist, coupled with the passive boosts from his [High-Efficiency Skill], there was a very real possibility he could use this framework to brew a genuine Basic Excellence Potion.

His heart racing at the prospect, Lu Chao rapidly scanned the formula, searing the critical steps into his memory.

Just as he reached the end and prepared to open the next file...

BZZZ!

The screen in front of them abruptly went black. Even the dull hum of the server cooling fans died out.

"What..." The middle-aged man’s face drained of color. He frantically mashed the keyboard, but the terminal remained dead. "S-Sir, this wasn’t me! I swear—"

"I know," Lu Chao interrupted smoothly, his gaze shifting to the massive main display at the front of the command room.

A faint blue glow flared to life across the blackened screen. A single line of text slowly materialized in the center:

[Incoming Transmission...]

The screen flickered fully to life.

A figure appeared on the display.

The man was exceptionally burly, clad in a black trench coat. A mask obscured the lower half of his face, revealing only a pair of dark, piercing eyes.

The moment Lu Chao locked eyes with him, the temperature in the command room seemed to plummet.

"I-It’s the Leader." The technician’s eyes went wide. Utterly paralyzed by fear, his legs gave out, and he collapsed onto the floor.

Lu Chao remained expressionless, silently observing the black-clad figure through the transmission feed.

The Rebel Leader.

Once again, he found himself face-to-face with the man’s digital projection.

It was obvious. The Rebel headquarters had detected the anomaly, severed the base’s access privileges, and forcefully overridden the local communication system.