TIC 83

 Chapter 83

It was hard to tell if that kid, Lauren, was deliberately trying to provoke him; he actually challenged Xiao Yan to analyze—within a single minute—how a spacecraft could evade the Presidential Palace's fire-control system to execute a surprise attack, with the objective of blowing up the President's Office.

A bead of cold sweat trickled down Xiao Yan's temple. He wondered: if he actually managed to solve this problem, would he end up being suspected of being a sleeper agent for the "Tides" organization?

Just as Lauren was looking particularly smug, Xiao Yan interfaced with the terminal, and the countdown began. The Presidential Palace's fire-control system was incredibly sophisticated—a true masterpiece created by the entire Central Academy of Sciences. During the Tides organization's previous assault on the Palace, although two spacecraft had managed to crash into the West Wing, neither had succeeded in reaching the President's Office.

Lauren was clearly setting Xiao Yan up with an impossible mission.

Xiao Yan closed his eyes, his thoughts racing furiously. Images on the holographic display flipped and shifted incessantly, and data flashed past like streaks of light; yet, in the simulated scenario, the spacecraft remained trapped amidst the artillery fire, unable to get any closer. Lauren pursed his lips.

Time passed quickly. Lauren deliberately offered a taunt: "Hey—only thirty seconds left!"

By now, quite a few people had gathered behind them to watch the spectacle.

"Look at that! Some fool is actually trying to crash a spacecraft into the President's Office!"

"How is that even possible? The Presidential Palace's fire-control system is Major Ritz's most famous masterpiece!"

"Twenty seconds left!"

The spacecraft on the screen suddenly executed a maneuver at an incredibly tricky angle and launched its attack. The Palace's artillery turrets automatically tracked its flight path, but then the spacecraft abruptly pitched upward—its engine output tripled beyond normal flight levels—and it skimmed rapidly across the very surface of the *Char* Dome. The fire-control system simply couldn't swivel fast enough to keep up; just before its engines overheated and lost thrust, the spacecraft smashed violently through the windows of the President's Office.

"Ooh!"

"Good heavens!"

The entire crowd of onlookers gasped in unison.

Lauren stood there, dumbfounded. It turned out that for the preceding nine minutes, Xiao Yan's spacecraft hadn't been crashing around aimlessly like a headless fly at all; rather, he had been mapping out the fire-control system's attack range and firing angles—gathering data—so that the final minute could be dedicated to the actual breakthrough. But just how fast would one's brain-interface processing speed have to be to execute such an insanely complex trajectory calculation? “Lauren, I’m done,” Xiao Yan said, winking at him.

“Hmph! What’s so impressive about that? I could finish it in nine minutes and fifty-five seconds, whereas you took nine minutes and fifty-eight!”

Xiao Yan suddenly found himself wondering how Major Ritz would react if he heard that remark. Fortunately, ever since the attack on the Presidential Palace, Ritz had upgraded the main control system; Xiao Yan knew that attempting to breach the Presidential Palace within ten minutes *now* would be a truly impossible mission.

“Now, it’s my turn to set the challenge.” Xiao Yan closed his eyes. Guided by his thoughts, the terminal began to outline a sample of a biochemical weapon previously utilized by the ‘Surge’ organization. He stripped away some of the more complex components and added a few helpful hints. “Once this specific compound enters a special forces soldier’s bloodstream, it interferes with the X-virus, resulting in a diminished capacity for cellular oxygen uptake. See if you can synthesize an antidote within ten minutes.”

Although Xiao Yan was tempted to provide him with the complete biochemical weapon sample, the security classification for this research was set at ‘Orange’; if certain critical components were to appear within the system, it would immediately trigger an alarm. While this particular challenge wasn't quite as massive in scope as a full-blown research project, researchers at the Central Academy of Sciences would still require at least half an hour to solve it. By imposing a ten-minute time limit, Xiao Yan was—truth be told—being a little unfair.

Wearing a cold expression, Lauren linked his own terminal to the system, tossing a disdainful gesture in Xiao Yan’s direction as he did so. As expected, Lauren was hardly the type to play by the rules; he actually hacked into a certain professor’s terminal to pilfer a specific computational algorithm. This maneuver saved him at least ten minutes of processing time, allowing him to derive the correct answer with effortless ease.

He completed the task in a mere eight minutes.

“That’s cheating!”

A bystander among the cadets shouted out.

Lauren cast a sidelong glance at Xiao Yan. “The conditions you originally set didn’t explicitly forbid hacking into other people’s terminals.”

“That constitutes academic dishonesty!”

The other cadets quickly joined in, voicing their objections to Lauren’s actions.

Although the security protocols on a professor’s terminal were far less sophisticated than those found in a dedicated research laboratory, the fact that this kid managed to breach them in under three minutes proved that his mind was both lightning-fast and incredibly agile. “True enough—I never said hacking into someone else’s terminal was off-limits.”

“Now it’s my turn to set the challenge!” Lauren squeezed out a mischievous grin. Xiao Yan had tested him using a virus, and now, as if determined to go head-to-head with Xiao Yan in the exact same arena, Lauren posed a virus-related challenge of his own: “If you’ve got the guts, synthesize an antiviral agent for this virus within ten minutes!”

At first glance, the virus appeared to be merely a relatively complex, highly aggressive immunodeficiency virus—much like HIV from a century and a half ago. However, this strain was far more virulent; once infected, death would ensue within a matter of hours.

Xiao Yan’s interest was piqued, though ten minutes struck him as far too generous. Deciding it was high time to take Lauren down a peg, he instantly ramped up his terminal interface speed to its absolute limit. Unfortunately, the library’s system processing power couldn't match that of the research lab; it took Xiao Yan twice as long as he had anticipated to arrive at the solution.

“Holy hell—five minutes and forty-one seconds! Is that the speed of a god?”

A flicker of shaken disbelief was clearly visible in Lauren’s eyes, yet he stubbornly clung to his pride.

“Hey! I only went easy on you so the match could continue!”

“I know.”

Xiao Yan pursed his lips into a smile—a look that Lauren found utterly grating.

“What are you smiling at?”

“Just thanking you for going easy on me!” Xiao Yan rubbed his nose. “But now... it’s my turn to set the challenge.”

“Go ahead!” Lauren jutted out his chin, wearing an expression that dared Xiao Yan to show him what other tricks he had up his sleeve.

Xiao Yan decided he could no longer afford to go easy on this cocky kid. Suddenly, a specific scene flashed through his mind: himself and Hein’s squad, trapped inside a sealed room...

Alright then—let’s see how this kid manages to escape with his life!

In just thirty seconds, Xiao Yan constructed a virtual simulation of that room—identical in every detail to the original.

“Lauren, you are trapped inside this room. The oxygen supply will be completely depleted within ten minutes. You have no tools at your disposal—save for the standard-issue sidearm carried by technical specialists. Good luck.”

Xiao Yan deliberately omitted one specific detail from the simulation: the fact that, in the original scenario, he had only managed to escape because a squad of Special Forces soldiers had physically held the door shut for him. Lauren, after all, wouldn't have that luxury. Xiao Yan simply wanted to know how this guy would react in an emergency situation.

“Nothing but a gun? How is one supposed to open a door like that? I don't see any identification scanner on it, either!”

“How on earth do you open a door like this? Are you supposed to shoot it?”

“This is a truly impossible mission!”

After confirming the specifications Xiao Yan had set for the door, Lauren couldn't help but let out a cold snort. “A door like this—the kind you only ever see in movies—I can't believe you actually designed something like that!”

“I like old movies. They serve as important historical records,” Xiao Yan replied with a faint smile.

On the holographic display, after meticulously analyzing the door's circuitry, Lauren decisively disassembled the gun in his hand. He connected the weapon's energy converter to the door mechanism, pulled the trigger, and—*click*—the door swung open.

“Whoa! You can actually do that?”

“If this were a real-life scenario, I’d probably just use that gun to blow my own brains out!”

Lauren turned to face Xiao Yan, flashing a triumphant grin. “I hope you can come up with a more challenging test next time. Though, I have to admit, that one was actually pretty interesting.”

Xiao Yan realized he had given Lauren far too much time; after all, in a real-world situation, one wouldn't have the luxury of using a terminal to analyze a door's circuitry. One would have to rely solely on their own intellect to decipher the flow and function of every single circuit. Yet, the fact that Lauren had thought to utilize the energy converter embedded in his sidearm demonstrated a remarkable grasp of practical application. Although his eyes remained fixed on Lauren, Xiao Yan’s mind drifted back to a specific memory: himself fumbling underwater to retrieve his dropped weapon, only for Hein to appear by his side and haul him back to the surface. He could still recall that fleeting instant underwater when he caught a glimpse of Hein’s profile—a man who needed neither facial expressions nor gentle mannerisms to utterly dominate Xiao Yan’s gaze, and indeed, his very thoughts.

In that moment, Xiao Yan realized he was missing that man with an intensity he could no longer control.

“Now it’s my turn. And this time, don't expect to get off so easily.” Lauren proceeded to synthesize a virtual virus sample—specifically, the very gene within the Comet Virus responsible for enabling zombies to draw energy directly from the sun! “What’s your test challenge?” Xiao Yan masked his inner astonishment. This specific sequence was typically mentioned only in advanced-level virology practical courses—a curriculum specially designed by the military to stimulate critical thinking among senior cadets. Any student capable of offering groundbreaking insights in this class would be recruited by the Central Academy of Sciences for assignment to high-priority projects.

“Reduce this virus’s photosynthetic capacity.” Lauren wore an expression of pure amusement, clearly expecting a show.

Xiao Yan nearly burst into laughter. Was this brat essentially just asking him to synthesize a condensing agent?

“How much time do I have to complete this?”

“Five minutes.”

“Five minutes just to reduce its photosynthesis—is that right?”

“Correct. Or do you actually think you could whip up something else within five minutes?”

Xiao Yan shook his head. “I was merely confirming the parameters of your challenge.”

Synthesizing a condensing agent was simple enough; the true difficulty had always lain in sourcing the raw materials and ensuring the agent’s stability. That was precisely why condensing guns—despite their potential—could not be mass-produced for use in combat against zombies.

He didn’t even need five minutes; in just two minutes, Xiao Yan had formulated a solution. Under the influence of the agent, Lauren’s virus entered a state of low-temperature dormancy and gradually lost its capacity to absorb thermal energy.

Lauren paused, taken aback. This was a challenge that had stumped countless senior cadets—a problem so vexing that scarcely anyone had ever managed to formulate an agent this stable...

“Hey! Just who the hell are you...?”

Before Lauren could finish his question, Xiao Yan cut him off. “Now, it’s my turn.”

Closing his eyes, Xiao Yan constructed a virtual chamber within the terminal system. The chamber’s sole exit was controlled by a keypad lock—a twelve-digit passcode that changed every single second.

“Lauren, you have five minutes to find your way out.”

Lauren scowled in disgust. “Is designing ‘locked-room’ scenarios your only trick? Or do you harbor some twisted, sadistic streak—a fetish for locking people up?”

His remarks drew a ripple of laughter from the onlookers.

Xiao Yan remained unperturbed; he simply gestured politely with a hand—an invitation to begin.

“Just you watch—there isn’t a single passcode in this world that I can’t crack!”

With that declaration, Lauren entered the terminal interface and began his calculations. Only then did he realize just how incredibly complex the encryption key was; it incorporated various spatial functions and variables—drawing upon physics disciplines such as mechanics and electromagnetism—covering such a vast scope that even Lauren found himself furrowing his brow slightly.

In that moment, Xiao Yan finally felt a flicker of shame, as if an adult were bullying a child.

Yet, Lauren still exceeded Xiao Yan’s expectations; with just ten seconds remaining on the clock, he cracked the key and entered the password.

Although the terminal clearly indicated that the password was correct, Lauren still couldn't pull the door open. The display showed that his physical exertion had already reached the absolute limit for an ordinary human, yet the door remained utterly motionless.

"Damn it!" Lauren threw a punch, slamming his fist violently against the holographic interface.

Time was up.

"What on earth is going on? Didn't he just crack the code?"

"Or... maybe the password *wasn't* correct?"

"But it didn't show any error message!"

Lauren glared at Xiao Yan, who had been quietly observing the entire scene. "Hey! What the hell is going on? Did I actually make a calculation error?"

"Your calculations were exquisite—absolutely flawless," Xiao Yan said, the corners of his lips curling upward. To Lauren, that smile looked incomparably punchable. "But I only asked you to *leave* this room; I never asked you to *calculate* a password."

"Wh... at...?" Lauren wore a look of utter bewilderment.

"According to my parameters, this door wasn't locked in the first place." Xiao Yan stepped into the simulated environment, walked up to the door, and gave it a firm push forward—and just like that, it swung open!

Meanwhile, Lauren had been straining every muscle trying to *pull* the door open, having assumed it was one of the standard sliding doors found everywhere throughout the *Char* station!

"You played me!" Lauren sprang to his feet, grabbed Xiao Yan by the collar, and swung his fist, aiming straight for his nose.

Xiao Yan effortlessly caught his wrist, then suddenly surged forward, pinning him back down onto the seat with such blinding speed that, to the other cadets, it looked like sheer teleportation.

"Damn it! You're not a cadet here at all! You're Special Forces—aren't you?"

With half his face pressed against the backrest of the chair, Lauren looked both ridiculous and utterly humiliated. Xiao Yan was astonished by his own agility. Suddenly, a memory flashed through his mind: a scene in a certain training room where he had been pinned decisively to the floor by Hein Burton. His hands had been pinned behind his back, with his opponent’s knee pressed against his waist. He could recall the shift in pressure as Hein leaned down slightly, and the faint, steady rhythm of his breathing brushing against the back of his neck; he even harbored the fleeting illusion that Hein was about to lean in and kiss him.

"Hey! Hey! Let go of me, you bastard! My arm is about to snap!"

Lauren’s shouting yanked Xiao Yan back to reality.

He released Lauren, who clutched his shoulder and eyed him warily.

"Who the hell are you? You challenge me to a bet out of nowhere, and then you use a riddle like that just to mess with me! You’re not even a student here!"

Xiao Yan sighed. "I wasn't messing with you. You’ve grown so accustomed to the sliding doors at the Char Academy that now, whenever you see a door, you automatically assume it slides open sideways rather than being pushed open. This kind of rigid mindset will stifle your thinking in your research; you’ll become trapped within a specific logical framework, unable to break through your bottlenecks—forever stuck at the bottom of a glass bottle."

Lauren blinked in bewilderment. Just as he was about to retort, a voice—indifferent yet carrying an unmistakable air of authority—rang out.

"Has your amusement for the day finally come to an end, Major Xiao Yan?"

Xiao Yan’s shoulders stiffened almost imperceptibly. He turned around with a rigid motion to find himself facing Hein Burton, clad in his military uniform. Trailing behind him were the two subordinates assigned to guard Xiao Yan; their faces wore expressions of acute embarrassment—after all, being caught by their commanding officer while standing guard at a library entrance in student uniforms was, to put it mildly... mortifying.

In an instant, the entire library fell silent, every eye in the room converging on Hein.

Not a single person dared to utter a word.

Lauren stared at Xiao Yan’s retreating figure until he and his entourage vanished through the doorway; only then did the library suddenly erupt into a clamor of voices.

"Holy crap! That guy was Major Xiao Yan! Lauren, you’ve really outdone yourself! You actually tried to quiz Major Xiao Yan!"

In that moment, a sudden surge of fury coursed through Lauren, and he bolted out of the library. “Xiao Yan—”

Two special forces soldiers effortlessly blocked his path; they allowed him to struggle, yet he remained unable to advance.

Xiao Yan halted his steps and turned around.

“You really were toying with me, weren't you? Does it give you a special sense of accomplishment to watch someone less capable than yourself fall right into a trap you designed?”

“I wasn't toying with you. I was merely looking for a partner.”

“What?” Lauren furrowed his brows.

“The Military Department wants me to select a research assistant, but I don't need an assistant. What I need is someone who, when I'm straining every muscle to pull a door open, reminds me to try pushing it instead.”

“Ah...” Lauren froze, momentarily forgetting to struggle.

Having said his piece, Xiao Yan followed behind Hein and departed.

The doors of the maglev vehicle slid upward; Xiao Yan stepped inside and took his seat, with Hein sitting right beside him.

The communicator on his wrist projected a screen, and the face of a liaison officer appeared before Xiao Yan.

“Major, have you settled on a candidate for your assistant yet?”

“Yes—Lauren Ann.”

The liaison officer’s brows knitted together. “I apologize, Major, but I cannot find Lauren Ann on the personnel roster. Would you care to take another look at the list?”

“He isn't on the list; he is a cadet at the Academy of Sciences.”

“...Are you certain you wish to appoint a cadet as your research assistant?”

“Yes, I am certain. When I became Casey's assistant, I was merely a cadet myself—and a Class B cadet at that.”

“Understood.”

The maglev vehicle had come to a halt at the entrance of the apartment complex; night was about to fall, and all the streetlights had begun to glow.

The very moment Xiao Yan stepped out of the vehicle, Hein grabbed hold of him.

“Let’s have dinner together.”

Xiao Yan had no right to refuse; Hein had already changed their destination, and they were now heading toward Tower No. 2.

“Hey!”

The mag-lev car traveled at lightning speed; Xiao Yan couldn't fathom what they could possibly eat at Tower No. 2!

“From there, you can watch the sunset over the lands beyond Char.”

“Really?”

For Xiao Yan, this was an experience he had never even dreamed of before.

The tower opened its first set of doors for them. Since no aircraft were currently docked there, the entire flight corridor was pitch black.

Xiao Yan felt his way along the wall as he walked forward. Even though he knew there were absolutely no obstacles in the corridor, he still couldn't take each step with the same unhesitating confidence as Hein.

“Give me your hand.”

Hein’s voice sounded surprisingly clear amidst the darkness.

Xiao Yan reached out his hand, unsure of exactly where the other man was. He waved his arm blindly until, suddenly, his wrist was firmly grasped.

“Let’s go.”

His senses were infinitely heightened in that instant. Xiao Yan could clearly feel the warmth of Hein’s fingers; the sensation of his fingertips touching his skin was unique—as if his very blood, surging through his veins, was rushing to burst through his skin and entwine itself around Hein’s fingers.

Good heavens... Xiao Yan... this is truly overwhelming...

“We’re here.”

“What?”

Just then, the outermost doors of the corridor began to slide open slowly. Orange light streamed in through the widening gap, and the first thing Xiao Yan clearly saw was Hein’s lower leg—clad in his military uniform—looking long and powerful as it cast an elegant shadow across the floor.

His field of vision gradually expanded; in the distance, the rugged mountains and rocky peaks—bathed in the orange-red glow of the sunlight—were a sight so captivating that he could not tear his eyes away.

Flocks of birds continuously flew toward the shadows of the trees nestled within the mountains, tracing countless broken lines across the sky.

And the sun was just about to dip below the mountain range.

Xiao Yan stared wide-eyed until someone beside him handed him a packet of biscuits. “Here’s your dinner.”

“Huh?” Xiao Yan took the biscuit, while Hein had already seated himself at the edge of the walkway. “When you said we’d have dinner together, you meant eating compressed biscuits?”

“The military has already improved the flavor. Furthermore, to meet the nutritional demands of special forces operatives, the caloric content is five to six times higher than before.”

Having just taken a bite, Xiao Yan hurriedly spat the biscuit back out. “That many calories? I’ll get fat enough to die!”

If all special forces operatives were utilizing the X-2 system, their energy would be derived from external food intake as well as sunlight. However, when deployed on missions where exposure to sunlight could not be guaranteed, the caloric density of their food became absolutely critical.

“I thought we’d at least get a slice of bread with jam on it—*that* is what I’d call a proper dinner,” Xiao Yan muttered under his breath as he sat down a fair distance away from Hein.

“What kind of dinner would you prefer?”

“Oh...” Xiao Yan hadn’t expected him to actually ask for his input. “Nothing in particular. It’s just that, with such a beautiful view... I kept thinking how nice it would be to have a glass of red wine...”

Xiao Yan glanced at Hein. It was a pointless thought; Hein wasn’t suddenly going to conjure up a glass of red wine, nor was Xiao Yan some woman waiting to be wooed. He simply picked up the compressed biscuit lying beside him and took a hearty bite.

Hein was right; the flavor really *had* been improved. It tasted of cream and vanilla, and even the texture was pleasantly soft. Xiao Yan had once—out of sheer curiosity—tried gnawing on one of the old-style biscuits. Back then, in an effort to maximize nutritional value while minimizing additives, the biscuit had tasted of nothing but salt; not to mention the bone-dry crumbs that had scraped their way down his throat... It remained, in Xiao Yan’s memory, one of the most nightmarish food experiences of his life.

In that moment, a specific scene suddenly flooded his mind.