TIC 97

 Chapter 97

“To save you, you idiot!” Lauren flipped Wen En the middle finger.

They had no time for pleasantries; Xiao Yan and Hein leaped simultaneously, vaulting into the cabin, with Wen En following close behind.

Just as everyone had made it inside, several more assassins arrived in hot pursuit. Desperate and reckless, they threw themselves at Xiao Yan’s craft, clinging to its engines.

“Holy hell—” Lauren was just about to hit the button to seal the hatch when an assassin grabbed his arm. Wen En seized his other wrist, and Liv—without a shred of mercy—hacked off the assassin’s arm. Only then was Lauren yanked back inside. The hatch slammed shut. Lauren patted his chest, still shaken by the close call.

“God... are they all Jane Wallis?” Lauren pressed his face against the cabin glass, watching the horde of assassins—heedless of the danger—leap from the flight corridor in wave after wave, attempting to board the craft.

Casey, whose face had remained stony throughout, finally spoke: “None of them are Jane Wallis.”

Lauren wore a look of utter bewilderment. “Then where did Jane Wallis go?”

At that moment, an assassin clambered up to the cabin window, attempting to smash through the glass with a sharp blade. Although it was clearly an impossible feat, he refused to give up.

“I have no idea what Valentine did to them to drive them to such a level of madness!” Wen En watched as one assassin tried to sabotage the craft’s engine, only to be sucked inside; in an instant, he was ground into bloody pulp, a mist of blood spewing out from the other side of the engine.

Xiao Yan issued an order to the pilot: “Shake off all the assassins!”

“Major, has anyone ever told you that the tone you’re using right now sounds more and more like Colonel Burton?”

Ritz’s voice crackled over the comm system. Xiao Yan froze for a moment, then glared at Lauren: “Who is the pilot?!”

“Major Ritz... and Major Loch...” Lauren had never seen Xiao Yan truly angry before; he was so rattled he could barely get the words out. “Didn’t we agree to keep them back at the base? If anything happens to them...”

“Don’t blame them. No one wants to see their comrades charging into the front lines while they themselves hide away in safety.” Wynn understood exactly why Xiao Yan was so furious.

“Our top priority right now is tracking Jane’s whereabouts.” Casey put on his wireless terminal. “Jane had a micro-tracker implanted in his heart long ago. Even if Valentine... really did replace Jane’s brain with his own, we might still be able to pinpoint Valentine’s location using that tracker.”

Although Casey’s tone and expression suggested a detached, objective attitude toward the grim reality—that Jane had been captured by the Surge, or perhaps even killed—no one could truly fathom the agonizing grief he was suppressing deep within his heart.

“Where is Jane right now?”

“Six hundred feet underground!”

Xiao Yan pulled up the base schematics on his communicator. Beneath the ice sheet, there were absolutely no viable escape routes; this meant that the aircraft remained the only means for that group of killers to flee the base.

“What’s our next move?” Liv looked toward Hein.

“Xiao Yan, you initiated this operation; you decide how we proceed from here.” Hein’s gaze remained as steady and unshakeable as a mountain—a steadfast pillar supporting Xiao Yan’s world.

Xiao Yan took a deep breath and opened a channel to the cockpit. “Reitz, Loch—what about those particulate bombs I had you guys build?”

“Ready to go, of course,” Reitz replied with supreme confidence.

“I’m going to designate specific sections of this base for you. We’re going to—blow it up! Force them to take Jane and flee!”

“Copy that! We’ve been itching to do exactly that! Too bad Valentine isn’t actually inside!”

With that, the aircraft executed a sharp maneuver, brazenly flinging off every killer who had managed to latch onto its engines. A missile fired out, striking the southwest corner of the base—the precise spot Xiao Yan had designated. The instant it detonated, a cloud of dust-like particles billowed outward; in less than thirty seconds, the entire southwest section of the base collapsed completely.

“That felt fucking good!” Mark roughly wiped the nutrient fluid from his face. “We’ve been on so many missions, but when have we ever ended up looking this pathetic?”

“The tracker shows that Jane is on the move,” Casey replied, his eyes still glued to the data feed. Xiao Yan directed Loch and Ritz to steer clear of the flight corridors and blow up the central section of the base.

The ice plain was trembling; before long, the entire base was liable to collapse completely.

A dozen or so seconds later, the first aircraft of the surging swarm burst out. Casey shouted, "Jane is on board that one!"

Ritz and Loch were just about to give chase when, suddenly, dozens of aircraft erupted simultaneously from several flight corridors, launching an attack against them. Laser missiles whizzed past; Lauren screamed in alarm. In an instant, their aircraft ascended into the clouds, then swooped back down, instantly striking three enemy craft. Immediately following with a spiraling maneuver, they unleashed a volley of missiles, sending the enemy aircraft plummeting one after another.

Mark gripped his safety harness with sheer terror. "Are we going to crash?!"

Xiao Yan spoke calmly, "No. Ritz and Loch have upgraded the aircraft's engines and fire control systems."

He hadn't expected that in the span of just a few days, Ritz and Loch would manage to boost the aircraft's performance by more than fifty percent over its previous capabilities. Of course, only minds like theirs—capable of such lightning-fast processing speeds—could possibly pilot an aircraft moving at such extreme velocity.

"Loch! Ritz! Blow up this base!" Xiao Yan commanded coldly. They had to completely annihilate this horde of clones; otherwise, their ceaseless emergence would only lead to endless trouble.

"I’ve been itching to do that for ages!" Ritz replied gleefully.

The aircraft circled once over the base, unleashing a barrage of missiles. A cloud of particles, resembling a thick mist, engulfed the base; in an instant, everything Valentine had created crumbled into dust.

Casey linked Jane's tracking signal to their aircraft, and Ritz and Loch gave chase.

As their aircraft tore through the misty clouds, the wispy vapor that had been drifting lazily was instantly dragged out into countless streaking lines.

"This is way too fast..." Mark simply couldn't shake the terrifying illusion that they were about to crash.

Half a minute later, the aircraft carrying Jane was less than five hundred meters away from them. Forced to alter their flight path due to being pursued by Xiao Yan and his team, the *Tide Surge* assassins attempted to shake them off. However, the disparity between their flight speed and that of Xiao Yan’s craft was simply too great; no matter what evasive maneuvers they executed, Ritz and Loch could—with what seemed like mocking ease—fly right alongside them, maintaining a mere five-meter distance.

Ritz and Loch effortlessly dodged every single attack launched by the *Tide Surge* crew, yet this prolonged cat-and-mouse game was beginning to wear on everyone's patience.

"If we keep tailing them like this, won't they just keep trying to shake us off? At this rate, when are we ever going to find Valentine?" Wynn frowned in frustration.

"I left my wireless terminal back in the flight tunnel. All I need to do is hack into the pilots' minds and make them *think* they’ve lost us..."

"Oh! Ritz and Loch actually built you a replacement wireless terminal—I heard it’s incredibly powerful!" Lauren disengaged the safety lock, tapped open the overhead storage compartment, and retrieved a remarkably lightweight terminal.

Xiao Yan swiftly established a connection, simultaneously hacking into the minds of both enemy pilots. He constructed a convincing illusion: one in which Ritz and Loch—while attempting to evade the *Tide Surge’s* heat-seeking missiles—had flown too low, crashed into a rocky outcrop, and exploded.

"Sweet dreams."

Ritz and Loch widened the gap between themselves and the enemy craft to two thousand meters, keeping their sights fixed on Jane.

They had left the Antarctic Circle behind, and the frozen ocean beneath them was gradually coming to life.

The sunlight radiated a captivating warmth, and the waves surged and leaped as if striving to break free from the Earth's gravitational pull.

Yet, Xiao Yan had no time to admire such scenery; their flight path was leading them deep into the heart of the Pacific Ocean.

Where were they taking Jane? To some small island in the Pacific? That didn't align with Valentine's usual modus operandi.

Could it be another submarine—diving deep beneath the waves?

If that were the case, they absolutely had to rescue Jane!

The entire world before their eyes was now dominated by the deep, azure sea; save for the water and the distant horizon, there was no land to be seen.

"Where on earth are they going? Are they planning to fly all the way around the globe?" Wynn turned his face to the side, gazing down at the endless expanse of blue beneath them, a growing sense of anxiety taking hold. Lauren suddenly let out a startled cry: "Look! Look at that!"

Xiao Yan gazed in the direction Lauren was pointing; on the ocean surface several kilometers away, he seemed to spot a massive floating object.

"...Is... is that a ship?" Wynn asked, sounding unsure.

For those who had lived their entire lives within the confines of Shire, the mode of transport known as a "ship" had not been used for over two hundred years. With the widespread adoption of aircraft, the very existence of ships had long since lost any practical significance.

"Valentine Sheen really is creative—hiding out at sea, constantly on the move, making him impossible to pinpoint!" Casey clenched his fists, grinding his teeth in sheer frustration.

"This... isn't this ship a bit *too* big?" Lauren scratched his head. "I’ve got a really bad feeling about this."

The *Tidesurge*—the aircraft carrying Jane—landed on a small platform, which then descended into the ship's hangar bay.

"That isn't just a ship; it's a destroyer. While it lacks the sheer bulk of an aircraft carrier, it boasts exceptional maneuverability and formidable firepower—capable of sinking armored vessels weighing over a thousand tons. Even if Shire were to deploy submarines to pursue it, the torpedoes it carries would be more than enough to send them to the bottom. That is merely based on my knowledge of naval vessels from two centuries ago; given Valentine's genius—and the two hundred-plus years of refinement and upgrades—the fire-control system on his destroyer must be truly extraordinary! We cannot approach it recklessly!"

Xiao Yan’s prediction proved accurate. Just as Ritz and Loch were attempting to put a little more distance between themselves and the vessel, a high-speed missile tore through the air and came hurtling straight at them. Loch and Ritz yanked their aircraft into a steep climb; the missile whizzed past, grazing the very underside of their hull.

"My God... oh, my God..." Mark stared wide-eyed in disbelief.

It was as if the missile had locked onto them specifically; after executing a wide, sweeping turn, it resumed its relentless pursuit of Ritz and Loch.

With their engines running at full throttle, Ritz and Loch flew toward the destroyer. The moment they entered its firing range, a barrage of artillery fire rained down upon them.

"Xiao Yan, come up with a plan! We have to disable its fire-control system—even if only for a single second!" Wynn braced his hands against the ceiling of the cockpit. “Xiao Yan! Those homing missiles are driven by the fire control system!” Casey shouted a warning. “I’ll intercept the missiles’ signals! You handle the intrusion!”

“No problem!”

Teaming up once again, Casey manipulated the homing missiles into transmitting signals back to the ship, allowing Xiao Yan to ride those signals and successfully infiltrate the destroyer’s fire control system.

In that moment, a deep, oppressive darkness crushed down upon Xiao Yan’s nerves; as he delved deeper into the system, a sense of utter despair seemed to tighten its grip around his very breath.

He could finally be certain: Valentine was indeed aboard this destroyer!

*Welcome to my kingdom, my dear Xiao Yan. My invitation still stands; I look forward to you changing your mind.*

Valentine’s smooth, mellow voice felt like vines spreading endlessly through the darkness; their thorny barbs pierced deep into Xiao Yan’s mind, sending a jolt of searing pain straight to his brain.

*These are all illusions. None of this is real.*

Xiao Yan clenched his fingers so tightly that, from the sheer force of the effort, he felt as though he might crush his own bones.

Beside him, Hein reached out, interlaced his fingers with Xiao Yan’s, and held him in a vice-like grip.

“Lauren! Do we have any spare terminals left?”

“...Yes!”

Lauren produced another terminal, and Hein swiftly plugged in. In that instant, Xiao Yan felt the thorny vines that had bound him—holding him back, preventing his advance—being severed. A powerful force, unstoppable and irresistible, surged forward and propelled him onward.

Xiao Yan shut down the fire control system, and their aircraft, with a final burst of momentum, soared directly over the destroyer. Hein unlatched the cabin hatch, ready to jump.

Ritz’s voice crackled over the comms: “Hey! Guys! I really don’t think this story is going to have a happy ending! That destroyer is massive—big enough to hold an entire Special Operations Task Force!”

Casey, too, disengaged his safety harness and replied coldly, “By the time reinforcements arrive, Jane will already be dead!”

“Listen up, Ritz... Loch... If reinforcements arrive and you haven’t received any signal from me, then use the particle bombs—blow this destroyer to smithereens!”

“Hey! Xiao Yan, get back here! Xiao Yan!” ”

Reitz was just about to seal the hatch and lock Xiao Yan inside, but Xiao Yan had already leaped down.

Xiao Yan followed the fire control system’s conduits down to the node network; however, the moment he forced the hatch open, he saw a swarm of assassins rushing out.

“Oh… I’m pretty sure now that this story isn’t going to have a happy ending!” Wynn gripped his twin blades, poised and ready to strike.

Still hovering nearby, Loch and Reitz acted with perfect synchronicity, firing laser-guided missiles that blasted the charging horde of assassins into oblivion.

Mark felt an overwhelming urge to jump up and plant a big, grateful kiss on the two pilots in the cockpit.

“Xiao Yan, this is as far as we can help you!”

Xiao Yan swiftly began scanning the destroyer’s internal schematics in search of Valentine’s location. Yet, Valentine had concealed himself so perfectly that, from the very moment he had breached the warship’s main control system, Xiao Yan had been plagued by the unsettling illusion that he was trapped inside Valentine’s own mind.

“Find Jane, and you’ll find Valentine,” Casey said, continuing to track Jane’s signal.

“Before we do that, we have to stop Valentine’s assassins!”

Xiao Yan projected the destroyer’s structural blueprint before them. While the warship’s exterior resembled a standard military vessel from two centuries ago, its interior was a labyrinthine maze—nothing short of a floating fortress.

“We’ll enter through this node. We have to seal off the corridors and stop any assassins from getting through! We need to isolate them completely! That way, even if some of them do manage to find us, at least the numbers will be manageable!”

Casey grew anxious. “But that means you’ll have to maintain constant control over the node—and Valentine won’t let you get away with that! He might even destroy your mind!”

“Then let him try!” Xiao Yan pressed his palm against the floor, closed his eyes, and let his consciousness expand once more. Hein’s palm rested over the back of Xiao Yan’s hand, and his forehead gently brushed against Xiao Yan’s; the scent unique to this man wafted through Xiao Yan’s senses. "Xiao Yan, remember: right now, you aren't hunting Valentine solely for your own sake—you have your comrades with you, too. Impulsiveness will exact a brutal price. And once paid, there is no turning back."

Xiao Yan took a deep breath; he understood Hein’s meaning. A simple, direct intrusion would be easily intercepted by Valentine. He had to proceed with careful deliberation. Xiao Yan concealed his thoughts, suppressing every ripple of mental energy, as if silently merging himself into the very fabric of the warship.

"Let's go."

They pressed forward. Every junction in the corridors had been sealed off, leaving only a single path leading to the Main Control Room.

Every so often, assassins would emerge—some even being clones of Casey. The group cut a bloody swath through their attackers. At one point, Mark spun around and nearly plunged his blade into Casey’s chest, only to be abruptly halted by Xiao Yan.

"Hey! Look closely—that’s the real Casey!" Wynn glared at Mark.

"They all look exactly alike! How am I supposed to tell the difference?" Mark retorted indignantly, parrying an assassin’s attack as he spoke.

"Casey is wearing a mobile terminal on his back!" Liv slashed her way to Mark’s side, joining forces with him.

Hein remained ruthlessly efficient; every swing of his blade was executed with absolute finality. As he pivoted, the pommel of his sword shattered an assassin’s skull; without a moment’s hesitation, he spun around again and thrust his blade deep into another assassin’s throat. Xiao Yan found himself besieged by three assassins; maneuvering within the cramped confines of the corridor proved a struggle. He pinned one assassin against the wall with his elbow, then seized the man’s shoulder and executed a sudden flip, shoving him back into his accomplices before launching a swift counterattack that severed the man’s head. As Xiao Yan leaped into the air to strike down another assassin, the man tilted his head back—and his lips appeared to form the name: "Xiao Yan." In that fleeting moment of hesitation, the adversary suddenly thrust the sharp blade in their hand toward Xiao Yan’s chest. A figure abruptly threw themselves forward, knocking Xiao Yan out of the way; upon impact with the ground, Xiao Yan’s left arm snapped—the pain was excruciating, tearing through him. When he finally lifted his eyes, he saw Hein standing guard in front of him, severing the assassin’s head with a single stroke.

“Are you an idiot?! You couldn’t even recognize *me*!” Cathy’s furious roar was so loud it made Xiao Yan’s eardrums ache.

Something warm and wet began to drip onto Xiao Yan’s cheek. Only then did he realize that Cathy—who was still propped over him—bore a deep gash running from the bridge of her nose down to her left cheek; it was bleeding profusely, even as it began to visibly heal.

Xiao Yan abruptly rolled over, reversing his grip on his blade to parry the sneak attack from another assassin. He delivered a powerful kick that sent the assailant slamming against the wall; the instant the man hit the ground, Xiao Yan surged forward and severed his head.

...bag.

Corpses lay strewn haphazardly across the corridor as they pressed onward. Xiao Yan intended to seal off the nodes behind them to prevent other assassins from entering, but he discovered that no matter how hard he tried—no matter how far he extended his senses—he could not detect the system within this sector.

Seeing yet another wave of assassins closing in, Mark shouted out in alarm, "Xiao Yan! What’s wrong with you?"

Xiao Yan realized that he hadn't lost his connection to the battleship's system; rather, Valentine had been luring him deeper and deeper, and now his consciousness had become ensnared within Valentine's own mind. He stood rooted to the spot, not even lifting a finger.

Casey was the first to react. "Remove his terminal! Now! Immediately!"

"No! Severing his mental link would damage his neurons." Hein hoisted Xiao Yan onto his shoulder in a single fluid motion. "Give him time; he won't let himself get trapped!"

"Then what do we do about this horde of 'Caseys'?" Mark called back over his shoulder as he ran.

As they passed a specific node gate, Casey suddenly skidded to a halt. "Give me Xiao Yan's sidearm!"

"What are you planning to do?" Wynn grabbed at Casey, only to be shoved aside.

"Are *you* the tech specialist, or am *I*? Stop wasting time!"

Hein tossed the sidearm from Xiao Yan's waist to Casey. Working with lightning speed, Casey stripped a component from the cryo-pistol and pressed it against the sliding node gate's mechanism; he then docked the energy converter from a second sidearm directly into the cryo-pistol's assembly. With a muffled *thud*, the sliding gate suddenly shot open. Casey was slammed violently by the recoiling gate; reacting with lightning reflexes, Wynn yanked him clear just moments before the massive gate could crush him in half at the waist.

But at that precise instant, an assassin reached the doorway. Before Casey could fully extricate himself, the assassin seized his ankle; the sliding gate ground through his flesh and began to bite into his bone. In an instant, several assassins threw their weight against the gate, while countless hands latched onto Casey's leg; the gate's alarm blared as it struggled to close, only to be held fast by the obstruction.

"Damn it! Mark, you bastard—can't you pull any harder?" Wynn roared. Mark had wrapped his arms around Casey's waist and was straining with all his might to drag him back inside. "These guys are incredibly strong!"

Casey was still being dragged inch by inch toward the other side; Mark had to brace his feet against the sliding door to gain leverage, just to keep from being pulled through. The killers on the other side pressed their palms against the door, holding it open just enough to leave a ten-centimeter gap—it looked as though they were poised to force the door wide open.

His face pale with pain, Casey struggled to speak: "Cut off my leg! Cut it off!"

"What?"

While Wynn hesitated, Hein raised his hand—moving so fast that no one could clearly follow the motion—and severed Casey’s leg. Not only did Wynn and Mark tumble backward from the sudden release of tension, but the killers who had been dragging Casey also stumbled away, and the sliding door slammed shut in an instant.

Casey lay on the floor, drenched in cold sweat, as blood continued to seep from his still-unhealed wound.

"Hey... are you... okay?" Wynn helped Casey lean against the wall, watching as he lowered his head and pressed both hands firmly against the stump of his severed leg.

As the wound finally healed, the agonizing pain at last subsided.

Meanwhile, Xiao Yan remained lost within that vast, disorienting void of darkness.

It felt as though this entire warship were merely an extension of Valentine’s own brain; once Xiao Yan had calmed himself, he began to suspect that the vessel possessed no independent systems whatsoever—that absolutely everything within it was merely a manifestation of Valentine’s thoughts.

If that were truly the case, then attempting to infiltrate the ship’s central control system would be tantamount to entering Valentine’s mind itself—and Valentine’s mind was the darkest, most terrifying place in the entire universe. In that instant, Xiao Yan felt an immense pressure closing in on him from the darkness, as if attempting to crush the tendrils of thought he was trying to extend outward. If this continued, his mind would inevitably be snuffed out!

*Stay calm, Xiao Yan... If this warship really is Valentine’s mind, you have to leave! Not leave Valentine’s mind—but leave the ship itself.*