Pei Ran carried her backpack and left the warehouse.
W said, “There are quite a number of soldiers on duty in the first-floor lobby and the top floor.”
Pei Ran asked, “How many is ‘quite a number’?”
A photo was received on the wristband. Pei Ran glanced at it.
Alright, that was indeed a lot.
Tonight, the central building was heavily guarded, as if afraid someone might sneak in. Several rows of armored vehicles were parked at the entrance of the building, and fully armed soldiers stood guard there in formation, on high alert.
The central square and streets outside were already completely under lockdown. Aside from soldiers, not a single shadow of a person or vehicle could be seen.
The ground floor was full of soldiers, and the top floor had no shortage either.
Every few steps, there were two fully armed soldiers standing guard. Inside the command center lobby, dozens of armed soldiers were gathering and waiting on standby.
W said, “The ones on duty near the top-floor meeting room today aren’t ordinary soldiers. They’re elites from Lieutenant General Delsa’s former Northwest Military District — his trusted troops, a special operations unit tasked with carrying out special missions.”
Sounds like they won’t be easy to deal with.
Outside the top floor, every other floor also had patrolling soldiers moving around the elevator entrances and near the emergency exits.
Even so, W’s plan was still to take the elevator.
The central building had a total of sixty-eight floors. The top floor was connected to Black Well’s dome, and climbing the stairs would absolutely not make it in time within fourteen minutes.
To reach the top floor of the building within a limited time, there was no better option than the elevator.
When Pei Ran rushed to the elevator, W had already summoned it. Pei Ran stepped into the cabin, and the elevator doors automatically closed and began ascending.
The top floor was on the sixty-eighth floor, but the elevator panel showed the destination as the sixty-fifth floor.
W explained, “If the elevator goes directly to the top floor, the moment the doors open, we’ll have to deal with all the special ops soldiers in that entire corridor, and it’ll also attract the people on standby in the command center lobby.”
He said, “By comparison, the sixty-fifth floor, which is three floors below, has much fewer guards. Plus, they’re just regular soldiers from the Defense Department — easier to handle.”
As the elevator ascended, W said while there was still time, “Pei Ran, I have some bad news.”
Pei Ran: “Go ahead.”
W said, “I just checked the surveillance of the Black Well dorm building. Ai Xia and Engineer Jiang are fine, they weren’t implicated…”
Pei Ran waited for him to say “but,” though she already had a guess in her heart.
Sure enough, W said, “But they’ve been to your dorm.”
Basserway and the others might have put her on the death list partly because of the missing File No. 10 — and today, they had gone to her dorm again.
“There’s no surveillance in the dorm,” W said, “but your dorm room door was open, and I saw Ren and the others.”
The door was open and not closed, and Ren and the others were still visible — something must have happened. Pei Ran’s heart pounded wildly.
“What happened to them?”
W didn’t speak. Pei Ran’s wristband vibrated — he had sent a photo.
In the photo, the door of Dorm 2016 was wide open. The two little robots were hiding at the very back, at the corner beside the kitchen, only barely visible.
Ren was curled up there, holding Xingkong in its arms. The two huddled together, motionless.
Pei Ran panicked and zoomed in on the screen, again and again.
She finally saw Ren’s face.
It was curled up in the corner, clutching Xingkong tightly. For the first time, Pei Ran saw real fear and sorrow on its cartoon face panel.
In its arms, Xingkong’s face panel was dark, with no display at all.
W said, “I found the surveillance footage.”
Pei Ran’s wristband received a few-second clip of security footage, timestamped midnight tonight.
A group of people in plain clothes, armed, violently broke down the door — the noise was loud. Zhuang Mian and the others from the next dorm all poked their heads out, but quickly pulled back in fear.
Ren had been brave, rushing out from inside. Its voice could be heard in the video: “Who are you? Why are you breaking in? Do you have a search warrant??”
The leader immediately raised a weapon at it.
Ren, silly as always, still stood there. Xingkong, far more alert in the face of danger, darted forward, grabbed Ren’s arm, and pulled it to run.
But the two of them were no match for their opponents.
Weapons fired. One after the other, they both collapsed.
Xingkong’s life or death was uncertain. Ren — that innocent, cheerful little robot — had been completely traumatized.
Pei Ran’s fury ignited in an instant.
W tried to calm her. “Don’t panic. Maybe they can still be repaired.”
Pei Ran gave a soft “Mm,” lifted her head, and glanced up at the ceiling above.
They were right here, on the very top floor.
They had set a trap for her, locked her in a metal cage, wanted her life, stole her things, killed her people… And after all that, they still dreamed of sitting comfortably on the top floor? That was pure fantasy.
She checked the green light within her body.
Without the restraint of the suppression wristband, they were as free as birds — only Green Light No. 1 hadn’t awakened yet, but it definitely would.
What were the names of those seven people again? Not a single one of them should think about living well.
- ••
Central Building. Top Floor.
Small Conference Room.
Delsa’s deputy was sitting on a chair against the wall, attentively listening in on the meeting. The black briefcase he carried was casually placed on the table beside him.
The new members of the Black Well Provisional Decision-Making Committee were gathered around the oval-shaped conference table, holding a meeting.
There were only seven of them—
Chief Executive Officer Basserway, General Eugene, Lieutenant General Delsa, Minister of Finance Vasani, Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs Park Myeong-cheol, Minister of Agriculture Luka, and Deputy Minister of Commerce Patel.
The small conference room, once fully packed with people, was now sparsely occupied.
The uniformed military personnel — apart from General Eugene and Lieutenant General Delsa — had all disappeared from this meeting room.
Several cabinet members and senior administrative officials who should have been present were also absent, having opposed Basserway’s current operation.
The seven remaining individuals were the core members of tonight’s coup.
Lieutenant General Delsa was speaking.
“All the senior officers of the Southeast Military District have been detained and are now held in the quarantine center. Before tomorrow morning, we’ll assign new officers to take over. Within a day or two, Black Well’s military will undergo a complete overhaul.”
General Eugene remained leaning back in his chair, full of worry.
He asked, “What’s the situation with Marshal Vina now?”
After all, he and Marshal Vina had known each other for decades.
Basserway showed a trace of impatience.
“She’s also in a single room at the quarantine center. I don’t think there’s any need for you to be so concerned about her condition. Whatever she’s experiencing now, she brought upon herself.”
Basserway frowned. “Marshal Vina’s unconstitutional and dictatorial ambitions have already become very clear. The Federation was never meant to be the federation of a dictator. The current electoral system must be respected.”
He asked, “What about Black Well’s management system? Is it still locked?”
In the conference room, everyone was long accustomed to a cold, emotionless voice immediately responding in detail whenever such a question was asked — even instantly providing multiple solutions for reference.
But at this moment, the room was silent.
“Uh…” Vasani broke the awkward quiet. “…It still seems to be mostly locked.”
Tonight, Agent W — that artificial intelligence — somehow locked down all of Black Well’s management systems before escaping. Now, nothing is functioning properly.
Vasani said, “Our technicians are working on it. Some functions have already been restored. They said it might take at least a few weeks for everything to return to normal.”
He quickly added, “Actually, there are still a lot of things that can be used as usual.”
He gave examples: “For instance, the isolation doors at Black Well’s entrance all have manual control panels — they can still be opened and closed normally. And the central building’s elevators still work, as do the doors and the lights…”
As he mentioned this, everyone instinctively looked up at the ceiling lights.
Unlike before, today only a few lights on the meeting room ceiling were lit — the room was half bright, half dark.
It was nighttime, and when the meeting room wasn’t in use, the lights had always been turned off directly by Agent W. Just now, Vasani had tried using the manual panel, but for some reason, only a few lights could be turned on.
Basserway was growing agitated.
It was as if they had taken control of Black Well, but couldn’t even turn on a few lights.
The Minister of Agriculture cut in: “All the AIs in the vertical farms, and those on the production lines — they’ve completely stopped. It might take re-inputting commands into each unit manually, one by one, before they can resume operating.”
Lieutenant General Delsa said coldly, “I knew it. All those AIs were in collusion with that Agent W.”
Whether colluding or not, the most important thing now was getting Black Well running again.
Under Agent W’s management, Black Well had been highly automated. No one ever had to worry about a thing. Now that he was gone, everything had collapsed.
Basserway said, “Let’s list the most urgent issues we need to resolve right now.”
He tapped the panel on the table, intending to summon the meeting room’s virtual display.
But even the panel didn’t light up.
Vasani turned his head and reminded him, “That’s still not functional. Our technicians are working hard to crack it — it should be operational soon.”
Basserway pressed his lips together and pulled back his hand.
It felt as if, overnight, they had regressed to a primitive, barbaric era.
- ••
Downstairs.
Inside the elevator.
W was reporting in real time: “Sixty-fifth floor — there are three armed soldiers at the elevator entrance. Another two are patrolling the hallway, moving toward the left.”
The elevator was rising rapidly, speeding past sixty-four floors.
Ding.
They reached the sixty-fifth floor.
The three soldiers guarding the elevator instantly raised their guns, aiming straight into the cabin.
Today, the situation was special. Everyone entering the command center was required to carry a pass personally signed by Chief Executive Officer Basserway and be ready for inspection at any time — otherwise, they were to be killed on the spot without exception.
However, the elevator cabin was empty. No one was inside.
The soldiers were briefly stunned. The same thought surfaced in all their minds: rumors said that various systems in the central building were malfunctioning tonight — maybe the elevator had glitched.
Their gun barrels lowered. Only one soldier still felt uneasy and stepped forward into the elevator for another look.
Suddenly, his vision blurred — as if a shadow flashed before his eyes — and he collapsed inside the elevator.
The two soldiers behind him did catch a glimpse. A figure had silently slid down from the top of the elevator door.
There was a narrow space up there, just enough to hide in a blind spot of their vision — but it was almost beyond belief. How had she even secured herself up there?
There was no time to think. Pei Ran dropped down, seized a weapon first, then struck — swiftly knocking both soldiers out cold.
She dragged all three into the elevator nearby.
The elevator doors immediately closed automatically.
W continued reporting: “Two more, down the hallway to your left, turning the corner at the end — currently walking away from your position.”
If these two circled back, they would definitely notice their missing comrades. They had to be taken care of first.
“How much time do you have left?” Pei Ran asked.
W replied, “Eleven minutes.”
Pei Ran sprinted toward the far end of the long left hallway, moving fast but soundlessly.
She finally reached the end and turned the corner — spotting the two figures up ahead in the corridor.
From the surveillance feed, W saw Pei Ran never slowing down — she chased up behind them, sprang forward, and struck both on the back of the head one after another. It was over in seconds, the enemy didn’t even have time to react.
Pei Ran dragged them into the room beside her.
Once she finished dealing with them, W said, “Now go back to where the elevator was just now, turn right. About fifteen meters ahead, on the left-hand side, there’s an office with a ‘Ministry of Commerce’ sign. Go inside, smash the glass on the far left. After you break it, hold onto the glass — don’t let it fall.”
Pei Ran followed the navigation and located the Ministry of Commerce office.
Just like the FBSMD office downstairs, it was empty — most desks unoccupied. After the silence began, the Federation building in the capital was the first target of attack. Too few federal staff had survived and made it to Blackwell.
Pei Ran ran to the window. “Break the glass, then hold onto it?”
W confirmed, “Yes. The glass used in the central building is special — very durable. But your mechanical hand can handle it.”
There was no time to ask for details — without hesitation, Pei Ran drove her fist into the glass.
As it turned out, the glass material they used was indeed special. It cracked with a crackling sound into a web of fine lines, but even though it was shattered, it still held together as a single whole sheet.
With quick reflexes, Pei Ran grabbed the fractured glass, tore it down, tossed it aside, then climbed onto the window ledge, gripped the window frame, and slipped out of the building.
This was the sixty-fifth floor of the central building — already very close to Black Well’s dome.
Pei Ran stepped on the window ledge, fingers hooked onto the protruding edges along the outer wall of the building, body pressed tightly against the surface. She looked down.
This was the back side of the central building — from such a height, the street below looked narrow and far away. If she slipped and fell, she’d probably float in the air like a bird for quite a while.
This was the optimal route that W had designed—
Avoid the armed soldiers upstairs, and climb the outer wall of the central building by hand to reach the top floor.