Pei Ran tightened her fingers, pulling herself up, released the mechanical hand, and reached higher to grab the slightly protruding window frame of the floor above. With another pull-up, she hoisted herself up and stepped onto a narrow ledge on the outer wall of the 66th floor.
Behind the glass window was an office on the 66th floor. It was midnight, and the lights were off, with no one inside.
Without pausing to catch her breath, Pei Ran continued climbing upward, clinging closely to the outer wall. She ascended another floor and reached the window of the 67th floor.
The moment she arrived, W suddenly said, “Pei Ran, take cover—the soldiers inside just turned this way.”
Inside was an open lounge area with no door, but it wasn’t directly visible from the hallway. For some reason, the patrolling soldiers had abruptly changed direction and were now heading toward it.
Pei Ran was pressed against the glass window with nowhere to hide.
The patrol was about to arrive, and if she remained hanging outside the window, she’d be spotted instantly.
Climbing up slowly wasn’t an option. Pei Ran pushed hard with her hands and kicked off with her feet, launching herself upward in one swift motion.
She soared through the air, firmly grasping the narrow ledge of the floor above, and quickly curled her legs up.
Two patrolling soldiers turned the corner and glanced into the lounge.
Everything was quiet. Through the glass window, they could see the scattered lights of the Black Well dome at night.
“What’s wrong?” one soldier asked his companion.
“Nothing. I just felt like there was someone in here.”
The soldier looked baffled. “It’s the middle of the night, no one’s working, and the entire Black Well is under curfew. Who’d be here?”
Pei Ran had already climbed higher.
Behind the glass window was the top floor’s restroom. Instead of entering, Pei Ran followed the route W had provided, shifting left along the outer wall.
She asked W, “How much longer?”
W replied, “Six minutes.”
Pei Ran stopped. One more step forward, and behind the glass would be the top-floor meeting room.
She could even hear voices inside.
Her wristband vibrated. Still pressed against the wall, Pei Ran freed one hand and opened the screen.
W sent her a surveillance photo of the current scene inside the meeting room.
Pei Ran’s eyes immediately landed on the black briefcase placed on a corner table.
Seven people were seated around the table, including Chief Executive Basserway and General Eugene, whom she had seen at the royal medal ceremony.
W said, “Aside from General Eugene, the other one in uniform is Lieutenant General Delsa. Both of these military men are armed, so you’ll need to act fast. Delsa’s adjutant was here earlier, but he just stepped out. All the special operations soldiers are outside the small conference room. As soon as you make your move, I’ll lock the door. The conference room door is specially reinforced — it can hold for a short while. Let’s hope that’s enough.”
The central building was now completely back under his control. Once the conference room door was locked, it would temporarily isolate everyone inside from the outside world — no matter how many armed soldiers were outside, it wouldn’t matter.
Pei Ran replied, “Okay.”
She took another step to the left along the narrow ledge and punched the glass.
The material was the same as the one downstairs — it shattered into a web of cracks but still held together. Pei Ran kicked through the fractured pane, and her body was already leaping into the conference room.
All seven people inside the small conference room were stunned.
This was the top floor of the central building inside Blackwell. With so many soldiers guarding both above and below, and the reinforced glass, someone actually managed to break in from the outside.
Lieutenant General Delsa, being a soldier, reacted the fastest and had already reached for his gun.
Pei Ran’s first target was also him. She dashed to his side, snatched the gun from his hand, and punched him flat to the floor in one fluid motion.
She grabbed Delsa’s gun and immediately turned and fired — a shot straight through General Eugene’s forehead.
The others in the room were all administrative officials. Watching her take down two armed military men in just one or two seconds, they were completely paralyzed with fear.
Time was the most precious thing — and Pei Ran didn’t have any.
She grabbed Park Myeong-cheol, the Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs, who was sitting next to Delsa, and smashed his skull with one punch.
She raised the gun and fired again, blasting open the head of a middle-aged man. He had probably been at the medal ceremony too — maybe the Minister of Commerce or someone — who cared?
Each of the seven people in this room had signed their names, wanting her dead. Pei Ran showed no mercy.
Another person realized what was happening and bolted toward the door, but Pei Ran grabbed him, and with a crack, snapped his neck.
These people were pampered and privileged, bellies bulging, slow to move and dull to react — killing them was like slicing vegetables.
Delsa’s gun had a suppressor, but even so, the noise drew attention. The soldiers outside immediately knocked on the door.
In the chaos, someone — it looked like the Minister of Finance — had crawled under the table and shouted, “Help—”
But before he could say “me,” Pei Ran had grabbed his ankle, yanked him out, and shot him through the back of the head.
The soldiers outside heard the gunshot again. Realizing something was wrong, they began slamming their rifle butts against the door.
The heavy banging echoed, but W had already locked the door — it couldn’t be opened at all.
Now, in this temporary seven-member decision-making committee that had been established just a few hours ago, only one person was still seated—
Basserway.
He was very pragmatic, knowing that attempting to escape would mean certain death. He didn’t dare move a muscle in his chair and kept his hands raised high.
His face was deathly pale, but he still managed to speak:
“Don’t kill me. I can give the order right now to release Marshal Vina and the others—”
Pei Ran didn’t have time for his nonsense. She stepped forward and knocked him out cold with a single punch.
Slinging her bag over her shoulder, she rushed straight to the black briefcase on the corner table.
She asked W, “How much longer?”
W replied, “Three minutes.”
Pei Ran tore open the briefcase—inside was a small black square case, just as expected.
She flipped open the lid. Three spare energy blocks were neatly arranged inside.
Moving quickly, she unzipped her backpack and pulled out W’s core processor and the tools she had gathered from his repair kit.
Steadying her nerves, she pried open the base beneath the core processor and began disconnecting the wiring from the energy block. Her hands trembled slightly as she worked.
Time was running out.
Outside, voices clamored as a crowd of soldiers gathered. No doubt the special forces on standby in the command center had also been mobilized.
Gunfire erupted—they were shooting at the door, trying to blast their way in.
The door was reinforced, but it wouldn’t hold for long.
Every soldier outside was a trusted subordinate of Lieutenant General Delsa from the Northwestern Military District. There were too many of them. If they stormed in, she’d be riddled with bullets.
W’s voice remained calm: “The door won’t last, Pei Ran. Leave now—retrace your path and get out of Black Well. I’ve already set it up so the isolation doors will automatically open when they scan you. I know… you’ve done everything you could to save me.”
It sounded like he was saying he could die without regrets.
“No need,” Pei Ran said.
Because Green Light No. 1 inside her had finally awakened.
In her mind’s eye, the newly roused Green Light No. 1 took its position. Pei Ran swiftly wrote:
[Everyone outside the meeting room—blow them to pieces.]
The moment she finished the sentence, the door shuddered—and opened.
At the same time, a series of muffled explosions erupted, one after another, unending.
After the explosions, the gunfire ceased, and the outside suddenly fell silent. The door was left slightly ajar, as if no one had ever been there.
Pei Ran struggled to suppress her pounding heart and held her breath. “I’m replacing it now—just pull it out directly?”
W said, “Yes. I’ll use my reserve energy to hold on for a while. Once you connect the new energy block, I’ll be back to normal. Three. Two. One.”
Pei Ran yanked out the old energy block.
The blue light from the core processor, already dim, grew even fainter—but it didn’t go out completely.
Pei Ran held her breath and swiftly plugged in the new energy block.
The core processor’s blue glow remained weak, unchanged.
She checked the connection again.
In her heart, she begged: Light up. Please, light up.
It felt like an eternity—long enough for Pei Ran to imagine every possible outcome, long enough for her to dread a future without W.
In reality, it was only two or three seconds.
Finally, the blue light from W’s core processor brightened again—brighter than it had been all night, back to normal.
W’s voice came through: “Done. That took a little longer than I expected.”
Pei Ran didn’t exhale in relief. Instead, her eyes stung.
She slumped into a nearby chair, the conference room bathed in the stark, uneven glow of its lights, surrounded by scattered corpses. Clutching the glowing core processor in her hand, only one thought filled her mind—
He didn’t die. Thank goodness.
The ceiling lights flickered once, then suddenly blazed at full brightness.
W said, “Don’t worry, it’s me. Now that I have enough power, I’m taking control of all Black Well’s systems.”
Within seconds, something stirred in Pei Ran’s pocket.
It was the mechanical spider. With W’s energy restored and the signal strong, it had come back to life.
It crawled out of her pocket, climbed onto her shoulder, then moved forward to nestle against her collar. Its cool head affectionately nuzzled her neck before settling down against her.
He said, “Wake Basserway up.”
Back in the elevator, he had mentioned they needed Chief Executive Basserway alive.
Pei Ran packed his core processor and the other items into her backpack, stood up, and walked over to Basserway. She grabbed a glass of water from the table and splashed it onto his face.
She hadn’t hit him too hard earlier, afraid of killing him. Basserway immediately stirred awake.
His eyes flew open.
Pei Ran, that god of slaughter, was still standing there. The door to the small conference room hung half open, the air thick with the stench of blood. Outside the door, bits of flesh and blood were splattered across the floor and walls.
The cold, mechanical voice of Security Agent W suddenly echoed through the conference room.
“Basserway, we’re back.”
Basserway’s handsome face twitched violently.
He knew perfectly well — everything was over.
W said, “I plan to open the doors of the quarantine center and release Marshal Vina and the other detained generals from the Southeast Military District.”
Then his tone shifted. “However, I very much hope to avoid internal conflict within Black Well’s military. So before that, I require you to, right now, immediately announce the dissolution of the newly formed Seven-Member Temporary Decision-Making Committee, resign from your position as Federal Chief Executive Officer, and order all armed personnel involved in tonight’s operation to disarm, remain where they are, and await further instructions.”
In front of Basserway, the virtual screen lit up again. The camera feed showed his own pale face.
“If you don’t want to say it yourself, that’s fine,” Security Agent W said. “I’ll announce it for you—The Seven-Member Temporary Decision-Making Committee is hereby dissolved, due to the complete death of its members.”