The Debtor System: Starting with a debt of 1 billion

Chapter 56 Drilling in the Eye of the Storm

"Coordinates confirmed, this is the place." Acha's voice sounded somewhat distorted through the communicator. "Radar shows that the drilling platform has almost no energy response. Lin Mo, be careful, it might be a trap."

"A trap?" Lin Mo looked at the chip he had just pulled from the traitor and sneered. "I never expected him to surrender willingly from the start. Take off, land directly."

The helicopter's massive rotors churned up the storm as it slowly descended onto the rickety drilling platform deck.

The hatch opened, and Lin Mo leaped down first, a high-frequency vibrating dagger gripped tightly in his hand, followed closely by Su Ya. However, the anticipated ambush did not occur. The vast deck was deserted, with only a few seabirds startled and circling among the rusty steel frames.

The place was eerily quiet, like an abandoned steel tomb.

"He's in the central control room on the top floor," Suya suddenly said, her pupils slightly contracting, the barcode on the back of her neck faintly burning. "I can feel... he's waiting for us."

The two walked through the empty corridor, the emergency lights on the walls flickering and casting long shadows. The air was thick with the smell of rotting engine oil and seawater. The surveillance cameras along the way drooped like dead fish eyes, except for the heavy blast-proof door leading to the control room, which was slowly sliding open to both sides.

Inside the control room, red light filled the air.

There were no heavily armed guards, no deadly laser nets. Only a huge holographic projector stood in the center, with a figure standing with his back to them, hands clasped behind his back.

"Welcome to Noah's Ark, my children."

The man turned around, revealing a face Lin Mo had seen in countless nightmares—pale, thin, with a sickly smile on his lips. It was "The Butcher."

But Lin Mo was not fooled by his appearance. His gaze went past the holographic image of the "Butcher" and locked onto the scene behind him.

It was a huge glass culture tank that took up an entire wall.

The culture tank was filled with a deep blue nutrient solution, and in the center of that liquid floated a huge, tumor-like object. It resembled a slowly beating heart, or a tangled mess of blood vessels and nerves. Countless thick tubes, like octopus tentacles, extended from every corner of the platform, connecting to the object and transmitting energy and data.

"Ark" embryo.

The legendary ultimate weapon that could reshape human genes was now like a sleeping monster, greedily breathing in the liquid.

"You think you've won?" The "Butcher" in the holographic image chuckled, pointing to the enormous embryo. "Look at your feet. This platform itself is a giant time bomb, and also the incubator for the 'Ark.' With just one command from me, the nuclear reactor here will overload, the embryo will mature instantly, and it will wipe out the entire sea area."

Suya's body trembled slightly as she looked at the pulsating embryo. The sealed fragments of memory in her mind began to frantically reassemble—the screaming experimental subject, the flowing blood, and the "key" injected into her body.

"He's lying," Suya suddenly spoke, her voice trembling but unusually firm. "That embryo... it's not ready. It's afraid."

Lin Mo suddenly turned his head to look at her.

"Brother, that embryo is scared." Suya pointed to the glass tank. "It's rejecting the nutrient solution, and its pulse is erratic. It's bluffing; it needs the genetic sequence from my body to stabilize it, so it doesn't dare to blow this place up."

The Butcher's smile froze for a moment, then became even more ferocious: "Clever little mice. Since you've seen through me, don't leave. Stay and become the first cornerstone of the 'Ark'!"

Suddenly, all the hatches around the control room slammed shut, and the alarm blared shrilly. However, Lin Mo sheathed his dagger and pulled a small device flashing red light from his pocket—the fuse for a high-explosive cutting round he had brought back from the Deep Blue Tomb.

"That's the end of the bluffing trick."

Lin Mo stared at the holographic image, his eyes icy: "You dare not explode because once it does, your fragile 'egg' will shatter. As for me... I have nothing to lose."

He slammed the fuse in his hand hard against the control panel of the console.

"Let's see if your 'Ark' is tougher, or my life is tougher!"