The whole nation: You're put to survive on a desolate planet, you'll be running an alien b

Li Haotian was picking at the broken steel cable, his fingernails filled with dark red blood and grime.

The wind noise in the headset was too loud, and Su Wan's voice sounded like sawing wood, piercing the eardrums painfully.

"Boss, quick! High-energy reaction detected! That old guy's on the maintenance platform!"

Li Haotian spat out the rusty-tasting saliva in his mouth; Lin Mo on his back felt as light as a piece of paper.

He braced his legs against the pipe wall and, like a gecko, leaped upwards along the scorching metal.

The heatwave rose from the soles of my feet, scorching my trouser legs and burning the hair on my calves.

He climbed up to the last maintenance platform, his chest heaving violently as he gasped for breath like a bellows.

In the shadows a few dozen meters away, stood a man in a white coat, holding a glowing controller in his hand.

The wrinkles on this man's face resembled a cracked riverbed, and his eyes were sunken in their sockets, exuding a sense of madness.

"Stop right there, Li Haotian. Take one more step and I'll turn this place into a graveyard."

The man spoke, his voice hoarse, echoing through the empty shaft.

Li Haotian lifted Lin Mo up from behind, the purple cube in his palm was so cold it felt prickly.

"Han Sen? The watchdog Han Dehai keeps?"

Li Haotian took half a step forward, his boots creaking loudly on the steel plate.

Han Sen chuckled dryly twice, pressing his thumb firmly against the edge of the red button.

"I am the creator of this place. The Pandora you hold is just an empty shell that has not been activated."

He shook the controller and pointed with his other finger to the huge, still-pulsating cocoon next to him.

"Lin Mo's original consciousness is still here with me. As long as I press it, the electromagnetic pulse will shatter her soul."

Li Haotian stopped and glanced back; the white light from underground was almost catching up.

"What do you want? Wealth, or immortality?"

As Li Haotian spoke, he bent down and picked up a rusty steel ball from the cracked floor.

It fell out of the broken bearing earlier; it was heavy and had a greasy feel from the engine oil.

Han Sen's old face contorted, his features twisted together, making him look like a rotten persimmon.

"Wealth? I've been underground for ten years, I've long forgotten what money looks like!"

He took a step forward, and the blue light at the top of the controller flashed more and more rapidly.

"I want your life, and that golden seed in your heart—it's the ticket to God!"

Li Haotian weighed the steel ball in his hand, a mocking smile curling at the corners of his mouth.

"Han Sen, how about we make a bet?"

Han Sen was stunned for a moment, his hand holding the controller trembled, and his eyes were full of doubt.

"What are you betting on? Your life is in my hands now, what do you have to bet with me?"

Li Haotian held the steel ball between his fingertips, and a golden-red light crept along his veins into the spaces between his fingers.

"I'll bet you're faster, my hand or your thumb."

He pointed to Han Sen's mostly bald head, his tone as indifferent as if he were asking what he wanted for breakfast.

"If I throw this marble, your head will break before the button is pressed, you believe it or not?"

Han Sen laughed so hard that tears almost came out, as if he had heard the funniest joke in the world.

"Li Haotian, has your brain been burned by lava? There are thirty meters between us!"

He took a deep breath, a fierce glint in his eyes, and pressed down hard with his fingers.

"Go to hell, you genetic garbage!"

The moment the red button sank in half a millimeter, Li Haotian moved.

He exerted force from his waist and hips, his whole body like a fully drawn bow, the steel ball at his fingertips bringing up a brilliant golden light.

"call out--"

The sound of air being torn apart filled their ears, so fast that even the afterimage was not visible.

The golden light pierced through Han Sen's brow, bringing with it a cluster of dark red blood.

Han Sen froze, his thumb hovering over the button, but he couldn't muster any more strength.

His eyes rolled upwards, and a fist-sized hole exploded in the back of his head, splattering his brains all over the ground.

"Boom!"

The bulletproof glass behind him couldn't withstand the impact and shattered into millions of pieces like ice.

Li Haotian didn't look at the corpse. He rushed to the fleshy cocoon and gripped the bronze dagger tightly in his right hand.

"Lin Mo, I'll take you home."

He let out a low growl and swung the dagger horizontally, the golden flames instantly burning the sticky cocoon skin to ashes.

Purple slime sprayed all over the ground. Li Haotian reached into the fleshy cocoon, trying to pull out the figure he had been longing for.

His fingertips touched the rough fabric, his heart skipped a beat, and the strength in his hand suddenly diminished by more than half.

"What...what is this thing?"

Li Haotian frantically tore off the remaining cocoon skin, then froze on the spot, his pupils shrinking to pinpoints.

There was no Lin Mo inside the flesh cocoon, nor was there any carrier of consciousness.

There was only one puppet dressed in Lin Mo's white dress, its wooden face depicted in an extremely perfunctory manner.

A hole was cut into the puppet's chest, and it was empty; there wasn't even a single wire inside.

"Boss! The signal's moving! That purple cube is heading southeast!"

Su Wan's scream exploded through the earpiece, making Li Haotian's temples throb.

"The items were moved ahead of schedule? When did that happen?"

Li Haotian punched the steel beam next to him, creating a deep dent in the half-inch thick channel steel.

He opened his left hand, and the purple cube he had grabbed from the blood pool was slowly fading.

In less than three seconds, the cube turned into a cloud of purple smoke that smelled of rotting lilies.

"Damn it, that old fox Han Dehai is waiting for me here."

He picked up the puppet, and its mouth suddenly moved, releasing an electronic recording.

"Haotian, are you satisfied with this gift from your father?"

Han Dehai's voice, transmitted through the puppet's small trumpet, sounded particularly jarring in the ruins.

The white light from underground finally broke through the edge of the platform, and the heat wave turned the puppet into a charred corpse.

Without hesitation, Li Haotian grabbed the steel cable and shot towards the ground like an arrow.

"Su Wan, lock the signal. Even if he runs to the moon, I'll twist his head off."

His eyes gleamed with golden light, and his heart pounded like a hammer against his ribs.

The iron cover at the top of the escape well was deformed. Li Haotian kicked the well wall with both feet and broke out of the well.

"Bang!"

The iron lid flew more than ten meters into the air, and Li Haotian carried Lin Mo and landed in the backyard of the Han family mansion.

Moonlight shone on the ruins; the Han family's luxurious mansion had collapsed to the ground.

In the distance, several blinding headlights were rapidly disappearing into the woods, the roar of engines tearing through the night.

"Trying to run away?"

Li Haotian casually wiped the black ash off his face and picked up a long knife that had fallen to the ground.

"Su Wan, cut off my path."

"Understood! I'll disable the control system of the three-kilometer-long cross-sea bridge right now!"

Li Haotian jumped onto a motorcycle that was still running, released the clutch, and the front of the motorcycle suddenly lifted up.

The black motorcycle, like a trapped beast, plunged headlong into the dark forest path.

The wind felt like knives cutting his face. Li Haotian gritted his teeth and gripped the accelerator tightly with his right hand.

"Lin Mo, wait for me a little longer, it really is only a little while."

He roared at the wind, and the Han family mansion behind him was completely engulfed in flames, turning half the sky bright red.

The cars in front started honking their horns frantically, and the bridge railings were slowly rising.

Instead of slowing down, Li Haotian floored the gear, and the engine roared in despair.

"Han Dehai, your death is near."

The motorcycle kicked up a trail of sparks, tracing a breathtaking arc between the broken bridge beams.

At the end of that purple light, he seemed to see Lin Mo's lifeless face.

This time, he will definitely not catch a puppet again.

The tapping suddenly stopped in Su Wan's earpiece, her voice trembling violently.

"Boss... something's wrong. We've detected a large number of mirrored biological reactions ahead... they're massacring the city."

Looking up, Li Haotian saw dozens of purple beams of light shooting into the sky on the horizon of Donghai City.

The entire city is being slowly enveloped by those black veins, and piercing screams drift on the wind.

"Then let's fight our way out."

Li Haotian didn't turn around and crashed directly into the purple mist.

His long sword left a trail of fire on the concrete ground; his silhouette was both lonely and ferocious.

In the deepest part of the mist, a figure holding a black umbrella was quietly waiting for him.

Hook: Who is the person under that black umbrella? Is it the mutated Han Dehai, or another gatekeeper who has been missing for a long time? Where exactly is Lin Mo's consciousness hidden? Is all this chaos a signal that the great cataclysm has finally arrived?