You went on a blind date and presented an A-level wanted criminal as a meeting gift?

The moment the hood was roughly ripped off, the blinding incandescent light pierced Lin Chen's retina like a sharp sword, causing him to squint instinctively.

After a brief period of visual blur, when he opened his eyes again, adjusted to the light intensity, and saw the scene before him clearly, even with his mental fortitude, which had been enhanced by the [God-level Gene Enhancement Fluid] and far surpassed that of ordinary people, his pupils involuntarily contracted sharply!

Shocked!

An unprecedented and shocking experience!

This was nothing like the rudimentary underground hideout or the secret laboratory converted from an abandoned mine that he had imagined.

This...this is a city!

A cyberpunk-style underground steel city, built entirely from the inside of a mountain!

He was standing on an alloy walkway suspended in mid-air, with a bottomless, enormous canyon below.

Above the dome, hundreds of huge searchlights illuminated the entire space as bright as day.

Looking out, the horizon was shrouded in a hazy metallic mist, making it impossible to see the boundary.

Countless crisscrossing steel bridges and transport tracks connect massive platforms suspended in mid-air, like the skeleton of a giant python.

The moment [God-level Insight] was activated, Lin Chen's brain received a tsunami of information!

Deep within the canyon beneath his feet was a rushing underground river, which was channeled into a complex cooling pipe system, providing a continuous source of heat dissipation for the entire massive base.

The air was filled with a strong, pungent smell, a mixture of ozone, engine oil, and metal cutting fluid.

In the distance, a massive gantry crane was slowly moving, lifting huge components that gleamed with a cold metallic light.

On those suspended platforms are huge workshops with clearly defined divisions of labor.

In some workshops, countless five-axis CNC machine tools are running at high speed, emitting deafening roars.

Countless robotic arms precisely and efficiently grasp, grind, and assemble various precision parts.

Lin Chen's gaze pierced through the distance of tens of meters, clearly seeing what was taking shape on those machine tool production lines: the core acceleration coil and high-strength alloy projectile of the miniature electromagnetic railgun!

This thing is a legendary weapon that is priceless on the black market; the price of just one barrel is enough to buy a medium-sized listed company.

Here, it's produced in large quantities, just like sausages!

Another workshop resembled a giant chemical plant, where countless people in white protective suits were operating reactors to synthesize some kind of high-energy propellant.

Lin Chen's heart sank little by little.

This is no longer a simple criminal organization; it is a war group with terrifying technological capabilities, a tight organizational structure, and the ability to independently build an underground arms factory!

His gaze finally settled on a platform not far away, shrouded in a semi-transparent energy shield.

That place is the core area of ​​the entire underground city—the Central Research Institute.

Through the thin protective shield, he saw three familiar yet unfamiliar figures.

They were the three genius students who went missing from Peking University!

Wang Tao, the doctoral student specializing in quantum entanglement theory, was pale-faced and had sunken eyes as he frantically performed data deductions in front of a huge holographic screen.

His feet were bound with a pair of electronic shackles that flashed with blue electricity, so heavy that every step he took was incredibly difficult.

Liu Jing, a female graduate student in the Department of Materials Science, was hunched over a spectrometer, recording data with a numb expression. Her once bright and intelligent eyes were now filled with a lifeless emptiness.

Zhang Ming, the physics genius who went missing last, was strapped to a chair with a helmet covered in electrodes on his head. It seemed that data in his brain was being forcibly read, and his body would twitch from time to time, with a trace of white foam coming out of the corner of his mouth.

Their faces were etched with despair, exhaustion, and a numbness as if all their value had been drained.

Upon seeing this, a chilling murderous intent flashed in Lin Chen's eyes, which were disguised as a "bookworm."

He could tolerate the greed and brutality of criminals, but he could not tolerate the destruction and desecration of the future pillars of the nation!

Just then, a steady and rhythmic metallic footstep came from behind him.

Lin Chen slowly turned around. The masked leader he had seen at the mine had now removed his hood, revealing a ferocious face with half of it covered by a metal mask.

Beneath the mask, the only eye visible gleamed with a mechanical coldness and indifference to life.

He is the ruler of this underground kingdom—codenamed "The Mechanic".

"Welcome to Prometheus."

The mechanic's voice was hoarse and deep, like the friction of metal.

"I saw your answer on the forum. It was brilliant, so brilliant that I thought it was some reclusive physics giant who had made his move."

He walked up to Lin Chen, his mechanical eye scrutinizing Lin Chen's "bookworm" appearance, his gaze filled with undisguised arrogance and possessiveness.

"You're the genius who solved the puzzle of 'the possibility of macroscopic quantum states transitioning in multidimensional space' in just ten seconds?"

Lin Chen pushed up his thick black-rimmed glasses and nodded woodenly, his voice carrying just the right amount of timidity and nervousness.

"Yes...yes, sir."

"That question... was very interesting."

"interesting?"

The mechanic let out a disdainful sneer, as if he had heard the biggest joke in the world.

"What might be a fun intellectual game for you is, for me, the key to unlocking a whole new world!"

He suddenly waved his hand, pointing in the direction of the Academia Sinica, his tone becoming fanatical and obsessive.

"Do you see them? They were once just like you, so-called geniuses."

"But now, they are just parts of my grand plan, cogs in the machine!"

"And you,"

The mechanic's mechanical eyes suddenly locked onto Lin Chen, his cold gaze seemingly piercing through him.

"Your brain is more valuable than all of theirs combined."

"From this moment on, your brain belongs to me!"

He took a data tablet from one of his subordinates and threw it directly into Lin Chen's arms.

"Stop talking nonsense."

"Go to the control panel over there and calculate the final formula for this 'faster-than-light electromagnetic matrix' for me."

"This involves more than 37,000 variables, each of which must be accurate to 64 decimal places."

The mechanic's lips curled into a cruel smile, and his perfectly intact human eyes gleamed with bloodlust.

"You have two hours."

"If you miscalculate even one decimal point, I'll break one of your legs."

"If you can't figure it out in two hours, I'll throw you into the reactor below and let you become one with your favorite physics."

A threat, a blatant threat!

Lin-Bookworm-Chen trembled as if he were terrified, clutching the data tablet and nodding repeatedly.

"I...I'll calculate it, I'll go calculate it right away!"

He walked with stiff steps, escorted by two armed men, toward the massive supercomputer control panel.

However, as he lowered his head, his glasses reflecting the cold light, a cold laugh filled with utter contempt escaped from the depths of his wooden expression.

"You want me to calculate the formula?"

"I'm afraid that your dilapidated factory, which you've worked so hard to dig out, won't be able to withstand the results I've calculated."