Handong: Sha Li wants political achievements? I'll shut down the entire province.

Yan Qingfeng held the purple clay teacup and gently blew away the loose tea leaves floating on the surface.

A faint sound of water rippled outwards, its crispness sending a chill through the air.

The faint sound of water was instantly shattered by a violent sea breeze hundreds of nautical miles away.

The edge of the high seas.

Night fell like a thick, black lead plate, pressing down on the turbulent sea.

The icy, biting sea breeze carried a strong, pungent smell of dead, rotting fish.

The pungent black smoke, mixed with the unburned diesel fuel, was forced straight into people's nostrils.

The fumes made one's lungs feel dry and astringent, and even the air one breathed in had a sticky, oily smell.

A dilapidated smuggling fishing boat, its hull peeling and covered in dark green seaweed, was violently rocking in the black waves.

The diesel engine made a clanging sound like a broken bellows.

There was not a ray of light in the lower deck.

The air was so humid and stuffy that you could wring water out of it.

Wang Jian, a former senior executive at the Academy of Agricultural Sciences, lay curled up on a blackened wooden bed like a dead dog.

The fishing boat plunged into the trough of the wave, and the feeling of weightlessness instantly pierced his vestibular nerve.

It felt like a serrated knife for grinding meat had been stuffed into my stomach.

The muscles in his groin spasmed uncontrollably and violently, the sharp pain of the cramps making him tremble all over.

The sour, putrid bile burned and scalded as it traveled up the esophagus.

"vomit--"

Wang Jian gripped the edge of the bed tightly with both hands, his emaciated belly suddenly contracting.

He vomited a large mouthful of yellowish-green bitter liquid directly onto the oily, muddy floor.

The acrid smell of gastric juices instantly filled the cramped cabin.

He didn't even have the strength to reach out and wipe his mouth.

Blood-tinged acidic fluid trickled down his chin onto his gray jacket, and he gasped for breath as his chest heaved violently.

He was clutching a silver-white encrypted hard drive tightly in his left hand.

The fingernails dug deep into the gaps in the metal casing, the nail plates turning a deathly pale white.

This contains the core blueprints for the Lingxiao-1 solid-state battery.

His right hand trembled as he pulled out the waterproof satellite phone.

My fingers trembled so badly that I slipped several times before I finally managed to dial that encrypted European number.

"Boss...boss!"

Wang Jian's teeth chattered wildly, making a series of small, grinding sounds, his voice filled with the ecstatic joy of having escaped death.

"I'm out in international waters! Those naval police in Handong haven't even noticed! I'll be meeting up with the cargo ship that's waiting for me soon!"

On the other end of the phone came a stiff, arrogant European accent.

"Very good. I've brought the blueprints. I've prepared villas and beautiful women for you in Europe for the rest of your life."

Wang Jian parted his chapped, bleeding lips, just about to laugh.

"Buzz—!"

A deafening roar of high-frequency motors suddenly descended from the top of the ship.

The sound was so loud that it made the cast iron bulkheads in the lower deck vibrate and hum.

With a "snap".

Hundreds of blinding scarlet beams of light pierced through the gaps in the originally dark cabin.

Wang Jian froze, his heart suddenly clenching into a tight knot.

He scrambled up the rusty iron ladder to the deck, and as soon as he poked his head out, he collapsed onto the deck.

In the sky, thousands of Lingxiao Group's heavily armed drones were densely packed together, resembling a dark cloud of steel.

It pressed down firmly on the head of the dilapidated fishing boat.

Countless crimson laser beams intertwined to form an impenetrable net of death.

The narrow deck was illuminated in a blood-red light.

A dark gray heavy attack helicopter hovered in mid-air.

The violent airflow whipped up by the rotor blades, carrying a strong smell of aviation kerosene, directly blew the fish baskets on the deck into the sea.

Shen Pojun sat by the open cabin door.

He did not order the firing.

Master Yan just said that it must be alive; don't let this rat die too easily.

He picked up the onboard loudspeaker, and his rough voice instantly drowned out the sound of the raging waves.

It was broadcast directly across the entire frequency band, hitting everyone on the ship's eardrums.

"Listen up, you scum on the ship."

Shen Pojun's voice was like sandpaper grinding iron, revealing a cruelty as if he were looking at a dead dog.

"I'm only looking for the fat guy who took the hard drive."

Wang Jian was so frightened that his thigh trembled.

The sphincter muscle instantly gave way, and a warm, foul-smelling liquid flowed down the leg of the pants.

Mixed with the seawater on the deck, it emitted a foul odor of urine.

The three Caucasian mercenaries he had hired at great expense were standing back to back on guard, carrying assault rifles.

The smell of fir gun oil from the bolt carriers was particularly clear in the sea breeze.

The voice from the loudspeaker continued, carrying an air of overwhelming, superior financial power.

"Whoever can capture this rat alive will have to hand it over along with the hard drive."

"I, Shen Pojun, guarantee this in the name of the Lingxiao Consortium, and award ten million points. Settlement will be made on the spot."

Ten million Lingxiao points!

In this world where global fiat currencies have become worthless.

This amount of money is enough for one person to live like a local tyrant in the most luxurious welfare community in Handong for several lifetimes.

They eat mutated ribs every meal and enjoy constant air conditioning 24 hours a day!

The broadcast stopped.

A suffocating silence fell over the deck.

The only sound was the "splashing" of waves hitting the hull.

The three Caucasian mercenaries slowly lowered their guns.

They looked at each other.

Almost simultaneously, his Adam's apple bobbed wildly up and down as he swallowed a mouthful of bitter saliva.

Their breathing became heavy, and a greedy lust burned in their eyes.

Wang Jian lay slumped on the deck, watching the bodyguards turn their heads.

The three faces, reddened by the infrared laser, twisted into twisted, greedy grins.

"No...don't listen to him!"

Wang Jian's vest was soaked with cold sweat, and the sea breeze made him feel a chill seep into his bones.

He scrambled backward on the deck like a maggot.

"Once we get to Europe, the boss will give you US dollars! And gold!"

The lead mercenary spat out a mouthful of phlegm.

"US dollars? I wouldn't even want to use that stuff to wipe my ass anymore, it's too sore throat-irritating."

He slung the assault rifle over his shoulder and pulled out the tactical dagger with a blood groove from his waist.

"Pfft!"

Not a single word wasted.

The mercenary plunged his knife deep into the soft flesh of Wang Jian's thigh, avoiding the artery.

"ah--!"

Wang Jian let out a piercing scream, his facial features instantly contorting and shrinking into a ball.

The blade violently churned within the flesh.

The pain shot through his head like an electric current, making his eyes roll back in his head as he desperately tried to pry the mercenary's arm off.

But the other person's large hand was like an iron clamp, grabbing Wang Jian's hair.

They forcibly dragged him off the deck.

My scalp was torn so badly that it bled.

Hot blood gushed out from the slit in the blade, splattering onto the mercenary's filthy tactical vest.

The strong smell of rust and blood was instantly dispersed by the sea breeze and entered everyone's nostrils.

Wang Jian clenched his teeth in pain, and his jaw dislocated.

He watched in despair as the silver hard drive he had risked his life to protect was snatched away by another mercenary.

He held it high above his head, waving it at the helicopter in mid-air like a dog wagging its tail.

Shen Pojun watched the dog-eat-dog farce below and sneered.

He pressed the encrypted communicator next to his ear.

"Master Yan, retrieve the blueprints. That thieving rat is being skinned alive by mercenaries on the deck."

The top floor of the Lingxiao Building.

The air conditioning in the CEO's office was still spewing out white steam.

Yan Qingfeng stood in front of the huge holographic map.

Those cold, deep black eyes were fixed on the outline of Europe on the map.

He was twirling the pure black carbon pen in his hand.

"very good."

Yan Qingfeng parted his thin lips slightly, his voice devoid of any warmth.

"Since those old money guys in Europe dared to extend this hand, they can forget about having this claw in the future."

He turned around and tossed the ballpoint pen onto the crystal tabletop with a crisp, light sound.

"Shen Pojun, bring the hard drive back."

Yan Qingfeng raised his head, his eyes revealing the aura of a tyrant capable of destroying everything.

"Send the order to Lu Yuan, who is in charge of overseas security."

"Tell him that the EMP fleet will open fire immediately."

"First, burn down the power grid in Paris."