Arthur and Jackie exchanged glances, then parked their car at the very end of the line.
Meanwhile, on the second basement level of Diman Slaughterhouse.
The environment here was starkly different from the dirt and chaos outside; the white floors and walls were brightly illuminated by cold lights.
The glass windows everywhere were as clear as air, making the entire space feel bright and open.
This was the secret laboratory supported by Biotechnica, and at this moment, the usually quiet laboratory was filled with a commotion.
It was a futuristic-looking door, with a stubborn red dot blinking in the center of its complex, rigid lines.
Red indicated a deadbolt, a protective mode activated in an emergency.
But the current situation was clearly not an emergency; a tall figure was frantically pounding on that door.
His appearance seemed out of place and jarring in this clean laboratory, especially his two arms, which were grotesque mechanical prosthetics with even three joints each.
While smashing the door with his monstrous arms, he cursed loudly.
"You little bastard, you'd better not come out alive, or I'll twist your head right off."
A tall, thin middle-aged man in a white lab coat stood behind the burly man, holding a mobile terminal whose contents reflected in his sinister eyes.
The situation remained in a stalemate for a time.
A young man hurried over, wearing a mask that obscured his face, but his age could be easily deduced from the corners of his eyes.
"Doctor, 337 is dead.
His nerves showed over-limit activity, and then quickly necrotized."
The middle-aged man, hearing this, put down what he was holding.
His expression flickered a few times, as if he couldn't recall what the young man was talking about, and he asked,
"Which product was 337 on again?"
"It was the drug that activated the neural cell division program."
The young man dared not delay and quickly replied.
After the young man's reminder, he nodded in sudden realization.
"You activated his nervous system, right?"
"Yes, we used the pain editor on him after activation, but the effect of our drug deviated greatly from what was planned."
Nodding, the middle-aged man patted Joseph, who was still frantically smashing the door in front of him, and said,
"Joseph, why haven't the people you sent to find breach tools returned yet?"
The burly man finally stopped his futile actions; after all that smashing, only the surface patterns of the door were slightly damaged.
"Doctor Bane, this door has a very high security level.
Physical methods might take a lot of effort, so I sent my subordinates to find some hackers."
"I don't care about that; you handle it yourself.
Once you get that little beast out of here, send it to Laboratory Three."
Waving his hand impatiently, the middle-aged man named Bane left the area.
The banging sound of the door resumed behind him.
Just a door away, inside that room, a girl was curled up behind the door.
She pulled her ear away from the door, feeling helplessly the vibrations from the pounding on the other side.
Tears had already streamed down her face layer after layer; in this cramped cell, she had nowhere to escape.
Her neural interface was confiscated; if she hadn't hidden an external data cable and hacked the cell door, she would definitely be on the operating table by now.
Her shoulders trembling, she helplessly buried her head in her knees.
In her last moments, she would think of her father's face, then commit suicide when the door opened.
Listening to the constant curses from outside.
"Don't even think about suicide, you stinking bitch, or I'll throw your corpse into an alley in Kabukicho."
Jessica shrank her neck but didn't change her mind.
She was about to be used for live experiments, so why care about what happened after her death?
Above the laboratory, in the main hall.
After each vehicle was inspected, several people would come forward to carry away the "goods" inside.
The queue moved at a decent pace, quickly covering nearly half the distance.
Arthur and Jackie naturally wouldn't wait obediently for inspection; they weren't from here, nor did they have "goods" in the back, so they would definitely be exposed.
"That's enough; we'll ram that turret with the car, then charge straight in."
Arthur estimated the distance; acting here would not only prevent the turret from activating but also allow them to pick up speed, ensuring sufficient impact.
Hearing Arthur's words, Jackie didn't hesitate for a moment.
Taking advantage of the queue's movement, he sharply turned the wheel, pulling the car out of line, then floored the accelerator.
The engine of the civilian van roared as it sped fiercely towards the turret ahead.
This sudden situation momentarily stunned everyone; whether they were busy or idle, they all stared blankly at the scene.
Under this desperate acceleration, although there wasn't enough distance to provide optimal conditions, it still reached over eighty miles per hour.
Inside the car, Arthur's eyes were fixed on the downward-pointing turret.
The moment it raised its head and the laser targeting component locked onto the car, Arthur roared,
"Jump!"
The roar of the turret firing echoed.
Arthur and Jackie rolled to dissipate the force, then ran in the opposite direction without looking back.
As the empty car crashed into the muzzle of the turret, a fired shell had just left the barrel, detonating directly on the car's front.
The shell penetrated the engine components at the front of the car and instantly ignited the alcohol-2 fuel tank within the engine components.
A violent explosion enveloped the turret, but the momentum of the car's wreckage did not disappear into thin air; it knocked the turret off its base, exposing the unfired shells stored beneath the turret in the floor.
Just two seconds later, Arthur and Jackie hadn't even run ten meters away when the accumulated shells detonated in a chain reaction.
An invisible blast wave threw both of them into the air, along with the entire floor of that level.
The concrete ground, like a flipped page of a book, flew up as a whole, held together by internal rebar, then slammed back down to the ground.
It was also thanks to these shells being stored underground that this section of floor, blown up by the explosion, blocked the flying shrapnel, indirectly saving Arthur and Jackie's lives.
Feeling a dull ache in his back and chest, Arthur spat out a mouthful of blood, which made him feel a little better.
The pain in his back was from being caught in the explosion, while the pain in his chest was from him slamming forward onto the ground.
Jackie's situation was a bit better than Arthur's; he was larger and much sturdier than Arthur.
Pulling Arthur up from the ground, Jackie asked,
"Are you alright?"
"No big deal."
Saying this, Arthur spat out the blood foam from his mouth.
"Damn it, I almost died."
Neither he nor Jackie had expected such a huge commotion, nor had they even considered an explosion.
After all, they just wanted to knock over that turret.
Most of the impact from this explosion was absorbed by the ground, but it still overturned the vehicles nearby, causing some chaos in the hall.
For example, those guys checking the convoy were still staring blankly at the blazing flames where the turret had been.
By the time the leader of the group reacted and shouted, "Enemy attack!" Arthur had already been pulled up by Jackie and had stabilized himself.
Using the cars in the open space for cover, Arthur and Jackie exchanged fire with the team responsible for inspection.
Peeking out, Arthur headshotted a guy suppressing them with a machine gun; the sedan in front of Arthur was already riddled with bullet holes.
He first checked Jackie's position; he was temporarily safe, as most of the enemy's firepower was concentrated on Arthur's side.
Arthur was currently crouched behind the car's engine components; this part of the car had the most steel and was the most suitable for cover.
Carefully noting the enemy's positions, Arthur ducked his head to reload, then broke off the car's rearview mirror.
Recalling the enemy's direction, Arthur flung the rearview mirror fiercely towards them, shouting loudly,
"Jackie, watch out for the bomb!"
The effect of this trick was surprisingly good; the suppressing fire on him instantly broke, leaving only a few sporadic shots.
Seizing this opportunity, Arthur leaped towards a nearby car.
It was a Badlands off-road vehicle, large-framed, that had been overturned by the previous explosion.
It was perfect to serve as Arthur's cover.
And there was another advantage here: although the distance between him and Jackie had increased, their firing angles were much wider.
Peeking out, a guy who was shooting at Jackie exposed his back to Arthur.
He aimed in a very short time and pulled the trigger.
A bullet pierced into the guy's back.