The Beauty CEO's Personal Expert

"Ling Chen, when do you think the rescue will arrive?" This was Hu Fei’s most pressing concern.

"It might take more than ten hours," Ling Chen replied. Du Yunzhi lives in Qiu Nanshan; even if she’s fast, it will take hours to come down from the mountain, get to Beijing by car, then fly to East Sea City. If anything unexpected happens, it could take even longer. Although he’s pinning all his hopes on Du Yunzhi, he still has to prepare for the worst.

What if the rescue doesn’t make it in time, then what?

"We have so many people here; it shouldn’t be a problem, right?"

Hearing Hu Fei trying to comfort himself, Ling Chen smiled wryly, unsure of what to say. Even though he had concentrated all his efforts, he still lacked confidence because he knew how terrifying He Honggang and his men were. The current manpower they had was far from enough. To hold this base, he needed more help.

With his mind racing, he stood up, looked at Hu Fei, and said, "I’m going out for a walk. Keep an eye on them, and notify me immediately if anything happens." Without waiting for Hu Fei to respond, he had already left the control room.

...

In the blink of an eye, four to five hours had passed, and the sky was gradually darkening.

"Ling Cheng! Are you in there?"

Hearing Yuan Yun’s voice coming from outside the door, Ling Chen got up from the bed, quickly walked to the door, opened it, and looked at Yuan Yun outside, asking, "Third Brother, have they made a move?"

"Not really, just haven’t seen you around, and everyone got worried, so they sent me to check on you." At this point, Yuan Yun patted his shoulder and asked, "Feeling the pressure?"

Ling Chen nodded. It’s impossible not to feel pressure. He not only had to worry about the base’s safety but everyone’s safety as well. Even though everyone was determined to help him, if anyone got hurt in this operation, he wouldn’t forgive himself. Thinking about it all gave him a headache, his heart unable to find peace.

"Alright, don’t think too much. The more you think, the more pressure you’ll feel. This mindset before a battle is a big no-no. Come on, everyone’s at the cafeteria eating, let’s go chat and relax a bit. We’ve faced so many hardships and dangers but made it through. As they say, the good are blessed and I believe we’ll be the victors in the end."

Upon reaching the cafeteria, as soon as Ling Chen sat down, he received a call from Du Yunzhi. They were on their way to Beijing and would arrive in about two hours. Barring any surprises, they could reach the base in five hours. Five hours... Ling Chen checked the time—it was already past seven. If he were He Honggang, he’d definitely strike around midnight.

As he was thinking this, Hu Fei’s voice suddenly came through the cafeteria’s broadcast, "Ling Chen, you’d better come over here right now."

Hearing this, Ling Chen felt a chill in his heart, left his dinner and hurried to the control room.

"What’s going on?"

"A truck has arrived outside the base," Hu Fei pointed at the monitor screen and said, "The truck’s just sitting there without moving, its cargo is covered up, can’t see what’s inside."

Just then, a monitoring tech shouted, "Another truck just arrived."

"How many?"

"Thirteen in total, headed in different directions," said the tech while marking all the truck locations on the map. As Ling Chen and Hu Fei looked closely, their expressions turned peculiar. They realized these trucks perfectly surrounded the base. However, they couldn’t figure out why, since the base was built underground, those trucks surrounding it aboveground posed no threat.

"Fatty, what do you think they’re up to?"

Hu Fei frowned, pondered for a moment, then returned to his computer, typing rapidly. After a while, his expression changed suddenly, and he said gravely, "Not good! The trucks are located right at the base’s ventilation shafts. The base has fifteen vents, and all fourteen trucks are perfectly aligned. This is no coincidence."

"Are you saying... they want to seal off the vents?"

"Exactly!" Hu Fei nodded, "If the vents are sealed, the base’s air won’t circulate, making it an enclosed space. If all the air gets depleted, everyone inside will suffocate."

"Hu, it’s not good. Our firewall is being hacked."

Hearing the tech’s warning, Hu Fei said, "Don’t worry, the base’s firewall has long been reinforced by me. They can’t break in easily."

"They’ve already breached the first firewall!"

"What?" Hu Fei’s eyes widened in disbelief as he looked at the information displayed on the screen. It was hard to believe, but the first firewall had indeed been breached in less than a minute.

"How is this possible?"

"Fatty, you said the base’s firewall was hard to crack from the outside, right?"

Hu Fei didn’t reply, his hands typing furiously as his eyes stayed fixed on the screen. After a moment, he swore angrily, "Damn it, no wonder they could break through our firewall so easily, they’ve got at least dozens of hackers launching a coordinated attack."

On hearing this, Ling Chen understood. Even though Hu Fei’s brain development was at forty percent, Netherworld Snake had similar talents too, with more people and higher brain development levels. So many attacking the firewall at once was impossible for Hu Fei alone to handle.

As the second firewall was about to be breached, Hu Fei shouted, "Disconnect from the external network, don’t let them infiltrate our system."

As soon as he spoke, the system monitoring tech suddenly said, "All external surveillance outside the base has been sabotaged, we’ve lost our ’eyes.’"

"There’s an unidentified interference wave, our signals are all jammed, we can’t make contact with the outside."

"Fourteen ventilation shafts have stopped functioning, only one remains operational."

With the techs’ real-time reports, Hu Fei’s face turned increasingly grim. Ling Chen sighed, gave Hu Fei’s shoulder a gentle pat, and said, "You’ve done your best."

"They’ve successfully severed our link with the outside, unless I’m mistaken, they’ll launch their assault soon. Ling Chen, the next few hours are likely to be tough; I suggest we immediately organize an evacuation through the escape tunnels."