257: Chapter 257 Crisis Approaches, Su Qingxue's Last Line of Defense

Jingzhou City.

Inside the secret conference room, the atmosphere remained oppressively heavy.

On several screens, the analysis regarding the United States' deep space signal project continued to scroll, with red warning markers popping up line after line.

Lu Li took a glance, but his expression did not change much.

Everything that needed to be said, he had already said.

The existence of alien civilization was, for this era, a bomb hanging over everyone's heads from the start.

Those people in the United States were being too clever by half, wanting to hold everything in their own hands, but they probably never thought that once some things were responded to, it wouldn't be as simple as whether they could turn off the power.

Elder Wu sat at the head of the table, remaining silent for a long time.

The old man's brows were furrowed deeply, his fingers tapping lightly on the armrest.

It was the kind of silence that came from someone who had seen countless storms, yet still could not fully relax.

Lu Li stood up and casually straightened his coat.

"However, there is no need to be overly worried."

His tone was indifferent, as if he were speaking about something very ordinary.

"The United States surely won't let The Alien contact its home planet either."

Elder Wu looked up at him, and after a few seconds, nodded slowly.

"That does make sense."

But soon, the slight relaxation in the old man's eyes sank back down.

"However, this feeling of putting one's own life in the hands of others is ultimately not reassuring."

Lu Li did not refute this.

He was equally clear on this point.

Relying on the rationality of others to survive is, in itself, the most unreliable form of security.

He just gave a faint hum of acknowledgement.

"That is why we must take back the initiative as soon as possible."

Elder Wu looked at him, his gaze deepening.

Lu Li said nothing more and turned to leave the secret conference room.

The heavy alloy door closed slowly behind him, temporarily cutting off the heavy topics inside.

The night wind outside was very cold.

As soon as Lu Li walked out of the underground base, the Steel Battle Suit parked to the side seemed to sense his arrival.

Its silver-red metal shell unfolded layer by layer, and the Ark Reactor on its chest lit up with a soft yet blinding blue-white glow.

Lu Li stepped into it.

The mechanical structure closed rapidly.

The next second, the thrusters spewed out deep blue flames, and the entire Battle Armor soared into the air, speeding off in the direction of Mingzhu City.

In the night, a streak of light cut through the clouds.

Lu Li still did not conceal his movements.

At his current position, there was no need to hide many things anymore.

And even if he wanted to hide, he couldn't.

Inside the Battle Armor, a pale blue virtual interface flickered constantly.

The intelligent system, Friday, suddenly popped up a notification.

[Sir, a call from an unknown number has been detected.]

[The number's origin is abnormal.]

[Suspected overseas relay line.]

Lu Li didn't even lift an eyelid.

"Block it."

[Automatically blocked.]

Not long after, there was a second, then a third call.

All came from different numbers, but had similar relay paths.

The corner of Lu Li's mouth twitched slightly.

"The methods are quite primitive."

The Battle Armor's AI did not respond, simply categorizing all these call records under harassment and threats.

Just then, another call came in.

This time, the name Su Qingxue was displayed on the virtual screen.

The Battle Armor's AI did not block it and connected directly.

Su Qingxue's slightly worried voice came through quickly.

"Lu Li?"

"Yes." Lu Li looked at the clouds ahead, his voice softening slightly, "I'm on my way back."

On the other end of the phone, Su Qingxue seemed to breathe a sigh of relief.

"It's good that you're okay."

Lu Li detected the tension in her tone, and his brows furrowed imperceptibly.

"Did something happen at the company again?"

Su Qingxue was silent for half a second.

"Recently, the company has received many harassing calls again."

"The front desk, the secretariat, the branding department, all of them."

"Some hang up as soon as they call, while others deliberately lower their voices to say threatening things."

"We have already called the police, but the other party clearly used overseas relay lines, making it difficult to trace in the short term."

Lu Li's eyes grew colder.

Overseas relay lines.

It sounded like foreign forces, but he knew very well that the rats in the gutters domestically could also hire people to do this kind of dirty work.

As for who it was, it wasn't hard to guess.

It was nothing more than the smart city moving the cheese, making those who relied on the old order restless.

Low-wage factories.

Logistics sorting.

Labor dispatch.

Those guys who had long treated people as costs to be squeezed were never most afraid of Robots replacing people.

What they feared was that after people were replaced, Lu Li would still leave a way out for those ordinary people.

With a way out, people would be harder to push around.

Thinking of this, a hint of coldness surfaced in Lu Li's eyes.

But it was only coldness.

Compared to the United States' schemes and alien civilization, these underhanded domestic tactics could hardly be called a big problem.

At best, they were just a few small fries crawling in the gutter.

"I understand," Lu Li said. "Are you at home?"

"Yes, I just got back to the villa not long ago."

Su Qingxue's voice softened a little.

"How long until you arrive?"

Lu Li took a glance at the navigation.

"Very soon."

"Don't worry, I'll be back soon."

Su Qingxue gave a soft hum of acknowledgement.

After the call ended, the softness in Lu Li's eyes quickly faded.

The Battle Armor's thrusters suddenly accelerated.

In the night sky, that streak of light instantly tore through the clouds and descended toward the villa area in the Mingzhu suburbs.

It only took a few dozen minutes.

Lu Li had already traveled from Jingzhou City to Mingzhu City, approaching the perimeter of his villa.

But just as the Battle Armor's altitude dropped to a certain range, his eyes suddenly narrowed.

Something was wrong.

It was too quiet.

Usually, there was at least one team of special forces soldiers responsible for protecting Su Qingxue's safety on rotating duty around the villa.

They wouldn't deliberately expose themselves, but they wouldn't be completely unnoticeable either.

But now, the entire villa area seemed as if someone had pressed the mute button.

There were no heat source reactions at the patrol points.

The peripheral communication nodes were dead silent.

He checked his home security cameras through the Battle Armor.

Even the several fixed monitoring positions had all gone black.

The Battle Armor's night vision system switched rapidly.

The darkness turned into another kind of clear world in Lu Li's eyes.

There were messy footprints on the lawn.

There were signs of damage along the edge of the wall.

Further away, the few retired soldiers he had hired for peripheral protection were lying in concealed positions; their vital signs were still present, but their conditions were clearly not optimistic.

Lu Li's eyes grew cold, bit by bit.

"Scan inside the villa."

[Sir, the scan is obstructed.]

[Detected smoke residue, signal jamming equipment, and localized electromagnetic suppression.]

[There are multiple heat sources inside the villa.]

Lu Li did not ask again.

The thrusters jolted violently, and he swooped down directly from mid-air.

...

Meanwhile, inside the master bedroom on the second floor of the villa.

Su Qingxue was leaning against the wardrobe, her breathing slightly rapid.

She was wearing a pink Battle Armor.

The lines of that Battle Armor were much lighter than Lu Li's Steel Battle Suit, fitting a female figure better overall; the shoulder armor, chest armor, and arm armor all exuded a kind of exquisite mechanical beauty.

If it were under normal circumstances, such a Battle Armor might even make her feel a bit embarrassed.

But now, this pink Battle Armor gave her the most direct sense of security.