89: Chapter 89 Heavenly Thunder Descends to Subdue the Entire Audience

Sterling followed up, his voice trembling slightly within the protective barrier due to resonance, yet his phrasing remained with the cold certainty typical of an arms aristocrat:

"You have already witnessed the existence of the Bio-chip; this is the fundamental gap between our three families and you."

"You die, but your families can live."

"This is the final ultimatum."

Augustus rested his hands on his knees, the glowing chip in his left eye flickering with a faint blue light at the edge of his pupil, and added in a low voice:

"Refuse, and you will die here today. Tomorrow, your families will be dug out from every place they try to hide."

Moran's finger on the trigger loosened after hearing this.

He hadn't come with the confidence of certain victory; he had come with the determination to die.

If he could trade his life for his family's safety and wealth, this was a calculation he, a Deputy Director who already knew the FBI was powerless, could make.

Heinlein also fell silent.

His subordinates, the CIA strike team members who had just been pieced back together from corpses by the liquid zero, looked at each other as well. Although their gun barrels were still pointed forward, their sights had begun to droop slightly.

Even Edward hesitated.

The Warren Family had been rooted in Nevada for over a hundred years. If several generations of their foundation were to be wiped out on this ruin, he wouldn't be a hero, but a sinner to the entire family.

His lips moved, wanting to say something, but before he could speak, Musk's voice came from in front of the blast wall.

"Bio-chip, human basal metabolic rate converted into bio-electric output power, at most eighty watts."

"No matter how flashy those blue barriers of yours are, the battery driving them is your own flesh and blood."

"Those thirty-six infrasound arrays of mine outside, each with a peak power of twelve kilowatts—thirty-six of them outputting simultaneously—are hundreds of times your bio-electric limit."

"What are you using to talk to me about energy consumption? You can't even last another minute."

"Threaten me? Do you have the qualifications?"

He did not wait for Diana to answer, nor did he look at any reaction from Moran, Heinlein, or Edward; his thumb pressed the activation key on the remote control again.

The intensity of the infrasound jumped instantly, causing the rubble and shrapnel on the ruins to bounce off the ground and fall back down.

Behind Diana, that group of armed elites who had already fallen to the ground with blood flowing from their seven orifices completely lost consciousness at this moment.

Everyone's ear canals, nasal cavities, and corners of their mouths were seeping dark red blood, their chests rising and falling irregularly in the resonance of the ground.

The giant warriors could no longer hold on.

The one in the front crashed to his knees, smashing a piece of the already cracked concrete floor beneath him, then tipped over sideways, his massive body colliding with a support pillar nearby, causing the cracks on the pillar to extend a few more inches.

The rest of the giants fell to the ground one after another; some let out low, painful roars, while others couldn't even make a sound, only their limbs twitching in the pile of rubble.

The blue barrier on Diana's wrist became thinner, its light fading from pale blue to an almost transparent off-white, and small, wavy cracks began to appear on the surface of the barrier.

A trace of blood foam seeped from the corner of her mouth; her internal organs began to suffer minor hemorrhaging under the continuous penetration of the infrasound.

The barrier on Sterling's neck was also flickering on and off, the frequency getting faster and faster.

The blue light in Augustus's left eye was already so faint it was almost invisible; his body was arched within the barrier, and a low, muffled groan came from his throat.

Musk continued to press the activation key.

Once, again, and again.

After more than a dozen rounds, the three pale blue barriers simultaneously dissipated silently, like candles blown out.

Diana fell to her knees on the gravel ground, two trails of dark red blood flowing from her eyes. She supported herself on the ground, her ten fingers digging into the gaps of broken Bricks, barely managing to keep her entire upper body from collapsing.

Her voice was already so hoarse it was almost unintelligible, but every word was still bitten out hard:

"Kill us... the Longevity Faction will never let this go..."

Musk passed the remote to the side, took a loaded pistol from Brick's hand, turned around, and aimed the muzzle at Diana's head.

He acted without a moment's hesitation, his tone like he was stating a physics conclusion that had already been repeatedly verified:

"You say that as if we don't have the Deep State backing us."

Then he pulled the trigger.

The gun fired.

But the bullet did not shoot toward Diana.

The 9mm warhead suddenly decelerated about three feet from the muzzle.

Then, as if gripped by some invisible force field, it turned in mid-air and returned along its original path at the exact same speed.

The bullet passed through the center of Musk's forehead, the warhead carrying a small piece of bone fragment and blood mist out from the back of his head, smashing into the pile of rubble behind him.

He leaned backward, his head hitting the edge of the blast wall wreckage, then slid to the ground.

Edward rushed forward, half-crouched, and pressed his hand against the forehead wound that was still oozing blood, his voice low but extremely urgent:

"Elon! You..."

"It's okay, the liquid zero is activating, your wound is healing..."

His movements paused for less than a second, then he suddenly raised his head, looking at the hole in the ceiling that had been blasted through, then at the burning ruin gap in the center of the atrium. The bullet hadn't been shot from behind any cover.

The bullet had been bounced back out of thin air by some external force.

At this very moment,

Above Warehouse 18, the night sky overhead suddenly churned with dark clouds, without any warning.

Thunder rolled in from deep within the clouds.

An entire thunderstorm formed from nothing in just a few seconds.

The roots of lightning extended wildly in the dense clouds, illuminating the entire wilderness in flashes of light and dark.

The first thunderbolt struck vertically from the clouds, precisely hitting the first of the thirty-six infrasound arrays surrounding Warehouse 18.

The metal cylinder was blasted into a still-crackling fireball by the lightning, with fragments flying in all directions.

The second, the third, the fourth...

Thunderbolt after thunderbolt struck down, destroying them one by one along the circular arrangement of the array.

Thirty-six devices were all blasted into a row of burning metal wrecks within seconds.

Immediately afterward, two more thunderbolts struck the center of Warehouse 18 simultaneously, blasting two overlapping scorch marks onto the pockmarked concrete floor in the middle of the ruins.

As the lightning faded, two Men in Black stood in the very center of the scorch marks.

Black suits, tall figures, expressionless, both wearing black gloves on their left hands and blue gloves on their right hands.

Diana knelt on the ground, blood still seeping from her eyes, but the moment she looked up and saw the two Men in Black and the two-colored gloves on their hands, what surged through her chest was the ecstasy of surviving a disaster.

She straightened her body with effort, her voice shaking so much it was almost incoherent:

"Lord Zhang Long... it is Lord Zhang Long who has come..."

Before her words could fade, another thick bolt of lightning struck down from the clouds, landing straight between the two Men in Black.

The moment the lightning exploded, the entire atrium was illuminated in a deathly white.

When the light dissipated, Zhang Long was standing less than five feet in front of Diana.

Still that impeccably tailored dark casual wear, still that handsome and cold face, with a black glove on his left hand and a blue glove on his right hand.

On the index finger of the blue glove on his right hand, a trace of extremely faint electric arc still lingered, crackling gently in the air.

That bullet from just now had been deflected by this glove.

Diana supported herself on the gravel ground with both hands, trying to move her already overdrawn body forward a few inches, and said in a hoarse voice:

"Lord Zhang Long, you came to save us in person... we..."

Sterling half-straightened up from the ground, clutching his neck. That face, which had previously been cold and arrogant, now held only awe and excitement, his voice shaking so much it was almost incoherent:

"Lord Zhang Long, based on the Behemoth Factor you gave us, we have also independently developed heavy exoskeletons, and we have already equipped them in batches..."

Augustus pressed his still-trembling right hand onto the knee he was supporting himself with, struggling to straighten his center of gravity, and added with his chin raised, panting heavily:

"Tonight, as long as our people regroup, that Grey Alien eyeball at the Starship Base... will still be ours..."

Zhang Long did not look at any of them.

He stood with his hands behind his back on the scorch marks blasted out by the lightning in the center of the ruins, his gaze sweeping over the armed personnel kneeling on the ground, the giant warriors still twitching on the floor, and the bloodstains not yet wiped from the corners of Diana's eyes.

Then he spoke, his tone not heavy, but cold like a blade just pulled from ice water:

"One: you failed to kill Musk and Edward. Two: you didn't get that eyeball. Besides lying on the ground like a few dogs with broken spines, what else can you do?"

"I gave you the Behemoth Factor, yet you can't even defeat a mere lackey of the Tech Faction."

"Useless trash."

Diana lowered her head, her lips moving, but no sound came out.

Sterling and Augustus also lowered their heads simultaneously, just like their subordinates who were still struggling and gasping on the ruins, silent, without any defense.

After a long silence, Zhang Long's gaze slowly shifted to the chip implantation site on Diana's wrist that had already gone dark, and he pointed at it casually, the arc on the index finger of the blue glove making a very slight crackling sound:

"However, considering you were able to independently develop the Bio-chip, you aren't completely hopeless."

"Keep it; it's still useful."

Diana raised her eyes sharply upon hearing this. The bloodshot veins in her eyes hadn't faded, but the panic in her gaze had already been flattened by more than half by these words.

She lowered her head, her voice hoarse but having regained her usual calmness:

"Yes, we will not disappoint you again."