Chapter 511
Midnight Operation
Two o'clock in the morning.
The dormitory was pitch black, with only the low hum of the ventilation system.
Jiang Nian opened her eyes and stared at the upper bunk.
He didn't turn on the light, but used the faint aurora light filtering in through the porthole to grope his way to sit up in bed. The movement was very light, almost silent.
Zhang Meng, who was on the upper bunk opposite, turned over, mumbled something incoherently, and then fell into a deep sleep again.
Jiang Nian inspects the equipment.
Explosives were attached to the inner tactical vest in twelve gray plastic blocks, each only the size of a palm, yet powerful enough to melt through a 30-centimeter-thick special alloy. A short blade, cool to the touch, was tucked into a hidden pocket in the cuff. A forged ID card was in the chest pocket, its biochip ready to be activated at any time.
He needs to enter six nodes, and stay at each node for no more than three minutes.
The time window starts at 4 a.m. and lasts only ten minutes.
But plans can never keep up with changes.
Jiang Nian quietly got out of bed, her bare feet stepping onto the cold metal floor. She pulled a small bag from under the bed, inside which were some gadgets prepared by Old Qin's team.
everything's ready.
Jiang Nian walked to the door and listened intently.
The corridor was quiet, with only the faint sound of equipment running in the distance.
He gently turned the doorknob, slipped out, and closed the door behind him.
The emergency lights in the corridor cast a stark white light, one every ten meters, casting long shadows on the metal walls.
According to the structural diagram I remember, the first node is in the northwest corner of the platform, about 300 meters from the dormitory area. The route passes through two monitored areas and a security post.
The first monitoring point is at the corner of the corridor.
Jiang Nian stopped in the shadows, took a small disc from his bag, and stuck it to the wall. A faint red light appeared around the edge of the disc, then went out after three seconds.
"The surveillance has been jammed," Qin Lao's voice came through the miniature communicator in his ear. "You have ninety seconds."
Jiang Nian quickly passed the corner.
The second monitoring point is at the entrance of the maintenance passage.
He looked up at the ceiling, where there was a ventilation duct access panel. The duct was about forty centimeters in diameter, barely large enough for an adult to crawl through.
He took out absorbent gloves from his bag, put them on, and pressed his hands against the wall.
The tiny suction cups in the palm of the glove are activated, emitting a slight hissing sound.
The pipes were pitch black, filled with the smell of dust and engine oil.
"Turn left ahead, go down at the third fork," Old Qin guided in real time. "The maintenance passage is down below."
Jiang Nian crawled through the narrow pipe, his elbows and knees occasionally hitting the pipe walls with dull thuds. Fortunately, the noise inside the pipe was loud enough to mask these sounds.
Two minutes later, he arrived at the designated location.
Below is a larger pipe junction, and the lights of the maintenance access can be seen through the grille.
Jiang Nian gently pushed open the grille and flipped down.
It landed very lightly, almost without making a sound.
But as soon as he stood firm, he heard footsteps coming from the other end of the passage.
Who's there?
They are security personnel on patrol.
Jiang Nian quickly slipped into the adjacent equipment room and left the door slightly ajar.
The footsteps grew closer.
"I think I just heard a sound," a young voice said.
"It might be some kind of equipment noise," another voice said more steadily. "In this godforsaken place, you can hear all sorts of noises at night."
"Should we have it checked?"
"Go ahead and investigate, I can't sleep anyway."
Jiang Nian held her breath and peered out through the crack in the door.
Two security guards stood in the corridor, their flashlight beams sweeping across the walls and floor. One was a stranger, the other an experienced man.
Old Dao's hand rested on the stun gun at his waist, his sharp eyes scanning the surroundings.
"Team Leader Dao, you're too tense," the young security guard laughed. "Besides us, there are only the technicians on this platform. Those bookworms are all sleeping at night."
"It's good to be on edge," Lao Dao said. "There was an incident in the Indian Ocean last month. Someone infiltrated the platform and almost blew up the reactor."
"real or fake?"
"It's a report from headquarters, how could it be false?" Old Dao snorted. "That's why Supervisor Wang ordered increased patrols. Especially in the early morning hours, when things are most likely to go wrong."
The beam of a flashlight swept across the door of the equipment room.
Jiang Nian shrank back a little.
“That door…” the young security guard pointed.
Old Dao walked over and placed his hand on the doorknob.
Jiang Nian gripped the short blade hidden in his sleeve.
But Lao Dao didn't push the door open. He just stood there for a few seconds, then let go.
“It’s locked,” he said. “Let’s go to the next area.”
The sound of their footsteps gradually faded into the distance.
Jiang Nian breathed a sigh of relief, but didn't leave immediately. He waited in the equipment room for a full minute, and only after confirming it was safe did he push open the door and come out.
The maintenance access road extends forward for about fifty meters, ending at a heavy, sealed door.
There is a prominent sign on the door: "Node 1, unauthorized entry prohibited".
There is a biometric panel by the door.
Jiang Nian took out a counterfeit identity card and stuck it on the identification area.
"Beep—Verification successful. Level 3 Technician Jiang Dawei, access level: temporary access."
The door slid open slowly.
The internal structure of the node was similar to what he had seen that afternoon, but larger. The central cylindrical device emitted a deep hum, surrounded by six maintenance platforms suspended in mid-air.
Time is tight.
Jiang Nian strode to the nearest maintenance platform and took out a piece of explosive from his tactical vest.
The explosive has a strong magnetic adsorption layer on the back. He found a seam on the equipment casing and stuck the explosive there.
"Node one, explosives in place," he reported in a low voice.
"Received," Elder Qin replied. "The energy readings are stable, with no abnormalities."
Jiang Nian continued his actions.
Node number two is located in the southeast corner.
This time, he chose to go through the ventilation ducts, thus avoiding the surveillance of the main passage.
The pipeline was more complex than expected, with many branching paths. Several times he almost got lost, and only found the right direction thanks to Old Qin's real-time guidance.
"There's airflow ahead," Old Qin warned. "It might be an exhaust vent, be careful."
Jiang Nian slowed down.
Sure enough, the duct ahead suddenly narrowed, and a strong gust of cold air blew up from below. Through the grille, you could see a huge air conditioning room below, with three large refrigeration units operating inside.
To get through here, you have to climb over the crossbeam above the unit.
The beam is very narrow, only ten centimeters wide, and six meters above the ground.
Jiang Nian took a deep breath and climbed up using both hands and feet.
When I was halfway up the mountain, my foot suddenly slipped!
Jiang Nian instantly lost his balance and tilted to one side!
In a flash, he grabbed a pipe overhead with his right hand and pressed down on a beam with his left, managing to steady himself.
But this caused quite a commotion.
"What's that sound?" came a voice from the computer room door.
Jiang Nian held her breath, pressed herself against the beam, and remained motionless.
The flashlight beam swept across from below.
"It's probably frozen," someone said. "In this godforsaken place, even the pipes are frozen."
"Let the repair team come and take a look tomorrow."
"Row."
The two chatted as they walked away.
Jiang Nian waited ten seconds before continuing forward. Three minutes later, he arrived at the second node area.
The access control here is stricter; in addition to biometric identification, a dynamic password is also required.
Jiang Nian took a small decoder out of his bag and plugged it into the data port of the recognition panel.
The decoder's screen began scrolling numbers rapidly.
"Cracking... will take twenty seconds," said Old Qin.
Time passed second by second.
Footsteps came from the other end of the corridor.
"Hurry up," Jiang Nian urged.
"Fifteen seconds...ten seconds...five seconds...successfully cracked!"
The green light on the panel came on, and the door opened.
Jiang Nian slipped inside, and the door closed behind him.
The equipment at node two is more complex, surrounded by cooling pipes. The temperature is very low, and white mist can be seen when breathing.
He quickly placed the explosives.
"Node 2 complete."
"Okay, continue. Node number three is in the southwest corner. You need to go through the residential area, where there might be people at night."
The living area is where platform staff rest and relax, featuring a restaurant, gym, and even a small cinema. Although it's already past midnight, there are bound to be night owls still out and about.
When Jiang Nian climbed out of the ventilation duct, he was right outside the gym.
Through the glass door, you can see the lights are on inside, and someone is jogging on a treadmill.
It's Engineer Chen.
Jiang Nian frowned.
He glanced at the time: 3:20 a.m.
Taking the detour would add at least five minutes to the journey. But going directly there would likely result in Mr. Chen seeing them.
Just as he was hesitating, Mr. Chen suddenly stopped the treadmill, picked up a towel to wipe his sweat, and walked towards the door.
Jiang Nian quickly slipped into the storage room next door.
The door opened, and Chen's footsteps passed by the storage room doorway, gradually fading into the distance.
Jiang Nian waited a few seconds, then peeked out.
The corridor was deserted.
He walked quickly through the living area and arrived at the sealed door of node number three.
The security measures here are the simplest, with only one standard access control. However, there is a notice posted next to the door: "Equipment is being debugged; non-positioning team personnel are strictly prohibited from entering."
Jiang Nian swiped her card, and the door opened.
The scene inside startled him.
Node three is running, but in a different mode than what we saw this afternoon. The protective shield of the central device has opened, revealing a complex crystal array inside. The pale blue crystals are slowly rotating, emitting a soft fluorescence.
Even stranger, there was no one in the node.
"Old Qin, what's going on?"
"Analyzing..." Old Qin's voice was filled with confusion. "The energy readings are very unstable, as if some kind of automated test is taking place. But logically, such a test should have technicians present."
Jiang Nian approached the control panel.
The screen displayed a dense stream of data, most of which he couldn't understand. But one line caught his attention: "Resonance frequency calibration in progress... Matching degree 87%... Error too large, manual adjustment recommended."
So the equipment was automatically debugging, but it got stuck because the error was too large.
"Never mind, just set off the explosives."
Jiang Nian walked to the equipment and was about to attach the explosives when he suddenly heard a faint mechanical sound behind him.
He turned around abruptly!
In the corner of the node, a previously stationary maintenance robot suddenly started up, its head sensor lighting up red, pointing directly at him.
"Unauthorized personnel detected," the robot announced in a cold, electronic voice. "Please provide access permissions immediately."
Jiang Nian held up his ID card.
The robot scanned the area and said: "Level 3 Technician, insufficient permissions. Please leave this area immediately."
"I'm on an emergency repair mission," Jiang Nian said calmly. "The equipment is experiencing abnormal fluctuations, and Supervisor Wang asked me to take a look."
"No instructions have been received. Please leave immediately, or a forced eviction process will be initiated."
The robot moved forward, and two stun guns popped out from its arms.
Jiang Nian glanced at the time.
3:40 a.m.
He sighed, "Then I'm sorry."
Before he finished speaking, he pounced like a cheetah!
The robot reacted quickly, its stun baton sweeping across. But Jiang Nian was even faster, dodging to the side while simultaneously drawing his short blade and precisely piercing the joint gap in the robot's neck.
"Crack!"
The sound of a mechanical structure breaking.
The robot paused, the sensors flashed a few times, and then went out.
Jiang Nian put away his knife and quickly attached the explosives to the equipment.
"Node 3 complete."
"Received. Node number four is in the northeast corner, which passes through the positioning team's work area. There might still be people on duty there at night, so be careful."
The positioning team's work area is located in the core area of the platform, with the highest level of security.
Jiang Nian crawled into the ventilation duct again, this time taking a full five minutes to reach his destination.
Looking down from the grille, the work area of the positioning group is brightly lit.
At least seven or eight technicians were still busy, each staring intently at their screens with serious expressions. In the center of the room was a huge holographic projection displaying complex waveforms and spatial coordinates.
"The frequency offset is still too large," a woman wearing glasses said, frowning. "Try lowering it by 0.3 hertz."
“We’re already working on it, but the system response latency is very high.” Another man typed on the keyboard. “It might require a core processor reboot.”
"No, restarting will take twenty minutes, there's not enough time."
"What can we do then? If the error exceeds 15%, the anchor point cannot be locked."
A brief silence fell over the room.
Jiang Nian lay inside the pipe, listening quietly.
These people are adjusting the spatial resonant frequency, trying to pinpoint the coordinates of the Ruins. But judging from their conversation, progress is not going well.
"Should we ask Supervisor Wang for instructions?" someone suggested.
"Manager Wang said the calibration must be completed tonight." The woman with glasses shook her head. "Headquarters is pressing us hard. The anchor point in the South China Sea is already in place, just waiting for us."
"Possible error..."
"Continue adjusting."
The woman interrupted him, "Recalculate all the parameters, including temperature, pressure, and all correction terms for crustal movement. I refuse to believe we can't get it right."
The technicians got back to work.
Jiang Nian waited for a few minutes and found that these people had no intention of resting at all.
He couldn't keep waiting forever.
We must find a way to distract them.
Jiang Nian took out the last miniature signal jammer from his bag, set the parameters, and then gently tossed it down through the gap in the grille.
The jammer landed silently on the carpet in the corner of the room.
Three seconds later, a piercing alarm suddenly sounded!
"Warning: Abnormal energy fluctuations! Energy output from node three is unstable!"
All the technicians stood up.
"what happened?"
"Monitoring shows that the cooling system of node three is malfunctioning, and the temperature is rising rapidly!"
"Go check it out quickly!"
Most of the people hurriedly ran out of the room.
But the woman with glasses and two other technicians stayed behind.
"You guys continue with the adjustments," the woman said. "I'll go check on things." (End of Chapter)