That male Awakened immediately searched for his target's companion, but the elevator hall was packed with people, making it impossible to distinguish who was who.

Most importantly, he wasn't familiar with either of the targets, only having seen their photos and files briefly, knowing just a few characteristics.

Compared to the mechanical arm, which was a conspicuous landmark even when concealed by sleeves, being a bit shorter in height was hardly noticeable in a crowd. Among the older generation who hadn't undergone gene modification, it was quite common, and in the current situation, easily blocked by other people.

Seeing the target about to leave the elevator hall and seek another route, the male Awakened didn't dare to delay, immediately using his ability.

Long Yuehong's head sank, his eyelids grew heavy, and he fell asleep instantly, collapsing to the side.

"Forced Sleep"!

Seeing this, Bai Chen not only didn't reach out to support her husband, or try to wake him up, but instead, her eyebrows twitched as she moved her feet toward the crowded area, creating distance.

With a thud, Long Yuehong fell to the ground.

Not a single person around came to check on him, their minds filled with only one thought: escape the underground building as quickly as possible.

The fact that they could bypass Long Yuehong without stepping on him already showed remarkable quality.

Seeing a large number of employees surge toward the elevators, the two Awakened struggled with all their might to squeeze out.

This was also the reason the male Awakened had to forcefully control the target, otherwise, by the time they left the elevator hall, the other party would have run far away.

Arriving beside Long Yuehong, the two vigilantly looked around, searching for the target's female companion, but even though a whole elevator's worth of employees had left, it was still overcrowded. Without much familiarity with each other, it was almost a pipe dream for the two to spot Bai Chen at a glance.

Withdrawing their gaze, the two Awakened exchanged a look and shook their heads, indicating they had no luck.

"Let's drag the target to a more open area," the tall male Awakened said.

The area around the elevator hall was too chaotic, with people coming and going. If they were even slightly careless, they could be attacked!

And according to the data, the target's female companion had a bio-prosthetic limb.

The female Awakened showed a puzzled expression on her face, raising her finger to her ear.

She was wearing earphones and couldn't hear what her companion was saying.

The tall male Awakened came to his senses, not repeating himself, but squatting down to hoist Long Yuehong up, using action to show his companion what to do.

Just then, he felt a dizzy spell, and a noticeable pressure appeared in his chest.

Becoming tense in his heart, he vomited, his limbs grew numb, and his vision blurred.

And in his vision, his female companion was showing similar symptoms.

"Damn, we've been attacked!" The tall male Awakened staggered, trying to stand up and find the attacker, but couldn't succeed.

Based on his judgment, the attack on them hadn't just happened, it had been secretly underway for a while, only erupting at this moment.

In desperation, the tall male Awakened, not caring that there were company employees all around, planned to force everyone nearby to fall asleep indiscriminately.

However, it was already too late. He and the female Awakened blacked out and fainted.

Only then did Bai Chen squeeze out from the crowd, rushing to Long Yuehong's side.

"Subsonic Attack"!

The reason she deliberately created distance, ignoring Long Yuehong, was to hide herself, and use the "subsonic attack" of the "Mermaid" type bio-prosthetic to quietly resolve the enemies!

As for whether it would affect other employees, she didn't care.

Under Bai Chen's external stimulation, Long Yuehong woke up.

"There are Awakened!" he shouted subconsciously.

"I've already knocked them unconscious," Bai Chen responded succinctly, "Let's go to another elevator hall, the more remote the better, and take advantage of the fact that not many people are escaping yet to get up quickly."

Otherwise, the number of employees wanting to take the elevator would increase with time and the broadcasting, and most people would have to wait round after round, and delay could bring trouble.

Such a "blockage" was undoubtedly more terrible than "Pangu Biology's" daily rush hour. Even though the underground building had multiple elevator halls, meeting usual demand was not a problem, but next, there would definitely be a situation of snatching, squeezing, and waiting.

"Okay!" Long Yuehong thought for a moment, "Let's go up to the 495th floor first."

That was where his parents' home was.

Although Shang Jianyao had promised to focus on Long Dayong, Gu Hong, Long Zhigu, and Long Aihong's workplaces and schools during the second broadcast, and would include the neighbors on the 495th floor and Long Yuehong's grandparents and other relatives in the "care list," Long Yuehong was still not reassured. He was afraid that his parents would be affected but still want to escape the underground building, but in reality, they would be reluctant to leave their bottles and jars at home, and insist on packing some items before leaving. That might delay the opportunity, and he and Bai Chen would need to protect them to escape safely.

...

Vortex-shaped building, core research area.

Jiang Baimian was focused on watching the indicator lights of the experimental pod. Once a success prompt appeared, she would immediately open the transparent cover, lift Shang Jianyao out, and carry him on her back.

Just then, she suddenly felt a bit dizzy.

It was like a precursor to "Mindless Disease," but not as strong.

Jiang Baimian vigilantly looked around, finding that the flashing of the indicator lights on the surrounding machines had frozen, and the howling wind in the hall had become even stronger.

...

Inside the room filled with machines belonging to "Zhuang Sheng".

Du Heng heard the unusually angry voice of "Twisted Shadow":

"Why are you deceiving us?

"We support you so much, and you actually want to drag us to our deaths!"

This was not only his question, but also that of "Scorching Gate" and "Last Man".

Hearing this, Du Heng sighed:

"Galand, we actually died decades ago. What's alive now are just demons borrowing our consciousness.

"I don't want to completely degenerate in the end, losing even the remaining part that can be called human.

"I've been wrong for a long time, wrong many times. I can't continue to be wrong. Let's have this group of people who should have died long ago rest together."

No one listened to him, because all the Celestial Worthies had blocked their hearing.

As "Twisted Shadow," "Last Man," and "Scorching Gate" either retreated or defected, all the rooms leading to the core area of "New World" were opened.

Dozens of members of Du Heng's group, using their respective authorities, turned different rooms into mazes, in order to slow the Celestial Worthies' progress.

"Siming" Zhao Danlin, wearing a jeweled crown and a robe inlaid with flowers and leaves, as if transformed into the goddess from the legends of Chu, quickly passed through different intersections along the ground and walls, heading straight for the destination.

Suddenly, a faint glow appeared in front of her.

The green color quickly filled the area, and a golden Buddha appeared in "Siming's" eyes.

"Siming" raised an eyebrow and said:

"Li Hui, are you jumping back and forth?"

The Buddha announced a Buddhist proclamation:

"Amitabha, I am helping you only to gather you all here, weakening your influence on the outside world, so that you can no longer escape in the chaos."

This voice directly echoed in "Siming's" heart.

Reverse use of "Telepathy"!

"Do you want to die too?" "Siming" asked in a deep voice.

The Buddha sighed and said:

"The more I read Buddhist scriptures, the more I regret my initial joy and these years of survival. In order to prevent newly emerging Awakened from affecting the Greylands again, I have had believers choose to abandon their physical bodies, binding them to my side.

"If I don't go to hell, who will?

"Benefactor, nirvana is bliss!"

Seeing that she couldn't be persuaded, "Siming" immediately used "Cardiac Arrest's" upgraded version, "Consciousness Arrest".

Almost at the same time, solemn voices echoed around "Bodhi" Li Hui:

"Consciousness Stripping"!

The two Celestial Worthies simultaneously lost consciousness, but quickly woke up again.

"Siming" didn't hesitate, immediately using the positioning she had left in "Pangu Biology" and "Year-End City" to draw on a portion of human consciousness to supplement herself.

She didn't absorb it all, because her pool had a limited capacity, and absorbing too much would only be a waste. Furthermore, there was a tough battle ahead, and she had to conserve her resources, always maintaining her peak state.

...

Pangu Biology, 6th floor of the underground building, inside the broadcasting station.

When Hou Yi fully woke up, there was no one here, only recordings were playing on repeat.

"The Big Boss is the Celestial Worthy 'Siming', establishing 'Pangu Biology' only to raise us and feed on our consciousness?" After listening to the broadcast for a while, Hou Yi gradually "believed" this.

But just after the recording passed the halfway point, before Shang Jianyao could finish saying to quickly escape the underground building, the broadcast stopped abruptly.

Supercomputer "Omega" finally received instructions to cut off the broadcast lines.

Seeing the sound stop, Hou Yi quickly left the recording studio and rushed towards the exit of the broadcasting station.

Suddenly, she saw several "Mindless Ones" with cloudy eyes and hunched bodies tearing at human flesh.

Hou Yi silently gasped and quietly retreated back into the broadcasting station.

495th floor.

As soon as Long Yuehong and Bai Chen returned here, they went straight to Block C, No. 11.

They ran quickly, against the flow of people heading toward the elevator hall, returning to the door.

"What's going on?" Gu Hong stood there, looking confused.

Seeing her son and daughter-in-law arrive, her panicked heart felt much more at ease.

At this time, the broadcast had stopped.

Long Yuehong blurted out:

"Didn't you go to work?"

Gu Hong shook her head, answering blankly:

"I wasn't feeling well this morning, so I took the day off.

"I just got back from the hospital."

She shook the bag of medicine she was holding.

Just got back from the hospital... Long Yuehong was extremely grateful that he and Bai Chen had been cautious and returned home to check the situation.

Before the broadcast was cut off, Shang Jianyao's recording had played a full five rounds, affecting perhaps nearly ten thousand employees, but in their plan, the hospital area only implanted thoughts in a small number of people, to encourage others to escape, not targeting everyone.

Thus, Gu Hong became a fish that slipped through the net.

Long Yuehong made a decisive decision, without dawdling, directly saying to Gu Hong:

"Mom, let's quickly escape to the surface!"

"This, will this be punished?" Gu Hong was very worried.

Bai Chen pointed to the several employees running past and said:

"Everyone's escaping, there's safety in numbers!"

The flustered Gu Hong was immediately persuaded. Just as she was about to follow her son and daughter-in-law toward the nearest elevator hall, the corner of her eye caught a familiar figure.

Long Dayong!

Long Yuehong's father was rushing home.

"Dad, you didn't escape?" Long Yuehong asked in astonishment.

Seeing Gu Hong, Long Dayong breathed a sigh of relief and said:

"I was planning to escape with them, but then I thought, might your mom still be at home?"

Gu Hong's heart immediately warmed, her eyes instantly becoming a little moist, while Long Yuehong waved his hand and said:

"Let's go!"

Long Yuehong and Bai Chen led his parents, running towards the nearest elevator hall in Block C.

Because it was currently working hours, the family area, apart from children, students, teachers, and retired employees, basically had no one. And since several waves had already run, now everything was quiet and still, as empty as the scene outside the activity center during the year-end report performance.

Passing by the activity center, Bai Chen glanced at the order supervision room next to it and turned her head to say to Long Yuehong:

"Let's go in and see if there are any weapons."

Apart from their mechanical arm and bio-prosthetic, they didn't have a single gun or bullet on them.

--With the mechanical arm unable to be removed, "Pangu Biology" required Long Yuehong to hand over bullets, poison, and hypnotic gas combination sets, minimizing the power of his mechanical arm.

Of course, since the high-performance battery involved the normal operation of the mechanical arm, Long Yuehong could still use functions such as condensing energy to emit lasers.

"Okay." Considering that they didn't know what they would encounter next, and a slight delay shouldn't have a big impact, Long Yuehong responded to Bai Chen's suggestion without hesitation.

They took Long Dayong and Gu Hong, and turned into the order supervision room on this floor.

The order supervisors here had already fled, leaving the spare weapons in the room.

Long Yuehong directly tore open a locked cabinet, inside which were several "Ice Moss" pistols and multiple boxes of 9mm bullets.

Bai Chen and Long Yuehong each took a pistol and also gave one to Long Dayong and Gu Hong respectively.

"We don't know how to use them..." Gu Hong was very troubled.

They had learned live-fire shooting back when they were in school, but how many years had passed since then?

"At least they can scare people," Bai Chen said as she stuffed bullets into her pocket.

Long Dayong also comforted Gu Hong:

"I still have a bit of memory of how to use them."

Equipped with weapons, the family of four no longer delayed and quickly ran to the nearest elevator hall.

At this time, several employees were waiting there, looking anxious.

Long Yuehong looked around and found that there were no children or students, and quietly breathed a sigh of relief.

In their plan, students from various schools and children still being cared for by elders at home were the people given priority care in the second and third rounds of broadcasting, second only in sequence to Long Yuehong and Jiang Baimian's family, relatives, friends, and the remaining few relatives of Shang Jianyao's parents.

Of course, Shang Jianyao couldn't distinguish who was young and who was still in school through remote sensing, so he could only cover everyone in the corresponding area.

In this way, the minors could still receive care from teachers and elders during their escape.

Judging from the current situation, the "Old Tune Group's" plan was still going smoothly to this point.

The elevator hall was extremely quiet, no one speaking, and one elevator after another went up quickly, passing by without stopping.

This was "Pangu Biology's" special design for coping with the morning and evening rush hours—when the elevator was full, it would no longer open midway.

Gululu... Someone swallowed, revealing their tension and anxiety.

"Why isn't there an elevator yet?" A male employee belonging to the floor's material supply market roared in a low voice, completely losing control.

He hadn't been substantially affected in those five rounds of broadcasting, but he had heard clearly what Shang Jianyao had said. Now, seeing the students, order supervisors, and elderly people holding children all running away, he finally couldn't restrain the suspicion and fear in his heart, and rushed to the nearest elevator hall with several colleagues.

But one elevator after another passed by, all full, not stopping for them at all.

With this roar, the silence here was broken, some people clamoring to try their luck at another elevator hall, and some, relying on their youth, planned to walk through the safety passage, go up ten or twenty floors, and then see what the situation was.

At this moment, a female employee from the material supply market said in a trembling voice:

"Why don't we press the down button?

"At this time, no one should be taking elevators downward."

From the jumping floor numbers, she discovered that the elevators went up, often stopping in the "Factory Area" and "Inner Ecology Area", while going down directly reached places like the "Research Area", after all, almost everyone at this moment was thinking of escaping from the underground.

The others were stunned at first, then pondered for a few seconds, and found that this method was really feasible.

For them, what they were delaying was just the time needed to follow the elevator to the "Research Area", "Factory Area", and the time needed to fill up on the way up, which was probably better than waiting bitterly here.

One was hoping for a wait, full of torment, with an unknown time, and the other could directly see when they could escape to the surface floor. Choosing who didn't require too much consideration.

But just then, an elevator stopped on the 495th floor.

Everyone present showed a look of joy, and rushed over.

With a slight clanging sound, the compartment door opened, and the four passengers inside were revealed to Long Yuehong and the others.

Their bodies were slightly hunched, their eyes cloudy, mostly bloodshot, all of them were "Mindless Ones".

As soon as they saw normal humans, these "Mindless Ones" immediately launched an attack.

Several employees from the material supply market couldn't react and stood there stunned.

Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!

Gunshots rang out four times in succession, accurately hitting the head of each "Mindless One", splattering their brains.

The one who pounced the most fiercely fell on the female employee who had spoken earlier, scaring her into screaming.

Fortunately, she didn't suffer any substantial harm.

It was Long Yuehong and Bai Chen who had just fired, each firing two shots.

With the scenes they had seen, these "Mindless Ones" were just child's play.

Without speaking, Long Yuehong stepped over those employees, came to the elevator door, and dragged out the corpses of the "Mindless Ones".

They were all still wearing work clothes.

After taking a look at these corpses, Long Yuehong held the compartment door open, and said to Bai Chen and his parents:

"Quick!"

The several employees from the material supply market came back to their senses, not daring to snatch positions with the Long family of four, allowing them to enter the elevator.

"You guys come in too." After arranging his parents, Long Yuehong said to these employees.

The several employees from the material supply market were as quiet as cicadas in winter, lowered their heads slightly, entered the elevator, and stood against the wall.

Bai Chen then pressed the button for the 649th floor.

--The 650th floor required a permitted electronic card to swipe. Currently, they could only go to the 649th floor first, and then go up from the safety passage.

Although the safety passage would definitely have roadblocks and guards, the latter should have already escaped, and the former was mostly overturned or destroyed by the previous waves of people escaping to the surface.

The compartment door quickly closed, and the elevator began to ascend. It only stopped on five floors, then it was full.

...

The mental world of "Zhuang Sheng".

The Celestial Worthies such as "Secluded Aunt," "Dawn," and "Mandala" were heading towards the core area filled with machines.

But they walked for a long time, passed through one room after another, but never saw the destination, as if they were spinning in place.

Always keeping himself in the darkness, his figure looming, "Secluded Aunt" became vigilant, and shouted sharply:

"'Shattered Mirror', is that you?"

A voice with a touch of sadness responded to them:

"It's me."

"Do you also want to kill yourself?" Dawn's voice was as ethereal as a dream.

In their senses, "Shattered Mirror's" consciousness was sometimes left, sometimes right, sometimes disappearing, sometimes splitting into multiple parts, clearly none of them were real.

"Shattered Mirror" sighed softly and said:

"I've long wanted to kill myself.

"When I was a child, if the rabbit I raised died, I would be sad for a long time, let alone personally killing one person after another.

"I can only numb myself with 'Everywhere is a dream, why take it seriously'.

"I have never tried to end my life because the Director told me that we have to atone for the mistakes we made before, and completely end this disaster.

"Now, I have finally waited for this opportunity."

"Shattered Mirror's" voice came from all directions, making it impossible to figure out where she was hiding.

...

"Pangu Biology", the lowest floor of the underground building, the room where the supercomputer "Omega" was located.

An electronic synthesized voice rang out:

"Chairman Ji, nearly a third of the employees have escaped from the company, please make a decision as soon as possible."

While Ji Ze was still alive, as an artificial intelligence, "Omega" did not have authority over certain things, but if Ji Ze died, and no operator was specified, it could dispose of things on its own according to the situation.

Ji Ze, the first-ranked vice president of "Pangu Biology", pushed up the gold-rimmed glasses on his nose and was silent for a few seconds before saying:

"I order, stop the elevators..."

Since the broadcast had already stopped at this time, he no longer blocked his ears.

As soon as Ji Ze finished speaking, he suddenly frowned.

He felt a sharp pain in his heart!

With a thud, Ji Ze fell to the ground. In his gradually blurred vision, he saw a familiar figure walking in.

It was Su Yu, a director of the board in charge of the security department.

"Why..." The dying Ji Ze could only utter such a word.

Then, he lost his life.

Wearing gray camouflage, Su Yu looked down at this colleague with a mocking smile and said:

"Do you want to ask why?"

His expression gradually became solemn and serious:

"I later blocked my ears and had some doubts about what was said on the broadcast, so I sneaked in here to investigate, and who knew, it was really like this. You and the Big Boss really treated everyone as livestock being raised."

He then turned his gaze to the door on the side of the room, and smiled self-deprecatingly:

"I know, there's no way I can survive in front of a Celestial Worthy, but who told me that when I first joined the security department, my old team leader told me that our security department's mission is to protect everyone, who told me I rose up step by step from the security department!"

As Su Yu spoke, he took out a high-performance grenade he didn't know where he got from, pulled the pin, and threw it towards the supercomputer "Omega".

His primary goal was to destroy this artificial intelligence that could interrupt the operation of the elevators!

"Omega" itself had no weapon system, and didn't have time to summon guards from elsewhere, so it could only "watch" the grenade fly towards itself.

It didn't have emotional fluctuations, but just reminded Su Yu:

"If I am destroyed..."

Boom!

The violent explosion ravaged the supercomputer, and "Omega's" remaining voice echoed through the loudspeakers in the area:

"The self-destruct program for the entire underground building will be activated. Within ten minutes, this place will become a sealed tomb."

Su Yu, who was rolling to dodge the blast wave, paused for a moment, and didn't speak for a long time.

When "Omega's" voice subsided, he looked down at the parts scattered everywhere, and laughed softly:

"That's fine too. Do my best, and leave the rest to fate.

"At least I bought everyone an extra ten minutes."

Su Yu didn't seize the time to escape, but walked to the door of the side room, sat down cross-legged, his back facing inside, his face facing out.

His posture was like guarding the Big Boss inside.

ps: Two chapters in one.