"Relax. As long as you use the EMPs in the gear to cause a riot, I'll follow up immediately."
Thorne may have given his verbal assurance, but the distance between his current location and where he had stationed Jane wasn't just miles apart—in New Eridu, they might as well have been on opposite ends of the earth.
Hanging up the call, Thorne glanced at his phone and sneered to himself:
"This is High-concentration Ether I specifically sourced from the Crete Hollow. Hope you enjoy my gift, little rat."
With that, he tossed the phone onto the ground.
In the next instant, Thorne stomped down heavily. Under the crushing weight of his combat boot, the phone was utterly pulverized.
In the Outer Ring, where hackers and encryption capabilities were scarce, physical destruction was the ultimate form of security.
Meanwhile, as the line went dead, Jane let out a soft sigh of relief.
After all, Thorne had zero awareness of line encryption. The past few minutes should have been more than enough for her new automaton teammate to trace the signal source.
Now it was just a matter of waiting for her new captain to send the signal to start the op, and she could find an excuse to slip away gracefully~
Just then, a very green-looking young man sidled up to Jane and spoke with a hint of excitement:
"Big Sis Kelly, do we really just gotta wear this gear, go out, press a few buttons, and then wait to get paid?"
The boy looked so innocent; he had absolutely no concept of what he was actually doing.
Kept in the dark by Thorne, he thought he was merely going to twitch a finger and short-circuit a few roadside billboard screens.
He didn't realize in the slightest that EMPs don't discriminate—they kill all electronics equally.
Not to mention anything else, if he pressed that button by the roadside, the tragedy caused by out-of-control cars would be self-evident.
It wasn't just him; the other three shared the same mindset.
However, ignorance is no excuse to escape punishment. Besides, it's Public Security's duty to stop citizens before they make a grave mistake.
"Come on, boys, hand me your gear. Let me tune it up for you properly."
They were due to head out in three minutes—just enough time to adjust the power output of their EMPs.
She decided to tweak it so it would only cause a tiny bit of disruption. Now, it really would just make the roadside billboards flicker a bit~
Although she felt a subtle sense of wrongness, Jane suppressed it for the moment and began inspecting the equipment on the other lackeys who had tagged along.
Beneath the messy data cables were individual EMP emitters.
Focusing only on adjusting the power, Jane couldn't possibly notice it immediately.
Under the battery of each device, in a spot impossible to see without dismantling the whole thing, lay a plain iron canister that looked remarkably like a battery cell.
If cracked open, the seemingly ordinary canister contained a substance emitting a bewitching, eerie red glow—a flowing mist so dense it was almost liquid.
Anyone who laid eyes on it would instantly realize its danger.
This was a storage canister filled with High-concentration Ether.
Although the Corruption would dissipate rapidly outside a Hollow, talking about toxicity without considering dosage is just sophistry.
As long as the dosage is high enough, it can infect ordinary people in a large surrounding area before it vanishes.
And those at the epicenter would suffer severe dual erosion from high-concentration Ether and Corruption.
Right now, the iron tube lay quietly inside, a silent countdown with only five minutes remaining flashing upon it, waiting for the moment time hit zero.
Just then, Jane's phone suddenly vibrated at a specific frequency.
This frequency was subtly different from a normal vibration. Most people wouldn't tell the difference, but for Jane, it was unmistakable.
When the phone vibrated like this, it meant our undercover lady was receiving a new message from Public Security.
Taking advantage of the fact that no one was around, Jane pulled out her phone.
But the new mission update instantly made her gaze sharpen.
[Qingyi: Take all EMP devices to an uninhabited area immediately. You only have a few minutes. Hurry! Evacuation of the surrounding crowd has already begun!]
[Qingyi: I know you're confused. I'll explain on the way!]
Reading this, Jane, who had relaxed thinking it was all over, instantly tensed up.
She stood up with a swish and went to the adjacent room.
"You guys go wait at the designated location. I'll bring the equipment over myself in a bit."
The four youths immediately lit up with joy:
"Really, Boss? Won't that be too much trouble for you?"
With no time to waste, Jane used her authority as captain to issue a stern command:
"Don't ask so many questions. Go!"
Then, Jane grabbed the equipment and sped out of the room.
Although Big Sis Kelly, who was usually so amiable, had suddenly become serious—leaving them a bit bewildered—the prestige she had built up made them act immediately.
They rushed out the door and ran downstairs.
As Jane stepped out, the intelligence she had gathered about the surrounding area surfaced in her mind.
Being an area close to the city center, combined with New Eridu's population density increasing towards the core, clearing the streets in a mere few minutes was impossible.
The only saving grace was that the high-rise she was standing in was slated for reconstruction. Although it was completely out of operation, its biggest advantage was that it was uninhabited.
Immediately, Jane sprinted upstairs with the equipment. At the same time, deciding to go all in, she dialed Qingyi directly.
"Two things. After successfully hacking in, besides getting his coordinates, I heard his last words through the microphone."
The moment the call connected, Qingyi's calm voice came through.
From the other end came the continuous sounds of other officers evacuating the crowds; even Qingyi seemed to be in constant motion while talking.
"First, the capture operation failed. The target isn't near this area at all—he's at his stronghold in the Outer Ring. We searched all potential hideouts nearby, and there are no other Vanishing Wolves members present!"
Hearing this, Jane's footsteps faltered for a second as she climbed. She instantly realized her cover was definitely blown. The enemy had successfully used her to divert the attention of most of the police force.
Not only that, the massive search had wasted a significant portion of Public Security's manpower.
However, Jane quickly realized Qingyi wasn't finished, and hadn't yet explained why she had to rush the equipment to an unpopulated area.
So she immediately asked:
"And?"
Qingyi paused for a moment, then said:
"From the hacked microphone, we learned that the EMPs are packed with High-concentration Ether. We don't know when they'll detonate. He's literally committing a terrorist attack!"
____
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