The neon pulse of the city's grid flickered like a failing heartbeat on Zhou's holographic map. Wang Li stared at the screen, his reflection fractured by glowing red nodes marking Project Eclipse's reach—power stations, traffic grids, emergency networks, all rigged to collapse. Lin Hong's final move was elegant in its cruelty: a citywide blackout timed to trigger during the morning rush hour, its chaos blamed on Wang Li's "greed-driven sabotage."
**// Project Eclipse activation: 89% complete**
**// Estimated citywide shutdown: 6 hours, 12 minutes**
Zhou's fingers flew across the keyboard. "The system's traced the failsafe to a central server, but it's air-gapped. No remote access. We need physical entry."
"Where?" Wang Li demanded.
The hologram zoomed in on a skeletal high-rise in the industrial district—a derelict building slated for demolition. "Here. Lin Hong's old R&D facility. He's using it as a dead zone."
Chen cursed. "It's a maze. Even if we breach it, the place could be rigged."
"Then we move faster." Wang Li turned to Dr. Thompson, who had been silently analyzing code on a tablet. "Can you stall the activation?"
She hesitated. "If I rewrite the AI's algorithm to mimic Lin Hong's encryption, maybe. But it's a gamble. One wrong input, and the system could lock us out entirely."
"Do it."
As she bent over her work, Wang Li pulled Chen aside. "Get Xiao Li out of the country. Use the private jet. *Now.*"
Chen shook his head. "Lin Hong's watching the airports. We'd never clear security."
"Then take him to the safe house in the mountains. And call Luo—tell her to triple the guards."
The Facility
Two hours later, Wang Li stood outside the R&D building, its broken windows gaping like eye sockets. The storm gathering overhead cast the structure in jagged shadows. Beside him, Zhou adjusted a thermal scanner.
"Five heat signatures inside. All armed."
Wang Li checked his watch. *4 hours, 3 minutes*. "We go quiet."
The team slipped through a rusted service entrance, Wang Li leading with a silenced pistol. The air stank of mold and burnt circuitry. They found the first guard on the third floor—a mercenary pacing near a server room. A single shot dropped him.
But Lin Hong had anticipated them.
As they reached the fifth floor, motion sensors blared. Lights exploded in a shower of sparks, plunging the hallway into darkness. Gunfire erupted. Zhou cursed, clutching a grazed arm.
"Go!" he hissed. "The server's on the top floor!"
Wang Li sprinted up the stairwell, Chen covering his flank. Bullets punched the walls around them. At the tenth floor, Chen took a hit to the shoulder, collapsing against the railing.
"Leave me," he growled. "*Finish this.*"
Wang Li hesitated, then tossed him a comms earpiece. "Stay alive."
---
The Core
The server room was a crypt of dead machines, save for a single terminal humming at its center. Wang Li jammed a drive into the port, unleashing the Ultimate Revenge Life System's AI into the codebase.
**// Breach initiated…**
**// Override failed. Authentication required.**
"Dr. Thompson," Wang Li barked into his earpiece. "I need a bypass!"
Static crackled. Then, her voice, strained: "Lin Hong… he's here. At the lab. He knows I'm helping you."
A gunshot echoed through the comms.
"*Emily!*"
"I'm alright—just a warning shot." Her breath hitched. "He wants the system's core code. If he gets it—"
"Don't let him." Wang Li's mind raced. "Can you redirect the AI's protocols from there?"
"Maybe. But I need time."
On the terminal screen, the countdown bled red:
**// 2 hours, 17 minutes**
Lin Hong's voice slithered through the earpiece. "You always underestimate me, Wang Li. Did you think I wouldn't track your pet scientist?"
Wang Li kept typing, the AI scrambling to decode the password matrix. "Let her go. This is between us."
"Oh, it's far too late for that. But I'll offer you a trade: the system's code for your son's life."
A video feed flickered on the terminal—Xiao Li's mountain safe house, surrounded by armed men. Luo lay motionless near the door.
Wang Li's hand froze over the keyboard.
"Tick-tock," Lin Hong purred.
Dr. Thompson's voice cut through, desperate: "Wang Li, don't! If he gets the code, he'll control everything—the city, your empire—"
"I know."
The AI beeped.
**// Authentication cracked.**
**// Project Eclipse: Deactivation available.**
One click would save the city.
But on the screen, Lin Hong's men aimed their rifles at Xiao Li's bedroom.
Wang Li closed his eyes.
Then he grabbed the drive and smashed it under his heel.
"The code's gone," he said. "But so is your leverage."
Lin Hong snarled. "Kill the boy—"
A gunshot exploded through the feed.
The screen went black.
Wang Li's roar echoed through the empty server room. He lunged for the terminal, fingers stabbing the deactivation command—
**// Project Eclipse: Terminated.**
City lights blazed back to life beyond the windows.
But the silence in Wang Li's earpiece was deafening.
Then, a voice: "Baba?"
Xiao Li's face filled the terminal, tear-streaked but alive. Behind him, Luo slumped against the wall, bloodied hand still clutching her pistol. "Told you… I don't miss," she rasped.
Dr. Thompson's cry tore through the comms. "Wang Li, *run!* Lin Hong rigged the building—"
The floor shuddered. Concrete cracked.
Wang Li sprinted for the stairwell as explosions rocked the foundation. Behind him, the server room collapsed in a roar of fire and steel.
Dawn found Wang Li kneeling in the ashes, Xiao Li's voice still trembling in his ear. Chen found him there, arm bandaged, face grim.
"Lin Hong?"
"Gone. Slipped out during the chaos."
Dr. Thompson approached, her lab coat singed. "I'm sorry. The system… it's damaged. Irreparable."
Wang Li stood. The AI had been his compass, his weapon, his shadow. Now, it was a hollow shell.
But in its absence, he felt something kindle—cold, pure, unbound by algorithms.
"We don't need it," he said.
Somewhere in the city, Lin Hong would be regrouping. Let him.
Wang Li had a new purpose.