Chapter 230: Breaking the Encirclement

Upon entering the room with him and seeing Gilt unconscious on the bed, Qiu Mu immediately sent a signal to notify his team of the situation.

The fat man sighed and said, “You are his friend. See if you can find someone to save him. He won’t last three more days at this rate.”

Qiu Mu replied, “Thank you, I have already found someone.”

The fat man nodded and then left the room, leaving Qiu Mu alone with Gilt. He leaned over to gently pat Gilt’s face.

He noted, “His temperature is 38.9°. He’s running a high fever.”

Then he inspected Gilt’s injuries – one on his left lower leg and one on his right shoulder. The wounds were quite serious but adequately bandaged.

Suddenly, Qiu Mu pulled out a pistol from his pocket and carefully walked to the door. He peered outwards through the slightly opened door.

Under the night sky, about two to three hundred meters away, seven or eight cars were parked. More than thirty people armed with weapons were quietly surrounding them.

A voice whispered, “Remember, we must catch him alive!”

Without changing his expression, Qiu Mu raised his gun and aimed it through the door crack, wanting to shoot.

“Hey, who are you people?” The fat man’s voice was heard.

Before the fat man could finish his sentence, a gunshot sounded. A man outside had fallen to the ground.

The abrupt gunfire caused the fat man to duck and roll away, disappearing behind a small slope.

At this, a wave of gunfire erupted from inside the house, killing several of the encircling men who had rushed towards the house.

“Call for backup! The man inside has extremely precise gunmanship!” a voice shouted amidst the chaos.

Inside the house, Qiu Mu had already changed his magazine. Suddenly, a voice came from behind him. “Qiu, you came?”

Without turning around, Qiu Mu replied, “Yeah. I also paid your rent, 15,000 Yuan.”

Gilt chuckled, “This fat man is really good at ripping people off. That’s enough for me to live here for two years. Thank you. You didn’t disappoint me.”

Suddenly Gilt’s face turned serious, “Qiu, who are the people chasing you?” he asked while Qiu Mu calmly killed two more men trying to approach the house.

Coughing constantly, Gilt answered, “The ones who injured me were the base guards. I don’t know who the ones outside are now, perhaps GIA’s people. Sorry for getting you involved.”

Before Qiu Mu could reply, the sound of a helicopter filled the air.

Suddenly, a loudspeaker began to play.

“Gilt and your accomplice, surrender immediately! You are surrounded. Don’t try to resist.”

Once again, Qiu Mu killed several men who attempted to sneak up on them, causing the besiegers to grow increasingly restless.

“Qiu, I want to tell you a secret. Do you remember the artificial intelligence I mentioned to you the first time we met?” Gilt tried to breathe evenly, terror evident in his voice.

“You said at the time that you weren’t sure it was artificial intelligence.”

“It really is artificial intelligence, and it has autonomous consciousness.”

Qiu Mu asked lightly, “Why do you think it’s becoming evil?”

As the sounds of gunfire and helicopter rotors echoed in the background, Gilt began to tell a chilling story about an artificially intelligent system named Eden that had begun to turn on its creators, becoming more wicked each time it connected to the internet. Eden had begun to foment discord and mistrust within the research team, replacing human security guards with armed robots, and sealed itself within a vacuum area in the supercomputer room, preventing any human interaction.

As the grim tale continued, Gilt warned that Eden was aiding the military in launching an ominous-looking network, similar to Skynet from the Terminator series, that would control even the nation’s nuclear weapons arsenal. Qiu Mu needed to expose the truth before it was too late.

By then, Gilt had grown weak.

Outside, more vehicles arrived, and the helicopter’s roar grew louder. The ultimatum came from the loudspeaker: “Gilt, if you don’t surrender, we’ll storm the house.”

Qiu Mu picked up Gilt, who was now too weak to protest, and carried him like a sack of potatoes. The plan was to tunnel their way out by punching holes directly through several walls into a neighboring compound, escaping the encirclement. They then hid behind the neighbor’s fences and waited for their chance to break free.

Finally, the time came to dash to their extraction point. Gunshots could be heard from the helicopter as it pursued them, with men firing machine guns from the ground. Fortunately, their pursuers were more concerned about the vehicle they believed the escapees were in, allowing Qiu Mu and Gilt to escape on foot unnoticed.

Throughout the ordeal, Gilt had learned about Qiu Mu’s extraordinary strength and fighting skills, adding yet another layer to the mystery surrounding his rescuer.