Skinwalker Belle – Chapter 114 – The Secret of the Crack

Lin Fan followed behind Shi Ming and Sun Jing, walking into the defense base constructed from high-tech metal.

The air was filled with the faint smell of disinfectant and the cold scent of metal.

Everyone who passed by wore standard-issue black combat uniforms, their eyes vigilant and their steps hurried.

Their auras were all powerful.

Lin Fan’s Mental Strength swept over the area, discovering that the weakest people here were all Level 2 Evolved beings.

This confirmed the previous intelligence: once a Chosen One awakened, their starting point was Level 2.

Shi Ming stopped before a heavy metal door and verified his iris and fingerprint.

“The commander is inside.”

The metal door slid open silently.

Inside was a massive, circular command hall. Hundreds of screens flickered with complex data and surveillance footage.

Dozens of staff members were busy at work, their movements tense.

And in the very center of the hall, a man was squatting on a commander’s chair.

He looked very young, twenty-eight or twenty-nine at most, with a messy crop of short hair, deep-set eyes, and heavy, dark circles under them.

He was tearing open a candy wrapper and stuffing a lollipop into his mouth, issuing orders in a muffled voice.

“Position Three, reduce the energy shield’s power by five percent. Divert the energy to Cannon Seven.”

“Notify the logistics department that the next batch of Crystal supplements is to be prioritized for the medical team.”

This was the commander?

Lin Fan’s eyebrow twitched slightly.

Shi Ming led her forward.

“Commander.”

Shi Ming stepped forward and reported in a deep voice.

“This is Miss Lei Li. It was she who just stepped in to help us repel the monsters.”

The man called “Commander” finally turned his head slowly.

The moment he saw Lin Fan, his pupils visibly contracted.

The lollipop in his mouth almost fell out.

Lin Fan could clearly feel her God-level charm taking effect on him.

But only for half a second.

The amazement and infatuation in his eyes vanished without a trace, replaced by a scrutiny so calm it was almost cold.

It was as if Lin Fan, in his eyes, was not a living person but a set of data to be analyzed.

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“Hello.”

The man hopped down from the chair. He was about 1.8 meters tall, with a slender build.

He extended a hand, a formulaic smile on his face.

“Chu Chen. Supreme Commander of the Shanghai Defense Base.”

Lin Fan did not shake his hand, merely giving a slight nod.

“Lei Li.”

Chu Chen didn’t seem to mind. He naturally retracted his hand, pulled another piece of candy from his pocket, tore open the wrapper, and popped it into his mouth.

“I saw what just happened through the surveillance feed.”

He spoke while chewing on the candy.

“Powerful Mind Control ability, with a range of at least two thousand meters and an intensity… sufficient to affect over two thousand otherworldly creatures.”

His gaze fell upon Lin Fan.

“Miss Lei Li, your strength is at least Level 5, perhaps even higher.”

Shi Ming and Sun Jing were both astonished.

They only knew Lin Fan was strong, but they hadn’t expected the commander to rate her so highly.

A chill ran through Lin Fan’s heart.

This man, Chu Chen, was indeed no simple character.

“You flatter me,” she replied faintly.

Chu Chen smiled, not pressing the issue further.

“Miss Lei Li, Captain Shi mentioned you’re not one of our military personnel. May I ask where you’ve come from?”

It was an ordinary question.

But Lin Fan sensed a hint of probing within it.

“Hangcheng,” she answered concisely.

“Hangcheng…”

Chu Chen repeated the name. He turned and walked to the massive electronic map in the center of the command room.

“A good place.”

He picked up a command baton from the side and tapped it lightly on the map.

“Hangcheng is four hundred kilometers from Shanghai. And between them lies Jiangcheng.”

His baton drew a clear, straight line on the map, connecting the three cities.

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“You’re not military, which means you don’t have access to our nationwide strategic transport network. Yet you’ve arrived here, and you appear completely unscathed, calm, and composed.”

“This indicates that the journey from Hangcheng to Shanghai was safe for you. Very safe.”

“To ensure absolute safety along this three-hundred-kilometer route, one must control the biggest variable along the way… Jiangcheng.”

Chu Chen turned his head.

His eyes, bloodshot from lack of sleep, were now as sharp as two knives.

“So, Miss Lei Li, can I assume that Jiangcheng is also under your control?”

“Along with Hangcheng.”

The command room fell silent.

Shi Ming and Sun Jing stared at Chu Chen in shock.

They never would have imagined that the commander could deduce such astonishing information from just the two words “Hangcheng.”

There wasn’t the slightest ripple in Lin Fan’s rainbow-colored eyes.

But inside, a monstrous wave had been stirred.

This man…

He possessed neither great power nor swift speed, but he had something far more terrifying than all of that.

Wisdom.

“Miss Lei Li, you came to Shanghai because of this radiation shockwave, didn’t you?”

Lin Fan nodded, not denying it.

It was the most logical explanation.

Chu Chen tore open another piece of chocolate, put it in his mouth, and chewed slowly and deliberately.

“Then Miss Lei Li must be very curious about what this Rift is, and what these monsters are.”

“I’m all ears,” Lin Fan said succinctly.

Chu Chen didn’t answer directly, instead asking a seemingly unrelated question.

“Miss Lei Li must think that we in the military have abandoned the survivors in other cities, right?”

“After all, we’re holed up in Shanghai, possessing the greatest power, yet we seem indifferent to the outside world.”

Lin Fan remained noncommittal.

Chu Chen sighed and pointed to the huge world map in the center of the command hall.

On the map, over a hundred glaring red dots were flashing.

“It’s not that we don’t want to save them.”

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“It’s that we simply can’t leave.”

“Globally, there are a total of one hundred and three Rifts of various sizes, just like the one above Shanghai.”

“Behind every Rift is a world full of monsters, and every Rift needs an elite unit of Chosen Ones to guard it.”

“If any single Rift were to fall, its region, along with several surrounding cities, would become a paradise for monsters in a short amount of time.”

Lin Fan’s pupils contracted slightly.

This was the first time she had heard this information.

No wonder. She had originally estimated there were at least a million surviving Chosen Ones, but now she had only seen about ten thousand in Shanghai, less than one percent.

It seemed they were all scattered among the one hundred and three Rift cities across the globe.

Chu Chen had been observing her expression. Seeing her reveal a perfectly appropriate hint of surprise, the smile on his lips deepened.

“Miss Lei Li, have you heard of the Human Evolution Project?”

Lin Fan’s heart skipped a beat.

Here it comes.

She answered calmly, “I’ve heard a little about it.”

Chu Chen walked up to her, his voice dropping slightly.

“Then do you know where the formula for the original enhancement serum came from?”

He pointed upward, toward the Rift that had been temporarily sealed.

“From in there.”

“Five years before the apocalypse, the Federation discovered a micro-Rift at the bottom of the Huangpu River, only tall enough for a single person.”

“We once thought it was the technological ruins of some advanced cosmic civilization. We analyzed the formula for the enhancement serum from it and initiated the ‘Human Evolution Project’.”

A trace of self-mockery flashed in Chu Chen’s eyes.

“Thinking back on it now, it’s truly laughable.”

“It wasn’t some ruin at all, but a conspiracy by otherworldly creatures.”

“On the day of the apocalypse, one hundred and three Rifts across the globe expanded simultaneously, releasing a devastating radiation that covered the entire planet.”

“The radiation triggered the unstable factors in all humans who had been injected with the enhancement serum. Ninety-nine point nine percent of them turned into Zombies.”

“And we, the surviving Chosen Ones, are merely the one-in-a-thousand survivors.”

Chu Chen’s gaze grew solemn.

“Today’s radiation shockwave is the second since the apocalypse.”

“We don’t know what changes it will bring, much less what will happen in the future.”

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“Miss Lei Li.” Chu Chen’s gaze fell back on Lin Fan, his eyes sincere.

“On behalf of the Shanghai Defense Base, I formally invite you to join us.”

“Alternatively, if you don’t wish to be constrained, you can stay at the base temporarily. We need your strength, and we can provide you with all the intelligence you desire.”

Lin Fan was silent for a moment.

The information Chu Chen had provided answered many of the questions in her heart.

And what he had said was surely just the tip of the iceberg.

To understand the full truth of this apocalypse, staying in Shanghai was the only choice.

“Alright,” she nodded.

A relieved smile appeared on Chu Chen’s face.

“Excellent.”

He turned to Sun Jing at his side.

“Sun Jing, go personally and arrange the best room for Miss Lei Li. Fulfill all her needs.”

“Yes, Commander!” Sun Jing immediately responded.

She walked to Lin Fan’s side and made a “please” gesture.

“Miss Lei Li, please follow me.”

Lin Fan followed Sun Jing out.

The moment she turned, Chu Chen’s gaze became profound once more.

He watched Lin Fan’s impossibly perfect back, slowly taking the lollipop, now just a plastic stick, out of his mouth.

This woman named Lei Li…

Every word she said was logical, with no discernible flaws.

Every question she asked was what a newcomer ought to be curious about.

But…

She was hiding too much.

Her immense power, her Mental Strength that far exceeded Level 5, her skill in consolidating two cities…

All of it was shrouded in a fog of mystery.

A grave look flashed in Chu Chen’s eyes.

This woman had too many secrets.