“Master? Master Liaoran?” Liaowu’s voice came from the handheld radio right after the makeshift EMP was activated: “What did you do?”
“We used your EMP. ” Master Liaoran responded: “But - it seemed to have disabled more than just electronics. Did you add some ritualistic ingredients or arrays to it?”
“No! No - you know I am not able to do that!” Liaowu responded, his voice was breaking over the radio, as interference of unknown sources took effect somewhere along the way of their transmission. At the same time, the lights grew dimmer, the air colder, and the dark spots all around them began spreading and expanding.
“Then it is the designs of this place. They went beyond his original designs. They used electric devices to guard the intrinsic curse and negative energy of this place.” Master Liaoran responded, nodding: “Things will become chaotic. You be careful and go on lockdown.”
“And you as well. Because I just saw - holy fuck!” Liaowu gasped: “There are Blood Rainbows forming around that building. Several of them, oh - there’s more! Holy shit! Holy shit!”
“Alright, go into lockdown mode and cut off communications for now. When you’re safe, just break radio silence.” Master Liaoran ordered, then put the radio back: “We need to move. Go up first, and maybe down later.”
“Why?” Marcus’ heart could not stop pounding his chest after what he heard. Blood Rainbows forming in an area and in increasing numbers, that sounded beyond catastrophic and nightmarish. His father and Liaowu were both civilians out in the open, they would not stand a chance. “Is there something wrong? Is - ”
“Liaowu had a ton of experience surviving through paranormal situations as a civilian. Your father’s in good company.” Master Liaoran nodded at Marcus: “His van may not look like it, but it’s actually a carefully designed paranormal shelter.”
“Don’t worry, we’ll get out in time.” Gloria held Marcus by his left elbow: “We will.”
“Sorry - I - ” Marcus took a deep breath: “I should have been calmer. There’s no use panicking right now.”
“There’s no need to walk the stairs now.” Master Liaoran thought for a brief moment: “Everyone, back off a little.”
Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.
Marcus instantly knew what the master meant, so he just pushed everyone around him back, leaving some room around the master. “We’re gonna jump up there, and when it’s safe I’ll throw you upstairs.”
“Boom!” Master Liaoran unleashed a fist strike directly upward, blasting a hole with the diameter of the width of the hallway above. Before the dust even settled, his feet tapped the ground and launched himself just at the floor above. Streams of Qi shot from his fingers, and a few male grunting came from the above. “Alright, come.”
The first one to go up there was Mick, the one with computer skills and some training with both standard martial arts and marksmanship. The second was Kevin. Then it was Tae Kuo.
“You go first.” Marcus looked at Gloria.
“No, you go, I’ll follow.”
“Fucking hell!” Keryn stepped forward and jumped up.
“Hey! Who are you!?” Just when Marcus was about to speak to Gloria, a voice came from behind them. Both of them jumped upwards at the same time, evading the bullets shooting their way and breaking a few more slivers off the edge of the hole made by the master.
The room right above the hole was indeed a security control room, which now was full of screans that were now dark and the smell of burned electronics filled the air. Several technicians and security guards were either on the ground or on the desks and tables, breathing but not responding to any disturbances. They were hit by Master Liaoran on their pressure points; according to Marcus’ own experience, they would be immobilized for at least an hour or even two, unless someone with close to equal skill levels came to their rescue.
“Looks like nothing can be used here indeed. We don’t need to hack anything.” Mick looked through several of the keyboards and monitors: “They’re all fried. Most of these complex electronics are not properly warded off - I can’t tell if the mainframes are affected though.”
“Look for analogue systems, like old style phone lines, fiber optic cables, and - and maybe morse code machines.” Kevin searched through the drawers on a tall locker. Inside these drawers were mostly folders and envelopes with disks, magnetic tapes and even cassettes in them. He took a few moments to look through the folders - they seemed to be reports and official documents of some sort. So he chose a few with graphs and pictures and stuffed them in his backpack.
“We can’t stay here for long.” Marcus looked down from the hole through which they came up, wondering where those guards that shot at them went: “We were discovered when we came up, but - ”
Gloria was equally confused, her fingers playing with a thin throwing blade: “Yeah, where did they - ”
“Bang bang bang!” Someone knocked on the door to the control room, through the obscured matte window, they could see a tall and muscular shadow wearing a helmet and holding what looked like a baton was right outside.
“Hey! Hey! What’s happening in there!?” It was a hoarse male voice, one would expect from this kind of build: “Open up! What the hell is happening?”
“Don’t answer.” Master Liaoran immediately ordered in a low but stern voice: “Don’t even acknowledge. Let’s wait for a few minutes before leaving. Keep searching, if the system’s down, we should be going down, undeground.”
“Underground? Is that where the core of the entire array is?” Tae Kuo asked: “I thought it would be up there - ”
“Yes, and you are correct.” Master Liaoran sighed: “But like this monk said, there are multiple cores. And the most important core should be below the ground. Not too deep, not too shallow, but a clearly defined distance from the surface of the lake.”
“Open up! OPEN UP!” The figure outside the door banged the door again, even more irate and aggressive. “If you still don’t open, I’ll shoot this door open! OPEN UP! RIGHT NOW!”