The Debtor System: Starting with a debt of 1 billion

Chapter 51 Remnants of the Past

Lin Mo stood by Su Ya's bedside, watching his sister's pale sleeping face, his fingers unconsciously rubbing the dried bloodstains on his sleeve.

"Lin Mo, you'd better come and take a look at this."

Acha's voice came through the encrypted channel, trembling slightly. This girl was usually fearless; data that could frighten her was definitely not a simple system malfunction.

Lin Mo gently tucked Su Ya in, then turned and walked out of the medical room. The emergency lights in the corridor flickered, as if the entire base was breathing under some invisible pressure.

The door to the control room slid open, and Acha stared intently at the dozens of monitor screens pieced together in front of her. The normally orderly scene now appeared strangely unsettling—the signals from some of the cameras were delayed, and jagged, snow-like noise flickered at the edges of the images.

"What's going on?" Lin Mo walked behind Acha, his eyes scanning the screen like a hawk's.

"The base's firewall was breached. The method was old-fashioned, but extremely precise." Acha pulled up a playback video, her fingers turning slightly white with tension. "The intruder didn't steal any data, nor did he implant any viruses. He... he was watching us."

Lin Mo's pupils contracted slightly.

The screen displays surveillance footage from the base's No. 3 passage. The timestamp shows it was ten minutes ago.

The scene was empty, with only cold metal walls and stark white lights. However, just as the scene was about to change, the air in the shadows in the lower right corner suddenly twisted eerily.

That's not signal interference.

That was the outline of a person.

"This is the refraction residue of optical camouflage." Acha bit her lip and slowed down the playback speed. "The intruder is wearing a military-grade stealth combat suit, but he doesn't seem to want to hide his tracks, or rather, he wants to leave something behind on purpose."

The image freezes.

The blurry figure slowly emerged from the shadows. Although the face was obscured by pixelated noise and the figure was concealed by a large tactical trench coat, that unique, scalpel-like, cold and sharp aura instantly pierced through Lin Mo's long-sealed memories.

Lin Mo clenched his fist tightly, his nails digging deep into his palm, causing excruciating pain.

That standing posture.

That slight tilt of the head.

There's also a close-up of the familiar, centipede-like old scar on the left ring finger—a callus left from years of holding a specially made pistol.

"It's him..." Lin Mo's voice was terrifyingly low, as if it were squeezed out from the depths of hell.

"Who?" Acha felt the temperature around her drop sharply.

"The chief instructor of 'Eden,' codenamed 'The Butcher.'"

Lin Mo stared intently at the afterimage on the screen, countless thoughts flashing through his mind. That damned person in the lab explosion was still alive. More importantly, he was currently in this base, or at least his signal source was connected to this place.

"That's impossible! The base has the highest security level; external signals can't penetrate the seabed rock..." Acha suddenly stopped, her face turning deathly pale. She turned to look at Lin Mo, "Unless..."

"Unless someone inside is providing backup." Lin Mo continued her words, his eyes as cold as ice.

That "remnant of the past" wasn't just a simple hacking attack; it was a form of psychological warfare. It was telling Lin Mo: No matter where you escape to, your every move is under my control.

"Sever all external connections and activate the internal isolation protocol." Lin Mo swiftly issued the order, his voice carrying an undeniable decisiveness. "Notify the security team to go fully armed and conduct a thorough search. Also, get me the access records for all personnel who have entered or exited the area in the past 24 hours."

"Including...our own people?" Acha hesitated for a moment before asking.

Lin Mo's gaze swept over the row of backup servers in the corner of the main control room, which were connected to the independent line leading to Suya's ward.

"Including everyone," Lin Mo said coldly. "Tell the brothers that in this search, it's better to kill the innocent than let the guilty go free. If anyone dares to touch Su Ya, I don't mind turning this base into their graveyard."

Acha shivered and quickly began operating the machine. She knew Lin Mo wasn't joking.

Just then, a red dialog box suddenly popped up on the central main screen.

That wasn't the base system's interface; it was a simple text box with a black background.

There was only one line of text above, slowly emerging in an old typewriter font:

"The way my sister sleeps is just like Subject 0 from back then."

Lin Mo's pupils suddenly contracted, and an unprecedented killing intent instantly enveloped the entire control room.

"The Butcher" not only hacked into the system, he was also watching them.

"Find him!" Lin Mo slammed his hand on the control panel, his knuckles turning white from the force. "Dig this damned ghost out of here!"