Chapter 5: Altai Expeditionary Force

Lin Yi's words made everyone present restless, feeling an ominous cloud looming overhead. For a moment, no one dared to answer his questions, and even the woman's sobs fell silent under the immense pressure.
“Don't you know?” Lin Yi turned to her guide Lance, raised her hands in confusion, and asked, “Did I get the wrong place?”
As soon as she finished speaking, Lance Lott felt several concealed and intense gazes fixated on her. She suddenly realized that the fates of these high-profile figures, usually seen only from a distance and never approached, were now in the hands of her, an ordinary and humble receptionist!
```htmlShe seemed to possess infinite power at this moment!
This couldn't help but make her heart race, her face flush, with intense pleasure building up inside, ready to erupt!
But when she met Lin Yi's calm gaze, the blazing desire in her heart was instantly doused with a bucket of cold water.```
```htmlThis enormous power does not belong to me, nor can it be mine; it's a hot potato that will only turn me to ashes.
Lance silently recited in her heart, then after a moment of calm thinking, she smiled wryly and said, “I’m sorry, Mr. Lin Yi, the person you’re looking for, Mr. Altai Hells, is not here. As for where he has gone, I don’t know either. After all, I’m just a small fry! What I do know is that Mr. Altai often holds meetings here.”```
“Oh, it seems I misjudged the timing of my visit! I apologize for the interruption, everyone!” Lin played with a black pen, his five fingers skillfully twisting as the pen danced up and down in his hand. While he was apologizing, his demeanor was far from concerned, and he continued leisurely, “As a token of my apology, let me ask another question—do you know where Mr. Alteur has gone?”
The originally tense atmosphere suddenly lightened, and the people at the table began exchanging glances. As long-time card friends at the same table, they were already adept at this simple, quick, and silent method of communication. They could easily understand what the subtle changes in each other’s expressions conveyed, especially under the immense threat posed by Lin Yi, to the point where they were nearly evolving into a form of telepathic communication.
Finally, the man with the glasses was once again elected as the spokesperson for the crowd.
He wiped the beads of sweat from his forehead, striving to present a tall and imposing image that could not be subdued, but the words he uttered shattered the image he had crafted.
“Mr. Lin Yi, I do not know the grievances you have with Altai Hells, but I believe there is no conflict in this world that cannot be resolved! As you know, Altai Corporation is the richest and most powerful company in the world. If you need money, Altai can be your henchman in seizing wealth; if you need power, we can make you the most powerful man on this planet... The tentacles of Altai Corporation reach across the globe, and we are almost capable of anything!”
Lin Yi simply propped his head on his hand, smiling as he watched the bespectacled man's speech. Seeing that he did not refute or react as violently as he had imagined—such as grabbing a pen and jabbing it into his eye—the bespectacled man gritted his teeth and continued with heavy breaths:
“And you, as just one person, even with that almost immortal ability, you are still merely an individual. With all due respect, you do not understand the strength of humanity. I hope you are not misled by those damn superhero movies; humanity will never submit to the greatness of an individual!”
On the contrary, human society will be united because of you. All technology laboratories in the world will prioritize you as their main target, focusing on dissecting and analyzing even a single cell of yours under the spotlight until they find a way to deal with you! By that time, you'll probably only have little lab mice for company! However, if you choose to let go of your grievances and cooperate with our Altai company, I believe we can lead humanity...
“So what?” Lin Yi interrupted the boy with glasses who was rambling on. He sighed and said, “Sigh... so you’ve said all this just to warn me not to go against humans, because going against you means death, right?”
“Then I can only unfortunately tell you that if what you say is true, it couldn't be better!” Lin Yi shrugged and added seriously,
“I would be extremely grateful for the efforts of humanity to kill me!”
The guy with the cold eyes fell silent. He sensed the indescribable oppression in Lin Yi's words. Initially, he thought Lin Yi was just a jerk who had gained special abilities and intended to go on a killing spree to take revenge on society. But in reality, this jerk looked at him with sincerity, telling him that if someone could kill him, that would be the best thing ever. Even if he ended up as a specimen in a laboratory, he would be more than willing!
So this is a freaking neurotic with a strong suicidal tendency!
Which mental hospital let him out!?
“Alright, ladies and gentlemen, we've chatted enough, and our bodies are relaxed, so now... shouldn't we redirect our attention to the question I raised?” Lin Yi clapped his hands and said, “Last time I'm asking, if you don’t want to share a grave with Mr. Altai, please tell me... where, may I ask, is my dear Altai Hears currently enjoying the scenery?”
“One minute left!” Lin Yi spread his hands and said generously, “Feel free to leave your last words!”
The second hand on the wall ticked rhythmically, and everyone felt that this minute was both endlessly long and extremely short. Lin Yi's signature pen tapped the table in a steady rhythm, syncing with the ticking of the seconds, each sound adding to the unbearable pressure in everyone's hearts.
None of the people present want to be traitors, or rather, they dare not be traitors. They are bound to the company and to Altai Helde; they rise and fall together. Human greed makes it impossible for them to accept the rapid decline of the company’s stock price, even if they are facing threats to their lives.
Of course, there are still some who value their lives, so he stood up.
“Jefferson!” Just as the second hand was about to make a full circle, the man with the glasses sighed. He sounded like a furnace that had burned out its last piece of coal, weakly saying, “Mr. Altai is definitely staying in his mansion located at 26 Sunset Avenue, Jefferson. I swear everything I just said is true!”
Others had varied expressions, but all secretly breathed a sigh of relief.
“Very good!” Lin paused, stood up, and extended his hand. The man couldn't help but shake hands with him. Lin smiled and said, “Let’s have a pleasant cooperation!”
```html'Kacha'
At this moment, a smiling shattering sound came from the floor-to-ceiling window. Lin Yi sensed something and turned his gaze toward the large glass window directly facing him. He saw a green dot flickering on it, and just as Lin Yi turned his head to look at it, the green light turned red,```
Lin Yitong's pupils subconsciously constricted,
'Bang~~~'
The small bomb attached to the floor-to-ceiling window exploded, shattering the toughened glass into fine fragments that burst into the hall, leaving tiny cuts on people's delicate skin.
```htmlWhile everyone else had yet to react, Lin Yi had already seen a small bright spot in the distance through the shattered window, along with a bullet coming toward him.
The 12.7mm sniper bullet had already found Lin Yi's forehead by the time he noticed it. It violently tore through the skin of his upper face, shattered his fragile skull, and rotated and spun in the brain matter and flesh. As the resistance from the rotation increased, it swayed side to side and moved up and down, ultimately penetrating the skull and piercing a translucent hole in the wall behind Lin Yi.```
Everything was completed in a very short period of time. To the onlookers, it was as if Lin Yi's head had been smashed to pieces on the ground like a watermelon, with those sitting nearby covered in splatters of bright red blood and scattered gray matter on their faces and bodies.
The man with glasses calmly shook off Lin Yi's hand, and a headless corpse fell to the ground; at that moment, a piece of torn flesh was hanging on his golden-rimmed glasses.
The man with glasses remained very calm. He nonchalantly took out a piece of paper from his pocket and began to carefully clean his glasses, although his slightly trembling hands betrayed his true feelings; after all, this was the first time he had witnessed such a gruesome scene up close. It was far more real than the images of bullets piercing flesh shown on a screen, and of course, it was much more disgusting.
In the distance, a fully armed sniper is holding his breath on top of a tall tower, watching the movements of the target through his scope. Once he sees the target collapse in despair, he finally relaxes, turns on his earpiece, and a faint sound of electric current comes through. He reports in a mechanical tone the status of the mission: "Report, target has been eliminated! Repeat, target has been eliminated!"
```html“Are you sure? Night Owl? Observe it one more time!”
"Yes, sir!"
This fat pig looks down on my professional skills? Damn it! Night Owl angrily cursed in his heart, then quickly calmed his breathing and returned to that calm state. He looked at the already fallen target.```
One minute later, the commander’s puzzled question came through the headset,
“Nighthawk, what’s the situation? Please respond! Nighthawk, how is it over there?”
"Fuck!"
"What did you say?"
“F***! F***! F***!”
……
```html"I'm really sorry, everyone!"
In the dead silence of the conference room, a voice filled with regret broke the calm,
one hand resting on the table, then forcefully pulling up a body that was losing balance, Lin Yi, with half of his head intact, stood back up. The other half was rapidly reconstructing itself like a termite building its nest; in just three or four seconds, a complete Lin Yi was once again standing in front of everyone.```
“I sincerely apologize for accidentally dirtying your clothes!” Lin Yi said with a heavy heart.
So the guy with glasses couldn’t take it anymore, rolled his eyes, and fainted on the seat.
The screams rose and fell like a wave, as if trying to make up for the silence that had just passed.
Lin Yi shrugged his shoulders, indicating helplessness, then walked over to the broken glass wall. The helicopter's rotor blades whirred overhead, creating a deafening roar as soldiers clad in black armor rushed in from all directions, securing every hidden corner of the building. Heavy treads rolled over the delicate flowers in the flowerbed, and the massive war machine had already begun to operate. Lin Yi watched the scene before him with a sense of satisfaction, a slight smile creeping onto his face as he spread his arms wide, like a bird with broken wings falling to the ground.