Officer Han, I am counting on you.

Clang!

"Stop struggling, Officer Han. Without a satellite phone, your cell phone won't have a signal no matter how hard you mash the buttons."

Li Jie shook the signal-jamming controller in his hand. It was a high-quality piece of gear he’d borrowed from Officer Xiao. You ask who Officer Xiao is? Perhaps a cat-eared, twin-tailed loli?

Dragging a stool over to sit down, Li Jie, dressed in a black tactical suit, planted a foot on Han Zitong’s head. "Hey, Officer Han, show some respect and teach me how to use this thing."

"You motherfu—"

Bang!

Li Jie kicked him squarely in the face. "Look at you, unable to read the room. Whatever, let’s move you somewhere else."

He grabbed Han Zitong by the leg and whistled a tune while walking outside—the melody was "Good Fortune."

After tossing Han Zitong into a single-person metal crate, Li Jie glanced back at the standard factory building, pursed his lips, shrugged his shoulders, and pressed the button on the remote detonator.

*Beep.*

"Huh? No way."

Li Jie was stunned. No response after pressing the button?

Channeling nineteen years of effort... he mashed the button frantically!

*Beep-beep-beep-beep-beep-beep...*

BOOM!

A massive roar—the explosion felt quite satisfying. Unfortunately, its power was mediocre; it only managed to collapse the factory building.

Time to scram.

At the intersection, all thirty-three of Han Zitong’s subordinates were lying in a neat row. Boss Li had a kind heart and hadn't killed them; he’d simply broken their arms and legs.

The car whizzed past, but two hundred meters later, it came to a screeching halt. The reverse lights flickered on, and Boss Li skillfully backed up to the thirty-three men. Under thirty-three pairs of terrified eyes, he lowered his voice and said, "I'm... Catman."

He gave a curt nod, stepped on the accelerator, and drove off.

The car was a hybrid that Boss Li had assembled and modified himself. It had no license plate, making this both an illegal modification and driving without a plate. That would be at least a twelve-point deduction on his driver's license. But since "Catman" didn't even have a headshot on file, Boss Li wasn't worried at all.

If "Catman" commits a crime, what does that have to do with me, Li Jie?

Avoiding surveillance was quite a hassle, but not impossible. After finding a suitable spot, he drove his car into the back of a large semi-truck, killed the engine, and then climbed into the truck's cab... ignition!

He drove the truck leisurely into Baohua Mountain. At this hour, the national highways were filled with cargo trucks, so one more or one less didn't make a difference. Even without an electronic map, he had memorized the location of every surveillance camera along the route.

After circling fifteen kilometers around Baohua Mountain, he entered a mountain hollow. This place used to be an abandoned gravel plant, now converted into a farmhouse-style resort. Business was mediocre, mostly because finding a place like this was too much trouble.

Boss Li had leased it under the name of his "little wife," Gan Xingnu—though the business license still bore the name "Gan Xingzhu."

He parked with practiced ease, reversed, and retrieved a set of individual powered exoskeletons from the truck’s cargo hold, before dumping Officer Han out of the metal crate.

This was his first time playing "Escape Room," and Li was feeling quite excited. The only difference was the way he played: he wasn't the one doing the escaping; he was the one running the game.

He tossed Han Zitong into the "escape room"—or rather, the "underground interrogation chamber"—like a dead dog. Only then did Li Jie sit down calmly, looking at the recovering Han Zitong, and ask, "Officer Han, teach me how to use it. I really need this powered exoskeleton. Please."

"You're sick. You are absolutely sick. Do you have any idea what you're doing?!"

"Tsk, tsk, tsk, tsk..."

Li Jie shook his head, looking at Han Zitong with an amused expression. "Let me tell you what I'm going to do next."

"First, I'll force you to tell me how to use that thing. Of course, you'll be stubborn, so I'll pull out the remaining teeth in your mouth, one by one by one..."

"Second, if you, the iron-blooded tough guy Han Zitong, don't even flinch, then I have no choice but to ask someone who has used this gear before. By the way, I already scanned you and the machine when I brought you in. It’s truly amazing—you didn't install a tracker? Is the Yang family that confident? Or is this... illegally concealed equipment?"

"..."

Han Zitong fell silent. He realized that although this jerk Li Jie was neurotic, his insight was shockingly sharp—he was a genuine psychopath.

"Third, if you, Officer Han, remain loyal and insist on serving the Yang family, I have no objections. Everyone has their own aspirations and principles; I understand that. But that would make things very difficult for me, because I’ll have to build a lightweight knockoff version myself, put it on, and break one of the Young Master Yang's arms... oh wait, this time it'll be both arms. After all, you can't be naughty three times. Naturally, I have to double the punishment."

"You motherfucking psychopath! Why the hell are you always going after us—"

Bang!

Li Jie lashed out with a kick, sending Han Zitong flying against the wall before he slumped to the floor.

Rolling a "cat-claw throwing knife" in his hand, Li Jie crouched down and grabbed Han Zitong by the hair. "Tell me, have you been a dog for so long that you’ve gone stupid? Wasn't it that idiot Yang Ying who started this by acting like a prick? What, only you rich folks are allowed to throw your weight around, and I, a 'non-typical orphan,' am not allowed to fight back? That’s too tyrannical. You need to change, or someone else will rise up against you later."

*Ding.*

A notification sounded. Li Jie pulled out his phone and saw a message from the unwilling-to-be-named Officer Xiao, stating that the device was very similar to the "Individual-300" model, though the power battery appeared to be a more advanced version.

Why was it called "Individual-300"?

It didn't mean it could fight three hundred people, but that it had a range of three hundred kilometers while carrying a heavy load.

Of course, if you turned on performance mode, as long as your human reflexes could keep up, fighting three hundred... Boss Li didn't think that was anything special.

If you have hands, you can do it.

"Similar to the 'Individual-300'? Is there any public information on it?"

"You can check the Ministry of National Defense announcements for partners; if you look closely, you can find it. But in my experience, the first round of bidding involved over a hundred companies, with seventeen making the shortlist. Long-term suppliers are scattered everywhere. The more famous ones, like 'Qishan Industry' under the 'Longyou Group,' are quite strong in unmanned all-terrain armor. Even the police assault vehicles we use currently have external armor sourced from Qishan Industry."

"Got it."

Li Jie went straight to the Ministry of National Defense website, searched for "Daxing Industry," "Daxing Power," and "Daxing Energy," and found information on university lab collaborations and armored robot competitions between engineering schools.

"This Ministry of National Defense supplier is quite impressive."

However, it hadn't been many years since the "Daxing Consortium," "Longyou Group," and other suppliers took off—counting that bastard Yang Ying, it had only been three generations.

Li Jie found the laboratory invested in by "Daxing Industry" and located the relevant universities. Nothing could be gleaned from the lab's periodic bulletins, but the lab code for the "Individual-300" was "CS-EV300," and the prototype’s promotional photo was from ten years ago, back when Boss Li was only eight.

They had such powerful technology even back then?

He then found the text promotional material for the "CS-EV500." There were no photos, and the date was from three years ago—back when they were simultaneously promoting the mass production of solid-state batteries.

Doing the math, putting it into small-batch production after three years... that sounded reasonable.

"Officer Han, is the operating mode of your 'Individual-500' based on the same logic as the 'Individual-300'?"

"..."

Han Zitong jerked his head up, staring at Li Jie in disbelief. His expression was one of extreme astonishment and confusion.

He didn't understand—how?

Who was leaking information to this moron?

Was there a mole beside the boss?! Or was there a mole in the Fifth Boss's camp?!

A storm of suspicion rose in his mind, all of which Li Jie observed clearly.

"Officer Han, look how nervous you are. I was just saying that, casually trying to bluff you. There's no mole feeding me information."

"..."

Li Jie stood up, tossed two bags of food into the room, and pulled out his phone as if to continue his conversation.

Just as Li Jie was slowly closing the door, Han Zitong screamed: "Wait!!"