Chapter 151
Deep in the Alps, snow covered everything.
Inside one of the mountains, the "Lighthouse" organization's headquarters was like a futuristic city hidden beneath ice and snow, running quietly and efficiently.
Jack was sent to the base's top-level medical center.
The surgery room's red light stayed on for twelve straight hours.
Lucy and Alex waited in the hallway outside the operating room for those twelve hours.
Alex had long lost the excitement he had on the plane. He sat restlessly, swapping one lollipop for another, plastic sticks piling up at his feet.
"You think... he'll make it through, right?" He asked the same question countless times.
Lucy leaned against the cold wall, eyes bloodshot, but without shedding a single tear.
She just stared quietly at the tightly shut operating room door, saying nothing.
During those twelve hours, everything that happened in that underground base kept replaying in her mind.
She once thought that the backstabbing in business was the cruelest struggle in this world.
Until she met Jack, she realized that in that world ordinary people could never reach—
Life was so fragile and cheap.
"He will." Lucy spoke, her voice hoarse but her tone calm. "He promised me he wouldn't let anyone else die in front of him again. He's a man who keeps his promises."
Alex opened his mouth, wanting to say something comforting, but it finally turned into a sigh.
He sat back down on the bench, opened his tablet, and started processing the information that had piled up over the past few days.
The fall of the White Tower Foundation had created a power vacuum worldwide.
Countless organizations and forces, like sharks smelling blood, were rushing in frantically, trying to grab the massive legacy White Tower left behind—
Those secret assets scattered across the globe, advanced technology, and... those projects that couldn't see the light of day.
"The situation is more complicated than we thought." Alex looked at the data on the screen, frowning. "White Tower may have fallen, but its roots are still there."
"Military and intelligence agencies in many countries had deep connections with it. Now, these people are all trying to distance themselves while also wanting to claim White Tower's research results for themselves."
"Especially that 'Ark Project.'" He turned the screen toward Lucy. "According to intelligence we intercepted, at least five countries' intelligence agencies have formed special task forces, searching worldwide for materials and scientists related to the 'Ark Project.'"
"Ark Project..." Lucy repeated the name softly.
The conflict between Ronan and Jack seemed to have started with this project.
"What exactly is this project?" she asked.
"Don't know." Alex shook his head. "This was the White Tower Foundation's highest level secret, code name 'Pandora.' We only know that the project's goal was to 'create new humans.'"
"Ronan's war dog unit might just be an early product of this project, or rather, failed experiments."
"Create new humans?" Lucy found this claim absurd.
"Sounds crazy, right?" Alex gave a bitter laugh. "But for those lunatics who control the world's top technology and unlimited resources, nothing is impossible. They've long stopped being satisfied with wealth and power. The role they want to play is 'God.'"
"And Ronan was the lunatic who most wanted to become 'God.'"
Lucy fell silent.
She remembered Ronan in the power room, that coldness that treated human lives like grass, that arrogance of controlling everything.
Perhaps in his eyes, Jack and she, even the whole world, were just obstacles on his path to godhood.
Just then, the operating room's red light finally went out.
The door opened, and a white-haired doctor in a white coat, exhaustion written all over his face, walked out.
Lucy and Alex immediately rushed forward.
"Doctor! How is he?"
The doctor took off his mask, showing a relieved smile.
"The surgery was successful. We removed all the shrapnel from his body, repaired his ruptured organs, and stabilized his vital signs."
Hearing this, Lucy's nerves, which had been tense for over ten days, finally relaxed.
She felt darkness before her eyes, her body went soft, and she nearly collapsed.
Alex quickly caught her.
"But..." The doctor's tone shifted, his expression becoming serious again. "His body, from being in an extreme state for so long, plus this severe injury, is badly damaged."
"Although we saved his life, when he'll wake up is hard to say. It could be a day, or a month, or even... he might never wake up."
"It depends on his own will."
After speaking, the doctor patted Alex's shoulder and left.
The hallway fell silent again.
Lucy leaned on Alex, tears finally breaking through.
She wasn't crying because Jack's life and death were uncertain.
She was crying because she felt heartbroken for him.
This man carried too much.
His life, from the moment he was brought into that base, had been filled with killing, betrayal, and revenge.
Like a cold fighting machine, he never dared to stop, never dared to fall.
Because once he stopped, the souls of his dead brothers would devour him.
Now, his revenge was complete.
The drive that had sustained him was gone too.
Was he tired too?
Did he also want to just keep sleeping like this?
"No..." Lucy wiped her tears and stood up straight from Alex's support.
Her eyes became determined again.
"He won't give up. And neither will I."
She walked to the ICU window and looked at the man inside, surrounded by various machines, quiet as a baby.
"Jack, listen to me."
"You saved me, more than once."
"Now, it's my turn to save you."
"No matter how long it takes, I'll wait for you to wake up. Then, I'll take you away from here, away from all this mess. We'll go somewhere nobody knows us and live an ordinary life."
"I'll show you that this world has more than just hatred and killing. It has sunshine, beaches, and... love."
Her voice was soft, but each word was like a brand, deeply carved into the silent air.
Alex watched from the side, and finally just silently handed her a cup of hot water.