Online Game: I Started with Max Charisma and Caught the Goddess's Eye - Chapter 382

Chapter 382: Chapter 382: Mastering the Art of Extreme Escape
In the corridor of the seventh underground level of the Daskhollow Laboratory, Luca was swiftly moving forward while controlling Dr. Smith’s body.

It had been half an hour since he left the interrogation room located on the upper levels of the lab.

During this half hour, he had first gone to Dr. Smith’s office. There, he set all the smart devices in the room to behave as if someone was actively present. Then, he locked the office thoroughly from the inside.

After that, he proceeded to set several traps between the 4th and 6th levels.

Although some personnel in the lab began to grow suspicious, no one dared to say anything out loud—after all, Dr. Smith held a position second only to Minister Brown within the facility.

Once all preparations were in place, Luca finally arrived at the cold storage room at the far end of the seventh underground corridor.

Inside that cold storage room were the real bodies of both himself and Quagmire.

Luca adjusted his expression, then knocked heavily on the door.

The cold storage entrance was a double-layered smart security door. Although the identity recognition system had already verified Dr. Smith’s credentials, a live video feed of the staff member on duty inside the room still appeared on the central display screen.

“Doctor, is there something you need?” the staffer asked.

“I need to check the physical condition of Luca and Quagmire. During the interrogation process, both of their consciousnesses showed intense fluctuations, which seriously interfered with the procedure.”

Luca’s response was watertight. Not only that, but he also mimicked Dr. Smith’s usual speaking tone perfectly.

Without any hesitation, the staff member opened the door.

The moment Luca stepped inside, he turned around and shut the door behind him.

In the blink of an eye—before anyone could react—he released a thick wave of Dreamweaving Mist.

The cold storage staff quickly fell into a deep dream state.

“What a bunch of idiots. The people at Zenith Technology Company still haven’t learned their lesson,” Luca muttered, shaking his head as he swiftly seated himself at the control terminal within the room.

After a series of precise inputs, the cryogenic systems began defrosting the bodies of both himself and Quagmire.

“I need to return to my own body. Only then can I unleash my full strength.”

As soon as the thawing process was complete, Luca immediately extracted his consciousness from Dr. Smith’s body.

He urgently directed his mind back into his real body.

Although Luca could use some of his own abilities while controlling Dr. Smith’s body, the effectiveness of those abilities was extremely limited.

Had he been able to access the full extent of his real strength, he wouldn’t have needed to deceive the cold storage room staff into opening the door in the first place.

He could have simply stormed the room by force.

As soon as Luca’s consciousness left Dr. Smith’s body, it collapsed lifelessly onto the control console.

The real Luca, now suddenly awakened, drew in a deep breath.

He quickly glanced at Quagmire lying beside him.

At that moment, Quagmire’s consciousness was still trapped inside the dreamworld.

Although Luca had made prior arrangements to ensure that Quagmire wouldn’t run into serious trouble while stuck in the dream, Luca knew that the longer he remained in that state, the worse his condition would inevitably become.

Luca realized he had to act fast.

He rushed over to the cold storage control terminal and pushed Dr. Smith’s body out of the way.

The control system in the cold room could be directly linked to the terminal in the interrogation chamber.

Back in the interrogation room, everyone’s expressions were tense and grave.

Liam was pacing back and forth, brows furrowed in frustration.

With Dr. Smith gone, Liam had been put in charge of overseeing the entire interrogation. Any unexpected development in the room was now his responsibility.

The interrogator’s consciousness had successfully entered Quagmire’s dream, but something had clearly gone wrong.

It had already been thirty minutes, and they still had no results from the interrogation.

“Should we report what’s going on here to Dr. Smith right away?” one of the staff members asked hesitantly.

“No,” Liam refused without hesitation.

“Dr. Smith entrusted us with this operation. We can’t go bothering him every time something doesn’t go perfectly. Check every single parameter on the interrogation equipment again. This has to be a technical issue.”

Though Liam sensed something was off, he didn’t think too much of it.

While Liam and the others rechecked the system diagnostics, Quagmire—still trapped in the dream—suddenly heard Luca’s voice.

“Are you holding up alright in there?”

“I’m fine!”

“Good. I’m about to say something—just repeat the exact words after I finish.”

Luca had left behind a consciousness-triggering cue within the dream.

As long as Quagmire repeated the phrase exactly as instructed, the trigger would activate successfully.

Once activated, Quagmire’s consciousness would be instantly transferred back to the cold storage room.

Everything was progressing remarkably smoothly.

Quagmire’s consciousness was instantly transferred to the cold storage room—and he woke up moments later.

“Our weapons are in the containment chamber on the sixth floor. I’ve already rigged that level with several traps. I’ll trigger them in a moment—then we grab our gear and escape in the chaos,” Luca said quickly, his voice firm and focused.

What came next would require nothing less than an extreme escape.

It wouldn’t be long before someone noticed the irregularities in the cold storage room.

They had to get out of the entire Daskhollow Laboratory complex before it went into full lockdown.

To make matters worse, a special agent dispatched by Zenith Technology Company headquarters was due to arrive at any moment.

If they didn’t escape before the agent showed up, there was a real chance they’d never make it out at all.

Wasting no time, the two of them donned standard lab technician uniforms and bolted out of the cold storage room.

Just as they were about to reach the sixth floor, Luca triggered the traps without hesitation.

With two massive explosions, alarms blared throughout the entire level.

Thick smoke quickly flooded the hallways of the sixth floor, plunging everything into chaos.

Using the smoke as cover, the two made their way rapidly toward the room where their weapons were stored.

Inside that room, Zenith Technology Company personnel were thrown into complete disarray.

No one knew exactly what was happening—some attempted to barricade themselves in place, while others considered leaving to investigate.

At that exact moment, Luca and Quagmire burst through the entrance.

Although unarmed, the sheer force of their combat abilities was more than enough to neutralize the guards.

In less than thirty seconds, they had taken out everyone in the room.

“Our weapons are at the back—inside the vault! Move!” Luca shouted.

They dashed to the far end of the room.

Luca had already learned the vault’s combination earlier, so within moments they had reclaimed their weapons.

At the same time, the head of the Daskhollow Laboratory, Minister Brown, was finally initiating a response.

“Seal off all exits on the sixth floor! Mobilize every reserve security unit! And notify Dr. Smith immediately—I want him in direct contact with me now!” he barked out the commands rapidly.

His mood was a mix of rising panic and seething fury.

The worry, of course, stemmed from the unexpected emergency that had erupted inside the lab.

But the anger—Minister Brown’s fury—came from the fact that Dr. Smith hadn’t contacted him in quite some time.

“What the hell is that bastard doing?! He’s failed to extract any useful intel from the interrogation, and he hasn’t made a single preparation for the agent’s arrival. Is he just standing around daydreaming?!”

In truth, Dr. Smith had no way to contact him—because his consciousness had been permanently trapped in the dreamspace.

Back in the interrogation room, the others were equally stunned.

The alarms had begun blaring just as they were still going over the device diagnostics.

Panic set in quickly. Most were visibly shaken—except for Liam, who managed to maintain a shred of composure.

“Stay calm! Follow emergency protocol—just like we’ve rehearsed!” Liam barked out.

Under his direction, the others barely managed to rein in their panic and resume a semblance of order.

“Get in touch with Dr. Smith—now! He’s the only one who can get this situation under control!”

The same Liam who had previously insisted on handling the situation himself was finally willing to admit he was in over his head.

But no matter how desperately they searched for Dr. Smith, their efforts were doomed to fail.

Roughly ten minutes into the chaos, Minister Brown finally established communication with Liam in the interrogation room.

The first thing they both confirmed was that neither of them had been able to reach Dr. Smith.

“This is bad… really bad,” Liam muttered, a sinking feeling hitting him hard.

Suddenly, something occurred to him. He spun around to face the dream interface on the control panel.

The display showed only a single consciousness still present in the dreamspace—and that consciousness clearly did not belong to Quagmire.

“We’ve been tricked! Luca and Quagmire have escaped the dreamspace!”

He shouted the realization in stunned, helpless rage.

But Minister Brown’s face didn’t show much surprise.

In fact, after multiple failed attempts to reach Dr. Smith, he had already begun to suspect something like this had happened.

“Don’t panic,” he said confidently. “All exits from the facility have already been sealed. Even if their consciousnesses made it out of the interrogation room, there’s no way they’ll escape from the Daskhollow secret lab.”

Minister Brown spoke with unshaken confidence.

From his perspective, every precaution had been taken.

Even if Luca and Quagmire managed to force their way past internal lockdowns with brute strength, Daskhollow Laboratory still controlled powerful artificial monsters—creations more than capable of neutralizing any threat.

And even if every layer of their defense failed, Minister Brown still had one final card to play—the special agent sent from headquarters, who was expected to arrive at any moment.

In Minister Brown’s mind, that agent could defeat absolutely anyone.

So at this point, all he needed to do was delay Luca and Quagmire for as long as possible.

From that perspective, his response hadn’t been entirely ineffective.

At that very moment, Luca and Quagmire found themselves trapped at the entrance to the fourth floor of the laboratory.