Their Mistake, Her Rise - Chapter 248: Chapter 248

At this moment, the bomb squad experts had no choice but to sincerely praise Zoe.
"This girl is incredible! How did she even manage that? She cracked such a high-level lock in so little time?"
"Cut the chatter. It's because you've all been slacking off. Now even a teenage girl is outpacing you. Watch and learn, or you'll keep embarrassing yourselves."
Though they said that, the bomb squad experts were mostly complimenting Zoe's lock-picking skills.
As for defusing bombs—sure, Zoe had successfully disarmed one earlier—but there were countless types of bombs out there. In their eyes, she might have had experience with one or two types, but surely she couldn't handle all of them.
They still doubted her actual bomb-defusing capabilities, assuming her earlier success had more to do with luck.
With that in mind, everyone cooperated with Zoe to search for the bomb. In the end, it was Zoe who precisely located the device—relying solely on her hearing—hidden behind a file cabinet.
When the bomb squad experts approached and saw the device, they instantly turned pale.
"This bomb has twice the amount of explosives as the others, and there are only fifty seconds left until detonation!" the expert shouted. "There's no time! Evacuate immediately! Our squad will stay behind and take the brunt of the explosion. Go! Hurry!"
At his panicked roar, the expressions on everyone's faces turned ghostly white.
This was the core of the entire research base, where countless secrets were stored. Losing this place would be catastrophic. And no one could bear the thought of letting the bomb squad sacrifice themselves in their place.
"No way!"
"Your lives are just as important. How can we let you take the hit for us?"
"Let's take a chance. If we win, we all live. If we lose, we die together."
But this bomb would be extremely difficult to disarm. Not only did it contain double the explosive charge, it was also a brand-new type that no one had ever seen before. Even the seasoned bomb experts were visibly shaken.
While everyone was frozen in indecision, the only one unaffected by the panic—Zoe—had already stepped forward and, without a word, began working on dismantling the bomb.
This was no ordinary timed device. It was a highly complex composite bomb.
Inside, the wiring was tangled and intricate. But on the surface, it appeared deceptively simple—just a red and a blue wire. This was a deliberate design by the bomb's creator, meant to trick anyone trying to defuse it.
"It's just the usual red and blue wires?" the expert said, "I thought a cutting-edge bomb would be more intimidating. Looks like we just need to cut the right one. Forget fifty seconds, I can solve this in ten."
Upon seeing the familiar setup, even the bomb squad experts began to breathe a sigh of relief. They assumed that, since the previous bombs had all been defused by cutting the blue wire, this one would be no exception.
Just as one of the bomb squad experts was about to touch the wire, Zoe suddenly shouted, "Don't move!"
The sharp command made the expert freeze in his tracks. He looked over and saw Zoe doing something shocking in full view of everyone.
She began carefully unraveling the bomb's wiring, and within moments, she had separated what had appeared to be just two wires—red and blue.
When the hidden wires were finally revealed, the expert was dumbstruck. Cold sweat broke out across his forehead, and his whole body began to tremble.
"There... there are five wires in total!" he exclaimed. "Cutting either the red or the blue one would have triggered an immediate explosion. This was a trap set by the bomb's creator!"
They had all come within a hair's breadth of being blown to pieces. The realization drained the color from everyone's faces.
Meanwhile, as the expert spoke, Zoe had already finished disassembling all of the bomb's wiring and internal components.
But the countdown had now entered its final ten seconds.
"Zoe, get out of there! There's no time left! We have to run!" Joyce shouted, her voice panicked, sweat breaking out on her brow.
The others also began preparing to flee. The countdown was still ticking, and in just a few seconds, the entire room would be reduced to rubble.
Everyone was in a frenzy. Even the bomb squad expert couldn't help but murmur, "I'm a professional, and yet I can't keep my cool like a teenage girl. This is ridiculous."
In the very next instant, Zoe—calm and composed—spotted something no one else had: a nearly invisible, hair-thin wire hidden beneath the main set.
It was something most would miss entirely, but not Zoe. With practiced precision, she reached out and snapped it.
This was the most critical moment. If she cut the wrong wire—or did nothing—they would all die. Realizing this, everyone involuntarily shut their eyes in fear.
"Oh God, the countdown hasn't stopped! She must've cut the wrong one! There's only three seconds left!" someone screamed in despair.
Everyone's faces turned ashen. They were convinced Zoe had failed, and their end was imminent.
They heard a beeping sound.
"Three..."
"Two..."
"One!"
With the final second gone and the counter reaching zero, everyone who had been rushing for the exit dropped to the ground and shut their eyes again. This time, they truly believed death had come.
But a minute passed—and nothing happened.
"It... it didn't explode?" someone exclaimed, opening their eyes in disbelief.
"Or... are we already dead?"
"I heard death comes without pain. Maybe we're dead and just don't feel it yet!"
Robert immediately smacked his panic-stricken old friends on the head and shouted, "Snap out of it! You're all still alive!"
That could only mean one thing—Zoe had succeeded.
"Did Zoe really defuse it?" someone burst out laughing in relief. "She actually disarmed the latest model bomb!"
Even the lead bomb expert stood frozen in shock. He stared at the now-still countdown timer, unable to believe what he was seeing. His whole body was still dazed.
He too had thought the bomb would go off. But unlike the others, he had kept his eyes open the entire time.
In that final second, this seasoned expert had clearly seen Zoe slice through all five wires simultaneously with a blade.
Normally, people assumed that in a bomb with five wires, only two would be the actual triggers, randomly chosen. But the man who built this bomb was a lunatic—he had rigged all five wires to be live.
If even one had remained connected, everyone would have been blown to pieces.
But Zoe had gone one step further—she was even crazier than the madman who built the bomb. No one expected it.
She had dared to gamble—and cut all five wires at once. No cautious, rational bomb expert would have ever dared to go that far.
The bomb squad experts, who had all looked down on this young girl before, were now speechless. They had no idea how Zoe had managed to see through the bomber's twisted logic.
But one thing was becoming clear: Zoe might really be a genius when it came to bombs.