Chapter 30: Journey to Four
“Yes, and it might even be a man-made epidemic. This young man is likely one of the victims. It’s not that they didn’t want to come out back then, they simply couldn’t.” Ding Chongyi nodded. “If the company’s think tank is correct, then you just need to really go down to the parking lot and understand its structure, and you will find a way for certain special personnel to leave.”
Li Chengyi understood what she meant.
If special personnel like the young man in white couldn’t leave, then who could freely leave?
Without a doubt, it was the mastermind behind this tragedy.
“Then entering the plan,” Li Chengyi paused before he could ask.
Suddenly, a faint noise of disturbance drifted from not far away.
Both of them turned their heads to look over. A few men in blue security uniforms were holding short sticks, arguing face to face with the construction workers.
They seemed to want to come in but were stopped by the yellow hard-hatted workers and began to shout loudly.
“I’ll go take a look,” Song Ran told Li Chengyi and the others before heading over on his own.
“These people have come to cause trouble more than once. Before you supervisors arrived, they had already come by twice,” the young lady in a yellow hard hat explained quietly.
“Where are these people from?” Li Chengyi asked.
“They’re from a local company called Ashi Real Estate. They claim this land is rented by them and the lease hasn’t expired yet. Unauthorized personnel are not allowed to dig arbitrarily,” the young lady in the yellow hard hat answered.
“Ashi again?” Li Chengyi watched from afar.
After Song Ran went over, a few words were exchanged and those much shorter security guards in blue quickly backed down.
Click.
Suddenly, not far behind, a clear sound followed by a harsh breaking noise.
Everyone’s heart skipped, and they hurriedly looked back.
They saw a yellow excavator responsible for digging, with its bottom engine part, emitting thick black smoke.
A sneaky figure was seen running wildly from behind the excavator, heading far away.
“Catch him!”
The yellow hard-hats shouted and chased after.
“The machine is damaged! An excavator is damaged!” a hard-hatted engineer came forward to inspect and immediately called out, “The engine has been blown up! And several parts have been stolen!”
Excavators of this era were not just simple vehicles with shovels but were built with precision drilling structures. They were not only capable of digging but also drilling, with extremely powerful functions.
The engine power required was naturally very strong, but now someone had secretly sabotaged one, leaving only one remaining. This would greatly increase the workload for the remaining tasks and slow down the progress significantly.
Li Chengyi frowned at the scene. This person. Why does it feel like they’re deliberately delaying their excavation progress?
He was just speculating. For now, he had only bypassed a dead angle once; there was still time, so he was not in a hurry. With people from the company here, he believed they could handle it.
The excavator’s halt directly affected the progress.
Without further ado, Li Chengyi and Song Ran took rest in the temporary shacks by the construction site, waiting for the machine to be repaired.
These temporary shacks were made of simple iron sheets, quickly assembled into readymade houses, rectangular cubes no more than five meters in length and width, with windows.
They were cheap, structurally stable, windproof, waterproof, and sun-proof, usually inhabited by the workers themselves.
Neither of them cared much for luxury; their focus was all on the construction site.
The meals were just company-delivered fast food that was heated before eating.
For three consecutive days, they all waited for the new parts to be delivered.
Taking advantage of the time, Li Chengyi also made a trip to Diarmogg, testing a theory about absorbing malice.
The method involved provoking others, then beating them up, subduing them, and subsequently absorbing their malice.
This method, after testing with the self-sacrifice of two small-time thugs, yielded results.
Effective, but very weak.
The malice went from 45 to 49. And these four points took him a whole afternoon.
This test, with the assistance of Song Ran, though weak in effectiveness.
But it allowed Li Chengyi to speculate that the value of malice might be related to the intensity of malice directed at him.
The weaker the will of the person, even if they had malice towards him, it would quickly dissipate and turn into other emotions, like shock or fear.
“Perhaps, I can learn from ‘Saw’, designing a game that can fully stimulate the potential of evil people. Merely beating them up induces too weak malice.”
Returning to the construction site, on the fourth day, Li Chengyi just got up in the morning, stepped out of his hut to fetch water for washing.
He saw three white vans parked at the edge of the construction site, with “Land Bureau” written on them in blue and black.
About ten government officials in shirts and trousers were talking to Song Ran and the leading yellow hard-hatted person Huang Zhisheng.
Before long, Song Ran came over with a frown, speaking quietly to Li Chengyi.
“The local land bureau insists we go there for registration. They suspect we are illegally mining mineral resources. As the highest-ranking representative of our company, I need to go and make a record for inspection.”
“How long will it take?” Li Chengyi frowned.
“I don’t know, but it shouldn’t take much time,” Song Ran guessed.
“Alright,” Li Chengyi nodded.
“You and Ding expert wait here, I’ll be back soon.” Song Ran, could be said to be the safety expert for this trip, his departure would leave the construction site with just a few workers, basically no combat capability.
But Li Chengyi had no choice, this was Yi State, when the official department comes for registration, they couldn’t just ignore it.
Song Ran and Huang Zhisheng both drove off, following the land bureau’s people to a district tens of kilometers away.
Watching Song Ran and others leave, Li Chengyi felt uneasy, sensing that something was wrong.
“It seems someone doesn’t want us to continue digging, huh.” Ding Chongyi came out from another hut nearby, approaching, her tone deepened.
“These petty tactics have any significance? Other than delaying a bit of time, what else can they do?” Li Chengyi countered.
“Isn’t delaying time enough?” Ding Chongyi laughed.
Li Chengyi didn’t respond.
Yes, for him, it was enough. He was already getting impatient.
He had been here for several days, and the progress on the construction site was still extremely slow.
Although Ding Chongyi also provided a specific digging route, various issues kept popping up. Just after the excavator was repaired, Song Ran and supervisor Huang Zhisheng were taken away.
His time was precious. Rather than wasting time here, it would be better to return to Suoyang to continue training, find people to absorb malice, and complete the full evolution of the flower scale armor, which was more important.
Regardless of which option, it would be better than wasting time here.
“Without Song Ran and the supervisor, are we really unable to continue digging?” Ding Chongyi suddenly voiced from the side.
“What do you mean?” Li Chengyi looked at her in surprise.
“Continue digging!” Ding Chongyi smiled, “Since someone doesn’t want us to dig, then we should dig even more!”
She said it, and she did it.
That afternoon, she started organizing all the yellow hard-hats, continuing to use the repaired excavators and soil pumping machines, and resumed underground operations.
The construction site was bustling with activity again.
Li Chengyi’s heart slightly eased. The face monsters he faced last time, whether in terms of strength or speed, had become extremely strong.
If the flower scale armor hadn’t completed its first evolution, he would have no confidence in facing the face monsters’ attacks next time.
You must know that wearing the flower scale armor continuously consumes vitality, so it is impossible to wear it all the time in daily life.
If he reacted a bit slower, he might be killed by a surprise attack from the face monsters.
Even if he reacted in time, the next time he entered the Grieus Parking Lot, there would be no one to pull him out of death. He could only rely on himself to endure.
If he couldn’t find a way to leave completely
Thinking of this, a shadow flashed in Li Chengyi’s eyes, a deep sense of crisis surging in his heart.
He must act quickly!
The excavation work continued for a few more days.
Finally.
“It’s through! It’s through!” A yellow hard-hat knocked briskly on Li Chengyi’s door.
“Through!?” Li Chengyi in the room, quickly put away the pistol he was inspecting on the table, stood up, and opened the door.
“Can we go in now?” He asked urgently.
Now, it had been seven days since he came here.
A full seven days, he stayed here, aside from daily physical activities, doing some basic training, going fishing in the city, he couldn’t do much else.
The flower scale armor also stalled at absorbing 55 points of malice, unable to progress further.
Fortunately, now there was a breakthrough.
“It’s through, they’re currently ventilating and reinforcing the support points. We can send people down soon,” the notifying yellow hard-hat simply said.
“Where is Ding expert?” Li Chengyi sighed in relief. If they couldn’t go down any longer, he was ready to give up and go elsewhere to absorb malice.
“She’s already gone over,” the yellow hard-hat answered.
Li Chengyi quickly walked out of the iron sheet hut.
Outside, it was already afternoon, with the sky gradually darkening.
Far away, the sound of the waves filled the air, as the setting sun dyed half of the sky red.
A breeze carrying the moist heat fluttered everyone’s clothes at the scene.
On the construction site, the machines had stopped, and two ventilation tubes were continuously extracting air.
“The engineering machines have already gone down for tunnel reinforcement. We’ll be able to go down soon,” Ding Chongyi, standing by the edge of the pit, saw Li Chengyi coming over and briefly explained.
“How will I go down later?” Li Chengyi asked.
“That, do you see it?” Ding Chongyi pointed to a coil of rope on the ground nearby, a set of thick protective clothing with a helmet, and a portable oxygen cylinder.
“Strap yourself, wear the protective suit, and don an oxygen mask before going down.”
Li Chengyi nodded, no longer speaking, just standing by, waiting with some anticipation.
As he waited, suddenly, from the open space in the distance, a green military jeep slowly drove out from the palm forest.
The jeep was unlicensed, the exterior brand new, seemingly recently acquired.
As the jeep approached the excavation site.
A yellow hard-hat stepped forward to stop it, shouting towards the other side.
Vroom.
Suddenly, the jeep’s engine revved up, and with a roar, it charged towards the direction of the pit.
The jeep’s front collided with the yellow hard-hat, knocking the person flying, blood everywhere. After hitting the person, the jeep didn’t stop but continued accelerating towards the pit.
“Move!” Li Chengyi saw the danger and quickly pulled Ding Chongyi to the side to avoid it.
Both rapidly climbed out of the large pit surrounding the hole and looked back.
To their surprise, there was no one in the jeep!
“Unmanned driving!?” Li Chengyi came to his senses but before he could fully process it.
Bang!
The jeep had already plunged down the pit, reached the edge of the hole, and from the bottom of the vehicle, a silver mechanical arm extended, dropping something into the hole with a clunk.
Boom!!
Not long after, a violent vibration spread from underground.
Ear-deafening explosions, accompanied by orange flames, spewed out from the entrance of the hole.
(End of Chapter)
