Chapter 31: The Past 1
Thowing a bomb from a car, this outrageous act left everyone around them dumbfounded.
Before they could recover, the jeep also ignited with a red light and exploded automatically.
Boom.
The roar accompanied by a severe heat wave, and some flying car parts, suddenly impacted everyone’s field of vision.
The explosion lasted for three seconds and was followed by a secondary explosion before it calmed down.
Ding.
A subtle text message sound rang from Li Chengyi’s phone, pulling him back from his astonishment.
He quickly took out his phone.
The screen clearly displayed: “You have received a regional broadcast message, do you want to view it?”
He hesitated for a moment, unlocked his phone, opened the inbox, and accessed the message.
“This is just a small reminder.” — Unknown number.
Turning off the phone, Li Chengyi’s eyes darkened as he looked up at the burning jeep.
“How much impact will it have below?” he asked out loud.
Ding Chongyi, still startled, came back to his senses upon hearing the question.
“After blasting an entrance and throwing in another bomb, the underground is probably all collapsed now, what do you think?”
“This is to destroy the evidence,” Li Chengyi still had the image of the jeep charging in his mind.
“Let the company’s people clean up the debris, check for clues. Be quick, the purpose of the person behind this is probably to buy time.” Ding Chongyi said gravely.
Li Chengyi stared intently at the still burning car, understanding that it would be impossible to enter Grieus’s underground garage again in a short period of time.
The purpose of delaying time by the opponent was achieved.
And this attack also woke him up.
In reality, he couldn’t use the flower scale armor, and the only thing he could rely on was his floralingual abilities. His actual combat ability was probably not even as good as a well-trained veteran.
Don’t think his floralingual abilities make no sense, just a few touches and it works, but if it really came to a fight, he couldn’t get close enough to be dealt with.
“It seems that I must find a way to improve my real physical strength. Wearing the flower scale armor comes with a huge consumption and is not suitable for exposure in front of others, so it can only be used as a last resort. The real hidden and practical ability is still the floriography.
I myself should also focus on melee and firearms, these only as a last resort, to decide the victory or defeat at the critical moment.”
His thoughts were not yet clear.
Bang!
Suddenly a gunshot sound abruptly came from not far away.
A worker in a yellow hat who was standing on the outskirts fell to the ground with blood slowly seeping out from the side of his forehead.
“Gun!!” The surrounding workers in yellow hats screamed in horror, scrambling to hide in all directions.
In just a few seconds, more than a dozen workers scattered and hid behind the metal sheet houses around.
Li Chengyi, dragging Ding Chongyi, also ran to hide behind a metal sheet house.
Before they could dial for help, in the distant woods, a burly figure dragging another person, quickly approached this way.
The figure was two meters tall, with a buzz cut, yellow eyes, wearing a black T-shirt, and carrying a silver pistol in one hand.
It was Song Ran!
“Caught the person, send someone out to call the police, Huang Zhisheng, send a report to the headquarters, and the rest check the situation near the hole, to see if we can save it.” Song Ran quickly gave orders upon approaching, then checked the dead person.
“Ding expert? Chengyi brother? Are you okay?” He asked through his AR glasses.
“We’re fine.” Li Chengyi breathed a sigh of relief and, along with Ding Chongyi, came out from the corner to look at the person in Song Ran’s hand.
“Do you know who this person is?” He glanced at the burning jeep above the hole, his mood becoming even more gloomy.
It seemed that they were about to enter, but this incident suddenly occurred.
“Don’t know, the person was dead when caught, had a chip in his brain, it burned out instantly.” Song Ran’s face was cold, obviously not pleased.
He and Huang Zhisheng had originally discussed fishing, not expecting the opponent to be so ruthless, sending a suicide squad to attack directly.
“Can the hole be cleared now?” Song Ran asked.
“It’s impossible. It’s estimated that the original cavity structure of the garage was all collapsed by that explosion.” Ding Chongyi sighed. “If we want to go in, we need to clean up the rubble bit by bit, and it will take a very long time.”
“We don’t have enough personnel here, just relying on these people, I’m afraid we won’t be able to block this force behind them.” Song Ran said in a low voice. “Notify the boss, see if we need to give up, to see if we can find out the details of this force behind. If we don’t find out the mastermind, we will always be passive.”
Suddenly, Ding Chongyi adjusted her AR and revealed a hint of surprise.
“Wait, the underground cavity wasn’t collapsed!”
“Not collapsed??” Li Chengyi and Song Ran were both stunned, then quickly looked at her.
“The detection instrument installed was luckily still intact, the feedback signal is that it didn’t collapse. In this case, we can pretend to clean up, but actually sneak in! Just show on the outside that it really can’t be cleaned!” Ding Chongyi quickly said. “I’ll go and take a look first.”
She hurried towards the direction of the hole, coordinating with the rest of the still frightened workers, to start checking the site.
Soon, a fortunate news came out, the underground garage was indeed still intact, only a corner was blown up.
Li Chengyi didn’t hesitate, immediately put on the gear, fastened the ropes, stood at the edge of the hole, and looked inside.
He needs to take this opportunity to quickly complete this exploration.
According to the intelligence information, as long as he could get into the garage, it was highly likely to find a way out of the Dead End!
So, for the next entry, he must act quickly!
The night was deep, and Song Ran also understood the importance of the matter, actively leading people to patrol around.
Li Chengyi, Ding Chongyi, Huang Zhisheng, and two workers in yellow hats, five people in total, stood at the entrance of the hole.
“Are you ready?” Huang Zhisheng looked towards Li Chengyi.
“Ready at any time.” Li Chengyi took a deep breath and walked to the edge of the hole.
“Then, let’s get ready.” Huang Zhisheng signaled the other two workers.
The two crouched down and opened two silver metal boxes.
Two silver-white mechanical spiders the size of a fist crawled out of the boxes instantly.
The spiders’ backs had a 360-degree rotating free detection head.
Amid the rustling sound, the two mechanical spiders quickly drilled into the hole, their chubby bellies lighting up with bright white light, fully illuminating a large area of the hole.
“Follow the engineering spiders and be careful!” Huang Zhisheng solemnly said to Li Chengyi.
“Okay!”
Looking at the hole in front of him, Li Chengyi took a step forward, squatted slightly, his feet entered first, and then little by little he used his elbows to move downward.
His body slowly sank into the black hole, following the engineering spiders ahead, in the faint white light, continuing to descend.
Bang!
Suddenly, another gunshot echoed from the entrance above.
“Scatter! Bring over the prepared cover, block this side, remember to leave a gap!” Ding Chongyi’s decisive and quick voice was not scared off by the gunfire.
Li Chengyi’s heart sank, knowing that another attack had come.
He looked up.
At this moment, he had descended more than ten meters, with many protruding metal frames on the inner walls of the hole, which made it easy to fix his body.
He braced his legs against the opposite side and his back against the earthen wall, looking upwards.
Above the hole, a heavy metal cover was slowly closing, four hands lifting it, trying to cover the entire hole.
“Chengyi, we will cover the exit, you have oxygen to support at least three hours, don’t worry, must be quick! Find the clues and come up immediately, AR can contact in time.” Ding Chongyi’s voice came out from the glasses.
“Understood.” Li Chengyi responded.
Immediately, he continued to descend.
This time, he took off the rope around his waist, tied one end to the metal frame on the hole wall, then released his hands and feet, allowing his body to hang in the air, using this to lower himself section by section.
In the hissing sliding sound, Li Chengyi’s gloves also began to rub and heat up, and from close by, the smell of burnt leather could be smelled.
But this mode of movement was much faster than before.
A few minutes later.
The reinforced rope was almost fully extended, and the AR glasses’ vision showed the current underground depth: 247 meters.
Click.
Li Chengyi’s feet finally touched a soft mound of dirt. He stabilized his oxygen mask, leveraging the engineering spiders’ white light to survey the surroundings.
The surroundings were still dark earth walls, but on the left rear side, there was a black hole that was tall enough for a person.
A cold breeze blew in gusts from the hole.
“How’s the situation now?” Ding Chongyi’s voice sounded in his ear.
“I’ve descended, the explosion only reached the middle of the shaft, far from the bottom, they probably didn’t realize this place was buried so deep.” Li Chengyi answered.
He paused, then asked, “How’s it above ground?”
“There’s an expert, but Song Ran is still exchanging fire with the other side, they have a few people, but Song Ran is the strongest, don’t worry. I’m leading people to guard the exit here, to prevent any meddling.” Ding Chongyi said solemnly.
“Okay, I’ll be quick!” Li Chengyi replied.
“Be careful not to damage the engineering spiders, they have signal amplifiers on them, our contact is also relayed and boosted by them.” Ding Chongyi added.
“Understood.”
The contact ended.
Li Chengyi looked ahead at the grey monochrome night vision field.
He unfastened the rope buckle from his body, took a deep breath, steadied his mind, and turned to face the man-height dark hole.
A green prompt immediately appeared in his vision: “Would you like to link to the engineering spiders for movement direction?”
“Yes.”
Immediately, two small green spider icons appeared in the upper right corner of the AR.
“Linked, you can command the spiders to move and explore through gestures.”
The prompt reappeared, then slowly faded.
Li Chengyi, somewhat unpracticed, stretched his hand forward and swiped.
In the vision, the two spiders quickly rustled into the dark hole, their belly lights illuminating a large surrounding space.
Li Chengyi followed behind, crawling into the dark hole, sloping downwards, and continued deeper.
After about ten meters or so, the area ahead suddenly opened up.
The two little spiders drilled into a large cavity.
Li Chengyi quickly followed, emerging from the hole opening.
Hiss.
He landed, exhaling a long breath of carbon dioxide.
In the night vision field in front of him, vividly appeared the eerie parking lot he had seen in the Dead End.
“Finally arrived.” He observed everything ahead with the spiders’ white light.
The black ground marked with white parking lines.
A row of gray-white load-bearing pillars.
Red maintenance doors spaced along the right wall.
And on the ceiling, two rows of obsolete tubes arranged in a cross pattern.
Everything was exactly the same as in the Dead End.
Only this place was more ancient, colder, and damper.
(End of Chapter)