Chapter 109

"That's it!"

Kiki shouted. Before she even arrived, she had already used her ability to give a void tug, and the metal emergency door instantly bent and was forcibly ripped from its frame.

Lin Xian hadn't reacted in time and hurriedly said, "You're faster at opening doors than me!"

"Stop talking nonsense!"

Hollow, hollow, hollow!

In the corridor behind them, the tall red human skeleton drilled out rapidly, its limb joints and bone spurs poking into the walls and making crisp, hollow sounds.

Ugh, ah!

Another sharp sound rang out. Lin Xian didn't even think; he grabbed Kiki and leaped into the stairwell, simultaneously forging a door to seal the passage.

Unexpectedly, behind that passage was an extremely steep staircase, and the two stumbled, falling directly downward.

"Ya!!!"

Kiki turned and hugged Lin Xian's waist, her eyes flashing with her ability. Their downward momentum instantly slowed in mid-air, and after rolling for over ten meters, they buffered their landing, thumping and rolling a few times on the stairs before coming to a stop.

Boom!

The steel door Lin Xian had created was blasted away by the wave of flame, flying over their heads with massive kinetic energy before slamming fiercely into the stairwell wall, instantly folding and glowing red with steaming heat!

Lin Xian looked at this scene, feeling his spine tighten. This thing not only spat fire, but its power was also ridiculously exaggerated.

"Ouch!"

Kiki climbed up from the stairs, rubbing her backside and head, crying out in pain.

If not for her ability's protection just now, the two of them would certainly have been battered and bloody from that fall.

Hollow!

Perhaps because the safety passage entrance was narrow, the monster couldn't get in. A blood-red claw, its flesh seemingly scorched, suddenly reached in from the entrance and began grabbing wildly.

Clang! Clang! Clang!

"Careful!"

Ignoring the pain of being battered, Lin Xian stood up, but before he could steady himself, he suddenly grabbed Kiki's hand and yanked her back, the two rushing down the stairs a few steps.

Then, they watched as the crazed, grabbing long claws grasped at nothing before slowly retracting.

Lin Xian felt a lingering fear. Unlike the white giant monster they had encountered before, this red human skeleton was covered in muscle-like tissue and emitted steam.

"Hel... lo!"

After the blood-red hand retracted, after a while, that eerie voice rang out again.

Immediately, in the flashlight beam of Lin Xian and Kiki, a blood-red skull face slowly appeared at the entrance.

Its eyes were like hollow blood pits. It lay at the entrance, looking at Lin Xian and Kiki as if staring at two pieces of prey.

"Mommy, it can spit fire and it can talk!!"

Kiki's eyes widened as she looked at the blood-red skull, jumping back in fright: "Why are these things getting more and more disgusting?"

Disgusting? Lin Xian panted as he slowly retreated down the passage, but he felt an inexplicable sense of weirdness in his heart.

That is...

This thing... is becoming more and more like a human.

When this thought arose, he felt a strange, scalp-tingling sensation.

"Will it be able to drill in?"

"I don't know." Lin Xian shone his light on the deep tunnel stairs behind them and said sternly, "But if it blocks that spot, we won't be able to return the way we came."

"I'm not going back anyway." Kiki's brows were knitted together; seeing something like this, it would be hard not to have nightmares.

If it were just an ordinary monster, it wouldn't have given Lin Xian and Kiki this kind of psychological pressure.

But this thing could actually speak human language, and that eerie, creepy feeling was instantly maxed out, making one feel completely uncomfortable.

"Let's go, it shouldn't be able to drill in."

Lin Xian looked at the red skull watching them from the entrance, took two urgent breaths, and without hesitation, pulled Kiki along as they walked down the stairs.

"Hel...... lo!"

When the two had run a long way down the stairs and could no longer see the entrance at the end, that eerie greeting still rang out from behind, making one's blood run cold.

Hello your grandfather! Lin Xian's forehead broke out in cold sweat, and he cursed inwardly.

Come to think of it, this was the first time he had encountered this kind of Anomaly inside a building; compared to meeting them in the wild, the pressure was much greater.

Thump, thump, thump!

Lin Xian and Kiki, holding their flashlights, ran down the stairs. Not long after, a yellow safety door appeared in their sight.

"That's it."

The two walked down the stairs, and Lin Xian grabbed Kiki's hand: "Don't use your ability to open the door this time."

Although Kiki was already at the Evolution level, her ability shouldn't be used recklessly. There was no telling how many dangers remained in this underground city, so they had to be mindful of their stamina at all times.

Lin Xian reached out and grabbed the door handle, activating his Heart of Machinery to instantly connect to the safety door's lock. Click~, he opened the door directly.

Whoosh~

The moment the door opened, a gust of cold wind rushed toward them. The flashlight beam shone out to reveal an underground tunnel similar to a subway. The circuit pipes and emergency passages on both sides of the tracks looked almost newly built, but the entire tunnel was already filled with a strong, decaying stench.

"Are we just going to follow the tracks down like this?"

Kiki asked.

!

"There's a bit of distance, 6 levels. We have to run at least half a circle around this underground city." Lin Xian took out the Geiger counter, which showed 56.66 mSv/h—much higher than on the surface, but still within the safe range.

"Then what else can we do? Run."

Kiki, wearing her gas mask, panted hot air, her voice muffled.

Beep, beep~

The mobile terminal in Kiki's hand lit up, and Ding Junyi's voice came through.

"Have you entered the tracks?"

"We've arrived."

"Good. The total length from the passage entrance at level 89 to level 95 is 2620 meters, and the vertical distance to the No. 1 pile at level 100 is 62 meters. I suggest that if the Sievert value exceeds 100, you abandon the target."

Lin Xian took a deep breath and glanced at the passage behind him.

"Let's go. If we don't succeed, we'll either have to return the way we came or run up through the tunnel."

"Don't." Kiki waved her hand, panting heavily, "I don't want to run into that monster again."

"Let's go down and see first."

Lin Xian stopped talking nonsense and stepped forward, following the tunnel downward.

He widened the flashlight's beam and shone it on the hollow tunnel, discovering that the ceiling of this newly built underground tunnel had already begun to leak water, and cracks had appeared in many places. Sure enough, as Ding Junyi had said, the main structure of the underground city had already ruptured.

Boom, hum!!!!!!

The two had only walked a few steps when a violent tremor suddenly struck. A hollow sound echoed in the tunnel, and sand, stones, and water droplets fell constantly, instantly giving them a feeling of tinnitus and dizziness, as if the entire earth were shaking!

"An earthquake?!!"

Lin Xian and Kiki felt unsteady and immediately grabbed the guardrail beside them.

"Ah!" Kiki screamed.

The shaking intensified. Lin Xian hugged Kiki directly, pressed her head down, and raised his hand to create a shield while adding support pillars to protect them.

Just when he thought a major earthquake was about to strike, the tremor suddenly began to weaken and then slowly disappeared.

Clatter, clatter...

The shaking passed, and sand and soil fell constantly in the tunnel. After a while, it finally became quiet.

Beep, beep, beep!

At this moment, the mobile terminal rang, and Chen Laoshi's urgent voice came through.

"Lin Xian, Lin Xian, are you two okay?!"

"We're fine." Hearing Chen Sixuan's voice, Lin Xian breathed a sigh of relief, but at the same time, his heart tightened. "Director Ding," he shouted to Ding Junyi,

"Have you encountered this earthquake before? Does it have anything to do with that underground creature?"

Hearing that Lin Xian was fine, Chen Sixuan's expression softened, and Ding Junyi, who was beside her, spoke up:

"Yes. For the past two weeks, earthquakes of this magnitude have occurred several times a day, almost all concentrated during the nighttime."

Hearing this, Lin Xian instantly felt his whole body go numb.

New book, seeking monthly votes, brothers, get on board and charge, charge, charge!

(End of chapter)