Chapter 300

*Boom! *

The moment the elevator door closed, the entire elevator shaft experienced a huge shock.

Lin Xian used his ability to control the elevator, which had been locked, to start operating and descending underground. A smell of annihilation mold buried deep underground rushed into the sky.

"What exactly was that thing just now? How did we all fall into a hallucination all of a sudden?"

Luo Yang asked with a face full of lingering fear at this moment. The group of several people were all people with strength above the Violent level, but none of them reacted just now, and all of them were hit.

And what seemed like an instant was actually more than two hours. If those human-head fungi and fungal corpses had rushed in at this time, they would have been completely wiped out.

"The purpose of these fungal threads is parasitism; killing is not the primary goal."

Ding Junyi analyzed at this moment: "And it seems that the enthusiasm of these fungal threads for living bodies exceeds that for mechanical energy."

Lin Xian's expression was solemn: "Even you, wearing full-coverage combat armor, can be hallucinated. How can we prevent those parasitic spores?"

Ding Junyi looked at him and said: "I have already checked the brownish-yellow fungal spores just now. The particle size is about 2-5 microns. Our gas masks can completely resist them. And the air circulation systems of all current federal standard train carriages can intercept 0.3-micron particles. Unless the circulation system is damaged or there is a carriage rupture, you don't need to worry too much."

On the other side, Xiang Xiang Ningjing nodded upon hearing this: "Many trains had previously modified the airtightness and air circulation systems of the train carriages to deal with the dark invasion, and we have them too. But if it's a rupture, this cannot be guaranteed..."

Luo Yang was full of worry. This was their first time using train vehicles, plus they had just come out of the great battle in Xilan City, which really made him have no bottom line on this issue.

"That's right, how can this thing be prevented?" Kiki frowned tightly at this moment, worrying for Chen Sixuan and the others.

"Worrying is useless. We can only hope that this Crimson World organization has some useful methods. Otherwise, we can only go back and drive in reverse, retreating toward Xilan City."

Lin Xian said. Although he said so, thinking about it, it was unlikely. How could they run back after finally clearing the marks from Xilan City? Wouldn't that be a dead end?

At this moment, Lin Xian felt immense pressure in his heart. The drawback of the doomsday train's tracks was exposed at this moment. If it were a car, they could have detoured long ago. But now, more than 4,000 people on the 22 train were trapped in the spore mist, caught in a dilemma, and once again fell into a dead end.

*Woo, woo~*

Lin Xian controlled the elevator to descend rapidly. Along the way, his Mechanical Heart could feel the elevator car constantly crashing and breaking a large number of fungal root systems, and a feeling of falling and stagnation came from time to time.

Finally, the elevator arrived at the core experimental area on the 5th underground floor. *Ding~* The elevator door opened, and it was pitch black outside. Lin Xian immediately lit the floodlights on the drones. In an instant, what came into view was that the entire external passage and corridor were covered and wrapped in fungal vines, and even the floor and walls could no longer be seen. If not for the vaguely visible shape of the corridor, the group would have even thought that this corridor was the inside of some monster's esophagus.

"Why is there more and more underground?" Kiki said.

"Not a single person. This research institute should have completely fallen," Luo Yang also said.

Lin Xian had been probing the mechanical feedback in the building below through the scan of his Mechanical Heart while operating the elevator just now. He originally thought that the people from Crimson World in the fire book would be hiding below, but he didn't detect any movement. At this moment, the elevator door opened, which also confirmed his guess.

"Did we find the wrong place?"

"Shouldn't have," Lin Xian said: "The deputy captain of the Night Edge fleet mentioned that they had a battle with the people from Crimson World underground. It should be here. But we should have come late; this place has been completely covered by fungal threads."

"Then what should we do?"

Lin Xian's expression was solemn at this moment. The fungal threads in the corridor seemed to be undergoing some subtle changes under the lights of the drones. He knew that they couldn't stay in this place for long, so he said: "Kiki, take us to search this place, see if there are any gains, and then we will leave immediately."

"Hmm." Kiki nodded: "Everyone, huddle closer."

After speaking, she immediately grabbed everyone and flew off the ground, diving into the corridor. With the assistance of the drone lights and the scanning array, the group shuttled quickly through the core underground laboratory.

The entire core underground laboratory area had been covered by a large number of fungal threads. The ground and walls were occupied by various fungal vines, and all kinds of tumor-mushroom spores hung in strings. The group searched all the way, but there was everything. Except for the human-fungi adsorbed on the fungal-thread wall in the laboratory, they didn't see anyone.

At this moment, the group searched all the way to the last area, which was a special passage corridor. The corridor was extremely long, as if it extended to a special area.

"There was a large-scale battle here."

In the scan of Ding Junyi's Black Hawk combat armor, many abandoned weapons were immediately discovered under the fungal threads on the ground.

Lin Xian also discovered it at this moment. His mechanical scan swept over the fungal-thread mat and soon swallowed dozens of weapons.

"The standard of these weapons is messy. Most of them shouldn't belong to this kind of large organization. They should be the survivor teams."

Having found clues, the group immediately searched toward the depths of the corridor. Not long after, they reached the end. Under the lights of the drones, a heavy anti-radiation door appeared, and the door was covered by a large number of fungal threads.

【Classified area, entry strictly prohibited】

Kiki tore off the fungal vines, and the group saw the biochemical symbol posted on the alloy door. It seemed that this was a place for some special research.

"Team Leader Lin."

Just as Lin Xian was about to use his mechanical ability to open the door, Xiang Xiang Ningjing pulled him directly: "This passage is easy to defend and hard to attack. That survivor team should have been trapped here. Beware of an ambush."

"I know."

After Lin Xian finished speaking, he directly propped up an AT field shield in front of him, and then operated his Mechanical Heart to manipulate the explosion-proof door. The precision protective lock was useless in front of Lin Xian's ability. In less than a minute, the mechanical scan was completed. Under his drive, the alloy locking bolts inside retracted row by row, and then the circular explosion-proof door slowly opened.

*Squeak~*

Just as the explosion-proof door opened, a slight wind sound actually came from behind, as if there was a large space behind.

Lin Xian immediately operated the drones to fly out and found that the back seemed to be a huge underground space.

"No biological heat source detected, but there are many fungal threads covering it here."

The group walked out of the passage, and Ding Junyi immediately scanned a circle with the radar system of the Black Hawk combat armor.

"What is this place?"

"Looks like an underground platform?"

As soon as Kiki walked out, she immediately saw a control console not far away. She walked over and connected with a mobile terminal, and with a few clicks, she lit up the lights of the entire platform.

The lights shone, and the group immediately discovered that this was a small underground rail platform. The platform was filled with protective wooden boxes of various large experimental instruments, as well as various types of equipment and supplies. There was also an area stacked with many metal cages. The lights shone over, and immediately there were various dead biological corpses: cats, dogs, humans, zombies, and even the Snow Demons they had seen in Xilan City before.

Apart from this, a small white rail locomotive was parked on this rail platform, dragging three tightly protected high-tech carriages, quietly parked on the tracks. The surrounding walls had been covered by a large number of fungal vines.

"Lin Xian, this track leads directly to a place called 【Zero Element Center】 5 kilometers away. It might be the underground secret research base of this organization." At this moment, Kiki obtained path information from the terminal system and said to Lin Xian.

"Apart from this, this track actually connects directly to Yijin's Subway Line 1 and the Salt Marsh sightseeing train tracks!"

As she said this, she raised her head to look at Lin Xian, with a bit of excitement in her eyes: "That is to say, this underground rail line can directly pass through Yijin Canyon and leave the city!"

Lin Xian's expression changed upon hearing this. He immediately walked over and took the mobile terminal from Kiki's hand to check the distribution of this secret rail line. The more he looked, the more eager his gaze became.

"You're right. If we leave the city from here, there's no need to build 22 kilometers of tracks. We only need to turn into the underground rail line from the open-air subway line on Jinkui Street and then go through here!"

"Jinkui Street?" Xiang Xiang Ningjing also said in surprise at this moment: "I looked at the map, it seems to be less than two kilometers away from us!"

"Then this... means." Luo Yang's expression was bizarre: "We have to drive the train into the city streets, and then turn into the subway rail line???"

"Why not?" Lin Xian's expression was serious, thinking constantly in his heart at this moment: "Anyway, it's just a temporary track. Two kilometers is better than 22 kilometers. At this time, still worry about traffic laws?"

"Then the only thing we need to worry about now is whether the track is clear." Ding Junyi said at this moment.

Lin Xian nodded: "Let's go to this place called 【Zero Element Center】 to take a look first. Judging from the situation of this underground research institute being eroded by fungal threads, perhaps this Crimson World organization has already evacuated. If so, we will split into two groups, check the rail line, and then drive the joint train out of the city through the underground rail line to avoid the spore mist."

"Hmm." Xiang Xiang Ningjing said approvingly at this moment: "This plan is good, it can save a lot of effort."

"Then let's take action quickly."

*Woo, woo~*

Two drones kept searching for the situation around the entire platform with lights. The group walked down the platform with full preparation. Lin Xian began to scan and control the train. Soon, he started the long-silent rail train and opened the carriage door.

*Hiss. * The carriage door opened, and it was bright and clean inside. As soon as the group got on the train, they found that the design of this underground rail train was very strange. The first carriage was a luxurious business class seat, each seat was like the first class of an airplane, and there was a holographic screen in front of the seat. As Lin Xian started the train's system, the corporate technology advertisements inside began to play again.

The following two carriages were not used for riding. Inside were separate isolation cabins and equipment racks, etc. At this moment, it was empty, and the ground was also a mess.

As soon as they got on the train, Kiki was operating the mobile terminal and said: "Lin Xian, I can't find any information about that Zero Element Center here, and I can't connect to the system there. I don't know what kind of place that is."

"Hmm, I estimate it might be the same as the underground research institute in Qingshui Town before. Judging from the fire book left by the Night Edge fleet, there must be people from that organization here. Everyone, be careful."

*Empty! *

Lin Xian directly operated the rail locomotive to start moving. The wheels crushed the fungal root vines clinging to the tracks, emitting a tearing sound, and then slowly accelerated toward the depths of the track.

"These fungal threads should have spread underground in the last few days." Ding Junyi looked at the fungal vines in the passage outside the train window at this moment and said: "The corridor before launched a large-scale battle. If there were these fungal threads, it would definitely cause a huge explosion."

Luo Yang looked at her upon hearing this: "Then Professor Ding means that those people might not dare to fire at us?"

"At least it's a hidden danger." Ding Junyi said: "If a firefight occurs underground, if these fungal threads ignite and explode, we won't even have a chance to escape."

*Whoosh, whoosh. *

The rail train kept accelerating. There were track lights in this special underground passage. Through the window, one could clearly feel a little slope. It looked like the depth of the track was slowly increasing. And as the train drove, the fungal threads in the passage also became much less.

At this moment, the passage ahead began to become wide, and a spacious and luxurious special platform appeared. The white character light sign marked the four words 【Zero Element Center】. The entire platform had a very high protection standard, automated loading machines, personnel disinfection rooms, defense posts, etc. It looked like it had to go through layers of inspection, but as the train drove into the platform, Lin Xian and the others didn't see any human shadows, and it was empty.

The huge platform had a very long loading line. As the train stopped, Lin Xian's squad got off the train. A hollow negative pressure suddenly struck their eardrums. All the inspection areas were vacant, and the passage lights above flashed green, as tight as some kind of underground nuclear defense facility.

"How did this pharmaceutical group manage to build such a large rail platform and underground facility underground?" Luo Yang was full of curiosity.

"You're surprised too early." Kiki had already seen the Foundation's Qingshui Town test site and underground research institute, and now she was immune to this kind of thing. She pointed to an automatic explosion-proof door at the end of the platform and said: "Do you believe that some bizarre laboratory or something must have been built behind this?"

Lin Xian's expression was solemn, his gaze constantly checking this silent platform. At this moment, he suddenly discovered that as the group walked onto the platform, the countless surveillance cameras on the platform actually began to turn and follow them!

Someone!

Lin Xian immediately constricted his gaze and shouted to the group: "Careful!"

*Hiss! *

Sure enough, before his words fell, more than a dozen small automatic machine gun turrets suddenly turned out from the surveillance and behind the pillars in several corners. The red laser dots captured the targets quickly, and the next moment, they fired directly!

*Bang, bang, bang, bang, bang!! *

In an instant, Kiki, who reacted, immediately used her telekinesis to push everyone away from their original positions. The next instant, a violent metal stream bombarded the position where the group had just stood. The floor shattered instantly, stray bullets flew everywhere, and the huge sound of guns and cannons rang out deafeningly in the empty underground platform!

"Hurry and dodge!"

In an instant, everyone was facing a formidable enemy. Kiki immediately used her telekinetic shield to block the shattered brick fragments and stray bullets in front of her, raised her hand and grabbed, directly tearing down all three automatic machine guns in her line of sight. Fire Brother, who was knocked back, also had no fungal thread restrictions at this moment. His hands shot out several urgent fire beams with sword fingers. At the same time, Xiang Xiang Ningjing and Luo Yang both attacked. Lin Xian's mechanical ability had already unfolded at this moment, quickly covering all the machine guns and surveillance around him, directly short-circuiting and shutting them down. Almost in just one encounter, more than a dozen automatic machine guns all went out of fire.

Just as the group thought they had solved the problem, the automatic door at the end of the platform suddenly opened. Lin Xian's rapidly operating Mechanical Heart immediately detected the sound of mechanical parts in the dark passage. His expression changed, and he immediately rushed forward and raised his left hand to protect the group in front of him. The transparent AT field light shield had already unfolded!

*Shoo, shoo, shoo! *

In an instant, four plasma arc pulses sprayed out from inside the passage, directly bombarding Lin Xian's AT field shield. Sparks flew instantly, and an energy current oscillated on the platform.

"An ambush!?"

"Wait!"

At this moment, Lin Xian heard a very subtle engine sound, seemingly like that PX-05 robot. His Mechanical Heart moved immediately, and his mechanical scan covered the passage. He captured 4 fast-moving targets flying out from the passage.

*Hum, hum, hum. *

The next instant, four black spherical drones flew out from the passage quickly. They formed a four-corner formation in the air, reacting extremely quickly. As soon as they rushed out, they immediately captured the direction where Lin Xian and the others were dodging, turned their orientation, and the weapon-grade plasma pulse cannon in the center aimed directly at the group. The energy-gathering sound rang out!

*Woo! *

"Careful!" Seeing this, Kiki directly used her telekinesis to capture the four drones. Just as she was about to crush them, she heard Lin Xian shout to her.

"Wait, leave it to me!"

Lin Xian interrupted Kiki's attack. His mechanical ability had already covered these drones from just now. Scanning and driving operated simultaneously, and he immediately captured the main control core of the drones.

*Woo... *

The next instant, the weapon energy gathering of the four spherical drones was all canceled, and the engine emitted a *woo* sound, as if it had lost its energy and fell to the ground quickly.

Lin Xian's eyes flickered with the faint light of his ability, and his Mechanical Heart drove. In just a few breaths, he had already subdued these four drones.

【Mechanical scan successful, obtained Lei Sun 2000 attack drone】

"Done." Lin Xian said to Kiki: "Check if there is any useful information, and by the way, help me directly overwrite the control program."

"Alright."

Kiki directly grabbed a drone with her telekinesis, forcibly opened the data cable, and then used the mobile terminal to invade the program. Soon, she shook her head.

"It's the command of the intelligent defense system. Apart from that, there is nothing." She pressed the confirm key, directly overwriting and restarting the drone's program. After this, these drones could be smoothly controlled by Lin Xian using his mechanical ability.

After completion, Lin Xian reached out and controlled. The 4 Lei Sun drones on the ground started again at this moment, slowly rose into the air, and flew in front of Lin Xian.

This flying drone was only the size of a basketball, covered with a certain amount of armor, and loaded with a Hall flight propulsion engine. The plasma arc pulse cannon in the middle looked very threatening. Judging from the blueprint scanned just now, the super-energy capacitor used by this thing was very high-end, and the power of the pulse cannon fired was much stronger than ordinary rifle bullets.

"It should be that the intelligent defense system here has been activated. We have been identified as intruders." Ding Junyi looked at the drone at this moment and said.

"Phew, that was close. This thing is so fast, we almost got ambushed!" Luo Yang let out a long breath. At this moment, he walked up and looked, exclaiming: "This drone is so precise, it can actually use a plasma arc pulse cannon. The energy storage system is definitely not ordinary goods. It seems to be much more advanced than the Interstellar Military's Falcon!"

"Thanks to Team Leader Lin's mechanical ability." Xiang Xiang Ningjing's expression was serious at this moment: "It seems that the people here have already set their sights on us."

"The defensive measures might be more than just these."

Lin Xian raised his hand and waved, directly controlling 2 reconnaissance drones to fly into the passage behind the automatic door. In an instant, the sensing system inside detected the movement image, and the lights in the passage began to light up layer by layer. Lin Xian pushed the field shield and looked into the passage. At the same time, the drones transmitted the scanning information inside, and no traces of living people were found.

The design of the entire passage was very bizarre, transparent on all sides, not at all like a normal passage.

"This passage is so deep." Kiki leaned her head over to check inside: "I think there must be an ambush."

At this moment, Lin Xian suddenly detected a surge of energy and immediately pressed Kiki back behind him.

"Retreat!"

As soon as the words fell, the passage transparent on all sides suddenly emitted high-frequency light flashes. From the end of the passage, dozens of blue ultra-high-temperature plasma beam cutting arrays suddenly appeared, and then cut directly through the entire passage at an extremely fast speed. In an instant, Lin Xian's two reconnaissance drones were immediately cut into pieces, falling to the ground and constantly emitting sparks, and the cut edges were still turning red and melting!

"Hiss!"

"What is this!?"

Seeing this scene, the group changed color immediately. The attack happened too fast, not even giving 1 second of reaction time. If it weren't for Lin Xian letting the drones scout the path first, I'm afraid everyone would have been cut to pieces.

"This is not an ordinary passage." Lin Xian said with a heavy expression.

His mechanical ability scanned directly into the passage. And as the scan unfolded, Lin Xian's brows immediately twisted, his face full of disbelief.

In a short time, his mechanical ability scanned physical/gait scanners, infrared thermal sensors, vibration sensors, and thousands of various surveillance points. At the top of the passage, Lin Xian also discovered 16 Lei Sun drones lurking, all activated and in an attack state. And the most critical thing was that a super-high-temperature plasma beam cutting array was set up in this passage, and explosives were set up outside the passage, and the area below the passage was a bottomless suspended area...

"Good guy..." Lin Xian couldn't help but say in a deep voice: "There are at least 5 types of deadly traps and self-destruct programs in this passage, not including drones. Plus the various scanners inside, the defense level is comparable to the highest military level."

"Ah?" Luo Yang widened his eyes upon hearing this: "Why does a research institute need such a high defense level?"

"There must be a reason." Lu Xingchen crossed his arms, looking calm: "With such great effort, there must be something extraordinary inside."

Xiang Xiang Ningjing nodded: "This kind of defense shouldn't be used to deal with zombies or bizarre bodies, right?"

"No." Ding Junyi said at this moment: "The purpose of this scanning level is generally to verify identity, and illegal personnel are absolutely not allowed to enter. If there is a self-destruct program, it should be prepared for keeping something quite important."

While the group was discussing, Kiki and Lin Xian had already acted tacitly. Lin Xian directly used his mechanical ability to find the hidden data pipelines in the passage. The remaining 16 drones were covered, scanned, and then forcibly controlled to fly out of the passage one by one, and then connected to the mobile terminal by Kiki for program overwriting.

At the same time, Lin Xian's Mechanical Heart constantly covered the entire passage, began to shut down sensors and scanners, took explosives offline, and directly shut down the super-high-temperature plasma beam cutting array behind.

Although this passage was full of high-tech and lethal weapons, and a self-destruct program was ready, in front of Lin Xian, it was not a trouble at all. His mechanical ability was the nemesis of all mechanical devices. In just over twenty minutes, all the defense programs in the entire passage had gone offline, and the weapons had been directly destroyed and short-circuited by Lin Xian. This defense inspection passage, built with heavy money and almost foolproof, went silent just like that.

However, Lin Xian was still not at ease. After completely fixing it, he manufactured two reconnaissance drones again and flew them in. Until the end, after confirming that there was no problem, Lin Xian then led the group to pass through the passage quickly.

When the automatic door at the end opened automatically under Lin Xian's control, what came into view was a large surveillance lobby. Not only were various high-tech instruments piled up inside, but most importantly, the inner side of the lobby was a spherical dome the size of half a football field, and the entire laboratory was built around this hemisphere.

And at this moment, everyone's eyes were focused on the center of the lobby. On a mechanical arm at a high place, a robot head with a female face was connected, looking at the group with a smile.

The focus module of the robot head stared at Lin Xian. Immediately, a holographic projection began to cover the robot head, presenting a beautiful human face model. The next moment, 'she' opened her mouth and said to Lin Xian with a voice with magnetic ionization:

"Hello, Lin Xian."

In an instant, Lin Xian's expression constricted. Although this face had been holographicized, he immediately recognized that this face was exactly the mysterious woman he had seen in his dreams many times.

Chu Yan!

(End of chapter)