Chapter 280

Lin Yu put away the binoculars: "Take advantage of the thick fog and go from the south. That entrance looks the weakest; the armed personnel are mainly concentrated at the main gate in the north. We blew up their nest just now, so their attention must be there."

Xu Xiaochuan nodded, just about to take a step, then stopped: "Wait, the chip! Without it, how do we find Xiao Ya?"

"Isn't that thing on your back a living navigator?" Lin Yu patted his shoulder, his tone hard. "Follow the pain, you won't die."

The three of them moved quietly to the south side of the observatory under the cover of the dense fog.

A three-meter-high wire fence stood before them, topped with a circle of rusted barbs. Lin Yu checked it closely and whispered: "The electric fence is dead; the power system here must be broken."

"It's not luck," Xuanyuan Qing suddenly spoke, her voice very light but laced with a chill. "It's a trap."

Lin Yu paused, staring at her: "What do you feel?"

Xuanyuan Qing closed her eyes, as if distinguishing some invisible fluctuation in the air: "The frequency is wrong. The electromagnetic field in this place is chaotic; two forces are struggling, interfering with each other."

Xu Xiaochuan couldn't wait any longer, reaching out to grab the cold wire fence: "Screw it, let's get inside first!"

Just as he prepared to exert force to climb up, a violent electric shock hit his back!

It wasn't an illusion, it was a real electric current! The receiver mark went crazy, vibrating, and at the same time, a clear, anxious female voice exploded directly in his brain:

"Don't come in from here! It's a trap! West side! Underground passage!"

Xu Xiaochuan let go as if electrocuted, falling to the ground, cold sweat instantly soaking his back.

"What's wrong?" Lin Yu was immediately alert.

"Someone…" Xu Xiaochuan gasped for air, his heart pounding. "Speaking directly in my brain! It's Xiao Ya! She said there's a trap here, told us to enter from the underground passage on the west side!"

Lin Yu and Xuanyuan Qing looked at each other, both seeing the gravity and doubt on each other's faces.

"What if… this is also a trap?" Xuanyuan Qing asked softly, her voice drifting.

Xu Xiaochuan propped himself up, wiped the cold sweat from his forehead, his eyes exceptionally firm: "Then we have to break in! At least just now, she saved us once, right?"

Lin Yu was silent for a few seconds, then finally nodded: "West side."

The three of them moved again, arriving at the west side of the observatory.

The fog here was even thicker, almost impossible to see one's own fingers. The air was permeated with a heavy smell of rust, mixed with a pungent odor like disinfectant.

"There," Xu Xiaochuan pointed to a metal ring on the ground almost completely covered by overgrown weeds. "Entrance."

Lin Yu stepped forward, grabbed the cold iron ring, and pulled upward with all his might.

With a jarring 'creak', the pitch-black passage entrance was revealed beneath.

A cold airflow mixed with the smell of mold, machine oil, and dust rushed out of the hole, like a wind blowing from the depths of hell.

"Ventilation duct," Lin Yu frowned tightly. "Narrow, have to crawl."

Xu Xiaochuan didn't hesitate, crawling in first: "I'll go down and scout the path."

The interior of the duct was even narrower and more cramped than imagined.

This damn pipe was narrow enough to crush a person.

Xu Xiaochuan pressed his whole body against the cold iron, his elbows and knees aching, the rust stinging.

It was barely enough to fit him.

Want to move forward? All by elbows and knees, like a maggot.

The air he inhaled was choking; the smell of rust, rotting mushrooms, and an indescribable chemical medicine smell all mixed together, making his throat tighten and his lungs spasm.

It was pitch black.

Only Lin Yu's searchlight, turned to its dimmest, shone a palm-sized patch of white ahead.

"Fuck, is this meant for humans to crawl?" Xu Xiaochuan cursed, his forehead hitting a protruding iron plate, making him hiss in pain.

Behind him, Xuanyuan Qing's breathing was intermittent, sounding painful.

Her arm, crawling in this ghost place, must have rubbed the wound open again; even with the bandage, blood must have seeped through.

"Keep it down," Lin Yu's voice came from behind, pressed extremely low. "This place carries sound."

Xu Xiaochuan had to shut up, gritting his teeth and arching forward.

The pipe went up and down, and the turns were nearly ninety degrees, making his bones feel like they were about to fall apart.

Even more infuriating, every ten or twenty meters, a fork would appear, like a maze.

"Which way?" Xu Xiaochuan stopped at the third fork and turned to ask.

Lin Yu shook his head: "God knows, the blueprints are long gone."

Xu Xiaochuan closed his eyes, and the thing beneath the skin on his back started moving again.

That force came again, not painful, just gently tugging him, pointing to the pitch-black pipe on the left.

"Left," he said quite firmly.

Just as he was about to move, a thin female voice drilled directly into his brain:

"Seventh seam, be careful, it's rusted through, it's going to break."

Xu Xiaochuan's movements froze violently.

A few meters ahead, there was indeed a seam, rusted red and black, looking precarious.

"The section ahead is going to break, take a detour," he hurriedly told the person behind.

Lin Yu didn't say anything, but Xu Xiaochuan felt his eyebrows twitch.

"Heard it again?"

"Yeah, right here," Xu Xiaochuan tapped his own forehead. "Like someone is talking inside."

The three of them found a narrower gap, pressing against the pipe wall and squeezing past, bypassing the dangerous bridge.

Time had completely lost all meaning in this ghost place. Don't know how long they'd been crawling.

Sweat had soaked their clothes, sticking to their bodies, cold and chilly.

Suddenly, a very faint 'click-clack' sound came from ahead.

Lin Yu's hand suddenly rested on Xu Xiaochuan's ankle and squeezed—stop.

The three of them instantly froze, not daring to breathe.

The sound grew clearer, carrying a mechanical rhythm, along with the fine friction of metal.

Xu Xiaochuan's eyes widened, and by the faint light ahead, he saw something moving at the corner—several long, jointed metal legs crawling along the pipe wall toward them.

"Patrol thing," Lin Yu's voice pressed against his ear, barely audible. "Don't move."

The thing crawled out—a flat, disc-shaped machine with eight thin legs, crawling like a massive spider, moving fast. On its back was an infrared probe, rotating and scanning in circles.

Xu Xiaochuan's heart nearly stopped.

The thing was less than five meters away; two more steps and it would definitely discover them.

At this critical moment, the female voice in his brain rang out again:

"Stick to the right wall, there's a maintenance port, can hide."

Xu Xiaochuan subconsciously felt the right side and really found a recessed iron plate; he pushed it gently, and it opened without a sound.

He hurriedly dove in, and Lin Yu dragged Xuanyuan Qing in behind him.

The space was pitifully small; the three of them were nearly stacked on top of each other, holding their breath.

The machine spider crawled to where they had just been and stopped.

The probe stopped rotating, as if it had discovered something.