Chapter 282

Lin Yu's reaction was extreme; he grabbed Xuanyuan Qing and retreated half a step violently.

A drop of sweat fell from his temple, and the moment it touched the red line, it 'zizzed' and turned into a wisp of invisible smoke, the air filling with a burnt smell.

"Cut the power!" Xuanyuan Qing gritted her teeth, pointing to an inconspicuous metal box overhead.

Lin Yu kicked off the ground, grabbed the wall protrusion, reached out, and ripped the box off with brute force!

"Crack!"

Sparks flew, and a bunch of colorful cables were torn apart.

The infrared net vanished.

But the next second, a sharp, piercing alarm exploded, spreading wildly throughout the entire passage system.

"This damn place… all the wiring is on the outside…" Xuanyuan Qing's eyes flashed with something strange; it wasn't panic, but rather as if she'd discovered something.

Lin Yu pulled her and continued to charge forward, throwing back a sentence without looking: "A backdoor left behind."

The passage ahead suddenly opened up, connecting to a massive vertical shaft.

Bottomless.

Dozens of meters high, the rusted maintenance ladder, like a steel centipede, spiraled around the shaft wall, leading into the deeper darkness.

Blurred white paint markings were sprayed on the shaft wall: B1, B2, B3—the lowest floor.

"Below!" Lin Yu's gaze swept rapidly, finding the ladder entrance. "There must be an elevator, but it's long locked, have to climb this."

A deafening metal impact sounded from overhead!

It was the 'gift' he'd left behind.

Before the echo of the explosion had dissipated, more, more chaotic footsteps, along with angry shouts, poured in from all directions.

"No…" Xuanyuan Qing gasped even harder, every breath tasting of blood. "This reaction… too fast… they were waiting for us."

"The whole damn place is a setup." Lin Yu hoisted her uninjured arm and stepped onto the swaying spiral ladder, starting to descend.

The ladder was severely rusted, every step making a 'creak' sound.

Xuanyuan Qing's injury severely slowed their speed; she hung almost entirely on Lin Yu, sweat soaking her clothes, her face gray, her lips purple.

"You… go first…" she suddenly spoke, her voice hoarse and drifting, but carrying a hint of ruthlessness. "I can… hold them off…"

Lin Yu didn't speak, just tightened his grip on her arm, lowered his head, and continued downward.

Just then, a teeth-grinding metal friction sound came from overhead, along with a heavy mechanical impact.

A massive square metal platform descended shakily from above, suspended by four dead-weight steel cables.

At least six soldiers armed to the teeth stood on the platform, their gun barrels pitch-black, all aimed below.

Lin Yu slammed Xuanyuan Qing behind the railing, pulled out the black gun, and aimed.

"Second cable on the left! At the interface!" Xuanyuan Qing nearly roared.

Lin Yu adjusted his aim slightly and pulled the trigger without a second thought.

"Bang!"

A crisp gunshot.

The bullet precisely drilled into the connection point between the steel cable and the platform.

Sparks flew!

The steel cable snapped!

The entire platform tilted violently, swaying dangerously; the soldiers on top were caught off guard, stumbling, unable to hold their guns steady, screams ringing out.

Taking advantage of these few critical seconds of chaos, Lin Yu dragged Xuanyuan Qing, scrambling down the last few steps, and dove into the entrance corner of the B2 floor, vanishing from sight.

——

At the same time, in the laboratory.

Xu Xiaochuan's cold sweat was like rain, his hands and feet cold and numb.

His back was still pressed hard against the biological identification area of the control panel, the intense pain hitting his spine like waves, then burning into his brain.

He gritted his teeth, refusing to let go.

"Twenty-three seconds…" Xiao Ya's voice drifted in his brain, intermittent, mixed with electronic noise. "Uncle Lin… Xuanyuan… reached B2… pursuers… elevator… surrounding them…"

The data on the control panel screen scrolled crazily, a complex 3D structure map of the observatory flickering, marked with all sorts of passages, rooms, and dense lines.

A red dot, representing Lin Yu and the others, was falling within the structure map.

Several yellow dots were approaching the red dot's position at high speed from all directions.

"Anything else we can do?" Xu Xiaochuan's teeth chattered, his voice squeezed from his throat.

Xiao Ya's holographic image flickered violently, becoming even more illusory: "Can… stop… the elevator…"

Xu Xiaochuan's brain buzzed: "Pursuers are coming down by elevator?"

"Yes."

"Make the elevator… jam?"

Xiao Ya's image seemed to pause, and in those blurred eyes, a hint of… cunning?

"Can… hand… press the blue board…"

Xu Xiaochuan didn't even look, freeing his other hand and slamming it hard onto a translucent, pale blue glowing square sensor board on the edge of the control panel.

"Ugh——!"

He arched his body violently, letting out a suppressed groan of pain.

A more violent, more ferocious electric current than before surged through his palm into his body, burning all the way to the depths of his brain.

His muscles twitched and spasmed uncontrollably, his vision going black.

But amidst the intense pain, an indescribable feeling exploded—his consciousness seemed to be forcibly dragged out of his body, extending infinitely, instantly merging into the cold steel veins of this building.

He 'saw' countless glowing circuit networks spread throughout the observatory, like living nerves.

He 'heard' the screeching of current surging through the pipes.

He 'felt' the elevator car where the pursuers were, descending at high speed with a heavy roar.

Then, his thought—no, Xiao Ya's thought borrowed through him—gently 'touched' that high-speed elevator control circuit.

Like throwing a massive rock into a smooth stream.

On the structure map, the yellow dot representing the elevator stopped abruptly.

——

B2 floor, a narrow equipment room beside the passage entrance.

Lin Yu dragged the nearly unconscious Xuanyuan Qing in, the two of them leaning against the cold metal wall, gasping for air.

Xuanyuan Qing's condition was terrible, her skin showing an abnormal blue-gray color, and the bandage on her severed arm had turned completely pitch black, blood still slowly seeping out.

"This floor… power distribution center…" she whispered, her voice as thin as a mosquito, intermittent. "To B3… only one way… must pass through…"

Before she could finish, a deafening metal impact sounded from the direction of the shaft overhead!

The entire equipment room shook violently, dust falling down.

Immediately after, the piercing scream of metal twisting and breaking, followed by a few short, shrill cries, all finally drowned out by a sharp alarm.

Lin Yu looked up, listening.

"Elevator," he spat out the two words, his voice flat. "Finished."

Xuanyuan Qing's breathing stalled, and she blurted out: "Xiaochuan… and Xiao Ya…"

Lin Yu didn't look back, the gun bolt clicking crisply.