r18novel Page 157
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Sui Xing's expression changed. "Why is it only half? Didn't we agree on this before?"
"Don't worry," Quaid reassured him. "It's not that we breached the contract intentionally. There was a problem at our mine that delayed production. We promise that once the problem is resolved and production resumes, we will make up the difference when you come back next time."
Shattered Star frowned and said, "General Quaid, it's not that we don't trust you. It's just that we urgently need these supplies."
Qianli stepped forward and asked, "General Quaid, did your mine encounter Earth Vines and Devouring Beasts?"
"That's not true!"
"That's strange. What kind of problem could there be underground?"
"This……"
Quaid's hesitation puzzled the group from Dragonbone Village.
Sui Xing's mission this time was to bring back the necessary supplies, so she could only ask, "What exactly did you encounter?"
Quaid hesitated for a moment at the question about Shattered Star. He said, "I need to ask the leader first before I can tell you."
Shattered Star nodded.
Quaid then turned and left for a while. When he returned, he said to the people from Dragonbone Village, "The chief asked me to take you to see him. Let's go!"
With questions in mind, the four from Dragonbone Village followed Quaid deeper into the base.
Due to limited space in the underground base, they spent most of their time walking along narrow corridors.
On the way, they passed through a relatively large space, similar to a square, where many people were active.
However, the people here all have rather numb and dull eyes.
When Jingyuan saw these people living in the underground base, he was reminded of the dust people on the lighthouse.
Jingyuan asked Qianli beside him, "This place is different from Dragon Bone Village."
Qianli whispered, "Yes! Steelflame Fortress is an authoritarian system, much like your Lighthouse!"
Jingyuan asked in confusion, "Do they also divide people into different classes? And control birth rates?"
“Nowadays, no tribe doesn’t control births. But unlike the Lighthouse, they don’t divide people into upper and lower classes. They follow the principle of survival of the fittest. As long as you have the ability, you can take the chief’s position.” Qianli laughed. “Their current chief is an Awakened One who also rose to power through force.”
Soon, they were led into a large hall.
The hall was empty. After waiting for a while, they saw a tall, white-haired old man walk over.
“Chief!” Quaid bowed respectfully to the newcomer.
"Chief Utopia!" Shattered Star bowed to the tall, white-haired old man.
"Shattered Star, Boss Bai didn't come this time?"
"She didn't come."
The old man, named Uto, sighed and said, "It happened so suddenly that we didn't know what was going on beforehand."
"Chief Uto, what exactly did you encounter?"
“We’ve encountered a very strange thing in our mine,” Uto said in a deep voice. “At first, several miners inexplicably fell unconscious. We didn’t know what had happened, so we sent another group of miners to the mine where the incident occurred, but the same thing happened again.”
"How are those miners doing?" Shattered Star pressed.
“They’re all fine! After the miners regained consciousness, we checked them and found nothing wrong. When we asked them, they didn’t know what had happened. However, whenever we send miners into the mine, they fall unconscious. So our mining operations can’t continue.”
"Have you sent any technicians to investigate?"
"Yes, but there were no results. The technicians also fell into a coma."
Hearing this, Jingyuan and the others also felt something was off.
Could there be something dirty underground?
Uto continued, "Not long ago, I sent two Awakened Ones over there..."
"They're unconscious too?"
“They didn’t fall into a coma, but they felt dizzy,” Uto said. “We suspect that something near the mine is causing a psychological attack on them.”
"Could it be a radioactive element?"
"We've conducted radioactive investigations, no!"
Uto hesitated for a moment, then said, "I'm even considering asking Boss Bai to come and take a look. One of the Awakened Ones said he vaguely heard a voice speaking to him in the mine!"
Shattered Star asked in surprise, "You suspect this is related to the ecosystem?"
"That's the only way to look at it. It can't be a ghost, can it?"
Qianli laughed and said, "The one I've ever seen that looks most like a ghost is Wumen."
"What is Wumen?" Jingyuan asked in a low voice.
The taciturn man beside him explained, "The name of the enlightened one in our village is 'No Door,' because he never needs to go through the main gate to enter a house."
"Oh!"
Sui Xing said, "All supernatural events can be explained by science. Even if ghosts really exist, could they be more terrifying than the Devouring Beast?"
Qianli suggested, "Why don't we go to the scene and see for ourselves? We'll find out if there are any ghosts then."
Uto nodded and said, "Let's go! Let's go take a look!"
Uto led them out of the hall.
After wandering around the underground base, they arrived at a place that resembled a factory.
The workers here are busy transferring raw ore, and they seem to be refining some kind of substance from the ore.
Jingyuan wanted to ask what was going on here, but the rumbling of machinery echoed around him, making it impossible to communicate.
As they walked out of the factory, they came to a huge space.
There is a huge excavated pit here, surrounded by transport lines for ore raw materials.
At the other end of the tunnel were various small mine shafts that they had dug out.
Uto led them to a vertically descending mine shaft and said with a grave expression, "This is it!"
Chapter 161 Mysterious Mine
Sui Xing and the others went forward to check, and even Jing Yuan went to take a look.
The mine shaft is very small; judging from the condition of the entrance, it can only support two people working inside at the same time.
Uto waved his hand, and several people walked up behind him. Among them were workers and awakened warriors from their Steelflame Fortress.
"come here!"
Uto first directed a worker over.
The worker looked terrified; they all knew about what had happened in the mine, so they were very scared.
But they dared not disobey their leader's orders.
The workers reluctantly put on the equipment.
Then Uto arranged for an enlightened practitioner to accompany the worker.
The Awakened One wasn't too afraid, because he knew that if he went down, he would only have a headache, but wouldn't faint like an ordinary person.
With the help of other workers, the two men put on their gear to go down into the cave and were then slowly lowered into the cave.
The hole was very deep, about 100 meters deep. The Awakener below sent a message through the walkie-talkie, saying that the worker had fallen into a coma, and that he himself was also feeling a bit of a headache!
Uto immediately asked, "Did you hear any voices?"
"No! I just have a slight headache."
Uto immediately ordered the two men to be pulled up.
After they pulled him up, the worker had already fallen into a coma, while the Awakened One was not in good condition.
After being pulled up, the practitioner said that he just wanted to sleep, and then sat down to rest.
Uto and his team had conducted similar experiments many times, but still made little progress.
Uto looked at Shattered Star and the others.
Anyway, that's the situation.
Qianli smiled and said, "It doesn't look dangerous, but I have to go down there! I'll go down first!"
“It’s best if two people go together,” said Shattered Star.
“Then I’ll go with Qianli!” Guayan stepped forward.
With the help of the workers, the two men put on their gear and were then lowered into the mine shaft.
Similarly, after being lowered about 100 meters, Qianli's voice came through the walkie-talkie.
"I definitely felt something was off here, a feeling I can't quite put my finger on!"
"I just feel a little dizzy," came the taciturn voice.
"I feel a sound in my ear..." Qianli said, "but it's very indistinct, I don't know if I'm hallucinating."
Sui Xing said through the walkie-talkie, "Since their people also heard the sound, it's probably just an auditory hallucination."