Chapter 141 - 106: Underground City (2)
The group was already accustomed to Lin Kong’s extensive knowledge and didn’t doubt for a second that he was right.
"Hold on. Let’s listen to the message it’s sending first. We might learn something," Lin Kong said, quickly stopping Niu Armor.
He quickly pulled a Universal Electromagnetic Signal Receiver from his backpack.
[Searching for nearby signals...]
[Signal detected. Connecting...]
[Connection successful. Beginning playback...]
[!@)_&Y&%&￥%￥%*...&￥%]
A stream of incomprehensible words came from the receiver, leaving everyone stunned. They racked their brains, trying to figure out what on earth it meant.
"The Cosmic Universal Translator!" Lin Yan was the first to realize, reminding everyone to take out their devices.
After they put on the translators, the words coming from the receiver were finally intelligible.
"This is Xijing City with a routine broadcast: The Underground City is currently operating normally. Temperatures are stable. A slight decrease in the Earth Core temperature has been detected; the future outlook is unknown. Today, the government approved the summer harvest defense initiative, instructing the city Guard to prepare for wild animals attempting to plunder the food supply..."
It sounded like the sphere was broadcasting information about Xijing City’s affairs indiscriminately to the outside world.
None of that was particularly important. What mattered most was the crucial piece of information it revealed: "Underground City!"
"That explains it! I was wondering why we couldn’t find any life signs. Turns out they’ve been underground this whole time!" It dawned on Yuan Xiaobo.
"But how do we get to the Underground City?"
A new problem presented itself to the group.
"Why don’t we just keep digging down?" Niu Armor suggested, raising his hand.
"You?" Lin Yan shot him a look.
"Of course not! We can go back to our territory and get help," Niu Armor said, waving his hands dismissively. ’If I had to dig all the way down by myself, it’d be the death of me.’
"That’s not a bad idea," Yuan Xiaobo agreed with a nod.
"What if we try taking down that sphere?" Lin Kong suggested, looking at the orb hovering in the center of the room.
"If we take it down, maybe a maintenance worker will come up to check on it."
In the end, the group followed Lin Kong’s suggestion. They took down the hovering sphere and placed it on the floor, making it look like it had fallen by accident. Then, they ran upstairs, powered on the Life Detector, and waited.
-----------------
「The next day.」
Lin Kong was still asleep in his sleeping bag when Mirus suddenly rushed over and shook him awake.
"Lin Kong! Lin Kong! Wake up!"
"What is it?" Lin Kong mumbled, rubbing his eyes. He yawned and crawled out of his sleeping bag.
"The Life Detector is picking something up!"
Lin Kong’s drowsiness vanished instantly, and he leaped to his feet.
The others also woke Niu Armor, who had been sleeping nearby.
They all gathered around the Life Detector. Just as expected, a small dot appeared from below ground, ascended rapidly, and then stopped a few hundred meters beneath them.
"Where did it stop?"
"Looks like the ground floor. I went down there to check earlier, and the distance is about right."
"Should we go down?"
"Let’s wait. He’s probably here to check on the sphere."
"And what if he isn’t?"
"Er... then let’s use invisibility and go take a look," Yuan Xiaobo said, caught off guard. He decided they should go check it out secretly.
Mirus cast Invisibility Magic on the group. Under the cover of the spell, they all crept downstairs.
A small figure came into view. The being walking up from the lower floor was humanoid.
Its head was huge, making up a third of its total height. It was short, only about five feet tall.
It wore a thick, insulated suit and was clearly struggling to walk. The short climb up the stairs left it winded and out of breath.
He pushed open the door to the room and walked inside. Seeing the sphere on the floor, he muttered to himself, ’How did this Energy Core fall on the floor?’
He picked up the sphere to inspect it closely. ’Strange,’ he thought, ’the suspension stabilizer is clearly not broken.’
The subterranean placed the sphere into a nearby device and tapped on its interface a few times.
[Crystal-V Energy Core, diagnostics complete. Condition: Intact. No functional damage detected.]
Seeing that the communicator was indeed working properly, the subterranean placed it into another apparatus. The communicator then began to levitate on its own, rising into the air.
’How strange,’ he wondered. ’There’s nothing wrong with it, so how did it fall down?’
The subterranean couldn’t make sense of it, so he pulled up the surveillance footage to watch.
When he rewound the footage to the previous day, Lin Kong’s party appeared on the screen. The subterranean’s expression changed in an instant.
He watched the footage as Lin Kong and the others took out various instruments for their tests. After they said a few things he couldn’t make out, one of them flew into the air, removed the core, and tossed it onto the ground.
"Oh my god! They’re aliens!"
The subterranean cried out in alarm. He glanced around warily, then turned and fled.
He quickly reached the lowest level of the building.
In a corner, he activated a hidden panel, revealing a keypad.
He rapidly keyed in the password, and a large, automated staircase rose up from the floor.
What he didn’t know was that Mirus was right beside him, invisible, watching his every move and memorizing the entire sequence, including the password.
The subterranean ran into the newly risen room and pressed a few buttons. The door slowly closed, and the entire chamber retracted back into the ground.
Mirus flew out just before the door sealed shut.
"Well? Did you get it?" the group asked Mirus eagerly.
"Is that even a question? Do you have any idea who I am? I’m Mirus, the brilliant and clever!" Mirus declared, smugly flying in a few loops through the air.