Chapter 749: The Correct Route
Lin Ye looked around. They were standing on a road, surrounded by a city, with a pure white sky above and nothing else visible.
Outside the city, there was a massive white pipeline, larger than the entire city itself, a spectacular sight.
On both sides of the road stood layer upon layer of buildings, with silhouettes standing inside them, looking down at them.
Within the shadows of those buildings, some crippled humanoid figures were curled up, wearing tattered clothes and covered in wounds all over their bodies.
A human in a protective suit lay by the roadside. Upon seeing Lin Ye and the others, he frantically waved at them.
Lin Ye didn't act in a hurry. He observed the surroundings, thought for a moment, then led the others along the road toward the outskirts of the city.
Now that he was here, he finally understood why that map was so strange. It was a map formed by splicing together the upper and lower areas.
Many people by the roadside were waving at them, calling them over, but Lin Ye completely ignored them. The map he'd traded for through the ritual was far more reliable than those strangers.
"Don't we need to check if any of them are the people we're looking for?"
Colt moved closer to Lin Ye and asked in a low voice.
"No need. Even if they are, we can't help them. If they could freely step onto the road, they wouldn't be waving at us. Let's first find the map's end point."
Lin Ye had no intention of being pulled down below the road by those people.
"...I think I can sense Little Black's location."
Ephesus suddenly spoke up.
"If it's near those buildings, we'll deal with it later. We can't go over there yet."
Lin Ye felt that something was definitely off about those surrounding buildings.
"Where are we going now?"
Wen Luo lowered her head. She felt like something inside those buildings was staring at her.
"Follow the map first."
Lin Ye quickened his pace. After arriving here, he'd developed a very bad feeling, and that feeling was growing stronger by the second.
This road cut through the city center like slicing a cake, splitting the city in half. They were moving away from the city center, nearing the edge.
As they approached the edge of the city, the buildings on both sides of the road became increasingly dilapidated. Many were empty, and the humanoid figures lying beneath the buildings had disappeared.
Just as they were about to leave the city district, a sound of running footsteps suddenly came from behind.
Lin Ye glanced back. A blood-red humanoid figure with no epidermis was charging toward them.
It was fast. Lin Ye raised his sniper rifle and fired a shot at the figure.
Bang!
The humanoid figure tried to dodge the bullet by sidestepping, but the bullet still struck its head with precision.
Because its speed wasn't faster than the sniper rifle, it could only make a evasive move before Lin Ye pulled the trigger.
Lin Ye could judge its intended actions from the changes in its body structure, so it couldn't dodge the shot.
The humanoid figure's head exploded. Lin Ye thought it would get back up and continue pursuing, but it was killed outright by the shot.
'It's dead just like that? It ran over just to die?'
Lin Ye didn't understand its purpose, and that unsettled him.
Then, several more humanoid figures rushed onto the road from both sides, charging at them.
Lin Ye raised his sniper rifle and fired four shots in quick succession, blowing up four heads.
These humanoid figures didn't get back up either. After that, no more humanoid figures charged onto the road.
Lin Ye swapped out the magazine, turned around, and continued walking toward the outskirts. Before long, they reached the end of the road.
Beyond the city was a white sandy beach. About a quarter of the giant pipeline-like structure was submerged in the sea, with large amounts of transparent seawater surging into the pipeline's interior, as if performing some kind of cycle.
"There's a small boat over there."
Wen Luo pointed toward the dock on the shore.
"Yeah. The map's end point is inside that pipeline. We can take the boat over."
Just as Lin Ye was about to step out of the city limits, the little treant that had been squirming on his shoulder suddenly lashed out at him.
"Is there a problem with that map? Should I not go there?"
Lin Ye looked at the little treant. The reason he'd made that decision was because he felt the city was extremely dangerous, and it would be better to explore the areas outside.
Coincidentally, the map's end point was outside the city, so he'd decided to follow the map's directions.
The little treant first gently touched Lin Ye, then lashed out at him forcefully.
"...There's no problem with the map, but I shouldn't go there?"
Lin Ye looked at the little treant in confusion. This time, it didn't hit him.
"But the map's end point is inside that pipeline, and the route leads from the sea..."
Lin Ye took the map back from Colt and examined it carefully again.
"Could it be that this isn't the end point? Then what is this?"
Lin Ye grabbed his hair in frustration. After a few seconds, he suddenly flipped the missing person notice over to the front side.
"So that's it. The front side is also part of the map..."
When Lin Ye had looked at the map before, he hadn't considered the front side. Just now, it suddenly occurred to him that this side and that side were the upper and lower halves, and the missing person notice also had two sides. The front side might carry some special meaning.
"If I incorporate the front side into the map... Let's go. Follow me back."
Lin Ye turned around and walked back along the road, the others following behind.
He didn't stop until they reached the city center.
In the center of the city stood a strange statue. There were no distinct markings on it, just a human-shaped outline.
Around the statue were many pitch-black holes, just like the ones they'd passed through to get here.
"We need to keep moving between the two sides through these holes, and finally enter that pipeline."
Lin Ye walked over to the hole marked on the map and jumped straight in.
The others followed him in. Since they'd come this far, they could only trust Lin Ye now.
After experiencing that sensation of the world flipping over again, Lin Ye and the others found themselves lying on the gray-white ground.
"That's right. Earlier, we couldn't find the entrance because we didn't account for the front side of the map."
Lin Ye looked around. They were back on the "front side," surrounded by those white walls.
Following the route on the map, Lin Ye quickly found a pitch-black hole. They jumped in, the world flipped again, and they landed inside a building.
Between the previous road and this building lay several other structures. Lin Ye looked up and locked eyes with the Shadow standing by the window.
"We want to pass through here."
Lin Ye tried to communicate with it. He wouldn't make the first move unless he sensed hostility from it.
Besides, it looked like a strange shadow, and he wasn't sure bullets could even hit it.