Chapter 748: Underground Area
A beating heart fell onto the gray-white ground, splattering into a pool of bloody pulp.
The pulp gathered toward the center, forming a small treant the size of a mineral water bottle.
The tiny treant ran to Lin Ye's feet and climbed up his protective suit to his shoulder.
"...What is that thing? Are you okay?"
Colt stared at the flesh-and-blood treant constantly writhing its body, a bit worried about Lin Ye's condition.
"This is a subordinate of an acquaintance of mine. It'll give us a hand here... probably."
Lin Ye glanced at the little treant. It just stood there twisting its body, showing no intention of communicating.
The four continued moving along the previous route, with Lin Ye leading the way. Before long, they encountered another human wearing a protective suit.
"Don't move."
Lin Ye raised his sniper rifle, aiming at the other person's chest.
"Don't shoot! I'm not one of those monsters!"
Inside the protective suit was a young man around thirty years old. He stopped in his tracks and raised both hands.
"Who are you?"
Lin Ye didn't lower his sniper rifle. He hadn't confirmed the other party's identity yet.
"I'm a citizen living in the Old City District. Those people captured me and brought me here to help them explore this area."
The young man glanced at the little treant on Lin Ye's shoulder, a look of surprise flashing across his face.
"The others all turned into monsters. How did you manage to hold on until now?"
If it weren't for the need to gather information, Lin Ye would have already pulled the trigger.
Not a single truthful word had come out of this man's mouth.
"I got lucky. Otherwise, I wouldn't have run into you folks."
The young man lowered his hands and moved toward them.
"No, you're unlucky."
Bang!
Lin Ye drew his pistol and blew the young man's head off with a single shot.
"Is he a monster?"
Wen Luo asked, somewhat startled.
"No, he's a normal person, but not a citizen of the Old City District."
Lin Ye inspected the young man's corpse and found a pale yellow syringe on the body.
"Sometimes, normal people are more dangerous than monsters."
Lin Ye stashed the syringe and continued leading the team forward.
"Hold on. I think I heard the sound of liquid flowing over there."
Ephesus pointed in a direction and spoke up.
"Then let's go take a look."
Lin Ye had nearly given up on finding survivors through the circular route. Common sense didn't apply here, and this method only led him to those monsters.
Before long, they heard the sound Ephesus had mentioned. In that area, there were some exposed underground drainage channels.
Channels of varying widths contained dark, semi-transparent liquid flowing through them. Over a dozen humans in protective suits lay sprawled inside the channels, their entire bodies submerged in the liquid.
"...Is this where those monsters are produced?"
Colt stared at those protective suits soaking in the water, hoping the person he was looking for wasn't among them.
All the protective suits were submerged in the liquid, making it impossible to see what was inside.
"Hard to say. We can pull one up and take a look."
Lin Ye took out a rope, fashioned a lasso, then looped it around the calf of one protective suit and hauled it up from the channel.
The protective suit wasn't empty, nor did it contain a normal human corpse. Instead, it was packed full of some kind of constantly writhing, fleshy structure.
Those protective suits still soaking in the liquid began to tremble violently, all of them crawling out of the channels.
The protective suit lying on the ground suddenly leaped up and lunged at Lin Ye and the others.
Thud!
Lin Ye fired directly, sending the charging protective suit flying back into the channel.
But more protective suit monsters had already crawled from the channels onto the ground, looking highly aggressive.
Lin Ye had already led the others a good distance away from those channels.
Just as Lin Ye was about to move away from this area, he suddenly noticed that the layout of the channels seemed to resemble parts of the graphic on that map.
Lin Ye retreated while shooting down the approaching protective suit monsters. With Colt providing support on the side, these creatures couldn't get anywhere near them.
After some time, Lin Ye and the others successfully killed all the protective suit monsters.
"These channels seem to overlap with parts of that map. I need to study this area."
Lin Ye approached the channels and spent a few minutes finally deciphering the map.
"...It looks like most of the area on this map is beneath these channels... We need to find a way into the underground area to reach the Finish Line on the map."
Lin Ye gazed at the pitch-black, bottomless liquid in the channels. The map didn't indicate how to enter the underground area. It wasn't like they could just jump straight in.
"...Are these protective suits waterproof?"
Colt took the map. He didn't want Lin Ye and the other two to keep risking their lives with him.
"For a short time, maybe. But staying soaked in it for too long is another story. Besides, this liquid isn't tap water."
Lin Ye glanced at those protective suit monsters. Their transformation might have something to do with this liquid.
"These people probably floated up from below, right? Then there must be a passage down there somewhere."
Wen Luo made a guess.
"You're right. Let's first walk a full circle around the chasm. If we can't find a passage down, then we'll consider swimming down from here."
Lin Ye grabbed Colt, who was about to jump into the channel. The situation inside the channel was unknown, and going down from here was far too risky.
"...Alright."
Colt could only follow Lin Ye's advice.
The four returned to their original route and continued circling. After only five minutes of walking, they discovered a pitch-black hole in the ground not far ahead.
From within the hole, the faint sound of flowing water could be heard.
"This is the passage to the underground?"
Colt felt that going down from here was even less safe than swimming down through the channels... not that he knew how to swim.
"We have rope. We can climb down and take a look."
Lin Ye handed one end of the rope to Colt and tossed the other end into the hole. Then, gripping the rope, he began descending into the depths of the cave.
The cave was extremely deep, completely devoid of light. All he could see was a white opening above; everything around was pitch black.
When Lin Ye reached a certain depth, a powerful pulling force suddenly yanked him, along with the rope, deep into the cave.
The pull was so strong that he couldn't resist at all. He could only adjust his posture midair to prevent a nasty crash landing.
Thud.
Lin Ye hit the ground. Right beside him was the opening he had fallen out of. The moment he left the opening, he felt as if the entire world had flipped upside down.
Colt, Ephesus, and Wen Luo also tumbled out of the opening, landing beside Lin Ye.
None of them were injured. That flip had negated their falling speed.
"We got dragged down by the rope! Is this underground? I can't make sense of the direction anymore."
Colt struggled to his feet from the ground, shaking his head.