Chapter 743: Spatial Rift
"The area ahead should be the core region of this base."
Lin Ye warned as they approached without encountering a single enemy.
"It's too smooth. I suspect they've set up some kind of trap ahead... probably related to those monsters."
Colt's expression was extremely serious. He didn't believe the other side would leave behind even a single emergency squad.
"Don't worry, the famous detective won't fall into any traps."
Lin Ye looked at the silver metal door at the end of the corridor and pulled a grenade from his coat pocket.
"This door is made of special metal. A grenade can't blow it open."
A phone leaned against the bottom of the door, and a young male voice came through.
"Is the wall next to the door also made of special metal?"
Lin Ye raised his rifle, intending to shoot the phone.
"Wait! I think we can talk. You're strong, but this is my turf. If I don't want you here, you'd never have made it this far."
The young man spoke with a very confident tone.
"What do you want to talk about? I'll only give you one sentence."
Lin Ye didn't rush to attack. He had no intention of negotiating, but blowing through the metal wall wouldn't be easy—he needed to find a way past the metal door.
"I want to ask your purpose here first. If you're after that kind of cargo, we can give you higher-purity goods and even share the production channels with you."
The young man directly played what he considered his most important card.
"We don't want your damn cargo. I want all of you dead. You touched my most important... thing."
Colt emptied a magazine into the metal door.
"...You're here for those experimental subjects?"
The young man's voice was filled with shock.
"Little Black isn't an experimental subject!"
Ephesus suddenly shouted excitedly.
"I'm a detective. This lady hired me to find a black cat named Little Black. Hand over that black cat, or I'll have to go in there and kill you all."
Lin Ye noticed that the metal wall hit by the bullets only showed faint scratch marks. This space ahead was likely more tightly sealed than he'd thought.
"...You killed all those people just for a damn black cat? Are you insane?"
The young man's voice sounded somewhat broken.
"It seems that black cat isn't with you. Then you have no reason to exist. I'll go out and prepare some explosives to blow this place to bits."
Lin Ye turned to leave.
"Wait! I know where that black cat is! I can help you find it, or something else. If you blow this place up, you'll never find that black cat!"
The young man spoke anxiously, his voice loud.
He didn't think Lin Ye was bluffing. This base was a metal coffin twenty meters underground. If they sealed the entrance, they'd all be trapped here to die.
As for why there wasn't even an escape route—it had to do with the underground base's function.
"Then open the door first. I don't like talking to a phone."
Lin Ye certainly wasn't going to blow the place up—he still had an unfinished commission.
"...Fine, but you'll have to leave your weapons outside first. We won't attack you."
The young man hesitated before speaking.
"Are you kidding me? You have two choices: either let us in, or wait in there to die. There are still plenty of people inside, right? Are they willing to die with you? I'll give you five seconds. If the door isn't open in five, we walk."
Lin Ye shot the phone directly.
Just two seconds later, the metal door opened a crack.
Lin Ye approached the door alone, standing to the side as he pulled it half-open. The enemies inside didn't fire.
"Come in. We only have one squad of combat personnel left. You can enter safely."
A young man in a cyan suit stood near the entrance, inviting Lin Ye and the others inside.
Lin Ye glanced inside, then tossed the timed grenade toward the combat personnel standing nearby, and shut the metal door.
Boom!
The combat personnel didn't even have time to react before they were all knocked down by the grenade.
Lin Ye pulled the door open and used his rifle to gun down everyone in the space carrying weapons, finishing off those still alive with a headshot.
"Are you out of your fucking mind?! I said I wanted to talk to you! You have no idea what's going on here!"
The young man, clutching his right arm wounded by shrapnel, shouted angrily.
"Did you give that black cat a chance to talk?"
Lin Ye grabbed the young man's hair roughly and yanked him up from the ground.
"...I want to explain the situation here to you."
The young man, meeting Lin Ye's emotionless gaze, barely managed to speak.
"Sorry, I don't want to hear you talk."
Lin Ye drew his pistol and shoved the muzzle into the young man's eye socket.
"Wait, I want to know what happened here."
Colt grabbed Lin Ye's arm. He needed to understand what had occurred.
"You don't need to listen to his nonsense. I'm a detective. See that sealed-off passageway over there? They definitely found something inside it. That contraband came from there. Then they started grabbing people for experiments, turning innocent citizens into those monsters.
After I kill all this trash, I'll help you deduce exactly what happened here... But you should handle him yourself—I'm just a detective after all."
Lin Ye twisted the young man's arm, taking a syringe filled with pale yellow liquid from his hand, then handed the screaming young man to Colt.
"Thanks."
Colt drew his pistol and pressed the muzzle against the young man's forehead.
"Wait! Those people might still be alive! Only I can help you find them!"
The young man quickly shouted.
He was genuinely terrified of Lin Ye. He'd thought he had plenty of cards to play, enough to toy with these violent idiots to death, but when facing Lin Ye, he realized those cards were just worthless scraps of paper—useless.
Now he had to use his last trump card. If he played it right, he might still turn things around.
"...Who are those people?"
Colt slammed his head with his fist. An uncontrollable irritation surged in his chest, making it hard to breathe.
"Five years ago, we opened a spatial rift to another world here. For the past five years, we've been studying that rift and sending people to explore the world on the other side."
The young man began to recount what had happened here.