031 Past One
The car dropping a bomb, such an outrageous act, left everyone around dumbfounded.
Before they could snap out of it, the jeep also burst into red flames and exploded automatically.
Boom.
The roar accompanied by intense heatwaves, as well as some car parts blasted away, suddenly invaded the vision of everyone nearby.
The explosion lasted a full three seconds, followed by a secondary explosion, before subsiding.
Ding.
A delicate text message sound rang from Li Chengyi's phone, pulling him back from his shock and astonishment.
He quickly took out his phone.
Clearly written on the screen was: "Received a broadcast message in the area, do you want to view it?"
He was silent for a moment, unlocked the phone, opened the inbox, and accessed the message.
'This is just a small reminder.' —— From an unknown number.
Turning off the phone, Li Chengyi's expression grew somber as he looked up at the burning jeep.
"...Will it affect what's below?" he asked aloud.
Ding Chongyi, still shaken, heard the question and came back to his senses.
"After making an entrance and then throwing in another bomb, the underground is likely collapsed by now; what do you think?"
"This is destruction of evidence..." Li Chengyi's mind was still flashing back to the moment the jeep had charged close.
"Have the company's people clean up the wreckage and look for clues. Be quick, the purpose of the person behind this is probably to buy time," Ding Chongyi said with a grave voice.
"..." Li Chengyi stared intently at the still-burning car, realizing that it would be impossible to enter the Grecius Underground Garage again anytime soon.
The adversary's goal of buying time had been achieved.
And this attack had also jolted him to awareness.
In reality, he couldn't use Floral Dress; his only reliance was the Flower Language Ability, and his combat effectiveness was probably worse than a well-trained veteran.
While his Flower Language Ability was utterly unreasonable in its application, requiring just a few touches to activate, in an actual fight, he would be taken down before even getting close.
'It looks like I must figure out a way to enhance my strength in reality... Wearing Floral Dress consumes a lot of energy and is not suitable for exposure to others; it can only be used as a trump card. So the really covert and practical option is the Flower Language Ability.
I should also focus on close combat and firearms; these too should be reserved as trump cards, to decide the outcome at critical moments.'
His thoughts were still not sorted out.
Bang!
Suddenly a gunshot sounded from not too far away.
One of the little yellow hats standing on the perimeter fell at the sound, blood seeping slowly from the side of his forehead.
"There's a gun!!" The surrounding little yellow hats screamed in terror, scrambling to hide in every direction.
In just a few seconds, the ten-plus workers scattered, all running to hide behind nearby metal shacks.
Li Chengyi, dragging Ding Chongyi, sprinted to one of the metal shacks to take cover.
But before they could dial for help, a burly figure dragging another person was seen striding towards them from the distant woods.
That figure was over two meters tall, with Flat-Top hair, yellowish eyes, wearing a black T-shirt, and holding a silver handgun in one hand.
It was Song Ran!
"The person has been caught; some go out to call the police, Huang Zhisheng report to the headquarters, the rest check the condition of the tunnel, see if anything can be salvaged," Song Ran quickly gave orders upon approaching, then inspected the deceased.
"Expert Ding? Brother Cheng Yi? Are you both okay?" he asked through his AR glasses.
"We're fine," Li Chengyi breathed a sigh of relief and stepped out of the corner with Ding Chongyi, looking at the man in Song Ran's hands.
"Do you know who this is?" he glanced at the still-burning jeep above the tunnel, his mood growing heavier.
Just when they were about to go down, this unexpected incident occurred.
"Don't know; the man was already dead when caught, with a chip in the brain, which burned up instantly," Song Ran said with a cold expression, clearly annoyed.
He and Huang Zhisheng originally planned to fish for the enemy; they didn't expect the opponent to be so ruthless as to send a kamikaze attacker.
"Can the tunnel be cleared to proceed now?" Song Ran asked.
"No way. The entire original cavity structure of the garage was likely collapsed by that explosion," Ding Chongyi sighed. "If you still want to go in, we'll need to clear the rubble bit by bit; it's going to take a very long time."
"We don't have enough people here, just relying on these guys, it's unlikely we'll be able to hold off the force behind this," Song Ran spoke quietly. "Notify the boss, decide whether to give up, and see if we can figure out the details behind this power. If we don't find the mastermind, we will always be on the back foot."
Suddenly, Ding Chongyi adjusted her AR glasses, and a look of surprise appeared.
"Wait, the underground cavity didn't collapse!"
"It didn't collapse??" Both Li Chengyi and Song Ran were taken aback, and immediately turned to her.
"The detectors we installed were lucky to survive; the signals indicate no collapse. In that case, we can pretend to clean up but actually sneak in stealthily! Just show we really can't clear the debris outwardly!" Ding Chongyi said quickly. "I'll go check it out right away."
She hurried towards the tunnel, collaborating with the rest of the unsettled workers to confirm the situation at the scene.
Soon, a fortunate report came in: the underground garage was indeed intact, only a corner had been destroyed.
Li Chengyi didn't hesitate for a moment, immediately put on his gear, secured the rope, and stood at the edge of the hole, looking in.
He had to take this chance to quickly complete this exploration.
According to the intelligence, as long as he could get into the garage, it was very likely he would find a way to escape the Blind Spot!
So, for the next entry, he had to be fast!
The night was deepening; Song Ran understood the importance of the situation and took the initiative to patrol the surroundings with his men.
Li Chengyi, Ding Chongyi, Huang Zhisheng, and two little yellow hat workers, a total of five people, stood at the mouth of the tunnel.
"Are you ready?" Huang Zhisheng looked at Li Chengyi.
"Ready anytime," Li Chengyi took a deep breath and walked to the edge of the hole.
"Then let's prepare," Huang Zhisheng gestured to the other two workers.
Both individuals crouched down and opened two silver metal boxes.
Two silver-white mechanical spiders, the size of fists, immediately crawled out of the boxes.
The spiders had a rotating detection head on their backs that could spin 360 degrees.
Amid the rustling sounds, the two mechanical spiders quickly burrowed into the tunnel, their fat bellies lighting up with a bright white glow, completely illuminating an area inside the tunnel.
"Just follow the engineering spiders and be careful!", Huang Zhisheng spoke to Li Chengyi with seriousness.
"Okay!"
Gazing at the tunnel before him, Li Chengyi took a step forward, gently squatted down, and entered feet first, then carefully used his elbows to help himself move downward.
His body slowly sunk into the black tunnel, trailing behind the engineering spiders, sinking continuously within the faint glow of the white lights.
Bang!
Suddenly, gunshots erupted again from the entrance above.
"Spread out! Drag over the prepared covers, use them to block this side, and remember to leave a gap!", Ding Chongyi's voice was decisive and rapid, seemingly unfazed by the gunfire.
Li Chengyi's heart sank; he knew that an attack had come again.
He looked upward.
At this moment, he had descended more than ten meters, and the walls of the tunnel were dotted with protruding metal frameworks, making it easy to stabilize his body.
He braced his legs against one side and leaned his back against the soil wall, looking up.
At the mouth of the tunnel, a heavy metal lid was slowly closing, held by four sets of hands trying to cover the entire opening.
"Cheng Yi, we will seal off the exit. You have enough oxygen to last at least three hours, so don't worry. Make it quick! Come back immediately if you find any clues, AR will keep us connected," Ding Chongyi's voice came through his glasses.
"Understood," Li Chengyi responded.
He continued to climb downward without delay.
This time, he took off the rope tied around his waist, fastened one end to the metal framework on the tunnel wall, released his hands and feet, and dangled in mid-air, relying on the rope to descend further, section by section.
Amidst the hissing sliding sounds, the gloves on Li Chengyi's hands began to heat up from friction, and one could even smell the scorching of the leather when close.
But this way of moving was much faster than before.
A few minutes later.
The strong thin rope was almost fully extended, and the display in the AR glasses showed the current underground depth: 247 meters.
Click.
Li Chengyi's feet finally touched a soft surface of mud; he steadied his oxygen mask and, aided by the white light from the engineering spiders, surveyed his surroundings.
All around were dark soil walls, but there was a person-high black hole on the left rear side.
Cold wind blew intermittently out of the hole.
"How is the situation now?", Ding Chongyi's voice sounded in his ear.
"I'm down. The recent explosion only reached the middle of the tunnel; it's still far from the bottom. They probably didn't expect it to be buried this deep," Li Chengyi reported.
He paused, then asked, "How's it on the surface?"
"There's a master at work, Song Ran is still exchanging fire with the opposition; they have quite a few people, but Song Ran is the strongest, don't worry. I'm leading a team to guard the exit to prevent any sabotage," Ding Chongyi stated solemnly.
"Got it, I'll be quick," Li Chengyi responded.
"Be careful not to damage the engineering spiders; they have signal amplifiers on them, and our communication relies on their relay and enhancement," Ding Chongyi added.
"Understood."
The connection cut off.
Li Chengyi looked at the grayish night-vision field of view in front of him.
He unfastened the ropes from his body, took a deep breath, steadied his spirit, and turned to face the person-high black hole.
Immediately, a line of green text appeared in the field of vision: Would you like to connect to the engineering spiders and direct their movement?
"Yes."
Straight away, two small green spider icons appeared in the top right corner of the AR display.
"Connected, you can direct the spiders' movement through gestures," an additional prompt emerged, then slowly faded away.
Li Chengyi made a somewhat clumsy swipe with his hand forward.
In the field of view, the two spiders quickly scurried into the darkness, their bellies' white light illuminating a large circle of space around them.
Li Chengyi followed behind and entered the black hole, which sloped downwards as he continued to delve deeper.
After about ten meters, the space in front suddenly opened up.
The two small spiders drilled into a large cavity.
Li Chengyi quickly followed, emerging from the hole.
Hiss...
His feet touched the ground, and he exhaled a long breath of carbon dioxide.
In the clear night-vision view, he saw the eerie parking lot he had observed from the blind spot.
"Finally arrived..." He looked around, using the white light from the spiders.
The black floor was marked with white parking spaces.
A row of gray-white supporting columns.
The red maintenance doors on the right wall, spaced apart at intervals.
And the rows of old, diagonal and horizontal fluorescent tubes on the ceiling.
All of it was exactly like what he had seen in the blind spot.
The only difference was that this place was more ancient, gloomier, and damper.