Chapter 270 The Rat in the Road

  Under the guidance of Johns, Chi Yao and others quickly arrived at the location of the fast passage.

What appeared before Chi Yao's eyes was a deep cavity. A layer of mechanical skeleton had been laid inside the cavity. A huge square iron box was firmly stopped in front of everyone, bound by several iron chains.

What Tonino Harvey called a fast passage was actually something like an elevator. The miners dug straight tunnels between the various hub towns and installed mechanical devices that could move up and down.

Johns waited until everyone entered the elevator, then operated the mechanical interface on the side to start the elevator.

Buzz——

Squeak, squeak, squeak——

The elevator moved downward, accompanied by the roar of machinery and the sound of friction between steel, and a strong sense of weightlessness came over me.

In One Piece, a world where ordinary people have supernormal physiques, elevators run several times faster without having to consider the feelings of the passengers.

For the sake of stability in the underground mine, the three sections of elevators were built separately. Long-distance voids are prone to landslides, so Chi Yao and others need to take three elevators to reach a depth of 600 meters.

Ding Dong——

The elevator reached the second-floor hub. As the iron door opened, a bell rang to alert the passengers. Johns led everyone to the next elevator with ease.

After some twists and turns, Chi Yao and others arrived at the town of the fourth level, which is 600 meters deep.

Because Johns' team had already brought their equipment in advance, they did not need to resupply in the town and went straight into the depths of the mine.

Easley walked at the front wearing a round headlamp, holding a special steering dial and map in his hands, and began to fulfill his role as a pathfinder to find a suitable diving route for everyone.

Jack and Babbitt were walking together, side by side, but their expressions were completely different.

Jack had an excited expression on his face, holding a cylindrical object in each hand. Judging from the appearance and smell, these cylindrical objects were probably explosives.

Babbitt had a sad face, bent over with his hands folded in front of him, and seemed a little scared.

Chi Yao and Tonino Harvey were protected in the center of the team, while Johns, as the captain of the team, was at the back.

While walking in the tunnel, Chi Yao also spread his perception. He did not expect to rely solely on the detection capabilities of this mining team.

Due to being deep underground, the range of wind perception was compressed a lot. Chi Yao sensed the airflow while also sensing the vibrations of the earth. This way of sensing vibrations was quite sensitive in an environment like underground where the earth element was dense.

Currently, the range of vibration perception is larger than that of airflow perception. The maximum range is approximately a circle with a diameter of 400 meters. Of course, if the distance is too far, the sensitivity of perception will also decrease.

With the dual perception of airflow and vibration, Chi Yao can even present the distribution of the surrounding tunnels in his mind, as if he had turned on a "map cheat".

After Chi Yao learned about the map situation around him, he did not say anything. There was no need to expose his abilities directly, so Chi Yao planned to see the abilities of the Pathfinder Isley first.

And Isley's performance was no less than that of the Ace Miners Team. The diving routes he chose were almost all the optimal routes, and he tried his best to choose flat and complete channels.

And avoid some underground creatures, such as troll moles, rock-armored earthworms and other underground creatures that are not easy to deal with.

These underground creatures are not actually very strong, but they have extremely strong digging abilities and can easily cause local tunnel collapses, which is quite dangerous for ordinary mining teams.

As Chi Yao and his companions went deeper underground, he could even feel that the temperature of the surrounding environment had risen a lot, which meant that they were about to approach the high-quality Yuanyang Stone ore vein area.

The expressions of Jack and Babbitt in the team became more and more obvious. To put it simply, in Chi Yao's eyes, they were a combination of "Junkrat" and "Vigus".

Babbitt felt the temperature rising, with a look of despair on his face, and he was still mumbling negative words like "I'm going to die" and "What a trouble".

There seemed to be gunpowder residue on Jack's afro hairstyle. As the temperature around the tunnel rose, sparks appeared and a faint smell of burnt protein was wafted.

Jack smelled the burnt odor and took a few deep breaths of air with a puzzled look on his face.

"Huh? What's burning? Oh! It seems to be my hair!"

Jack seemed to react and immediately used his hands to extinguish the sparks above his head.

Chi Yao couldn't bear to watch it anymore, and immediately reached out to stop Jack's action, because Jack was still holding the cylindrical explosive in his hand, and if the sparks on his head touched it, it would be a big problem.

Chi Yao couldn't help but speak.

"Captain Johns, is this normal for Jack and Babbitt?"

Johns walked up from the end of the team and slapped his hands on Jack and Babbitt's heads, extinguishing the sparks and restoring the two to normal.

"Hey! Jack, Babbitt, hold on, we haven't reached our destination yet!"

Johns then dragged the two behind him and bowed to apologize to Chi Yao.

"I apologize for the behavior of my players and I will manage them well."

Tonino Harvey did not say much. He knew something about Johns' team. After all, it was the strongest mining team he had. As long as Johns' team could continue to complete the work and dig out high-quality round yang stones, some minor personality problems of the team members could be tolerated.

Isley just looked back and found that there was no conflict in the team, so he continued to lead the way.

"Hmm?" Suddenly, Chi Yao sensed that a creature had entered his range of perception. It seemed to be a giant mole. It was digging a hole to move, and its digging path was exactly in the direction that Isley was heading.

Chi Yao narrowed his eyes and did not warn anyone. He just wanted to see the situation of the underground creatures and how Johns' team would deal with them, and this giant mole happened to come to his door.

After Isley continued to lead the team forward for about a hundred meters, he seemed to notice something unusual and immediately raised his hand and gestured for everyone to stop.

Then Easley immediately bent down and listened attentively in the tunnel, as if he was listening to some sound.

About two minutes later, Isley stood up and faced Chi Yao and the others, still with that expressionless look on his face, and spoke.

"There is movement ahead. Based on my experience, it should be a female giant mole. It is digging a tunnel, but it is on the path we must pass through."

"Johns, what are you going to do?"

Johns frowned when he heard what Easley said.

"Troll Mole? This is a bit troublesome. Can we take a detour?"

Easley shook his head and said.

"This is the best route I have chosen. If we take a detour, the distance will be very long and we will spend several times more time on the road."

Hearing "it takes several times longer to get on the road", Tonino Harvey immediately gave the order.

"Then don't take a detour. We need to reach the area of ​​the fire ants as soon as possible. Keep moving forward. If this little mouse dares to block the way, kill it!"

Tonino Harvey, the eldest prince, has spoken, and Johns can only act according to Tonino Harvey's will.

Easley nodded, turned forward, and continued to lead the way.

Johns looked back at Jack and Babbitt and said.

"Then keep going, Jack, Babbitt, get ready, it's time for you to contribute."

Jack chuckled and raised the dynamite in his hand.

"Hey, I can't wait to blow something up!"

(End of this chapter)