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"Survivor!? How did he get out!?" Li Chengyi's spirits lifted as he quickly asked.
"He was rescued, found by the official earthquake rescue team. By the time he was discovered, he was already mentally disturbed. If it weren't for the name you provided, we really wouldn't have been able to find him. Hold on, let me look. The company is also investigating!" Ding Chongyi's signal was much better, indicating a significant difference between inside and outside the crevice.
While waiting, Li Chengyi remained vigilant, cautiously observing his surroundings.
Soon, Ding Chongyi's voice came through again.
"There's very little information on this person; it seems to have been processed. But... hold on, found it! I found the address! You can come out now, he's still alive! This could very well be the single most important clue to breaking out of the Grecius core!" Ding Chongyi quickly said.
"Alright, I'm coming out immediately!" Li Chengyi, invigorated, quickly jogged in the direction from which he had come.
Something about this place always felt off to him, and the sudden and unexplained disappearance of the engineering spider only intensified his unease.
Better to get out first.
"Hurry up, Song Ran hasn't come back yet, and we've lost contact. I suspect he was deliberately lured away. You..."
Suddenly, a deafening explosion interrupted Ding Chongyi's words.
AR communication was filled with buzzing, and nothing else could be heard.
After several seconds, the buzzing gradually subsided.
"Quick, quick, quick!! Get up here, someone's going to blow up the tunnels!!" Ding Chongyi's voice came through intermittently, with an edge of panic, as if the signal was severely interfered.
Li Chengyi's heart sank. The prolonged tension and physical activity had nearly soaked through his undergarments.
But over a month of training had made him no longer as fragile and easily exhausted as before.
Fortunately, this time, he didn't encounter any trouble as he left.
He quickly exited the Grecius Parking Garage and returned to the vertical shaft that had been drilled initially.
Securing the rope around his waist again, he gave a thumbs-up gesture in his AR vision.
Hiss.
The rope began to retract automatically, pulling him upwards.
Click.
Suspended in mid-air, Li Chengyi suddenly heard a crisp snap from below him.
He swiftly looked down.
Right at the mouth of the dark hole, a pallid human hand was grabbing the remaining engineering spider and slowly pulling it back into the hole.
The white light went out.
At this point, both engineering spiders had gone missing.
Li Chengyi's pupils constricted; he clenched his teeth, not making a sound, allowing the rope to continue pulling him upwards.
He didn't know what that hand was or whether he could handle it. The priority wasn't to fight whatever unknown was lurking in the darkness, but to get to the surface as quickly as possible.
Without the spiders' light, darkness surrounded him; only the faint green indicator lights on the AR blinked on and off.
*
*
*
The surface.
Two machines at the construction site were emitting thick black smoke, clearly having been wrecked in the recent explosion.
This time, the damage to the excavation machinery was much more severe than before. The tracks were blown off, and the metal casing on the side of the machines was deformed.
The construction site was desolate. Several corpses of little yellow hats lay scattered, and in addition, there were a few bodies of gunmen dressed in ashy clothes and wearing duckbill caps.
Apparently, the attackers hadn't come out unscathed either.
The remaining living were hiding in various corners.
The only activity was the occasional gunfire and the sound of impacts in the distance, interspersed with roars and shouts.
Ding Chongyi hid behind a corrugated iron shack, peering out with the help of some weeds.
The sun was setting, completely sinking below the horizon.
The only bright clouds in the sky were the sole source of light.
Around the construction site, several gunmen in gray, all wearing duckbill caps and black masks, were closing in.
The leader was bulky, wearing dark blue AR glasses, carrying a dagger in one hand and a flaming red pistol in the other, with dusky skin and dreadlocks, looking very flamboyant.
"Damn it! So many guns!? Why is this place so chaotic!?" Ding Chongyi felt a chill run down her spine.
This could only happen in Yi Country; in White Star, the company wouldn't have been suppressed by these local gunmen.
Such a seemingly brash but actually foolish approach to closing in could easily be dealt with by a single elite marksman.
But unfortunately, the only person close to being elite, Song Ran, had been led away by another group and had lost contact.
"Trouble!"
Unconsciously, Ding Chongyi glanced toward the tunnel. Li Chengyi should be ascending, and if he happened to run into this group upon emerging...
"Someone's outside, be careful. They've got guns!" She hurriedly whispered into the AR.
After the warning, she began to back away.
Some ARs had infrared detection capabilities, and she was well aware that continuing to hide was not a solution. It was time to retreat.
Without delay, she began notifying the little yellow hat workers nearby via AR to evacuate.
At that moment on the construction site:
The dirty-dreadlocks fat man looked around to confirm there was no more movement and then let out a sneering laugh.
He tugged at the large pearl necklace around his neck, scanning the surroundings.
"Wigel acts quickly and has strong abilities; I can't compete with him, nor do I wish to. He doesn't understand that being a boss's favorite for getting the job done is what's most important, not just killing. Without this, he'll always be just a thug."
"Genan big brother is wise," a nearby gunman said with a smile, "Looks like everyone has run off. The machinery is also blown up, so we're in the clear now, right?"
The dreadlocked fat man looked around, glanced at the site of the tunnel, and said:
"Almost done, the foreign dogs have run off too, let's pull out."
They had dropped a bomb in the tunnel before, which should have caused a collapse. Shouldn't be a big problem.
Taking a deep drag on his cigarette, he exhaled a large smoke ring and stamped it out on the ground.
"Retreat, mission accomplished, time to get our reward from the boss!"
The surrounding gunmen immediately started to whoop and cheer.
A group fired a few shots into the sky in a release of tension before turning and walking away into the distance.
Before long, their figures had scattered, vanishing into the nearby palm groves.
The construction site fell silent and empty, with Ding Chongyi and the little yellow hats also quietly retreating from the other side.
About two minutes later.
A corpulent figure reappeared on the construction site, it was the leader, the filthy braided fatty.
Wearing AR glasses, he scanned the surroundings repeatedly, only slowly lowering his gun and starting to back away when he was certain no one was hiding.
After retreating a few meters, his gaze settled on the pit once more, ensuring there was no movement.
Only then did he turn back around and walk into the depths of the forest.
Click.
Suddenly.
The fatty's shoe soles made a piercing sound as he spun around and dashed towards the pit. His hand pulled a homemade grenade from his waist, pulled out the pin, and tossed it into the crack in the ground.
"You think I didn't see you?? Idiot! Die!" His face full of flab twisted into folds of vicious smiles as he hurled the grenade.
The black spherical grenade flew out of his hand, spiraling towards the pit's crack.
The patched grenade, rough to the touch, was like a dark mangosteen rolling in mid-air, spinning, its indicator light starting to flicker green before gradually turning red.
Clang!
In an instant, the cover of the pit was violently knocked open.
A purple shadow burst through the cover, deflecting the grenade, and with a speed beyond the imagination of ordinary people, slammed into the fatty with a boom.
Boom!!
The grenade exploded in mid-air, turning into a red fireball.
Under the firelight.
Li Chengyi's right hand grasped the fatty's neck, smashing him to the ground.
Thump!!
He forcefully dragged the fatty's head along the ground, gouging out a yellow trench.
"Who!?" The fatty Genan, his head covered in blood, was dazed from the impact, his eyeballs nearly popping out of their sockets.
Before him loomed a strange humanoid figure clad in sinister purple-black armor.
The armor was etched with circuit-like floral patterns all over, with fine purple-black spikes on the shoulders, elbows, and hands.
The helmet covered the entire face in full protective style, leaving not a bit of skin exposed.
"Reinforced Human! A fully transformed Reinforced Human!!" Genan growled out in terror.
Bang!
A gunshot erupted in the distance, a bullet sparking off Li Chengyi's back armor before ricocheting away.
He suddenly grasped the fatty by the throat, lifted him up, and used him as a shield as he charged out.
Bang! Bang! Bang!!
With a burst of speed, he rushed into the forest behind him, and a figure of a gunman in gray appeared in his view, raising a gun to shoot.
In the gunman's terrified, contorted eyes, the reflection of a purple-black metallic monster loomed closer and grew larger.
Thump.
A sharp arm pierced the gunman's chest, exiting from his back.
All fell silent once again.
Li Chengyi stiffened for a moment, then slowly straightened up, withdrawing his hand and casually wiping it on Genan's face.
"Sorry... I just wanted to knock you out..."
He stood in the clearing, watching the gunman slowly collapse in front of him, a complex feeling brewing inside him.
He didn't want to kill. Truly.
He had really only intended to knock the man out with a blow.
But the enhanced armor had amplified his speed too much. He only had to raise his hand halfway when it reached the man's chest, and then, just like that, it went through...
'Good thing I still have one left.' Li Chengyi felt fortunate that he had not been too harsh earlier, allowing him to interrogate this one and discover the mastermind behind the scenes.
He picked up the other fatty, Genan, whom he was holding.
But... Genan's head lolled to one side, his eyes turned white, and his mouth was frothing with blood; he was already gone.
His entire neck had been completely broken due to the abrupt high-speed stop.
Li Chengyi fell silent. He loosened his grip and let the corpse fall to the ground.
"Now, what to do?"
He felt somewhat at a loss...
After evolving, the Floral Dress still consumed a lot, but his physical and mental strength had also increased. This boost seemed not only due to his training but also because the Floral Dress itself was enhancing him in some way.
At least for now, he felt he could wear it for at least another twenty minutes without issue.
Bang.
Gunshots echoed from afar once again.
'A fully transformed Reinforced Human... I do look the part in this.' Li Chengyi turned to the direction of the gunfire.
'Maybe I can continue to pose as a Reinforced Human in the future?'
He walked towards the direction of the shots.
"Forget it, since I've already taken action, I might as well clean them all up."
He just wanted to find a way out before entering the Blind Spot again.
Such a simple purpose.
And anyone who tried to stand in his way.
No matter who it was, they had to die.