Fantasy Game: Infinite City

"Boom~~"

Just before the monster in the water approached Heidi and the researcher, a roar coming from the distance outside the hole in the wall attracted the monster's attention. The monster changed direction and swam out of the building through the hole.

Soon, the monster turned back and let out a low roar. The largest male monsters moved and followed it out of the building through the hole. Judging from the suddenly accelerated footsteps, they seemed to be running quickly in the direction of the sound.

The decrease in the number of monsters gave Heidi and the researcher a chance to escape. While there were no monsters paying attention around, Heidi carried the researcher and quickly climbed up the ramp, quietly moving away from the pool of water filled with monsters, and caught up with the exploration team through the narrow passage.

"Thank you..."

After returning to the team, everyone breathed a sigh of relief. The researcher also expressed his gratitude to Heidi. For safety reasons, the team immediately set off and continued to move upwards. When they reached a fork in the road, it was relatively safe, so the team finally stopped and rested.

"The communication signal with the rescuers has increased a lot. The rescue should be getting closer and closer to us. At this rate, they should be able to find us soon."

The exploration team gathered together. The leader took out a communication device and whispered a good news to the team members in a low voice so as not to attract the attention of the monsters. This made the team members relax a lot.

Heidi was holding the scanner that the researcher had given her and was scanning the fork in the road in detail. Through the model restored by the scanner, Heidi learned that the place where the fork in the road was located should have been an elevator shaft for a large elevator before it was completely abandoned.

The fork in the road ahead is divided into upper, lower and left sides. The upper side is the elevator shaft that leads directly to the top floor of the building. However, the lift platform has been rotten to no avail at this time. Even if the lift platform is here, it is estimated that it cannot be used.

Heidi walked to the elevator shaft. Through the broken gap, she could see that there was no shelter above the elevator shaft. She could clearly see the heavy rain outside. According to the scanner, they were about 100 meters away from the top of the building and 70 meters from the ground. At this height, although the remaining soldiers, including Heidi, could use the auxiliary armor to climb, the researchers were completely unable to do so. Even with the help of the soldiers, the heavy rain that could corrode flesh and blood into dry bones in an instant would kill everyone. This route was obviously ruled out.

Returning to the fork in the road, Heidi told everyone in the team the information she had obtained. At the same time, the soldier who went to investigate the fork on the lower side also returned here. According to his description, there was no way to advance on the fork on the lower side.

The fork in the road below is composed of stairwells and several collapsed rooms. Since it is a road formed by the collapse of multiple rooms, the team has no obstacles in passing. However, at the end of the lower passage, there is a giant metal gate with a completely rusted opening device. Although it can be opened with the help of the cutting device of the auxiliary armor, it will take at least two hours and will also make a lot of noise.

As the rainstorm got heavier, the water at the bottom of the building was also rising slowly. Even if all the soldiers cut a position at the same time, they couldn't open the giant metal gate before the water rose to a fatal position. Not to mention, when the water was connected to the pool of water in the previous room, more monsters would come here to lay eggs, and there were still a large number of monsters outside rushing here.

After exchanging information with other soldiers, Heidi went to the fork in the road on the left. Heidi found that the fork in the road on the left was a huge ventilation duct, which even allowed Heidi to walk normally inside. It was dark inside and there was a bad smell.

She turned on the night vision goggles built into her helmet and cautiously entered the absurdly large ventilation facility. It seemed that because it was located in the middle of the room and the passage, the huge ventilation duct was not severely corroded, so there was at least no problem passing through it normally.

Continuing forward, Heidi saw some dark stains at a corner. Through the scanner inside the helmet, she was able to confirm that the dark stains were some blood that had dried for a long time and hair that had long been dried. She walked forward cautiously and suddenly heard a faint sizzling sound.

She stopped and looked around carefully, and found a skeleton in the corner. The skeleton was wearing a uniform that she had never seen before, but it was already tattered. In his skeletonized hand, he was holding a unique device, and the sound he heard before came from this thing.

Heidi didn't rush to take the device away. She first used the auxiliary system inside the helmet to take a few photos of the skeleton, and then began to observe carefully. The skeleton's other hand covered his abdomen. From the gaps in the torn uniform, it can be inferred that the skeleton's fatal injury should be an open wound in the abdomen, but it has long been a skeleton, so there is no way to confirm it.

Heidi used the scanner to scan the skeleton's entire body, wrote down the data, picked up the device in the skeleton's hand, and prepared to study it. Through observation through the scanner, it can be determined that although the device is now unusable, it is not completely damaged and can still be repaired. Heidi decided to take it away first. If she can successfully leave alive, she can hand the device over to the people at the headquarters.

Heidi put the device into the storage compartment on the auxiliary armor and continued to move forward along the ventilation duct. After walking for a while, she suddenly felt a stream of air blowing towards her from the front.

Heidi quickened her pace and came to the direction where the air flow came from. She found that this was a vertical shaft with a metal ladder. The space was large enough to accommodate two people at the same time.

Although some sections of the metal ladder were damaged, it did not affect climbing and ordinary researchers could pass through normally. Heidi prepared herself and climbed up the ladder carefully.

A few minutes later, when she reached the top through the vertical ladder, she found that there was a vent. After removing the iron bars of the vent, Heidi left the vent and was surprised to find that it was a huge room buried under the terrain. There was a huge hole in the ceiling of the room. Standing under the hole, she could see that the hole was formed by the collapse of the floor. And there were several layers of such holes.

Heidi used the jet pack on the auxiliary armor to pass through the holes in the ceiling. She was surprised to find that these rooms were swallowed up by the terrain outside the building and buried underground, so they were blocked on all sides. The only passage was these holes. The monsters she had seen before did not have the ability to climb walls. In other words, Heidi finally found an absolutely safe place.

Arriving at the top of the hole, there is a huge room. Although the decoration inside has been rotten and cannot be distinguished, through the restoration of the scanner, it can still be roughly analyzed that this should have been a large rest area or something like that.

On the other side of this huge room was a wall made of special glass. The original glass had long since broken into pieces, leaving only an empty frame. The lower two-thirds was buried in the soil, and the upper third was exposed, with air blowing in from there.

Using the jetpack to pass through the gap, Heidi came to a rock cave formed by terrain collapse. The cave was an upward dirt ramp. Walking along the ramp all the way to the cave entrance, Heidi finally saw the outside world again - a ruined building shrouded in heavy rain and half buried by the terrain.

Due to the unique terrain structure outside, the highly corrosive rainstorm would not flow back through the cave, and Heidi finally found a way out.

A glimmer of hope surged in Heidi's heart. Perhaps this was the only way for them to escape from the predicament. After resting for a minute, Heidi immediately turned back and prepared to reunite with the team.

After a while, Heidi rushed back to the team and told everyone in the team what she had found. After hearing this, everyone breathed a sigh of relief, and the hope of survival gave everyone strength again. They set off immediately, and everyone carefully passed through the ventilation duct and came to the huge room. Then, with the help of the soldiers wearing auxiliary armor, it took some time to reach the location of the cave through the hole in the ceiling.

When they finally reached the cave entrance and saw the sun again, everyone felt extremely relieved. However, they were not completely out of danger, as the rainstorm was still raging outside and there were traces of monsters in the distance. But hope had been ignited in their hearts, which eased the mood of the team.

For safety reasons, after discussion among everyone, the exploration team did not choose to camp in the cave on the ground, but chose a layer below the cave. This location would not be flooded by rainwater, would not be attacked by monsters, and could be evacuated from both directions at any time.

The remaining soldiers were divided into two groups. One group stayed with the exploration team to protect their safety, and the other group chose to stay in the cave above, setting up a simple communication group to try to contact the headquarters and rescue personnel, while also being on guard against possible monsters.

Heidi and the team leader are in the cave above. They are trying to contact the headquarters and rescuers through a simple communication group. The headquarters cannot be contacted for the time being. The signal interference is still too frequent, and an effective communication channel cannot be established. Although the rescuers cannot be contacted for the time being, the rescuers' signals are slowly approaching their location.

"Boom!"

"Crash..."

"boom.."

Amid the noisy thunder and lightning, and the pouring rain, the soldiers guarding the cave, including Heidi and the person in charge, did not know if it was an illusion, but they all heard another sound. The sound was far away, but very clear, and it seemed to be the sound of an explosion caused by something.

"According to the signal from the communications team, the explosions seem to be coming from the direction of the rescue team. Are they in danger?"

"Not sure, but I hope not."

Heidi, a survivor who originally belonged to the main combat team, is still a recruit. However, due to unexpected events, she has now become the leader of the remaining soldiers. In addition, she had previously risked her life to successfully rescue a lone researcher, which made the other members of the exploration team have a lot of good feelings for her. Heidi, who has no command experience at all, has to seek advice from the person in charge.

"Don't be nervous, just do your part and help others if you can."

Heidi nodded, and with the help of the person in charge, after checking the team's situation again, Heidi planned to take a few soldiers to search the lower space, which was also relatively safe, to see if they could find anything useful that could help the team build a temporary defense position or something like that.

Heidi led several soldiers to the lower space, where the light was dim and the air was filled with a damp smell. They groped their way forward cautiously and found a lot of relatively solid building debris in one location. Heidi organized the soldiers to carry the building debris back to the upper cave and began to build a temporary defense position.

With everyone's joint efforts, fortifications gradually took shape. With fortifications, even if monsters attacked through the cave entrance, they could rely on fortifications to safely resist for a long time.

The heavy rain outside not only showed no signs of stopping, but it was getting heavier and heavier, even producing a large amount of water mist, blocking the view outside. Fortunately, although the water mist was also corrosive, the auxiliary armor could still withstand it. Heidi asked a soldier to send the team leader back to the lower camp, and she and the other soldiers stayed here.

"boom."

Amid the noisy rainstorm, Heidi and the soldiers heard the explosion again. This time the sound was closer to them. Through the communication team, Heidi could also see that the rescue team's signal was approaching here. Now it can be preliminarily judged that the sound of the explosion should have come from the rescue team.

Heidi operated the communication group and tried to establish contact with the rescue team again. Although there was still huge interference, this time they were able to successfully contact the rescue team.

"Zizi..zizi..monsters..group! Zizi..zizi..retreat..zizi..hide..zizi..defend! Zizizi..."

Before Heidi could speak, the other party sent a message first, but the interference was still very serious. Heidi couldn't hear what the other party said at all. But judging from the few characters that could be heard clearly, the other party should have encountered a group of monsters, and those explosions should be the rescue team fighting the monsters.

"Heidi, from the tone of voice, it seems like they are talking to us. Is the rescue team asking us to retreat or hide temporarily?"

Heidi thought about it and proposed the worst possible scenario.

"Maybe the rescue team wanted to tell us that a group of monsters are moving in our direction and we should evacuate our current location... But the communication interference is too severe, so I can't confirm it."

"Then we can only prepare for the worst-case scenario."

Heidi gave orders to the soldiers who were guarding the cave with her, asking them to be prepared and ready to defend at any time. At the same time, she asked a soldier to inform the exploration team on the next level of the news and possible dangers.

After the messenger left, Heidi also took out her weapon and came to the temporary fortifications. She looked closely at the cave entrance and kept a close eye on the movements in the heavy rain outside through the observation device in her helmet.

“Boom…Boom…”

Nearly ten minutes later, everyone felt the ground shaking, and soon, they heard a lot of noisy and dense footsteps, and that sound was definitely not coming from humanoid creatures. As the frequency of the ground shaking became louder and louder, and the sound was getting closer and closer, all the soldiers guarding the cave entrance couldn't help but get nervous.

"Boom!"

A huge flash of lightning split the sky, briefly illuminating the darkness of the rainstorm.

“Oh my god…”

A strong sense of despair suddenly surged into the hearts of all the soldiers. In this brief moment of brightness, they saw countless densely packed silhouettes of varying sizes in the rainstorm.

There were at least thousands of monsters approaching the cave. Judging from the increasing vibration of the ground, their number might be far greater than what the soldiers had observed.

"Keep calm! Never fire first!"

"Yes!"

Everyone lowered their bodies and prayed silently in their hearts, hoping that the huge group of monsters would not discover them.