Fantasy Game: Infinite City

“Crack…Crack…”

In the rubble pile inside the mine, Han Zu was cleaning up the messy rubble in some specific locations, and some low-quality ore slag. Using his ability of perspective, Han Zu discovered that on both sides of the current mine location, there were piles of rubble that had reached the top of the mine dome. In several specific locations, some things were buried underneath. Han Zu planned to dig them out and have a look. Now Han Zu was digging the location closest to it.

"Crash..."

The last larger piece of rubble was moved from its original position. The rubble pile lost its support and began to collapse at this location. A large amount of rubble began to roll towards the location where Han Zu was digging. Han Zu used his body to block the rolling rubble and waited for a while. When the height of the rubble pile gradually leveled off and stopped collapsing, Han Zu continued to dig downwards.

A few minutes later, Han Zu dug up what he had seen before, an overturned medium-sized mine cart. In the cargo box of the mine cart, an old canvas bag was buried under the rubble. Fortunately, the overturned mine cart protected the bag, so it was only half buried.

After moving away the rubble and ore slag that were pressing down the canvas bag, Han Zu took out the old canvas bag, returned to the outside of the rubble pile, and took out the overturned mine car. He turned it upside down on the ground to use it as a small table and placed the canvas bag on it.

Sitting next to the mine cart, Han Zu opened the canvas bag. There were a lot of things in it, including a dozen letters, an old-fashioned navy revolver, a small knife, an envelope sealed with wax, and some glass shards.

The dozen letters seemed to have been soaked by something, probably related to the glass shards. Some of the words on the letters were blurred and it was unclear what was written. The signatures, recipients, and handwriting of each letter were different. Judging from the words that could be seen clearly, these dozen letters should have been written by the families of some miners, expressing their thoughts and feelings for the miners. There was nothing special about them.

The bullets in that old-fashioned navy revolver had become damp and could not be fired. The barrel also seemed to have become bent from being squeezed by the rubble. It looked like a pile of scrap metal. Han Zu took some time to disassemble it and inspect it, and indeed, it could no longer be used normally.

The knife was damaged, but there was some rust on it and the blade was very blunt. It needed to be sharpened before it could be used again, or it could be wielded with brute force, but that was all. Han Zu put it away first, and planned to see if he could find a suitable ore to sharpen it after he finished searching.

The wax-sealed envelope attracted Han Zu's attention. He carefully opened the wax and took out the contents of the envelope. It was not a paper letter but a small piece of folded parchment with something written on it in sloppy handwriting. It looked like English. Han Zu spent some time translating it. From the looks of it, it seemed to be an evil plot to have someone secretly place explosives somewhere to collapse something in order to get some gold coins.

Although the handwriting on some places was too sloppy and the words could not be seen, Han Zu could roughly figure out the meaning of the parchment.

"Someone wants to hire a miner to secretly blow up the mine and defraud the insurance money? It's really old-fashioned."

There were only so many things on the parchment, and he couldn't infer any other purpose, so Han Zu put the parchment back into the envelope and planned to throw it away, but after thinking about it carefully, he put it in his pocket. It was at this time that Han Zu noticed what his current appearance was.

"What the hell am I wearing?"

Han Zu's current look is basically the same as that of a miner during the gold rush. He wears miner pants, work boots, and a sheriff's coat of the time, but he has nothing on under the coat. He only has a holster around his waist, but it's empty. The two pockets on the back of the miner pants are so big that they can fit a normal claw hammer.

Han Zu reached out and checked all his pockets. There was nothing there except the wax envelope and the parchment inside it, as well as the rusty knife and its scabbard that he had also found inside the canvas bag.

Han Zu showed a little doubt about this mixed style, but soon, he connected the useless old-fashioned navy revolver with the empty holster on his body. He reassembled the old-fashioned navy revolver and put it into the holster. After waiting for a while, he took the revolver out again. However, the old-fashioned navy revolver did not change at all and was still a piece of scrap metal.

"Dang Cang."

Han Zu threw the revolver that had turned into scrap metal on the ground, shook his head, and began to dig for other locations where he had seen objects using his perspective ability. There were not many locations, only four in total, but in order to ensure the integrity of the objects under the rubble, Han Zu's digging speed was not very fast. It took him two or three hours to dig out all the objects and move them to the side of the inverted mine cart.

Excluding the location where the canvas bag was dug out, there were not many things in the remaining three locations, basically only one or two items. Han Zu dug out a total of five things in the remaining three locations, namely a dried-up corpse wearing a miner's suit and completely turned into a skeleton, a mattock, an old-fashioned oil lamp that was well preserved for some reason, a broken explosives box containing half a box of explosives, and a lever-action shotgun with wear and tear on the barrel.

There was nothing useful on the clothes the skeleton was wearing, nor was there any information that could prove its identity, so Han Zu threw it aside. The mattock was worn out, and although it could be used, it would probably be completely damaged after a few uses. However, it was better to have it than not, so Han Zu kept it for the time being.

The fuel in that old-fashioned oil lamp had been used up and could not be lit, so it needed to be refilled. Although the oil lamp was completely useless to Han Zu, who had night vision, Han Zu liked its shape very much, so he kept it and hung it on his belt as a decoration.

That half box of explosives seemed to be the most useful at the moment. Han Zu checked it, picked out a few that could still be used, and stuffed them into the back pocket of his miner's pants. He removed the fuses of the remaining damp explosives and put them into his pocket. After all, the fuses of those usable explosives were too short, and Han Zu could only ignite them manually now and could not spray fire, so the fuses were still of some use.

As for the lever-action shotgun with a hole in the barrel, it was perhaps the most useful thing. Han Zu found a relatively neat large piece of gravel, then pressed the barrel and applied force to break the original long barrel at the hole. After a little polishing, it became a shortened lever-action shotgun. He also used the rusty knife to saw off the wooden buttstock, which could be used as a hand cannon. The rust on the knife was also worn off during the modification process, so it could be used normally. Han Zu used the knife to re-cut the empty holster on his body and put the lever-action shotgun that had been shortened into a hand cannon into it.

"Maybe I can find some bullets in these mine tunnels."

After packing up his things, Han Zu picked up a small stone from the ground next to him and threw it up casually.

"despair."

After the pebble fell to the ground and stopped rolling, Han Zu walked towards the nearest mine tunnel.

The height of the tunnel was obviously much higher than the space where Han Zu was just now. Although it was still impossible for Han Zu to stand up and walk completely straight, at least he only needed to lower his head. While walking in the tunnel, Han Zu discovered a problem, that is, his visual ability was actually also subject to some limitations.

Although his night vision and perspective abilities were not affected at all, his ultra-long viewing range was useless. Now the distance he could actually observe was almost the same as the normal person's visual distance. The limit distance of his night vision and perspective was also the same as his viewing distance. Outside this range, it was still pitch black.

However, Han Zu did not think there was anything wrong with it. Perhaps this would be a better opportunity to hone his abilities, so Han Zu continued to move forward along the tunnel in front of him and soon came to a dead end.

There were no other tunnels on either side that could allow them to continue forward. They had to either turn around and return the same way, or dig a path out manually. Han Zu used his ability of perspective to take a look, but did not find any buried space around. Just as Han Zu was about to return the same way, he accidentally noticed that there seemed to be something on the ground at the dead end.

Looking down, Han Zu discovered that it was a small section of buried mine cart track. According to common sense, no miner would build a track on a dead end, so there must be a tunnel behind the mine cart track that can lead to further progress. However, this made Han Zu feel strange, because what he saw through his ability of perspective was intact soil and gravel behind it, and there was no passage blocked by collapsed soil and gravel.

Han Zu picked up the worn mattock and began to dig at the wall where the mine cart track appeared.

"Clang!"

However, not long after digging, the worn mattock broke and turned into scrap metal. Just when Han Zu was thinking about whether to use an explosive, he found that he could actually see the passage on the back of the blocked mine car track, which he could not see before with his perspective ability.

Han Zu frowned and looked carefully again. He found that except for the place he dug out, he couldn't see through other places. Han Zu thought about it and picked up the soil and gravel that were dug before the mattock was damaged. He touched it and found a unique oil on some of the soil and stones.

Han Zu picked up a piece of stone with this unique oil on it, used it to cover his eyes, and used his X-ray vision to observe. Han Zu was unable to see the skin of his palm where he was holding the stone. He took out the knife, scraped off the oil on it, and used his X-ray vision again. This time he could see normally.

Han Zu was curious about these unique oils, but he couldn't think of what to use to store them. While thinking, he touched the old-fashioned oil lamp hanging on his waist, which had run out of fuel. So Han Zu scraped off some oil with a knife and put it into the oil lamp. He suddenly had an idea and wanted to try whether the oil could be ignited, so he stretched out his finger, lit a small flame, and gently touched the oil that had just been collected in the oil lamp.

"Crack."

After a faint explosion spark, the old-fashioned oil lamp that was filled with grease successfully lit up. Han Zu observed that this unique grease burned several times slower than normal lamp oil, but the brightness it produced was not much different from that of a normal oil lamp.

"call!"

After getting confirmation, Han Zu blew out the oil lamp and began to collect the special grease covering the soil and rocks into the oil lamp until the fuel storage position of the oil lamp was completely filled. He hung the old-fashioned oil lamp back on his waist and continued to dig the buried tunnel with his hands. After more than ten minutes, Han Zu dug up the buried position and entered the extension position of the mine car track.

Looking up, he found that the collapse of the tunnel was not caused by human beings. Part of the wooden beam supporting the top of the tunnel was rotten, which led to the collapse of the mine tunnel. Han Zu reached out and touched the location where the collapse occurred, but did not find the unique grease. This seems to indicate that although the landslide was not caused by human beings, the unique grease did not seem to be.

Continuing forward along the mine car track, after about six or seven minutes of travel, Han Zu smelled a strong musty smell, somewhat like the smell of a corpse that has decayed to a certain degree, but this smell did not seem to be from a human corpse, because the stench of the corpse was not very strong, it should be something else. Following the direction of the smell, Han Zu passed the current tunnel and entered another mine location. Near some collapsed wooden beams, he found a completely skeletonized animal corpse. The skin and muscles had basically been corroded, and the surrounding ground had changed color. Now next to the skeleton of this animal, only a small amount of hair remained on the ground. By guessing the size of the bones, Han Zu believed that this animal should be a pig.

During the gold rush, some large mines often carried animals into the mines. These animals were very sensitive to air flow. If a mine or tunnel collapsed, these animals' keen awareness of air circulation could give the miners a great chance of survival. However, having said that, in that era, the animals carried by miners were basically small animals, such as mice. Although pigs did appear, they produced some odors themselves, so they were generally not carried. Unless the miners knew that the mine might collapse and they had to stay in the mine after the collapse, they would carry animals like pigs. On the one hand, they could rely on them to find a way out, and on the other hand, they could be used as backup food to help them survive longer in the collapsed mine.

Han Zu checked the size of the skeleton. It matched the body shape, and there were many scratches on some bones. It looked like they were made with a knife. So it seemed that this mine had indeed trapped many miners when it collapsed.

"But why have I only found one body so far? And it was not far from the elevator? There were no injuries on his bones. According to common sense, he should not be buried under the rubble. Could he have been buried after being killed?"

"Clang!"

"Gulu...Gulu..."

Just as Han Zu was thinking, some noises were heard in other tunnels. Then, Han Zu heard a harsh sound of a gray pulley coming from the same direction, as if someone was moving a mine cart.

Han Zu started moving while listening to the sound. He gradually determined that the sound seemed to be getting closer and closer to him. Han Zu looked around the mine and found a tunnel entrance that was half collapsed. Han Zu walked over quickly and used the scattered rubble and soil around to block the gap that had not been blocked. Then, using his perspective ability, he began to observe in the direction of the sound from behind the completely blocked tunnel entrance.

“There’s room over here too!”

Judging from the footsteps and conversations, there seemed to be about three people on the other side.