Fantasy Game: Infinite City

"This looks like a vertical shaft dug with a laser drill, which should lead to the surface. It was probably dug by the signalman sent out by that team to deliver a message or request support."

"So, there will be other people here soon?"

"It's very likely that they have already arrived. After all, we don't know when the team that arrived at this location before us arrived. It's even possible that their reinforcements have already arrived and then left."

"Should we go up first?"

"No need, but you can remember this location. I can feel the flow of air in the shaft, which means that the person who dug the shaft must have successfully left the underground, or at least reached a location connected to the ground. This means that we can indeed get out from this location. Let's go back and see where the two blocked entrances lead to."

The location with traces of climbing found on the rock wall of the underground cave leads to a man-made vertical shaft. Han Zu saw many traces of climbing equipment on the wall of the vertical shaft. There was air circulation in the vertical shaft, and there was no corpse or blood at the bottom of the vertical shaft, which meant that the person who dug the vertical shaft successfully left this location through the vertical shaft. At least he did not die in the vertical shaft.

The two men returned to the underground cave from the bottom of the vertical shaft of the rock wall and came to the location of the building foam that was smashed by Han Zu. Han Zu walked in front, knocked open all the building foam, and opened up a space large enough for the two men to pass through and enter the cave behind.

There are many puddles of different sizes on the ground at the bottom of the cave, which look like they were formed by the seepage of underground river water. It seems that the ground at this location is very thin and may collapse at any time.

However, after stepping on it to try, he found that the ground was actually very solid. Using his ability of perspective, Han Zu saw that under the rock, there was a layer of minerals. Their appearance was very similar to gold, but they were definitely not the same thing, because Han Zu observed that the ground at this location was actually not close to the underground river. The reason why the underground river water seeped out from the ground was because these minerals were attracting the underground river water upwards, and gold did not have this characteristic.

"I feel like everything here is weird." Gloria said. Han Zu nodded, indicating that he had the same idea.

Continuing forward, the two soon left the cave and arrived at another underground cave. This cave was not big, and after searching, they found that there was only one exit, which was another underwater cave entrance that led directly to the underground river. Similarly, this entrance was also blocked, but this time the entrance was not as tightly blocked as the previous one, at least half of it was still open. Han Zu walked to the side of the rock, blocked the entrance of the underwater cave, and then burned the edge of the rock to completely block the entrance.

"Han Zu, I found something, but I don't know what it is, but it must be man-made. Come and take a look."

Gloria found some metal blocks with burn marks on the edges on the ground. They were about five or six centimeters in size. These metal blocks were very thick, about two or three centimeters. However, there was a very strange point, that is, except for the two ends being melted, the middle part did not bend.

"Logically, if the temperature can reach the point where the metal melts, it should bend even if the middle is not melted. What's going on?"

"This is a plug-in for energy weapons. It is used to dissipate heat from the barrel of a gun or cannon."

Han Zu checked the metal blocks and quickly recognized what they were. This was a special plug-in made for energy weapons that would generate extremely high temperatures when used. It was used to absorb heat so that these weapons that easily overheated could extend their combat time and reduce the efficiency of melting the barrel.

The basic principle of this special plug-in is to use a special metal. When heated, this metal will release a large amount of cooling substances. Therefore, this plug-in is generally installed near the barrel or reactor. When the energy weapon is fired continuously and is about to overheat, the temperature generated will reach the requirement for this metal to release cooling substances, so that this special metal absorbs heat and releases cooling substances to cool the overheated weapon. It can extend the use time of the weapon.

However, this special metal also has its limits. When there is not enough refrigerant in the metal, these metal blocks will begin to melt. Generally, weapons that use these special metals as cooling plug-ins will have some micro sensors and launchers installed under these metal blocks. When the sensor detects that the plug-in made of special metal blocks has reached its limit, it will automatically trigger the launcher and eject the invalidated plug-in from the weapon, just like ejecting a bullet shell.

"This special metal is usually processed twice to match the overheating temperature of different weapons. There are at least a dozen of these plug-ins on the ground, which means there must have been a fierce exchange of fire here. But don't you find it strange, Gloria? There is no trace of fighting on the rock wall near here."

"Is it possible that they encountered those transparent creatures? There were too many of them, and they didn't have time to seal the entrance to the underwater cave."

"It's possible, but I'm more inclined to believe it's not. Judging from the half skin we found earlier, those transparent creatures are not very big, and are not much different in size and width from water snakes. There are more than a dozen exhausted cooling plug-ins on the ground. This level of attack on these small enemies, even if their numbers are ridiculously large, there shouldn't be no traces of battle left on the surrounding walls."

"If that's what you said, then what exactly were they fighting against? They were so panicked that they didn't even block the entrance to the underwater cave? Is there something else in this underground river besides those transparent guys? But if that's the case, why didn't we see anything when we were in the underground river? Or were we attacked?"

Han Zu frowned after listening to Gloria's words. Indeed, if he continued to think based on the situation just now, they should have been attacked when they were drifting in the underground river. After all, those transparent creatures were very aggressive.

"It's possible that although those creatures can move underwater, they don't actually live in the underground river. It's very likely that they followed the people who arrived here earlier from the underground river. This is the only explanation I can think of for now. Otherwise, it doesn't make sense that we weren't attacked."

There was no clue about this matter for the time being, and there was no other exit in this underground cave, so the two could only put it aside for the time being and return to the original underground cave, and came to another cave entrance that was blocked by emergency construction sol.

"boom!"

After breaking through the sol, the two men discovered that behind it was a natural corridor leading obliquely upward. The walls around the corridor were covered with glowing minerals. Some of the locations showed signs of small-scale mining, which should have been left by someone collecting these mineral samples.

The two walked upwards along the inclined passage for a long time. At this moment, the scanning device Gloria was carrying sounded a reconnection prompt.

"It seems that we can receive the signal at this location. However, it is intermittent and the interference is still very serious. Han Zu, do you still have the instrument for measuring altitude?"

"Give."

After checking the height displayed above, the current height of the two people is about -3100 meters. According to the height they saw when they first arrived at the ground through the liquid column, it should be about 2000 meters higher now, which means they are still in the underground world. When the two people were observing the surroundings on the liquid column before, they had seen a place similar to a high mountain, so their current location should be inside a mountain range in the underground world far away from the place where they entered the underground river.

"How far have we come?"

"The perceived time should be at least 20 hours, but the perceived time and the actual time may have a large error, so I can't say for sure. Anyway, it's been a long time."

"If we do a rough calculation, is it possible that we have already reached a mountain range in the distance?"

"Probably."

Continuing upwards, after about half an hour, the tunnel began to gradually become flat, no longer tilted, and soon became relatively flat. The two came to a huge cave, but it also seemed to be a dead end.

"I seem to feel the flow of air. It should be over here."

Gloria followed Han Zu, and they found a rock wall with air flowing. Using his ability of perspective, Han Zu discovered that this was a gap sealed by emergency building gel. After tearing open the gel, a space appeared in front of them that was large enough for Han Zu to pass sideways. There were also many traces of friction on both sides of the inner wall at this location.

"Those people who came before should have passed through this location. I suggest you be prepared, as the scratches here are quite fresh."

Han Zu squeezed through the crack in one step and came to the other side, followed by Gloria. However, after passing this position, although Han Zu did not find the presence of other people, he found an abandoned temporary camp not far away.

"The food scraps and remaining food in cans have not rotted yet, and the ashes left by the campfire are still dry and the temperature is normal. This temporary camp has not been abandoned for long, maybe only one or two days."

"It seems like I can get out from here. I see light."

While Han Zu was inspecting the makeshift camp, Gloria walked around the cave and found a location where light was coming from, which might be an exit.

"Did you find anything in the temporary camp?"

"Just some leftover garbage, nothing of value. Did you find the exit?"

"It should be, just ahead."

After following Gloria for a minute or two, the two soon arrived at the entrance of the cave. The light shone on them. After adjusting to the light, they found that they had come from the underground cave to the halfway point of a mountain. This was a cave located in the mountain. Looking out from the cave entrance, they could see liquid columns hanging from the sky not far away, as well as flying creatures shuttling through the gaps between these liquid columns.

The surrounding environment is a mountain range, and the environment is very unfamiliar. However, when Han Zu left the cave and looked around, he still found a familiar place, which was the plain with a lake they saw at the beginning. However, they are now very far away from there, so far that even with Han Zu's eyesight, he can hardly see the lake. It is even more unknown how far away it is from the place where they first entered the underground river.

"The interference with the scanning equipment has disappeared. It should be usable now. However, we still cannot connect to the database network and cannot perform a comparison. We can only use the offline database."

After the scanning device returned to normal, Gloria immediately began scanning the surrounding environment, and the results of the scan were very rewarding.

"Unauthorized armed personnel detected, number of people scanned: 7"

"Unauthorized heavy weapons and jamming equipment detected"

"Unauthorized Power Armor Detected"

"An unknown energy reaction has been detected and the specific coordinates are being calculated."

"A large biome has been detected. The database is offline. We are switching to an offline database and looking for a comparison..."

"An abnormal radiation area has been detected"

"Unexplored energy anomaly area detected"

As soon as the scanning device was started, a series of prompt sounds rang out, which was already a bit noisy, so Gloria turned off the sound of the scanning device and searched for information that was currently useful to the two of them among the multiple items that popped up.

Among them, several projects have high priority. The first is the discovery of other people. According to the scanner, there are seven people in total, five of them are in one location and two are in another location. They are all wearing power armor, carrying heavy weapons and a lot of equipment, which may be embedded inside the power armor.

The second is that now they have obtained the detailed coordinates and three-dimensional maps of the energy anomaly areas that Han Zu had sensed before. At the center of these areas, the scanning equipment discovered an area of ​​abnormal radiation with a very high energy response inside.

"This has been logged in, but it shows an unknown energy reaction. It should be what you are looking for, right?"

"Well, that should be it. With the exact coordinates, we can plan the fastest route."

"By the way, I find those seven people a little strange. Since they are carrying so many equipment and wearing power armor, why do they need underwater breathing equipment? Aren't they the same group of people we found in the underground cave?"

"Who told you that you don't need underwater breathing equipment if you have power armor?"

"But all the power armors I saw in your base had internal breathing equipment. You don't even need those equipment yourself."

"That was a high-end item I got from Infinity. It must be of the highest specification. Ordinary power armor may not have so many devices. And now that I think about it, the broken underwater breathing equipment we found is just the right size to fit on a small power armor."

"If you put it that way, I have a new idea. These people should be related to the Feidenan family. Maybe they are their people."

"How to say?"

"After all, I worked for the family foundation before, and before I had undergone human body modification, I always used a special power armor when I went on a mission. That kind of armor would cut out a lot of unnecessary equipment, such as underwater equipment or jet backpacks."

"To ensure smallness and secrecy?"

"Almost the same, but the defensive performance is still very good, and because of its small size, it can be completely modularized, and external plug-ins can be directly installed to perform multi-functional work. However, if compared with the Infinite Company's products, I mean those high-end products in your secret base, they are not as good as expected. However, if compared with the general Infinite Company equipment, I think the Ferdinand family's power armor is better. After all, it is lightweight and highly modular."

"High? How high can the modularity of power armor be?"

"Let me put it this way. The fingers of the Family Foundation's power armor are replaceable. Each of the ten fingers can be equipped with different equipment."

"Fuck! Isn't this a plastic man's ecstasy? The head of your foundation's engineering department is not a plastic man, is he?"

"Almost. So what should we do now? Should we go find what you're looking for first, or should we go see what the situation is with those people first?"

"Let's go check on those people first. If there's really something I'm looking for in that area with abnormal radiation, I might be affected by some force majeure after I find it. If something goes wrong at this time, it won't be a good thing."

"But those seven people are divided into two groups. Which one should we go first?"

"Let me think about it..."