"What do you want?" Qingyi fought back the urge to vomit, her voice taut as a string. She secretly tightened her wrists, feeling the structure of the restraints' buckle—an old-fashioned mechanical gear lock! She had undergone rigorous escape training, and as long as... as long as there was a chance to get a piece of thin wire, or... Her eyes swept calmly over the jingling keychain hanging from Viper's waist.

"What do you want?" Viper stood up and, with a shuffling footsteps, a strong odor of sweat and motor oil, he walked to Zero's platform. He looked down from above, extending his dirty hand, his nails stained with black mud, and with the cool blade of his dagger, he moved extremely slowly and profanely from Zero's smooth, cold forehead down, gently scraping across her straight nose, her bloodless lips, and finally stopping at her graceful jawline. "The employer said that she must be alive. Especially her, not a single hair can be lost. As for you..." He turned his head suddenly, and his scarred face moved close to Qingyi, his fetid breath almost spraying on her face, his eyes flashing with undisguised lust, "Just don't let her die from playing with you, and how to 'entertain' her... hehe, it depends on the mood of me and my brothers. This damn place is nothing but rust and radioactive dust, we have to find some fun to relieve boredom, right? My little beauty?" His dirty hand, with a strong smell of sweat and engine oil, went straight to grab the collar of Qingyi's clothes that was tightened by the restraints on her chest!

"Don't touch her!" Qingyi's voice suddenly rose, filled with a tearing determination and anger! She struggled violently, the restraints digging deep into her flesh, leaving blood marks!

Just when that dirty hand was about to touch Qingyi!

Buzz——!!!

A massive, muffled roar, as if emanating from the depths of hell, exploded without warning and violently above everyone's heads! The entire narrow metal cage shook madly, as if gripped by an invisible, enraged Titan's hand! The already dying emergency light on the ceiling screamed on the verge of collapse, and finally, with a "pop," it exploded, sending shattered fragments flying! The entire space instantly plunged into a thicker, suffocating darkness! Only a single backup emergency light, which had been turned on at some point in the corner and emitted a faint red light, barely outlined a twisted and shaking shape like the eyes of a dying beast. Empty cans and bottles piled in the corner tumbled and shattered!

"Fuck! What's going on?!" Viper's hand froze in mid-air. He looked up in horror at the trembling and groaning metal panels of the ceiling. The scar on his face twisted and throbbed in the flickering red light. The other two Gear Gang members who had been huddled in the shadows watching the show—the skinny "Mouse" and the short "Iron Ball"—also jumped up in panic and bumped into each other.

Crunch—crunch—!

The tremors not only didn't stop, but intensified! A sharp, scalp-cracking, teeth-aching sound of metal grinding, like the grinding of hell's millstones, mercilessly crushing everyone's nerves! The sound was so close, so piercing, it seemed as if it were right outside the walls of this cage! As if an enormous, red-hot drill, with a mad will to destroy everything, forcibly gnawed and penetrated this thick metal barrier?!

Qingyi's heart nearly stopped beating at that moment! She whipped her head around to look at the side wall of the cage! Amidst the violent, unsteady shaking, under the crazily flashing, blood-red light of the backup red light in the corner, she could clearly see—in the center of that thick, grimy metal wall, a point was turning crimson and shining at a visible speed! The surrounding metal was like wax being thrown into a furnace, emitting a creepy, molten "sizzling" sound as it sank, twisted, and flowed downwards!

This isn't an earthquake! This is... something is forcibly cutting and drilling through the wall! The target... is the cage they are in!

"Damn it! Up there! It's in the direction of the abandoned maintenance passage on the upper level of the fortress!" The short and fat "Iron Ball" screamed in fear, like a frightened fat rat, pointing at the increasingly red and bright spot in the center of the wall. "There's something! Something's trying to get in! Is it... is it those black dogs?!"

The sharp sound of metal friction instantly reached its climax! It was like millions of steel needles piercing the eardrums! Crack—Sizzle!!!

With a piercing noise, like cloth being torn apart, magnified a thousand times, the blindingly bright crimson point in the center of the wall was suddenly pierced by an overwhelming force! A drill tip, as thick as a grown man's arm, gleaming with a blindingly white light, spun frantically at a terrifying speed. Like the fangs of an abyssal dragon, it blasted through the cage with scorching air waves so hot it could ignite the air and splattered with molten metal as red as lava.

The white light instantly swallowed up the faint red glow in the corner! A scorching blast of air, mixed with the pungent smell of molten metal, rushed towards them! The cage was like being thrown into a steelmaking furnace!

"Ah! My eyes!" The mouse covered his face and screamed miserably. His eyes were instantly burned by the strong light.

Dark, cold, and sticky.

Lu Cheneng's consciousness drifted in a boundless abyss of agony, like the final lingering memory of a drowned man. Billions of red-hot steel needles pierced every nerve in his body, the hellish furnace connected to the severed left shoulder burning eternally. But deeper still, there was a numb feeling, as if his soul were immersed in a cold, sticky venom. The "resonance agent" injected by Dr. Heisen was like a poisonous vine, entwining the core of his consciousness and dragging him towards a silent, eternal abyss of darkness.

Give up resistance... embrace it...

You are the key... the only key...

My dear, there is more to this chapter. Please click on the next page to continue reading. It will be even more exciting later!