Chapter 181 Rapid Fall

At such close range, Kross consciously withdrew his icy protective energy.

"You don't have to..." she whispered.

She recalled the conditions he had made for her when he withdrew his icy power at the Dark Night Opera House.

Kross is currently suffering from constant torment after absorbing evil energy into his consciousness. Ning Shuyin offered to treat him, but he refused.

The gradually warming body temperature was particularly noticeable in the narrow, dimly lit space.

Ning Shuyin leaned slightly against the wall, creating about half an inch of distance between them...

Her movements did not escape his notice. Something flashed in his eyes, then he lowered his gaze somewhat dejectedly, and raised his hand.

The metal pen-like reconnaissance unit in his palm transformed into a small moth and easily slipped into the massive building through the ventilation shaft.

There are 11 minutes left in the countdown.

Ning Shuyin held her breath and waited, her palms slightly sweaty.

Suddenly, a series of clicking sounds rang out. It was the sound of the automatic unlocking of the doors to the sealed meeting rooms in the conference center.

Ning Shuyin breathed a sigh of relief; she knew things had succeeded.

soon.

Beep! Beep! Beep!

An alarm sounded warning that the energy core was overloaded and would explode, and a public address system began broadcasting the announcement.

[WARNING! Energy leak detected at underground energy core!]

[All personnel, evacuate according to the designated route! This is not a drill! Repeat, this is not a drill!]

The sound of increasingly hurried and chaotic footsteps could be heard outside.

Ning Shuyin did not leave.

She and Klose remained quietly hidden behind the curtains, anxiously searching for the figures of those people through the surveillance footage transmitted to her personal computer via the reconnaissance unit.

Zhou Zhiheng has completed the evacuation, and the Phantom has even flown away from the conference center.

Caesar escorted several important business leaders from outside the region toward the evacuation route.

Situ Linchen, accompanied by his personal guards, checked that the encrypted conference room had been emptied before leaving.

"Where is Loran?" Ning Shuyin still hadn't seen him.

[Master, he has been detected in the zero-interference biosecurity isolation zone located at the deepest part of the West Wing. He appears to have manually shut down all external alarms below Level S.]

Damn it!

Ning Shuyin couldn't help but curse out loud.

Biosafety isolation zones, as the name suggests, are used to store biological samples and scientific research results for presentation at various conferences.

To prevent biological spills, this area is physically isolated from the main venue and has its own independent life support and defense systems.

The energy leak and explosion was classified as a "Class A" incident.

Even if the entire conference center were blown up, that room would remain unharmed.

An energy leak alarm didn't force Loran to come out.

She immediately sprinted towards the west wing; there were less than 5 minutes left on the countdown.

The heavy alloy door of the security isolation zone bears the words "No Entry".

Ning Shuyin could only keep pressing the access request switch.

With a hum, the metal door slid open.

"It's you? What's the matter?" Loran's face showed displeasure at being disturbed.

Or perhaps it was because she was his creditor that he didn't turn her away.

"The mechanical race is invading, and the conference center will be swallowed up. Follow me quickly, there are only 3 minutes left."

"What?" Upon hearing this, Loran's usually calm, dark red eyes narrowed, and his expression became extremely solemn.

He did not doubt Ning Shuyin's words.

He had heard the energy core leak alarm earlier, but that wasn't worth leaving.

But the mechanical invasion that came out of her mouth...

Ning Shuyin had already grabbed Luo Lan's wrist, intending to take him away.

However, he was much stronger than her.

"Come in."

He reached out and pulled her into the secure isolation zone, where the alloy door automatically closed and locked behind her.

Outside, destruction was imminent, yet he chose to trap the two of them together in this secret chamber.

"Loran! This room can't hold up, it'll be destroyed!" Ning Shuyin said anxiously.

Loran didn't answer her. He released her wrist and strode to the central control panel in the quarantine area.

His fingertips flew across the screen.

“It’s too late to get out now.” In this life-or-death situation, his voice was unusually calm. “It would take me at least eight minutes to get from here to the nearest emergency evacuation route, even if I ran with you. You said we only have three minutes.”

“…Oh, it’s 2 minutes and 45 seconds now,” he added.

Ning Shuyin nodded.

What he said is indeed correct.

“So, we have no choice but to take another path.” Loran pointed to the other end of the room.

One of the alloy doors there had its green light on; it was an elevator.

She felt a warmth on her wrist; Loran had already pulled her up.

"The elevator leads directly to the 128th-floor underground fortification. It is a high-level refuge independent of the main building and is currently the only option."

The two entered the elevator.

"This isn't a high-speed elevator; it won't take long to get to the 128th floor." Ning Shuyin noticed the problem as the elevator began to descend.

“Who said we were going to use the normal speed?” Loran reached into his waist and drew the hilt of his lightsaber.

With a flash of sword light, the top panel of the elevator was cleaved open by his sword light, revealing the cables at the top.

“Hold on tight to the handrail,” Loran guided her wrist, leading her to the elevator railing.

“I will cut the buffer and braking cables.” Loran looked at her, his expression both crazy and confident. “It will fall at freefall speed, and there should be plenty of time.”

Ning Shuyin was surprised.

The free fall method is bold enough, and it is indeed the best solution so far.

As soon as Loran finished speaking, a sharp sword light shot into the sky.

Whoosh!

A crisp sound of metal breaking.

The cable controlling the elevator's steady descent snapped, and a feeling of weightlessness began to creep in.

Ning Shuyin felt as if she was being pressed upwards by a great force.

Suddenly, a strong arm pressed down on her shoulder.

“Your own strength is sufficient to withstand the force of the fall. Moreover, there are multiple overlapping magnetic buffer matrices at the bottom,” Loran said indifferently. “I’m just worried about other unexpected impacts.”

His feet were firmly planted on the floor like nails.

Even with the power of an SSS-level expert, he remained stable against the acceleration.

The elevator, like a meteorite, sparked in the dark shaft.

The piercing sound of wind cutting through the air filled my ears.

With Loran's support, as long as the core remains stable, a simple free fall is not enough to pose a fatal threat to Ning Shuyin.

Suddenly, boom!

A dull, loud thud was heard.

The entire elevator car was struck by a tremendous force from the side.

A flash of light appeared from one side of the sedan chair.

"Watch out!" Loran only had time to utter a warning.

Ning Shuyin lost her balance during the violent shaking and slammed into the side of the elevator car.

Lorraine whirled around and rushed between her and the wall, separating her from the cold wall.

Bang!

She bumped into him, her chest warm and firm. His back, however, slammed solidly into a protruding structural beam.

He gritted his teeth and remained unmoved, holding the person in his arms tightly.

Whether it was due to the effect of the Mech Race's Dark Sphere attack or not, the elevator's descent became extremely unstable.

"Hold on tight!" Loran's voice was hoarse, filled with suppressed pain.

He held her, shielding her from the rubble and metal pieces that kept falling from the broken top.

With each violent tremor, he would adjust his posture, using his body to absorb all the impact for her.

Ning Shuyin's cheek was pressed against his chest, and she could clearly hear his painful panting and slightly disordered heartbeat coming from above her head.

Darkness, weightlessness, chaos, danger...

Bang!

There was only a loud clang of metal colliding.

The expected magnetic buffer matrix did not appear, and the elevator crashed to the bottom of the shaft under the enormous impact.

The entire elevator car was deformed as if it had been smashed flat.

Ning Shuyin felt as if her internal organs had been dislocated, and her vision went black.

However, before she could recover from the shock...

Clang! Another heavy metallic clang suddenly came from above, as if a huge gate had fallen from above.

The top of the elevator, which Loran had shattered with his lightsaber, was completely sealed off by an unknown mechanism.