Chapter 213 Underground Maze
Su Wanqing pushed open the metal door that almost trapped her. Her legs went soft and she and Lu Zhao leaned against the wall to take a few breaths.
Ahead was a low, grey corridor, dimly lit and buzzing.
Su Wanqing exhaled, suppressing the pain in her temple. The reminder left by "Ye" was short, and there was only one sentence in her mind - "Continue down, the old logistics elevator."
Lu Zhao shook at this time, his hands still pinching his shoulders, and lowered his voice, "How far is the exit?"
Su Wanqing shook her head and hoisted the core box back to her chest. "He said there is an elevator. It shouldn't be too far away."
Just as he finished speaking, a dull roar came from behind and the metal door shook twice.
The two supported each other, smelling the smell of old rust in the air, and walked step by step towards the depths where there was only one indicator light.
Sure enough, there was a huge old freight elevator at the end of the corridor. The elevator door was deformed, with several broken steel cables hanging on it. The number on the button was only "-6", and the rest was just a charred hole.
Su Wanqing bent over and tapped the control box, and the gears inside made a creaking sound.
Lu Zhao frowned and leaned against the steel door. "The depth here has long exceeded the official drawings."
Su Wanqing glanced at the nameplate next to the freight elevator, on which was engraved "Top Secret Level·Time Anchored Experimental Area" in old font.
She put the jade bracelet close to the button, and the only prompt in "Night" was: You must reach the sixth floor.
The jade bracelet only emitted a faint blue light, and the navigation system did not respond at all.
Lu Zhao hesitated for two seconds and actually smiled, "If it breaks down, I'll go straight to hell."
He staggered, protected Su Wanqing to his side and behind him, and pressed the down button casually.
The elevator shook violently, clicking and clacking, as if it was about to break. The half-open protective door creaked, and the car slowly descended. The dim light bulbs around it flickered and shook.
The descent was surprisingly long. Su Wanqing stared at the elevator pointer, counting each step as it fell. The pointer jumped back several times and then paused heavily. Her heart ached every time the steel cable swayed.
The elevator suddenly stopped midway, the car seemed to lose support and fell down abruptly, and the two people almost fell down.
After the elevator slowly stopped, the door was finally opened with difficulty.
It was quiet outside, there were no signs, the cement on the walls had fallen off, and the ground was covered with a thick layer of old dust. There was nothing else except them.
Su Wanqing lowered her head. There were only a few dry words on the small nameplate embedded on the door sill: Time Anchored Experimental Area - Top Secret.
Lu Zhao's breathing was a little disordered, "We're here." There was a large patch of sweat on his forehead.
Su Wanqing pulled him out of the elevator step by step. There were parallel radial corridors all around, with ramps of various heights crisscrossing, like a layer of spirals.
Su Wanqing tried to scan with the jade bracelet, but the blue light flashed and then went out, the chip temperature was still rising, and navigation was completely impossible.
Lu Zhaoren said in one breath, "There's no way to go back." His eyelids were hot, new blood was seeping out of the original bandages, and his face was slightly pale.
The two could only move forward relying on the remaining sticky arrows on the wall and the occasional flashes of residual light.
Su Wanqing supported him and looked at the wall, where she could sometimes make out handwritten numbers and strange marks.
The corridor became more and more like a maze, with constant branches, ramps that would suddenly rise or fall, and gate debris lying across the road from time to time.
Su Wanqing couldn't tell the direction, so she just followed the arrows that could barely distinguish between light and dark.
Lu Zhao gradually developed a high fever, his steps became unsteady, and he sometimes leaned against the wall, gritting his teeth and moving forward.
He whispered, "Can you still tell the way out?"
Su Wanqing shook her head, fastened the box, and pushed Lu Zhao to a brighter place. "Don't talk. Let's talk at the end."
However, before the two of them had taken a few steps, they heard a series of scattered footsteps and low growls above their heads. Someone was moving quickly on the upper level, and there was an occasional sound of heavy objects rubbing against each other.
Sometimes, it was the sound of steel being torn, mixed with suppressed gasps and shouts.
Su Wanqing felt a chill in her heart when she heard this, and Lu Zhao's body visibly tensed up.
They heard a military team communicating in a low voice - chaotic and rapid, but they could distinguish the words, "Divide into four groups, check layer by layer", "Be careful of the 'lurkers', give priority to capturing S-7 and the third core alive."
After walking for an unknown amount of time, an automatic door opened halfway. Inside was a circular laboratory with old, dusty walls and a huge holographic wall hanging on the top.
Su Wanqing gathered her remaining strength and pushed the door open. Lu Zhao gritted his teeth and walked in sideways. Most of the machines in the room were scrapped, and the most conspicuous holographic projection table was still slightly lit.
She hesitated and tried it with the jade bracelet, and the holographic device was actually activated.
A light screen was reflected in the center of the entire laboratory. A distribution map of the "seven energy cores" appeared on the wall. Each core was marked with a different color. The center was purple, and red, blue, green, orange, yellow, and silver were distributed around the periphery.
The core functions and numbers are also displayed next to it.
Su Wanqing stared at the combination picture, her nerves tense. She had seen this pattern many times in her dreams: the outer periphery was surrounded, the center was entangled, and it was actually some kind of complex time knot - every time the dream was about to end, she woke up in this pattern.
She whispered to Lu Zhao: "This is what I dream about every time."
Lu Zhao stared at the holographic light box, his wrist trembling slightly. Just as he was about to step forward, a progress bar lit up on the wall, with a line of explanation text scrolling above it -
"Seven cores make up the main device of the 'Time Loom', which must be matched with a human anchor point to activate the time-sequence rewrite permission.
There have been three activation tests in history, the last of which occurred seventy-two hours before the virus outbreak. Test status: catastrophic failure - world line rupture - emergency protocol activated. "
Su Wanqing gritted her teeth and whispered, "It's not just an energy source at all. All seven cores are needed to form a complete device."
She reached out her hand and pointed her finger at the fluorescent anchor symbol. "This 'anchor'... is the neural data of a person?"
Lu Zhao said in a hoarse voice: "The structure in your brain. You are the 'anchor point'.
They said 'S-7' above, they know." His voice became hoarse, the emergency light beside him flashed twice, and the sound of iron dragging diagonally in the corridor in the distance was heard, echoing.
Su Wanqing silently recited the mysterious number on the holographic wall while lifting up the core box to look at it. Even the jade bracelet was so quiet that it became hot, and then only remained cold.
She suddenly thought of something and moved closer to Lu Zhao. "The catastrophic failure they are talking about is the jumper breaking? Or is it simply impossible to return to the original time point?"
Lu Zhao nodded, sweat growing on his forehead, and muttered to himself: "They are hiding this from everyone. What they really want is to reset the catastrophe."
As soon as he said this, there was a clapping of footsteps under the emergency lights, accompanied by the sound of metal guns being loaded.
The two of them quickly exited the circular laboratory and returned to the interval corridor from the circular hall.
When passing through an old door, Lu Zhao's legs went limp and he fell to the ground. He took out his backpack and found a small hacking device in his hand.
His hands were shaking, but he still plugged in the data cable.
Su Wanqing helped him set up a shabby instrument table behind the door, and the two of them huddled into a dead corner in the equipment room.
Lu Zhao lowered his head to operate the device, and the lock screen flashed codes intermittently. He held his breath and said in a few words: "The signal scan is chaotic, but the military communication is very close."
Less than a minute later, Lu Zhao finally stole a few communications. His voice was short: "The third core is the priority. Capture S-7 alive. Kill him directly if necessary. The target's neural structure is crucial to the overall plan."
He smiled bitterly, "You were named above."
Immediately afterwards, a new conversation was released, and the commander's tone was particularly stern: "The countdown to the launch of the 'Ark' plan is 72 hours, and all cores must be brought back to the Ark base. Once the time window is missed, the consequences will be at your own risk.
Don't let anyone interfere with the signal tower route." Lu Zhao slapped his finger on the table and pouted at Su Wanqing: "They don't just want the core, they have another mission."
Su Wanqing frowned and lowered her voice, "'Ark' plan... they are going to seize the core and prepare to act within 72 hours."
The sound of gun bolts and dog footsteps outside were getting closer and closer, and the light in the equipment room turned completely dark.
She pulled Lu Zhao, indicating that they should leave as soon as possible. He said nothing more and firmly grasped the spare energy bar handed over by Su Wanqing.
The two men dragged their wounds and followed the few remaining messy and dim instructions, moving deeper into the maze.
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