Chapter 35
The metal pavement of Lane 3 in the Upper District gleams with a cold, hard light, and when aircraft fly overhead, the shadows they cast briefly envelop the entire lane.
Su Jing moved forward, hugging the rusty wall, her boots avoiding the protruding metal pipes on the ground—an unknown liquid flowing through the pipes, making a gurgling sound, with occasional drops of black oil seeping out, forming small puddles on the ground, emitting a pungent smell of engine oil.
At the end of the alley is the main gate of the industrial area. Two 2-meter-tall heavy mechanical guards patrol the gate. Their silver metal shells reflect a cold light in the sunlight. They are twice as thick as the guards in the slums. Their arms are equipped with obvious stun guns, and the detection range of their red scanning eyes covers almost the entire gate area. The "buzzing" scanning sound can be heard from more than ten meters away.
They pause for a second every three steps, turning their heads to check their surroundings. Their patrol routes are fixed yet flawless. The electronic screen above the main gate flashes the red words "Industrial area closed, non-staff members prohibited from entering."
Su Jing touched the electromagnetic shielding patch inside her collar—it still had 5 hours and 23 minutes of effect left. Following the little boy's instructions that "the side gate is 50 meters to the left of the main gate behind the wall," she quietly went around to the corner of the wall.
Sure enough, they saw a half-open metal side door with rust on the door panel and several obvious scratches, as if it had been hit by a robotic arm; the surveillance camera next to the door was hanging crookedly, with the lens pointing to the ground, obviously malfunctioning, which was the best position to sneak in.
Just as she was about to push open the door, her wrist was suddenly gently pressed down by a warm hand—the force was steady but not rough, with the strength unique to adults.
Su Jing tensed instantly, her hand instinctively reaching for the laser gun at her waist. Turning her head, she saw a middle-aged man in dark blue overalls: a worn-out metal badge reading "Industrial Zone Administrator" pinned to his sleeve, a few strands of white hair mixed in, and engine oil smeared on his face.
There was no malice in his eyes, only vigilance. He was quickly scanning the mechanical guard at the alley entrance and said in a low voice, "Don't open the door. There's a hidden scanner behind it that the shielding sticker can't block."
Su Jing stopped what she was doing and lowered her voice: "Are you the administrator of the industrial park? How did you know I was looking for the core?"
"Judging from your radiation suit, you're neither an indigenous person nor a 'metal man.' You can only be here to get the 'purple core' (advanced energy core)."
The man pulled a small access card from his pocket and waved it in front of Su Jing. “My name is Martin. I’m in charge of managing the generator room. There are three high-level cores inside, but there are two heavy guards at the entrance. If you go in by yourself, you’ll definitely be discovered. I’ll distract the guards for you, and you can take the opportunity to go in and retrieve the cores, but you have to agree to one condition.”
"What are the conditions?" Su Jing stared at the access card in Martin's hand—the card had the words "Generator Room B Area" printed on it, which was the "Advanced Core Centralized Area" marked on the cyber map.
“After you’ve retrieved the core, bring me a copy of the ‘Factory Log’. It’s in the control panel drawer in the generator room.” Martin’s voice deepened, his eyes filled with complex emotions. “My daughter is sick in the slums and needs the ‘synthetic drug recipe’ from the log, but I’m being watched by the ‘metal man’ and can’t leave the industrial area at all.”
"If you can help me bring it out, I can also tell you clues about the top-tier core."
Su Jing nodded immediately: "Deal. How will you distract the guards? How long will it take me to get in?"
"I will trigger the 'equipment malfunction' alarm in a moment. The guard will go to the main plant to check. There will be a gap of about 5 minutes."
Martin quickly handed the access card to Su Jing and pointed to a vent next to the side door. "Don't go through the door. Climb in through the vent and walk straight for 10 meters to reach the back door of the generator room. You can open it by swiping the access card."
There are three large generators in the generator room. Each generator has a hidden compartment below its control panel; the core components are inside. Don't touch the red button on the generator, or it will trigger a power outage alarm.
As he spoke, he took a small alarm from his work clothes pocket and pressed it—a sharp "beep beep" suddenly sounded from the main factory building in the distance, and the red malfunction indicator light instantly lit up.
Upon hearing the alarm, the two heavy-duty guards at the entrance immediately turned and headed towards the main factory building. Their heavy footsteps echoed on the metal floor before quickly disappearing at the end of the alley.
"Quick, start the 5-minute countdown!" Martin shoved Su Jing and ran towards the main factory building, deliberately shouting, "Equipment malfunction! Someone come and fix it!"—His voice would attract the surrounding patrol guards, giving Su Jing more time.
Su Jing immediately lay down on the ground and pulled open the metal grille of the ventilation vent—the space inside wasn't large, just enough for one person to crawl through. The inner walls were lined with soundproofing material, so once inside, she could barely hear anything outside. She used her access card in her mouth and her hands to support herself against the inner walls as she crawled forward, relying solely on touch to orient herself in the darkness.
The ventilation ducts were filled with the smell of dust and engine oil, and occasionally small metal shavings would fall onto your shoulders.
After climbing about 10 meters, she heard a faint humming sound ahead—the sound of a generator running. She touched the metal plate at the end of the pipe, gently pushed it open a crack, and saw the back door of the generator room below, with a card reader on the door.
Su Jing carefully jumped down from the ventilation duct, trying to land as quietly as possible. She took out her access card and swiped it in the card reader area—with a "beep," the door opened.
The generator room was lit by pale blue emergency lights. Three large generators were placed side by side against the wall, their humming sound making the ground tingle slightly. Each generator's control panel was lit with a green operating light.
Following Martin's instructions, Su Jing walked to the first generator and found the hidden compartment below the control panel. She held the edge of the compartment with her finger and gently pulled it open. Inside was a high-grade energy core that glowed with purple light. It was a size larger than an ordinary core, with more intricate patterns on its surface, and she could feel obvious energy fluctuations.
She carefully took out the core and put it into the EMP-proof metal box. The system notification sounded: [Detected 1 advanced energy core, current total: 5 ordinary cores, 1 advanced core] - In order to make room for the advanced cores to be collected later, she temporarily stored 5 ordinary cores in the system backpack and only kept 5 in the metal box.
Su Jing didn't dare to delay and quickly walked to the second and third generators. She took out the other two advanced cores using the same method. The system prompts sounded one after another: [Advanced energy cores ×2 detected, current total: ordinary cores ×5, advanced cores ×3].
She glanced at the time; only 3 minutes had passed since she came in, leaving her with 2 minutes of buffer time.
Remembering Martin's request, Su Jing walked to the control panel in the center of the generator room, opened the drawer—inside was indeed a leather-bound factory logbook with the words "New Los Angeles Industrial Zone B" printed on the cover, and the edges of the pages were somewhat worn.
She put the logbook into the side pocket of her backpack, checked the generator room again to make sure no alarms were triggered, and then quickly left through the back door, climbing back to the side door along the ventilation duct.
As soon as she climbed out of the ventilation shaft, she saw Martin already waiting for her, his face full of anxiety: "Did you get it? The guards will be back soon!"
“Got it, three cores, and the logs.” Su Jing handed the factory logs to Martin, then asked, “What’s the clue about the top-tier cores?”
Martin took the logbook, quickly flipped through a few pages, and only breathed a sigh of relief after confirming it was the one he wanted: "The top-tier core is on the top floor of the central tower, but it's guarded by the leader of the 'Bad Robots' (rebel robots), and you need a 'Central Tower Access Card' to get in—"
The card was in the security room in the industrial area, but the security room had four heavy guards, even more formidable than those at the entrance, and they were armed with laser guns.
He had barely finished speaking when the sound of heavy machinery guarding the area could be heard in the distance—clearly, they had finished troubleshooting and were returning to their posts.
Martin immediately shoved Su Jing: "Get out of here quickly. Head south from East 3rd Alley; it'll circle back to the slums. Don't get spotted by the guards! Thank you for the log!"
Su Jing nodded, turned and ran south along the wall, her boots making rapid "clattering" sounds on the metal ground before she quickly disappeared around the corner of the alley.
She ran for about 10 minutes, making sure she had shaken off the guards, before stopping, leaning against the wall to catch her breath, and checking her ranking on the system panel:
[Real-time ranking updates for dungeons (current time remaining: 62 hours and 18 minutes):]
1. I am the God of Wealth (China): 30 Ordinary Energy Cores, 3 Advanced Energy Cores (Quest Progress 100%)
2. Hunter (United States): 4 Common Energy Cores (Mission Progress 40%)
3. Sharp Blade (China): Ordinary Energy Core x3 (Mission Progress 30%)
4. Nightingale (EU): 2 Common Energy Cores (Mission Progress 20%)
5. Black Bear (Russian Bear Nation): 2 Ordinary Energy Cores (Mission Progress 20%)
The global channel notification below the rankings was flashing. Su Jing clicked on it and saw that Chen Yang, whose account was marked in dark gray and whose username was "Sharp Blade (China)," had sent a message filled with anger and helplessness: "Who went to the industrial zone? The heavy machinery guards there have too much firepower! Our team of 3 went in, and 2 of them were killed. We were shot out by stun guns before we even reached the core. Now we can only hide in the warehouse in the slums and dare not go any closer!"
Immediately after, the red "Hunter (USA)" also sent a message: "The industrial zone is a trap! I finally managed to get around to the side gate, and as soon as I went in, I triggered the scanning alarm and almost got hit by the guard's laser gun. Luckily, I ran fast and only got a graze on my arm! 'I am the God of Wealth,' are you also in the industrial zone? Stop playing dead! If you have the guts, come out and tell me if you cheated again!"
Su Jing looked at the complaints in the channel, turned off the panel, and touched the access card in her pocket—the card Martin gave her was still there, and she might be able to use it to get the central tower access card into the security room.
She adjusted her anti-radiation suit, confirmed that the electromagnetic shielding patch was still on, and turned to walk towards the slums—first, she would go back to process the private message orders from the natives, obtain Tony's "robot malfunction simulator," and then plan to go to the security room to find clues about the top-tier core.
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