"When did you steal a can of food?" Jiang Ling asked in shock as she watched Li Wenjia take out a can of fruit from his arms.
They stopped briefly at a temporary supply storage point. Li Wenjia, upon learning there were gas masks, pulled out the can of food. "I was planning on eating it secretly while waiting for you to get up there, but it's safer to have a gas mask with you," he explained.
Just this one can was exchanged for two masks and four filter canisters. Only now did she realize that her first transaction was a complete loss.
Li Wenjia wanted to laugh when he saw her like that: "Don't feel like you're at a disadvantage. Information is also a commodity, and it's not easy to buy!"
"This is for you. Although you're not afraid of radiation, breathing in nuclear fallout wouldn't be good for your internal health. They might even take you to quarantine! And it's a lead-filled room!" The guy finally spoke sensibly. He clipped the mask to his waist and shoved the canister into his pocket. "By the way, this standard canister lasts two hours. It's discarded when the time is up. Do you know how to use it?"
Jiang Ling shook her head. She had never received this kind of training, so it was naturally impossible for her to be as knowledgeable as the prophets in those online articles.
"It's too early to drill holes. I'll teach you first. Here you go. There's a sealing strip around the outside of this mask. Take a breath before putting it on, and then exhale. If you don't feel any air leaking, then it's fine. If you feel any air leaking, then it's not in place. There are three fixing straps. One for the back of the head and two for the ears. The tighter the better." He demonstrated it himself first, then asked Jiang Ling to try, and helped correct it as he went.
"What about this canister?"
"Isn't there a pull ring on it? Open it and then press it into the interface of the mask. The mask will not be able to breathe before it is installed. When you hear a click, it means it is installed. There is a button on the mask that can be opened by pressing it." He took off the mask and then took a few breaths before speaking.
"Actually, I suggest you cover your hair. You don't know that dust loves to get into your hair!" He said this in a very disgusting way.
"So it's better to be bald, right?" Jiang Ling sneered.
"Click~" He opened a metal door and made a "please" gesture to Jiang Ling: "After passing this, we will start to sneak in."
This was a maintenance passage twenty-six meters underground, a place rarely used during wartime. Jiang Ling noticed the prominent sign next to the ladder and realized she'd miscalculated. The station's underground level was actually thirty meters below ground. Such a deep depth could even save a lot of electricity for air conditioning.
"We can crawl all the way down to the sewer this way. I told you you're a rat, but you still don't believe me, right?"
Jiang Ling was now beginning to believe this guy's chatter. These passages were so quiet that she wouldn't dare to continue without the sound of people talking. Compared to the brightly lit facilities, this maintenance passage was extremely dim, with only yellow lights at intervals of five meters, like a haunted house adventure.
They climbed the vertical ladder for about forty minutes, taking numerous detours along the way. These underground twists and turns were much slower than walking, and Jiang Ling felt they hadn't even covered half the distance. An ordinary person would probably have had to rest every half hour.
"We're here!" The rat in front stopped at a relatively narrow ladder. The ladder had been corroded by water vapor and was a little rusty. Jiang Ling also smelled a faint odor of feces.
"How do you judge?"
"Temperature, humidity, and learning! But if you use your telekinesis, we should be able to avoid taking too many detours!"
Oh, right! Jiang Ling almost forgot that she had this trick to deal with the dimensionality reduction attack of the tunnel warfare, but she quickly poured cold water on him: "In human form, I can't sense very far, about four meters?"
"Uh~Okay. Then you should learn more from now on." He shook his head helplessly: "Please, ladies first."
Jiang Ling rubbed her gloves and took the lead. Li Wenjia, who was following behind, kept looking at her butt. He thought its shape was more beautiful than any other woman he had seen before.
The end of the ladder was blocked by a hollow iron manhole cover, but that didn't faze her. This person possessed immense grip strength, grabbing the unfortunate manhole cover and forcibly yanking it free from the concrete. Li Wenjia, climbing up from below, saw the deformed manhole cover and felt a wave of fear. His small frame couldn't withstand such a force.
"What are you looking at? Tell me, how do we go next?" Jiang Ling found herself at a fork in the road. This route did not lead directly to the sewer, but there was the sound of flowing water very close to here.
"I think you can try your sensing ability. I don't know the way around here." He shook his head and realized that it didn't match his previous training.
"Then follow me!" She calmed down a little and "saw" the pipes composed of microorganisms. Then she moved in one direction, and the big rat behind her immediately followed.
"I say, don't run around, not every pipe is open!"
"I know. My biosensing range is two kilometers. I can already see the ground. Now just pick the closest one!"
"Your ability is really useful! But why didn't it work just now?"
"The microorganisms in the ground are too sparse, and the channels are too closely spaced for me to distinguish them."
They groped in the dark sewer for several hours. The guy behind them got lost several times because of his poor night vision. Finally, they came to the edge of a patio.
"How about it?"
"The area above must have been affected. The biomass is even less than here!"
"Put on your mask!" After Jiang Ling put it on, he fixed her hair, covered her with a plastic bag, and tied it up. "I won't be going up, but don't forget to share your view with me! Also, don't stay too long."
Jiang Ling didn't think much as she climbed the steel ladder. Perhaps dazzled by the faint light from the wellhead, tears welled up in her green eyes beneath her mask.
She climbed silently, perhaps for a few minutes, perhaps for more than ten. At such times, one's perception of time is always very confused. When she reached the end, she saw the light.
Then, she went blind.
"Ahhh! Holy shit!" The guy's mask was instantly melted by a "little guy" with a yield of 100,000 tons not far away.
It had to be said that this person's body was truly superior to that of an average person. Normally, an ordinary person would be vaporized the moment they encountered this level of light radiation. However, only her entire head was scorched, and her consciousness remained clear. So, she immediately let go, allowing her body to freely fall.
"Wow~" The person below caught her easily this time: "How is it, are you okay?"
Li Wenjia's eyes adjusted to the brightness. He looked at the thing in his hands. The biological tissue on her head had begun to repair itself. "Tsk, tsk, tsk, tsk, it's you. If it were me, I'd be dead."
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