Sure enough, it wasn't until noon that the fully-dressed man-headed fish discovered that the maintainers had escaped.
They mobilized a large number of people to search the town, leaving the entire government building empty.
"The plan is this: first, go underground to find the vine-like creature, burn it, and get the ashes to cover your body. Then, go to the government building office to look for clues."
Cheng Shuang counted on her fingers as she explained the plan.
Once the conclusion that the entire town was surrounded by mountains was reached, they began to question the true location of the petri dish.
They initially thought the petri dishes were hidden in the crevices of the mountains, but now it seems they may have been misled by empiricism.
Since vines live underground, why can't petri dishes be placed underground?
Could they still be underground now?
Therefore, the sky is fake, and the sun and moon are fake.
The emergency exit clearly had no entrance or exit leading underground; the group would still need those elevators to explore the truth.
Now only one security guard remained in the lobby, pacing back and forth. 'Feng Jiakang' wanted to use the puppet's skills to control and disperse him, but Cheng Shuang stopped him.
Du Lanshan and Du Jun's skills are on cooldown, and she believes in avoiding wasting energy on unnecessary things.
Cheng Shuang chose to send Luo An to keep the security guards occupied.
A tiny shadow can attract attention by slowing down slightly, without immediately revealing its true nature.
After the security guards were led away by Luo An, the ten men nimbly ran to the elevator entrance and pressed the down button.
When the elevator dinged and opened, the buttons inside still showed the same twenty floor options.
“It’s difficult to get underground by normal means.” Sihai stroked his smooth chin, took out a card without hesitation, and stuck it on the elevator floor. The floor immediately flipped up, and a dark hole appeared in front of everyone.
Du Jun immediately threw a glow stick inside, and the faint light took a long time to fall to the bottom.
“The vines on the ground have been cleared away,” Cheng Shuang said. “On the contrary, the vines on the ceiling eventually gave up attacking, so I stopped bothering with them.”
She measured the distance and said, "If the elevator at night counts from the ground floor, then the twentieth floor is right beneath our feet, right?"
"Is that the basement level?" Du Lanshan scratched his head and looked at the button for the basement level.
Cheng Shuang shook her head. "I've been to basement level one, it's normal. It should be basement level two, which doesn't exist."
Sun Han decisively suggested, "Go down! You'll never know the real answer if you don't go down!"
The group began to move.
In April, she put up a sign on the elevator door with the words "Under Maintenance" written in large characters using her skillful drawing brush. Everyone who wanted to use the elevator would automatically assume that it was under maintenance.
The Du brothers tied ropes around their waists and clung tightly to both sides of the elevator, using them as human support to stabilize themselves.
Liao Yuewei slid down the rope into the deep darkness first, followed by Cheng Shuang and 'Feng Jiakang', with the rest of the people assisting by pulling the rope and providing support at any time.
After Sihai threw out a 'Chameleon' card, Du Lanshan and the others gradually blended into the elevator, and even the hole in the floor was 'filled up', making it look like an empty elevator at first glance.
The three people descending the stairs wore headlamps. As they passed through the basement elevator shaft and entered deeper into the area, Liao Yuewei paused for a moment, then quickly took out a weapon card, held it in her mouth, and warily looked around at the empty surroundings.
She heard something make a whooshing sound.
The elevator atrium emitted a faint, almost imperceptible light, but their location remained brightly lit in the complete darkness.
Cheng Shuang's heart sank slightly, realizing something was wrong. She hurriedly warned, "Be careful, it's coming!"
As soon as she finished speaking, Liao Yuewei's cheek was grazed by something sharp. She nimbly tilted her head back to dodge, and the simple card she had made in her mouth instantly transformed into a small throwing knife, which flew out.
A stench of decaying vegetation wafted out, and the attack intensified instead of stopping.
Suddenly, something else lashed out.
Because the movement was so fast, no one saw what the surprise attack was.
Cheng Shuang deftly removed her searchlight and lashed it at the attacker. In the light, a vine, like a giant python, snaked and slid. Her blow struck the deep wound on it, where green sap oozed. The wound was hit, and the stench of decaying vegetation grew even stronger and more unpleasant.
The little girl was delighted and used her teeth to bite open the tape, then directly stuck the spotlight to the fast-moving vines.
"Follow the light!" Her voice roused the two who had been startled by the giant vines.
Good heavens, they were talking about countless vines, but I never expected that one of them would be as thick as a giant python.
If you get hit by it, you'll be half dead, if not killed.
Liao Yuewei and Feng Jiakang simultaneously turned off the searchlights above their heads, which now allowed them to clearly see the vines' movements.
The point of light drifted in the air, sometimes up and sometimes down, without a precise path, but it was clear that it was always circling around Cheng Shuang and the other two, even trying to break the ropes they depended on for survival.
The three of them naturally couldn't let it succeed. Without Cheng Shuang having to lift a finger, Liao Yuewei and 'Feng Jiakang' worked together to remove the vines from the ceiling and obtained two buckets of black ash.
Just as the three were about to return the way they came, Cheng Shuang saw something in the dark patterns on the ceiling.
Because the vines on the ground had been cleared, the slight difference made her immediately notice it.
It looks like... a very old and worn-out light bulb.
The light bulb flickered with an extremely inconspicuous yellow light, which was completely useless in the deep and empty space.
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