TL: xDh20, LifeisaJourney
NaNa equipped her Spatial Armor and jumped head first into the opening. After she landed, she barked a few times.
Woof, Woof!
This meant that it was safe to head down. Liu Gan and others went down the ladder, one by one into the darkness.
It was very dark going down, but the players were prepared. Everyone brought along powerful illumination tools that lit it up fairly well. It was a large underground chamber. Along one side, there was some old-fashioned factory machinery, but what is was used for, no one knew.
Looking around a while, Liu Gan couldn’t find another location that led deeper underground. Alongside another wall was a wide pool, made of cement, but filled with dirty water.
Liu Gan had NaNa sniff the water, and the dirty water didn’t have any poison in it. Due to accumulation of stagnant water for long periods of time, it had started producing a stinky smell and turbid colors. Even with the bright flashlight, it was hard to see past a few feet.
If there is any way to go further into the laboratory, it would be this water route.
“Who wants to dive with NaNa into the water to find a path?” Liu Gan asked his group.
Even though he had the dermal respiration ability, he didn’t need to let them know. This expedition wasn’t so they could gain easy experience. When there was danger, they must do their duty as cannon fodder.
For a long while, no one responded, as no one wanted to be the first one in. The murky water was quite scary, no one knew what creatures might be in there. There was also the fear of getting lost and being unable to find the way back. The fear of drowning was also another factor.
“I’ll go.” Jiang JinYuan responded since no one else volunteered. This whole time, Liu Gan gave him the most free kills, so Jiang JinYuan didn’t feel right for not doing anything.
“Okay, this time he goes. Next time, it will be one of you guys. I will distribute and arrange according to situation,” Liu Gan told the others. NaNa went into the water first. Jiang JinYuan took off his clothes, then followed NaNa into the dirty water.
Both NaNa and Jiang JinYuan disappeared into the murky water. Over ten minutes passed before ripples appeared. NaNa had returned. Even with NaNa’s mechanically dense body, its Spatial Protection could generate a special type of buoyancy that allowed it to doggy paddle through the water.
After NaNa returned, Jiang JinYuan also showed up. The temperature of the water was rather cold, so he quickly dried himself off with a towel and put on his clothes.
“Is there anything in the water? Any danger?” Liu Gan asked Jiang JinYuan.
“There’s no danger lurking in the water, it’s a very short trip underwater. Once you swim through the waterway, you will reach the other side. It led me to an empty room. However, you can continue deeper into the laboratory from there,” Jiang JinYuan reported back to Liu Gan.
Jiang JinYuan finished his first scouting assignment and returned alive to report it. He didn’t encounter any danger, and he was able to repay his debt to Liu Gan in a way. Jiang JinYuan was very happy. Now, he didn’t have to take on any more dangerous tasks, if they went down the list of volunteers.
“Okay, then we will all go,” Liu Gan told everyone.
“Lord Liu, what will we do with our clothes?” a player hesitated. It was cold outside and the water temperature was low. If the jacket became wet, they would still need to take it off.
Liu Gan didn’t answer the player, he took off his clothes and tossed them aside. Then he jumped into the dirty water and started swimming. The other players saw this, and quickly followed. If they don’t go with Liu Gan now, they could only wait here. They would be wasting this opportunity for more benefits.
Liu Gan swam ahead, while others held their breath and trailed after him. The waterway wasn’t a very long swim. At the end of the swim was a small empty room. However, it was connected to a passage that led deeper in.
Jumping out of the cold water, everyone was sneezing and trembling. Liu Gan asked for another volunteer to go with NaNa into the passage. It didn’t take long for this volunteer to return back with a good news. At the end of the passage was another room, and it was a wardrobe room! Alongside the wall, were closets that had many standard winter clothes. There were even diving suits in these closets!
Without encountering any dangerous situations, the expedition group dried themselves off and changed into the winter clothes.
“Why would they make the entrance to this laboratory so secretive and complex? But, with that in mind, the secrets within must be worthy of the extra precaution!” QiuTao started rambling while he was changing.
“Yeah! With this so hidden, the secret it contains must be unspeakable!” other players chimed in, agreeing with QiuTao.
Liu Gan didn’t have the same feeling. This laboratory’s entrance wasn’t that hidden. At least when compared with Green Station Mountain’s laboratory and the Underwater Base, this laboratory was insufficient. At most, this was comparable to the laboratory in the middle of the lake, the Island Lake laboratory.
Even if Liu Gan didn’t have high expectations from this laboratory, as long as he could get his hands on an artifact and learn a new skill or level up, then he would be satisfied. In Liu Gan’s mind, the real challenge waited at Evil Dragon Gulf.
As the last member finished changing and left the room, they continued down the hallway to the sounds of zombie moans and footsteps. All the noise from the players had echoed through the passage, luring all the nearby zombies over. These zombies were like the zombies outside - all Black-Spot Variants. They all wore laboratory coats, or something resembling one.
It was rumored that three days prior to the server release day was when the red rain poured into the city. It was regarded as a sign of the beginning of the end. With the sudden appearance of so many Black-Spot Variants, it was like the sign of a second catastrophic event. This was enough of an omen for Liu Gan to figure out that something catastrophic would happen. Another speculation might be that The Trembling World was beginning a new phase.
This type of change was an intuition Liu Gan had, which started when he was in the village. Now that he had encountered this strange phenomenon outside, his gut feeling had intensified.
While players could evolve, the zombies could also evolve. Beasts and monsters didn't stop their evolution. The only difference between all of them was the rate at which they evolved.
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