Chapter 139 - 104: Discovery

Chapter 139: Chapter 104: Discovery

Intrigued, Xu Mo even knelt by a few small observation ports near the base of the fortress to look down. Sure enough, seven or eight zombies were wandering aimlessly around the fortress’s foundation, occasionally using their rotting arms to futilely scratch at the cold, hard concrete walls. The scraping produced a grating sound that set his teeth on edge.

’Can they vaguely sense the presence of a living person inside?’ Xu Mo wondered. A zombie’s ability to perceive the presence of life varied by individual and degree of mutation. Perhaps to their blurred senses, this isolated tower was like a faint candle in the dark, instinctively drawing them near.

After observing for a while and confirming that these "neighbors" posed no immediate threat to the fortress, Xu Mo began to feel bored. While the fortress’s interior wasn’t exactly cramped, his room to move was ultimately limited. His gaze was involuntarily drawn to the silent, pulsing, and seemingly innate countdown in his mind.

[00:00:00]

Ever since leaving Cyan Pine Ridge Town, throughout his arduous journey of fighting and fleeing all the way to Jiang City, Xu Mo had rarely opened the "door" to search for supplies the moment the countdown hit zero, as he used to. For one thing, he had accumulated plenty of supplies early on. For another, opening a door to the Otherworld while surrounded by people or in an unstable environment was simply too conspicuous and inconvenient.

Now, however, things were different. In this completely private and undisturbed fortress, he had all the time and space he needed to once again make full use of his unique Golden Finger. Moreover, the act of opening the door itself had become a "pastime" to stave off loneliness, one filled with anticipation for the unknown.

Xu Mo’s gaze swept across the fortress’s interior. The designer had clearly considered the most extreme scenarios—like zombies breaking through the containment at the base and breaching the upper floors. Consequently, the door connecting the main observation room and the bedroom had been specially reinforced. Made of heavy-duty material with a sophisticated lock, it was far superior to any residential security door and could withstand a considerable amount of force. Right now, this sturdy door was the perfect medium for Xu Mo’s experiment.

Moreover, while the doors to the storeroom, equipment room, and bathroom were relatively ordinary, they offered more options. The bathroom was particularly interesting; to separate the wet and dry areas, a frosted glass door had been installed for the shower. These different types of "doors" provided him with a variety of "coordinate anchors" for his explorations of the Otherworld.

’I’ll start with the sturdiest one,’ Xu Mo decided, walking to the bedroom door and placing his hand on the cold, solid metal handle.

A thought stirred in his mind: ’Push open.’

The handle still felt solid in his grasp, but an almost imperceptible, strange light flickered from the seam of the door and was gone in an instant.

With a gentle push, Xu Mo swung the sturdy bedroom door open.

The bedroom behind the door was gone. In its place stood row after row of massive, dark brown wooden archive shelves that reached from floor to ceiling, stretching out as far as the eye could see. The air was thick with the scent of old paper, ink, and a hint of dust.

’An archive room...’ Xu Mo stepped inside, his gaze quickly sweeping over the shelves on either side. The labels bore various codes and classification names he couldn’t understand, apparently related to historical documents from some specialized field or organization. ’Judging by how sturdy the "door" was,’ he reasoned, ’this archive room must have belonged to an important organization in its original world, with a high security level.’

But for Xu Mo, who was focused on survival and power in a post-apocalyptic world, these mountains of old documents were practically worthless. He might find some technical information, but that wasn’t what he needed right now.

Xu Mo wandered through the silent labyrinth of knowledge for a while, confirming that it contained nothing but files. Finally, on an office desk near the entrance, he found a tea caddy that had been left open. Inside, it was still more than half-full of dark green, aromatic tea leaves.

’Better than nothing, I guess.’ Xu Mo thought, picking up the tea caddy and tucking it into his pocket. With this sole "trophy" in hand, he turned, stepped back through the door, and returned to his bedroom in the fortress.

The door closed silently behind him. The image of the archive room dissipated like a phantom, and he was once again standing in the simple, sturdy bedroom.

[47:59:59] A new countdown began to materialize in his mind.

’The next opening is two days from now,’ Xu Mo noted, placing the tea caddy on the nightstand, his mind at peace. The exploration might not have yielded any substantial rewards, but it had been a form of relaxation and a good test.

Composing himself, Xu Mo stopped paying attention to the zombies wandering outside and pushed aside thoughts of the infinite possibilities behind the door. For now, the most important thing was still to increase his own strength. He returned to the open space in the center of the observation room, settled into his stance, and immersed himself in his training, circulating his vitality until his muscles and bones began to hum with power.

As evening fell, raindrops began to patter from the sky. At first they were sparse, but they soon connected into steady streams, eventually becoming a hazy curtain of rain that shrouded the ruins and the lone tower.

The rain drummed against the fortress’s thick concrete shell, a constant, soft roar. Besides that, it seemed there was no other sound in the world. The gunfire had long ceased, and even the zombies’ roars seemed to be muffled by the endless downpour, lending the land of the dead an even more profound, bone-chilling stillness and desolation.

Finished with his afternoon workout, steam rising from his body, Xu Mo walked over to the table, picked up the radio, and switched it on.

After a faint crackle of static, a clear, programmatic female voice emerged from the speaker, broadcasting announcements about adjustments to supply distribution within Jiang City and some regional management regulations. In the background, the faint, filtered din unique to a city could be heard. This sound, coming from the distant bastion of human civilization, created a sharp, bizarre contrast with the rain- and death-shrouded ruins outside the window. It was as if two completely unrelated worlds had been forcibly stitched together.