Chapter 50 - 46: Identity Exposed Again

Chapter 50: Chapter 46: Identity Exposed Again

The passage leading to the lower level was narrower and darker than the one above. In many places, there were only crawling ladders wide enough for a single person. Fleshy membranes covered the railings, making them slick and clammy to the touch.

The further down they went, the denser the blood-red dust became, resembling countless eyeballs suspended in the darkness.

Two experimental soldiers led the way, closely followed by Lighthouse and White Phosphorus. Cole and Amelia walked in the middle of the formation, guarded by three other experimental soldiers. Yin Zhen and Adeline brought up the rear. Tuner was sandwiched between them, his back drenched in sweat.

"Are you nervous?" Adeline suddenly asked Tuner. The shadows beneath her feet stretched out in all directions, silently scouting the way.

Tuner glanced at Yin Zhen. "No, I’m not... What are you doing?!"

He suddenly jumped to the side, dodging Adeline’s raised hand. Adeline looked at him as if he were a lunatic; she had only raised her hand to adjust her helmet.

"You’re quite amusing."

Tuner immediately cast a loyal gaze at Yin Zhen. Adeline had definitely done that on purpose. The people of the Cavendish family were too manipulative! But Yin Zhen didn’t even bother to spare him a glance.

"Fifty meters ahead is an open area. Three Mutants are fast asleep in the middle of the path we have to take," Adeline suddenly returned to a serious demeanor and reported in a low voice.

Yin Zhen drew the Hand Axe from her waist and said in her mind, "Cole, tell everyone to use cold weapons. Don’t make too much noise."

Cole nodded, silently transmitting the message. The experimental soldiers drew their tactical daggers, and Lighthouse pulled out an alloy machete. Blood Flames silently ignited over White Phosphorus’s fists. The group quietly slipped into the darkness.

With a few muffled thuds and the sound of bursting flesh, a burnt, fishy stench filled the air. The three Mutants were dispatched cleanly and efficiently. Chewing gum, Amelia quickly stepped forward with Cole to collect samples. Along the way, she had taken a sample from every Mutant they encountered, acting with the utmost diligence, perfectly fitting her Identity as a researcher.

An hour later, the group arrived at the vertical shaft leading to the lower wellbore.

Adeline raised a hand, and everyone halted. Yin Zhen slowly moved forward with her. The entrance to the drilling platform’s wellbore was at least ten meters in diameter, pitch-black like a gaping maw. Countless Mutants sprawled out around it. It was impossible to tell if they were fish that had mutated into humans or humans who had grown fish-like traits. Big and small, densely packed together, they curled up in deep slumber. The blood-red fluorescence on their bodies pulsed erratically, like deep-sea anglerfish using light to lure their prey.

"The Inspector General said there wouldn’t be any Mutants in the wellbore," Cole’s voice echoed in everyone’s minds, carrying a hint of tension. "These might be guards, protecting whatever is down there."

There were dozens of Mutants. Once a fight broke out, the commotion would inevitably wake up the entire platform. To save time on their stealthy approach, they hadn’t cleared out every Mutant.

Just as everyone was pondering how to enter the wellbore silently... CRACK!

One of the experimental soldiers stepped on a patch of brittle rust. The sound wasn’t loud, but in the dead silence of the vertical shaft, it exploded like a thunderclap. The experimental soldier turned his head in horror to look at Amelia beside him. At the same time, the fluorescence on all the Mutants flared up brightly. Their clammy, murky, pupil-less eyes rolled out from the folds of their fleshy membranes one after another, all staring in their direction.

"Charge through! Get down the wellbore first!"

Before Yin Zhen could finish her sentence, the two closest Mutants were already pouncing at her. She buried her Hand Axe into one Mutant’s head, kicked it away, and drew Night Song, firing decisively at the other. BANG! A headshot. Black blood splattered, sizzling and smoking as it hit the ground.

The entire shaft erupted into chaos. Mutants surged from all directions, their tentacles sweeping and impaling. Their fluorescent lights flashed madly in the darkness, like out-of-control warning beacons.

Lighthouse charged at the very front. His machete cleaved a head in two. When another lunged at him, he bashed it away with his shoulder and raised his Shield, standing firm like an iron wall.

The Blood Flames on White Phosphorus’s fists burned at their brightest. Every punch slammed into the Mutants’ most vulnerable spots. She killed fast, but more swarmed in even faster.

Tuner’s blood silk wove into a dense net, shredding all the Mutants within a three-meter radius of Yin Zhen.

On the other side, three Mutants charged forward simultaneously.

"Lucia, look out!"

Yin Zhen was entirely focused on the front. Tuner gave a tug on his blood silk, directly dragging the nearest experimental soldier over to act as a human shield by Yin Zhen’s side. SQUELCH! A tentacle covered in sharp, hooked barbs pierced right through the experimental soldier’s chest. The man didn’t even have time to scream.

Yin Zhen furrowed her brows. With her left hand, her Hand Axe severed the writhing tentacle, while her right hand fired a shot that blew apart the Mutant’s head.

As if under some sort of control, the Mutants swarmed toward Yin Zhen like mad. Yin Zhen didn’t have the time to ponder the reason. Wielding a gun in one hand and an axe in the other, she struggled to hold them off. Not only was she unable to approach the wellbore, but the endless tide of Mutants forced her further and further back.

Seeing this, Lighthouse, White Phosphorus, and Tuner all chose to fall back, staunchly protecting her. The four of them were besieged by the massive horde of Mutants, under immense pressure.

Amidst the chaos, the experimental soldiers guarding Amelia and Cole were torn to shreds one by one. The last one was completely surrounded, his gunfire tapering from heavy bursts into sudden silence.

Grasping Final Curtain, Adeline utilized Shadow Manipulation to blast apart wave after wave of Mutants. Moving nimbly, she forcefully carved out a bloody path.

"We’re going down first!"

Amelia’s speed was indeed incredibly fast. She and Cole leaped down the wellbore one after another. With a flash, Adeline’s figure turned into black smoke and vanished into the opening as well. The muffled thud of heavy objects hitting the ground echoed from the bottom of the wellbore.

White Phosphorus suddenly laughed, baffling both Lighthouse and Tuner. Yin Zhen shot her a sharp glare. White Phosphorus swallowed the words she was about to say, though the corners of her mouth remained curved upward.

Yin Zhen made a hand signal. Catching her meaning, Lighthouse tossed her the lightweight Flame Thrower from his back. She and Tuner stood back-to-back. The flames and blood silk alternated in suppressing the Mutants that continually poured out from every crevice.

Amidst the ear-piercing shrieks of the Mutants, White Phosphorus shattered a nearby pillar with a single punch. BOOM! The overhead structure crashed down, crushing a massive number of Mutants and completely sealing the entrance to the wellbore.

"Retreat!"

The four fought as they retreated, falling back into the passage. Lighthouse hacked down the last Mutant blocking their way, grabbed an iron plate, and slammed it viciously into the doorframe. The iron plate underwent a Transformation and jammed securely in place, completely barricading the roaring creatures behind it as they let out continuous, deafening howls. The crisis was temporarily averted.

Tuner and Lighthouse looked at White Phosphorus in confusion. Smiling, she signaled to them.

There was absolutely nothing down there!

Tuner froze, and Lighthouse looked completely bewildered.

Yin Zhen felt no need to explain it to them. Ever since the system popped up the quest requiring them to eliminate the β-type Biomass Aggregation, she had ordered White Phosphorus to secretly alter the data and conceal the core’s true location. No matter who the ’enemies’ operating alongside her were, she was going to lead them here, trap them, and then go steal the ’kill’ for herself. Adeline had Shadow Manipulation; in this underground space filled with shadows, nothing could trap her.

Yin Zhen felt no apologies for this. Since upgrading to a ’Supporting Character,’ she had essentially left the novice village and lost her beginner perks. The number of events she could trigger had noticeably decreased. This directly reduced her avenues for acquiring word counts, forcing her to complete Slaughter events.

However, as of now, she hadn’t received any system notifications for accumulated points for all the Mutants she had killed. It was highly likely that the points were hidden and wouldn’t be calculated until they returned, at which point all Players would be tallied together and a leaderboard would be displayed.

With a look from Yin Zhen, White Phosphorus nodded and led the team toward the true location of the core: the cabin area near the control center.

More than Amelia’s group, Yin Zhen was currently more worried about Ian’s side, as well as how to temporarily shake off the Bloodthorn Squad.

Meanwhile, Adeline, who had jumped to the bottom of the wellbore, looked up and saw the entrance blocked. She appeared extremely calm, wearing an expression that said, ’I knew you little bastards were up to no good.’

The only reason she had willingly walked into this trap was because that scumbag Cole had betrayed her.

Adeline scanned the cramped space at the bottom of the wellbore, her sharp gaze ultimately landing on Amelia and Cole. Cole looked incredibly apologetic, not daring to meet Adeline’s eyes directly.

"Those Mutants kept attacking Lucia just now. Was that your doing?" Adeline asked Amelia.

Amelia also knew she had fallen for a trap. She had underestimated Lucia too much, thinking the girl was just some arrogant minor supporting character. Since things had come to this, Amelia decided to deal with the immediate problem first. She flashed a smile and extended a hand toward Adeline.

"Hello, Heavenly Dao Rewards Diligence. I am ’Winter Night Fire’."

’Winter Night Fire’ was a song her grandmother liked very much, so Nan Jiamu had used it as her moniker.