Chapter 96: Closer, Colder

Ye Xuan looked around the area near the metal door, then noticed something nearby.

’That’s... metal bars?’

He walked toward the metal bars that had fallen on the ground, then squatted down and saw the small opening at the air exhaust pipe’s exit.

Seeing how small the opening was, he controlled his spatial-element energy. A second later, the remaining metal bars suddenly broke and fell to the ground.

Clang! Clang! Clang!

After cutting through all the metal bars and creating an opening big enough for him to pass through, Ye Xuan crawled into the air exhaust pipe without hesitation.

The farther he crawled, the smaller the air exhaust pipe became. A few minutes later, Ye Xuan was already crawling with difficulty.

Just when he was thinking about breaking the air exhaust pipe and going down, he saw a hole not far ahead of him. Ye Xuan’s eyes flickered for a second before he continued pushing his body through the narrow air exhaust pipe.

After crawling for a few more minutes, he finally reached the hole. He examined its size and knew that this must be where Liu Yun had climbed down from the air exhaust pipe.

Peering down through the hole, Ye Xuan saw a small room. However, the light was too dim for him to see the room’s interior clearly.

Seeing that the door was open, he slid down through the hole without hesitation.

Tap.

Landing lightly on the ground, Ye Xuan scanned the room for a moment before noticing the black lines and thick moss covering the walls and furniture.

’These black lines... Why do they seem familiar?’

Ye Xuan walked closer to the wall, then took a closer look at the black lines.

The moment he saw that the black lines were pulsating as if they were breathing, Ye Xuan’s eyes widened in surprise.

’These are the black vines of the Mutant Queen from Niu Ma Village!’

Shocked to find the famous Mutant Queen here, Ye Xuan froze in place.

In the future, this Mutant Queen would become one of the four great disasters of the Apocalypse World.

Although he would eventually become far stronger than the Mutant Queen as the Zombie King, defeating her with his current strength would be anything but easy.

Coming back to his senses, Ye Xuan quickly turned toward the open door. When he thought about Liu Yun encountering the Mutant Queen, his heart sank.

’Not good! I need to find her before she meets the Mutant Queen!’

Without wasting even a second, Ye Xuan rushed out of the room and followed Liu Yun’s trail.

Meanwhile, Liu Yun had finally reached the lowest floor of the mysterious facility.

Looking at the wide corridors covered in black vines and the darkness surrounding her, Liu Yun opened the System Store. She searched the Daily Necessities section for a while before finding what she wanted.

[Multi-Function Survival Flashlight]

[Quality: Common]

[Grade: Standard]

[Amount: 1]

[Shelf Life: Permanent]

[Purchase Limit: Unlimited]

[Maximum Illumination: 500 meters]

[Maximum Brightness: 3,000 lumens]

[Battery Life: 72 hours]

[Special Functions: UV Detection / Red Light / Strobe]

[Power Source: System Energy Cell]

[Price: 100 System Points]

[Information: A reliable flashlight designed for extreme survival environments. Waterproof, dustproof, shock-resistant, and equipped with multiple illumination modes.]

[Buy] [Exit]

When Liu Yun saw the price, she almost vomited two liters of blood.

Gritting her teeth, she asked, ’System, why is the price for an ordinary flashlight so high? Can you give me a little discount?’

Being asked by her, the System emotionlessly replied, [The prices of all products listed in the System Store are fixed.]

Hearing this, Liu Yun knew that her stingy System wouldn’t bat an eye even if she cried her eyes out and begged for a discount.

Looking at the complete darkness surrounding her, she sighed helplessly, then sold ten more Level 0 Zombie Crystal Cores.

Ding!

[Successfully sold 10 Level 0 Zombie Crystal Cores. Obtained 100 System Points. Player, please check your balance.]

Liu Yun felt her heart bleed when she saw the number of crystal cores in her inventory decrease by ten.

Now that she had enough System Points, Liu Yun pressed the [Buy] button and purchased the Multi-Function Survival Flashlight.

Ding!

[Thank you for your purchase, Player. The item has been delivered to your inventory.]

After buying the Multi-Function Survival Flashlight, Liu Yun took it out of her inventory. Seeing that she could manually adjust the brightness and choose from multiple modes, the corners of her lips curved up slightly.

’Looks like this flashlight is more useful than I thought.’𝒻𝘳ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝒷𝘯ℴ𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝑐ℴ𝑚

Thinking about the black vines covering the entire place, Liu Yun set the brightness to the lowest level and chose the basic mode.

When she was done, Liu Yun switched on the flashlight.

In an instant, a soft light illuminated the surroundings. Although the light had a brightness of only 10 lumens, it was bright enough to illuminate an area three meters around Liu Yun.

With the Multi-Function Survival Flashlight in her left hand and her wooden stick in her right hand, Liu Yun took a deep breath and continued down the corridors covered in dense black vines.

Along the way, Liu Yun walked cautiously while keeping her eyes on her surroundings.

As she got closer to the target area, Liu Yun felt colder and colder. Shuddering from the cold, she breathed out and saw faint fog forming from her warm breath as it seeped out from the small vents of her Pure Air Protection Mask.

Her fingers tightened around her wooden stick as she thought, ’It’s getting colder. I wonder what is hidden in the center of this mysterious place.’

Filled with curiosity mixed with fear, Liu Yun clenched her jaw and kept walking. Before long, she reached the end of the corridor.

Looking at the metal door in front of her, Liu Yun thought, ’Another metal door. There must be something important hidden behind this door. I hope it’s not something like a group of zombies or mutants. Otherwise, I might go offline today.’

While she was lost in thought, Liu Yun suddenly heard urgent footsteps approaching from behind.

Tap! Tap! Tap!