Fantasy Game: Infinite City

Chapter 560: Garbage Dump (2)

Ten minutes later.

In the Infinite City dungeon map module, a flashing marker appeared on the local map. This marker pointed to the western entrance of the farm in the key area that Adenauer had previously scanned using the contractor's equipment. This area was farmland, and soil testing revealed that nothing was planted there, merely clearing the land. The flashing marker's exact location was a corner of the farmland.

I walked to the location of the flashing light and took a look. At first glance, there was nothing special here. It was also a farmland, but through the ability of perspective, I could confirm that under the soil one meter deep, there was a rusty metal trapdoor.

For an adult male to dig a meter deep in normal soil, it would take at least an hour. However, the soil here had been recently cultivated and was soft, so digging a vertical hole would only take forty minutes. Adenauer's excellent physical fitness allowed him to reduce this process to half an hour. Although he could use his bio-force field to directly envelop the target area's soil and complete the earthwork instantly like throwing a boulder, Adenauer knew that many players might be observing him, so he chose not to do so. Instead, he planned to carry out the earthwork in the normal way. After all, his vest did not have the ability to change the terrain.

Now all Adenauer needed to do was find a tool for digging. The area around here was all farmland, and the people of Sterburg were very simple, so many farm tools were randomly placed in the nearby fields. Without even moving from their current location, Adenauer found a shovel a few steps away, looked around, and began digging.

"when!"

Half an hour later, the shovel hit the rusty metal trapdoor, making some noise. Adenauer stood up and threw the shovel out of the pit, preparing to clean the loose soil on the trapdoor with his hands. Just as he threw the shovel, his eyes caught a glimpse of the haystack in the distance. With his perspective, he discovered that there were two sneaky guys behind it, looking towards his position.

After taking a closer look, Adenauer immediately discovered their identities: Frank and Liz. For Adenauer, ordinary people like Frank and Liz posed no threat to him at all, so unless Adenauer set the authority himself, the contractor's equipment would not issue an early warning. In addition, even without the warning of the contractor's equipment, Adenauer's own passive perception would change when abnormal energy was detected, and Frank and Liz did not have this ability, so Adenauer naturally did not need to be too wary of the two of them.

In fact, before Adenauer left the B&B, he had noticed something was wrong with Frank and Liz. They seemed to be spying on him. Later, he realized that Liz was pretending to be asleep. However, at that time, he thought they were looking for a chance to leave. This was actually a good thing for Adenauer. Without others around, he could move faster, so he didn't expose Liz's disguise. But to his surprise, the two not only did not find a chance to leave, but instead followed him.

Frank and Liz didn't know that they had been discovered, and Adenauer didn't expose their thoughts. Since they chose to follow quietly, they would not easily expose themselves. As long as it didn't ruin their own business, then let them follow. Adenauer didn't care.

Back in the excavated pit, Adenauer squatted and cleaned the loose dirt from the trapdoor with his hands. If it were outside, Adenauer could simply use brute force to tear the rusted trapdoor open like paper, or simply use high-energy radiation to burn through or cut it open, but now there were so many eyes watching, so this was definitely not an option.

"Fortunately, I was prepared."

Adenauer took something out of his pocket. It was the thermite bomb that he had improved when he was in the B&B. It was called an improvement, but in fact it was just replacing the original large thermite bomb with a smaller shell, turning a large one into several small ones. Although this thermite, the size of a cigarette box, could not directly burn through the trapdoor in front of him like before, it was still enough to burn open the rusty lock on it.

After installing the thermite in the designated location, Adenauer started the countdown and temporarily left the pit. Soon, the sound of chemical reactions could be heard from the pit, accompanied by the stench of molten metal.

"boom."

Soon, the thermite burned out, and the sound below also meant that the trapdoor was opened. Adenauer threw a handful of soil into the pit to extinguish the embers and use the soil to cool the area where the thermite burned. After a while, Adenauer entered the pit again, pushed aside the sand, found the handle of the trapdoor, and opened it.

"No usable energy source detected."

It was pitch black below, but with the help of night vision, Adenauer could see that there was a severely rusted metal ladder on the wall below. The wooden handle in the middle had completely rotted away, leaving only the metal pillars on both sides. Although they were severely rusted, they were still strong overall. Only some parts were broken, but they could still be climbed.

The contractor's equipment scanned some energy lines, but the energy devices at the end were completely exhausted and there was no backup power supply, so there would be no troublesome sentry systems or alarm devices below. So Adenauer turned around and climbed down using a partially damaged metal ladder, entering the underground space that the contractor's equipment had previously scanned.

"despair."

After landing, Adenauer pulled out a tactical flashlight from his pocket, which had been attached to his gun. It wasn't large, but it provided enough light to clearly see a few meters ahead. Adenauer didn't actually need it, but he kept it for the sake of convenience. Using the tactical flashlight's light, Adenauer discovered that he was in what looked like a research facility.

Adenauer was currently in the center of a corridor. To the east was the large space beneath the farm, and to the right was another area blocked by a massive metal gate. Although there was no way to open the gate, Adenauer, through his clairvoyance, could confirm that it was a warehouse-like space, empty except for a few empty boxes.

Walking east along the corridor, Adenauer entered the space beneath the farm after about a few minutes. The area near the corridor should have been an office area or a laboratory area with office equipment, but now it was basically a mess. The combination of rotting paper and the dampness that caused metal to rust created a rather unpleasant smell that made Adenauer frown. In some corners, one could see a lot of rodent hair, insect carcasses, and rotting crops. It seemed that this place had become a new home for voles. However, he did not scan for voles here, but the contractor's equipment did scan a lot of insects in the corners and cracks in the walls.

Continuing deeper, we skirted the wreckage and soon reached the center of the space. This area was still blocked by a massive metal gate. Without power, it couldn't be opened. Unlike the area at the other end of the corridor, however, this side of the wall had a massive glass window. It looked like an observation area. The glass was made of a very strong material, probably specialized protective glass. So, aside from being extremely dirty and unable to see clearly inside, it was otherwise intact.

"Inspection in progress...Inspection completed."

"Obstacle category: low-level explosion-proof glass."

"Defense level: extremely low."

These glasses have been tested and confirmed to be explosion-proof. Although the contractor's equipment classifies their defense level as almost the same as garbage, that is for the contractors. Under normal circumstances, this explosion-proof glass is still useful. Even for players of the Infinite City, if the overall attributes are not enough, or the relative attributes are not enough, these things cannot be easily destroyed.

Adenauer's guns were clearly incapable of destroying the explosion-proof glass, but fortunately he still had his thermite bombs. Although they couldn't burn through the heavy metal gates, they were more than enough to carve a hole in the explosion-proof glass for Adenauer to pass through.

After securing two small thermite bombs to their target locations using some metal debris found on the ground, Adenauer activated the countdown. As the thermite ignited, it quickly burned through the explosion-proof glass, creating a gap for entry and exit. Using some non-heat-conducting trash to scrape off the melted glass, Adenauer took off his coat, used it to cover the edge of the cut, and crawled through the burned area, reaching the space behind the metal gate.

The environment here resembled a normal biological research laboratory. Nearby, behind glass walls, were large incubation chambers containing amorphous, inactive organisms. The culture fluid within had changed color due to deterioration. Scans and reconstructions by the contractor's equipment revealed that the contents had been stored there for at least several years. Scans and personal observation revealed that the dead organisms had hardened extensively.

Across from the glass wall lay the wreckage of a vast pile of research and experimental equipment. The contractor's restoration revealed that the instruments were in such a state not simply due to long-term rust, but rather due to someone deliberately spilling a highly corrosive liquid on them. Based on the location of the instruments and the point at which the corrosion began, it could be roughly determined that the liquid originated from near the ceiling. Looking up, Adenauer discovered several severe holes in the ceiling, and within these holes lay numerous pipes, not intended for transmitting electricity.

"Fire sprinklers?"

Based on the current situation, we can get some information. First, based on the degree of corrosion of the fire sprinklers - they could not be found at the scene at all, they should have been completely corroded, and the severely damaged pipelines at the rear can be judged that these lines are not specially used to hold those corrosive liquids. They were originally ordinary fire sprinklers. Someone found the water storage device, emptied the water inside, and replaced it with these corrosive liquids, in order to let them destroy all the experimental equipment here.

Second, if you want to achieve the first point, you need a large amount of corrosive liquid, so it is impossible to complete this task secretly. That is, the corrosive liquid must be provided by the original owner of the experimental base, or even replaced.

Third, no bones or similar biological debris were found on the ground, meaning the staff and researchers had received the news before the corrosive liquid was sprayed. Adenauer checked recent news reports on his phone about Stuttgart, but found no information about the research laboratory. This suggests the facility's abandonment wasn't due to discovery or similar circumstances, but rather to internal problems.

However, so far, Adenauer has not found any signs of human damage in the places he has passed, except for corrosive liquids. Except for the current laboratory, all other damage is due to natural causes, most of which are natural rust caused by moisture or air.

Since the location of the research institute has not been discovered, and there seems to be no experimental subjects running wild inside, it does not seem reasonable to abandon a well-equipped research institute, and someone would deliberately damage the experimental instruments and equipment inside.

However, Adenauer knew he hadn't fully explored the area yet. Perhaps he could find the reason why it had become a garbage dump further down. So, Adenauer took out his modified rifle, examined it, and continued to delve deeper, hoping to find some clues. Behind the glass walls, he saw numerous biological culture chambers. Although the culture fluids and samples inside had decayed, perhaps these were related to the synths.

At the same time, above the secret research institute, at the entrance of the hole that Adenauer had dug earlier.

"How did he find the trapdoor down here?"

"Maybe there are other people behind him. Didn't we guess before that there might be other people helping him?"

"He's been down there for forty minutes, why hasn't he come up yet?"

"I don't know. Maybe he found something."

"Go down and take a look?"

"This place doesn't look safe, and if we were to run into one head-on, we wouldn't be able to explain it."

"but...?"

"Okay, I do want to go down and take a look, but I'll go down first. After confirming that there's no problem, you can go down to Liz. That way, even if something happens to me..."

Liz didn't listen to Frank's nagging. She jumped into the pit and climbed down using a metal ladder.

"Damn it! Liz!"

Frank had no choice but to shout softly, then climbed down with Liz.

After reaching the ground.

"What kind of place is this??"

"It looks like some kind of secret base."

"The metal gate here is sealed and cannot be opened. He must have gone to the other side."

"Walk."

Following Adenauer's footsteps, the two soon arrived outside the observation room and saw the gap.

"This is blast-proof glass. There are some fragments of thermite bomb shells on the ground. He was tinkering with these in the garage this afternoon."

"The clothes above are what he was wearing before. He should have entered through this gap."

"The idea of ​​using thermite to burn through explosion-proof glass is not something you often see."

Liz and Frank also entered the laboratory through the gap, and the unpleasant smell soon reached their noses.

"This place smells terrible."

"Look at this Frank."

"Is this... a shoe print?"

"What kind of shoes are they?"

"It's not a shoe, it's a boot. Although I'm not familiar with the pattern of the boot, judging by the size of the footprint, it must have been left by Adenauer."

During the exploration, Liz noticed some shoe prints on the dust on the ground that had turned into mud due to moisture. Frank speculated that these should be left by Adenauer, so the two followed the direction of the shoe prints and tried to find Adenauer's trace.