Chapter 353: Evacuate

POSTED ON MARCH 30, 2023 BY KEN

After catching the mutated rust-eating parasite, Fang Linyan was dumbfounded. He found that Lanket had fallen to the ground limply. His pupils were dilated.

He was taken aback. He immediately went to check on Lanket, and he found that his vital signs were rapidly dissipating. He rushed to give first aid, but he found that it was useless at all. He died completely after 2 minutes.

Such changes really surprised Fang Linyan.

Goat took off Lanket’s clothes and checked, only to find that there was a scorched brown bloody mark on the position of the cervical spine. Around the mark, there were 8 deep holes.

Obviously, this mutated rust-eating parasite had been infesting his back and paralyzing his nerves, making him ignorant of it.

Not only that, but the monster’s 6 long steel legs pierced deeply into Lanket’s body, controlling his life. It could even unconsciously control his behavior. Just like the horsehair worm controlled the behavior of a praying mantis.

After being sprayed with a special insecticide, the mutant fled from his body, which must have severely damaged Lanket’s internal organs and killed him in an instant.

To be honest, Fang Linyan and Goat really never thought about letting Lanket die. In their previous assumptions, the mutated rust-eating parasite should be hidden in Lanket’s soles, pockets, boxes, etc.

He didn’t expect this mutant to parasitize directly in Lanket’s body.

In this way, the only 2 researchers, Lanket and Mochi, were dead one after the other. They were in an awkward situation now.

The data and information they obtained along the way were all in the hands of the researchers!

Those image materials and documents were all placed in a USB flash drive the size of a fingernail. Fang Linyan and the others belong to the armed department of Duckland Company, so they were completely different from the research department.

According to the regulations, people in the armed department couldn’t inquire about any research department’s information at all, otherwise it would be against the rules.

So to put it bluntly, what they gained after entering the underground Veronica base — or more precisely, the useful gains for Duckland Company were almost gone.

Goat searched Lanket, sighed regretfully and said,

“I don’t know where they put the USB drive. What a pity.”

Fang Linyan shook his head and said,

“Before we came back, they were being besieged by people from the Gumball Company. They must be panicking at the time, so they must have hidden the USB flash drive that recorded important information.”

“It was really the worst care scenario that the 2 were in conflict. They had no chance to get the USB flash drive. Under such circumstances, it will be very difficult for us to find the USB flash drive that was deliberately hidden.”

“Let’s go, it’s already good that we could catch the mutated rust-eating parasite. I just cast [Reconnaissance], and it shows that it is an unknown strange creature. What does it matter if there is no result? Didn’t Delto make it very clear? The merit he earned earlier is enough for promotion.”

***

A few minutes later, they left the underground nuclear power plant and walked back.

Yes, it was the passage they took to the underground lake for the first time.

This passage was rebuilt by the Bloody Umbrella Company back then using the underground rift. Fang Linyan still remembered very clearly that they actually encountered a ghost train running underground. The driver of that train turned out to be a dead man.

Although Fang Linyan pretended to be calm, he actually felt his scalp tingling and his heart chilling at that time. It was just that he knew he couldn’t panic. If he panicked, Goat would lose his confidence completely.

After returning here, they stopped halfway and even climbed directly to the top of a large boulder. They were very close to the hanging rail at the top of the cave.

The purpose to come here was actually to wait for this ghost train.

Only about 10 minutes later, they heard the rumbling sound, and the somewhat terrifying ghost train appeared from the darkness again and drove directly over.

Fang Linyan and Goat glanced at each other and looked prepared. When the ghost train drove beside them, they jumped over, grabbed the handles on the side, and jumped directly into the train.

The compartment inside was empty without seats or the like. The interior of the compartment was very dirty and wet. There were remaining gravel mud and the like everywhere. All the compartments were connected without any door. Only a steel plate was welded at the rear of the front compartment.

Not only that, after they got into the train, an alarm-like object with a shining red light floated over from a distance and said in a strange synthetic sound,

“Warning, warning again, please identify yourself, otherwise the procedure to deal with intruders will be initiated.”

Fang Linyan immediately said loudly,

“Take it easy, baby. Long live Cybertron!”

Hearing Fang Linyan’s words, the red light of the alarm began to gradually switch to yellow light, then it continued to say in synthetic voice,

“Who are you?”

Goat said immediately:

“We are loyal servants of the ruler of Quintessa!”

After hearing this answer, the alarm stopped flashing, stopped talking, and flew away, apparently acquiescing to their existence.

At this moment, Goat and Fang Linyan exchanged glances and walked toward the front of the train.

To be honest, when they saw the skeleton driver driving this mysterious train out of the darkness, they were really stunned. Now that they boarded the train, of course they had to make it clear.

When they came to the front, they did see a skeleton driver sitting in the driver’s seat.

However, he just sat there without moving, probably because the special protective clothing on his body kept his bones intact so that the skeleton would not collapse. However, it was just a simple skeleton, which had nothing to do with driving.

This train was entirely controlled by artificial intelligence!

After about 10 minutes, the ghost train slowly stopped. They could see a strange and huge machine roaring in the distance. It was like a mixture of a mixer, a pulverizer, and an excavator.

When the ghost train approached, a thick and long leather pipe was drawn up from below. It violently pushed into the rear of the compartment for several meters.

Immediately afterward, the thick and long leather pipe with a diameter of more than 2 meters squirmed for a while, and it began to spray a large amount of soil and gravel into the compartment. Luckily, there was a steel plate at the front compartment, otherwise they would be covered in mud.

After most of the carriages were filled with soil and gravel, the ghost train was started again. It was heading back again.

After moving for almost half an hour, the ghost train stop gradually, then it began to unload the soil and gravel in the compartment.

Its unloading method was also very special. The steel plate behind was slightly inclined, then it slowly pushed toward the rear like the bucket of a bulldozer.

Because most of the compartments were muddy, and the train was tilting its tail downward, so it was quite convenient to unload the soil and gravel.

After Fang Linyan and Goat saw this scene, they jumped off the ghost train directly, because this was the “final station”. The good time of hitchhiking was gone forever.

Goat took out the map from his pocket, carefully identified the location, and said to Fang Linyan,

“This way.”

They quickly disappeared into the darkness.

***

What’s the matter with all this?

This started with something that Fang Linyan discovered before.

He found that the water level of the underground lake had dropped a lot compared to 6 years ago. The underwater dock built by the Scarlet Umbrella organization base at about 15 meters deep in the underground lake was now three meters above the water surface.

The one behind the scenes who caused this was none other than Nimbus who was loyal to Pumesh.

In the beginning, Nimbus must have known everything that the people of the Bloody Umbrella Company did, but the sense of superiority of the advanced intelligent life made it not take it seriously.

Like when an explorer finds a few birds flying in and out of his camp, their reaction may not be to drive them away, but they may even throw some leftovers for them to eat.

What’s more, in the mind of Nimbus, these human beings of the Bloody Umbrella Company were just lowly lifeforms. Their weight might not be as heavy as the birds in the hearts of humans…

However, when the Bloody Umbrella Company trespassed and even opened the Five-Faced Moster Box, Nimbus felt a sense of crisis. After all, the meaning of its existence was to eliminate the dangerous factors as much as possible and ensure the safety of its master.

Under such circumstances, Nimbus designed several sets of defense schemes. The one finally selected was extremely powerful, and it was confident that even if Soundwave came to attack, it would be no problem to resist for half an hour.

However, the biggest problem in implementing this plan was this wide and deep underground lake!!

Water was actually a very rare resource on other planets, so all the equipment and weapons used in Nimbus’ defense plan were not waterproof!

Or it could be said that these things were not considered at all when they were designed.

In this case, Nimbus could only find a way to drain the water from the underground lake first.

However, after exploration, this underground lake was the lowest point in the radius of these dozens of square kilometers, which was equivalent to the bottom of a basin. The geological structure was also quite stable. It was almost impossible to drain the water directly.

In desperation, Nimbus had no choice but to think of another way. If the water couldn’t be drained, just stopped the water from flowing in! This was the drastic measure for the problem.

TL: Couldn’t it learn waterproof stuff from human equipment and buildings?