CHAPTER 344: CHAPTER 341 [NON-HUMAN?] (PART 2)

Chapter 341: Non-Human? (Part 2)

Raising an eyebrow, Chen Nuo said nothing but closely followed the Captain, along with his group’s Kamisou Ichiro and Rebecca, back to the hall with Nolan.

Rebecca quickly recounted what had just happened. The Captain’s face changed as soon as he heard that the technicians had suddenly gone mad and attacked their own people. His expression turned even graver upon subsequently learning that two of the technicians exhibited bizarre changes—possessing immense strength, imperviousness to injury, and the ability to forcefully smash through walls to escape. Chen Nuo, meanwhile, noticed that Nolan’s expression seemed very shocked.

Chen Nuo then slowly said, "We also found something in the living quarters near the warehouse. There’s a room in the living area where a tunnel has been dug underground, and it’s very deep. The tunnel is rough, obviously not excavated by machinery."

Nolan’s face grew increasingly stern. He quickly picked up the walkie-talkie and reported the situation to all the groups.

At that moment, Wizard’s voice came through.

"There’s an accident with the Wizard team! The person who fell down is gone!"

"What do you mean by ’gone’?" Nolan asked, dissatisfied.

"Gone means gone! He fell down, and we tried to pull him up, but found no one below! He freaking disappeared somehow!"

Wizard said coldly, "There’s something wrong with the pit underground. We found something that looks like a tunnel..."

"Wizard team, immediately leave the living quarters and meet at the command center’s module camp!" Nolan made the decision without a second thought.

Just then, everyone in the hall heard faint airflow sounds. WHOOSHING noises came from the pipes on the walls of the modules. Everyone was taken aback and then quickly became vigilant. But a few seconds later, a WHIRRING sound came from the heating vents of the module.

Just then, Lillian’s voice came through the earpieces.

"Everyone, the technicians have successfully restarted the heating equipment. Thank me for letting you feel a bit of warm air!"

Nolan breathed a sigh of relief.

"What’s the point of restarting the heating?" the Captain frowned. "We’re only staying here for a while before we leave."

"No, it’s just a test of the equipment. We aren’t actually using the facilities here," Nolan quickly clarified. "They didn’t restart the heating equipment, but the central control system. Once the central control is restarted, the heating is automatically activated. It’s all one system."

The Captain didn’t speak anymore.

Chen Nuo glanced at the equipment worn on everyone’s wrists, which were wristwatch timers.

"I remind you, Mr. Nolan, thirty-five minutes have already passed in the hour-and-a-half window we had! We now have less than an hour left."

"I understand," Nolan said coldly. "Gathering information is the first step. If we encounter the enemy, we’ll proceed as agreed."

"Enemy, you mean non-human monsters?" Kamisou Ichiro asked.

"Yes, non-human monsters." Nolan’s tone was very cold. "I don’t believe that any human paranormal organization on Earth would dare to make such an aggressive move against our company!"

Rebecca quickly said, "The two technicians who attacked us just now seemed to have their bodies controlled by some kind of spiritual ability, and then..."

Nolan nodded to Rebecca to show he understood. "Let’s regroup with everyone first." Then he commanded the two armed personnel beside him, "Go outside, bring back the bodies of those two dead people, and examine them carefully."

Pausing, Nolan took a deep breath. "Group B, come with me. We are going to check out the tunnel dug out in the warehouse module that the Captain mentioned! The rest stay at your positions and guard this place carefully!"

With that, Nolan looked at the Captain. "How about it, Captain?"

Chen Nuo didn’t make a sound. The Captain understood, nodded, and said, "I have no objections. Let’s go."

「A few minutes later, the group returned to the exterior of the warehouse materials module.」

This time, Nolan first ordered two armed personnel to enter through the hole in the wall. They quickly scrambled inside. After a short while, the personnel inside returned to the opening and signaled that it was safe.

The group then re-entered the warehouse, skipping its inspection and moving directly through the module corridor into the living quarters module.

Chen Nuo saw that the door he had locked was now busted open. The cold-resistant composite door, reinforced with an integrated steel plate, had been torn completely from its frame and lay on the ground, severely deformed.

One of the armed personnel cautiously approached the doorframe, shining a flashlight inside while keeping his gun aimed, but he found nothing.

Nolan turned around. The Captain nodded, indicating he had already scanned the area with his spiritual power and found no anomalies inside.

Several of them entered the living quarters. Nolan looked at the gaping hole of the tunnel dug into the ground, his expression turning exceedingly grim.

"What the hell dug this out? This is damn freaky..."

As he spoke, the hawk-nosed man bent down, scooped up some frozen soil from the edge of the opening, and sniffed it.

"Did you find anything?" Chen Nuo couldn’t help but ask.

"I’m not a freaking dog," Nolan shook his head.

Chen Nuo rolled his eyes. Then why the hell are you sniffing it!

Chen Nuo slowly said, "There’s one problem. When we retreated from inside, I locked this door, but it’s clearly been busted open. That means, just now something from underground ran out and then... broke through the door. But the thing that ran up didn’t leave the module to chase us. It might have gone back underground now."

No one suggested sending someone down to investigate. Even those with little sense knew from Hollywood movies that sending people into such a tunnel, likely harboring monsters, would undoubtedly result in initial casualties. Nolan, however, still had a plan.

He quickly gave instructions to his subordinates over the walkie-talkie.

Then, several armed personnel brought in a device resembling a Mars rover robot, something Chen Nuo recognized from TV in his previous life.

A technician quickly took out a tablet computer. After interfacing it with the rover, they lowered the machine into the tunnel.

Armed personnel guarded the entrance to the living area, their guns aimed at the tunnel opening, while the others retreated to the outer warehouse room.

The rover slowly entered the tunnel.

Soon, the tablet computer’s screen showed a slightly blurry image. Because the rover’s built-in searchlight was small and the beam was weak, the image appeared very dark and jolted with the rover’s uneven movement, constantly shifting angles. Still, they could barely make out some details of the tunnel’s interior.

The tunnel extended downwards and widened. Gradually, a fork appeared at its end, where it split into two paths.

Chen Nuo had actually already probed the underground with his Spiritual Force Tentacles. But spiritual power wasn’t omnipotent. At times like these, the rover could provide a clearer picture.

Two minutes passed.

Suddenly, CLICK!

The image on the screen shook violently! The rover seemed to have collided with something, and the screen immediately went dark.

"FUCK!" the technician cursed, frantically trying to restore the feed, but to no avail.

"Rewind the footage! Go back five seconds before it cut out!" Nolan commanded immediately.

But even after replaying the footage three or four times, Nolan asked, "Did you guys see anything?"

Everyone shook their heads.

The technician frowned and said, "It seems... it collided with something, but nothing’s visible in the footage."

Chen Nuo also frowned. "Collided with something invisible? Transparent?"

And just at that moment, all of a sudden...

BANG!!

The expressions of everyone present changed instantly.

"Gunfire!" Nolan shouted.

At the same time, Chen Nuo had already dashed out of the hole in the warehouse wall. He pointed in a direction and yelled, "It’s from the direction of the convoy outside the base!"

His words had barely faded when...

POP POP POP... BOOM BOOM... BOOM BOOM BOOM...

Rapid gunfire came from the direction of the convoy waiting outside the base!

Nolan was already on his headset, urgently trying to contact someone. "Vanel! Vanel!"

And Chen Nuo had already dashed out without looking back!

"Anderson! Don’t run off!" Rebecca shouted from behind. But Chen Nuo didn’t listen at all.

The Captain didn’t hesitate and quickly chased after him.

And Kamisou Ichiro, surprisingly, also chased after the Captain.

"What are you doing here?" the Captain turned to glance at the man from Neon.

"In such a place, it’s safest to be with the Controller!" Kamisou Ichiro replied earnestly, not slowing down at all.

Nolan was urgently calling Vanel on his headset, about to give chase, when he glanced back towards the living area and the tunnel. He clenched his teeth and barked into his headset, "Research lab, send a team to support the convoy!!"

Chen Nuo ran swiftly!

Wind howled past his ears!

At this moment, he couldn’t afford to hesitate!

Vanel was his friend! A Davarishi!

But as Chen Nuo was running towards the perimeter of the base, suddenly, a loud noise came from the depths of the base! A rumbling sound, accompanied by a shockwave of air, erupted, and the ground itself seemed to become unstable, shaking several times!

Looking back, he saw a fireball soar into the sky from deep within the base, amidst the modular camp buildings!

An entire module building was blasted into the air, even taking flight!!

Chen Nuo instinctively paused for a moment, his footsteps slowing.

Just then, the Captain and Kamisou Ichiro caught up to him. The three of them turned almost simultaneously to look in the direction of the explosion.

"It seems... it’s the main control center for equipment? Where Lord Diamond is?" the man from Neon quickly said.