CHAPTER 357: CHAPTER 354: 【REMNANT】(TWO IN ONE CHAPTER)

[Remnants] (2-in-1 Chapter)

The permafrost and ice layers underground had been excavated, and a monster, carrying Chen Nuo and Kamisou Ichiro on its back, slowly crawled into a tunnel.

The passageway was uneven, dug in an irregular fashion, barely accommodating the monster as it carried the two men along.

They soon reached the end of the tunnel, which was clearly not yet fully excavated. Above the dead end was a combination of permafrost and ice layers.

"If we continue digging forward, after twenty more meters, we will reach that sealed underground container," Corot quickly communicated to Chen Nuo telepathically. "I will command the monster to break through here from the perimeter, storm into the underground facility, and then... force the people inside to come out. Once the Controller runs out from inside, I have a way to forcibly teleport him away from here."

"And then?"

"Then everything here will have nothing to do with you."

Chen Nuo dared not trust the words of this old jerk. This guy claims to have a sense of responsibility, and indeed he does. But he is cold-blooded enough too! One could see it from how he mercilessly killed everyone in an entire base. To maintain security here, he would absolutely not hesitate to kill.

"What about the people here?" Chen Nuo asked.

Corot did not respond.

"No, I can help you lure the Wizard—well, the Controller inside, out. But, you must ensure that the other survivors can leave safely!"

"The barrier is activated, I can’t..."

"You can!" Chen Nuo quickly interrupted Corot, coldly saying, "Don’t try to deceive me, Corot!"

"Activating the barrier is not safe; if something unexpected happens, and monsters get out..."

"If you can get the Wizard out, you can find a way to get everyone else out too!"

In the midst of their verbal battle, Corot conceded, "Alright, it’s settled then."

"Get all the survivors out; there’s no need for too many people to die," Chen Nuo quickly said.

"Fine!" After accepting Chen Nuo’s demand, Corot continued, "Now, let’s discuss my plan..."

「Inside the underground facility.」

Under the lighting, everything in this sealed underground facility could be seen clearly.

Ability Users asked questions and raised doubts, but Nolan remained coldly silent.

Seeing that even the Wizard remained quiet, the Ability User raising questions quickly understood something.

Especially Rebecca, watching the Wizard stay silent and indifferent on the side... Damn, the Wizard must have reached an agreement with the people from the Octopus Monster! There’s obviously a big secret in this place!

Rebecca’s guess was actually shared by the other Ability Users, but at that moment, within the underground facility, the situation was not advantageous for the ordinary Ability Users.

There were five people from the Octopus Monster side: Nolan plus four technicians.

There were five people on the side of the Ability Users: the Wizard plus his assistant Luke, as well as Rebecca, and two other Ability Users.

But the Wizard and his assistant Luke were obviously siding with the Octopus Monster and were in cahoots with Nolan.

Rebecca’s unease intensified.

Nolan claimed the place involved internal secrets of the Octopus Monster and refused to answer any questions.

Rebecca had no choice, but that didn’t mean she would just completely trust Nolan.

Any Ability User who had made it to her level, although not on par with top-tier powerhouses like the Wizard, was still a renowned figure. And such Ability Users would never tolerate leaving their lives in someone else’s hands.

"Alright, Mr. Nolan! We won’t probe into your company’s secrets. But I need to know at least this—is this place safe enough, can you ensure our survival here!"

Rebecca smartly used "we" instead of "I".

Nolan glanced at Rebecca and nodded, "Yes, this place is very safe. It has an independent survival system, oxygen supply, its own energy source. And... robust outer defenses. The alloy materials here can withstand explosions, radiation, low temperatures, very durable! We have enough time here to hold out until external support arrives..."

As if to intentionally slap Nolan in the face, before he could finish speaking, suddenly, Nolan’s expression changed and he shut his mouth!

He rushed to a corner of the underground facility, his hands pressed against the wall, his expression growing uglier by the second...

Meanwhile, the Wizard also stood up, having been sitting calmly in a corner with Luke, observing the situation with a detached gaze.

After the Wizard stood up, he squinted his eyes, which glinted coldly.

"Master Wizard?" Luke said in a low voice, his face turning pale.

"...Silence." The Wizard turned his head to look at his assistant and spoke indifferently, "Stay close to me!"

Rebecca and the other two Ability Users also rushed to the corner.

Especially Rebecca, who after placing her hand against the wall and closing her eyes, seemed to be sensing something.

Less than five seconds later, she opened her eyes and her complexion drastically changed!

"Outside! Something is digging! Getting closer to us!" Rebecca screamed, then pointed in another direction of the room, "Over there too! There was the sound of digging from both directions! Something was closing in!!"

The Wizard grunted.

He knew that Rebecca, the female Ability User, had a special ability to sense the hostility around her—like a radar. This was also a type of spiritual power ability.

The Wizard was willing to trust Rebecca’s judgment. He immediately pulled Luke several steps to the spot farthest from those two directions.

Nolan turned around and shouted loudly, "Back away!!"

He commanded the technicians to quickly retreat, trying to increase their distance from the walls in those two directions. Then, he tried to boost morale, "Don’t worry... The outer defense of our underground facility is made of very thick alloy. Even if we’re hit directly, they shouldn’t expect..."

BOOM!!

A thunderous hum came from the wall.

The shaking wasn’t loud, but not only the Ability Users, even the ordinary technicians in the room could clearly feel it.

Nolan’s words instantly lost their persuasive power, especially among the technicians who couldn’t help but cry out in alarm, retreating until they nearly pressed themselves against the corner of the wall.

"They’ve clearly found us and are heading straight for us!" Rebecca shouted, "Nolan! Think of something! What do we do?"

Another Ability User, pale-faced, suddenly yelled, "We have to get out of here! Being trapped here means certain death! Nolan! Open the door here; let’s escape through the passage!!"

Nolan didn’t hesitate. He ran to the elevator door, clenched his teeth as he entered instructions on the control panel on the wall, and looked back, saying, "When we came in, we activated the defenses. There are six layers of alloy gates in the elevator passage that have been closed. It will take about two minutes to fully open them..."

"What the hell kind of system is this?!" The Wizard cursed.

"For energy conservation! This place has an independent energy supply. The gate that shuts down the elevator passage here is to withstand the worst-case scenarios! Reactivating it requires booting the system! It all takes time!"

Nolan gritted his teeth in response, "Stop arguing, we should be able to hold out for two minutes..."

However, apparently today was not Nolan’s lucky day.

He was slapped in the face for the third time!

BOOM!

A clear impact sound came from the wall above!

Rebecca screamed, "They’ve already dug to the outside of the wall! They’re breaking through the wall!!"

"The outer alloy steel plate..."

"Fuck your alloy steel plate!" The Wizard swore. "Just make sure the gates in the elevator passage open! I’ll buy us time!"

As he spoke, the Wizard spread his arms, and golden Runes appeared in both his hands.

If Chen Nuo were here, he would definitely recognize this as the Wizard’s unique spiritual power ability!

The Runes shone with golden light and were soon thrown by the Wizard into the wall...

Outside the wall in the permafrost layer, within a tunnel, crowds of monsters packed tight together, with the leading two frantically digging at the alloy steel plate with their tentacles.

Yet the hard alloy steel plate, under the reach of the monsters’ tentacles, was cut open piece by piece like rotting wood!

It turned out that while digging, the monsters constantly sprayed a strongly colored liquid from their mouthparts onto the alloy, which rapidly penetrated through!

After that, the hard alloy steel plate instantly became soft and fragile!

The tunnel wasn’t very wide. After the leading two monsters sprayed the dissolving liquid, they quickly seemed to exhaust their strength, then twisted around and tunneled to the back, letting other monsters take their place at the front, continuing the excavation...

In this way, the alloy steel plate was shaved thin, layer by layer, like a pencil under a pencil sharpener...

One centimeter at a time was dug out...

Just then, two Runes suddenly emerged from the steel plate!

Numerous pale golden rays of light exploded rapidly, and the two leading monsters were immediately cut into pieces!

The pale golden light continued to spread through the bodies of the monsters into the tunnel, extending over ten meters, instantly killing more than a dozen monsters before slowly fading away...

However, such damage seemed to have little effect; after more than a dozen monsters were shredded, even more densely packed monsters quickly surged up the tunnel, stepping on the fragmented bodies of their companions to reach the front, continuing to spew the dissolving liquid, and then digging at an even greater pace...

"It’s not very effective; there are too many of them!" The Wizard said with a cold face.

There was something he didn’t say—these monsters seemed to have a stronger resistance to Telekinesis.

"One minute and forty seconds left!" Nolan watched the countdown on the control panel intently.

"We don’t have that much time!"

The Wizard took a deep breath, and this time four Runes rapidly appeared in his hands, which he again cast into the wall...

Inside the tunnel, the effect of the four Runes this time spread over a hundred meters! Directly killing dozens of monsters in the tunnel!

It was as if a long stretch of the tunnel had been cleared out all at once.

After "probing" all of this with his spiritual power tentacles, the Wizard breathed a sigh of relief, but the scene that followed quickly wiped the relief from his face!

More of the dense pack of monsters once again flooded into the tunnel!

This time, however, the monsters didn’t rush up to continue digging; instead, they rapidly began devouring the bodies of their comrades within the tunnel.

Dozens of corpses were quickly snatched up and consumed by the handful of monsters at the front.

In less than twenty seconds, the bodies of the three monsters at the front began to swell!

In the end, the monster at the very front had expanded to three times its original size, nearly filling the tunnel!

This massive monster reached the end and opened its mouth, spraying dissolving liquid onto the alloy. Then it started thrashing its tentacles...

With a single strike, it cut a huge chunk out of the alloy as if it were slicing through tofu!

"Fuck!" The Wizard cursed fiercely and threw two more Runes out.

But this time, the Runes that passed through the wall and radiated golden light, when shot upon the gigantic monster, failed to shred it!

Only a dozen deep gashes were left on the surface of the monster, which then began to dig frantically as if enraged.

Without hesitation, the Wizard promptly summoned his spiritual power and released countless streams of Telekinesis, relentlessly ravaging the tunnel outside, which quickly began to crumble and collapse!

However, behind the monster, more and more of them began to raise their bodies, each with eight tentacles. When fully spread, they forcibly propped up the collapsing tunnel!

It was as though dozens of sturdy supports had instantly appeared within the collapsing tunnel.

Unable to bring down the tunnel, the Wizard, though irate, had no more options. He turned to Nolan, "How much longer? I can’t hold them off anymore!!"

"One more minute!!"

"We don’t have a minute!"

BOOM!

Suddenly, several cracks appeared on the wall, followed by a large section of it collapsing!

A hole close to three meters in diameter emerged on the wall!

Several tentacles shot in instantly!

The Wizard quickly waved his hand and, using Mentality Cutting, severed two tentacles that were stretching towards him!

But then a technician, screaming, was pierced through by a tentacle and rapidly dragged into the hole!

The screams stopped abruptly inside, and then the massive head of the monster squeezed halfway in...

The Wizard acted again, tossing out a dense network of Mentality Cutting, slicing off a good part of the head of the monster that had reached in!

After flesh and blood flew, the monster convulsed a few times and was quickly dragged back by its peers.

The Wizard threw two Runes inside and bellowed, "Don’t just stand there! Attack inside!! Use your strongest abilities!!"

An Ability User rushed to the hole. As a monster charged in, the Ability User’s hands suddenly turned into sharp blades!

The Ability User looked like a human-shaped mantis.

SWISH! SWISH! In two swift motions, the rushing monster was sliced apart by him!

Simultaneously, he agilely jumped up, dodging an attacking tentacle, and adhered to the ceiling.

Another Ability User behind him, whose ability was to control air, hurled an Air Cannon attack into the hole, followed by a series of explosive sounds from within...

The Wizard exhaled in relief, forcibly reaching into the hole again with his spiritual power. After the monsters within three to five meters of the entrance were cleared out, he instantly used his spiritual power to collapse this section of the tunnel!

The falling of permafrost and ice layers soon filled the hole, buying everyone some more time!

"Half a minute left..." Nolan shouted excitedly, "Hold on!!"

But at that moment...

BOOM!!!

From the elevator shaft, a thunderous noise resounded!

Nolan’s face stiffened!

"What’s happening?!" the Wizard roared.

Nolan turned back to look at the Wizard, his complexion pale, "...The monsters, they’ve broken through the elevator shaft! They’ve dug their way in through the shaft!"

The Wizard: "..."

The elevator shaft was the only route from this sealed underground facility to the outside world.

Now the monsters had breached this route!

Even though there were still a few blast-proof gates in the passage preventing the monsters from getting in for the moment...

It was the only way out!

In an instant, the Wizard made a decision. He grabbed Nolan unceremoniously and pushed him aside!

Then he pulled Luke over and hissed, "When the time comes, follow me! Climb up at full speed!"

Nolan immediately understood what the Wizard intended to do!

He wanted to abandon everyone here and fight his way out through the elevator shaft by himself!

"Wizard!"

"Don’t call me! I’m only looking out for myself now!" the Wizard said to Nolan coldly and viciously.

Just then, Rebecca suddenly yelled, "The collapsed hole can’t hold! They’re digging through again!!"

The seemingly solid permafrost above the hole had already begun to vibrate, clearly indicating that it wouldn’t be long before it was dug through...

And at that moment, the Wizard’s face suddenly changed!

Cracks suddenly appeared on the ground under his feet!

"There are some here too! How did they dig underneath us without making a sound!!" the Wizard growled in horror.

Two Runes quickly appeared in his hands, ready to be unleashed...

Suddenly, the Wizard heard a voice!

"Wizard, don’t attack, it’s us!"

The cracked ground at his feet was quickly lifted, and a person’s head emerged.

It was Chen Nuo!

"...Anderson?" After being stunned for two seconds, the Wizard cried out incredulously.

"If you don’t want to die, follow me down! Hurry!" Chen Nuo quickly said.

Just as the Wizard was still in shock, the collapsed wall in the underground facility was dug through once more! After the permafrost was penetrated, a tentacle drilled into the hole, quickly lifting a section of the frozen soil, then wrapping around the mantis-like Ability User.

The dual-bladed Ability User quickly cut through the tentacle. As he jumped down from the wall, intending to run this way, more than a dozen tentacles suddenly appeared from the hole behind him!

The dual-bladed Ability User swung his blades rapidly, desperately severing four of them, but his body was still pierced by several tentacles and he was dragged back!

The Ability User with air-manipulation abilities didn’t retreat in time. He screamed wildly as he unleashed his power into the hole. One monster, though blasted into a bloody pulp by the concussive air bursts, still stubbornly pushed half its head through and clamped down on one of the Ability User’s arms!

With a strong tear, blood sprayed out, and half of the Ability User’s shoulder was ripped off. He clearly wouldn’t survive!

In his dying moments, he screamed crazily and unleashed his full power on the monster that had bitten off his arm. The creature was blasted full of holes by countless air bursts and finally lay motionless at the entrance of the hole!

It was one of those giant monsters that ballooned after feasting on companions. Dying at the entrance, it ended up blocking the hole again.

"Get out!! Everyone out!!" Nolan yelled.

The Wizard, unapologetically, grabbed a technician who ran up to him and shoved him aside, then pushed his own subordinate, Luke, into the pit in the ground.

"Luke! You go first!"

Luke, pushed into the passageway, cried out in alarm!

Behind Chen Nuo in the tunnel lay a monster!

But quickly, the Wizard jumped down from above!

The Wizard certainly wasn’t noble enough to stay behind and cover the retreat!

The third to jump down was Rebecca, followed by a technician...

Screams echoed from above again...

The last one to jump down was Nolan!

Monsters had already rushed in, catching two technicians in an instant, tearing them apart with tentacles!

Nolan quickly took off the grenades from his body, threw them into the corner, and jumped into the pit...

A loud BOOM from an explosion rang out above their heads.

Chen Nuo, already dragging Nolan, ran swiftly through the tunnel...

Meanwhile, behind them, the tunnel collapsed rapidly. The permafrost layer, disintegrated by Chen Nuo’s spiritual power, fell swiftly, quickly burying the passage...

The pair ran madly for more than ten meters before the collapse finally ceased!

In the team now, only the Wizard, Luke, Rebecca, Nolan, and one technician remained.

The rest were all dead.

"How did you do it?" the Wizard asked Chen Nuo with narrowed eyes, "Where’s the Captain?"

"Above," said Chen Nuo, shaking his head.

The Wizard looked at the quiet monster lying there among the team...

"Controlled with spiritual power? Puppetry? Mr. Anderson, your strength has exceeded my estimates once again," the Wizard said, exhaling and coughing forcefully.

Chen Nuo glanced at the Wizard, "Let’s go. We need to get out of here. We can talk once we’re on the surface!"

The exit of this tunnel had been dug near the command hall on the surface.

The ground was quickly lifted, and the monster rapidly climbed out.

Chen Nuo and Kamisou Ichiro followed close behind, then the Wizard and Luke.

As the Wizard emerged from the ground, he glanced at the monster and pondered, "This thing really has a knack for digging... Had I known, I would have also used puppetry to control one."

Chen Nuo didn’t speak, turned to stand by the hole, and pulled Nolan up, followed by Rebecca, and the last technician.

"...Thank you," said Rebecca, looking pale. "Had I known, I would have followed you right from the start..."

Chen Nuo didn’t respond to the female Ability User’s words, just shook his head.