Chapter 29: Observation Platform (Part ½)
Forget it. He never should have had any expectations for this system.
Luo Nan then felt that his recent action of hiding away the interface was quite foolish. Fortunately it was better to act later than never, like mending the pen after the sheep were lost. He then sighed a breath and tapped the control console, lighting up the enormous screen in front of him once more.
The radiating light of the enormous screen drew out Luo Nan’s shadow. It also made Xie Junping’s chin crash to the ground:
"Junior Nan. You’re…… a hacker?”
Since Luo Nan didn’t know how to explain, he just simply didn’t say anything.
On the other hand, Xie Junping became excited in an instant: “Good good. It’s said that this system has been strengthened by Quantum Corporation. Junior Nan, you’re able to use it?”
Wasn’t this fellow’s mood a bit too strange?
Luo Nan still remembered that he had pretty much forced Xie Junping to go unconscious. Before Xie Junping passed out, he wailed at Luo Nan to “spare his life”. But the current circumstances had Xie Junping lose all terror of Luo Nan in his heart and even his fear of being in dire straits had been cut to the bare minimum.
Could the scare have caused him to lose his memories? Or could it be that slaying the burning wraith would really have instantaneous effects?
Luo Nan’s brief reflection yielded no results and he placed this matter to the side. He activated the Gear interface once again and poured his gaze onto the Observation Platform option. Several seconds passed before he selected the option telepathically.
There was no change whatsoever upon the interface; instead there was a stream of information that followed the heavily chained crow and was guided in an orderly fashion into Luo Nan’s brain. It allowed him to understand several things.
Luo Nan muttered a bit deeply in thought. He turned around and went: “Let’s go.”
“Go? Go where?” Xie Junping looked around at their dusky surroundings, not really daring to move.
But in the next second a door automatically opened up to the side of the central control room. A darker space was now open.
Xie Junping blurted: “Hidden passageway?”
“Turn on the lighting of your wristband.”
“Huh?”
The enormous screen was extinguished by a telepathic thought from Luo Nan and the pitch-black darkness was restored to the room.
Xie Junping yelped in surprise. He turned on the light of his wristband in a fluster; the light barely illuminated the path ahead.
Luo Nan didn’t say anything else now that there was light. He directly walked in the direction towards the newly opened door.
“Hey hey. This is a secret passageway right……” Xie Junping lowered his voice and suppressed his nervousness. He blindly followed after Luo Nan.
“There’s a corridor outside.”
Luo Nan’s large external neuron still maintained control over the resources that had been displayed on the enormous screen even though the screen had been turned off. Valid information was transmitted, channeled through the heavily chained crow, and passed onto his cranial nerves. Then a screen was directly mapped onto his retinas.
It didn’t matter how far the distance was. As long as Luo Nan had the energy to support the existence of the heavily chained crow, this digital map would never disappear.
Of course, if it wasn’t for this heavily chained crow towing the Wraith Sign sensor and the fact that he wasn’t prepared to do an out-of-body experience, he would have turned into a blind man and would have absolutely needed light to continue advancing within this darkness.
Xie Junping had already understood the ruthlessness of the defense system from the incident with his wristband. He was completely confused right now: “How did it open if it’s not a secret passageway?”
“It should be an initial design from the builders. The following route we will be taking, and all the doors, are controlled by a different and independent power source…… The remodelers who came later obviously hadn’t discovered this.”
“Why the hell did they make things so annoying?”
Xie Junping’s wristband and its beam of light swayed. He looked around at his surroundings and sure enough he saw public locations such as corridors and the like on their route. They occasionally had to cut through a few rooms, but they didn’t need to cover up their tracks.
“The builder must be very passionate.”
The elevation and planar map of Gear radiated within Luo Nan’s mind without ending. The tight structure with its peculiar design made him constantly breathe with admiration.
The layout of the entire building seemed to embody a machine that could come to life to process a certain product at any moment. Right now Luo Nan and Xie Junping were traveling between gear parts; it was a wonderful tour.
Luo Nan’s and Xie Junping’s journey was all green thanks to the control from the external neuron; they didn’t encounter any obstacles whatsoever.
After they passed through the safe passage of a stairway, they should have ended up on the subterranean second floor coming from the fourth. Even though this was still within the scope of the laboratory room, this was clearly a public activity area. They swept a beam of light to illuminate the area and even saw leisurely items such as a counter, a sofa, and etc.
“How marvelous.”
Xie Junping had completely stifled his conjectures pertaining to secret passageways, but he gave his respect towards the builder’s peculiar tastes once more.
Regardless of how to describe it, Xie Junping’s state of mind grew more and more relaxed from encountering this marvel within their dark journey. He even had the courage to act as the lantern holder, taking the initiative to go to the front and light their way.
Whether or not he had the courage to enter any secret passageways they may encounter, well that was a topic worth discussing.
“Hey. Which way do we go in front?”
Xie Junping’s illuminating beam of light swept to a wall. Following the wall would lead them in a huge arc of a wheel to return back to the resting area. It seemed that they had reached a dead end.
Without waiting for Luo Nan to respond, the beam of light sudden swept onto a signboard. It then stayed fixed on there.
Xie Junping stepped fixed in place. He slapped his thigh fiercely: “I know where we are!”
Luo Nan looked over, following the beam of light. What was on the signboard seemed to be drawn by hand. An underwater view emerged before his eyes. Swimming fish played between the kelp. They appeared quite lively under the slight sway of the light.
“Where is this place?”
“Sandbar Aqueduct. It’s a famous scenic spot of Gear. From here……”
Xie Junping swept his light onto a closed door: “If we go inside here and keep going until we reach Withered Tree Sandbar, which had been made into a constructed underwater corridor, and we pass through half a marsh and a small lake, then we will be close to accessing a good place with the underwater ecology of the wetlands.”
After a simple introduction, Xie Junping began to sell gossip once more: “Rumor has it that the underwater corridor existed even before the construction of Gear. Only, some people were accused of destroying the ecology there, nearly causing the construction people to drop their pants from the cost. They let the Order Club have it for cheap, and the Order Club connected the corridor when they constructed Gear…… Of course, the Order Club has to pay quite a hefty sum in taxes each year.”
Luo Nan found the most crucial piece of information from Xie Junping’s series of nonsense: “You said that it’s a sandbar?”
“Yep. It’s a very famous place. It’s said that it’s the best place to see the full view of the building Gear.”
Luo Nan secretly lowered his head: Was this the reason why it was named Observation Platform?
It was at this very moment that Xie Junping finally came to. He excitedly patted Luo Nan on the shoulder with ferocity: “Junior Nan. Doesn’t this mean we’ve escaped the trap? All we got to do is get to the sandbar and get some motherf*cking signal…….D*mn!”
Xie Junping cursed obscenities yet again.
Luo Nan was completely lost: “What’s wrong this time?”
“I don’t think things are good.” Luo Nan was unable to see Xie Junping’s expression clearly, but Xie Junping’s voice was a bit panicky, “I remember that the water level of the wetlands has rose over the past few years. The sandbar has already been completely submerged. There’s only the crooked neck of a withered tree still extending out from the water….. The Order Club can’t have sealed that exit up right?”
Luo Nan took some time to confirm their route and he verified that things really were as Xie Junping described; they needed to pass through the underwater corridor. There were no anomalies as of yet.
“We’ll know once we get there.”
Luo Nan directly opened the underwater corridor’s entrance and the slight fishy smell of water vapor assaulted their faces. This was probably the result of years of saturation.
Xie Junping casted his beam of light perfectly straight, but he was unable to illuminate to the very end. This long corridor was just like the other structures in the building; its arc was clearly shown.