Abyssal Wanderer.

The basement level of the resettlement area houses the border checkpoint.

Thanks to the upgrade to the Chainbound Armor, Jiang Zhou's mobility was greatly enhanced. Although he was rushing down from the tenth floor, he still arrived at the checkpoint before Jim and Hanel and met up with the people who were there to meet them.

When Jiang Zhou saw that all-terrain vehicle with an anti-gravity engine, he felt as if he had been transported to another world.

In the past, he had donated all the printing privileges he had taken from Pluto Deep Dive Company to the Icarus Liberation Front under the guise of a "trial reward," forgetting at the time whether this all-terrain vehicle was among them.

Unexpectedly, Icarus actually printed it out, and he will be using this all-terrain vehicle to carry out his mission in the base reality.

A sense of destiny welled up within him, and he couldn't help but reach out and gently stroke the battered composite armor of the all-terrain vehicle.

This was the car that carried me out of the dark web before, and I hope it will bring me good luck again this time...

"Hey! Don't touch me like that!"

Shen L from the action team walked up with a displeased look on his face—to be precise, his expression had been unpleasant ever since he saw Jiang Zhou, a Pluto Deep Dive employee—and then he directly slapped Jiang Zhou's hand away.

"What? You're starting to feel a connection just because you saw your company's logo? And you're acting all sentimental, like this car is yours..."

Shen L looked completely bewildered.

Unable to explain, Jiang Zhou could only smile awkwardly and spread his hands to indicate that he meant no harm. At the same time, his upgraded cable swung like a tail and plugged into a charging station at the checkpoint.

After rushing all this way, the energy reserves of the Chainbound Armor are almost depleted. While waiting for Jim and the others to arrive, we should recharge it as much as possible.

The powerful energy siphoning ability caused the lights at the checkpoint to flicker. Under the suspicious and wary gazes of the elite members of the action team, Jiang Zhou once again innocently raised his hands.

"I was worried I wouldn't have time to charge on the road, so I charged more first... Don't misunderstand, I scanned the payment code on the charging station."

He explained it this way.

Upon hearing this, everyone rolled their eyes – no wonder they came from a big company, they've really been steeped in capitalism, even in this situation they still insist on scanning the payment code.

And so, they held their operational meeting in the environment where the lights kept flashing.

"Right now, the entire elevator in the resettlement area is under enemy control, so we can't take it directly down to the seventh basement level..."

Shen L got straight to the point.

This is indeed a bit troublesome. If it were on the ground in the resettlement area, it would be fine. Jiang Zhou could directly use the armor's mobility system to take Jim from outside the resettlement area to the required level—that's how he came down quickly before.

But you can't do that underground; the large elevator is the only way to descend.

The fact that fear is now clinging to the authority over the large elevator is probably due to this consideration.

However, based on Jiang Zhou's understanding of Shen L, the fact that the other party would point this out directly indicates that he had already come up with a countermeasure.

In fact, Jiang Zhou had also thought of that countermeasure when he looked at the all-terrain vehicle with the anti-gravity engine.

"So instead of taking the big elevator, we just break the elevator cables and let it freefall, and then we use this all-terrain vehicle equipped with an anti-gravity engine to descend to the seventh basement level."

Shen L said.

really……

Jiang Zhou thought to himself.

In fact, even without an all-terrain vehicle, as long as his power armor still has energy, he can take Jim down to level -7. "In other words, we need to escort him on two separate routes—from the checkpoint to the large elevator, and from the large elevator to the geothermal power plant, right?"

Someone in the action team asked, "That person doesn't look familiar to Jiang Zhou. He's probably a new recruit from Icarus."

Shen L nodded and continued:
"The situation on the first basement level is alright, because of the presence of friendly memetic entities, we have roughly controlled the situation here. But on the seventh basement level..."

Jiang Zhou remembered that the headquarters of the hacker department was also on the seventh basement level. Logically speaking, being on home turf should be fine, right?

"Although the network infrastructure on the seventh basement level is under our control, the enemy memetic entity controls the elevator and is constantly sending constructs down to the seventh basement level in an attempt to cripple the hacking department. Therefore, the journey from the elevator to the geothermal power plant will be extremely difficult."

Shen L said this.

All we need to do is get near the geothermal power plant. Number One has deployed a self-defense system there, making it impossible for ordinary constructs to get close.

Given this, at what stage would the cartographer ambush them?

Jiang Zhou couldn't help but think.

Should we take advantage of the massive structures on the seventh basement level to launch a surprise attack and eliminate them amidst the chaos, or strike when they are off guard during the safer first half of the journey?
Since even I can think of the latter, the other party will definitely choose to rely on brute force...

He came to a conclusion.

But in any case, they must remain 100% vigilant.

With that in mind, Jiang Zhou told Shen L about the general information regarding the "drawer" separately.

Clearly, the intelligence that a Coordinator with a combat capability of at least Depth 7 might be ambush them was indeed slightly beyond the limits of what the Operations Director could accept in such a dire situation.

"Are you fucking kidding me?!"

After sharing the information via a private channel, all the unsuspecting onlookers saw was Shen L suddenly jump up, grab the company employee by the neck, and lift him up as if he intended to do so.

However, he tried several times but failed to lift Jiang Zhou, who was wearing the Chained Mod.

These failed attempts, however, calmed him down a bit.

"listen to me!"

Jiang Zhou placed his hand on his shoulder, then said in a voice only the two of them could hear:

“Hand that guy over to me, and I might be able to persuade him… or at least stall him for a while. What you need to do is get Jim to the geothermal power plant at all costs. At least he won’t be able to focus on you before I die, understand?”

Jiang Zhou spoke to Shen L in the tone of an old friend.

However, the other party did not react with the same enthusiasm he had imagined, nor did they solemnly respond that they would definitely fulfill their responsibilities.

Shen L looked at Jiang Zhou with suspicion, then said in a highly doubtful tone:
"You? Temporarily hold off a Depth 7?"

"How short is this 'temporary'? Ten seconds? Five seconds? Is the time we can gain enough for us to run a hundred meters?"

Damn! If Liao Qi had said that, this kid definitely wouldn't have questioned it!
Jiang Zhou couldn't help but purse his lips after being rebuffed like that.

It was at this moment that Jim and Hanel finally arrived. (End of Chapter)