Trickster Hunter.

Chapter 493 Dungeon

"Watch your step!" Wang Xiyi warned.

What was once a single, continuous surface had now split into many one-meter-square plots. These plots, like some kind of flat wooden blocks, were constantly shifting in position, and every now and then, fissures and large holes large enough to swallow a person whole would appear.

“I’ve never seen such a small mobile site before,” Yan Yu’an said. “Even the smallest mobile site of the Baikal Remains is an entire building in size…”

“Now you’ve seen it.” Sun Hang lightly jumped back, dodging a gap that appeared out of nowhere. Wang Xiyi simply spread her wings and hovered in mid-air, picking up Zhong Ling and Yan Yu’an with one hand each.

One of Zhong Ling's ghostly remains couldn't dodge in time and fell into the abyss the moment the piece of land beneath its feet was pulled away. Before the other ghostly remains could rescue their companion, several other pieces of land moved over and sealed the gap.

“The connection between me and that monstrous creature has been severed,” Zhong Ling said.

"It was taken down?" Sun Hang asked.

“I’m not sure.” Zhong Ling shook her head. “It’s possible that something in the abyss is blocking my senses.”

“We can’t save it,” Yan Yu’an said. “There have been soldiers who fell into the abyss because of the land shift. Others used explosives and engineering equipment to dig a well nearly 30 meters deep in the ground before they were able to break through the land.”

"And then what? What's underneath the plot?" Sun Hang asked with great interest while playing hopscotch.

“Only the abyss,” Yan Yu’an said. “They lowered the recorder down with a cable, and even after everyone had used up all the cables they had, they still hadn’t reached the bottom of the abyss. According to that team’s operation report, the total length of the cables they used was more than 600 meters.”

“Six hundred meters isn’t that deep,” Sun Hang said. “Since the underground space of the Baikal Remains can accommodate the Siberian TV Tower, which is over five hundred meters high, its depth must be more than a few hundred meters… Speaking of which, I’m quite interested in this underground space. Did the recorder capture anything?”

“Yes, beneath the remains of Baikal, there is a city that is ‘hanging upside down,’” Yan Yu’an replied. “Right beneath our feet.”

Has anyone gone in to investigate?

"..." Yan Yu'an looked at Sun Hang with a "Are you kidding me?" look, then shook her head. "Those who fall into the abyss have never come out... So there is almost no known information about the underground part of the Baikal's remains."

"We don't necessarily have to fall in, do we? Aren't there some strange, 'reverse-growing' structures? Like the Siberian TV Tower. Maybe these reverse-growing structures are the 'official entrance' to this underground city," Sun Hang countered.

"The experts at Tian Shu Tower initially thought so too, but unfortunately, none of the reconnaissance teams that have entered these 'reverse structures' have been able to return to the surface," Yan Yu'an said.

"Besides the Siberian TV Tower, are there any other buildings that have 'grown in reverse'?"

“Yes, all the buildings in the original Baikal City that were over 150 meters tall have appeared inside the Baikal Remains in a ‘reverse growth’ manner,” Yan Yu’an replied. “As long as you can find the area inside the Baikal Remains that corresponds to the CBD of Baikal City, you can see a large number of ‘tunnels’ leading underground… However, considering the danger, these areas have been designated as ‘restricted areas’ by the Disaster Countermeasures Committee. Even if a reconnaissance team accidentally enters this area, they will try to detour or turn back.”

"Is this place under our feet considered a restricted area?" Sun Hang jumped over three cracks more than a meter wide in succession, turned around and shot out a wisp of fungus, leading himself to the chimney of an "old-fashioned bakery" that was already a third of the way into the ground. He took this opportunity to continue asking Yan Yu'an the question.

“It shouldn’t have been considered,” Yan Yu’an frowned slightly. “Based on the architectural features of this area, this should be the Volgassk district of the former Baikal City. This district is close to the central area of ​​Baikal City and contains more than half of the breweries and bakeries in the central part of Baikal City. It is one of the oldest districts in Baikal City. In the reconnaissance team’s operation report, they have visited this area more than once, and nothing unusual has happened…”

"But now it seems this place can be considered a 'forbidden zone,' right?" Wang Xiyi, carrying Yan Yu'an, chimed in. "If an ordinary reconnaissance team encountered this situation, they would have been wiped out by now, wouldn't they?"

“Well… I’ve already relayed the situation back to the camp, but they don’t have any good solutions right now,” Yan Yu’an said. “They can only advise us to leave this area as soon as possible.”

"Leave? Where to?" Wang Xiyi looked around. "Liu Li's dynamic model has malfunctioned. In my opinion, we should just head straight for Victory Avenue—"

Wang Xiyi looked towards Victory Avenue. Two blocks away, Victory Avenue was shrouded in darkness. The slowly moving buildings looked indistinct, like a group of giant monsters gathered together, carrying out some mysterious ritual.

“I think it’s a good idea.” Ganna’s voice suddenly rang out in the communication channel. “Since Volgas has changed, it means that the remains of Baikal have realized that we have somehow grasped the pattern of its changes. In this situation, Lady Night Fury’s method might actually be surprisingly effective.”

“Since they were the ones who started this unreasonable behavior, there’s no need for us to continue adhering to these ridiculous rules.” Wang Xiyi was clearly satisfied with Ganna’s explanation. “The dynamic model has already accomplished its mission successfully by bringing us so close to Victory Avenue… The rest of the journey will depend on our own abilities!”

In her dragon form, Wang Xiyi was able to withstand a load more than three hundred times her own weight, making it more than enough to carry Zhong Ling's strange remains. As for Sun Hang, he directly used Tai Sui mycelium and liquid metal to create a pair of wings for himself in the shape of a black dragon's wings. Adhering to the concept of "great strength makes bricks fly," even though his body structure was completely aerodynamic, the sound of his wings flapping still allowed him to successfully rise into the air.

"So mycelium can turn into wings?" Wang Xiyi glanced at him. "Then why didn't you fly before?"

"Because it's tiring," Sun Hang replied casually. "Moreover, the electromagnetic acceleration capability can completely replace wings. The only drawback is that it's difficult to control the operational precision, and it's easy to lose control."

“We’re still four kilometers away from Victory Avenue. Why don’t you use electromagnetic acceleration to launch us all out?” Wang Xiyi suggested. “Using a direct impact with a building to brake is also an option. Don’t worry, I can protect the two of them.”

“Alright, let’s finish this quickly.” Sun Hang nodded, and bluish-white arcs of electricity began to flicker in the air around him.

But at that moment, the ground beneath their feet and the surrounding buildings suddenly rolled up, and the whole world—including them—instantly flipped over, as if they had been in a large bowl, and now that bowl had suddenly overturned, trapping them all at the bottom.

What caught Sun Hang off guard was that as the large bowl flipped over, the space inside it also flipped, and the group of people, along with the strange buildings around them, were instantly upside down, with all the blood rushing to their brains.

"Holy shit!" Wang Xiyi cursed, flapping her wings forcefully to regain her balance and hover in mid-air. Sun Hang, on the other hand, had already clung to a wall in the instant the space flipped, staring thoughtfully at the floor above him that had now become completely sealed.

The land, which was originally full of gaps and holes, has now returned to its solid state, completely sealing them underground.

The flames flickered, and for a moment, the dragon flame at the tip of Wang Xiyi's tail became the only source of light in the entire space.

With two "click" sounds, the high-brightness searchlights on the shoulders of the lancet armor turned on, instantly illuminating the surroundings as if it were daytime.

However, the abyss beneath their feet was a place where, no matter how bright or penetrating the searchlight beams were, they would be swallowed up by endless darkness within a hundred meters of being shone down.

“I just tried to contact the front-line camp, but there was no response,” Yan Yu’an said. “It must have been at the moment of the spatial flip that our communication with the camp was cut off.”

“This block of earth doesn’t look very thick. Should we try to see if we can break through it?” Wang Xiyi said, looking up at the dome above.

Although it's called a dome, what's actually hanging above everyone's heads is a perfectly complete street, and the buildings on both sides of the street share the same style as the remains of Baikal on the ground.

If the direction of gravity were reversed, and luminous objects to act as the moon and stars were embedded deep within the abyss, then the underground and above-ground parts of the Baikal skeleton would be virtually indistinguishable.

"If only we could reverse the direction of gravity..."

As soon as Sun Hang had a thought, the dizzying sensation returned.

"Holy crap, not again?" Caught off guard, Wang Xiyi's back slammed heavily onto the street floor, which had turned into a dome, while Zhong Ling and Yan Yu'an landed directly on top of her.

“It’s normal now.” Sun Hang stood firmly on the street and looked around.

"Damn it, was this your doing?" Wang Xiyi got up from the ground, rubbed her back, and said with some dissatisfaction.

“I did it this time, not the previous time.”

"Did you flip the space again?" Yan Yu'an asked in confusion.

“No, it just reversed the direction in which gravity acts on us.” Sun Hang shook his head. “If the entire space were flipped over, the energy expenditure would be enough to drain me dry.”

"So, from a normal person's perspective, we are now 'hanging men' with our heads down and our feet on the ceiling?" Wang Xiyi asked.

"Ah."

"It's a bit like the zero-gravity environment in a space station... Oh no, if it were completely zero gravity, we should be floating around everywhere right now..." Wang Xiyi muttered to herself.

“The gravity in the underground space was normal, which means we are most likely still on Earth,” Sun Hang said. “That’s good news.” Zhong Ling turned on her tactical flashlight and shone it around, saying softly, “It looks a bit like it.”

"What does it look like?" Wang Xiyi asked immediately.

“Cities with this inverted structure have indeed existed in human history,” Zhong Ling said.

"Huh? An underground city? And the buildings are all hanging upside down?" Wang Xiyi blinked. "This shouldn't be a city in our Xia State Federation, right? In my memory, our country doesn't have such a crazy city designer, does it?"

"If I'm not mistaken, the puppeteer is referring to the 'fortress city for combating monsters' built in the Hakone region of Japan. The entire fortress city looks no different from an ordinary city on ordinary days, but in reality, there are no civilians inside. Only a large number of automated weapons and 'special guidance devices' used to lure monsters into attack. When monsters from the deep sea land on the Hakone coast, they are drawn into the fortress city's attack range by the guidance devices. At this point, all the city's buildings will flip and sink underground, replaced by a large number of AI-controlled heavy automated weapons that will launch a devastating attack on the lured monsters..."

"What happened to that fortified city later?" Sun Hang asked.

“It’s been abandoned. In the early stages of the Monster War, not many monsters landed on the eastern coast of Japan. The fortified city could attract most of the monsters, relieving the defensive pressure on other coastal cities… But after the war entered the middle stage, the monsters launched a saturation attack on Honshu Island, and this fortified city had lost its purpose of attracting monsters… Now, it should just be a ruin.” Yan Yu’an said.

“Two cities, designed by the same architect,” Zhong Ling suddenly added.

"Huh?" Yan Yu'an looked at Zhong Ling with some surprise. Although she knew about the existence of the Hakone Fortress City, she didn't know much about the specific information about that city.

After all, Japan had been occupied for many years before she was born, and her knowledge of fortified cities was limited to some common knowledge.

"The person who designed the Hakone fortress city was named Masayuki Yamaguchi. After the fall of Japan, he fled to the Siberian Federation and later escaped to the Lake Baikal region with the survivors of the Siberian Federation... The original design of Baikal City came from his pen."

“But he shouldn’t have designed Baikal as a fortified city, right?” Yan Yu’an’s expression was a little strange. “Before Baikal was destroyed, I visited the city several times. With my level of authority, if Baikal still had an underground part, I should know about it.”

(End of this chapter)