Life Dungeon Game

They all knew the chances of success were slim, but at least there was one hope.

Kodo was also gazing out the window.

The glass, under the dark night sky, reflected his face as it saw the night view outside.

The slightly disheveled, blurry 'reflection in the mirror' sat by the window, gazing at Kodo outside, who looked exactly like him, with a serious and worried expression.

It curled the corners of its mouth, revealing a deep, enigmatic smile.

-

Underground Palace

"There should be a gate here."

At the end of the dark corridor, in the narrow elevator lobby, He Ao stopped and looked up.

Fia raised her flashlight and shone it overhead.

A faint light shone above the two of them. Lush green vines climbed all over the wall, and through the gaps in the vines, an alloy gate embedded in the wall could be vaguely seen.

"There is one,"

She nodded, slightly surprised. "What's the purpose of this gate here? Is it to block something?"

"It should be some kind of emergency safety device,"

He Ao glanced back and saw the faint lights of the commercial street above the deep, dark passageway at its end. "There should be more than one gate in this passageway."

Fia turned the flashlight beam and shone it over the heads of the two people behind them.

Not far from the two people, through the sparse gaps in the vines, several things that looked like gates could be vaguely seen. Further back, the entire ceiling of the corridor was covered by dense vines, and nothing could be seen clearly.

Then she turned around and looked at the enclosed elevator lobby in front of her, which had only one entrance to the passageway where the two of them were located.

At first, she didn't realize the unusual nature of the place, but after He Ao mentioned the existence of the gate, she gradually became aware of it.

She looked up at He Ao. "Are these gates used to isolate the elevator? In case of any danger, will the gates in this passageway automatically descend to isolate the elevator from the outside world? But what is the purpose of this design? Is it to isolate the first floor from the area below?"

"To be precise, perhaps it's to 'protect' the first layer,"

He Ao walked into the claustrophobic elevator lobby, looked at the elevator screens that were glowing faintly, and slowly said, "Do you remember what Karin told us? From the second floor to the third floor, you can't go directly through the elevator from the first floor to the second floor. Instead, you have to go through a corridor with gates and then go down through another passage."

"If there is a fourth level in the underground palace, I estimate that the passage from the second to the third level wouldn't be possible to reach the fourth level either; another way would be needed."

Find a passage.

"In terms of convenience and efficiency of work, based on our previous speculation, if the first floor is a living area, then at least one of the lower floors should be a work area, or even all of them should be work areas."

"If a worker living on the first floor needs to work on the floors below, the most efficient way is definitely to build an elevator that goes directly to the lower floors."

"The fact that the person who built this underground palace did not choose the most efficient method, but instead chose to sever the direct connection between the different layers in a convoluted manner, can only mean one thing: he had a reason to do so."

"Just like workers entering a dangerous area need to pass through a buffer zone and wear appropriate protective equipment, these intentionally 'extended' stairwells may be an artificially created buffer zone. When necessary, the gates of these passages can be lowered to serve as a 'defense line' surrounding the first-floor living area."

"You mean, the lower levels of the underground palace were inherently dangerous in the original design? That's why they had to be separated from the first level of the 'living area'?"

Fia walked over to He'ao and asked, "Is this why the underground palace is more dangerous than other parts of the ruins? But what are these dangers from?"

As she spoke, she swept her flashlight around the elevator lobby. There were nine elevators in the lobby, five of which were still dimly lit. In a corner near the corridor, there was an open stairwell door from which dense vines spread out.

"Extraordinary beings, extraordinary items, just like our 'warehouse' where we store extraordinary items, anything is possible."

He Ao said softly.

Of course, ordinary extraordinary items and creatures are everywhere, so they wouldn't be kept in a seemingly isolated place like an underground palace. Therefore, there are probably some deeper secrets hidden here.

As he spoke, He Ao reached out and quickly pressed all five of the glowing elevator buttons.

When Karin came here before, he said that all five elevators and the stairwells were working, but now it seems that the stairwells are covered with vines, which may make it a bit difficult to get through.

"Do we need to check every single elevator?"

Fia looked at He Ao with a puzzled expression. At that moment, all five elevators displayed upward arrows.

"No,"

He Ao shook his head, glanced down at the bloodstains in front of one of the elevators, then turned around, found an elevator that wasn't lit, plunged his sword into the gap, and with a sudden 'bang,' pried open the elevator door.

Then he glanced down at the inside of the elevator shaft and said, "Let's go down from here."

With that, he jumped straight down.

Fia was stunned for a moment, then jumped down with He Ao.

bang bang-

With two hollow sounds, the two landed on top of the elevator car that was stopped on the second basement floor.

He gestured for Fiya to take half a step back, then raised his sword and pierced the top of the elevator car with one stroke. He then made a light slash, creating a circle, and stomped on it forcefully.

boom--

The circular metal plate on the top of the elevator car suddenly detached and crashed into the elevator car, scattering blood as a small monster lurking inside was instantly smashed to pieces.

How do you know there's a monster down there?

Fiya looked at He Ao with some surprise.

“I don’t know,” He Ao shook his head, “It’s an insurance measure.”

Just like when you're playing a game and you happen to pass by the bushes where Lao Liu (a character in the game) often crouches, casting a skill unexpectedly can often lead to a pleasant surprise.

With that, he jumped into the elevator car, and Fia followed suit.

She looked at the young man's profile with some curiosity.

Despite looking quite young, he seemed to possess an unusually wealth of combat experience.

Ding--

As the two entered the elevator car, five elevators arrived almost simultaneously in the elevator lobby on the first floor. The moment the elevator doors opened, five tentacles shot out like sharp swords.

Five tentacles pierced through the void and then encountered other outstretched tentacles. Thinking they had captured their prey, they quickly intertwined with each other.

As the elevator doors opened fully, five fleshy monsters, their bodies covering the elevator walls and constantly writhing, were revealed.

After a brief pause, the elevator doors slowly closed, only to be stopped by the extended tentacles.

······

He used his bone sword to pry open the elevator door, which already had some cracks.

The lights in the elevator lobby on the second basement level still seemed to be working, providing a faint glow. The entire elevator lobby was covered in dried bloodstains, which looked eerie and bloody under the dim light.

Besides blood, the most abundant thing here is vines growing everywhere.

He Ao glanced at everything, stepped out of the elevator, and Fiya followed closely behind.

Not far from the two, the screens of the five elevators that had just gone up were now lit up with red light, as if some kind of malfunction had been triggered.

Fia walked over and glanced at the content on the screen.

The elevator screens all displayed animations of elevator doors being jammed by foreign objects. She frowned slightly, then looked back at He Ao blankly. "Are there things in those five elevators?"

“Hmm,” He Ao nodded, “It should be some kind of monster or something.”

"You are," Fia blinked, looking at He Ao in surprise, "How did you know?"

He Ao had never seen what those elevators looked like.

"First of all, it's been half a year since Kalin last came to the second floor, so there's no guarantee that all five elevators will be working properly,"

While looking around, He Ao casually explained, "Secondly, there are bloodstains in front of one of the five elevators that are relatively close to the current location."

"The bloodstains blended into the dried bloodstains on the elevator floor. Although they were not easy to identify, they were definitely there. This proves that not long ago, a creature, or even a 'survivor' who had wandered in here, was attacked at the elevator entrance."

"Finally, remember our residential area deduction? If the first floor is the main residential area, then in order to ensure that people going down from the first floor to the lower floors can get to work smoothly, most of the elevators should default to stopping on the basement level."

"The probability of all five elevators stopping on the second basement level at the same time is very low, but as you just saw, all five elevators are going up from the second basement level, so it is highly likely that other factors are interfering with them and causing them to stop on the second basement level."

"In conclusion, those five elevators are most likely faulty, so I chose to take the abandoned elevator."

Fia turned her head blankly and looked...

He Ao's back view.

So how did he manage to explain the purpose of the 'gate' to himself while simultaneously sorting out so many details in such a short time?

How can someone be so physically strong and also so intelligent?

Is this really a human being?

However, He Ao didn't pay attention to her blank gaze, but instead looked at a broken alloy plate fragment stained with blood that had landed at the outermost elevator door.

He walked over and picked up the fragment of the alloy plate.

The alloy plaque looked like some kind of identity badge, with only the text from the first section on it, a total of six characters. He Ao recognized the first four characters: 'Extraordinary Being'.

He had just seen the last two characters in the commercial district. The first two characters on the sign that read "Research Institute Commercial Consumption Area" written in five languages ​​were exactly the last two characters on the nameplate.

If He Ao's grammatical relationship is correct, the last two words should be 'research'.

In other words, the words on the entire alloy nameplate read 'Extraordinary Biological Research'.

The character '究' is followed by a cross-section, and He Ao doesn't know if there are any other characters after it.

He searched the vicinity but couldn't find any other fragments of the plaque, so it seemed this was the only one left in the area.

Is it research on extraordinary organisms?

He Ao put the nameplate away.

This nameplate looks like the nameplate of a 'staff member' from some underground palace.

"Did you find anything?"

Fiya, who had been standing behind He Ao, walked over and looked at He Ao with a puzzled expression.

"We found a plaque, but it's inscribed with the characters of an ancient ruin."

He replied in a low voice, while looking up ahead.

There are two corridors outside the elevator on the second floor.

The corridor on the left was covered with dense vines from the floor to the walls, and seemed very long and narrow, with no end in sight.

The corridor on the right has fewer vines and is completely dark, so you can't see what's inside.