The whole nation: You're put to survive on a desolate planet, you'll be running an alien b

The air inside the tunnel seemed frozen, carrying a musty, decaying smell, like the last breath of some ancient corpse. The beam of the flashlight appeared pale and weak in the cramped concrete pipes, illuminating less than ten meters ahead. At the end of the beam was endless darkness, like a throat leading to hell.

Footsteps echoed through the empty pipes, "patter, patter," sounding particularly eerie, as if each step was treading on some unseen nerve.

"How long have we been walking?" Liu Hu wiped the cold sweat from his forehead and couldn't help but ask. His voice sounded muffled and suppressed in the enclosed space.

Li Haotian glanced at the tactical terminal on his wrist and frowned sharply: "Based on our current speed, we should have already penetrated two kilometers underground and passed through this abandoned area."

But the surrounding scenery remained unchanged. The concrete walls were still covered in moss and cracks, and the puddles underfoot were still filled with mud and unidentified garbage. Li Haotian even felt that he had seen that strange stain on the wall, shaped like a skull, at least three times already.

"Something's not right." Qin Yue, who had been walking silently in the middle of the group, suddenly stopped. She took out a palm-sized magnetic field detector from her backpack. The screen, which had been calm, was now flashing red lights frantically and emitting urgent "beep beep" alarm sounds.

"What's wrong?" Li Haotian immediately raised his gun and stood protectively in front of Qin Yue.

"The magnetic field is messed up, completely messed up." Qin Yue stared at the screen, her face extremely pale, her fingers flying across the keys. "The magnetic field reading here isn't increasing linearly, it's... cycling. Look, the waveform here is exactly the same as the one recorded ten minutes ago, even the tiny fluctuations are completely identical."

"A cycle?" Liu Hu was taken aback. "You mean, we're stuck in the same place?"

"It's worse than that." Qin Yue took a deep breath, looked up at Li Haotian, and a hint of fear flashed in her eyes. "This isn't just getting lost; it's a supernatural spatial displacement. If my deduction is correct, our current space has been distorted into a Möbius strip by some force—we think we're moving forward, but we're actually going around in circles in a closed curved surface."

Upon hearing the words "Möbius strip," everyone's hearts sank. This topological concept, when applied to reality, often signifies extreme danger.

Li Haotian didn't speak. He quickly walked to the wall, pulled out his tactical knife, and slashed a huge "X" next to a crack in the concrete wall.

"Go!" he shouted coldly.

The team set off again. This time, everyone walked with an unusually heavy heart, the sound of the puddles underfoot like a death knell.

Ten minutes later.

The beam of the flashlight swept across the wall, and everyone's pupils contracted violently at the same time.

At the edge of the halo, the brand-new "X"-shaped scratch that Li Haotian had just carved was clearly visible. The concrete debris at the cut hadn't even completely fallen to the ground yet, making it a shocking sight.

"Damn it!" Liu Hu couldn't help but curse, kicking the wall hard, splashing water everywhere. "A ghost wall? I've served in the special forces for ten years, I've seen all sorts of weird things, but this is the first time I've ever seen anything like it! What the hell is this place?!"

Lin Mo, who had been walking at the very front, stopped. She turned around, her silvery-white eyes gleaming eerily in the darkness, piercing through the crowd without focus, as if gazing at a point in the void.

"The road is not wrong." Lin Mo's voice came faintly, with a hint of inhuman etherealness. "The road was broken, but it has been reconnected."

Li Haotian took a deep breath, forcing himself to calm down. Fear was unnecessary; only by maintaining absolute rationality on the edge of life and death could one survive. He knew that whether it was a curse from ghosts or gods or alien technology, once it was classified as a physical phenomenon, there must be a way to break it.

"Qin Yue, since it's a Möbius strip, how are we going to get out?" Li Haotian asked in a deep voice.

"Theoretically, we can break this closed loop." Qin Yue stared intently at the instrument, speaking rapidly, "This kind of magnetic field distortion is usually formed by two opposing magnetic field nodes pulling against each other. If we can forcibly destroy one of the nodes, or change the spatial structure, the loop will break, and we will fall out."

"Destroyed nodes?" Li Haotian looked around and saw no nodes at all, except for the cement walls and mud.

"The nodes are the structure of this entire tunnel." Qin Yue suddenly looked up at the ceiling. "Such large-scale spatial distortion usually relies on some kind of solid structure. Since we can't get out on a plane, we can only break through in three dimensions."

"You mean..." Li Haotian followed her gaze and immediately understood.

"Blow up the top!" Qin Yue said decisively. "The magnetic field distortion relies on the concrete structure. As long as the integrity of the top slab is compromised, the magnetic field structure will collapse, and that 'ring' will break down on its own."

Without hesitation, Li Haotian turned directly to Liu Hu: "Hu Zi, blow it up! Blow the roof off!"

Upon hearing that a demolition was planned, Liu Hu's previously agitated emotions instantly intensified. He chuckled, revealing his white teeth, and pulled four pieces of C4 plastic explosive from his tactical vest with the practiced ease of chopping vegetables.

"I've been wanting to pull this off for ages! This lousy road is making me want to throw up!"

Liu Hu quickly selected a relatively weak spot in the roof structure, attached the explosives in a cross shape, inserted the detonator, and set the timer.

"Everyone evacuate! Find cover!" Li Haotian shouted, grabbing the still-dazed Su Wan and the group quickly ran into the depths of the tunnel, taking cover behind a relatively sturdy corner.

"Fire in the hole!" Liu Hu roared as he pressed the detonator.

"boom--!!!"

A deafening roar erupted in the narrow underground space. A massive shockwave, carrying concrete debris and dust, swept across the area like a storm, causing the entire ground to tremble violently, as if a magnitude 10 earthquake had struck.

My eardrums were ringing, and for a moment the world seemed to lose its sound, leaving only the swirling gray dust in front of me.

Li Haotian was the first to peek out from behind the cover, the beam of his flashlight piercing through the dust and illuminating the spot where the explosion had just occurred.

The once smooth concrete arch has been completely blasted through, revealing a huge, irregular black hole. The reinforcing bars are exposed like twisted earthworms, with jagged, uneven ends.

"It's done!" Qin Yue exclaimed excitedly.

However, when the dust settled and everyone could see what was behind the dark hole, all the sounds suddenly stopped.

It was neither soil nor rock, nor any geological structure they were familiar with.

Behind that thin concrete shell lies a huge, bottomless void.

The void was unbelievably large; even a flashlight beam couldn't illuminate its entirety, as if it were swallowed by darkness. At the edge of the void, one could vaguely see enormous, black structures that resembled both mechanical and biological skeletons, extending intricately into the depths of darkness like the ribs of some ancient behemoth.

An even more ancient and colder aura swept down from the blasted hole, causing everyone's clothes to flutter wildly.

Li Haotian stared wide-eyed at the enormous hole. He realized that they had been wrong all along.

They had always believed they had gone deep underground and broken into some hidden facility.

But now it seems that this concrete tunnel is just a thin "eggshell" wrapped around this huge cavity.

And they had just shattered that protective shell with their own hands, facing the real, unknown, and terrifying world inside.

"It seems..." Li Haotian gripped the gun tightly, his voice low and menacing, "we've only just entered the door."