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"Then hurry and follow me; after we find Uncle's treasure, we can go home. Quick, quick, quick!" Lily jumped off Charles's hand and ran towards the cave entrance, followed closely by a large swarm of dark brown rats.
Emerging from the rat hole, Lily led Charles and the others swiftly weaving between the rocks.
From time to time, a red glow from the flying locusts would appear in the distance; at these moments, the white rat Lily would send a rat to distract the attention of those monsters.
Hiding and scurrying for about half an hour, the irregular rocks began to thin out, and suddenly, a smooth rock wall appeared in front of Charles.
Because it was too dark, Charles couldn't see the situation above and couldn't tell whether it was a mountain or a huge wall.
The group walked along the base of the wall for a few more minutes when an iron door with a strong sense of technology abruptly appeared before them.
Without waiting for Charles to ask, the rats quickly formed a stack with "Mouse Pole" pulling hard on the door handle. With a "clack," the door opened.
When Charles followed the rats through the doorway, he was immediately stunned; inside was a straight, spacious corridor, although covered with thick dust and in disorder everywhere, the minimalist style of the surroundings made him feel as if he had suddenly returned to a hospital of the future.
"This architectural style isn't built by the people outside," Charles immediately made a preliminary judgment in his mind.
"Lily, are you sure the item is here?"
Charles did not believe this structure was the masterpiece of the flying locusts, sensing that the rat's task was not so simple.
The white rat did not answer; she looked around for a while, then dashed into a room and dragged out a large piece of paper.
Charles touched it with his hand, finding the texture somewhat stiff, a bit like plastic. This thing had a simple map drawn on it, with different areas marked in Earth Sea characters, like control room, rest area, cafeteria, and so on.
Lily directly jumped on the map, first stomping on a corner in the east, then leaping to a prohibited sign in the west and stomping again. "We are here, the item is on this side, let's go and get it quickly."
Looking at this map, Charles had a vague guess in his heart. But now was not the time to think about these things. This place did not seem safe, and it was better to find the item and leave quickly.
"Whoosh!" Suddenly, a figure appeared at the end of the corridor, startling Deep who was in the front to shout loudly.
Charles quickly pressed down the muzzle of his gun. "It's okay, just a dead person."
Everyone gathered around, and the light of the torches illuminated the figure; the withered corpse was kneeling in place, mouth wide open to its maximum, hands spread as if shouting something.
However, Charles noticed some details on this corpse. On the right chest of what resembled a suit hung a metal badge.
He squatted down to take a closer look. "Doctor Dorte, Vice Director of the Third Laboratory."
Charles's pupils contracted as he thought of something, and immediately took out the paper with the clown mask drawing.
"Containment level: "Third-level item containment, currently contained in Laboratory 3."
So this place was Laboratory 3, the mask was stolen from here by the rat. Who built Laboratory 3? Who were they? One question was answered, bringing forth more questions.
Lily clung to Charles's trousers, urging them to hurry forward, "Come on, let's go. Once we're done, we can go home."
Originally, Charles thought there should be many dangers along the way, but the white rat Lily did not lie; aside from the disheveled conditions and the occasional corpses, there really was no danger.
They slowly neared their destination.
"Look, we've arrived! This is the place." Lily stopped at an iron door, standing in the door frame hopping down. "There's a small square at the door, press your hand on it, and the door will open!"
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Looking at the object on the door that seemed familiar, Charles had an ominous premonition.
He pressed his hand against it. As expected, the door didn't open; it had no power, and the fingerprint didn't match. How could it possibly open? It was clearly a fingerprint-locked door!!
"Eh? Why didn't it open? Uncle clearly said that as long as a human pressed their hand against it, the door would open," said Lily, tilting her head in confusion.
Even the smartest rat is still just a rat. It must have seen some humans use their fingerprints to open doors before, thus believing that as long as a human pressed their hand on it, it would open, but it was not the case at all.
Charles knocked on the door and, finding it wasn't very thick, took out some explosives, lit the fuse, and threw it at the door before retreating to a safe distance.
"Boom!!" The deafening sound of the explosion went off, blasting a gaping hole in the door.
When Charles entered through the wide opening, he found a black jug quietly placed in the center of a table.
"That's it! We can go home now!" Lily's furry face beamed with joy.
Charles didn't dare linger, grabbed the jug, and rushed outside. The sound of the explosion had been loud, and he feared it might attract something.
But as Murphy's Law would have it, just as Charles and the others were halfway out, a flying locust-like creature floated around the corner, its bloated body completely blocking the path.
"Roar!" The flying locust creature roared and charged at the crowd.
Seeing no way to dodge, Charles instantly lifted his revolver and began to keep pulling the trigger. "Fire!!"
The bullets hit the locust, making noises like slapping against leather; the impact force made it stagger backward.
With a roar, the bloated body of the flying locust twisted and its red glowing, semi-transparent body disappeared.
"Don't stop! Fire ahead! It can become invisible, empty your clips!"
Bullets sped toward the distant wall, leaving it riddled with holes.
When the gunfire quieted down just as Charles was about to suggest moving on quickly, the enormous head of the locust appeared before him, its mouth full of sharp teeth less than ten centimeters from his head.
The jagged teeth spun open, and the locust's mouth aimed down at Charles's head like a droplet of blood.
Just as he was about to be swallowed by the locust, he suddenly felt a tremendous force at his waist, and he was forcibly pushed back.
Charles looked down to discover it had been Deep pushing him away, saving his life.
The gunfire resumed, and the locust creature roared and retreated, only to twist its body and disappear again.
Charles quickly got up and, without thinking, pulled out the mask and placed it over his face. In a moment of crisis, there was no time for hesitation.
He reached down to his leg, and the Black Blade appeared in his hand; behind the mask, Charles wore an excited smile.
He could feel his strength and reaction time both greatly enhanced the moment the mask covered his face; his surroundings instantly lit up. This wasn't a psychological effect; he could now even see in the darkness.
"Fellows, stop shooting, bullets don't work on that thing. Today—your boss is going to show you a trick!"
The sharp Black Blade, following Charles's hand movements, fluttered up and down with afterimages.