"Did you really not buy even a bit of intel from the information merchants before coming in?"
"Mm."
"Hah, no wonder you dared to stay in Room 2012."
"..."
"The 407 Anomalous Creature Containment Facility has four floors, with a hundred rooms on each floor. Some rooms contain monsters, while others are empty. For twelve hours each night, the iron doors are sealed. The monsters become violent and roam the hallways. Anyone leaving their room will be killed, and sometimes they even break into rooms to kill. During the twelve hours of daylight, when the iron doors are open, the monsters remain locked in their rooms, making it the best time to explore this space. But it's not completely safe. To hunt monsters and gather materials, you need to explore the rooms. But opening a door means facing unknown monsters... which is why the death rate here is so high."
"How strong are the B-grade disasters?"
"Currently, we know that Rooms 1099, 2012, 3045, and 4011 all contain B-grade disaster creatures. Except for the Corrupted Giant in Room 1099, which was killed by someone, the other three B-grade disasters haven't been killed yet. Instead, at least a few hundred people have died trying. The thing is, this space limits the tier of its entrants, so it's hard to take down B-grade disasters without a large team."
"Then why are you still...?"
"The Fallen Witch is special, and she's a spiritual-type creature. She has her own weaknesses. I have special methods to deal with her, which will make the difficulty much lower. I'll explain the details later."
"..."
The mechanical-arm girl had a naturally cold and wary demeanor toward strangers, but she didn't hold back on what needed to be said.
Her personality was straightforward, no-nonsense.
Ji Xun found this to his liking. He did his best to ask vague questions to mask his ignorance, gradually piecing together some useful information.
This mysterious, magical world was slowly revealing itself through their conversation.
It seemed to be a world where both humans and monsters possessed extraordinary powers, and it contained some unusual items, like steam machinery and magical cards.
They opened doors, remained cautious, and searched through rooms.
The mechanical-arm girl handled everything on her own.
Ji Xun didn't have to do anything—he could just follow behind like a burden.
They passed through a dozen rooms, all of which were empty.
Ji Xun walked leisurely.
He didn't feel the looming danger of the 70% death rate at all.
However, as they walked, he suddenly froze, noticing something unusual. His expression tightened as he silently thought, The doors are spaced twenty steps apart... so Room 2012's layout really is off.
He didn't know what this observation meant, so he kept quiet and continued to follow her.
The gas lamps in the corridor were unstable, casting a dim yellow light that stretched their shadows long.
As they continued their conversation, they reached the door of Room 2049.
As before, the mechanical-arm girl planned to open the door and check.
But the moment she pushed the heavy iron door, something changed abruptly.
The noise from opening the door startled the monster inside. With a loud clang, the heavy door was blasted open by a gust of wind, slamming violently against the wall.
A horrid stench of rotting flesh and a strong fishy odor hit them instantly.
Seeing this, Ji Xun's pupils constricted.
This was the first time they had encountered a monster after opening so many rooms.
Before he had time to react, a two-headed hound, its skin peeled off, charged out of the room.
It was an abnormally large dog-like creature, its size reminiscent of a lion, and the oppressive presence it exuded felt like staring down a demon.
Ji Xun immediately spotted the creature's label.
[Bastard Two-Headed Hound]
Details: First-tier D-grade disaster entity, a hellish mutant dog-like creature skilled in mental intimidation. It possesses astounding explosive speed and incredible biting power.
"Mental intimidation? These monsters are all messed up…" Ji Xun immediately understood what that suffocating pressure was. He instinctively reached for the revolver at his waist, preparing for self-defense.
But clearly, the mechanical-arm girl was faster.
She showed no surprise that a monster would come charging out of the room. In an instant, she raised her right arm, which housed the steam cannon, and calmly pulled the trigger.
The high-pressure steam cannon released a blast, and her body jolted slightly.
Bang!
The deafening sound of a gas explosion echoed through the hallway.
The monster, which had been less than a foot away from her, froze in mid-air as the white mist of steam poured out of the cannon. After a brief moment of suspension, its muscles were shredded by the high-pressure steam, and it exploded into a bloody mist.
"Splash~"
The entire hallway was bathed in a shower of crimson blood.
The steam dissipated, and the sight cleared.
The room was filled with the remains of blood and flesh, and even through the gas mask, Ji Xun could still faintly smell the stench.
"What incredible power," Ji Xun muttered to himself.
Looking at this steam-powered black-tech weapon, he realized how lucky he was to have avoided conflict earlier.
In this narrow bunker, this weapon was far superior to bullets. The steam cannon's area-of-effect damage made it nearly invincible.
It seemed like the mechanical-arm girl was also sending him a warning: Don't try anything funny in front of me.
Ji Xun raised an eyebrow and thought to himself: Straightforward, isn't she?
He glanced at the pressure gauge on her arm, which was now empty, and mentally calculated the recharge time. It was probably over thirty seconds—definitely a weakness.
If this temporary teammate had any ulterior motives, this would be the one point he could exploit.
After killing the monster, the mechanical-arm girl glanced at Ji Xun, as if about to say something, but stopped herself.
This shot had clearly been a show of strength.
However, she was surprised that Ji Xun wasn't affected by the creature's mental intimidation.
"Do you have some talent for enhancing mental resistance?" she muttered, but didn't say more. She stepped into the room to search.
They had explored over forty rooms on the second floor, but only Room 2049 had contained a monster.
The other unopened rooms had been marked by the information merchants as Unknown Risk Rooms.
The mechanical-arm girl's goal was clear: she was focused on the Fallen Witch. She didn't care about the other monsters in the rooms.
She hadn't bothered to take the elevator to the higher floors either.
However, Ji Xun was surprised to find that, apart from the two of them, there were no other people on the second floor. They had come across a dozen or so human corpses, though.
Ji Xun, eager to learn more, asked, "Are there no other people on this floor?"
Having not caused any trouble along the way, Ji Xun noticed the mechanical-arm girl's tone had softened. She explained, "Most of the mutated monsters on the second floor are spiritual-type. These kinds of monsters often have strange abilities, which makes them difficult to deal with. The easier monsters were mostly cleared out yesterday, and now the remaining ones require special methods to deal with. That's why regular hunters wouldn't risk the second floor, even though the death rate is higher on the third floor. This space is designed for teams of a hundred people, so there are probably still dozens of survivors on the upper and lower floors. But it's best to avoid them if you can."
She added, "Don't touch the unopened doors. No one knows what's inside. If you encounter a C-grade disaster, a whole team could be wiped out."
"Mm."
Ji Xun didn't say much.
This was the advantage of buying information.
You wouldn't blindly stumble into monsters you couldn't handle.
The mechanical-arm girl nodded and said, "Let's go to the next room."
As Ji Xun and the mechanical-arm girl continued searching through the empty rooms on the second floor, downstairs, outside Room 1099, a group of twenty or so heavily equipped individuals were cleaning up the corpse of the B-grade disaster Corrupted Giant.
These were no ordinary treasure hunters—they were the elite vanguard of the Blackwater Mercenary Group.
Only elite teams like theirs, with impeccable coordination, had any chance of hunting a B-grade disaster.
Even so, they had taken heavy casualties.
But seeing their loot, the mercenaries couldn't stop smiling.
"Haha… we got a Yao Silver quality finished contract card! And it's a rare Clubs 4—Mysterious sequence! We're going to make a fortune this time!"
"Yeah, if we sell it at the auction house, it'll definitely be a hot commodity. We'll get a good bonus this time."
"Hey, have you noticed? Even though we got a Yao Silver card, our 'boss' didn't seem interested. What's he here for? What materials does he need?"
"What do you know? Haven't you heard the captain say? That 'boss' is a real big shot from the upper city. What we think is an extremely rare Silver Talent Card is probably nothing more than a trinket to him. He's probably after something rarer. And since the other-dimensional space progress is still under 50%, there's probably a lot of hidden content yet to be explored. Maybe we'll even find a legendary Gold Card!"