The perilous leap across the quarry had exhausted most of the team's physical stamina and ntal focus.
They took a brief rest in the shadow of the rocks, replenishing their water and consuming high-calorie jerky, waiting for their bodily functions to recover.
The distance of the upcoming journey was shorter, but the level of danger did not decrease—it increased instead.
They were about to enter the Aether Tower's close-in defense periter, where patrol density and detection intensity would increase exponentially.
Any minor mistake would be fatal.
Fortunately, Evelyn's [Echo Goggles] once again pointed out the only path to survival for them.
"Near the base of the Aether Tower, there is a massive underground heat exhaust duct," Evelyn pointed to a spot on the map, her voice slightly hoarse from exhaustion. "I can see continuous low-frequency sound waves emanating from there, likely from so kind of large piston bellows in operation. That is our best entry point for infiltration."
Lin Jie understood her intention.
The massive noise source was both a danger and a cover.
The roar of blades churning the air and the shriek of high-pressure steam erupting from valves were enough to perfectly mask their footsteps and breathing, creating a natural "auditory blind spot."
After nearly another hour of extre stealth movent, they finally reached their destination.
It was a massive square opening hidden within an inconspicuous patch of shrubbery, covered by a steel grate.
Waves of scorching hot air, mixed with the slls of machine oil, ozone, and hot tal, accompanied by deafening roars, rushed out from the depths of the opening.
Phineas only needed one glance at the grate's structure before pulling a set of delicate lock-picking tools from his pocket. In less than two minutes, he silently opened the heavy industrial lock.
The five of them slid into the dark duct one by one, resetting the grate behind them.
The mont they set foot inside this scientific fortress, everyone felt that the "pulse" of this land beneath their feet was sowhat different from the outside world.
That maddening low-frequency hum was gone here, replaced by a more concrete and more awe-inspiring industrial symphony.
The friction of interlocking gears, the hissing release of steam from pipes, and the heavy, thudding impacts echoing from the distance like a giant's heartbeat, all combined to form a doomsday lody of steel and electricity.
They were now inside a vast, labyrinthine underground complex.
Above their heads and all around them was a network of thick, intertwined steam pipes and cables wrapped in insulation.
The walls were made of cold, poured concrete, and the floor was hard steel grating.
The air was thick with the pungent, dizzying sll of ozone.
Countless engineers and technicians in white jumpsuits hurriedly shuttled through the various passageways.
Their expressions were serious, their steps swift, holding various blueprints and asuring instrunts. No one spoke, and no one looked around.
The entire base was shrouded in an atmosphere of extre efficiency yet lifeless military managent.
"This place is even more oppressive than the fortress in Munich," Lin Jie murmured, instinctively pressing his body deeper into the shadow of the duct.
The five-person team moved like aliens infiltrating an ant nest, carefully advancing along the shadows of the pipes, avoiding any contact with the patrolling guards and busy engineers.
"We can't stay together the whole ti; the target is too large," Lin Jie stopped in a relatively secluded maintenance passage and proposed a new plan of action. "We must split up to maximize intelligence gathering and achieve our objectives within the limited ti."
He looked at everyone and began assigning tasks.
"Phineas, your task is the most important. You need to find a way to tap into the internal communication system here, whether it's telegraph lines or the broadcast system. We need an ear to monitor enemy movents in real ti, and a mouth to create chaos in an ergency."
Phineas nodded solemnly.
For a technical expert like him, this was the perfect stage to demonstrate his value.
"Evelyn," Lin Jie turned to the resilient female journalist. "I know you want to look for information about your father. According to the intelligence from Upton, all personnel files and confidential research materials are stored in the Central Archives on B3 level."
"That place is heavily guarded, but with your stealth capabilities, you should have a chance to get in. Rember, your primary goal is safety, intelligence is secondary."
"Don't linger."
A flicker of gratitude flashed in Evelyn's eyes, and she nodded heavily.
"Hawk," Lin Jie finally looked at the silent god of death. "Your task sounds the simplest, but also the most dangerous. I need you to roam the periphery, familiarize yourself with the terrain here, find all possible ergency exits and key structural weak points, like ammunition depots, fuel depots, and main load-bearing structures."
"When we need to create chaos, you will be the detonator that sets everything off."
Hawk grinned, revealing a bloodthirsty smile.
This task suited his taste perfectly.
"As for us," Lin Jie looked at Ethan. "We have only one target—the power room. Find the energy source for the entire Aether Tower and assess the possibility of destroying it. That is the core of all our actions."
The tasks were assigned, and no one raised any objections.
The five synchronized their watches again, agreeing to rendezvous at the initial entry point in four hours, regardless of mission success.
Then, they lted into the darkness, silently disappearing into different directions within this vast underground maze.
Lin Jie and Ethan moved the fastest.
They did not linger, heading straight for the area marked "CORE" in the deepest part of the base.
The defensive level along the way grew increasingly higher.
Ordinary security personnel gradually disappeared, replaced by pairs of elite soldiers patrolling in standard tactical formations.
They wore special dark blue uniforms with insulating rubber padding and carried oddly shaped rifles.
The front of the rifles was not a traditional muzzle, but a ring-shaped device densely wound with copper coils, crackling with dangerous blue electric arcs—early Tesla Coil rifles.
These soldiers' eyes were cold and alert, their steps perfectly synchronized, and they exuded an aura that matched the Brotherhood of Light's doctrine.
In addition to patrolling soldiers, a new type of defensive facility appeared on the passage walls every fifty yards.
It was a hemispherical device made of brass and glass, with a tungsten filant bulb glowing steadily inside.
But below the bulb was connected a structurally complex early photosensitive device, similar to a photoresistor.
"Optical motion sensor," Lin Jie silently recited the device's na in his mind. "Once a shadow moves across its monitored area faster than a preset speed, it triggers an alarm. They've truly pushed the application of 'light' to the limit."
They ca close to exposure several tis.
Lin Jie's powerful insight allowed them to predict patrol routes in advance.
But an accident still occurred.
At a fork in the path, just as Lin Jie and Ethan were about to duck behind a row of steam condensers, a rapid, approaching sound of tal wheels scraping against rails suddenly ca from the passage they were heading towards!
It was a rail cart transporting supplies, and it was moving fast!
At the sa ti, the synchronized footsteps of a patrol team also echoed from the passage behind them!
They were trapped in a narrow "T" intersection with no cover whatsoever, caught between a rock and a hard place!
Smooth, cold concrete walls were on their left and right, while the sensor above them watched the area like a judge's cold, unblinking eye.
"Damn it!" Ethan cursed under his breath.
They were exposed in the light. If anyone from either side rounded the corner, they would be spotted instantly!
"Don't move!" Lin Jie's voice was terrifyingly calm. "Hold your current posture, don't make any unnecessary movents. Trust ."
Ethan instantly understood.
He forced his tense muscles to relax, holding his body in a pose as if about to take a step, frozen like a statue.
Lin Jie, in "slow motion," pressed his body tightly into the shadowy crevice between the wall corner and a pipe.
"They are using 'light' to monitor the movent of 'shadows'," Lin Jie's thoughts raced at this mont. "Conversely, as long as our shadows don't undergo rapid displacent, we won't trigger the alarm. And for the human eye, the easiest things to overlook are always those that are stationary and blend into the environnt."
He was now betting on the "blind spot" of human vision.
The rail cart soon appeared around the corner.
An engineer pushing the cart humd a tuneless lody, passing within less than five yards of them without even a glance before disappearing into another passage.
Then, the patrol's footsteps drew nearer and nearer.
Lin Jie could clearly hear the sound of the two soldiers' leather boots hitting the ground, even sll the faint scent of machine oil on them.
His heart pounded wildly in his chest, but he still forced himself to remain absolutely still.
"...All clear here. Proceeding to the next checkpoint."
One soldier's voice sounded just a few steps away from them.
Lady Luck seed to be on their side.
The two soldiers passed by the intersection without glancing sideways, continuing their patrol route.
Only when the footsteps had completely faded away did Ethan slowly let out a sigh of relief, feeling his palms were slick with cold sweat.
The life-and-death gamble of that instant had been no less perilous than a frontal fight with a Town-class UMA.
"Madman," Ethan muttered to Lin Jie, but his tone carried unconcealed admiration.
Having navigated this crisis by the skin of their teeth, they finally arrived before a massive circular door. The door was cast from alloy steel a foot thick, resembling a bank vault.
There was no traditional keyhole on the door, only a complex chanical combination dial made of several concentric brass rings.
Beside the dial was a narrow, long slot, labeled with cold etched lettering above it: 'Identification Card'.
"We've reached the end," Ethan whispered, feeling a sense of helplessness as he looked at this seemingly impregnable door.
"No, the road has just begun," Lin Jie shook his head. He didn't study the door, instead turning his gaze to the intricate ventilation duct system on the ceiling.
"Any energy core needs heat dissipation. The greater the power, the higher the demand for cooling," Lin Jie's logic was clear. "This door is for defending against external attacks, but they can't completely seal off the cooling system as well. That would only cause their 'heart' to lt down from its own heat."
He quickly found his target: a giant main ventilation duct large enough for a person to pass through, marked with the word "Circulation."
The following process wasn't too difficult for Ethan, a noble hunter who had undergone rigorous physical training since childhood.
The two used the support structures on the outer wall of the duct to climb up, then used the dagger Ethan carried to pry open a connection point on the duct, and slid into the darkness filled with scorching air currents and imnse noise.
After crawling nearly a hundred ters through the ventilation duct, a heart-palpitating, heavy "thump-thump" sound, like a giant's heartbeat, began to transmit clearly through the duct's tal skin.
The sound was heavy and rhythmic; each pulsation caused the entire duct to vibrate slightly.
Simultaneously, an extrely potent and peculiar odor, mixed with the scents of blood and ozone, drifted along the air current into their nostrils.
A strong sense of unease surged in Lin Jie's heart.
He exchanged a glance with Ethan, seeing the sa shock and confusion mirrored in the other's eyes.
Finally, they reached the end of the ventilation duct.
A massive exhaust vent covered with multiple layers of grating appeared before them.
Through the gaps in the grating, they finally saw the most closely guarded secret of this scientific fortress.
—The power room.
However, the sight before them overturned their expectations and filled them with astonishnt.
There was no massive array of generator units they had imagined, nor any giant boilers burning with roaring flas.
The core of the entire power room was a massive, semi-transparent entity encased within a special tempered glass enclosure... a living creature!
It was a UMA that looked like a giant jellyfish.
Its body, over fifty ters in diater, occupied the center of the power room.
Nurous thick electrodes crackling with blue electric arcs were deeply embedded into its soft, constantly undulating gelatinous body.
More pipes connected to its "blood vessels," pumping in so kind of nutrient fluid that emitted a green fluorescent glow, while simultaneously extracting the tabolic waste it produced.
Its body pulsed and contracted in a stable, rhythmic cadence, each pulsation producing the heavy sound of a giant's heartbeat.
And with each of its pulsations, the tips of the electrodes embedded in its body would erupt with dazzling electrical light, converging into powerful currents that were continuously channeled through thick cables towards the base of the Aether Tower above.
Its massive body seed to lack fixed internal organs, containing only an energy core that rotated and glowed like a nebula.
That was the source of all its power.
The mont he saw it, a line of text appeared in Lin Jie's mind. He recognized this creature, which had once been recorded in the Association's Black Book.
[UMA Designation: K-013]
[Na: Deep Sea Moon God]
[Threat Level: Kingdom-class]
[Description: A giant planktonic UMA inhabiting depths below one thousand ters, possessing an independent bioelectric field, gentle in nature.]
"They... they actually..."
Ethan, in his extre shock, forgot to control his volu.
"They turned a Kingdom-class UMA, a living, sentient, mythical creature... into a battery!"
The madness and arrogance of the Brotherhood of Light were displayed before Lin Jie and Ethan in this mont, in a direct and cruel manner.
Beneath that Aether Tower, shining with the light of science and progress, lay such a filthy and bloody truth.
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