Chapter 167

Page Twenty-Four Deep Research Institute

[16:35]

Following Miss Kē Màn out of the office, because my legs were short, I had to quicken my pace to keep up with hers.

“Is the new research institute close by?” I asked as I caught up.

Miss Kē Màn countered, “Isn’t there a large empty lot behind the back door of the institute? There’s only one big food stall’s kitchen that can enter through there, and the only barn on the lot is the back door of the institute.”

I carefully pondered this.

“Hmm, so you built a new research institute over there?”

“That plot of land was indeed bought by the Boss, but wouldn’t building a structure there be too conspicuous?”

Miss Kē Màn scanned her IC card in front of the elevator. Just as the door opened, Miss Bā Hé Mèi, pressing her beret down, rushed up breathlessly.

“I have to go to the new research institute too!!”

Miss Kē Màn asked, “Have you finished your assignment for today?”

“Yes, I have!”

Miss Bā Hé Mèi handed a report to Miss Kē Màn, who nodded after a brief look.

“You’re quite capable, but just completing assigned tasks isn’t enough. You need to have your own ideas. In our magical research, we are all pioneers and cannot just be satisfied with current achievements.”

The latter nodded vigorously and laughed, “I know! We are witches of the new era!”

“…Let’s not call ourselves witches.”

Unlike the middle-school disease-ridden Bā Hé Mèi, Miss Kē Màn simply regarded herself as a researcher.

The back door of the elevator opened, revealing another narrow corridor.

“I ask, so where exactly is the new research institute located?”

The area of the empty lot wasn’t much larger than the current apartment complex, which didn’t quite meet their goal of expanding the institute.

Miss Bā Hé Mèi sniffed, “Hehehe, using magic, we can accomplish things beyond ordinary people’s imagination.”

I thought for a moment and asked, “Did you create some kind of optical camouflage or a wide-range cognitive interference? Or perhaps dug two hundred meters deep to build a larger underground research facility?”

Miss Kē Màn replied, “We did consider the first two points, but they are currently difficult to implement. However, the third point can be achieved. The depth is about three hundred meters.”

“Three Hundred Meters?!!”

Although it was an underground research facility, the depth was only around ten meters. I stopped in shock, and Miss Bā Hé Mèi bumped into me from behind. The little girl tried to lift me under my armpits.

Of course, she didn’t succeed.

“How do you dig so deep without being discovered?”

Miss Kē Màn explained, “This time, we didn’t dig. As a magical research institute, we use our own methods to construct it. We first assembled a fully enclosed box-laboratory, then used a teleportation spell to transport the entire box underground. The box has arrays for positioning and teleportation spells inside. Once the stones and soil inside the box are cleared, people can enter.”

No path was needed; it was direct point-to-point teleportation. This was indeed a unique convenience of magic. Moreover, the modular construction method was clever, making it less likely to be discovered without large-scale construction.

After climbing a staircase, we arrived at the large barn. The weeds had been cleared, probably to make space for assembling the laboratory.

The barn door was tightly shut. For those who had mastered the teleportation spells, even the old institute’s elevator could be removed later.

“Can we only reach the new institute by teleporting?”

“Yes.”

I scratched my head and said, “But I don’t know how to…”

Miss Kē Màn explained, “I can’t teleport alone either, so we reserved a teleportation array. With magical energy input, movement is possible.”

Miss Bā Hé Mèi asked, “Sister Lingmeng, you don’t know how to teleport either?”

“No.”

Miss Cherry Sauce could hide herself in a notebook and run around.

Miss Bā Hé Mèi was somewhat disappointed in me, but she still said, “If even Sister Lingmeng hasn’t mastered it, teleportation must be quite challenging.”

In the corner of the barn was the teleportation array, a three-meter square metal plate. It seemed designed for transporting large objects, as the array was larger, engraved with spell patterns I couldn’t understand, possibly derived from an ancient civilization.

Next to the metal plate was a half-meter-high metal column with a lid. Miss Kē Màn took out a magic battery from her coat and pushed it into the slot inside the lid.

She then reminded us, “Prepare to go down.”

It was my first experience with teleportation, and I felt a bit nervous.

Golden light curtains rose around the metal plate, and in an instant, the scenery outside changed.

I was somewhat bewildered and asked, “Uh, that’s it?”

Miss Bā Hé Mèi smiled, “What else were you expecting?”

There was no jolt, no sensation of body disintegration, just the feeling that the space enclosed by the light curtain moved as a whole.

The teleportation completed, the magic battery popped out of the metal column automatically.

The fusion of mechanics and magic was quite novel.

I asked, “Am I now three hundred meters underground?”

“Correct. If you don’t believe it, there’s a barometer on the wall showing air pressure.”

The lighting here was much brighter than in the barn.

The laboratory was over three meters high, with an area of about fifty to sixty square meters. As the initial lab that sank down, its size was rather modest, barely larger than a guard room.

To accommodate a larger lab, the barn itself would need to be expanded…

The box-shaped lab was made of some smooth material, but the surface had some uneven pits, likely due to collisions and compression when it sank, hitting the original rock. Inside the fifty-square-meter area, there were strange instruments, oxygen masks, and some potted plants, though no one was present, the place was electrified.

“Don’t be surprised yet, there’s more to come.”

Miss Bā Hé Mèi said as she pulled open the lab’s hatch… well, although it was a sealed room, there was still a door.

“Ta-da!”

Behind the door was another surprise.

There was a sizable rock cavity three hundred meters underground, nearly fifteen hundred square meters, almost half the size of a basketball court, with limited lighting installed at the top and a small pool of water in one corner.

However, the damp air wasn’t very pleasant, with a strong diesel smell.

There was some standing water on the ground. Miss Kē Màn, wearing cotton slippers, didn’t want to step out, standing at the lab entrance to explain, “This is a natural cave formed by tectonic movements. Groundwater seeped down, creating this environment. The teleported lab happened to get stuck in the cave wall, so when we corrected the lab, we simply added a door, treating this cave as part of our base… in short, we got lucky.”

No wonder Miss Bā Hé Mèi was so excited upon arriving; the underground cave satisfied her adventurous spirit. I casually conjured a magic lamp for her, which she held high and ran off into the dim corners.

Miss Kē Màn continued, “We will reinforce this place next, and future labs will be built around this cave. Perhaps we can even turn it into an underground garden.”

On the other side of the natural cave, at the end of the lighting, diagonally across from the lab, was a smaller makeshift room.

Noticing the commotion caused by Miss Bā Hé Mèi, a brunette woman emerged from the small room. She wore a mask on her head, held a welding torch, and wore a dirty white coat, with large rubber boots for moving in the damp environment.

“Oh, Director Kē is here?”

She greeted with a slightly rugged voice, holding a wireless welding torch.

Miss Kē Màn responded, “Yes, we need to use a magical barrier for something.”

As the woman crossed the puddle towards us, Miss Kē Màn introduced her, “This is Professor Shí Huǒróng, our chief engineer. She proposed the idea of modular labs, and led the construction of the new institute. Although she joined the institute recently, she’s quite adept at environmental transformation spells, which relates to her previous profession… Professor, watch out!”

The shallow-looking puddle had a hidden deep depression. Seeing Professor Shí Huǒróng slip and lose balance, her petite frame about to fall into the water, she shot a laser from her welding gun just in time.

With a slight tremor, the ground rose momentarily, supporting her falling body and lifting her out of the water.

“Cursed! I should have filled this damned puddle earlier!”

The raised ground sank again. Cursing, Professor Shí Huǒróng tucked the welding gun—uh, the magical laser gun—into her waistband, waded through the puddle to us, and started pouring out water from her high rubber boots.

Miss Kē Màn, wearing cotton slippers, cautiously stepped back to avoid getting splashed.

She frowned and said, “Professor, you should go wash up and rest. Staying underground isn’t good for your health.”

“No way. Our ventilation system isn’t ready, and the conversion efficiency of magical energy is too low. The diesel generator needs oxygen. If there’s not enough oxygen here, we can’t solve the energy problem, and subsequent construction won’t be feasible…”

She rolled up her pants, took off her socks, wrung them out, and laughed bitterly, “After finally regaining youth, I don’t want to get so dirty! But construction requires this, can we work cleanly all the time?”

Professor Shí Huǒróng looked at me, still wearing the welding mask.

“This child, I haven’t seen before. Is she your daughter?”

Her humble title of “old man” reminded me a bit of the master…

“Professor, you jest. My daughter is in high school, how could she be so young?”

Miss Kē Màn denied while stroking my head, introducing, “This child is Chang Lingmeng mentioned earlier.”

“Oh, is she the granddaughter of Cang’er?”

Professor Shí Huǒróng finally removed her mask, revealing her dirt-streaked face.

“Granddaughter!”

She seemed to know my master.

“By the way, do you know my master?”

Using the hand that had just wrung out her socks, she wiped her nose, then took off her pants, revealing her white thighs, and laughed carelessly, “Heh, I’m old friends with your master and Bi Fang!”