Chapter 099 It All Began to Unfold

Thanks to that sudden scene earlier, the recently gathered team was once again scattered.

Upon entering the Underground Research Base, the map on my phone stopped displaying our location, but the communication channels among players remained operational. After regaining my composure, Xia Xinyan and Ling Mo managed to contact Morning Light and Feifei.

Morning Light and Feifei were on the same floor; they were the first to react and escape from the elevator shaft, now situated on the seventh underground level. That level still felt relatively safe, as they hadn’t encountered any enemies so far.

The fat guy and Bai Yu should be together as well, but they hadn’t logged in, likely having run into some trouble. After leaving a message for the two of them, Xia Xinyan put away her phone and began to explore the floor with Ling Mo.

Next to the elevator shaft, there was a floor display indicating they were on the thirteenth underground level. The corridor had signposts showing various lab numbers, but they hadn’t faced any enemies, causing Ling Mo to slightly lower his guard: “Looks like it’s not as dangerous here as we imagined?”

The mission target was inside the Divine Dragon Building, but since they entered, apart from the minor danger in the elevator, they hadn’t faced any other perils. By that standard, this dungeon was easier than the final challenges they had encountered previously, perhaps even safer than outside the Divine Dragon Building.

At least there weren’t as many police officers here.

Xia Xinyan remained noncommittal: “This game won’t let us complete the final task so easily. It’s better to be cautious.”

She didn’t think the dungeon’s difficulty had significantly dropped. Based on her understanding of the game, a sudden increase in safety could mean two things—either they hadn’t reached the real final stage of the dungeon, or it was the calm before the storm.

However, she didn’t care much about which possibility it might be. Her usual approach was to deal with whatever came their way; worrying about events that hadn’t occurred yet would only bring unnecessary mental burden.

What concerned her more was a different matter—

Given that the dungeon progress was probably already over half, why hadn’t Tianji issued a mission yet?

It seemed her question was heard, as Tianji promptly issued the dungeon tasks—

【Point Task Released: Successfully protecting Xia Xinyan once will earn 3000 points, successfully escaping a life-threatening crisis will earn 3000 points; these tasks can be stacked.】

【Point Task Released: Stealing the steel battle armor will earn 5000 points.】

【Extra Task Released: Achieving an S-level evaluation in the dungeon will earn one lottery qualification; achieving an SS-level evaluation will earn one precise lottery qualification.】

Xia Xinyan: “……”

She felt this system was deliberate.

Absolutely deliberate.

Once or twice, she could brush it off as coincidence, but with a consistent pattern like this, it was impossible not to think deeply—she had the feeling that this Tianji was intentionally assigning them easier tasks… or rather, it was intentionally matching the tasks to their dungeon progress.

The most obvious case was this time; Ling Mo had just protected her once and similarly escaped a life-threatening situation, adding up to a direct reward of 6000 points. She wouldn’t believe Tianji wasn’t doing this on purpose.

Moreover, the points were quite generous.

That’s why she had previously said that whether points or game currency, there was no need to hold back on them; these things were always welcome.

Of course, Tianji’s behavior wasn’t necessarily a bad thing; rather, she would suggest they increase the stakes. But even if it was a good thing, she couldn’t help but wonder what the underlying meaning was.

In her previous life, Tianji hadn’t awakened, so she was unaware of this system’s style. Now that she was encountering it for the first time, she pondered whether this approach was the system’s original style or a form of compensation for her?

If it was the original style, then why was Tianji so helpful to her?

Regardless of the reason, this system was indeed way too overbearing.

Yet, this time Tianji still didn’t elaborate on any of the tasks.

Not being able to figure these things out now, Xia Xinyan noted this down and focused on the main task: “Let’s search this floor first; who knows, there might be some good stuff here.”

Ling Mo nodded: “I was thinking the same—there’s a specimen warehouse over there; it might yield something.”

“Let’s go check it out,” Xia Xinyan loaded her handgun and went ahead.

Ling Mo thought for a moment, then took out the energy rifle he had picked up earlier from his spatial watch, following closely behind Xia Xinyan.

Throughout the journey, they hadn’t encountered a single soul, as if all the personnel in the Underground Base had vanished, making it eerily smooth.

Even more exciting for Ling Mo was that the discovery of the specimen warehouse exceeded their expectations—

Inside were all kinds of high-tech weapons and equipment.

For instance, there was a gadget similar to their shield bracelet, with a full two boxes of it stored inside.

However, since it was a specimen warehouse, everything stored was clearly in the testing phase, which meant there were bound to be some flaws—like that bracelet, code-named Shield Bracelet Prototype E2, which raised the shield energy cap to 250%, but the only downside was a 13% chance it could explode due to unstable energy after being worn.

Ling Mo picked it up, glanced at the description, and then set it down.

No way he was taking that gamble.

Xia Xinyan thought it was normal; whether they were striking gold or just lucky, it was unreasonable to acquire so much gear under such easy circumstances. Therefore, the game wouldn’t provide them with anything too good; even if it was originally a divine artifact, after they arrived, it would surely be updated to junk.

So, this whole situation left them with a feeling of panning for gold in the sand.

While Ling Mo was packing things away, Xia Xinyan reminded him, “Don’t run out of energy; at least keep 20% for retrieving items.”

Ling Mo nodded, smiling, “I know; I’m not that stupid.”

Xia Xinyan didn’t say anything more.

Most of the items in here were nearly useless to her, but bringing them out of the dungeon to sell at the auction house could be a decent choice; there would always be foolish customers willing to pay.

After they finished scavenging the stuff, their phones suddenly beeped with a notification; the fat guy was online, the first thing he shouted was a ghostly wail: “Brothers, we’re in big trouble!! Beware of the robots!!”

As soon as he finished speaking, the entire Underground Base erupted with a deafening alarm, accompanied by a synthesized voice announcement: “All research personnel have evacuated; cleanup teams are online. Objective: Eliminate threats.”

Ling Mo paused for a moment, instinctively glancing outside the door.

At the end of the corridor, just as he looked out, a dozen white robots suddenly charged in, looking almost like delivery robots from reality, with one small distinction—where their arms should be, they instead had two rotating machine guns.

Ling Mo: “……Damn.”