The Trembling World

Chapter 74: Vanish

Under normal circumstances, this hidden contraption would have opened with electricity. The floor tile would then reveal the location of a hidden metal door. Now that the building had lost power, even if Liu Gan couldn’t find the switch, all he had to do was use brute strength to break the floor tile to find the metal door.

“What do you think San Xing Corporation’s biological research laboratory would have stashed here in the Level 2 basement? Would there be an unknown organism hiding there?” Liu Gan asked for Jiang JinYuan’s opinion.

“Should we not go down then because nobody knows what danger lies below? We don’t even know if this unknown organism will attack.” Jiang JinYuan was trying to convince Liu Gan to change his mind.

“Don’t think that way. All you need to do is think of a way to open up the lock.” Liu Gan interrupted Jiang JinYuan halfway. It was as if Liu Gan gave him a command.

Jiang JinYuan had no choice, so he could only investigate the metal door and nearby areas. Perhaps, it was due to a slight press on a hidden button, but a panel revealed itself. It was another type of electrically powered metal door lock. Just like before, Liu Gan broke the outer sheet metal for the panel. Then Jiang JinYuan pulled cables from the interior and proceeded to connect the cables into his PDA’s ports.

The electric door lock lit up, evidently since it obtained the power it needed from the PDA. Jiang JinYuan’s PDA provided the correct electrical current to the panel.

However, this time the panel revealed a frame for a password and virtual keyboard. It seemed like this time the password had to be manually entered to open the electric lock. The password seemed lengthy with up to 20 digits of numbers and letters.

“Do you happen to have the password?” Jiang JinYuan asked Liu Gan.

“Nope.” Liu Gan shook his head.

“Well I don’t have it either. I guess we can’t continue any further ahead.” Jiang JinYuan shrugged.

“You promised that once we arrived at the laboratory, we would be able to find some high-technological gear and stat-improving drugs for me. Now that I have escorted you here, you can’t deliver that promise? Do you know the consequences of tricking me?” Liu Gan said threateningly as his expression changed dramatically. He withdrew his Fire Axe, which was hanging on his waist into his hand. It felt as if at a moment’s notice, Liu Gan was going to slice Jiang JinYuan in half.

“Calm down. There’s no need to rush. I am thinking of another way.” Jiang JinYuan said quickly. Then he proceeded to get busy. This life-threatening moment reminded Jiang JinYuan of the time when Zhao Hui and ChenChen were turned into human sticks. Their expressions were horrifying. Jiang JinYuan was hesitant on stalling any longer, as Liu Gan would really cut him up and turn him into a human stick too.

Jiang JinYuan once again took apart the PDA’s back cover and thoroughly pulled out wires. From the electronic panel, he pulled out a thin wire that connected to the port of the PDA motherboard. Then, he started some application on his PDA. A flashing sequence started shining with a flood of green lights and numbers flowing on the screen like a waterfall. Procedures on the interface panel also flickered with non-stop blinking lights and fluctuating numbers in the codebox.

“It’s a good thing this was manufactured by San Xing Corporation. The Data Interface could still be used. I am currently running a decryption procedure for all of San Xing Corporation’s algorithms. It seems like this is an effective solution to this password problem. We will be able to hack into the door panel and open up the door.” Jiang JinYuan explained to Liu Gan.

Liu Gan could only stare at the PDA’s screen without making a sound. After ten minutes, Liu Gan started to get antsy while the PDA still flickered with numbers and letters on the screen. Then, it finally stopped on the first letter, and the lights stop flickering. It was able to breakthrough the password’s first letter.

“After the first letter, then everything that follows will be a lot quicker.” Jiang JinYuan was finally able to relax.

As Jiang JinYuan had said, after successfully breaking through the password’s first letter, the following twenty other digits were decrypted at an even faster speed. Every ten seconds or so, it was able to crack another digit. After a few minutes, the password was all filled and produced a ‘Ding!’ with the lights glowing green. It also requested the identity card notification.

After the identification card, it requested the fingerprint scanner and the iris authentication afterwards. Following the same procedure used on the previous door, all the authentication tests successfully passed. The metal door made an unlocking sound ‘Ka-Ching’. It was the sound of deadbolts retracting, and then a small crack appeared between the circular metal door and the ground.

“As I said before, the PDA can only give energy to the door lock, but it is unable to provide electricity for the mechanisms that moved the door. This metal door is even more difficult and heavier than the one before. This door doesn’t have the handle, so opening it manually seems impossible.” Jiang JinYuan felt the edges of the metal door as he said to Liu Gan.

“Not necessarily.” Liu Gan said as he jammed a crowbar into the crack between the door and the ground. Then with several bursts of strength, he would try to pry it loose, but the end result was only half a centimeter difference. In addition, the crowbar was starting to deform and bend. This metal door was definitely thicker and heavier than the last one. Normally the door was supposed to slide open smoothly, but right now it was not smooth at all. Without the support of electricity, normal tools would have a hard time pushing it open.

Luckily Liu Gan’s strength had increased many times, so if it didn’t work the first time, he would attempt it again. Prying open the metal door wasn’t a hard task to him, as it was only a question of when he could get it open.

After continuously prying open the metal door several centimeters, Liu Gan shined his flashlight down inside. He discovered that it was another room—a very dark room that didn’t seem like there were anything alive inside. Liu Gan shouted a few times and didn’t hear a response from within.

Previously with the probing instrument, the result was that there were no humans or zombies. Only the unknown organism existed there as indicated by the yellow dot on the PDA monitor that laid ten meters below ground.

Once again, Liu Gan used his brute strength to pry open the door further, and he combined both of hands pushing open the door while his legs balanced his weight. After ten minutes of this continuous effort, the metal door opened up a passageway of ten centimeters. It was enough for a person to slide down into the passage.

If it was the old Liu Gan, he definitely wouldn’t have been able to pry open the sliding metal door. Only after he reached level 5, did his immense strength play an important role.

Liu Gan looked at the time and then told Jiang JinYuan to probe the chamber below. However this time, the yellow dot mysteriously disappeared from the monitor!

“What happened? Why would the yellow dot vanish? Is the probing instrument faulty?” Liu Gan raised his eyebrow as he asked Jiang JinYuan.

“The probing device shouldn’t have any problems.” Jiang JinYuan said in a questioning tone.

“Then why was the scan result different from before?” Liu Gan asked Jiang JinYuan.

“I don’t know, in fact… I don’t feel comfortable with everything that’s happened so far. If we go down, I feel like we might be in danger. How about we not go down?” Jiang JinYuan said with a horrific expression.

It was unbearably dark in this underground chamber. The heart of darkness was like entering the mouth of a demon, which was ready to swallow any wayward adventurer.

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