Armor-Piercing Munition: Face Me, Carbon-Based Monster!
Chapter 164 - 58: The Phantom in the Nuclear Arsenal_2

Chapter 164: Chapter 58: The Phantom in the Nuclear Arsenal_2

At the end of the runway is an isolation door used to block flames and toxic gases produced after the fuel burns. If closed, this underground runway would immediately separate from the real underground hangar.

However, Chen Jian and his team’s luck was good; the isolation door was in the open state.

After passing through the door, the real "hangar" was exposed to the group.

But now, the hangar looked more like an airplane graveyard than a hangar.

In the damp air, a large amount of moss densely covered the parked aircraft bodies. Light-loving pill bugs crawled among them, occasionally giant insects could be seen quickly scurrying across the ground before burrowing into the gaps of the aircraft wreckage.

Those colossal creations that once soared through the skies were buried deep here, turning into decaying "sculptures."

Chen Jian couldn’t help but feel a chill up his spine. He even felt like he was in an ancient tomb.

Only, the things buried here never had life.

And obviously, after entering the hangar, the others weren’t much better off than him.

Ji Xing slowly followed behind Chen Jian, and as those shadows appeared in front of her one by one, her breathing even became heavy.

"This place feels... very familiar..."

Ji Xing stopped her steps, speaking with some panic in her voice:

"The smell here... no, the smell is completely different, but the atmosphere here..."

"I can almost feel its life."

"Very dangerous!"

"We should stop first!"

As Ji Xing finished speaking, Chen Jian and the others immediately turned to look at her.

"What do you mean by familiar?"

Chen Jian asked:

"Have you seen a place like this? Where?"

"No, I haven’t seen it."

Ji Xing shook her head, replying:

"I just felt it from afar."

"Mountain City, the atmosphere of Mountain City, is almost identical to this place."

"The same lifelessness, the same oppression, and the same... indescribable mystery."

"It’s just that here, at least there’s the normal smell of decay."

"But Mountain City... it’s brand new."

"Even the lifelessness there is brand new."

"As if life had never appeared there at all."

"What do you mean? Where does this feeling come from?"

"I don’t know."

Ji Xing sighed, then said:

"It’s just a feeling. If I knew where this feeling came from, I wouldn’t have been stopped outside Mountain City."

"...true."

Chen Jian nodded helplessly.

At this moment, his brow furrowed, for he had already keenly sensed the massive information contained in Ji Xing’s brief words.

Yet, it seemed that the other party hadn’t truly grasped the essence of the information, and as the "relayed party," it was also difficult for him to discern any clues from it.

Perhaps the information could only become clear if Ji Xing first understood the creations from before the so-called "cataclysm."

This would be a long-term task.

Thus, Chen Jian temporarily skipped this topic and instead led the group to delve deeper into the hangar.

After exploring the entire hangar, they found the personnel bunker, maintenance workshop, and communication room on the side of the hangar.

But without exception, the equipment here was also completely decayed and damaged, and they found nothing of value.

"That’s basically it for the first level."

Lei Jie spoke:

"Theoretically, the ammunition depot is on the second level, connected to the first level by an elevator."

"The elevator is on the left; should we go down right away to take a look?"

"Yes."

Chen Jian answered decisively.

Then, the team of eight headed straight to the elevator, and after securing the ropes, Chen Jian led the way first, descending to the next level.

With the thermal imaging device turned on, he swept his gaze around but discovered nothing unusual.

Soon after, the other team members descended one by one.

But at the moment she landed, Ji Xing instinctively took a step back.

"That feeling is getting stronger."

"Do none of you really feel anything unusual?"

"I’m reaching my limit; if we keep going... I’m not sure I can hold on."

"Is it that exaggerated?"

Chen Jian looked at Ji Xing in astonishment, but her panicked expression was not at all feigned.

"I’m not joking!"

Ji Xing spoke seriously:

"I know it’s hard for you to believe me, but I swear on everything I have that every word I’m saying now is true!"

"This underground world is dangerous. I don’t know where exactly the danger comes from, but it’s there!"

"If we continue forward, we might die! That’s my intuition!"

Her words left everyone in an instant silence.

Proceed, and we might die?

Chen Jian couldn’t see anything in this underground structure that could pose a life-threatening danger to their team.

Monsters?

The drone had already surveyed the entire area without finding any suspicious thermal signals, and the white light images showed no active objects.

Radiation or toxic gas?

The air here was just relatively murky but definitely not lethal.

Even the life-support system had not triggered any alarms.

What else could there be?

An unknown enemy?

But Chen Jian really couldn’t believe there could be any enemy in this world capable of directly threatening his team.

At this point, he turned to Ji Xing and asked:

"You feel a threat but don’t know where it comes from."

"So let’s not consider this issue ---- I just want to ask if that feeling of threat is the same as what you’ve felt in past battles?"

"Absolutely different!"

Ji Xing shook her head and, after thinking carefully, answered:

"Ghosts."

"That’s the only similar thing."

"When I was growing up, I was also afraid of ghosts, demons, and such, and now my feeling is like when I was forced to stay in a dark room after finishing a story from the Holy Blood Temple’s chronicles of crime and punishment."

"I know ghosts don’t exist, just like I know that around you, ’death’ becomes a distant thing."

"But I’m just afraid, utterly irrationally afraid!"

"I can only explain it to this extent... If you order us to continue, I will obey."

"But what I’m saying now isn’t fearmongering, nor am I trying to persuade you to leave."

"I’m only giving a warning."

"I understand."

Chen Jian nodded solemnly and then ordered:

"Everyone stay alert, safety off on your weapons."

"He Shuo, fly the drone once more, and model all spaces thoroughly."

"We should not take risks. Everyone stays put and clears area-by-area once safety is confirmed."

"Understood!"

With an order, the team’s previously somewhat aggressive search strategy instantly turned cautious.

Chen Jian also stopped chasing speed but did his utmost to ensure safety.

Indeed, Ji Xing’s claims were absurd.

What supernatural forces, ghosts, intuition...

If it were in his own world, perhaps it would be dismissed as feudal superstition.

But think about it, are the gigantic monsters in this world any less absurd?

So no matter how much skepticism remained, Chen Jian still chose to proceed with caution.

Weakness isn’t the obstacle to survival; arrogance is!

And after the strategy change, Ji Xing’s emotions finally eased a bit.

She followed the team through the second level’s search and then descended to the third level, the last level of this underground structure.

This level was similarly large, but in fact, it had only one function.

Nuclear arsenal.

To be precise, it was an air-launched nuclear missile silo.

"This is it."

Lei Jie exhaled deeply.

"Independent environmental maintenance system, independent power source, independent security system... this is the nuclear arsenal."

"Its door should already be open."

"At the moment of the cataclysm, the order to launch nuclear missiles should have already been sanctioned."

"But afterward, the world’s information was unified, so these nuclear missiles were never truly launched."

"That’s why that aerospace plane appeared at the runway’s end but without any weapons mounted."

"It was waiting to load nuclear missiles, but in the end... it wasn’t necessary."

After Lei Jie finished speaking, Chen Jian and the team sighed heavily.

After a brief pause, Chen Jian spoke:

"Let’s go in."

"The nuclear radiation level here is very low; after hundreds of years, probably not many usable nuclear warheads remain."

"But at least, we can take a look."

"As long as we find one or two, we hit the jackpot."

"Understood."

Receiving the reply, Chen Jian stepped towards the "independent warehouse."

And just then, Ji Xing suddenly pulled him from behind and said with an alarmed tone:

"Don’t go in!"

"The ghost is inside!"