Destiny Mission of game ‘Star Ring’
Chapter 352 - 352 352 Evasion

352: Chapter 352: Evasion 352: Chapter 352: Evasion After a while, Su Mo and Qian Chengxue finally recovered their physical strength to peak condition.

“Okay, we can go now.”

Qian Chengxue loaded new magazines into her automatic pistol and stood up.

“Follow me.”

Xin Yang led the two to a corner of the underground room, where he cleared away the piled-up garbage to reveal a hole.

He took the lead and crawled in; Su Mo and Qian Chengxue followed closely.

It was fortunate that both of them were not overweight, otherwise, they might not have been able to fit through.

The inside of the pipe was pitch black and emitted a very pungent odor, which suggested it was probably an abandoned sewage conduit.

“Ah~”

Suddenly, a faint cry of surprise arose.

Su Mo was also startled, feeling as though his face had bumped into something both soft and elastic.

He then shuddered, slowed his crawling pace, and his heart thumped wildly, as if a deer were crashing around inside him.

About ten minutes later, a three-way junction appeared ahead.

Xin Yang expertly crawled to the left, without even thinking.

Mechanical Men indeed had many advantages over humans, such as memory; if their data wasn’t damaged, they could easily recall all the crucial points.

The three of them crawled through the complex network of underground pipes like rats.

In the central control room of Praying Dragon City’s underground, before Engrossed the Artificial Intelligence, a series of feedback image frames popped up.

The image frames displayed various corners of the underground city.

The Artificial Intelligence, Engrossed, continuously analyzed each feedback image, but found no trace of Su Mo and Qian Chengxue.

Several prompts popped up.

“Search failed!”

“Target lost!”

…

Zi zi~

At that moment, Engrossed’s bulky body emitted continuous electrical sparks, and a raspy mechanical voice rang out.

“Those damn rats, where have they run off to?”

“Hide and seek, how fun!”

“Quick, hide well, don’t let me catch you.”

…

Zi zi~

The voice of Artificial Intelligence, Engrossed, suddenly became unusually sharp.

“Don’t think that just because you hide, I can’t find you.

I am the Sovereign of this world; if I can’t find you above ground, then you must have hidden underground.”

Then, a series of virtual image prompt boxes popped up.

“Generating new combat directives.”

“Deploy Superorganism Type II Corrosion Worms*100!”

“Deploy Mechanical Micro-Spiders*10000”

“Deploy Superorganism Type III Soft-bodied Synthetic Beast.”

…

Orders were rapidly dispatched.

Suddenly, from every corner of the underground Praying Dragon City, massive numbers of mechanical micro-spiders and numerous Type II Corrosion Worms with disgusting green fur and bloated black bodies emerged, all burrowing into the underground pipes.

They searched for the intruders like a swarm of locusts.

In a sealed space at the bottom of the pipes, a gate opened; a mass of soft tentacles, resembling seaweed, which formed the Type III Soft-bodied Synthetic Beast, wriggled out and directly burrowed into the main conduit.

At that moment, Xin Yang, who was leading Su Mo and the others through the pipes, suddenly stopped.

“What’s wrong?”

Qian Chengxue, following behind, asked in confusion.

“I heard sounds I shouldn’t have heard and felt a faint, irregular vibration in the pipe,” Xin Yang answered softly.

“What does this represent?”

“Judging by the frequency of vibrations and the sound, it should be some mechanical spiders crawling through the pipes nearby us.

If nothing unexpected happens, it should be the Artificial Intelligence Engrossed sending them to kill you.

It must have guessed you’ve escaped into the underground pipes.”

“What should we do?”

Su Mo looked at Xin Yang, admiring his ability somewhat, as the machinery was indeed much stronger than humans in some aspects.

For example, the vibrations and abnormal sounds he mentioned earlier, he could at most deduce that an enemy was approaching, but could never pinpoint exactly what the enemy was.

“We need to speed up, we must reach the central building before they discover us.

Otherwise, once discovered, we will stand no chance, and there will be absolutely no possibility of escape.”

Xin Yang began to feel tense as well.

“Understood.”

Su Mo and Qian Chengxue responded at the same time.

So the three of them sped up their crawling forward, while Xin Yang occasionally stopped, pressing his ear against the pipe to feel the vibrations and gauge whether the path ahead was safe.

Xin Yang kept changing their forward route.

Suddenly, Xin Yang’s heart skipped a beat, and he quickened his crawling pace.

“Speed up!”

Though they did not know what had happened, Su Mo and Qian Chengxue immediately obeyed Xin Yang’s command and crawled faster.

Soon, Xin Yang reached the middle part of a section of pipe and vigorously pushed against the side wall of the pipe.

Instantly, the metal wall of the pipe cracked open a gap.

“Get in!”

Su Mo and the others crawled in following him into a very narrow space that resembled a safe house.

Xin Yang then resealed the pipe wall, and the three of them sat quietly on the ground waiting.

Then, sticky tentacles squirmed in, and the three of them hiding in the safety area inside could clearly hear the strange noises.

Everyone remained extremely calm, holding their breath without making a sound.

A moment later, when there were no more sounds outside, they finally let down their guard.

Only then did Su Mo realize how cramped their hiding place was; his left shoulder was pressed against something soft, and from time to time, he could smell a faint fragrance.

In the darkness, Qian Chengxue lowered her head, her silver-white hair covering her blushing cheeks.

At that moment, she could clearly feel something pressing against her right chest, sending a jolt through her body as if she were electrified.

Seeing that the crisis was over, Xin Yang reopened the exit and crawled out.

“It’s safe for now, let’s go.”

“Oh~”

Su Mo and Qian Chengxue crawled out in a flurry.

At this moment, they saw the initially filthy pipe now smeared with much sticky liquid everywhere.

“What kind of monster is this?”

Su Mo asked, trying to shift the atmosphere.

“It’s probably a high-level monster from the puppet super-creatures.

If we had encountered it directly, we definitely would have had no chance of survival.”

Xin Yang explained rationally.

“They really do think highly of us.”

Su Mo didn’t know whether to be happy or troubled.

“Let me put it this way to you, no matter how powerful Artificial Intelligence Engrossed is, it’s ultimately just a central system.

If someone successfully gets close to it, no matter how weak you are, you can still pose a threat to it.”

Xin Yang tilted his head, explaining in a simple manner.

“Are you saying, if we get into the central control room, we might have a chance to defeat it?”

Qian Chengxue caught the underlying meaning.

“Theoretically, yes.”

Xin Yang replied while continuing to crawl forward.

“Are all the pipes here this narrow?”

Su Mo, whose knees were starting to ache from the crawl, asked doubtfully.

“There are larger main pipes, but I’ve avoided them.

Those pipes are too dangerous.

Just bear with it a little longer; we are already very close to our destination.”

“Alright.”

Although Su Mo said this, he felt inexplicably a bit disheartened.

…..