264: We take no responsibility once this is done.

Chapter 264: No Responsibility Taken After This Cut. Crack.

Just as the manhole cover slammed shut.

Chen Mo heard the sound of a sharp blade scraping against metal from above.

Immediately after.

There was a nauseating slide.

His body rapidly slid down a pipe covered in moss and sludge.

He slid for about ten seconds.

Splash.

The two of them fell into a foul-smelling pool.

"Pah, pah, pah!"

The small guy emerged from the water and wiped the mud off his face. "Good thing I just cleaned this septic tank yesterday... wait, no, it's a reservoir."

Chen Mo struggled to climb ashore.

He leaned against the slippery wall, gasping for breath.

His core was slowly restarting, its blue glimmer illuminating the surroundings.

This was a massive underground cavity.

It was filled with a dense network of pipes, like a maze.

"Who are you?"

Chen Mo stared at the small guy, his alloy left hand already prepared to attack.

"Don't be nervous, don't be nervous."

The small guy raised both hands, one of them tucking the shotgun back into the delivery box. "The name's Rat. Someone sent me to pick you up."

"Who?"

"A... how should I put it."

Rat scratched his head, revealing a mouthful of large yellow teeth. "A living person who looks more like a dead man than you."

He pulled a crumpled photo from his chest pocket and handed it to Chen Mo.

"You should recognize this person, right?"

Chen Mo took the photo.

By the blue light from his chest, he saw the person in the photo clearly.

It was an old man in a white lab coat, wearing thick-lensed glasses and holding a scalpel, smiling kindly at the camera.

Chen Mo's hand trembled.

He had seen this face countless times on wanted posters at the police station.

And he had seen it in that nightmare of a laboratory.

Li Chunfeng.

Chen Mo muttered the name, his gaze instantly turning cold. "Wang Daoming's chief technical advisor. That... mad doctor who turned me into this."

"That old geezer is still alive?"

"Still alive."

Rat gave a snicker. "Not only is he alive, he even asked me to give you a message."

He cleared his throat and mimicked the old man's tone:

"'If you don't fix that heart, the next time it overloads, you'll turn yourself into a real nuclear bomb and send half of Jiangcheng into the sky.'"

Rat pointed toward a dark tunnel ahead.

"Let's go, Officer Chen."

"That old madman said he's waiting for you in 'Hell' to give you some after-sales service."

"Free of charge."

...The wind in the pipes carried a scent of rust.

Chen Mo walked very slowly.

With every step into the sludge, he could hear the creaking of the alloy plates on the soles of his feet.

That damaged left arm hung like scrap metal on his body, occasionally brushing against the wall and throwing off a trail of dark red sparks.

"You call this a road?"

Ruan Qiushui floated in front, lifting her non-existent skirt in disgust. "Is this a hole meant for Rats to crawl through?"

"Hey, you're absolutely right."

Rat, ahead of them, didn't look back, the beam of his flashlight waving around. "Underground in Jiangcheng, if you want to stay alive, you have to learn to be a Rat. Burrow deep, live long."

This wasn't an ordinary sewer.

The further down they went, the more the space opened up.

The originally narrow sewage pipes gradually merged into a massive underground river. On the concrete banks on either side, scattered flickers of light began to appear.

Those weren't campfires.

It was light pollution emitted by various low-quality electronic components.

Discarded shipping containers, dilapidated bus shells, and even shacks built from plastic sheets and billboards were piled densely together, like a giant tumor growing underground.

"Level 3 Underground, 'The Junkyard'."

Rat shouldered his shotgun, his tone carrying a hint of boastfulness. "Things people above don't want, even people they don't want, they're all here."

Someone poked their head out from a shack.

What kind of people were they?

Some had half their faces rotted away, with a piece of sheet metal stapled on;

Some were missing arms and had a rusty steel pipe attached as a hand;

Others simply hung themselves from electric wires, thick plugs inserted into their spines, faces blank and drooling.

They watched Chen Mo.

Their eyes were greedy, as if they were looking at a walking piece of rare metal.

"Don't look."

Rat suddenly stopped and roared into the darkness, "This is Dr. Li's guest! If any of you bastards dare to get ideas, I'll shove you into the meat grinder and turn you into lunch meat!"

Those eyes in the darkness retreated.

"It seems that old madman has quite the reputation here."

Chen Mo spoke hoarsely.

The core in his chest vibrated again, the pain making his vision go dark.

"Reputation?"

Rat scoffed, kicking aside a mechanical dog that only had half a body.

"That's fear. Down here, if you're sick, you find him. If you want to swap an arm or a leg, you find him. Even if you just want a quick death, you have to find him."

He pointed ahead again.

"We're here."

It was a massive circular airtight door.

A red cross was painted on the door, but it was inverted.

The area around the door was piled with various medical waste; blood and machine oil were mixed together, flowing all over the floor.

Rat stepped forward and pressed a few buttons on the grease-covered keypad.

Hiss—

The sound of air pressure releasing rang out as the iron door, weighing at least half a ton, slowly slid open.

Cold air rushed out.

It was absolute low temperature, mixed with the smell of disinfectant and blood.

Chen Mo walked inside.

Inside was an operating room converted from an old subway station.

Screens, instruments, and mechanical arms hanging in mid-air were everywhere.

And in the center of the hall sat a cold, stainless steel operating table.

A person stood before the table with his back to them.

His white lab coat was covered in blood spatters, and he held a laser saw that was still buzzing, cutting into an arm laid on the table.

That arm was still twitching.

Li Chunfeng.

Chen Mo called out the name.

His voice was laced with killing intent.

The figure paused.

Buzz.

The laser saw stopped.

Li Chunfeng turned around.

He looked older than in the photo, with thinning hair and sagging skin, but the eyes hidden behind the thick-lensed glasses were terrifyingly bright.

As if he were examining a lab Rat.

"Three minutes late."

Li Chunfeng raised his wrist to check his watch, then casually tossed the bloody laser saw into a tray. "It seems there's a problem with your leg's servo motors as well; the torque output is insufficient."

He didn't ask who Chen Mo was, nor how he got there.

He didn't even spare a glance at the severed left arm.

He just stared at the flickering blue light in Chen Mo's chest.

"This is my masterpiece."

Li Chunfeng walked up to Chen Mo and reached out, wanting to touch the charred skin.

Chen Mo didn't move.

But his right hand had already gripped the butterfly knife in his pocket.

If this old madman dared to make a wrong move, he would slit his throat.

"Don't be nervous."

Li Chunfeng's finger stopped a centimeter away from the skin.

"In another two minutes, your core temperature will break the critical point. When that happens, I won't need to do anything—you'll melt into a pile of radioactive waste on your own."

"You..."

"Shut up and lie down."

Li Chunfeng pointed to the blood-stained operating table. "Unless you want to explode right now."

Chen Mo stared at him for two seconds.

Then he walked over and lay down.

The cold metal plate against his back made his scalding core feel slightly better.

"Ruan Qiushui."

Chen Mo called out in his mind.

"Here."

Ruan Qiushui floated in the air, holding a scalpel she had conjured from somewhere.

Even though she was a spirit and couldn't cause physical damage, she struck an imposing pose.

"If he dares to try any tricks, I'll choke his... er, soul?"

Crack.

Four mechanical arms suddenly descended from the ceiling, pinning Chen Mo's limbs.

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