206: Chapter 206 A Counterattack

The roar of engines and the cold, amplified shouts from loudspeakers grew closer outside the alley, like an invisible noose slowly tightening.

The three survivors had long since fled in panic in another direction.

Ling Ye did not choose to stay away; instead, like a shadow, he turned back silently.

He had not forgotten the fleeting reflection of a lens from the second-floor window.

A watcher.

In this surface world where chaos had just arrived and everyone was in danger, a calm watcher who chose to observe covertly rather than participate or flee might pose a greater threat than those obvious Mutants.

It might represent a different kind of Order—one that did not belong to the military, nor to the potential, unknown-purpose Order spontaneously organized by survivors.

Leaving such a hidden danger behind, especially after he had just exposed his location and firepower (the sound of gunfire), was tantamount to turning his back on a viper.

He had to figure out the other party's identity and intentions.

At the very least, he had to determine if it posed a direct threat to him.

He did not retreat back to the alley where the battle had just occurred; that was the focal point.

Instead, he followed a side alley, using the mountains of discarded furniture and construction debris as cover to bypass it quickly and stealthily, aiming straight for the rear side of the building that had been watching him.

This was an old, five-story tenement building with peeling exterior tiles and mostly broken windows, looking abandoned and long-uninhabited.

But Ling Ye noticed that the window on the second floor that had reflected the light, though covered in dust, had a relatively intact frame and seemed to be covered by tattered curtains on the inside.

Compared to the other fully open or shattered windows, this subtle difference was enough to tell the story.

On the side of the building, there was a rusted, semi-open fire escape that led all the way to the roof.

At the second-floor landing of the stairs, there was a small door that seemed to lead to the corridor inside the building.

This was it.

Ling Ye pressed himself against the wall like a gecko, avoiding the line of sight from the front.

He first slung his rifle behind his back and secured it with a satchel strap to avoid it getting in the way while climbing.

Then, he gripped the cold, rough stair railing with both hands and stepped onto the rusted but still sturdy steps, beginning to climb upward silently.

His movements were light and agile, thanks to the tempering of his body and precise control of his strength from the "Star Visualization."

He kept his footsteps and the sound of metal friction to a minimum, while his "Energy Perception," like invisible tentacles, extended upward, alert for any signs of life or energy fluctuations within the building.

The first floor... no abnormalities.

Only dust and dead silence.

The second-floor landing.

The small door was left ajar; the hinges lacked oil, so it would inevitably make a sound when pushed open.

He stopped by the door and listened intently.

Inside the door was a dim corridor with closed doors on both sides.

The air was filled with dust, mold, and... a faint, extremely subtle scent of ozone, different from the dust outside, like that produced by electronic equipment in standby mode?

And... the very faint rustling sound of paper rubbing together?

Someone was there.

And they were very likely using some kind of electronic device or organizing paper documents.

Ling Ye's eyes grew sharper.

He slowly drew the multi-purpose combat knife from his waist, holding it with a reverse grip, blade facing outward.

A rifle was not as flexible as a short weapon in such a narrow space, and the sound of gunfire would completely expose him.

A knife and a surprise close-quarters kill were the better choice.

He adjusted his breathing, reduced his presence to a minimum, and gently pushed the small door open—only enough of a gap to slip through—then slid in like a fish and closed the door behind him, leaving it ajar.

The corridor was dimly lit, with only a little daylight filtering in from a broken window at the end.

Dust floated slowly in the shafts of light.

The faint rustling sound came from behind the third door on the left.

Ling Ye pressed against the wall, his footsteps as soft as a feline's, approaching silently.

He arrived at that door.

The door was an ordinary wooden door, old and cracked.

The sound was clearer now; it was indeed the sound of pages turning, occasionally interspersed with a very low, seemingly suppressed cough.

He stopped by the door and probed again with "Energy Perception."

There was only one life signature behind the door, with a steady heartbeat and slightly heavy breathing (perhaps due to physical discomfort or nervousness), with no obvious "sense of disharmony" that belonged to a "Mutant" or "abyssal eye" contamination.

But this did not completely rule out danger; an armed, well-trained ordinary person was just as lethal.

There was no time to hesitate.

The sound of vehicles outside seemed to be stopping nearby, and the loudspeaker announcements became clearer, seemingly ordering the survivors in this area to come out for inspection and registration.

He had to eliminate the hidden danger here immediately and then leave.

Ling Ye gently placed his left hand on the doorknob and tested it—it was unlocked.

His eyes narrowed, his right hand gripped the knife tightly, and his left hand forcefully pressed down on the doorknob while his shoulder slammed hard against the door!

"Bang!"

The old wooden door swung inward with the impact!

The door panel hit the wall behind it, making a loud noise.

Ling Ye rushed into the room like a cheetah, his knife cutting a cold arc through the dim light, aiming straight for the vital neck of the figure inside who was facing away from the door and hunched over a dilapidated table!

He did not strike immediately; the tip of the blade stopped a hair's breadth from the skin, the cold killing intent locking onto the other party as if it were physical.

"Don't move!" A low, cold voice rang out in the small room.

The figure sitting at the table stiffened, and the paper in his hand fluttered to the floor.

It was an old man wearing thick glasses, with messy, graying hair, and wearing an old, washed-out work jacket.

He looked to be in his sixties, with a thin, wrinkled face, and at this moment, his face was pale, his eyes behind the glasses filled with terror, but strangely, beneath this terror, there seemed to be a trace of... unbelievable excitement, as if he had seen some kind of miracle?

The old man slowly, extremely slowly, raised his hands to indicate he had no weapons.

His hands were covered in calluses, his fingers somewhat deformed from long-term labor.

Scattered on the table were some yellowing blueprints, notebooks, and an old-fashioned military telescope with a telescopic antenna.

The lens of the telescope was pointed directly at the direction of the alley where Ling Ye had just fought.

"I... I mean no harm." The old man's voice was hoarse and trembling, but he tried to keep it clear. "Young man, please... please put the knife away. I'm just a... old man, a useless old man waiting to die."

Ling Ye did not lower his guard, his eyes quickly scanning the room.

The room was small, with only a broken bed, a table, and a chair, and a pile of empty cans and mineral water bottles in the corner.

He saw no other weapons.

By the window, there was indeed a simple stand, and the telescope was mounted on it.

The blueprints spread out on the table seemed to be... some kind of complex underground pipeline structural diagram?

And a hand-drawn map of the neighborhood marked with strange symbols.

"Who are you? Why are you spying on me?" Ling Ye's voice had no temperature, and the knife tip remained steady.

"I... I am Zhao Haichuan, formerly a pipeline surveyor for the Municipal Government engineering company, now retired."

The old man swallowed, his eyes involuntarily glancing at the military knife in Ling Ye's hand, then quickly moving away, finally settling on Ling Ye's face, especially his eyes. "I wasn't spying on you, child. I was just... using this old fellow to see what the outside has become. And then, I saw you... the way you handled that monster."

In his tone, that excitement became more and more obvious: "Clean and efficient, you don't look like an ordinary person... and even less like those panicked soldiers or survivors. The gun you used is an old-fashioned standard-issue rifle, but your movements, your eyes... and, the way you looked at me at the end... you knew I was watching, didn't you?"

Ling Ye was noncommittal, but his heart stirred slightly.

This old man was very observant.

"What exactly are you trying to say?" Ling Ye said coldly, while keeping an eye on the movements outside the window and at the door.

The vehicle and loudspeaker sounds outside seemed to still be there, but they had not approached this building for the time being.

"I've lived in this area for decades; every pipe underground and every building above ground is practically engraved in my memory."

Zhao Haichuan spoke faster, seemingly eager to express something. "After the 'accident,' everything went to hell. Monsters, the military, and those 'cleanup teams' in black clothes who grab people without a sound... I'm old, I can't run, and I have nowhere to go, so I hid here. I'm living off a few supplies I hid away, these old eyes, and this telescope."

He pointed to the maps and blueprints on the table: "I had nothing better to do, so I... I took what I saw, what I heard, and the underground and surface structures in my memory, combined them, drew them, and took notes. Which places have many monsters, which roads are still passable, which places are strange... I've noted down a bit of everything."

Ling Ye's gaze fell on the hand-drawn neighborhood map.

Sure enough, it was marked with many symbols and short notes in different colored ink: "Blue light flashes at night, do not approach," "Patrols pass frequently, time uncertain," "Multi-legged monster seen in this alley, suspected nest," "Strange noises and cold wind here in underground pipeline"...

And in an area near the southeast (towards the Old Factory District), it was heavily circled in red ink, with a note beside it: "Suspected edge of the 'Dark Nest' radiation zone, abnormal energy readings (data from remaining instruments), frequent heavy vehicle traffic recently, heavily guarded, purpose unknown."

"Dark Nest"!

This old man actually knew about the "Dark Nest," and even had specific locations and observation records!

"You know about the 'Dark Nest'?" Ling Ye's voice remained cold, but the knife tip pulled back slightly.

"I've... I've heard those people with instruments whispering about it."

Seeing Ling Ye's reaction, Zhao Haichuan seemed to breathe a sigh of relief, but his tone became more solemn. "They were dressed as Plainclothes Agents, but their equipment was very sophisticated; they didn't look like the military, nor like a regular rescue team. They were operating in the Old Industrial Zone to the southeast, using instruments to probe everywhere, and they even sealed off several old pipeline entrances leading underground. My telescope doesn't have enough magnification to see clearly, but I could see they were very nervous. The monsters in that area are also particularly numerous and vicious, and... their forms are a bit different, more like they are part of the same group."

"Do you know how to approach that place? A relatively safe path?" Ling Ye pressed.

This old man's intelligence might be much more valuable than that of the three survivors.

Zhao Haichuan hesitated for a moment, looked at Ling Ye, then at the knife in his hand, and finally seemed to make up his mind.

He pointed to the complex underground pipeline structural diagram on the table—it seemed to be a detailed map of a part of the underground pipe network in this area, more precise than the blueprint Ling Ye had found in the Warehouse, and it included many later renovated and abandoned passages.

"This one," his withered finger pointed to a pipeline marked with a dashed line on the map that wound towards the southeast, "is an abandoned industrial sewage line built in the early years. Later, the route was changed, and this one was sealed, but the pipeline itself is mostly intact. The entrance is in that abandoned pumping station behind this building; very few people know about it."

"It bypasses most of the dangerous surface areas and major monitoring points, and the exit... should be very close to the southwest edge of the 'Dark Nest' you just asked about. But I don't know the situation inside; it might have collapsed, or there might be other... things."

He looked up, his dim eyes staring intently at Ling Ye: "Child, I can tell you're not an ordinary person. You must have your reasons for looking for the 'Dark Nest.' I'm an old man with not many days left to live, and these things are useless to keep. The map, these marks I've drawn, and the location of that entrance—I can tell you all of it. I only ask one thing of you..."

"Speak."

"If you really are going, if you really... have the ability to do something."

Zhao Haichuan's voice dropped, carrying a deep exhaustion and a kind of faint hope. "Help me see what... what on earth is going on down there? Is there any hope for this city? Have we... have we really all been abandoned?"

The room fell into a brief silence.

Only the faint clamor in the distance outside the window and the old man's heavy breathing remained.

Ling Ye slowly retracted the knife and sheathed it.

He did not promise anything immediately.

The old man's request was too heavy.

But the information he provided was undoubtedly extremely critical.

"Give me the map and the markings." Ling Ye said concisely, while quickly gathering up the hand-drawn maps, notes, and the key detailed pipeline diagram on the table.

Zhao Haichuan did not stop him, just watched silently.

When Ling Ye picked up the detailed pipeline diagram, he added: "The lock on the pumping station entrance is an old-fashioned padlock; the key... I lost it many years ago. You might need tools."

Ling Ye nodded, carefully folded the blueprints, and tucked them into his jacket.

"You'd better leave here. The earlier gunfire and the military might come to search this area."

"I know." Zhao Haichuan smiled bitterly. "I'll slip away from the back in a moment. There are many 'paths' in this building; I'm familiar with them."

Ling Ye said no more and turned to walk out the door.

When he reached the door, he paused slightly, without turning back, and a low voice came:

"I've accepted the map. Your question... if I find the answer, I will find a way to tell you."

After speaking, he did not linger, slipped out of the room, and retreated quickly and silently down the fire escape.

Inside the room, Zhao Haichuan slowly sat back in his chair, gazing at the empty doorway, then looked at the gray sky outside the window. After a long while, he let out a long breath, unsure if it was a sigh or relief.

"Gatekeeper..." he muttered to himself in an almost inaudible voice, "Old Master, what you used to mutter about... could it be true? This ring..."

His gaze fell on a corner of the table, on an old notebook half-covered by the blueprints, with a blurred star map pattern printed on the cover.

On the title page of the notebook, there seemed to be a gold-stamped, long-faded emblem, vaguely resembling two interlocking rings.

And Ling Ye, who had already left the tenement building and submerged himself back into the shadows of the alley, knew nothing of this.

He carried the newly acquired key map in his jacket, quickly planning his route in his mind.

The abandoned pumping station entrance, the secret pipeline leading to the edge of the "Dark Nest."

This brought him into contact with the target faster than he had expected.

But the risks were equally immense.

The situation inside the pipeline was unknown, and the exit was close to the "Dark Nest," so it was bound to be full of danger.