18: Chapter 8 The Shadow of the "Engineer"

Cold, filthy, suffocating darkness.

Lin Feng held his breath, struggling to move forward within the narrow layer of remaining air. Filthy water lapped against his chest, and every movement stirred up the foul-smelling sludge that had settled there for years. Ahead, the outline of Lei Kun's tall back became the only beacon in the almost absolute darkness. The veteran's movements were exceptionally steady. Even in the chest-deep foul sewage, every step he took and every time he tested the path carried a tactical rhythm formed over years of experience, maximizing the reduction of noise and physical exertion.

">> Path Clear. No Immediate Biological Threats Detected. Water Composition: Highly Toxic. Recommend Minimal Skin Contact."

The ability's warning felt superfluous; Lin Feng had already felt the stinging and itching on his exposed skin. He could only force himself to ignore it, focusing all his attention on keeping up with Lei Kun's pace.

This submerged pipe seemed endless. His sense of time became blurred in the absolute darkness and oppression. Only the sound of heavy breathing and the churning of water echoed within the narrow space.

Finally, Lei Kun, who was leading the way, stopped. He raised his right hand into a fist, making a "stop" gesture. Lin Feng immediately steadied himself, his heart pounding wildly from nervousness and oxygen deprivation.

Lei Kun listened intently for a moment, then groped for something above. After a few soft sounds of metal scraping, a faint sliver of light filtered down from above, accompanied by much fresher (though still musty) air.

An upward shaft.

Lei Kun climbed up first, his movements still clean and efficient. A moment later, he lowered his head and reached out a hand. Lin Feng grabbed that calloused yet exceptionally strong hand and was pulled up in one go.

The two collapsed onto the platform at the top of the shaft, soaked, covered in foul sludge, and gasping violently. This place looked like an abandoned pump station control room; it was much drier than the pipes below, but equally dilapidated.

"Are we here?" Lin Feng asked, panting.

Lei Kun didn't answer immediately. He quickly checked the surrounding environment, especially the only rusted iron door, confirming it was latched from the inside and showed no signs of having been opened recently. Only then did he relax slightly, leaning against the wall. He pulled a slightly crushed cigarette from an old cigarette case and put it in his mouth, but did not light it.

"Point B is right next door, connected by a short corridor." His voice was hoarse as he pointed to the iron door. "This is the buffer room. It's reasonably safe."

He glanced at the nearly collapsed Lin Feng and handed over the last bit of clean water in his canteen. "Drink some. Don't drink what's down there."

Lin Feng didn't stand on ceremony; he took it and drank in small sips. The cool water slightly eased the burning sensation in his throat.

"Thank you." He handed the canteen back.

Lei Kun took it and just waved his hand, his gaze still vigilantly scanning the surroundings, especially the shaft opening they had climbed up from. "Wrench said no one has used this place recently, but the old supplies should still be here. I hope he didn't misremember."

After resting for about ten minutes, Lei Kun stood up. "We can't stay long. Follow me."

He carefully opened the rusted iron door, the hinges letting out a teeth-grinding groan. Outside the door was a short corridor less than five meters long, and at the end was another door that looked thicker and featured an old-fashioned mechanical combination dial.

Lei Kun walked up to the combination dial. Instead of entering a code, he pressed hard on an inconspicuous indentation on the side of the dial.

Click. With a crisp sound, a metal panel next to the combination dial popped open, revealing what was behind it—an extremely retro keyhole that required a physical key!

From the inner pocket of his tactical jacket, Lei Kun solemnly took out a metal key with a peculiar shape and a bronze luster, carefully inserted it into the keyhole, and turned it gently.

Clatter, clatter... The sound of heavy mechanical parts rang out, and the thick metal door opened inward.

The scene behind the door made Lin Feng pause slightly.

This place was significantly larger than Ling Yue's destroyed studio, looking more like a small doomsday shelter. The walls were reinforced, and the corners were stacked with sealed boxes of food, water, and medical supplies, and there was even a small diesel generator and an air circulation system. Although covered in dust, everything was orderly, appearing solid and reliable. There was no ozone smell of high-tech equipment in the air, only a faint scent of dust and diesel.

Most conspicuous were the few well-maintained old-fashioned live-ammunition weapons leaning on a weapon rack in the corner, as well as a detailed area map (paper) hanging on the wall, marked with dense symbols and routes in various colored pens.

This place was full of the utilitarianism and old-school vibe characteristic of Lei Kun, or rather, "Wrench".

"Change out of your wet clothes. There are old work uniforms in that cabinet over there; they should fit." Lei Kun pointed to a metal cabinet, then walked to the console to begin checking the generator and monitoring equipment (a few old-fashioned camera screens that relied on wired connections).

Lin Feng found a set of slightly oversized but clean and durable work clothes to change into, finally feeling a bit more comfortable. Lei Kun also changed out of his soaked jacket, revealing a tight-fitting black quick-dry shirt that outlined his lean, strong physique and the old wound bandage wrapped around his left shoulder.

"How long can we stay here?" Lin Feng asked.

"Depends on the situation." Lei Kun started the generator, and a low roar sounded as the lights stabilized. "Whether Razor will track us here, or if the authorities will expand their search range. This is a blind spot in the old system, but it's not absolute." He adjusted several camera feeds, the screens filled with static. "The external cameras seem to have been affected by the previous EMP. I need to find time to fix them."

Just then, from outside the heavy metal door, a faint, rhythmically specific scratching sound suddenly came! Three long, two short, one long.

Lei Kun's movements instantly froze, his sharp gaze fixed on the door, his right hand silently reaching for his waist—where a heavy military dagger was tucked. Lin Feng also immediately tensed up.

Lei Kun listened carefully for a moment. The vigilance on his face eased slightly, but he didn't fully relax. He walked to the door, not opening it immediately, but asked in a low voice through the crack: "Code."

There was a moment of silence outside the door, and then a familiar female voice came through, suppressed with pain and extreme impatience: "Code my ass! Lei Kun! Open the door! My arm is about to be ruined!"

It was Ling Yue!

Lei Kun was stunned for a moment, then immediately turned the latch and opened the door.

The sight outside the door made Lin Feng gasp.

Ling Yue's face was as pale as paper. She was half-leaning against the doorframe, soaked and covered in mud, looking even more disheveled than they were. Her right arm—that mechanical arm which had previously overloaded and broken down—was now temporarily wrapped in a torn piece of clothing and fixed in front of her. But through the gaps in the wrapping, one could see twisted metal and flickering electric sparks, and there was even a faint smell of burning. She had clearly also gone through an extremely difficult journey to find this place.

Seeing that it was Lei Kun who opened the door, and Lin Feng safe and sound behind him, Ling Yue seemed to breathe a sigh of relief. But immediately, because her movement tugged at her injury, she gasped in pain, her forehead covered in cold sweat.

"How did you..." Lei Kun started to ask.

"Shut up! Let me in first!" Ling Yue interrupted him testily, almost dragging her feet as she squeezed through the door.

Lei Kun quickly closed the door and locked it again.

As soon as Ling Yue entered the room, she stumbled to a chair and collapsed into it, gasping heavily. Looking at her ruined mechanical arm, her expression was extremely ugly.

"How did you find this place? Who else knows?" Lei Kun asked in a deep voice, his gaze like a torch. This place was an absolute safe point that only "Wrench" and he knew about.

Ling Yue raised her uninjured left hand, pointing to her own head, then pointed to the device Lin Feng had placed on the table. Her voice was weak but still carried a sting: "You think... only that old fossil 'Wrench' would leave a contingency plan? The coordinates for this place... were encrypted and hidden in the public architectural logs of the early 'Data Stream'... Only those who know the specific decryption key can see it... *Cough*... If my main device hadn't been destroyed and the temporary interface hadn't been unstable, I would have arrived earlier..."

Her words confirmed Lin Feng's previous guess; she and "The Engineer" indeed had a deep connection with the "Data Stream" network.

Lei Kun's brows furrowed tightly, seemingly dissatisfied with the exposure of the safe house, but looking at Ling Yue's miserable state, he didn't say anything more. He walked to the storage box, took out an advanced medical kit and a bottle of pure water, and handed them to Ling Yue.

Ling Yue took the water and gulped down a few mouthfuls, then began to clumsily use her left hand and teeth to try to tear open the rags temporarily bandaging her right arm.

"Let me." Lei Kun stepped forward. His movements were unexpectedly skilled and careful. He used his dagger to cut open the fabric and carefully examined the severely damaged mechanical arm, his expression grave. "Core energy conduit fused, main hydraulic system collapsed, neural interface burned... How did you manage this?"

"Energy overload, reverse pulse, just to blow some persistent bastard to hell." Ling Yue gritted her teeth, more cold sweat beading on her forehead from the pain. "Stop talking nonsense. Do you have any spare parts? Even the most basic kinetic prosthetic will do; anything is better than this pile of junk!"

Lei Kun walked over to a storage box labeled "Mechanical-03," opened it, rummaged around, and pulled out a basic power arm that looked old but well-maintained, along with some tools. "These were spare parts used by Wrench. They only have basic gripping and load-bearing functions, and the neural interface needs to be recalibrated."

"That's enough!" Ling Yue snatched the old prosthetic, her eyes burning. "Anything is better than nothing! Help me fix it in place!"

Over the next half hour, Lin Feng watched in astonishment as Lei Kun, this seemingly rough veteran, used extremely precise and skilled techniques to assist Ling Yue in dismantling the ruined old arm and installing and preliminarily calibrating the basic power arm. Their coordination had an eerie sense of synergy, as if it wasn't their first time doing something like this.

＞＞ Observation: Lei Kun's Mechanical Assistance Proficiency: Expert Level. Ling Yue's Tolerance for Pain: Extreme. Shared History Implied.

During the process, Ling Yue briefly recounted her experiences after leaving. She had tried to go to a secret contact point to obtain high-grade parts but was nearly ambushed by a local gang suspected of being hired by Razor. She only managed to escape narrowly by relying on her familiarity with the terrain and a few hidden gadgets, which forced her to rush to Point B.

"That guy Razor is even more troublesome than the files indicated. He has eyes here, too." Ling Yue concluded, her voice hoarse from pain and exhaustion.

When the final securing strap was tightened and the old power arm emitted a steady hum, its five fingers slowly opening and closing, Ling Yue finally let out a long breath. Although her face remained pale, her eyes regained a sharp glint.

She flexed her new mechanical fingers, adjusting to the heavy but powerful sensation, then suddenly turned her gaze to Lin Feng, her tone becoming aggressive again: "Rookie, the device!"

Lin Feng handed her the fully charged device.

Ling Yue operated it quickly, connecting it to the new mechanical arm for deep debugging while checking the data inside. When she saw the records and results of how Lin Feng had processed that data, an undisguisable flash of surprise crossed her eyes again, but this time she said nothing, merely giving Lin Feng a deep look.

Then, she pulled up the encrypted log fragment that had triggered the alarm earlier—the one regarding The Engineer's instructions.

The air in the safe house froze instantly.

Ling Yue's movements paused. She stared at that line of incomplete text, her expression shifting uncertainly. Lei Kun also crossed his arms, his gaze moving between Ling Yue and Lin Feng, his eyes deep and unreadable.

After nearly a minute of silence, Ling Yue slowly raised her head to meet Lin Feng's gaze. There was no avoidance, no anger, only a complex, almost resigned exhaustion.

"You saw it." Her voice was calm. "That's right, it was The Engineer who told me to find you. To evaluate your worth and ensure that before you get killed by someone else (like Razor or the authorities), you demonstrate enough value to be worth investing in."

She paused, her mechanical fingers tapping the tabletop. "project legacy is something that he/she, and I, have poured countless efforts into. It is more important than any single individual, including me and including you. When necessary, sacrifice is an acceptable option. That is reality, rookie."

Such direct and cold words actually made the stone in Lin Feng's heart drop. False warmth was far more terrifying than a naked transaction.

"So what now?" Lin Feng asked. "What is my evaluation result?"

Ling Yue glanced at the data processing results, then looked at Lin Feng himself, the corner of her mouth curling into an indescribable arc. "Preliminary evaluation... exceeded expectations. So now you have obtained the right to know, as well as... a chance to choose."

She turned the device screen toward Lin Feng and Lei Kun, showing a complex structural diagram and some technical parameters that Lin Feng didn't quite understand. In the center was a continuously rotating, glowing, and strange cubic model.

"This is the core of project legacy—a highly suspicious **anomalous algorithm model** that is said to be able to partially interpret or even limitedly interfere with the underlying protocols of the Sky Curtain. We suspect it is some kind of 'The Key' left over from the old era."

Interfering with the underlying protocols of the Sky Curtain?! Lin Feng was shocked to his core! This was essentially a direct challenge to the very foundation of the rule of the four major The Consortiums!

Ling Yue's voice carried a mix of fanaticism and gravity. "But its data structure is extremely strange and unstable, requiring an... unconventional, almost intuitive, and highly efficient method of data processing to gradually activate and crack it. Conventional brute-force computing and algorithmic iteration are extremely ineffective and are highly likely to trigger the Sky Curtain's counter-measures."

Her gaze turned to Lin Feng once more. "And you, Lin Feng, the 'optimization ability' you displayed earlier is the closest case we have found so far to the traits required by project legacy. This is the real reason The Engineer is paying attention to you."

She leaned forward, staring into Lin Feng's eyes. "Now, make your choice. Rookie."

"Either join us, use that inexplicable ability of yours to help pry open this damn Sky Curtain, and see what the hell is hiding behind it? You might die, and you might die a miserable death."

"Or take a little 'hush money,' leave through the back door right now, fend for yourself, and pray that Razor and the authorities never find you?"

The safe house fell into a deathly silence. Lei Kun stood to the side with his arms crossed, silent as a rock, but his gaze was also fixed on Lin Feng, waiting for his decision.

Lin Feng's heart pounded heavily in his chest. He knew that this choice would completely change his fate.

He looked at the rotating project legacy model on the screen, which radiated an ominous and seductive light, then recalled his sister's pale face, the face of Supervisor Wang, and the ubiquitous, cold oppression of the Sky Curtain...

He took a deep breath and was just about to speak. Suddenly! Beep! Beep! Beep! A piercing alarm blared simultaneously from Ling Yue's device and the old-fashioned alarm on the console!

＞＞ Warning: Perimeter Breach Detected! Sector Delta!

＞＞ Intruder Signature: High-Stealth Profile. Energy Reading: Matching "Razor"!

＞＞ Bypass Method: Unknown. ETA to This Position: ＜ 3 Minutes!

"Razor"! He had not only found Point B but had already breached the outer perimeter defenses! He was approaching at high speed!

"Damn it! How is he so fast?!" Ling Yue stood up abruptly, her new mechanical hand clenching instantly.

Lei Kun had already sprung up like a cheetah, grabbing an old-fashioned but powerful shotgun from the wall, racking it with a click, his eyes instantly turning cold and terrifying.

"No time to choose, rookie!" Ling Yue growled at Lin Feng. "The back door is over there! If you want to live, get out now! If you want to take a gamble, follow me!"

She grabbed the device and operated it quickly. The wall on one side of the room suddenly split open, revealing a deeper, darker emergency passage leading downward.

Lei Kun had already rushed to the iron door leading to the main corridor, bracing his body against it, setting his shotgun, and aiming outside, roaring without looking back: "Make up your mind!"

Lin Feng glanced at the unknown emergency passage, then looked at Lei Kun, who was determined to hold the line, and Ling Yue, who was urgently transmitting data.

The next second, he bent down sharply, grabbed a heavy Wrench (perhaps Wrench's spare weapon) from the nearby weapon rack, gripped it tightly, stood beside Ling Yue, and stared intensely at the emergency passage.

His actions had already given the answer.

Ling Yue glanced at him, said nothing, simply finished transmitting the last bit of data, and then waved her hand sharply: "Go!"