83: Chapter 83 is simple: dig it out!

[Challenge Quest Triggered!]

[Challenge Quest: Uncover the Conspiracy of Baiye City!]

[Reward: Martial Technique Evolution Card × 1]

"Martial Technique Evolution Card?"

Chen Mo scratched his face. This thing should be the same as a Skill Evolution Card, capable of evolving a martial technique into a superior version.

But what was the conspiracy of Baiye City, and how was he supposed to uncover it?

The previous scout class had taught that Luofeng Fortress faced three major cities simultaneously, but the closest one to Luofeng Fortress was Baiye City.

Baiye City was only 830 kilometers away from Luofeng Fortress, and the Centurion Herb Garden that Chen Mo had previously wreaked havoc on actually belonged to Baiye City.

At the same time, the City Lord of Baiye City was powerful, an Abyss Venerable.

That was equivalent to a Rank 7 Grandmaster among humans, powerful enough to move mountains and fill seas with bare hands.

Furthermore, he wielded an Abyssal divine artifact, and his own talent was quite bizarre.

Unlike humans, whose talents dissipate with the wind after death, the Abyssal Race had a certain technology that could extract these talents and use the body of the original talent-holder to forge an Abyssal divine artifact.

This was one of the reasons why the Abyssal Race had always been able to suppress the humans.

Besides the gap in raw strength, this cruel practice allowed a single talent-holder to possess several different talents simultaneously, making it impossible to prepare in advance.

This was the reason why both the National Joint Examination and the Provincial Joint Examination tested the candidates' adaptability.

Fortunately, Abyssal divine artifacts were extremely precious even to the Abyssal Race; otherwise, the human race would have fallen long ago.

"Looks like... I still have to go and take a look."

After pondering for a moment, Chen Mo did not intend to bring the others from his squad along.

It was more appropriate for him to go alone on such an extremely dangerous mission; even if something went wrong, it wouldn't implicate anyone else.

"Chen Mo!"

With a dull thud, the door was kicked open.

Lin Ye, Shen Zhou, and Su Qingyue walked in together, their faces full of excitement.

"Did you see that challenge quest? Wang Jun just told me that it was newly released."

Chen Mo frowned. He couldn't figure out why the higher-ups would release such an extremely dangerous mission.

Even if an old scout or a veteran operative were to take on this mission, there was a high probability of death.

And besides points, the reward wasn't clear—was it just there to be looked at?

Of course that was impossible; the higher-ups would never release a mission that was absolutely impossible to complete!

There must be some deep meaning behind it...

To be honest, sometimes Chen Mo's 8 points of intelligence really got in the way, like this time.

He was overthinking it. In fact, this was just Zhang Lianqi putting on a show to let the candidates know that Luofeng Fortress wasn't a place for play.

Zhang Lianqi didn't think anyone would be reckless enough to accept such an extremely dangerous mission...

But just as Chen Mo overthought things, Zhang Lianqi also underestimated Chen Mo, and the recklessness of Chen Mos Squad, which had become reckless under his influence...

In the Scout Battalion office, the door was pushed open with great force!

"Team Leader Zhang! Something happened!"

The Third Squad Captain rushed in, flustered, holding a tablet in his hand with a look of horror.

"The challenge quest has been accepted!"

"The system had a six-hour delay, and I just saw it!"

"What!?"

Zhang Lianqi almost jumped up on the spot. He snatched the tablet from the Third Squad Captain's hand and stared at the three big characters "Accepted" with a blank expression.

He felt the world go black before his eyes, and he almost choked and passed out.

"Team Leader Zhang, should we go and bring them back? They shouldn't have gone far in six hours..."

The Third Squad Captain's words were cut off by Zhang Lianqi. His old face turned from black to red, then to green, and finally to the color of a purple eggplant.

"No need to go..."

Once Zhang Lianqi learned that the mission had been accepted by Chen Mos Squad, he realized there was no turning back.

Given the speed at which those boys operated, they were likely already near Baiye City by now...

"Arrange for people to strengthen surveillance around Baiye City. Once you find any trace of Chen Mo and the others, bring them back immediately!"

With the Abyssal Race constantly making small moves over at Baiye City, Luofeng Fortress couldn't afford to spare many people, so he could only pray for Chen Mo and the others to protect themselves.

"Please, don't let the death quota be used..."

...

Meanwhile, behind a small mound outside Baiye City.

"Chen Mo, are you sure about this?"

"I always feel like this isn't very reliable?"

Lin Ye looked at the five alloy engineering shovels he had spent a full 500,000 to buy, doubting whether his money had gone down the drain.

"What's unreliable about it? We don't have disguise skills, so if we want to enter the city, we have to use some unconventional methods."

Chen Mo roughly estimated the distance. If they wanted to enter the city without being discovered, walking underground was the best choice.

The tunnel didn't need to be too long overall; even if they dug to the very center of Baiye City, it would be less than 70 kilometers.

"..."

A 70-kilometer tunnel seemed quite challenging, didn't it?

"Start working first. Bury the vehicle, leave a ventilation shaft, and Wen Wan will be responsible for watching the base."

Chen Mo didn't overthink it. He grabbed an alloy engineering shovel and plunged it into the hard wasteland ground with one strike.

The others looked at each other, sighed, and began the tunnel excavation project.

Su Qingyue had remained silent; she had just used her True Sight Eye to peek at several future possibilities.

Believe it or not, the tunnel-digging plan proposed by Chen Mo actually had the highest success rate...

Soon, a large pit eight meters deep was dug out.

Chen Mo had the most strength and led the way, Lin Ye and Shen Zhou were responsible for securing the surrounding tunnel walls, while Su Qingyue and Xia Li were responsible for finding places to dispose of the dug-up soil.

"By the way, Chen Mo, how many supplies did we bring?"

Lin Ye wiped his sweat and asked while taking a sip of water.

"Half a month's worth."

"So we aren't going back for the next half month?"

Lin Ye was stunned. There were only ten-plus days left in the National Joint Examination. Was he planning to wait until it was over before going back?

"How is that possible? We at least need to go back a day early, otherwise we won't be able to bring the news back, and the points won't be settled, right?"

"Besides, isn't it normal to bring more supplies? Don't make a fuss."

Chen Mo didn't even turn his head, continuing to dig the soil shovel by shovel.

To be honest, the ground above eight meters was relatively easy to dig; if they encountered stones, they just had to pry them out and throw them away.

But the deeper they went, the more stones there were underground, making it harder to advance.

Chen Mo took out the map, glanced at it, and after confirming the direction again, stopped digging downwards and turned to dig towards Baiye City.

"By the way, have you guys brushed up on Abyssal language recently?"

Chen Mo suddenly thought of a very important question: his Abyssal language grades were too poor, and he couldn't understand what the Abyssal Race was saying...

"Don't worry, I've been cramming Abyssal language quite a bit. Now, combined with a dictionary, I can understand almost everything."

Su Qingyue patted the dictionary in her arms. Ever since they returned from raiding the herb garden last time, she had been cramming Abyssal language.

She realized that this course was extremely important, especially given that four and a half of the six people in the team were poor students.

"That's good, keep going, keep going."

Chen Mo nodded, and the speed at which he swung the engineering shovel got faster and faster, to the point where sparks were starting to fly.