21: Kill two birds with one stone

"The plan has changed."

Inside the cockpit, Chen Feng's voice broke the deathly silence. He stared at the rock layer covered in a web of cracks and that damned dormant probe on the rock layer, flickering with a faint red light. His gaze was colder than the abyss.

A plan so bold it was nearly insane rapidly formed in his mind. Collect the tranquility grass, destroy the probe, leave fake clues... He was going to use a cave-in to kill three birds with one stone.

"System, scan the stress distribution of the rock layer ahead and build a 3D model. I need to find the weakest point," he commanded the air.

An invisible beam swept across the rock wall. On the robot's tactical screen, complex colored lines quickly outlined the internal structure of the rock mass. A red light point was precisely marked.

"This is it."

He turned his head and looked at Ma Liu, who was like a pile of mud in the corner. He grabbed a spare water bottle beside him, unscrewed the cap, and poured all the cold liquid onto Ma Liu's face.

"Pfft—Cough, cough!"

Ma Liu jolted and sat up abruptly, his gaze instantly switching from confusion to ecstasy.

"Holy crap! That's tranquility grass! And that ore! Chen... Brother Chen! We're rich! We're really rich!" he screamed incoherently, about to lunge toward the observation window.

"Say one more word, and I'll throw you out right now to feed the stones." Chen Feng's voice was devoid of emotion, yet it made Ma Liu freeze instantly, the ecstasy on his face hardening into fear.

"Chen... Brother Chen, I..."

"I don't need you to talk; I just need you to do things." Chen Feng pointed to the most conspicuous red button among a row of buttons on the console. "Do you see it?"

"I... I see it. This is... the emergency alarm..." Ma Liu's voice was trembling.

"That's right, the alarm." A cold arc curled at the corner of Chen Feng's mouth. "In a moment, when the robot extends its collection arm, press it with all your might. Keep pressing until I tell you to stop. If you can't hold it down or let go early, you know the consequences."

"Why?! If the alarm is pressed, the Supervisor... the Supervisor will come!" Ma Liu couldn't understand; this was completely suicidal.

"You just need to execute the command," Chen Feng said slowly, enunciating every word. "Or, would you rather go see your dead grandmother right now?"

Ma Liu's face instantly turned pale, and he shook his head frantically like a terrified quail.

"U-Understood! I'll press it! I'll press it!"

"Very good."

Chen Feng ignored him and refocused his attention ahead. He piloted the robot with the precision of a ballet dancer, carefully moving to the designated position while avoiding all unstable rubble.

"Vroom—"

The massive collection arm slowly extended like a gentle hand, reaching toward the patch of ghostly blue tranquility grass.

"Now." Chen Feng's voice sounded like it came from the nine underworlds. "Press it!"

"I... I'm pressing!"

Ma Liu closed his eyes as if pressing the button to detonate his own life. Using all his strength, he slammed down on the red alarm!

"—WEEEEEE!!!!!"

In the next second, an alarm so piercing it could tear eardrums shrieked through the entire underground cave! The red alarm lights reflected on the faces of the two in the cockpit like hellish demons!

This was exactly what Chen Feng wanted: a reasonable enough excuse to explain any "accident."

However, at the very moment the alarm sounded—

A sudden change occurred!

The surveillance probe that should have been dormant suddenly flashed a ghostly red light—it had been remotely activated! The lens was adjusting its focus at high speed, aiming right at them!

"Bachm! You really did set a sound-triggered trap!" Chen Feng cursed under his breath, but there was no panic on his face.

Everything was still within his calculations!

"collection arm! One hundred percent power, grab the target!"

He roared at the system, his vocal cords straining.

"Now, it's your turn!"

"mining laser! Activate! Target, stress point! Fire!"

"No!!!" Ma Liu let out a desperate scream as he saw the activated probe.

In the blink of an eye, three things happened simultaneously!

The collection arm, at a speed difficult for the naked eye to catch, lightning-fast grabbed the largest and most lush tranquility grass and immediately retracted!

A brilliant white high-energy laser beam accurately hit the rock layer failure point Chen Feng had calculated!

And the activated probe only transmitted the red alarm light and the image of the violently shaking robot for less than three seconds!

"Rumble—Rumble—Rumble—!!!"

The mountains crumbled and the earth split!

The rock layer hit by the laser cracked, and tons of boulders and debris poured down like a waterfall, making a thunderous roar!

The surveillance probe that had just woken up didn't even have time to let out a moan before it was completely and permanently buried in endless darkness and dust!

Chen Feng piloted the robot, performing a beautiful tail flick to narrowly avoid the main cave-in area. This violent vibration also successfully triggered the "data injection script" he had pre-implanted deep within the robot's system... Meanwhile, at the monitoring center far away in the mining area.

"Damn it! What is that idiot doing!"

Bachm was roaring at a screen that had just lit up. The image lasted only three seconds; he only had time to see the blinding red alarm light and a blurred shaking, followed by a violent, world-spinning vibration. Finally, only a screen of blinding static representing a signal interruption remained.

"Chief, the signal for No. 734... has completely disappeared," the Technician reported tremulously.

"Useless! A useless piece of trash who's good for nothing but making things worse!" Bachm cursed, kicking over the chair beside him. "It must have been an operational error that triggered the alarm, and then he caused a cave-in out of panic! What an absolute idiot!"

Although he was angry, the fire of greed in his eyes burned even brighter.

"Organize a team immediately!" he shouted at his subordinates. "Once the cave-in stabilizes, go and drag the wreckage of that robot out for me! I want to check its flight log! That idiot's life isn't worth a dime, but the 'treasure' he found—not a single cent can be missing!"

He firmly believed that Chen Feng's stupid actions were merely a catalyst for him to get the treasure earlier... "Cough... cough..."

Inside the caved-in cavern, the dust slowly settled.

"You can let go now," Chen Feng said to Ma Liu, who was already scared witless beside him.

Ma Liu tremblingly released his grip and collapsed into his seat, gasping for air as if he had just been pulled from the water.

"Did we... did we survive?" he asked with a sobbing voice.

"We survived."

Chen Feng looked at the tranquility grass in his hand, which emitted a soft blue light in the gloom, and finally breathed a sigh of relief.

However, when he looked up at the front of the robot, his breath caught again.

This cave-in was much larger than he had anticipated.

The "Ghost Road" they had come from was completely blocked. The towering piles of rubble were like an insurmountable wall of despair.

"It's over... it's all over... we're trapped here!" Ma Liu looked at the wall and began to cry uncontrollably again.

Chen Feng ignored him and calmly pulled up the robot's map.

On the map, the path back was already a patch of gray representing "impassable."

And ahead of them, only an extremely narrow crack emitting an ominous red light was still lit.

Beside the crack, a line of small text was labeled.

"Section B Connection Tunnel."

"Stop crying." Chen Feng's voice was as cold as the stones in Section B. "Welcome to the real hell."