29: Spider Web Weaver

"Big brother, we've hit it big! We've fucking hit it big!"

Inside Fisk's dormitory, he gripped the shimmering 'High-Grade Associated Ore.' His burly frame trembled slightly with excitement. His voice was kept extremely low, yet it couldn't mask the ecstasy and greed within.

"Keep it down, you idiot!" Kruger snatched the ore away, his eyes similarly flashing with a burning light. "Do you want the entire mining area to know?"

“Heh heh, Big Brother, I'm just excited!” Fisk rubbed his hands together and leaned closer to Kruger, staring intently at the stone. “Quick, use your treasure to test it. Let's see how pure this thing really is!”

Kruger carefully retrieved a palm-sized black device from a hidden compartment under his bed. This was a portable Energy Analyzer he had obtained through private black-market trading of supplies. While its precision couldn't match the large equipment in the Steward's office, it was more than enough for a situation like this.

He placed the ore onto the device.

"Beep—"

On the device's screen, a red light bar representing the energy reading surged upward. It instantly broke past the range for ordinary associated ore, surpassed the mark for Steward Bachmu's sample ore, and finally stopped at an absurdly high position, triggering a piercing alarm.

"Holy shit!" Fisk couldn't help but swear. "This... this energy reading is at least three times higher than the Steward's sample! If we refine this..."

"Shut up!" Kruger greedily licked his lips and quickly stowed the device and the ore. "Forget about refining it! This thing is hard currency on its own! A single piece is enough for us to trade for a house with a garden in the Core Zone!"

"Then what are we waiting for?" Fisk said impatiently. "That 734 kid definitely has more hidden in Sector B! Let's go now, grab him, and make him spit out the location of the vein!"

"No, moving now would cause too much of a stir." Kruger suppressed the heat in his heart and analyzed coldly, "Bachm's spies are everywhere. We must wait for a time he least expects."

"We still have to wait? Big Brother, things could change if we delay!"

"We won't wait long." A ruthless glint flashed in Kruger's eyes. "Tonight! In the middle of the night, when everyone is dead asleep, we'll take our most trusted men and strike! Tomorrow morning, we'll tell the Steward that we 'happened' to find 734 acting on his own, and during the 'arrest,' the kid 'unfortunately' died in the mines."

"Brilliant! Big Brother, you're truly brilliant!" Fisk slapped his thigh in excitement. "When the time comes, we'll be the ones who discovered the vein! With such a massive contribution, Steward Bachmu will have to give us at least half the credit!"

"Half?" Kruger sneered, his eyes dark. "He's only fit to catch a whiff of it."

...Meanwhile, inside the independent maintenance room, Chen Feng was staring at the terminal screen with a focused expression.

"Purchase 'Industrial Maintenance System Low-Privilege Penetration Script,' ID K-7," he commanded the system in his mind.

"Transaction confirmed. Credit points consumed: 2. Remaining credit points: 23."

An imperceptible stream of data flooded into the terminal. Chen Feng didn't use it immediately. Instead, he utilized the database access privileges he had just acquired to review the maintenance logs of the entire mining area.

Like the most patient hunter, he searched for clues within the massive sea of data.

"Found it."

His finger stopped on a system upgrade report from six months ago. In the report's attachment, an engineer complained that for the sake of remote debugging, a 'temporary backdoor' had been left in a deep-level protocol of the robot scheduling system, with a note that it would be patched in the next update.

But clearly, the bureaucracy of Giant Star Mining had left that 'next time' indefinitely out of reach.

The corners of Chen Feng's mouth curled into an arc. He activated the penetration script he had just purchased. Like a silent venomous snake, it slid through the forgotten backdoor and quietly entered the core of the mining area's network.

"Alarm triggers... packet sniffers... that idiot Bachm certainly installed quite a lot of things."

Chen Feng prowled through the virtual data stream, carefully bypassing layer after layer of crude but tedious alarm systems. His concentration was absolute, his fingertips dancing lightly across the control panel, every step calculated to perfection.

"Penetration successful."

A few minutes later, the system prompted him. He had surreptitiously gained temporary supreme control over five small Pipe-Cleaning Robots.

"Begin execution of 'Structural Corrosion Operation'."

Without a hint of emotion in his eyes, Chen Feng issued a series of commands to the clunky robots to head to specific coordinates in Sector B—High-Stress Resonance Points.

Deep in the dark Sector B, several round little robots emerged from various pipe openings. Their red electronic eyes flickered in the darkness, seemingly confused by this unfamiliar environment.

One of them didn't seem to see the path clearly, slipped, and tumbled down a small slope, landing on its back and kicking its mechanical legs in vain.

The others meticulously executed their commands, finding the massive rock pillars that supported the entire cavern's ceiling. They extended high-pressure nozzles and precisely sprayed a specially formulated, highly corrosive liquid onto the bases of the pillars.

They could not understand why their programs as 'maintainers' would execute such 'self-destructive' commands.

After completing the task, Chen Feng erased all traces of the operation as if nothing had ever happened. He cut the connection, leaned back in his chair, and let out a long breath.

The physical trap was in place.

He picked up his communicator and connected to Ma Liu.

"Boss, what are your orders?" Ma Liu's voice was full of flattery and awe.

"There's a new task," Chen Feng said flatly. "Now, go to the mining area bar and find someone to drink with."

"Drinking?" Ma Liu was stunned.

"Yes. You need to get half-drunk and then 'accidentally' tell people that I'm bragging about sneaking into Sector B alone tonight to dig out all the remaining treasures and make a fortune."

"Huh?!" Ma Liu was startled. "Boss, isn't that just baiting those two mad dogs?"

"The point is to bait them," Chen Feng's voice was as cold as the wind in the mines. "Remember, you have to act the part. Show concern for me, worry and confusion over my 'suicidal' behavior. Make everyone, especially Kruger and Fisk's spies, believe you're just a poor sap talking nonsense while drunk."

"I... I understand!" Ma Liu's voice was trembling. He could already see the greedy smiles on the faces of those two Supervisor bosses when they heard the news.

"Go."

The communication disconnected.

The only bar in the mining area was filled with foul air. Ma Liu held a glass of low-quality alcohol, sitting next to a familiar Mine Slave with a face full of sorrow.

"Sigh, Old Zhang, do you think when people are blinded by money, they really stop caring about their lives?" Ma Liu gulped down a large mouthful of liquor and said with a slurred tongue.

"What's wrong with you?" Old Zhang asked curiously.

"Don't even get me started!" Ma Liu slammed his glass heavily onto the table, drawing several gazes from around him. "Our boss, 734, no, Boss Chen... he's gone mad! He said he's going to Sector B tonight! Alone! Said he's going to get all the treasures out and buy the whole mining area tomorrow!"

"What?!"

"Real or fake? Just him?"

The surrounding discussions immediately grew loud.

"I couldn't stop him!" Ma Liu held his head and said in pain. "I said people die in that place, but he wouldn't listen! He said fortune favors the bold! Sigh! You guys better not tell anyone, or if those two mad dogs find out, our boss is finished!"

His emotional performance even fooled most of the people present. Everyone was talking about that arrogant 'Madman 734'.

In the corner, a bartender wiping a glass had an imperceptible glint flash in his eyes as he quietly pressed his communicator.

Inside the maintenance room, Chen Feng checked the structural stress map of Sector B one last time. All data showed that the corroded support pillars were on the verge of collapse.

Everything was ready.

He set his personal terminal to 'Weak Signal Mode,' periodically broadcasting forged positioning data to make it look like someone was slowly moving deep within Sector B.

Then, he took out the strangely shaped 'Multi-functional Lockpick' he had confiscated from Ma Liu.

He walked to the back of the maintenance room, where there was a long-abandoned ventilation duct that wasn't even marked on official maps. He inserted one end of the lockpick into the rusted grate lock and gave it a gentle twist.

"Click."

With a faint sound, the grate opened.

Chen Feng looked back at the maintenance room where he had stayed for several days, his gaze as calm as water.

He ducked inside and then pulled the grate shut from the inside.

The trap was set.

The hunter was in position.