73: Chapter 73 Deadly Dust Trap

Zhao Mengmeng sat by the fire, her eyes constantly staring at the darkness outside the door.

"What's the plan for tonight?"

Lin Ye swallowed the last bite of Smoked Mutton and looked up at the depths of the warehouse.

"This is a god-given place to farm points."

Zhao Mengmeng froze.

"You call this hellhole a 'god-given place'?"

Lin Ye stood up and brushed the meat crumbs off his hands.

"The terrain is enclosed, the passages are narrow, there are plenty of supplies, and the monsters are willing to crawl inside."

Zhao Mengmeng's eyelids twitched as she listened.

"Don't laugh, I'm actually feeling a bit panicked."

"It's right to be panicked."

Lin Ye picked up his crossbow.

"The grass on the graves of those who aren't panicked usually grows quite well."

Zhao Mengmeng rolled her eyes, patted her butt, and stood up with him.

The two of them began searching from the outer layer of the warehouse first.

The outer layer was piled with rotting cardboard boxes, overturned shelves, and patches of rusted carts.

Zhao Mengmeng soon dug out a large hiking backpack that was still relatively intact.

She shook the dust out of it and then unearthed two aluminum pots with deformed edges and several stainless steel basins from the scrap boxes.

"Brother Lin, these are all good things!"

Lin Ye glanced over.

"Carry what you can, but don't crush yourself like a turtle."

Zhao Mengmeng touched a small milk pot affectionately.

"This pot is tougher than my life; I won't be able to sleep tonight if I don't take it."

While grumbling, she stuffed the usable daily items into the bag.

Lin Ye bypassed the scrap area and headed straight for the back half of the warehouse.

Rows of old supplies were piled there.

Many cardboard boxes had rotted through due to moisture, revealing clumped, yellowing powder inside.

Lin Ye squatted down and tore open a damaged package.

White powder dispersed with a stale smell.

He rubbed it between his fingertips.

Dry and extremely fine.

Zhao Mengmeng walked over, carrying the bulging large bag.

"What's that?"

"Expired Flour."

Zhao Mengmeng pinched her nose and took half a step back.

"Eating this would probably give you diarrhea so bad you'd question your existence, right?"

Lin Ye stood up, looking at the flour bags filling half the storage area.

"Who said I was going to eat it?"

Zhao Mengmeng was startled.

Lin Ye pointed his hand toward the dark passage below.

"Let's go find a large enough space."

The two of them went down the rusted stairs to the first basement level.

It was colder here than on the upper floor, the air was damp, and the corners were covered in grey-green mold.

Just as Zhao Mengmeng stepped off the last stair, her toe kicked an empty tin can.

*Clang.*

The sound rolled far down the underground passage.

Zhao Mengmeng's body instantly froze.

Lin Ye raised his hand to signal her to stay calm.

"No monsters. Light on your feet."

Only then did Zhao Mengmeng breathe a sigh of relief.

Lin Ye continued further into the passage.

Deep in the first basement level, there was a half-open fire door.

Behind the door was a giant warehouse room.

The ceiling was nearly six meters high, the area was massive, and it was surrounded by rows of metal shelves.

A section of the ceiling in the northwest corner had collapsed, revealing a hole leading to the upper floor.

Lin Ye stood at the door, his gaze scanning the empty space.

"This is the spot."

Zhao Mengmeng poked her head in for a look, then turned back to him.

"You're going to kill monsters here?"

"Yes."

"How?"

Lin Ye pointed to the Expired Flour above.

"With those."

Zhao Mengmeng's eyes went wide.

"Killing monsters with flour?"

"If the dust concentration is high enough, it will explode when it meets an open flame."

Zhao Mengmeng's jaw almost dropped.

"You can make a bomb out of kitchen supplies?"

"It's not that mysterious."

Lin Ye walked in and stepped on the dark grey concrete floor.

"Enclosed space, high concentration of combustible dust, an ignition source, and a suspended state."

He looked up at the ventilation hole in the ceiling.

"Plus the monsters running in to help stir the air—that's enough."

A chill ran down Zhao Mengmeng's back as she listened.

"If this thing blows too early, we'll both end up on the menu."

"So the margin for error is very low."

Lin Ye turned to look at her.

"It's not too late for you to go back up and guard the door; I can do this myself."

Zhao Mengmeng slammed her large bag onto the ground.

"Don't give me that."

She rolled up her sleeves.

"I've already charged all the way here with you. If I say I'm scared now, I'd look like a total idiot."

Lin Ye nodded.

"Fine. Let's divide the work."

He pointed to the main passage.

"You're responsible for setting up noise devices, laid out all the way from the main entrance to this warehouse room."

"Pots, pans, iron buckets, glass bottles—string them all together."

"The sound must trigger in stages; they absolutely cannot all go off at once."

Zhao Mengmeng understood immediately.

"Staged luring, right?"

"Right."

Lin Ye pointed to the upper floor.

"I'll be responsible for transporting the flour. Once the main ingredient is spread out, we'll add some side dishes."

Zhao Mengmeng hoisted her bag.

"What are the side dishes?"

"Insecticide, hairspray, fire extinguishers, paint, industrial lubricant."

Zhao Mengmeng was silent for two seconds, her expression looking like she had seen a ghost.

"Brother Lin, were you really an archaeology student before?"

"I took a lot of diverse electives in college."

Zhao Mengmeng choked out a curse and turned to run off to set up the traps.

Soon, the faint sound of wire rubbing against the concrete floor echoed in the underground passage.

Zhao Mengmeng hung scrap aluminum pots on exposed rebar on the walls and stuffed porcelain bowls into torn net bags.

Fine iron wire wound around door handles, passed through holes in shelves, and connected all the way to the stairwell.

Pulling one wire would cause the pots and pans to smash into each other frantically.

The next set was hung at the corner.

The set after that was in the middle of the main underground passage.

The final set hung directly above the entrance to the giant warehouse room.

"Dammit, this job is more eye-straining than threading a needle."

On the other side, Lin Ye pushed a rusted small flatbed cart back to the upper floor.

One of the cart's wheels was broken, making a squeaking racket as it was pushed.

Lin Ye used vines to force the axle in place and stacked bags of flour onto the cart.

One load.

Two loads.

Three loads.

With every trip downstairs, he precisely avoided the red-lined zones in his left eye's vision that represented cave-ins.

In one section of the passage where the ground was already hollow, he only stepped on the very edge of the load-bearing beams.

His steps were steady; he didn't misstep once.

In the Great Xia Live Stream, millions of viewers watched with their scalps tingling.

[What exactly is he trying to do? Can flour really explode?]

[Yes, look up Dust Explosions; the power in factory accidents is terrifyingly horrific!]

[Holy crap, while others are engaging in bayonet fights, he's hand-crafting a weapon of mass destruction in a basement?]

[Daring to play like this on the final night—he's a lunatic! An absolute lunatic!]

Lin Ye transported the first batch of flour into the giant warehouse room.

A dagger sliced open the bags.

The yellowed, clumped flour was crushed by his foot, kicking up a choking white mist.

He didn't throw the flour directly into the air but instead spread it thickly on the floor.

In corners, between shelves, at the door, and in the central open space—layer after layer.

Hundreds of kilograms of Expired Flour covered the dark grey concrete floor.

Next, he unearthed boxes of old spray cans from the upper warehouse.

Insecticides, air fresheners, hairsprays.

Along with a few dry powder fire extinguishers with dented casings.

He divided these compressed gas cylinders into several piles, wedging them into the blind spots between the center and the shelf aisles.

Zhao Mengmeng ran back after finishing the traps and stopped dead in her tracks.

In the dim warehouse, the floor was covered as if there had been a snowfall.

Large and small compressed gas cylinders were piled in the middle.

Dozens of buckets of paint and lubricant had their lids removed and were placed precariously on the edges of the metal shelves.

As long as the monsters rushed in and knocked over the shelves, the liquids would pour out immediately.

The pungent chemical smell mixed with the aged moldy scent, making one's head throb.

Zhao Mengmeng covered her nose and mouth.

"Brother Lin, if someone sneezes in here now, will we all go to heaven?"

"Not for now."

Lin Ye adjusted the position of the last bucket of lubricant.

"When the monster swarm rushes in, it might be a different story."

Zhao Mengmeng swallowed hard and stopped talking.

Lin Ye did a final check of the escape route.

"Retreat to the warehouse entrance to back me up, and keep a firm grip on the wires."

Zhao Mengmeng shook her head.

"You're going out to lure them alone?"

Lin Ye took the crossbow off his back and checked the bowstring.

"I'm fast, I can run and swing; if you follow, there will just be one more gnawed-up skeleton."

Zhao Mengmeng was left speechless by his bluntness.

"Then don't go and get yourself killed by being reckless."

Lin Ye casually picked up a broken copper bell and weighed it in his hand.

"Don't worry, I value my life."

He stepped across the flour-covered floor and turned to vanish into the darkness of the passage.