170: Chapter 170 The Thirteenth Underground Level

Inside the tunnel of the Twelfth Underground Level.

The remains of thirteen Ascension pioneers lay quietly on the lead-steel floor.

Severed power lines at the back of their necks leaked wisps of eerie green sparks, emitting a faint crackling sound in this deathly silent tunnel.

Gu Shen stepped over the withered bodies of these pioneers and stood before a massive gate, ten zhang high and cast entirely from specialized lead-steel.

The access control sensor had long been completely destroyed by the physical welding device inside.

The thick door panels were mottled with the passage of time, radiating a heavy sense of oppression.

Iron Guard No. 7 (Golden-Horned Rhinoceros Beast) and No. 9 Iron Guard (Flame Poison Crocodile King) strode forward.

The miniature batteries inside the chests of the two heavy-duty Iron Guards operated at full power, and their titanium-tungsten alloy arms were raised high.

They dug their palms tightly into the gaps at the edge of the gate, and accompanied by a deafening hydraulic roar, they attempted to force the massive gate open with pure mechanical kinetic energy.

The gate emitted a teeth-grinding sound of metal twisting; the specialized lead-steel bulged outward under the immense force, but the internal load-bearing locks remained tightly engaged.

Gu Shen stepped on the thunder shadow boots, his figure suddenly soaring several zhang, hovering in mid-air.

The dark cyan mana in his Dantian surged wildly, pouring entirely into the thunder pattern gold-slaying blade in his right hand.

The Geng Metal Qi and thunder magnetic fine sand produced an extreme high-frequency resonance, and the eerie blue thunder blade light instantly surged.

Gu Shen held the blade with both hands, his body pulling into a tension like a full moon in mid-air.

The blade, carrying a force of ten thousand jun, precisely struck the most vulnerable central load-bearing hinge of the gate.

"Boom!"

The violent Thunder-Magnetic Force and Geng Metal sharpness exploded inside the specialized lead-steel.

The indestructible physical locks shattered inch by inch under this strike.

No. 7 and No. 9 Iron Guard seized the opportunity to unleash their limit of immense strength, and the hundred-ton lead-steel gate collapsed inward with a roar, smashing onto the metal floor below and kicking up a sky full of dust.

An extremely dazzling, blindingly bright eerie blue light surged out from behind the gate like a breached flood.

Gu Shen landed steadily, allowing this light to engulf him.

"My Lord! Danger!"

Crab's electronic voice erupted in an unprecedented, urgent shriek in Gu Shen's ears, "The environmental radiation index is increasing exponentially! The current value has exceeded the survival limit for carbon-based organisms by ten thousand times! The air is filled with high concentrations of radioactive isotope particles!"

Gu Shen took a step, entering this final abyss that had been sealed for hundreds of years.

The space of the Thirteenth Floor was as vast as a small underground city.

Before his eyes lay a boiling ocean of blue high-energy nuclear waste liquid.

These waste liquids, emitting lethal radiation, churned continuously at the bottom of the vast space, rising into huge bubbles that splashed blinding blue fluorescence when they burst.

In the center of the waste liquid ocean stood a nuclear reactor as massive as a mountain.

The reactor's shell had peeled off over a large area, revealing the intricate pipes and dark red core control rods inside.

It was like an aging and diseased heart, struggling to pulsate in this subterranean abyss, barely maintaining the operation of the entire Shelter No. 7.

Even more horrifying was the huge object suspended directly above the reactor.

It was a cylindrical polymer glass nutrient tank with a diameter of over several zhang.

Thousands of black fiber optic cables and neural interface lines hung down from the dome, like a giant spider web, firmly fixing the nutrient tank in mid-air.

Soaking in the murky, pale yellow preservative fluid was a giant human brain that had expanded dozens of times in volume, its surface covered in distorted sarcomas and mechanical electrodes.

This was The Mainframe of the Thirteenth Floor, the former Chief Engineer of Shelter No. 7, Chief Engineer Li Wenxing.

This was a fusion, having lost human emotions and completely dominated by silicon-based logic and defense protocols; it floated quietly above the sea of waste liquid, exuding a suffocating aura of despair.

Gu Shen stepped onto the alloy trestle bridge extending over the waste liquid; the black flood dragon black gold armor on his body felt the lethal erosion from the outside world and spontaneously lit up with a layer of warm, dark gold halo.

The Dark Gold Thunder Bone emitted a low, thundering sound deep within his flesh, forcing back all the radioactive isotopes attempting to drill into his pores.

Even though he was in this vast ocean of radiation capable of instantly vaporizing the flesh of a Mortal, Gu Shen's pace remained as steady as ever, his breathing without the slightest disorder.

Twelve Cyber Iron Guards followed closely behind.

The outer titanium-tungsten armor glowed with a dark purple light under the scorching of the strong radiation, while the great demon bones inside displayed excellent physical resistance, completely isolating the radiation from interfering with the miniature batteries.

Accompanying Gu Shen's intrusion, large patches of murky bubbles surged in the preservative fluid within the nutrient tank.

That giant brain covered in sarcomas pulsated violently.

Thousands of electrodes stuck into the cerebral cortex erupted with blinding sparks, and dense holographic projection screens instantly lit up on the dome of the entire Thirteenth Floor.

Red warning characters scrolled frantically on the screens like a waterfall.

"Warning. Outer physical defense has completely collapsed. Life sign signals in the Twelfth Floor buffer zone have been lost."

"Unknown intruder detected. Energy level assessment: Unable to parse. Life form assessment: Unable to parse."

A burst of electronically synthesized sound, mixed with electrical noise and extremely chaotic and crazy, boomed over the boiling blue ocean through the heavy speakers spread throughout the hall.

"Physical Law has undergone an unknown deviation... Carbon-based flesh cannot possibly be immune to 1,300 roentgens of high-frequency radiation..."

"Error! Error! Your existence constitutes a logical paradox to this System!"

The voice in the speakers revealed the instinctive panic that silicon-based life generates when facing things that exceed its cognition.

Gu Shen held the thunder pattern gold-slaying blade, standing in the center of the alloy trestle bridge, looking up at the distorted brain soaking in the nutrient tank.

The AI Crystal spun rapidly at the center of his brow, and an invisible data firewall was quietly established in his Sea of Consciousness, guarding against any brainwave attacks the opponent might launch.

"The civilization you protect has long been buried in the dust of history."

Gu Shen's tone was flat, his voice wrapped in mana, penetrating into the nutrient tank, "Hand over the reactor core, and I will grant you true eternal sleep."

The giant brain in the nutrient tank fell into a brief stasis.

Seconds later, a harsh, shrill scream erupted from the speakers.

"Refusing command! Shelter No. 7 core protocol cannot be changed!"

"Erasure program initiated! Activating final sequence: Executioner!"

Following The Mainframe's judgment, the boiling blue nuclear waste liquid ocean below rolled violently.

Three extremely massive, terrifying energy reactions, even surpassing the remains of the pioneers, rose rapidly from the depths of the waste liquid.

The blue waste liquid around the trestle bridge parted, and three giant stitched mechs, several zhang tall and covered in high-order distorted flesh and specialized heavy armor, slowly rose from the sea of death.

This was the ultimate guardian that The Mainframe of Shelter No. 7 had spent a long time building by exhausting all the resources of the base.

Gu Shen's gaze was calm, and the twelve Cyber Iron Guards lined up in front.

In this blue sea of fire in the underground abyss, the demon bone Puppets of the Cultivation World and the ultimate mechs of the Wasteland world welcomed their final confrontation.