The other information operations room was relatively empty, with desks, chairs, and stools piled up haphazardly, and there were traces of sleeping mats on the ground.
"This will do." Lin Xian dragged out a stool and looked at KIKI, "You rest here for a bit."
KIKI looked disdainfully at the dirty floor, while on the other side there was a command operations console with over a dozen screens and information equipment. However, in the situation of a complete blackout, these electronic devices were even less valuable than a piece of bread.
Her eyes brightened, and she walked over with interest, "Hey, villain, can you move these things onto the carriage and set up an information center for me to use?"
"Information center?"
Lin Xian’s mind stirred, he had noticed earlier when he was outside that this base had a Sentry warning system, but the whole system was very complex, not something he could easily dismantle and move.
"It sounds easy, but how are we going to move them back..."
KIKI pouted her lips, "You’re silly, isn’t there a freight railway just outside, it must connect to the North Bay Station’s railroad."
"I know." Lin Xian gave a wry smile, "What I mean is, right now we’re all trapped in the fog and can’t get out, we’re even struggling to escape, let alone moving things."
"Uh... you’re right." KIKI deflated, then stretched lazily, looking at Lin Xian with tired eyes.
"I can’t take it anymore, I need to rest awhile."
Lin Xian found a corner to lean and sit down without bothering her, knowing that KIKI was extremely weak at the moment.
Whether it was Qian Yu or Tang Hai, Lin Xian knew that each had their own motives, in this environment everyone was thinking of the proverb, ’a dead comrade is less of a burden’, now these people were polite to him and KIKI simply because they were superpower users.
Once everyone escapes the fog, Lin Xian would become their biggest threat.
Of course, some might think of relying on Lin Xian and KIKI like a solid tree, but now everyone’s life or death was uncertain, and with only two days left before polar night, whether they could survive remained to be seen.
"Logically, this kind of place should have backup power sources or generators." Lin Xian noted that survivors in the main hall were lighting candles, indicating there was still a complete ventilation system, but the electricity was completely gone.
"It stinks in the armory."
KIKI leaned next to Lin Xian and sat down, resting her head on his shoulder and then fell asleep.
Lin Xian looked back at the girl with a complicated expression.
Just yesterday, facing the monster she had used her superpower twice and directly fainted, yet today she managed to hold on until now without showing any change in her demeanor, she was smart. If others knew her superpower could not last long, neither Qian Yu nor Tang Hai would be so wary of them, even though Lin Xian also displayed his superpowers, but the oppressive force displayed was clearly not as shocking as KIKI’s.
Recalling how she had pretended to be asleep for three days, Lin Xian even began to wonder who this girl really was, how could a rich daughter have such a tough demeanor?
As night fell, whether it was the vehicles outside the Sentry station or inside the bomb shelter, everything was eerily quiet.
No one deliberately made a sound, the night was destined to be sleepless, not only because of the fear of the dark but also because everyone was preparing to rush out of the fog tomorrow, a plan that was completely uncertain of life or death.
Lin Xian didn’t rest, instead he placed his hand on the operations console, driving the Mechanical Heart to start the pathway.
But soon he realized, this wasn’t just a set of servers and information equipment, but a hub connecting the entire Sentry system.
The enormity of this system was beyond his expectation, rapidly draining his energy. Lin Xian was startled, and just as he was about to stop the coverage of the Mechanical Heart, he suddenly discovered something strange—that beneath this bunker, there was a secret elevator.
And at that moment, that elevator was moving downwards!
Lin Xian furrowed his brows, immediately getting up to look towards the main hall, where there was no disturbance.
Then where did this elevator come from?
And since there was no power in this bunker, how could this elevator still be operational?
Lin Xian looked at the sleeping KIKI and remembered her mentioning that there was a backup generator in the armory.
Upon noticing the anomaly, Lin Xian became instantly cautious, and the first person he thought of was Tang Hai.
In fact, both he and Qian Yu felt that there was something off about Tang Hai, although his intentions were acknowledged by everyone, Lin Xian and Qian Yu felt that the timing of his appearance was too coincidental.
Lou Shasha arrived the day before yesterday, and Qian Yu’s group had arrived even earlier. Logically, Tang Hai should have known about their arrival, but he only appeared today, even at the risk of being attacked by a tide of corpses.
However, as a local, Tang Hai led everyone directly to this shelter, which looked safer than the square, which dispelled some of their suspicions.
Therefore, although there was mutual suspicion among the teams, being in the fog meant everyone was essentially in the same boat. With Tang Hai even leaving the doors of the underground air-raid shelter open, Lin Xian had no choice but to set aside his concerns for now.
For caution’s sake, Lin Xian decided to check around anyway.
He then put KIKI down, found an abandoned sleeping bag for her to lean on, and walked out of the combat room.
The survivors outside looked at Lin Xian with odd glances because he was brought in by Feng Yuming, so no one said much, all appearing somewhat silent.
Lin Xian didn’t pay attention to these people and walked back into the armory, and indeed, at the very back, he saw a large diesel generator and energy storage system.
However, when he checked with his superpower, he discovered that the generator had long been damaged and also had no fuel, which made him visibly change color.
"What’s going on, there’s clearly no electricity? Could there be other backup power sources?"
This discovery raised his suspicions.
After searching around, he simply returned to the entrance of the air-raid shelter’s hangar, where the iron door was now securely locked. Lin Xian quietly used Mechanical Heart to open it, finding dozens of survivors’ cars quietly parked in the courtyard below the slope, with faint light sources emitting from the gaps inside many cars - clearly, many had no intention to sleep comfortably but were ready to stay alert throughout the night.
Lin Xian walked around but not only did he fail to find the entrance to the elevator, but he also didn’t spot Tang Hai and Feng Yuming anywhere. He wondered where this uncle-nephew duo had gone.
Feeling inexplicably uneasy, Lin Xian closed the iron door and returned to the combat room once more. He took a deep breath, this time fully activating the Mechanical Heart, trying to connect to the entire base’s passages through this combat hub. Soon, his face looked exhausted as if a lot of his energy had been drained.
But when Lin Xian used the combat center hub to scan the mechanical structure and passages of the entire base, he suddenly opened his eyes, a stern and fierce look flashed through them, and after a long while, he coldly exclaimed,
Lin Xian’s expression drastically changed, his forehead broke out in cold sweat. After a moment of thought, he directly picked up KIKI and entered the armory, locking the large door.
The foul smell in the armory made the sleeping KIKI slightly furrow her brows. Lin Xian turned on the flashlight, moving her next to the generator where it was closer to the ventilation duct, where the foul smell was relatively less.
Putting down KIKI, Lin Xian turned off the flashlight, feeling KIKI’s faint breathing in the darkness, he began to place his hand on the generator to scan again.
In the darkness, Lin Xian’s eyes were somber, and his heartbeat involuntarily quickened.
"It smells so bad..."
KIKI, half-asleep and half-awake, said next to his ear.
Lin Xian pinched KIKI’s little face, and the exhausted KIKI was suddenly awoken by Lin Xian’s pinch, her brows furrowed as she smelled the surrounding stench and struggled to sit up.
Before she could finish her sentence, Lin Xian covered her mouth.
Click, Lin Xian turned on the flashlight, his eyes somber as he pointed to the wall next to them.
"What’s wrong?" Seeing Lin Xian’s expression, KIKI became serious too, suppressing her consciousness a bit, she asked, "Did monsters come?"
Lin Xian’s eyes darkened, "I think it might be something even more troublesome..."