Chapter 816: The Secret Substitute Cube |
"My Liege, the path above has been cleared."
Augustine knelt on one knee before Ye Qiyan, lowering his head and reporting the situation above in calm, loyal words to the master he served.
"Any discoveries?"
Hearing Augustine's words, Ye Qiyan looked upward.
A road running through the entire building had been carved out by the mech-soldiers.
"Aside from a few Anomaly-type monsters, we only found a human corpse that died not long ago."
"Hm?"
Ye Qiyan stored the train back into the Matrix, somewhat puzzled.
"A human corpse that died not long ago? So this godforsaken place actually does have a proper entrance and exit?"
The flight backpack spewed searing hot air as it carried them upward, quickly bringing them to the top floor of the abandoned building.
The soil further above was being slowly reinforced and solidified by the Nano-Bee Swarm to prevent dirt from collapsing down.
A female corpse that appeared to have died only a few days ago was delivered to Ye Qiyan by an Endless Mech.
Looking at the clothing on the body, he reached out and removed a medal pinned to her chest.
[RUN Company Senior Courier Medal]
[Bound: Senior Courier · Megan]
[Delivered Cargo: Secret Substitute Cube]
Looking at the information on the appraisal light screen, Ye Qiyan summoned a few Nano Giant Sting Bees to search the female corpse.
Soon, they dug out a cube the size of a baby's fist from the left side of the abdomen, which had obvious stitching marks.
A bloodstained voice recorder.
And a small bundle.
[Secret Substitute Cube]
[Used to open a certain door. It seems... someone is searching for its whereabouts?]
Drawing a bit of electricity from the Void Electric Furnace and injecting it into the voice recorder, sporadic gasping breaths emerged from it, followed by an extremely weak female voice.
"So the legends were true after all. Our RUN Company really did have such a predecessor. Unfortunately, I can't tell Boss Russell anymore. My tablet computer carrying the train system was shattered.
Boss Russell, I'm sorry, I failed to complete the mission... For the sake of us natives living in the Wasteland, I've done everything I possibly could. I didn't let this cube fall into the hands of those talent Hunters.
I'm sorry, Megan could only do this much."
"If... if only someone could come here... how wonderful that would be..."
Russell...
Ye Qiyan's gaze gradually turned serious.
"Interesting. So it seems my good brother Russell hasn't been as ordinary as I always imagined since becoming the Boss. Well, it's been quite a while since I last used Bewitchment on him.
Or could it be that Menrojina is pulling the strings from the shadows?"
With no more intel available at the moment, there was no way to know more.
But there was one thing Ye Qiyan could be certain of.
That naive young man named Russell, whether through growth or through concealment, had changed.
Regardless, there were absolutely natives within RUN Company who were genuinely loyal to him.
And the number was probably not small.
Opening the small bundle.
This item was also a low-grade storage device.
What it contained was fifteen Train Coins.
Better than nothing.
"Could this be this station's mission? No, perhaps it is indeed a mission, but it's certainly not all of it."
Missions at a mission station were never just one.
Moreover, wasn't this world extremely strange?
Even though it had already been conquered by Train Conductors, it still counted as a Station World.
Even the flow of time was out of sync with the Wasteland.
Seven to one.
For a Level 10 station, that ratio was already quite small. In fact, many Level 8 stations had higher ratios than this.
A strange world. A strange RUN Company.
This courier named Megan died for the Secret Substitute Cube.
And the existence chasing after the cube was never mentioned by her.
The cube could open a certain door, but what lay beyond that door?
Why did Russell have this courier Megan transport the cube away? Where was it being shipped to? And what was the mission?
Mysteries were piling up~
To be honest, Ye Qiyan wasn't really interested in this kind of puzzle-solving game.
Because he had his own method of solving puzzles.
Find Russell.
Ask directly.
"At first I thought this station was just about opening a treasure chest and going through the motions. Then RUN Company's secrets got dragged in, along with Abukado, Utopia City, and... Russell.
Phew... Good thing I didn't enter this place with a vacation mindset this time. I don't know what's going to happen, but if I can earn some Train Coins along the way... that wouldn't be bad either."
Ye Qiyan had completely abandoned the notion that nothing would happen at this station.
Because there were simply too many people and organizations showing up.
Even that kid Russell couldn't be trusted at this point.
He was going to personally head to RUN Company's current headquarters, find Russell, and learn the truth.
Even if that truth didn't mean much to him.
Might as well.
Pass the time~
"My Liege, the path above has been secured."
A sliver of light fell.
In the dark underground world, the Nano-Bee Swarm formed a clean, solid, tidy path through the soil above.
A crisp snap of fingers echoed through the underground space.
The Armament Hangar rumbled open.
One by one, the mech-soldiers retreated back into it, returning to the Matrix.
Upward.
The Nano-Bee Swarm condensed into a smooth metal skateboard for Ye Qiyan. Stepping onto it, he continued ascending.
Until the light above grew closer and closer.
The scorching, blinding sun shone down upon the barren land.
After Lisette and Eve had also come up, he recalled the Nano-Bee Swarm back into the Beehive.
Crossing over a hillside, they arrived at a high vantage point.
Ahead.
A gargantuan composite skyscraper came into view, one that displayed a massive projection of a running courier advertisement for RUN Company and connected the ground all the way to the sky.
That was the RUN Company headquarters building.
It was immeasurably taller than that underground structure with a mere nine hundred floors.
This single building alone was very much in the style of the City of a Thousand Stars.
It was hard to imagine that the current owner of this building was just a native Train Conductor youth who had been forcibly stacked up to Level 30 with resources and had nearly been possessed by a God.
It was also hard to imagine that beyond this world with such sci-fi architecture...
There actually existed a group of humanoid troll monsters dressed in tattered rags and wearing armor made of bones.
One after another, Targeting Rings lit up.
A group of hideous trolls riding battered motorcycles decorated with bones, brandishing clubs wrapped with wires, collars, and metal gears, charged toward Ye Qiyan's direction with wild shouts.
No command was needed.
Tungsten spikes blasted down from the sky with explosive acceleration.
Hundreds of trolls were turned into scrap metal and mangled flesh fused together with their battered motorcycles under Eve's assault.