Chapter 112: Gear Abyss |
The explosion swallowed the latter half of the sentence. A blinding flash of light burst like a miniature sun at the center of the laboratory, and the shockwave, carrying scorching hot air, instantly overturned all the experimental equipment. Jonas instinctively raised his hand to shield his face but was thrown by the blast, crashing heavily against the wall. A ripping agony surged through his back, and the impact-resistant layer of his tactical vest emitted a teeth-grinding sizzling sound under the intense heat.
When the intense light faded, the pungent smell of sulfur mixed with scorched metal invaded Jonas’s nostrils. He coughed violently, stepping back two paces as his military boots crushed shards of glass scattered across the floor. The laboratory was a mess; the once neatly arranged precision instruments were now twisted scrap metal. The ceiling lights hung by only a few dangling wires. The emergency lights were all destroyed in the blast, leaving only the moonlight filtering through the broken windows to faintly outline the chaos strewn across the floor.
Leaning against the wall, he tried to stand up, but his fingers touched something sticky. Lowering his head in the moonlight, he saw dark red blood trickling down the wall, pooling into a small puddle on the concrete. Memories surged like a tidal wave—the final moment before the explosion, the director had pressed a gear-shaped badge into his palm, his aged fingers stained with blood. “Take this and find the Third Gear…” Before the words finished, the massive gear device in the laboratory dome suddenly reversed direction, and a strange dark red liquid seeped from the bronze surface.
Jonas trembled as he reached for his tactical vest. The gear-shaped badge in his pocket was scorching hot, as if a flame was burning beneath his skin. The edges of the badge were still smeared with fresh blood, glowing dark red under the moonlight. When he flipped the badge over, a line of tiny characters appeared faintly in the moonlight: [When the seventh gear stops turning, the abyss will open its eyes]. The inscription was a bizarre silver-white, as if written with liquid metal, shimmering with his every movement under the moonlight.
Suddenly, from deep within the ruins came the clicking sound of turning gears. Jonas immediately drew his pistol; the soft click of the safety was unusually loud in the dead silence of the lab. Moonlight streamed through the shattered window, casting mottled shadows on the floor. A dark figure was crawling slowly along the corner of the wall, the scraping of mechanical joints mixed with the drip of viscous liquid creating a chilling sound.
“Who’s there?” Jonas’s voice trembled, but he forced himself to sound steady. The shadow suddenly froze, followed by the screeching of twisting metal. Dozens of mechanical spiders glowing with red light burst from the rubble, their compound eyes flashing with murderous intent. These robots, originally designed for precise repairs, now had sawtoothed blades growing from their leg joints, and their laser cutters on their abdomens radiated a dangerous red glow.
Jonas rolled to dodge the incoming laser, firing bullets that precisely blew up the lead mechanical spider. In the fireball, he saw black viscous liquid oozing from the spider’s body, which corroded deep pits into the ground upon landing. More spiders poured out from the ventilation ducts, their countless compound eyes forming a sea of red light in the darkness.
“Damn it!” Jonas reached for the electromagnetic grenade on his waist, only to find that the gear pouch had been torn apart in the explosion and the grenade was nowhere to be found. At the critical moment, gunfire suddenly erupted from the other side of the lab. Orange-red muzzle flashes cut through the darkness, blowing several spiders to pieces.
“Keep going!” A familiar female voice pierced through the smoke. An electromagnetic grenade flew in a parabolic arc, landing at Jonas’s feet. He looked up to see Anna crouching behind a ruined lab bench, her bulletproof vest splattered with black viscous liquid, tactical goggles cracked with a spiderweb pattern.
The two fought back to back, the pulse wave from the electromagnetic grenades temporarily suppressing the mechanical spiders’ assault. Taking advantage of this, Jonas checked his backpack and found only the gear badge intact, along with a half-burnt yellowed blueprint the director had given him. The edges of the paper were charred, with faintly visible words “Third Gear Storage Location,” coordinates pointing to the old city underground.
“Look at this!” Anna suddenly grabbed his arm, pointing at the ceiling. The giant gear device that had supported the dome was now slowly rotating, opposite to the reverse spin before the explosion but at an astonishing speed. Sparks flew continuously from the friction of the metal. Even more bizarre, dark red patterns resembling living blood vessels writhed across the gear’s surface.
Jonas’s retinas suddenly flashed blue, and his tactical goggles automatically popped up a warning interface: [Spatial stability decreasing, immediate evacuation recommended]. At the same time, spiderweb-like cracks appeared on the ground, spreading from the gear device in all directions. Black mist oozed from the cracks, carrying a nauseating stench of decay.
“No time!” Anna pulled him toward the emergency exit. Just as they reached the door, an entire wall suddenly flipped open, revealing a hidden mechanical door. The door slowly rose, revealing a parked hovering motorcycle inside. On the seat sat a sealed box marked with the Sector Seven gear emblem.
Jonas opened the box to find a brand-new energy shield and a pulse rifle, along with a note: [Guardian of the Seventh Gear, meet in the old city sewer B3 level—Third Gear]. The handwriting was sloppy but identical to the director’s.
The hovering motorcycle’s engine rumbled deeply as Jonas mounted it, pinning the badge to his chest. Anna jumped onto the back seat, wrapping her arms around his waist. “Do you really believe the director left this? Maybe it’s a trap.”
“We have no choice.” Jonas started the engine. The hovering motorcycle shot out of the lab like an arrow from a bow. Behind them came a deafening explosion as the entire building began to collapse. The giant gear device transformed into a dark red beam of light shooting straight into the sky. Above, gear-shaped clouds rapidly gathered, while city alarms blared intermittently.
The hovering motorcycle sped across the burning streets. Jonas noticed the electronic screens along the way all displayed the same image: a massive gear slowly turning, its center cracked open to reveal a bloodshot eye. Below the image, a line of blood-red text blinked constantly: [The abyss is coming].
The ruins of the old city looked especially sinister under the moonlight. The sewer entrance was piled high with discarded gear parts. Jonas shut off the engine, and the pulse rifle’s spotlight cut through the darkness. The passage was filled with the stench of sewage and rust. From deeper inside came the sound of gears meshing—beat after beat, like the heartbeat of a giant beast.
“Watch out!” Anna suddenly grabbed him. A laser beam grazed Jonas’s shoulder, leaving a charred mark on the wall. In the darkness, dozens of pairs of red glowing eyes lit up. This time it was no longer mechanical spiders but humanoid mechanical guards. Their energy cannons were charging.
Jonas raised the energy shield, the blue light standing out starkly in the darkness. Anna’s pulse rifle fired first; bullets hitting the mechanical guards sparked a shower of flames. The roar of battle echoed through the narrow sewer as metal fragments and black viscous liquid splattered everywhere.
When the last mechanical guard fell, Jonas’s energy shield was on the verge of collapse. He and Anna pressed deeper into the tunnel, finally stopping in a huge circular chamber. At its center, a massive gear device turned slowly, its surface flowing with eerie blue light—the “Third Gear” marked on the blueprint.
But around the device stood a dozen black-robed figures wearing gear-shaped masks on their faces. The lead black-robed figure stepped forward, scarlet light shining through the gaps in the mask. “Holder of the Seventh Gear, welcome to the antechamber of the abyss.”
His knees suddenly gave out, and he collapsed to the scorching concrete floor. The previous explosion was too strange—the prototype that should have been scrapped three days ago was now reassembling itself out of thin air in the lab center, emitting energy powerful enough to distort space. Jonas trembled as he reached for his tactical vest; the gear badge in his pocket was burning fiercely, like a fire beneath his skin.
This was the highest authority badge in Sector Seven, still stained with the director’s blood. The scene from three hours ago replayed in his mind: when the old man pressed the badge into his palm, all the gears in the lab began to reverse spin, and dark red liquid seeped from the bronze walls. “Take this and find the Third Gear…” The old man’s words were torn apart by alarms as the entire building began to shake violently.
Jonas struggled to stand, the beam of his military flashlight piercing the thick smoke. He noticed strange patterns on the ground resembling ancient runes, faintly visible among the ruins. Even stranger, all electronic devices had stopped working, except for an old mechanical clock on the wall that was ticking backward.
“Jonas! Are you there?” Suddenly, a familiar voice came from the corridor. Jonas tightened his grip on the pulse pistol at his waist and cautiously approached the sound. Emerging from the smoke was his partner Irene, her tactical vest covered in dust and several scratches on her face.
“Thank God, you’re alive!” Irene rushed over. “The entire building’s security system has collapsed, all exits sealed. I saw on the monitor… saw something crawling out of the prototype.”
Jonas handed her the burning gear badge. “The director told me to find the Third Gear before he died. When he said that, all the gears started spinning backward.”
Irene examined the badge carefully, suddenly gasping. “Look at this!” She scraped the bloodstains from the badge’s edge with a tactical knife, revealing a line of tiny engravings. “This is the mark of the ancient Gear Cult. Legend says they hold the secret to opening the abyss’s gate.”
Before she finished, the entire building shook violently. Concrete chunks fell from the ceiling, and the roar of gears turning grew louder and closer. Jonas and Irene exchanged a glance and raised their weapons simultaneously.
From the shadows, a monster pieced together from gears and metal emerged slowly. Its body was composed of countless gears, black viscous liquid oozing from its joints, and its hollow eye sockets flickering with eerie red light. The creature emitted a mechanical roar, and countless small mechanical spiders detached from its body, swarming toward the two.
“Focus fire on its core!” Jonas shouted, pulling the trigger. The pulse beam struck the monster, leaving only scorch marks. The monster swung its spiked metal arms, whipping up a fierce wind.
Irene threw an electromagnetic grenade, the strong magnetic field from the explosion paralyzing the mechanical spiders. But the monster remained unharmed and accelerated its attack rhythm. Jonas noticed a glowing gear on the monster’s chest—that had to be its weak point.
“Cover me!” Jonas yelled, using the rubble as cover to flank the monster. Irene’s pulse rifle kept firing, drawing its attention. When Jonas was five meters away, he leapt forward and thrust an electromagnetic dagger deep into the glowing gear.
The monster screamed piercingly as its body convulsed violently. Countless gears fell off, spinning in the air to form a massive gear formation. Jonas and Irene were engulfed in the formation as the surrounding space began to warp and distort.
When they landed again, they found themselves in an unfamiliar space. Endless gear walls stretched in all directions, and silver liquid metal flowed across the ground. An unsettling silence permeated the air, broken only by the faint sound of turning gears.
“What is this place?” Irene looked around warily.
Jonas picked up a gear shard engraved with the same symbol as the badge. “This must be the Gear Cult’s secret base. The director’s Third Gear is probably here.”
They moved along the gear corridor, runes on the walls lighting up red as they passed. Suddenly, a large gear gate appeared ahead, inlaid with six glowing gears. Jonas took out the badge, which flew automatically to the gate and fit into the seventh slot.
The gate slowly opened, revealing a massive gear device with a hovering gear emitting an eerie blue glow—the Third Gear. But surrounding the device stood a group of black-robed people wearing gear masks on their faces.
“Welcome to the gate of the abyss.” The lead black-robed figure removed his mask, revealing the deputy director of the laboratory who should have been dead. “Jonas, you finally brought the Seventh Gear.”
“It’s you!” Jonas clenched his fists. “Why are you doing this?”
The deputy director sneered. “You think Sector Seven was really researching new energy? Wrong. We’ve been searching for a way to open the abyss’s gate all along. Only the abyss’s power can reshape this decaying world.”
He reached out and touched the Third Gear. The entire device began spinning rapidly. Countless cracks split the ground as black mist surged forth, coalescing into a huge gear-shaped vortex. Jonas felt an immense suction, as if his soul was being pulled out of his body.
“Stop him!” Irene shouted, firing her weapon. But the black-robed figures summoned mechanical guards, and the two sides plunged into fierce combat. Jonas seized the chance to rush toward the Third Gear but was blocked by the deputy director.
“You think you alone can stop fate?” The deputy director’s eyes turned into gear shapes. “The abyss’s power is unstoppable!” His body began mechanizing, transforming into a gigantic gear monster.
Jonas gritted his teeth and activated the emergency energy in his tactical vest. A powerful energy glow enveloped him as he swung a fist filled with immense energy, striking the monster’s core. The creature roared earth-shatteringly as its body began to crumble.
At the same time, Irene broke through the defenses, using an electromagnetic jammer to destroy the gear device. The Third Gear lost its energy support and slowly fell. Jonas reacted swiftly and grabbed the gear.
“Run!” Irene yelled. “The whole space is collapsing!”
They sprinted back along the original path, with the gear space collapsing behind them. When they finally burst out of the gate, the entire base exploded violently. Jonas and Irene leaped out at the last moment, crashing heavily into the ruins of the lab.
Jonas gripped the Third Gear tightly and noticed new information appearing on it: when the seven gears unite, the abyss will fully awaken. He knew this was only the beginning; a greater crisis still loomed ahead.
“What now?” Irene asked, struggling to get up.
Jonas looked at the gear with determined eyes. “We need to find the other gears and stop the abyss before it awakens. But first…” He glanced at the faint gear markings in the rubble. “We have to find out just how many secrets Sector Seven is still hiding.”
In the distance, sirens grew louder. Jonas and Irene exchanged a glance and tucked the gear into the backpack. They knew the road ahead would be even more dangerous, but to stop the abyss’s arrival, they had no other choice.
Night fell, and the city lights looked especially dim amid the ruins. Jonas stared at the blood moon in the sky and clenched his fists. The whisper of gears echoed in his ears. The battle that would determine the fate of the world had only just begun.