Chapter 23: The Dim Passage

The Gate of the Absolute

If the air shield was linked to carried electrical power, then it wasn't that absurd for multiversal power to be tied to carried Bitcoins. He still had questions in his mind about why multiversal power would be measured in Bitcoins—wasn't this a system that had existed since ancient times? Why would it be connected to a modern invention like Bitcoin? But Wu Zhong held his tongue and didn't ask right away.

Yang Chunsha was getting impatient. "Kid, you're not with Unit 985. So why are you at the Mount Lu base?"

Wu Zhong said, "Huh? Who said I'm not? I'm Unit 985's pig caretaker. Every day I have to feed live pigs and send them through a pipe."

"As for Unit 985—I didn't even know my employer's unit had that name before, and I kept running into weird stuff, even life-threatening situations."

"Until this time it got too extreme—ghosts and gods showed up. I almost died. I couldn't stay another day…"

He was blatantly making things up; Infinite Summer couldn't help but glance at him. Still, his emotions were genuine, showing a real anxiety toward the unknown.

Yang Chunsha not only believed him, she was astonished. "Unit 985 raises pigs?"

"Sending live pigs into a pipe? For what? Are they feeding something? Mount Lu had monsters sealed there?"

Wu Zhong was surprised—he hadn't expected Yang Chunsha to be clueless about the "Happiness Zombie" incident. Even if she was a small figure in the disaster world, she was still a local boss; how could she not know there were zombies being raised in an underground base? It seemed Unit 985's secrecy was excellent. No wonder their zombie-breeding facilities looked so ordinary and lacked special guards. In their understanding, people in the underworld probably wouldn't know about that disaster artifact at all.

This showed Infinite Summer wasn't ordinary—he was formidable. Wu Zhong recalled that when Infinite Summer had mentioned information like dogs barking, Unit 985 had been shocked and asked, "How do you know that?" In the disaster world, information was king. Infinite Summer's breadth of knowledge didn't fit a typical mercenary. Lu Captain and his team locking him up suggested they suspected he knew a lot or possessed some intelligence-related trait. Wu Zhong thought of many possibilities, even that it might relate to the church organization Infinite Summer had mentioned.

"Kid, don't be like him and stay mute," Yang Chunsha said. "Xia-ge is a gold-tier mercenary. If he personally brought you into the circle, you must have some extraordinary skills. If you have anything in Gan Province and need help, you can ask sister for assistance—call my private number directly so the platform doesn't take a cut."

Yang Chunsha wore an intellectual, cool exterior but always tried to stick to people. Her slender fingers pinched a business card and handed it from the front seat. Looking at her fair arm, Wu Zhong instinctively reached out to take the card.

Hengtun Engineering Construction Company, Business Manager, De Biao.

Wu Zhong raised an eyebrow. Such a beautiful woman with a name like De Biao? It had to be a false identity. In the disaster world it was normal for everyone to have fake identities.

Infinite Summer commented indifferently, "Oh? Contact by phone?"

Yang Chunsha waved it off. "Big matters, of course, go through plants, but small stuff is fine…depends on you."

"In Gan Province, I take all kinds of jobs—safe houses, forged documents, finding people or items, escorting, stealing secrets, or buying intelligence…small miscellaneous tasks, you can come to me."

"Fair prices, and I accept cash."

Wu Zhong couldn't help but mock, "Buying intelligence? From you? You didn't even know why Unit 985 feeds pigs…"

Being roasted by a rookie left Yang Chunsha a bit flustered, but she explained, "Kid, you don't have to focus only on the big powers and major players in the disaster world."

"I handle ordinary civilian matters easily."

Wu Zhong understood: she meant mundane civilian tasks. The lower-tier mercenary market in the disaster world was fiercely competitive. That so-called mercenary club platform probably rarely had simple jobs—they mostly involved other disaster artifacts. If a job involved official departments or powerful forces, low-level mercenaries dared not accept it. And Yang Chunsha seemed to take only local jobs in the province, which made life even harder.

Wu Zhong added, "Don't act poor. This job pays twenty Bits. Even if the platform takes half, you still make ten million."

"Three years without business, then feast for three years."

That line revealed his civilian background.

Yang Chunsha froze, then smiled. "Kid, there are only twenty-one million Bitcoins in total."

"This is, aside from the awakened themselves, the only carrier that can store multiversal power."

"And carrying it can increase the storage ceiling for multiversal power out of thin air."

"Right now it's valuable but lacking liquidity, mostly monopolized by great powers and top forces. Even if you set a high price, no one sells. So transaction prices have stabilized for now. If they ever decide to sell, prices will only go higher!"

"There are only ninety-four wallets holding more than ten thousand Bitcoins worldwide."

"A small player like me holds just 16.233 coins. It's rare to get ten Bits in one go. Why would I trade that for cash? Sister's not that broke yet."

Wu Zhong's pupils contracted—he really hadn't learned about this. Now he realized the true value of the USB drive Infinite Summer had, with thirty thousand Bits inside. It wasn't just about thirty billion in cash; since Bitcoins could raise the multiversal power storage ceiling, holding that many meant Infinite Summer wasn't a small figure in the disaster world. He might be a big shot in the circle—certainly top-tier. Judging by multiversal power capacity alone, he was undeniably among the TOP 100, maybe even TOP 50 or higher.

No wonder Yang Chunsha kept clinging to Infinite Summer despite her aloof demeanor. Today's twenty-Bit job was already a massive haul for her.

"Xia-ge, we're going to have to take a detour now." Yang Chunsha said suddenly.

Only then did Wu Zhong notice she had driven them into the wilderness—no paved road in sight. Then Yang Chunsha pressed something and all the car windows' covers slid up, plunging everything into pitch black, including the windshield.

"What are you doing?" Wu Zhong's muscles tightened and he quickly looked at Infinite Summer.

Infinite Summer stayed calm and curious. "Everyone has secrets."

"Looks like your route is rudimentary and direct—it's a real secret tunnel."

Yang Chunsha continued driving, but the car was suddenly much bumpier. "You need some skills to survive in the disaster world. Not as good as Xia-ge, but…"

"Across Gan Province, wherever you want to evade all checkpoints and avoid Unit 985's scans, you come to me."

"Two of you, fasten your seatbelts."

She gripped the steering wheel with one hand, then suddenly snapped her fingers with the other.

"Multivariate Moment!"

Her momentum shifted. Hair lifted as if blown, and the V-neck at her chest glimmered. With a wave of her jade-like hand, she pulled a leatherbound book from the glove compartment and held it before her.

The leather book flipped its pages by itself and shone brightly.

"Earth Escape·Yellow Springs Swamp!"

She gave a coquettish shout; the car shook and tilted. At the same time she slammed the accelerator, and a strong sense of weightlessness flung Wu Zhong upward. Judging by the gravity, the car seemed to be rushing down a steep slope.

"Fuck—"

Wu Zhong grabbed the handle on the window with one hand and hurriedly fastened the rear seatbelt with the other. After a while there was a thud—the Bentley landed and resumed level driving. The road was still rough, but no longer diving.

"Yellow Springs Swamp? That's a shinobi trick?" Wu Zhong blurted as he recovered.

Infinite Summer lowered his hands on the steering wheel. "You believe whatever people tell you? Have you ever seen ninja techniques cast from a book?"

Wu Zhong blinked, feeling how treacherous people's hearts were. They made up the move names as they went.

Yang Chunsha tossed the book onto the passenger seat and tweaked her glasses with her fingertips. "Welcome to my Dim Passage."

Infinite Summer tapped the window. "You sealed the windows, so of course it's dim."

"Open it up so I can look."

Yang Chunsha thought for a moment and smiled. "Sure, it's fine to let Xia-ge take a look."

She reopened the window covers, but it remained dim outside. Fortunately the car's interior lights allowed Wu Zhong to make out that they were driving through a dark, narrow underground corridor. Irregular rock walls surrounded them—there was hardly any soil. Clearly they were very deep underground.

From time to time there were bends ahead, but Yang Chunsha steered casually with a single hand and passed without scraping the walls. They even encountered multiple forks; she chose one without hesitation, even though there were no signs or markers. She drove fast in tunnels that felt like small passageways—this required intimate familiarity with the route.

Wu Zhong noticed a compass ornament spinning wildly on the steering wheel. Obviously in this area devices that fixed orientation, like compasses, stopped working. Anyone else would surely get lost.

"No wonder you dared take this job—you dug such a complicated Dim Passage underground."

"Is it spread throughout Gan Province?"

Infinite Summer was astonished—a local small-time mercenary having such an extensive secret project was unexpected.

Yang Chunsha chuckled lightly. "Doing business isn't easy. Some people are born wealthy; I'm not, so I have to work hard."

"Gan Province is mountainous. We dug tunnels under poor hills and lonely ridges—meandering and connected, enough to reach all counties and cities in Gan Province, even extending into neighboring provinces."

"A circlet of counties around Gan Province can be reached from here!"

"Of course, if you two really got trapped in the city center, I wouldn't take the job—I might not be able to get out of the urban area either."

"But outside the city? Honestly, there's no one I, the Dim Passage Queen, can't hide from!"

"This twenty Bits was absolutely worth every penny!"

Infinite Summer finally regarded her with some respect and nodded slightly. "Indeed. If we come to Gan Province for jobs in the future, we'll find you."

Yang Chunsha beamed—she wanted repeat customers, especially someone as powerful as Infinite Summer.

Wu Zhong asked, "Sis, you dug this massive passage so deep—are you the only one who did it?"

Yang Chunsha brushed her hair. "Of course not. I have helpers; everyone takes responsibility for a section and then we piece it together."

"They're all strong, gold-tier…even platinum-tier mercenaries."

"Out in the open, who doesn't have backing? If someone goes rogue, I can't afford to be a lone wolf in the disaster world."

Wu Zhong heard the veiled display of muscle behind her words. Indeed—she had people backing her. If Infinite Summer decided to kill them in the tunnel and leave, without Yang Chunsha guiding them they'd be lost. So Yang Chunsha was also signaling she had forces behind her. The compass on the steering wheel was intentionally left to spin fast—to show that once inside the passage, compasses go haywire, reminding passengers that if she died, no one would know the way.

Wu Zhong wiped his face. Damn—everyone had ulterior motives.

…