Chapter 137: Research Facility

Translator: Exodus Tales Editor: Exodus Tales

After storing the blood of the mantis into a few vials specifically used to keep medicine, then putting away the carcass in his spatial ring, Xia Fei headed toward the base.

There were slogans on the walls every few steps, such as ‘The good of the Alliance above all’ and ‘Please abide by the base’s confidentiality rules’.

The passageway was very long, and the bright lights and dirty air would make anyone sleepy. Xia Fei continued along the passageway while maintaining a pace at 50m/s.

If this was actually a military base, there would probably be strict defensive systems in place. Xia Fei intentionally slowed down and would stop every so often to observe his surroundings.

After ten or so kilometers, he finally reached the end of the tunnel.

A huge metal door stood in front of Xia Fei with yellow warning lines around it. There were four sentry towers here, and anyone coming through in ancient times would have likely been subjected to intense interrogation.

Two smaller doors stood next to the huge metal door. The large door was probably entry for vehicles or other huge machines, whereas the smaller doors were possibly for guards or other base personnel’s use.

Xia Fei approached the smaller door on the left. It had four layers of defense: biometrics, iris scanner, a DNA test, and an emergency pin mechanism.

It was not hard to tell from the layers upon layers of defense how strict the security of the base was.

This was when the studies Xia Fei had been doing every day became handy; he used the tip of his Chasing Light to pry open the protective shell that this pin mechanism was housed in. The protective shells of these pin systems were not tough at all, and the blade of Chasing Light could easily slice them apart.

However, he had to pay attention to the vibration detection device when cutting it. Once the vibration detection device was alerted that the pin mechanism had been tampered with, it would promptly activate the base’s emergency defense system.

Chasing Light steadily cut off the outer protective shell of the pin mechanism. Xia Fei held onto the thin alloy panel with his fingers, pulling it as gently as he could in order not to trigger the vibration detection device.

Xia Fei breathed a sigh of relief after throwing the panel on the ground before he took out a small toolbag from his ring.

Xia Fei was not only an expert in machinery but was also well-versed in electronics. Therefore, he would always have a few tools on him in case he needed any.

Xia Fei retrieved a pair of foldable wire cutters and a pair of hair-thin tweezers from his toolbag before investigating the circuitry in the panel.

The tweezers searched through the countless tiny optical wires. Finally, Xia Fei found the wire that connected to the vibration detection device. With a snip of the cutters, the vibration system was completely disabled.

*Clack*

Xia Fei, thereafter, proceeded to brutishly pierce through the emergency pin mechanism using Chasing Light, completely destroying it from the outside.

Dazzling sparks flew out of the pin mechanism, and the door quietly opened.

Phantom stood next to him, shaking his head. “Couldn’t you have opened the door without destroying the pin mechanism? Why do things so brusquely?”

Xia Fei ignored Phantom. Pushing the doors open, he ventured inside.

“We, assassins, put special attention to not leaving behind any traces. If we don’t need to destroy anything, then we don’t.” Phantom followed behind Xia Fei as he nagged at him about what an assassin should do.

Xia Fei lit a cigarette before saying indifferently, “I’m not an assassin, anyway. Plus, if there’s an easy way to enter, why would I go through all the effort of going the hard way?”

The door led to a huge spacious hall littered with ores. In the middle of the hall was a huge TV, and by the looks of it, this was where they welcomed guests.

Other than Xia Fei’s loud footsteps, the silence in the hall was deafening.

There was a fashion magazine from a long time ago lying on the sofa, with a scantily clad, blonde lady smiling at Xia Fei on its cover.

Xia Fei picked up the magazine and glanced at it once before tossing it onto the sofa.

Everything was in its original spot with no signs of damage or disturbance as if the people in here had left just a few minutes ago.

There was also a mural next to the reception desk showing the floorplan of the entire base, rules and regulations, as well as reception guidelines.

Xia Fei stood underneath the mural, scratching his head as he looked at it with great interest.

According to the mural, the building was not as big as Xia Fei thought. Apparently, it was divided into three: a living area that could hold a hundred or so residents, a sealed scientific research sector, and an emergency storage sector.

Under the mural was a line: Core Mining Company’s 155th research facility.

Xia Fei finally realized that this was not a military base but a research institute of an ancient mining company, instead. He could tell from the layout of the research facility that it was built to support the over two hundred people living and working there. In the Alliance, research facilities like this one were not anything worth mentioning.

Further ahead were three hallways; the left one led to the storage sector, the right to the living space, and the middle one to the research facility.

There was probably nothing special in the living space, so Xia Fei decided to head toward the storage area.

There was also a huge metal door leading to the storage area. Xia Fei did the exact same thing, breaking through the door like before to get past it.

The storage area was filled with many metal storage crates. Xai Fei slashed open a crate nearest to him to find that it was packed with grey rocks that had light golden striations.

This was known as bistot, an incredibly common mineral in the universe that did not have much worth.

The crate next to it contained blood-red Moore Stones. Xia Fei laughed as this was similar to the Moore Stone currently around his neck, which happened to be where Phantom was residing.

“There are many Moore Stones here; would you like a bigger house?” Xia Fei produced a big piece from the crate with a smile from ear to ear. “Right, I still don’t know why you’re living in a piece of Moore Stone?”

Phantom rolled his eyes. “Other than minerals, Moore Stones are permanent energy bodies, but their energy structures are relatively simple. The reason I can live on a small piece of stone now is due to that special technique taught by my master, but I’m unable to tell you what this technique is.”

Phantom was being serious, so Xia Fei did not want to continue prying. Although he had already spent some time with Phantom, the latter still kept many secrets from Xia Fei.

How he died, how he had come to live on a tiny piece of rock, what happened to his fellow disciples… Phantom would always provide vague answers each time Xia brought up those questions.

Xia Fei felt that this second-rate killer, as well as the ninth-rate poet, was hiding something from him, but through his observations, Phantom did not hold malicious intentions toward him, so he reckoned that the latter could keep his secrets as he wished. Everybody had secrets that they did not want anybody knowing about.

Moore Stone had some value to it, but a huge crate of Moore Stones was too bulky to carry in his spatial ring. Xia Fei gave up the idea of carrying the entire crate of Moore Stones and just continued searching for valuables in this place.

Xia Fei looked through the hundred or so storage crates, seventy percent of which contained ores or minerals, while the rest held food, clothing, or other supplies.

These things were not worth much to Xia Fei unless he could take away all the minerals. Of course, that was impossible.

It appeared that his last hope was the research facility. The ancient civilization was incredibly developed in terms of science and technology, so the top-tier research instruments would surely attract many research institutions. Finding one or two pieces of equipment in good condition could ease Xia Fei’s financial woes.

After walking about two hundred steps along the hallway, Xia Fei reached the entrance of the lab.

The dense alloy door slowly opened, and Xia Fei took a few steps forward. It was just as empty as before; who knew where the people originally occupying the labs in this facility had gone?

There would have been traces left behind if they died, but from Xia Fei’s investigations, it was as though those people had vanished into thin air. Their clothes were still in their cabinets, and the dining hall had leftover meals and half-drunk caffeinated drinks.

This particular lab was decorated with various unknown equipment. Xia Fei curiously walked toward the nearest piece of equipment.

“An antimatter analyzer!” Xia Fei excitedly read aloud the label on the white, snail-shaped device.

“Mineral particle scanner.

“Ultracentrifuge.”

All the equipment in this lab gave Xia Fei a big surprise. Although Xia Fei had no clue what most of the apparatuses did, judging from their weird names, they must be priceless.

More importantly, everything was in perfect condition. After such a long time, the machinery was just as new, which went to show how exquisite the manufacturing capabilities of the ancient civilization was.

“I know now!” Phantom exclaimed out of nowhere.

Xia Fei turned around curiously. “What do you know?”

“I think I know why there isn’t a single person here as if everyone who lived here disappeared,” Phantom said excitedly with a glow in his eyes.

“They probably got hit by the robot army’s annihilation beam! What else could explain the disappearance of only humans while everything else remained in place? The robot general must’ve felt uneasy after destroying the planet, so it used the annihilation beam to ensure that no human would survive, which is why we are seeing what we are seeing now.”

Xia Fei thought for a few seconds. He had read about the annihilation beam from archaic tomes. It was a light beam of destructive wave energy that was developed by the ancient civilization.

What made this weird was how it only worked on humans. The strong shockwave could turn any humans in range into undetectably tiny particles.

Large annihilation beams could instantly vaporize all humans on a planet.

Xia Fei nodded. “That makes sense. The people probably thought that they could avoid the assault of the robot army by hiding underground and continue their life as usual, but when the annihilation beam hit, all humans were vaporized into tiny particles, creating this weird and unexplainable phenomenon.”

This huge discovery had made Xia Fei incredibly happy. There was an instrument, hidden under a piece of white cloth, at the corner of the lab the size of a washing machine.

Xia Fei’s eyes glowed as he pulled off the white cloth.