Chapter 574: Secret Tunnel

However, since an explosion happened in Leprosy Village and the entire lair was under full lockdown, construction work had stopped.

The strong diggers were naturally the best soldiers for the gangs.

They were all affiliated to the construction companies of the gangs, anyway. Right then, they just switched their pickaxes, impact drills, and rock crushers for more destructive cold weapons and guns to fight against monsters and maintain order.

The entire construction ground was empty. Only a few guards were patrolling the place.

“The secret tunnel I discovered is deep within the construction site, so we have to bypass these guards,” A’Ji whispered.

Meng Chao released a wisp of spirit energy and quickly scanned the area.

He then vanished into the darkness.

When he reappeared, he had a plump rat with shiny fur and big ears in his hands.

Meng Chao pinched the rat’s neck so that it would not make a sound.

Then, he tossed the rat behind the guards.

He used a ball of spirit energy to envelope the rat and created a spirit energy magnetic field that seemed like a buffer around it.

The rat landed gently. It was not injured, just scared, and started screeching while desperately running away.

The guards’ attention was immediately attracted by the rat. They chased after it and went to investigate the corner where it disappeared.

Meng Chao and A’Ji used that chance to sneak into the construction site.

“It should be… here!”

A’Ji groped about the wall for a while before he looked over with pride.

Meng Chao also casually touched the spot where A’Ji touched and noticed faint bumps on the wall. They formed the word “Ji”.

The marks were left by a knife or a screwdriver, but no one could see them under dim light.

Only the people with sensitive fingers could find the mark if they rubbed them against the wall.

A’Ji had said that it was a mark he left when he fled from Mutual Gold Coliseum last time.

They followed the marks and soon came upon two huge pipes.

One of the pipes had a diameter of more than two meters. Rumbling sounds came from within it, as if there was wind howling inside.

Most of the buildings in the lair were located underground, so air ventilation was a major matter that concerned countless families’ lives.

Hence, the diameter of the ventilation pipes was around five times that of the ventilation pipes on the surface buildings. There were also large industrial fans spinning at high speeds inside them to ensure that the fresh air on the surface flowed underground.

Of course, since the lair was enveloped in flames and smoke right then, the air that was sucked underground was full of highly polluted and corrosive particles. When the people inhaled them, their lungs would begin to burn, and if they inhaled more, their world would begin spinning and they would have trouble breathing. It would feel as if their lungs had turned into hard plastic.

Meng Chao and A’Ji did not intend to sneak into Mutual Gold Coliseum through the ventilation pipes, because the rapidly spinning industrial fans in the ventilation pipes were difficult to deal with. The lair citizens had also installed filtration nets with alarm systems, high voltage electric nets, and other defense systems.

If normal pests entered the ventilation pipes by mistake, they would instantly be reduced to ashes.

Meng Chao and A’Ji did not want to experience what it felt like for their skins to crack and smoke to come out of their bodies.

The other pipe was much narrower.

There were no cables, optical fibers, or crystal cables inside it.

It led to ventilation pipes, machines controlling the industrial fans, and control panels. It was a maintenance pipe.

Even though its diameter was less than one meter, A’Ji, who was very small, and Meng Chao, who had absolute control over his body, did not find it problematic.

Before the guards rushed back, they bent their backs and crawled into the maintenance pipe.

They fumbled about the darkness and crawled forward for around ten minutes. They went past four forks on their way.

A’Ji shared that when he escaped last time, he left marks at each fork.

Just as he said, Meng Chao found crooked “Ji” carvings along the walls. Sometimes, there was an arrow along with the carving to point out which direction they should take.

With these marks, they traveled through the maintenance pipe and always took the right path in the 3D maze. They weren’t wrong even once.

Finally, they reached the end of the maintenance pipe.

Meng Chao looked at A’Ji.

A’Ji pointed above him. “Up.”

Meng Chao searched once more.

This time, he did not find a mark, but the crack of a sealed manhole cover. He soon located four large screws as well.

The screws were screwed tight, and the manhole cover was practically part of the pipe.

But this was not a problem for Meng Chao. He brought out a vial of adhesive liquid from his military backpack (which was basically a dimensional pocket at this point), and used a small brush to wipe it on the screw caps and cracks of the manhole cover.

Soon, the cracks connecting the manhole and pipe let out sizzling sounds.

When he tried twisting the screw caps, it wasn’t that hard of a task anymore.

Meng Chao opened the manhole cover, which revealed a vertical shaft above them. It was dark and led to the surface, which was around one hundred meters straight up.

Similar structures were often HV and ELV electrical risers or an area to transport ammunition and other resources required for survival. When necessary, it could also serve as an escape tunnel.

Unfortunately, Mutual Gold Coliseum’s affiliated facilities were not fully constructed yet. The walls of the vertical shaft did not have any ladders or holes to serve as handholds for climbing.

The walls were smooth with nothing on them.

Meng Chao checked the texture of the wall for how rough it was.

There was a layer of cement covering the vertical shaft. The wall was done in a crude manner and covered in bumps that were several millimeters in size.

With the small bumps available to hold onto, Meng Chao could easily climb up even if he was carrying several hundred kilograms on his back.

“Do you need me to carry you?” he asked A’Ji.

“No.” A’Ji shook his head in a stubborn manner. “I can do it.”

Meng Chao cast a deep glance at the boy and nodded. “Alright, I’ll go up first. Be careful!”

Then, like a huge gecko, he climbed up the vertical shaft without making a sound.

He had not painted his fingers with any glue or adhesive liquid, but even so, they stuck firmly to the rough cement surface.

Even the military backpack filled with ammunition and other items remained steady on his back.

Meng Chao climbed up dozens of meters in one go.

A’Ji followed behind him, but was clearly much slower. Slowly, the distance between them widened.

Meng Chao seemed to be focused on climbing and not paying any attention to the movements behind him.

Soon, the boy could no longer hold himself up. His arms trembled, and his palms started sweating. His hands slipped, and he fell.

Meng Chao heard the cry of surprise and immediately went to help him.

Unfortunately, while A’Ji shouted, he flailed his arms and missed Meng Chao’s hand trying to grab him.

He fell to the bottom of the shaft and landed with a loud crack from his left ankle.

“A’Ji!”

Meng Chao landed after him and frowned a little. He looked at A’Ji’s left ankle.

It was swelling like a bun that came straight out of a food steamer. The bump was huge and hot.

A’Ji was in so much pain that he grimaced, and tears welled up in his eyes, showing his pain and disgruntlement.

“I-I’m fine, Big Brother Chao. I can do it.”

He struggled and tried to get up, but it affected his hurt ankle, and he grunted. Tears and snot fell down like a flood.

“I-I don’t think I can climb up anymore, Big Brother Chao,” A’Ji said with a glum face. “I hurt my ankle, so I can’t catch up to you anymore. It’ll also be impossible for me to sneak into Mutual Gold Coliseum without alerting the guards.”

Meng Chao closed his eyes and touched the boy’s ankle. After a moment, he said, “Thank goodness you didn’t hurt your bones. You just sprained the tendons. You’ll recover after resting for a few days.

“Then, just wait here for me. I’ll leave you the emergency kit and some food. At the very least, it’ll help you get through today.

“If you don’t hear from me after tonight, it’ll mean that I’m most probably in trouble, so you’ll have to rely on yourself to survive.”

“Big Brother Chao…” A’Ji said guiltily. “It’s my fault for being so useless and falling from the vertical shaft. I… I don’t know what’s wrong with me either. I should have listened to you earlier and let you carry me up.”

“It’s fine.” Meng Chao smiled and slapped A’Ji’s shoulder a few times. “You’re still young, so there’s no need for you to take a risk in Mutual Gold Coliseum. In any case, we’re already directly below the coliseum. The distance is less than fifty meters. You can rely on me for everything else!”

“Yeah, I trust that you’ll definitely do it, Big Brother Chao!” A’Ji pointed at the dark vertical shaft above them. “Once you climb out of that vertical shaft, you just need to search for the place with the thickest scent. Then, you’ll find a drain. After walking along the drain for a while, you will have to climb out of a hole. Then, you’ll be in Mutual Gold Coliseum.”

Meng Chao nodded, pondered over his words, and asked, “The thickest scent? What does that mean? What sort of drain is it?”

“Um…” A’Ji said. “It’s a drainage or sewage pipe. We crawled through one like that in Leprosy Village.”

“Is it?” Meng Chao narrowed his eyes. “Then tell me the specifics. What is above this drainage pipe? Where does it lead to in Mutual Gold Coliseum?”

“I think… it should be a toilet,” A’Ji said.

Meng Chao stared at him expressionlessly.

“No, no, no, it’s not a human toilet, it’s the monsters’,” A’Ji explained hurriedly. “Mutual Gold Coliseum keeps and modifies lots of fierce monsters. These monsters are huge and eat a lot, so they naturally poop a lot too. That’s why their drainage pipes and toilets are huge as well. They’re the easiest way to sneak into the coliseum.”

“Fine.” Meng Chao stared at A’Ji and said in a profound manner, “We’ll settle this once I come back.”

He climbed up the vertical shaft again.

Without A’Ji tailing him, he was much faster than before.

When he reached the top of the vertical shaft, he did smell a thick, pungent smell.

Meng Chao had been in swamps filled with corpses in the wild and had dealt with much worse stink.

Besides, in his previous life, when he was in Ghost Tribe’s training camp, he had to go through various training that broke human limits. One of them taught how to block their senses and lurk in all sorts of horrible and harsh places as if they were rocks.

Mutual Gold Coliseum had only just opened, and plenty of its entertainment programmes were not open yet.

There were not many monsters locked up in it.

Besides, the excrement of monsters, especially superbeasts with strong spirit energy, was an incredibly valuable resource.

Just like how the poor countries on Earth dried cow dung to use it as fuel, the lair and Leprosy Village treated monster feces as items worthy of being recycled.

The monster feces that were sent into the drainage pipes had been treated a few times, so the area was not as dirty as Meng Chao imagined it to be.

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