It was a truly forgotten tunnel.
The maintenance fork of Track Zero was much narrower and more dilapidated than the main tunnel. The lighting system above had long since failed, and the air was thick with the strong, rotten-egg smell of sulfur. The ground underfoot had also become slippery and hot.
Shi Lei felt like he was walking on a road to hell. With every step, he could feel a dull, rhythmic vibration from deep underground, like the heartbeat of a great beast.
"Feng..." he whispered, subconsciously afraid to speak loudly even though he knew the enemy couldn't hear. "Can we... really hide in this hellhole?"
"We can."
Ling Feng's answer was concise and certain. He walked in front, his steps still steady, but most of his energy was focused on resisting the omnipresent, violent energy radiation.
The "Geothermal Core" was the ultimate backup power station built by the city during the "pre-civilization era" to cope with extreme energy crises. It drew thermal energy directly from the deep mantle. The energy radiation in its core area was strong enough to cause any precision electronic instrument to fail and could thoroughly cook unprotected flesh and blood in minutes.
For anyone, this was a forbidden zone of life.
But for Ling Feng and Shi Lei at this moment, this violent energy field, which could shield all signals, was their only natural barrier to completely disappear from the Cleaners' god-like sniping.
ZZZZZ—!
Another incandescent energy beam shot down from the roof of the main tunnel hundreds of meters behind them, like the scythe of the Grim Reaper, futilely harvesting the empty darkness.
The enemy had not given up.
"They're still bombarding the main tunnel," Shi Lei said, his heart still pounding with fear as he listened to the dull sounds from afar.
"They're probing," Ling Feng's gaze was as cold as ice. "They don't know where we went, so they can only use this method to force us to move faster out of fear, thereby exposing the slightest energy signal."
"But they'll soon find out that it's useless."
Ling Feng stopped.
In his spiritual perception, a huge underground cavern appeared in the tunnel ahead. At the bottom of the cavern was a viscous lava lake, with scorching hot bubbles roiling on its surface.
More importantly, he "saw," above the lava lake, several long-rusted, suspended maintenance bridges, and... the "things" perched on those bridges.
They were several giant mutant centipedes, the size of water buffaloes, with hideous mouthparts and scythe-like limbs. They seemed to have adapted to the high-temperature environment here, making this cavern their nest.
Shi Lei also saw the monsters, and his face turned pale with fright.
"Damn... 'Lava Crawlers'! These things can chew through warship armor plating!"
"I know," Ling Feng was unusually calm. Instead of taking a detour, he pulled Shi Lei into a recess at the mouth of the tunnel.
He took out an energy lattice from his backpack.
"What are you doing?" Shi Lei asked, confused.
"Leaving a little... welcome gift for our 'guests'."
A cold, intelligent smile appeared on Ling Feng's lips.
He didn't attack the monsters. Instead, he condensed his telekinetic power into an incredibly thin but extremely stable "scalpel."
He carefully inserted this spiritual energy scalpel into the core load-bearing joint of one of the oldest, most unstable-looking maintenance bridges.
He didn't destroy it; he just... severed its most critical balancing rivet, which was already ninety percent corroded by geothermal steam.
The entire process was silent.
After doing this, he immediately pulled Shi Lei and silently bypassed the huge cavern from the other side.
...
A few minutes later, in the main tunnel of Track Zero.
Five "Cleaners" were advancing in tactical formation.
"Report," the lead captain said, looking at the unresponsive scanner on his wrist terminal. "Target signal has been lost for over ten minutes. Saturation attack, ineffective."
"Captain, should we proceed deeper?" a team member asked. "The underground structure here is very unstable."
The captain was silent for a moment.
"...Split up," he issued a new command. "Two and Three, you check the abandoned maintenance fork on the left. Four and Five, continue along the main tunnel. I'll stay here as a signal relay."
"Remember, maintain absolute radio silence. On my radar, you are five independent heat signatures. If the target attacks you, the disappearance of your own signal will be the best alarm."
"Copy that."
Two Cleaners, like ghosts, broke off from the team and entered the maintenance fork that Ling Feng and Shi Lei had just passed through.
They moved professionally, with extreme vigilance, every step taken with caution.
When they reached the entrance of the huge underground cavern, both of them stopped.
The infrared detector on their wrist terminals clearly showed several large, high-heat biological readings ahead.
"...Native dangerous organisms detected," one of them signaled to his companion using encrypted tactical hand gestures.
Just as they were about to call the captain for further instructions—
BOOM!!!
The suspended maintenance bridge above their heads, which had been tampered with by Ling Feng, finally reached its structural limit under the weight of two multi-ton "Lava Crawlers" crawling on it!
With a piercing metallic screech, the entire bridge, along with the two giant centipedes on it, broke apart and crashed violently onto the cavern floor!
This sudden collapse completely enraged the entire nest!
Dozens of Lava Crawlers swarmed out from all directions, treating the two "Cleaners" who had trespassed on their territory as the culprits!
They let out sharp hisses, brandishing their sharp limbs, and swarmed towards the two intruders like a tide!
The sounds of screams, energy weapon discharges, and the monsters' shrill shrieks exploded in the narrow tunnel!
Hundreds of meters away, Ling Feng leaned against the tunnel wall, quietly "listening" to the bloody symphony he had orchestrated, his face expressionless.
Shi Lei, on the other hand, was listening with his heart in his throat, his gaze towards Ling Feng now like he was looking at a monster.
"Let's go," Ling Feng said calmly.
"They won't be able to catch up for a while."
He knew this was just the beginning.
He wasn't just running; he was going to use this complex, dangerous underground labyrinth to drag those arrogant, self-proclaimed "Cleaners" down into a real hell, one by one.