Chapter 573: 573

Chapter 573: Bayonet Sees Red

A’Ji had volunteered to search for information.

When Meng Chao saw that he came back in one piece, he sighed in relief and asked, “How was it? No one noticed you, right?”

“Of course not,” A’Ji said mischievously. “Big Brother Chao, I noticed a pattern. The poorer a person is, the uglier they are. These homeless people are the poorest people in the lair, so they look even worse than the villagers. There’s no way I’d be discovered while among them.”

Meng Chao was slightly stunned.

He remembered that he had joined various upper class gatherings due to the invitations from Lu Siya, Ning Shewo, Yan Hengbo, and the others.

The well-dressed men and women had relatively beautiful faces regardless of their personalities and moral values. Compared to the lair citizens and the villagers, they were two completely different creatures.

Meng Chao shook his head and cast aside that boring and dangerous thought. “Did you discover anything?”

“Actually, I did,” A’Ji said. “More than ten important facilities around the lair exploded simultaneously just now and started burning. The light and smoke makes it look like the lair was struck by a sandstorm. It’s dark out there. The air pollution is getting worse, and you might not be able to see a monster that’s strutting right in front of you.

“I think that the abnormal beast pretending to be you has attacked again.”

Meng Chao was silent for a while before he asked, “Did you personally see the smoke? What color was it?”

“I did. It’s really colorful. It’s like those thick but low-grade paints.” A’Ji thought about it for a moment before continuing. “There are plenty of unlicensed chemical engineering workshops in the village. When they dump liquid waste into the river of trash, that’s the color you see.”

“So, that means that the abnormal beast’s targets for the second round of attacks were warehouses with tons of crystals that are not of high quality so they have loads of impurities, as well as dangerous raw chemical materials.”

Meng Chao’s mind raced, and he immediately said, “Most of the buildings and inflammable items in the lair are located underground. There’s not enough oxygen, so they can’t burn down completely. Besides, the impurities in the inflammable items will make the smoke even stronger than tear gas. It will corrode human organs and immune systems.

“If my guess is correct, this is just the prelude to the abnormal beast’s second round of attacks. Once the fire grows bigger and the smog envelopes the entire lair, the abnormal beast will use even more brutal attacks.

“If Leprosy Village goes up in flames completely at that time and the villagers run out, even the Gods will have a hard time saving the situation!

“No, we must immediately find the gang leaders. Did you figure out who has the say in the lair right now?”

“Um, I did, but…” A’Ji hesitated for a moment before speaking. “I heard a lot of speakers screeching all over the place when I went to the surface. They said that the gangs have decided to work together and formed a temporary allied command center. Vice gang leader of Golden Tooth is in charge, so Red Brows Su Lun is the temporary highest commander. He has unified all of the fighting power, resources, and information in the lair.

“Since the lair has entered the highest state of emergency, logically speaking, all the people have the responsibility to fight, so even if you’re not a gang member, you have to listen to Red Brows Su Lun. So right now, Su Lun has the final say in the lair.”

Meng Chao scowled and said, “That’s impossible. Based on his experience, cultivation realm, and fighting strength, Red Brows Su Lun is far beneath Saber Jin Wanhao, so there’s no way his words can weigh a ton. He can’t even compare to Phantom Bear Xiong Wei. What right does he have to become the highest commander? How could he convince the people to listen to him? Would Phantom Bear Xiong Wei actually listen to him?”

“Then there must be some monkey business going under the table. In any case, Phantom Bear Xiong Wei is the vice commander of this temporary allied command center. By the looks of it, they’re working together happily,” A’Ji said in a troubled manner.

“Right now, there are two people who have the final say in the lair, but Red Brows Su Lun is a traitor in human skin and Phantom Bear Xiong Wei is deceived by him. He has a prejudiced impression of you and thinks of you as the person who killed his son. The moment he sees you, he will probably act hysterically and won’t stop until he kills you.

“We only have nine hours left. It doesn’t seem possible for you to convince any of them to work with you within such a short time.”

Meng Chao rubbed his face.

He, too, noticed that he seemed to have stepped into a deadend he could not get out of.

“But I managed to get an interesting piece of information,” A’Ji suddenly changed his tone. “Someone said that an armored airship descended into the open-air arena in Mutual Gold Coliseum. It came crashing down like a dead weight. Soon after it landed, it exploded. The person who came in that armored airship has to be mad!”

“Armored airship?” Meng Chao’s eyes lit up, and hope burned in them again. “The lair doesn’t have any armored airships, so it must have come from the outside world. If these people came from the city, there wouldn’t be ay need for them to ride such a dangerous aircraft like an armored airship, considering it’s so close. They could have just walked in or used a non-motorized glider to fly in.

“This means that the other party rushed over from the battlefield at the borders of Dragon City, which is far from the lair.

“Dozens of Heaven Realm superhumans had returned in failure from the lair. So, if that person dared to rush in regardless of the costs, they must have powerful soldiers under them. I knew it! The outside world couldn’t have possibly given up on the lair!

“Did you find who the people in the armored airship were? Are there any Deity Realm superhumans among them?”

“I don’t know about that.” A’Ji scratched his head. “Besides, I don’t think that we should be happy so soon, Big Brother Chao. Even if there are really Deity Realm superhumans among the reinforcements, the person they first came in contact with was Red Brows Su Lun, and with the power of first impressions, they will definitely believe in that traitor and schemer!

“Judging by the fact that Red Brows Su Lun was able to become the highest temporary commander and mobilize most of the resources in the lair, he has already deceived the leader of the reinforcements.

“Even if we knew who the leader of the reinforcements was and snuck into Mutual Gold Coliseum to appear in front of them, are you sure you’d be able to gain their trust?”

“Well…” Meng Chao rubbed his chin and quickly thought about how he could gain the leader’s trust as well as reveal Red Brows Su Lun’s true colors in one go.

At that moment, the sound of motorized armor came from the end of the tunnel.

A squad of armed gang members hurried over in that direction.

The homeless people in the area were intimidated by their murderous presences. They whispered to each other discussing the situation.

Meng Chao and A’Ji hunched their shoulders and listened for a while. They learned that the first order given by the highest commander was to mobilize most of the armed gang members and the healthy young adults in the lair to head to the areas with major fires to put them out and clean the areas behind the fire barrier.

As for the homeless people, they had to register themselves and would be given different tasks based on the conditions of their bodies.

The ones who were really poor, weak, and could not bear any burden would be sent even deeper to underground shelters to be managed so they would not cause any chaos when the lair descended into inevitable havoc.

Meng Chao and A’Ji cast each other a glance, then quietly went to hide at the back of the crowd.

When they saw another squad of armed gang members run past them, A’Ji could not help but say, “Big Brother Chao, this is a good chance. The strong gang members had gathered in Mutual Gold Coliseum before, but they’ve been sent outside the lair. The defense around Mutual Gold Coliseum must have become much laxer. It’s a good chance for us to sneak in!”

“That’s right. This is indeed a good chance for us, but it’s also a good chance for the abnormal beast.” Meng Chao narrowed his eyes. “I just heard from the homeless people that there are plenty of ammunition, relief aid, and medical resources in the coliseum. The open-air arena has the largest empty land surface you can find in the lair, too.

“If the underground space receives a destructive blow, all the lair citizens will run to the open-air arena to seek shelter.

“If I were the abnormal beast, no matter what sort of astonishing minor tricks I play at the borders of the lair, in the end, there would only be one target worthy of me attacking at full strength, and that is Mutual Gold Coliseum! Hurry, take me to the secret tunnel you found.”

“Big Brother Chao, have you thought of a way to quell Phantom Bear Xiong Wei’s rage, reveal Red Brows Su Lun’s true colors, and obtain the trust of the reinforcements’ leader?” A’Ji was surprised and delighted.

“Not for the time being,” Meng Chao whispered, but his voice was firm. “But I believe that all schemes have flaws. If I haven’t discovered any flaws, it just means that we’re not close enough to the scheme yet.”

‘Red Brows Su Lun… It doesn’t matter how flawless your disguise is, as long as I suddenly appear in front of you and clash swords with you, I will definitely rip off your disguise and see just how you look for real!’

While the gang members herded all the homeless people, Meng Chao and A’Ji stuck close to the wall and left the underground square.

They walked on their tiptoes through the dark, narrow, spider web-filled paths. Soon, they reached a place with a sign that said “Danger! Construction ahead”. In front of them was a place under construction.

Once Dragon City transmigrated to the Other World, it was enveloped by fog. Since the people were surrounded by stretches of uncultivated land with monsters all over the place, they naturally thought about looking for space underground.

Dragon City never stopped moving underground. Since the lair was the largest slum, the population in its single square unit was around five times above that of the outside world, and there were countless diggers who called themselves moles among those people. They worked day and night digging tunnels.

Mutual Gold Coliseum served as the lair’s newest landmark. The open-air arena was located at the highest level and was the only floor on the surface. The other dozen or so floors were all underground.

With Mutual Gold Coliseum at its center, an entirely new hornet’s or ant’s nest was born, and it was continuously expanding.

Even though the main building was already built and in business, the construction of the hornet’s nest was far from over. It was likely that unless the endurance of the rock strata reached its limit and completely collapsed, the moles would continue digging downward endlessly. They would never stop of their own volition.