Chapter 97: Stir the beast

After a short rest, restoring my mind for the activities to come. I made sure to eat my fill. Fuel for the heist; don’t want to end up like the guy who got caught from a half-eaten sandwich. The poor man got away with millions. Yet, got caught because he didn’t eat before the heist.

Moral of the story? Eat before anything with questionable morals. And, following that code, I consumed large quantities of sandwiches.

Checking my gear several times. Armor made invisible by that weird paste. I have my best armor, now enchanted with soul-binding. Invisibility potions and my Illuminati pet; got to stay hidden. With that and a full golden bag, I think I’m ready. I considered using my vampiric body, but I only have one of such value. When it levels up to 9, I can turn other clones into vampires. Even so, I cannot produce another with the same value as that enhanced vampiric body.

Darkness has descended, I head to the lake. Finding the whole area cordoned off. Using the cover of darkness and my translucency, I approach the lake. Watching the guards move about in patterns, vigilant eyes searching.

A portion of the guards dealing with some rowdy fishermen; I suppose they aren’t fishing tonight. Why you would fish at night? I don’t know, but I’m thankful for the distraction. Slipping past the guards undetected, I slowly descend into the inky black water.

Finding it cold even through my armor. Slowly falling further and further into the maw under-foot. It’s eerie, to say the least. Eventually, I find my way along the familiar tunnel root I’ve taken 3 times now.

It feels slightly dirty to raid this ancient temple of technology. But I, sure as hell, don’t want anyone else touching potentially dangerous tech. Mind made up, I follow the black metallic walls towards the unsealed door. Under invisibility, I slip by the sleepy guards. Nowhere near as alert as when first awoken, likely in power saving mode. I hope they have a battery; if they have wireless power, this whole facility went up a stage in danger.

Wireless power means they have a currently functional power source. Sufficient functioning infrastructure to supply said facility; and enough robotic soldiers and implements to warrant such a wireless system, all things I’d be wise to avoid.

Having passed the eternal iron guards watching the door, I am fully into the next area. The hallway is covered in doors to the left and right. Counting 3 on each side before I come to a large room. The large room houses extensive, unidentified blocks. Likely some combination of machines, clear sighs of destruction in the room. It looks mostly informational, with several nonfunctional monitors.

The floor is littered with metal debris, black shrapnel, and gravely stone. Sighs of explosions and heat damage cover the walls. Following the blast marks and path of debris, I find the source. 2 large outward doors at the end of the room. Warped and disfigured from whatever blast occurred. Whatever looked intact was extracted by my pickaxe. Safely placed in storage until the place was picked clean. Large chunks of black metal were also stored. The alloy unfamiliar, and that likely means strong.

Before following the trail of destruction, I slowly open one by one the side doors. Finding some kind of sleeping area. Beds barely recognizable with rotted fabric and rusted metal. Draws opened and thrown to the side, random items float in the water. Most impossible to identify from age and decay. Surprisingly, within one unopened draw, I found a photo. Preserved inside some kind of crystal, a picture rests solemnly. A man and a woman in beautiful blue robes, a baby in their arms; the picture fills me with sadness for some reason.

Looking at their figures, the body proportions are off for some reason. Large clothing covers their bodies, but they are wider than normal and potentially taller. Storing the picture to be checked later. I sweep the room for any nic nacks that look intact. The other rooms held even less, one having a crumbling photo of a spaceship. How it hadn’t already rotted to slush? I don’t know. Sadly, the rooms clearly lacked anything important, although they all shared a black screen on the wall.

Returning to the main room, I begin to walk towards the blast zone. The signs of fire and damage becoming far more obvious. Metalic automatons litter the flaws in differing degrees of damage. Some metal slush in a human figure while some simply have a smashed head. All similar to the black metal creatures guarding this floor. Collecting the whole specimens for research.

The hall is showing signs of crumbling, the walls a broken mess showing stone. Exposed wires occasionally jump to life before returning to slumber. Finally, I reach the blast site, a large circular crater of amazing magnitudes. A few molten pieces of slag are the only remains of whatever was once here.

Under some rubble, I spot a large rod of broken glass. I do think this might have been a reactor overload of some kind. The room completely annihilated; I move on. Finding another door blasted away from me this time. I follow it to a large square room. Within, large amounts of broken conveyor belts with dismantled and damaged machines over some of them. Disassembled black metal rests upon the few undisturbed belts.

They feed through some chutes in the walls. The next room has circular disks attached to the ceiling. Each having hanging metal in the shape of arms. A dizzying array of strange tools, most damaged. But I managed to collect a few more intact tools and 1 functional assembler, as I think they are.

The final room in this long chain had an intact door. Made of some kind of heavy metal, my pickaxe didn’t even dent it. If the explosion didn’t break it, I sure as hell can't. Searching carefully over the door, I see a screen to its side. A slight flicker of blue light occasionally appears. It’s clearly a very dead access panel. Taking my pickaxe, I smash the panel in. Removing the glass cover to expose an intricate array of wires.

Simply shrinking my body, I enter the broken panel. Following the wire root towards the opposite wall, I break out the respective panel. Returning to normal size, I spot a large red ball floating among rings of metal. Sparks of orange energy arcing onto the floating rings; please tell me this is a spare reactor.

But now, if this is a reactor. If I break it, will it explode violently? Looking around the room I see a large array of controls and panels. All looking intact. But, they are in a foreign language. Couldn’t Felix give me a universal language skill? Nothing to be done but use my trump card. Exiting the room, I carefully set down a geochest outside the impenetrable doors. Pressing the button, I watch as the entire lockbox containing that reactor disappears. Leaving a massive vacuum rapidly filling with water.

Looking at the chasm produced, I see an array of pipes, wires, and crawl spaces. All sliced in a weird cross-section. I notice blue neon liquid bleeding from a couple pipes. “I hope that’s not important.”

Attention suddenly shifting, “I’m a genius.” I don’t have to fight the guardians; I can trap them within a geochest. And just as I thought this, I heard a deep rumble. The earth-shaking cracks ripping the ground apart.

A deep ravine opens underfoot. Peering into the shadowy crack underfoot. Deep red glowing eyes peer back. “That’s, not good.” A metallic hand of massive proportions reaches up, hauling a massive amount of metal through the ground. Didn’t think id have to put my plan into action so quickly. Moving away as fast as my feet would take me. I set down a geochest as the iron giant slowly climbs up the deep crack. Suddenly, I feel the heat around me rise. Collecting the geochest with less than a second to spare. A searing hot beam shoots at me. My armor taking it like a champ but doing some serious heat damage to my body. Falling back in agonizing pain. Eating a god apple as fast as possible while moving away.

My body becoming heavy as fear seeps into my mind. “I can't beat that thing.” It’s bigger and nastier than anything so far. My confidence falling like a house of cards as I see the leviathan slowly rise further and further.

It finally, with a massive push, breaks through the ceiling of the facility. Beams of moonlight seeping through the annihilated ceiling. I quickly rise above the water, pushing my fear aside. If I let that thing escape, it will destroy the town.

Flying towards it with confidence I didn’t know I had. Suppressing the waves of fear, allowing them to wash over me. Watching as it rises out of the water, I see the guards panicking. Following its route, as it slowly lumbers through the lake towards the shore. Rushing ahead, I remove the largest geochest I have, this has to work. It starts to shoot beams of red energy, searing the forest and landscape.

Watching in sadness as forest fires begin to grow rapidly, while I cannot help. Steeling my resolve, I wait; patience wavering with every passing second. It seems to see me, treating me with caution while slowly approaching me. He focuses a beam of red energy at me, I dodge it with a badly hurt arm. Taking the geochest, I begin to fly around. A large canon rises from its shoulder, I watch in terror as it begins to fire a hail of bullets. Destroying the hastily erected guard tower and everything in a 50-meter radius.

I managed to teleport away with an ender pearl, a few guards weren’t so lucky. Turning to see several bloodied messed. Averting my eyes with rising nausea, not now. It finally escapes the water. Watching as its massive feet like craters, it must weigh metric tons. Realizing it must be over 20 meters, I sure as hell hope this works.

Throwing an ender pearl in front of the beast, I land a step away from its feet. Mind cloudy with fear and limbs heavy with stress. I manage to pull myself together enough to place my geochest. Pressing the button with all the haste I can muster. I watch as it disappears from view. Falling to my knees, the stress culminating to this moment.

On my knees from the accumulated fatigue, I notice my armors not translucent. The paste must have been washed off at some point. Putting it on my mental list of things to do later after crying in a corner and eating ice cream.

Finding the strength to stand from some unknown source, I descend into the water one last time. I quickly descend into the ravine left behind by the metal creature. Having safely tucked the geochest into my bag of holding. A bag inside the bag named don’t open or use anything inside ever!

Eventually, I find myself where the creature was before I woke it up. A large spherical room with tons of support beams. Pipes and electrical wires and thick as my torso running into an empty cavity. It looks like a rocket launcher with how much piping is in place. I use every ounce of energy I can muster to dismantle and store away the entire storage area. Opting not to use a geochest this time. Having done my last task, I disappear home. My teleportation whisking me away to a warm shower, soft bed, and a massive tray of food.

But first, I am going to sit in this corner with Sling and Chic. And so I did, for a long time. Stabilizing my mental health. “How do I get myself in these situations?” My luck with fishing is so bad. Feeling the emotional weight of the lives lost because of my carelessness.

Lost track of time in my self-moping, yet eventually, hunger, thirst, and exhaustion overtook my mind. Eating food, drinking water, and then descending into a deep slumber.