Chapter 329: Core Ore
Lin Ye quickly crawled toward the target location. Along the way, some people hiding in corners noticed him, but none of them dared to move—they had been thoroughly terrified by the girl.
Even now, Lin Ye still hadn't figured out the girl's identity or purpose. During the first simulation, she wanted Lin Ye and the others to scout ahead and trigger that eyeball password.
However, in subsequent simulations, once they obtained the White Ore, she only wanted to kill them all.
'Forget it, no point thinking about it.'
Lin Ye crawled to the initial entry point of the dark mining area, then moved according to the password. Soon he reached the position indicated by the password.
It was a very ordinary mine wall. Lin Ye touched it and discovered that a section that should have been solid wall was actually missing. Since nothing could be seen in the darkness, no one could have noticed this spot.
Lin Ye crawled into the gap and used his hands to feel around. Inside the gap was a narrow space, and in the center of this space sat a piece of ore.
The ore was about the size of a human head, placed on a platform.
Lin Ye picked up the ore and out of habit bit into it, nearly breaking his teeth in the process.
'Ouch, so hard.' Lin Ye still wanted to test if he could bite off a small piece, but suddenly the girl's footsteps sounded outside the gap.
The footsteps stopped right outside the gap. Even though he couldn't see, Lin Ye could feel the girl's sharp gaze—she was now standing outside the gap watching him.
Lin Ye knew he couldn't hide anymore. He wanted to get up and fight the girl—after all, he hadn't eaten all those ores for nothing.
But he couldn't stand up.
After picking up the ore, his body had been affected in some way—he felt feverish all over, with weak limbs.
"Is this ore poisonous? What exactly do you want?"
Lin Ye collapsed to the ground, confused.
The girl didn't answer Lin Ye because she had also fallen.
'Huh? She's down already? I haven't even used my strength yet.'
Lin Ye wanted to get up and finish her off, but found he couldn't even move his fingers.
The ore leaving the platform was like pressing a button—the surrounding darkness gradually faded, revealing both Lin Ye and the girl collapsed on the ground.
A semi-transparent spherical ore landed beside Lin Ye's hand, while the center of the platform that had held the ore sprayed out some kind of black gas that had no scent whatsoever.
Some personnel in black uniforms appeared outside the gap. They didn't dare approach the gap, keeping a distance from it.
"Are they the ones who came to steal the Core Ore?"
"Just kill them quickly."
"Then you go in and kill them."
"Let's wait for that gas to dissipate first."
"We have to kill them—these bastards killed so many of our people."
...
Lin Ye lay on the ground speechless. He was clearly just a laborer here to dig White Ore—why was every blame being thrown onto him?
But the current problem was that those people wanted to kill the girl, which might trigger her Ore Transformation.
If he could have killed her, Lin Ye would have done it long ago.
"There are three more hiding over here—push them in so we can kill them all together."
"So many ore thieves this time?"
"Hmph, a bunch of lowlifes—did you really think you could get your hands on the Core Ore?"
Neil, Old Arthur, and Leo were pushed into the gap.
The platform stopped emitting gas, but Lin Ye still couldn't move his body.
The personnel entered the gap and struck the girl's head with ore. After being smashed to death, the girl finally moved.
Like a vengeful spirit, she climbed up from the ground with her smashed head, and what followed was a one-sided massacre where no one could fight back.
Lin Ye lay on the ground with his eyes closed, pretending to be dead. This time, the girl wasn't in a hurry to kill them. Instead, she picked up the spherical ore from the ground. The ore shattered in her hands, revealing nothing inside.
Holding the ore fragments, the girl let out an unwilling roar.
"You could check under that platform—the Core Ore might be there."
Seeing the girl look toward them, Lin Ye quickly offered this time-buying information.
Even though her head was smashed, the girl could still think normally. She didn't kill Lin Ye immediately, but walked to the platform and violently smashed it apart.
Beneath the platform was a space storing black gas, and in the center of that space sat a spherical, semi-transparent ore.
"It really was underneath!"
Lin Ye hadn't expected his guess to be correct.
The designer's hiding skills were about as good as his password-making skills.
The girl excitedly picked up the Core Ore, tore open a gap in her own body, and stuffed it inside.
As she touched the Core Ore, a door appeared on the wall of the gap space.
Lin Ye's eyes lit up, and using his partially recovered limbs, he quickly crawled toward the door.
The other three certainly wouldn't miss this opportunity either, following behind Lin Ye as they crawled toward the door.
The girl paid them no attention—her eyes were now only for that Core Ore.
After the four passed through the door, they found themselves right outside the mine shaft where they had entered the black door. With Lin Ye leading the way, they quickly distanced themselves from that space and the girl.
Lin Ye found a spot and started mining. Not only did he have no ore in hand, but the others' ores had also been taken by the personnel.
Earlier, they had been too afraid the girl would casually kill them to even dare pick up any ore.
"Those bastards deserve to die—making us mine all over again."
Leo looked utterly miserable—he hated physical labor like mining.
"But they're already dead."
Neil swung his mining pickaxe with force. Lin Ye's mining speed was too fast, and he didn't want to be left behind by Lin Ye.
"Stop complaining and dig faster. Let's finish and get out of here—I have a feeling this isn't over yet."
As an experienced old-timer, Old Arthur had been through plenty of similar troubles.
Lin Ye quickly dug up ten pieces of White Ore, but he didn't stop. Only after collecting a total of forty pieces of White Ore did he gather them up and rush toward the elevator at the starting point.
The others followed closely behind. They didn't dare stop, because only Lin Ye knew how to get back. If they lost him, they might never make it back.
On their way back, they encountered some uniformed personnel who were heading toward the black mine shaft. But these personnel had no intention of letting Lin Ye and the others go either.
Lin Ye had no choice but to try to avoid approaching personnel. When avoidance was impossible, they had to fight them.
These personnel were only moderately skilled. Although they could use ore power, they were no match for Lin Ye, who had consumed massive amounts of ore.
They soon fought their way near the elevator platform, but a group of personnel had set up defenses there.
"Dammit, why aren't they going inside to surround that monster?"
Neil said bitterly.
"They'd just be throwing their lives away if they went in, right? That monster simply can't be killed."
Old Arthur sighed.
"There are too many of them, and they have weapons. I can't handle this alone. We should find a place to wait for backup."
Lin Ye retreated back into the mine shaft.