Chapter 489: Underground water tank
The four of them sprinted wildly through the abandoned building. Lin Ye, taking advantage of his vision not yet failing, continuously scanned the surrounding environment.
This time, those Dark Shadows did not appear. They seemed capable of observing Lin Ye and the others' condition, only appearing when they were close to death.
Lin Ye wanted to search for the Dark Shadows' base, but the structure of this abandoned building was extremely peculiar, completely different from buildings elsewhere. Lin Ye couldn't figure out the layout here in a short time.
Then, Lin Ye's vision began to blur again. This wasn't a major problem for him; he could still hold on for a while. But the others didn't have his level of endurance.
If they fell behind and died, the contamination in this area would intensify, and Lin Ye would also die here.
"How long are you planning to wait before speaking? Until we all die here?!"
Mu Kai roared at Kalin with a face full of anger.
"...Below. There's an altar below."
After a few seconds, Kalin managed to squeeze out these words.
Lin Ye didn't pay any attention to Kalin. He fundamentally didn't believe what these D-Class personnel said. Even if there really was a so-called altar below, it might not necessarily be a safe place.
"Ahem, aren't we going down?"
Mu Kai asked somewhat weakly.
"The contamination is more severe down there. We need to get a few hazmat suits first before going down. Wait!"
Lin Ye suddenly stopped in his tracks. He looked at a wall not far away, where there was a very fine crack.
Someone was watching them from inside.
"Found you at last."
Lin Ye swung his kitchen knife toward the crack. The invisible blade sliced open the wall, revealing a Dark Shadow hiding inside.
It was a human wearing a full set of black hazmat gear.
Lin Ye stripped off the hazmat suit, rushed over, first used Dollification on the Dark Shadow, and then knocked it unconscious with a few punches.
After Dollification, the hazmat suit on the Dark Shadow also shrank proportionally into a miniature hazmat suit. Lin Ye put on the Dark Shadow's hazmat suit and instantly felt much better.
The man stripped of his hazmat suit was in a sorry state. He seemed to have zero resistance to this kind of contamination. Soon, he turned into a somewhat bizarre corpse.
"Follow me. Stay behind me, and don't make a sound."
Lin Ye entered the dark passageway behind the wall. He was more adept at moving in this kind of environment than these Dark Shadows.
The structure of the dark passageway was extremely complex. Every so often, a pitch-black hole would appear on the ground. These holes likely led to the altar Kalin mentioned.
With Lin Ye's warning, the three D-Class personnel didn't fall into the holes, but this also slowed down Lin Ye's movement speed.
Before long, some Dark Shadows in squads approached Lin Ye. They were clearly searching for Lin Ye and the others.
Lin Ye bypassed them using the complex terrain. He decided to first find hazmat suits for the three D-Class personnel before engaging these squads head-on.
The condition of the three D-Class personnel was already quite poor. If one or two died during the upcoming fight, Lin Ye would have to restart again.
Moreover, if he used the invisible blades to deal with these squads, Lin Ye might not be able to obtain an intact hazmat suit. That would defeat the purpose of fighting, only giving the enemy information about the invisible blades.
If there were many Dark Shadows here, it would be troublesome.
Lin Ye had gained some understanding of the dark passageway. He led the others around to the end of the passage, where there were Dark Shadows peering out from within the Ruins walls.
These solitary Dark Shadows were his hunting targets.
Soon, Lin Ye took care of the first Dark Shadow—again, a combo of Dollification plus boxing skills to take it down. The stripped hazmat suit was handed by Lin Ye to Damon, as he was in the worst condition among the three.
Afterwards, Lin Ye began leading them to hunt other Dark Shadows keeping watch in the walls. Before long, he had cleaned up all the solitary Dark Shadows.
Everyone was wearing two hazmat suits. If it didn't cause breathing difficulties, Damon would have layered several more suits on the outside.
With no worries holding him back, Lin Ye began ambushing those Dark Shadow squads. He wouldn't clash with them head-on, but instead used the invisible blades to ambush them from various sneaky positions.
After all, the hazmat suits were useless now anyway.
The ambushed Dark Shadow squads couldn't find Lin Ye's position even in death. Lin Ye found some ranged weapons and night vision goggles on their corpses.
The night vision goggles weren't much help to Lin Ye. The dark passageway already had faint light, and he wouldn't choose places to ambush enemies that would be easily noticed.
But those ranged weapons were very useful. They enriched Lin Ye's methods for ambushing enemies.
Lin Ye continued ambushing nearby Dark Shadow squads. Those ranged weapons were quite cumbersome to use, but for Lin Ye, who was skilled at ambushes, this level was still within his control.
These ranged weapons were basically all related to contamination. Even wearing a hazmat suit, enemies hit by these weapons could only turn into bizarre corpses.
Relying on weapons gifted by the enemy and his kitchen knife, it didn't take much time for Lin Ye to eliminate all those patrolling Dark Shadow squads.
"These believers seem to be conducting some kind of ritual underground. If you want to complete the ritual, you should go underground to find their leader."
Kalin suddenly spoke up.
"Don't rush. Let me scout the map first."
Lin Ye, holding the Doll wearing a hazmat suit, seriously pondered the structure of this area. After the second ritual, he always felt this place wouldn't be so simple either.
Before long, Lin Ye had traversed the entire area. He discovered a small base, inside which he found some anti-contamination injections and a schematic map of this area.
"So that's how it is. Let's go, we're heading down."
Lin Ye glanced at Kalin. He didn't say more, just as he had never trusted these D-Class personnel. Even if these D-Class personnel developed some unfavorable thoughts about him, he wouldn't be surprised.
According to that schematic map, Lin Ye found a hole leading underground. This hole clearly emitted more severe contamination than the other holes, but Lin Ye still jumped in without hesitation.
Kalin hesitated for a moment, but Mu Kai and Damon, who had been watching her, directly pushed her in.
Lin Ye landed on the ground. The hole connected to an entire underground space. This space was piled high with corpses of various creatures, and there was also a giant pool emitting heavy contamination.
They happened to land at the edge of the pool. If they had randomly chosen a hole to jump into, eighty percent of the time they would have fallen into the pool. In that case, even Lin Ye would only be able to restart.
Someone had installed some kind of facility at the top of the pool, directing the contamination toward the surrounding holes. Therefore, the heavily contaminated holes were the safe passageways.
Lin Ye scanned the surroundings. He didn't find any altar here, nor did he see the enemy leader. There wasn't even a single cultist here.
Just as Lin Ye was pondering how to complete this ritual, a massive Dark Shadow emerged from the pool.