Game: Civilization Paradise

Luoxue stared at the sealed metal blast door and said gravely.

"Open it!"

"Alright!"

An Qing immediately stepped forward to try and open the blast door.

But the door was locked—with an electro-mechanical lock, no less.

She took a toolbox from her backpack and tried to crack it, but after fiddling with it for ages, she still couldn’t get it open.

"Tang Yue, you try!"

An Qing had no other choice but to call out.

"Alright!"

Tang Yue grabbed her tools and stepped forward to give it a try.

More than ten minutes passed. Beads of sweat had formed on Tang Yue’s forehead, but the blast door remained shut.

"Can’t you guys get it open?"

Jing Chuan was growing impatient.

It was bad enough that they couldn’t find a shelter before, but now that they’d found one, they couldn’t even get the door open. It was a cruel joke.

"It’s no good. This is a high-security electronic lock, and the main problem is that it’s still live."

Tang Yue explained, stammering as she held a voltage tester.

Hearing this, Jing Chuan turned to the other members of the Rat Group and asked.

"Does anyone else know how to pick locks?"

The Rat Group members exchanged glances, but no one dared to speak up.

Just then, a sturdy, middle-aged man with a scruffy beard, holding a submachine gun, spoke up.

"If you ask me, if nothing else works, we should just blow it open."

"No way. This blast door is incredibly thick. It could probably withstand a small nuclear blast."

Tang Yue said, shaking her head repeatedly.

"Holy crap, are you serious?"

"Then what do we do?"

...

The looks on everyone’s faces were priceless.

Luoxue’s brow furrowed slightly as she listened.

Just then, as Long Ming looked at the electronic lock on the blast door, the red card from the safe came to mind.

He hesitated for a moment, then spoke up.

"Let me give it a try."

All eyes, including Zhihan’s, turned to Long Ming.

"When did you learn to pick locks?"

Luoxue looked at Long Ming in surprise.

"I know a little."

Long Ming said with a smile.

"Alright, then. Give it a try."

Luoxue agreed to let him.

An Qing, Tang Yue, and the others all stepped back, watching Long Ming with doubtful eyes.

’They were the guild’s best lock-pickers. How could Long Ming possibly be better than them?’

Long Ming walked up to the blast door, raised his hand, and tapped his wristband. A metal card materialized in his hand.

He took the shelter ID card and swiped it on the electronic lock.

BEEP—

A crisp electronic tone sounded.

A series of internal locking bolts retracted.

CLANK!

The entire metal door unlocked and automatically swung open, revealing a narrow gap.

"Are you kidding me?"

"That’s the same as using a key to open the door!"

...

An Qing and the others were dumbfounded.

Luoxue glanced at Long Ming, a flicker of emotion in her eyes, but she said nothing.

Jing Chuan, however, couldn’t help but ask.

"If you had the key, why didn’t you take it out sooner?"

"I didn’t know it was the key. It just looked like it might be, so I figured I’d give it a shot."

Long Ming replied with a smile.

"Alright, enough talk. Open the door!"

Luoxue said to Long Ming.

"Right."

Long Ming gripped the blast door with both hands and pulled with all his might, but it only budged a tiny bit.

Seeing this, Jing Chuan and the others jumped down to help pull the blast door.

"Pull!"

They all heaved backward, and only after a great deal of effort did they manage to wrench the blast door open.

Panting, Long Ming looked at the open door. It was a full two meters thick. No wonder Tang Yue said they couldn’t blast it open.

"Follow me."

Luoxue gripped her assault rifle and cautiously led the way inside.

Long Ming and the others followed her into the underground shelter.

A wave of stale, musty air immediately washed over them. A downward-sloping corridor came into view.

Long Ming scanned his surroundings.

The corridor had blast doors every ten meters, but thankfully, they were all open.

The walls on both sides were showing signs of rust, indicating this underground base had been abandoned for a long time.

The overhead lights were extremely dim from age and disrepair, but at least a few were still on.

"Wow, this underground base still has power!"

"That means there’s a good chance we’ll find some good stuff inside."

...

Cloud Fish and the others murmured in low voices, suppressing their shock.

Soon, Luoxue led Long Ming and the others to the end of the corridor. As they passed through the exit, their field of view suddenly opened up.

They had arrived in a massive underground shelter.

The entire shelter was built from the top down. It had a circular structure, with each level stacked below the last.

The outer ring of the circular base was lined with different functional areas and rooms.

The central area was hollow, dominated by a mechanical column that rose from the bottom to the very top. A large staircase spiraled around the edge of this column.

At the same time, skywalks extended from the functional areas on the perimeter to connect with the central column.

This meant if you leaned over the railing of a skywalk, you could see everything below.

"Everyone, be careful. There might still be monsters here."

Luoxue warned the group.

Hearing this, Tang Yue and the others tensed up and drew their automatic pistols.

Though they hadn’t begun to explore, everyone already felt that something wasn’t quite right.

The temperature inside the shelter was at least in the teens Celsius, perfectly survivable for humans. Furthermore, the base hadn’t completely lost power, yet it was terrifyingly silent. The whole situation felt strange.

"All Rat Group members, hold your position. Zhihan, take two combatants and stand guard. The rest of you, search with me!"

Luoxue crisply gave the order.

"Yes!"

Zhihan nodded.

Luoxue led Jing Chuan and a few others to cautiously search the first sublevel.

Along the way, she observed the dust on the floor. Judging by how thickly it was caked on, the place had clearly been abandoned for a very long time, with no signs of recent activity.

Soon, Luoxue’s group came to a room with a tightly shut door.

She reached out, turned the handle, and the door swung open.

Jing Chuan led the way, creeping inside. It was a storage room piled high with all sorts of boxes.

"Clear."

Jing Chuan said after scanning the room.

"Next one."

Luoxue continued to press forward with the search.

Meanwhile, Long Ming and the others waited patiently, still murmuring in low voices.

"You guys think we’ll find anything good in this base?"

"Definitely. A shelter this big, as long as it’s clear of monsters, is bound to have enough for us to eat our fill."

...

Just then, Long Ming started to feel a bit hot and stuffy, so he took off his jacket and stuffed it into his backpack.

He then observed his surroundings again, finding the shelter’s design somewhat peculiar. A puzzled expression crossed his face.

Cloud Fish noticed Long Ming’s puzzled expression and asked curiously.

"Long Ming, what are you thinking about?"

"I feel like this shelter’s design is very strange. I’ve never seen a structure like this before."

Long Ming said calmly.

"You’ve got a point. But maybe the designer just had unusual taste."

Cloud Fish said after a moment of thought.

"Perhaps."

Long Ming said calmly, his eyes fixed on the giant mechanical column standing in the center.