Chapter 41
Ye Xuan looked ahead. It was a checkpoint with a heavy identification door.
After the transport truck was scanned and identified, the door slowly opened. The transport worker drove the vehicle inside and entered the loading elevator. The elevator started, carrying the transport truck downward.
Ye Xuan watched everything through the vehicle window. A scene he had only seen in movies had now appeared before him in reality, and only then did he truly feel like he was working in a high-tech base.
After a while, the slight feeling of suspension disappeared. The elevator stopped, the door opened, and the transport worker drove forward for another stretch. The road was very dark. The transport worker could only rely on the faint glow of the headlights to slowly drive ahead.
“This is for the safety of the people in the mine. Aside from transporting ore and essential supplies, people generally don’t come here,” Luo Feng said.
Hearing Luo Feng’s words, Ye Xuan was even more surprised.
“There aren’t any ability users guarding this place?”
Then what was the meaning of the base’s existence? Ye Xuan did not ask that out loud.
Luo Feng turned to Ye Xuan. “There are only fifty-four ability users in the base. We don’t have enough manpower. Many areas can’t be covered.”
Ye Xuan suddenly clenched his fist and raised his voice. “Even so, there shouldn’t be not even one ability user here.”
What if zombies broke through the defensive line? What would happen to the powerless people inside?
Realizing he had gotten too emotional, Ye Xuan restrained himself and sat back in his seat. “Sorry.”
Luo Feng pondered for a moment, then turned to look out the window. “The base has its own considerations. What we need to do is follow orders.”
Just then, the vehicle stopped. Luo Feng opened the door and got out, and Ye Xuan followed behind him.
Tong Wei and the others’ vehicles slowly drove over as well, stopping in front of them.
The door opened, and Tong Wei was the first to jump down.
“It’s still so dark here.”
Tong Wei was right. It was very dark here. There were not even any lights. The path ahead was pitch-black, and it was impossible to see the road.
Once everyone had gathered, Luo Feng told them to take the searchlights and follow behind him.
“Keep close. Don’t fall behind. The paths inside the mine are complicated and tangled. If you’re careless, you’ll get lost.”
Luo Feng opened his wristband, set a target point, and walked forward.
Ye Xuan followed Luo Feng closely. If he were the one finding the way alone, even with a map, he might not necessarily find it. Every two or three meters, there was an identical fork in the path. He had already forgotten which way they had come from.
After winding around for quite some time, Ye Xuan finally saw light ahead.
Luo Feng turned off the map and looked back at them. “We’ve arrived at the destination. The next task is to move the ore onto the vehicles.”
Ye Xuan followed Luo Feng toward the light. When he saw the scene inside clearly, he did not know how to describe his feelings.
This was a very large mine cave. Two large lamps hung on the stone walls. Under the dim light, all kinds of people sat on torn cloth, chewing the dry, hard bread in their hands. Their eyes had no light, their faces were yellow and thin, and they looked like walking corpses.
The people here showed no reaction to Ye Xuan and the others either. They looked completely used to it.
Through the helmet, Ye Xuan could not smell the air here, but he knew clearly that the air here must be murky and unpleasant.
An underground place where the sun never reached, where eating, drinking, and relieving oneself were all gathered together.
Living, breathing people were living in a place like this.
When Ye Xuan thought that his parents had once lived in a place like this too, his heart throbbed with pain.
What exactly was the base thinking? Even if it was for mining, they should not treat people like livestock.
He wanted to ask Luo Feng why.
But then he realized that his teammates were walking straight ahead without looking sideways, following Luo Feng.
Ye Xuan paused for a moment, then followed them.
He seemed to understand a little.
Because they were powerless, they simply pretended not to see. Doing that would not change anything, but it could soothe their uneasy conscience.
They passed through this mine cave, and the area ahead lost its light again. Ye Xuan and the others turned on their searchlights.
Then they saw someone opposite them carrying a light and hurrying over.
It was a very young boy with delicate features, wearing a short-sleeved shirt. He looked about the same age as Ye Xuan. Because he had been gnawing on bread for a long time, he showed the same exhaustion as the people in the large mine cave.
He reached out to Luo Feng. After seeing the dirt on his hand, he withdrew it, wiped it on his clothes, then extended it again.
“I’m Dong Jiahao. When I received the notice, I was still counting the ore. Sorry.”
Dong Jiahao?
For some reason, Ye Xuan felt that name sounded familiar.
Luo Feng took off his glove and shook hands with the boy in front of him.
“Hello, Luo Feng. Where’s Old Luo?”
Facing an ability user for the first time, the boy appeared somewhat nervous. “He’s sick.”
The environment was dirty and chaotic, the air did not circulate, and it was practically a breeding ground for bacteria. Old Luo was old too. It was only a matter of time before he got sick.
Luo Feng was silent for a second, then withdrew his hand.
“Got it. Lead the way.”
“Yes. Follow me.” Dong Jiahao carried the searchlight and walked ahead.
Tong Wei patted Ye Xuan and asked, “What’s wrong? What are you thinking about? Brother Feng is very serious during missions. Don’t make any mistakes.”
“Yes, I understand.”
Ye Xuan shook his head and followed.
He kept feeling that he had seen Dong Jiahao’s name somewhere before. Where had he seen it?
This time, they only walked a short distance before reaching the destination.
Dong Jiahao said awkwardly to Luo Feng, “Sir, there are three boxes of rare ore and twenty-seven boxes of ordinary ore. Thirty boxes in total, all here.”
Luo Feng checked and verified each box according to the list given by the base. After confirming there were no mistakes, he told Ye Xuan and the others to move the containers out.
The containers were very heavy. Ye Xuan was a space ability user, and compared with strength-type ability users like Tong Wei, he had a hard time carrying them.
Seeing this, Dong Jiahao stepped forward to help Ye Xuan carry one together.
With help, Ye Xuan felt much more relaxed.
“Thank you. You’re really strong.”
When he was with someone his own age, Dong Jiahao relaxed a lot.
“Bro, no matter how strong I am, I can’t compare to you guys.”
He looked at Tong Wei carrying two boxes by himself and exclaimed, “That’s too exaggerated.”
Ye Xuan finally remembered who this person was. He was the one who had sent a message in the dormitory group before, saying that he had no food left.
“Twenty-one… Dong Jiahao from Dorm 217?”
Dong Jiahao’s eyes widened roundly. “Bro, you know me? Not 217. I’m Dong Jiahao from Bed Four in Dorm 218.”
“I remembered wrong.” At that time, he had not looked carefully, and so much time had passed. “When you sent messages in the dormitory group back then, I was in the group too. I just didn’t say anything.”
“Oh, oh.” Dong Jiahao’s eyes curved. “I thought I had become that famous.”
“So, you are?”
“Ye Xuan.”
Dong Jiahao’s expression became a little awkward. He did not know Ye Xuan.
In university, some people could not even recognize everyone in their own class, let alone people from other classes.
Ye Xuan spoke to ease the awkwardness. “Now we know each other. I’m Ye Xuan.”
“How did you end up here?”
“I received a text message on my phone. At that time, the person I was with and I treated it like a last resort and sent our location over. Then we waited until a group of black-clothed people came to rescue us, dressed just like you are now. They gave me a test and said my results didn’t meet the requirements, so I was sent here to mine.”
