203: The mouth of the ouroboros

Wang Dalong looked up with a face full of shock. He stared blankly at the giant circular door that occupied almost the entire cave wall, feeling incredibly overwhelmed.

"My goodness... this thing actually exists? I thought you only saw this kind of stuff in spy movies."

He couldn't help but reach out and cautiously touch the cold surface of the door. The texture was smooth, a type of alloy with a dull silver luster. After seventy years, there wasn't a single trace of rust.

The door was massive, with a diameter of at least five meters. Its sheer weight made one wonder if an entire world was hidden behind it.

In the center of the door, a complex mechanical structure composed of countless gears, dials, and locking pins looked like a precision mechanical eye, coldly staring at the uninvited guests.

"Brother Feng, what... what level of defense is this? It feels like even a cannon wouldn't be able to blast it open, right?" Wang Dalong's voice carried a sense of unreality.

Lin Feng ignored his amazement. He stepped forward, his gloved fingers lightly brushing over the cold surface of the door before stopping above the complex mechanical lock in the center.

There, besides the Imperial Eagle emblem they were already familiar with, was a smaller but more eerie insignia.

A snake devouring its own tail.

The Ouroboros.

Von Ehrenberg's radical faction had carved their symbol onto the vault door.

"Krupp-Berthold joint manufacture, 1944 special custom model." Lin Feng's voice echoed in the empty underground space, carrying a hint of unusual excitement. "The highest specification for wartime German bank vaults, cast entirely from alloy, over a meter thick. Theoretically, it can only be opened from the outside with the matching master key and the correct password sequence."

He walked up to the complex combination lock, leaning in close to focus on studying the cold gears and dials.

Wang Dalong leaned in and lowered his voice, afraid of disturbing him. "Brother Feng, are you sure? This thing looks a hundred times more complicated than college advanced mathematics."

Lin Feng didn't answer. His gaze swept over each dial, his fingers tracing patterns in the air as if performing some complex deduction in his mind.

After a moment, he reached out and lightly touched one of the brass dials.

He tried to turn it slightly.

The dial didn't budge.

He switched directions and applied a bit more force.

*Click.*

An extremely faint sound, yet clearly audible in the dead silence of the underground, came from inside the dial.

Lin Feng's movements stopped. He froze in place as cold sweat suddenly broke out on his forehead.

He felt something was wrong.

The tactile feedback of this dial, the force it gave back, was completely different from the seamless, smooth-as-oil feeling that precision machinery of this caliber should have! There was a sense of resistance inside, as if... as if sand had been stuffed between the gears.

"Don't move!"

Lin Feng barked in a low voice. As his words fell, everyone went still. He slowly backed away, retreating to a safe distance.

"What's wrong?" Stone reacted immediately. He and his two team members instantly formed a triangle, shielding Lin Feng and Wang Dalong in the middle, their weapons raised and aimed alertly at the giant door.

"The door has been modified." Lin Feng's face was a bit pale as he pointed to the gap in the combination lock. "They added something else behind the lock cylinder. Something modern."

Stone didn't ask further, simply giving a look to the team member behind him who was responsible for demolitions and precision instruments.

That man, codenamed 'Spark', understood immediately. He took out a long, thin fiber-optic endoscope from his tactical backpack and carefully threaded it through a gap in one of the combination lock's gears, like threading a needle.

The screen on the tactical tablet lit up.

Everyone crowded around, even their breathing becoming light.

On the screen, what first appeared were brass gears and steel locking pins that represented the peak of industrial aesthetics from the last century. They were neatly arranged, complex in structure, and still shimmered with a metallic luster.

But as the endoscope went deeper, something completely out of place with its surroundings suddenly appeared on the screen!

It was a small, green circuit board!

The solder joints on the circuit board were neat, and an infrared transmitter as thin as a gossamer thread was pointed directly at the most critical component of the lock cylinder. On the other side in the shadows, a dark gun muzzle and a bundle of block-shaped objects tightly bound with yellow tape were clearly displayed on the screen.

Wang Dalong's expression changed. He sucked in a breath of cold air, feeling a chill run from his spine to the top of his head.

"Good heavens! Is that... is that a machine gun and explosives? A modified MG42 and C4! These bastards are too ruthless!"

This wasn't a vault at all; it was a massive mousetrap disguised as a vault!

Anyone who tried to open it the wrong way would trigger the infrared sensor, be riddled with bullets by the heavy machine gun hidden behind the door, and finally be blown into flying pieces by the C4!

Lin Feng's voice turned cold. "They aren't just guarding against thieves; they're guarding against 'guests' like us who come uninvited and know their secrets."

These lunatics had anticipated from the beginning that someone would find this place and had prepared a 'grand welcoming gift' long ago.

"Spark, can you handle it?" Stone asked in a heavy voice.

"Piece of cake." A hint of confidence belonging to a top technical expert appeared on Spark's face. He took out a set of tools from his toolbox that were as delicate as surgical instruments. "A simple infrared-triggered series detonation device. Give me ten minutes, and I'll turn it into a pile of scrap metal."

The next ten minutes were the longest and most agonizing ten minutes of Wang Dalong's life.

He watched as Spark used two metal probes thinner than embroidery needles to carefully reach into the gap, which was no larger than a coin slot. The entire underground space was terrifyingly quiet, with only Spark's light breathing and the occasional faint sound of the probes rubbing against metal.

Wang Dalong was so nervous his palms were covered in sweat. He didn't even dare to breathe heavily, fearing a single sneeze would send everyone sky-high.

Time passed minute by minute.

The fine beads of sweat on Spark's forehead glistened under the tactical flashlight, but the hand holding the probes was as steady as if it were welded to the ground.

Cutting, bridging, shielding the signal... Finally, Spark let out a long breath, slowly withdrew his tools, and gave Stone an 'OK' gesture.

"Done. The trigger device is disabled. Now it's just a mute decoration."

Phew—

Everyone breathed a sigh of relief. Wang Dalong felt his legs go weak, nearly collapsing onto the ground.

Lin Feng walked back to the door. He examined the complex mechanical lock again, but ultimately shook his head.

"The trap is disarmed, but this lock... without the original master key and password, trying to crack it manually would take at least three days. We don't have that much time."

Three days? It would be too late by then! Who knew where those lunatics were now or what they were doing!

He turned to look at Stone.

Stone immediately understood his meaning and waved a hand to the two burly men behind him.

"Plan B."

The two team members immediately turned around and carried over a heavy black metal box from the back.

The box opened to reveal a cutting device with a menacing design, full of violent aesthetics. It had a thick gun-like body, and the front was an alloy tube about a meter long and as thick as a bowl's rim, with its tip covered in dense small holes.

"What's this? An Italian cannon?" Wang Dalong leaned in curiously.

"A Thermal Lance," Lin Feng explained for him. "Commonly known as a 'thermal gun' or 'the big iron rod,' it's a violent tool that uses ultra-high-temperature metal jets to penetrate metal and concrete."

Wang Dalong listened, completely stunned.

Lin Feng looked at the impregnable alloy door before him, his expression cold.

"Since they don't welcome us coming through the door..."

He paused, saying each word deliberately.

"...then we'll just make a door ourselves."