204: The Vanishing Gold

"Buzz—!"

A deafening roar echoed throughout the underground space. The tip of the Thermal Lance sprayed a scorching jet of molten metal, its temperature high enough to distort the air.

It effortlessly pierced the heavy alloy door, burning a spot of light that was too bright to look at directly.

Sparks flew everywhere, accompanied by thick smoke, and the air was instantly filled with the acrid smell of burnt metal.

"Oh my god, this thing is too fierce!" Wang Dalong was forced to retreat repeatedly by the terrifying high temperature, hiding behind a massive support pillar, only poking out half his head. He felt his cheeks burning painfully.

Stone and his two subordinates worked together seamlessly. They steadily held the vibrating Thermal Lance, moving slowly and stably along the cutting line marked beforehand with a marker pen.

This process lasted for nearly an hour.

As the last connection point was severed by the high heat, Stone tossed aside the now-useless Thermal Lance, picked up a custom crowbar thicker than his arm, aimed it at the circular gap they had cut, and exerted tremendous force!

"Screech—Boom!"

Following an ear-splitting sound of twisting metal, the two-meter-diameter, multi-ton circular steel plate was brutally ripped from the door.

Carrying a searing heat wave, it slammed heavily onto the hard concrete floor, making a dull crash that shook the entire space.

A pitch-black hole, still emitting wisps of smoke, appeared before everyone.

The vault had been forcibly opened!

"Go in!"

Stone waved his hand, and two fully armed team members immediately rushed into the hole in a tactical formation, their weapon-mounted flashlights cutting two bright beams through the darkness.

A few seconds later, a brief response came through the communicator.

"Clear!"

Only then did Lin Feng and Wang Dalong follow them inside.

As they stepped inside the vault, and the flashlight beams pierced the darkness of nearly a century, even Stone, who was accustomed to grand sights, let out an irrepressible gasp.

The sight before them was enough to make any normal person lose the ability to think.

The interior space of the vault was much larger than they had imagined, easily the size of a standard basketball court.

And right in the center of the vault, a small mountain constructed of countless gold bars reflected a dazzling, dreamy golden light under the beams of several flashlights.

Light danced and refracted off the edges of the gold bars, illuminating the entire dark space in brilliant gold, making everyone dizzy.

Every gold bar was a standard one-kilogram size, clearly stamped with the Imperial Eagle Emblem and the Swastika, symbols of that mad era.

"We're... we're rich... Oh my good heavens..." Wang Dalong's eyes were wide, his mouth agape. He was completely dumbfounded, and his speech started to stutter. "Although we've found lots of treasure before, this is the first time I've seen gold with this kind of luster and quality!!"

He practically scrambled toward the pile of gold, picking up a bar like a child. The heavy weight made him grin from ear to ear.

However, there was not a trace of joy on Lin Feng's face.

He did not approach the mountain of gold; he simply stood where he was, his brows tightly furrowed.

He quickly walked up to the pile, took the gold bar from Wang Dalong's hand, weighed it, and then quickly glanced up to survey the overall size of the pile. His expression grew increasingly solemn.

"Something is wrong."

"Huh? What's wrong?" Wang Dalong was still immersed in shock and excitement and didn't immediately grasp the situation.

"The quantity is wrong." Lin Feng's voice was cold, like a piece of ice dropped into this golden ocean. "The Duke's files clearly state that the total amount of gold they brought from Germany was twelve tons. But what's here... is, at most, only three to four tons."

The smile on Wang Dalong's face instantly froze.

"What? What did you say? Two-thirds is missing?!" He looked at Brother Feng in disbelief, then back at the still-dazzling mountain of gold. "No way, Brother Feng? This much is still missing? Then... where did the remaining eight tons of gold go? And what about the famous paintings by Rembrandt and Vermeer? We haven't seen a single one!"

This vault, which should have been the end of their journey, suddenly turned into an even greater mystery after the initial massive surprise.

They risked their lives to come to this Devil's Island, only to find a treasure vault that had been mostly emptied.

"They moved most of the treasure." Lin Feng's gaze rapidly swept across the empty vault. His brain was working furiously.

"There must be another exit here."

Stone immediately understood Lin Feng's meaning. He gestured to his subordinates and commanded in a deep voice, "Split up and search! Don't miss an inch of the walls or the floor!"

The team members immediately dispersed and began a thorough search of the massive underground space.

Just then, a team member who had stayed outside the vault door for lookout shouted through the communicator, "Report! Boss, we found something outside the door!"

Everyone instantly brightened up and quickly exited the vault.

On the concrete floor next to the incredibly heavy metal door frame, there were several very inconspicuous scratches, caused by heavy objects being repeatedly dragged and scraped.

These marks extended from inside the vault and finally disappeared into the floor near the edge of the door frame. If one didn't look closely, they could easily be mistaken for construction flaws.

Stone crouched down, and his hand, covered by a Tactical Glove, gently tapped the floor next to the scratches.

"Thud, thud, thud."

The sound was dull; it was solid ground.

He moved to the area where the scratches finally vanished and knocked again.

"Tap, tap, tap."

The sound was noticeably hollow and much clearer!

"It's hollow underneath!" Wang Dalong also realized something was wrong.

Stone didn't rush to pry open the floor with a tool. He stood up and turned his attention to the massive metal door frame, which looked like it was cast in one piece.

His hand carefully explored the cold metal surface, not missing a single weld or connection point.

Finally, at an extremely hidden joint disguised as a weld scar, his finger found a tiny, hard-to-notice protrusion.

His eyes narrowed, and he pressed down hard!

"Click..."

A dull, metallic sound of machinery abruptly came from beneath their feet.

Immediately afterward, the section of concrete floor that had sounded hollow, which looked perfectly seamless, silently and slowly slid open to one side amid a low grinding sound!

A black, wide staircase, spacious enough for two people to walk side-by-side, appeared beneath their feet, leading directly into the deeper, unknown underground.

A cold gust of wind, mixed with the heavy, salty smell of seawater and the stench of decay, suddenly rushed up from below the stairs, causing their clothes to flap and making them shiver involuntarily.

Wang Dalong peered down. Below was a pitch-black darkness, as if it were the entrance to hell.

He felt a chill shoot straight from the soles of his feet to the crown of his head, and he couldn't help but complain, "Holy cow! I mean, seriously! Not only did they build a vault under a volcanic island, but they also dug a tunnel outside the vault... Were these people Groundhogs in their past lives?"

Lin Feng ignored his banter.

He took a spare high-intensity flashlight from his backpack, twisted it to the brightest setting, and unhesitatingly stepped onto the descending staircase first.

"Follow me."

His voice echoed through the empty underground space, clear and calm.

"I think we will soon find out where those eight tons of missing gold went."