93: Golden Sewer

"Boom!"

With a deafening roar, the Mechanical Spider's steel body slammed into the building's outer wall like a siege shell!

The wall, already riddled with cracks, could no longer withstand such a savage impact. With a loud crash, it collapsed inward, creating a massive hole!

Brick fragments and choking dust splattered everywhere like a rainstorm.

"Holy shit!"

Wang Dalong let out a strange cry of terror and fell on his backside. He scrambled away on all fours, desperately trying to hide, looking incredibly pathetic.

As the dust cleared slightly, the hideous Mechanical Spider revealed its full form through the jagged hole. Its six blade-sharp limbs gripped the edges of the broken wall tightly. Its crimson eye swiveled through the dust, coldly scanning every corner of the room.

"F-Feng... Brother Feng! The damn thing... it's coming up!" Wang Dalong's voice shook uncontrollably. He instinctively tried to raise the camera hanging from his neck, only to find his hands trembling so much he couldn't even see through the viewfinder.

"Go!"

Not for a single second did Lin Feng think about facing this thing head-on.

He grabbed Wang Dalong, who was slumped on the ground like a pile of mush, and with a sudden burst of strength in his arm, dragged him toward the stairwell.

Lin Feng knew perfectly well that this kind of Spider Guard was merely the lowest-level patrol unit in the Golden City.

Once entangled by it, within minutes, the flying units in the sky and the Golden Warriors—those killing machines on the ground—would surround this place completely!

By then, even if they had wings, they wouldn't be able to escape. They would truly have nowhere to turn!

Just as the two of them rushed into the stairwell, a scalp-tingling "clack-clack" sound echoed from above.

It was the sound of metal limbs climbing the walls!

The Mechanical Spider hadn't paused for a moment. It crawled straight through the hole in the wall, its massive body clinging to the ceiling. Its six legs moved in rapid succession, pursuing them with incredible speed!

"This way!"

In Lin Feng's mind, the memories that didn't belong to him were crystal clear. Every corner and passage of this building was as familiar to him as his own home.

Instead of taking the regular stairs down, he led Wang Dalong in a sharp turn and plunged into a pitch-black corridor.

The corridor wasn't long, ending at a cold wall.

"It's a dead end, Brother Feng!" Wang Dalong's face fell as he looked at the wall. The flicker of hope that had just ignited was instantly extinguished, leaving only despair written on his face.

Lin Feng didn't pay him any attention.

He rushed to a corner of the storage room at the end of the corridor and, without even looking, kicked hard at several metal boxes piled there.

"Clang!"

The boxes tumbled away, revealing a square stone slab beneath. The color of the slab differed slightly from the surrounding floor, making it nearly impossible to notice without a close look.

It was exactly where they had escaped from the underground pipes earlier!

"Quick! Get it open!" Lin Feng roared at Wang Dalong.

The instinct for survival instantly overwhelmed his bone-deep fear. Wang Dalong didn't even bother to ask what was underneath. He lunged forward like a madman, using every ounce of his strength alongside Lin Feng to desperately claw at the edge of the stone slab.

"Get up, damn it!"

Veins bulging, they worked together to heave the incredibly heavy stone slab open just enough to shove it aside.

A dark, square opening appeared before their eyes once again.

"Jump!"

Without any hesitation, Lin Feng glanced at the approaching "clack-clack" sounds and was the first to jump down.

"Crap, not again!" Wang Dalong wailed. He couldn't care less anymore; he closed his eyes, steeled his resolve, and dove in after him.

Just as they jumped into the golden pipe, a loud "boom" echoed from above!

The Mechanical Spider had chased them into the storage room. Its massive body disregarded everything, smashing through half a wall. Rubble and dirt rained down into the opening.

Its crimson eye peered down through the hole, instantly locking onto the two men struggling to stand in the pipe.

"Screee—"

A sharp, piercing sound of energy charging up—like a drill boring into one's brain—rang out.

The brightness of the single eye at the center of the Mechanical Spider's body suddenly surged. A crimson energy beam was already aimed at the opening, poised to fire!

"Run!"

Lin Feng grabbed Wang Dalong, who was still splashing in the coolant, and they sprinted forward through the calf-deep liquid with everything they had.

"Boom!"

A destructive energy beam shot in, barely grazing the edge of the opening, and slammed into the pipe wall behind them!

The indestructible dark-gold wall was instantly melted, leaving a crimson hole the size of a washbasin. The molten gold at the edges was still sizzling with terrifying heat, and the air was filled with the smell of scorched metal.

Wang Dalong instinctively looked back, and that one glance nearly made him wet his pants on the spot.

If that shot had hit a person, forget about bone fragments—there probably wouldn't even be a whole cell left!

He didn't dare look back again. Dragged by Lin Feng, he stumbled through the labyrinthine golden pipes in a desperate flight for his life.

Fortunately, the Mechanical Spider was far too large to squeeze into the narrow pipe. Its sharp screeches echoed overhead for a while before finally fading away.

The two of them had temporarily escaped the pursuit.

"Huff... huff... Brother Feng," Wang Dalong gasped, unable to run any further. He leaned against the cold golden wall, doubled over and panting heavily like a broken bellows. "Are we... are we safe now?"

"For now." Lin Feng's breathing was also ragged, but he quickly composed himself. "The surface is a restricted zone now, crawling with those things. Our only way out is to find an escape route through this pipe network."

"Another sewer..." Wang Dalong looked at the walls glittering under the faint light of his phone, his expression a mix of laughter and tears. "I, Wang Dalong, never dreamed in my life that I'd be running for my life in a sewer made of pure gold. Who would believe this? It's too surreal!"

"This isn't a sewer; it's a Cooling Pipe," Lin Feng corrected him. He didn't have time to banter with Wang Dalong. Instead, he raised his phone and, by the dim light of the screen, carefully identified the blurry Zhuojin Star script on the pipe walls.

These symbols represented different areas and pipe functions.

In that vision, he had "seen" the complete underground pipe network blueprints of the Golden City.

He knew that this seemingly flawless Golden City actually had a fatal flaw.

Or rather, a "backdoor" deliberately left by the Zhuojin Star people just in case.

To prevent an accident in the city center's Energy Core from leaking highly toxic waste and contaminating the entire city, they had designed a completely independent Waste Discharge System that would only be activated in the direst emergencies.

The main outlet of this system was far from the city proper, massive in scale, and led directly to an Underground River deep beneath the outskirts.

That was their only way out!

"Found it."

Lin Feng's gaze finally settled on a group of symbols with a very unique structure.

"Follow me."

He no longer hesitated and led Wang Dalong into an even narrower branch pipe.

The surrounding light dimmed further, and a faint ozone smell, similar to an electrical short circuit, filled the air.

They didn't know.

Even as the two of them delved into the Golden City's underground network like moles, searching for a sliver of hope...

Above ground, the battle had completely devolved into a one-sided slaughter.