136: Mavis

"Damn! What is this liquid? Sulfuric acid? Or aqua regia?"

Li Xiao was shocked; he had never tried this kind of chemical liquid attack before. What if the Life Pool didn't work? Wouldn't he be done for?

Or, what if the Life Pool worked, but he ended up missing limbs? Wouldn't that be even worse?

"Based on the speed and intensity of the liquid spray, we only have at most half a second to react, and the corrosion rate of the liquid is estimated to be able to penetrate our bulletproof vests and helmets instantly."

Ling Chao analyzed the mechanism, and Yue Ge said at this moment, "How about we try using some thick metal objects to shield our bodies?"

"No! Our movement speed is already slow, and with the added weight, not only will we not be able to escape, but we will also be subjected to multiple attacks. Look over there!"

Ling Chao pointed to the walls on both sides and even the ceiling, where many hidden high-pressure nozzles could indeed be seen.

While everyone was discussing a feasible solution, Li Xiao came up with a brilliant idea.

He opened the trading center and immediately withdrew all the various rifles, pistols, machine guns, and other weapons he had listed two months ago that had never sold back into his inventory, then dumped them all out.

Looking at the mountain of firearms, Ling Chao's eyes lit up, and he laughed, "The boss is still the boss! You could actually think of this!"

"Think of what? Won't the guns just get dissolved if we throw them out?" Chen Hu asked, scratching his head.

Li Xiao and Ling Chao smiled without saying a word and began throwing these weapons and equipment, one by one, into the corridor.

The detection instruments quickly detected the air fluctuations and ground vibrations, precisely identifying the location of the weapons and equipment. Then, multiple high-pressure nozzles began to work, spraying highly corrosive liquid like lightning.

These metal things that landed were rapidly dissolved within a second or two, and the pungent gas produced quickly filled the air.

The team members then took out their gas masks, while Li Xiao and Ling Chao used their hands and feet to toss the guns into every corner of the corridor.

Within ten minutes, over a thousand firearms had been completely dissolved by this terrifying liquid, leaving the ground covered in charred residue.

By this time, Chen Hu, Yue Ge, and the others still didn't understand what their captain and boss were doing, until Li Xiao and Ling Chao worked together to throw a heavy machine gun into the center of the corridor, and the moment to witness a miracle arrived.

"Hey! Look! That heavy machine gun wasn't detected!" Chen Hu said excitedly upon seeing this.

"It wasn't that it wasn't detected," Li Xiao said, fanning away the unpleasant smell. "It's that it was detected, but the corrosive liquid has been exhausted by me."

"Ah! So that's how it is!"

"Boss is amazing! You could actually think of this!"

Li Xiao didn't know if these guys were just buttering him up, but as long as they could safely pass through the trap, it was a good thing.

Actually, he had taken a gamble, betting that the designers of the Black Hawk Empire hadn't prepared a swimming pool's worth of corrosive liquid for him; otherwise, they would have been in real trouble.

Using a few bags of flour to pave the way, Li Xiao and his team carefully crossed the corridor.

The third floor was small, about three or four hundred square meters, and was an open laboratory.

It was filled with all kinds of instruments and equipment, and various 3D projectors were constantly displaying data and models. The messy design blueprints on the workbenches and the computer monitors all indicated that this was the core location of the base.

The laboratory was blocked by a transparent glass door. Through the glass curtain wall, Li Xiao and the others discovered that there was actually someone inside.

This man was middle-aged, wearing a white lab coat, with black hair and yellow skin, looking every bit like a scientist.

At this moment, he held a handheld computer in one hand and design drafts in the other, seemingly still immersed in his research.

The glass door was password-protected. Chen Hu was about to force it open with his gun, but Li Xiao hurriedly stopped him.

"Don't do anything reckless!"

Li Xiao knew that the laboratory was a critical area, and if they damaged the equipment or data inside, it wouldn't be worth it.

He walked up and knocked on the door, but the person didn't pay any attention, remaining lost in his own world of research.

Seeing this, Li Xiao wasn't in a hurry. They were already inside, and since Zhou Shuang had destroyed the main gate's access control system, he estimated that the enemy wouldn't be able to get in for a while, so he was completely calm.

About ten minutes later, the middle-aged man finally put down what he was holding and walked toward the door.

Li Xiao was secretly pleased. Indeed, scientists were often eccentric; they were stubborn and usually remained neutral between powers. Even if his group's hands were stained with the blood of Imperial Soldiers, it didn't affect their original intentions.

"Who are you?" The middle-aged man didn't open the door immediately but asked instead.

"Sir, we are Outsiders."

"Outsiders?!" He looked at Ling Chao and the others behind Li Xiao, disbelievingly, "How many troops did you bring to be able to break in here?"

"From start to finish, you've only seen us few people," Li Xiao said confidently.

"In the end, it was the Outsiders who arrived here first..."

The middle-aged man muttered to himself, then opened the door. It turned out to be a half-meter-thick electric bulletproof glass door.

"My name is Mavis, and I work in light and heavy weapons research and development. What did you come here for?"

The middle-aged man named Mavis asked as he walked.

Li Xiao didn't rush to answer but instead observed the surroundings. He quickly saw a photo displayed on a table in the corner: a gentle, elegant woman and a playful, cute girl.

Seeing this, Li Xiao's heart stirred, and a plan formed in his mind.

"Mr. Mavis, we heard that the Black Hawk Empire had secretly built a special factory here, so to avoid being in an unfavorable position, we decided to take the risk and come in to investigate."

"I can't believe that just a few of you could break through such heavily guarded base security. The potential of the Outsiders is truly infinite."

Mavis said with a sigh, "That's right, this is indeed the Black Hawk Empire's secret weapons research base."

"I believe you must have seen the production lines on the first and second floors; that is the first type of individual main weapon we have put into production: the Destroyer Crystal Energy Gun!"

"Of course, we have already seen the data for the Crystal Energy Gun, but I would like to ask, what is this ink crystal?" Li Xiao couldn't help asking out of curiosity.

"The ink crystal is a crystal mineral rich in extremely strong energy that we newly discovered in the Arctic region. Because it presents as an ink-colored crystal, it is named ink crystal."

Mavis became serious when mentioning scientific research. "Through research, we discovered that the ink crystal can instantly release energy over a hundred times greater than an equivalent mass of TNT explosives via high-energy laser beams."

"I discovered this ink crystal by accident during an expedition to the Arctic. It was my own vanity that caused me to publish the relevant research paper."

"After the Gamma Empire was defeated by the Black Hawk Empire, I was kept under house arrest by them in this base, researching and developing new weapons day and night using the ink crystal as an energy source."