56: Chapter 56 Repair Fluid

Lin Li immediately walked out of the room and waved at Ironhead, who was waiting for noodles by the big pot: "Ironhead, stop eating, come downstairs with me."

Ironhead put down his large bowl, grunted in response, and without asking any questions, followed Lin Li directly into the second basement level.

Lin Li opened the armory, shoved the police-issue demolition melta sword that Flash had bought on credit into Ironhead's hands, and then equipped him with a heavy Medical Exoskeleton.

After Ironhead adjusted to the hydraulic assistance of the exoskeleton, Lin Li got himself geared up as well.

He picked up the refined steel halberd and securely holstered the dark gold Adrastite pistol at his waist.

The two walked out of the elevator one after the other and arrived at the camp gate.

At this moment, some of the remaining players who hadn't gone to the mine to fight had received the news from the forums and were gathering around curiously.

"This feels just like a forced story CG."

[Use Fire Punch] crossed his arms, "If a fight really breaks out, it doesn't seem like our fire pokers will be able to penetrate his armor."

"Huh?" [Nicotine Truth] had sharp eyes and pointed at Lin Li's waist, "Look at Boss Dawn's waist, isn't that a new weapon?"

[Wang Shouyi 13-Spice] leaned in to take a closer look: "It looks like a pistol, but the dark gold design looks a bit mainstream-defying, it doesn't even have a muzzle."

[ikun True Fan] laughed, "Brothers, let's work harder, do more brick-moving tasks, and strive to get our boss a sister-in-law with a light sword by next year!"

Lin Li maintained his cold NPC face, but upon hearing the dialogue of this bunch of clowns, he almost couldn't hold back his laughter.

Just then.

In the distance on the horizon, an unusually tall figure slowly appeared in everyone's line of sight.

The man was about 2.5 meters tall, shirtless, his solid muscles covered in pathological red spots.

He had a strip of rough linen wrapped casually around his waist, and his messy brown hair danced in the wind, partially obscuring his features, which were somewhat twisted due to deformity.

On his shoulder, he carried Pi She, who was still struggling frantically.

This scene truly had a suffocating sense of oppression.

Lin Li subconsciously gripped the pistol handle, his palms full of sweat.

Conversely, Ironhead, standing beside him, still wore his usual foolish, nonchalant expression, with the melta sword on his shoulder, showing no signs of fear.

Within a few minutes, the tall man stopped a few dozen meters away from the camp gate.

His sharp eyes slowly scanned the concrete walls being built, the shivering native miners, and the players pointing fingers on the side.

Finally, his gaze locked firmly onto Lin Li.

To be precise, it locked onto the dark gold pistol in Lin Li's hand, which was already drawn and pointing at him.

Lin Li did not want to shoot.

After all, this causality weapon could only fire once, and there were clearly more than one of these deformed brutes on the other side.

If he killed this guy in one shot and completely enraged the remaining monsters, the Shelter would truly be doomed.

The atmosphere froze to the freezing point.

The tall man suddenly stopped, and gently placed Pi She back on the ground.

As soon as Pi She's feet touched the ground, he scrambled into the camp, cursing as he ran:

"Holy crap! You scared the hell out of me! Damn it, I thought I was really going to croak this time!"

Carmen ignored Pi She, stepped forward, and spoke in a standard High Gothic language that even carried an ancient aristocratic accent.

"I have no hostility, friend. I came here just because I need one thing."

While speaking, Carmen's eyes never left the equipment at Lin Li's waist and in his hand.

"Adrastite pistol... civilian-grade refined steel halberd... medical rehabilitation exoskeleton... police-issue demolition melta sword..."

Carmen silently recited the names of this equipment in his heart, his mind in turmoil.

These were all genuine products of the Golden Age!

Especially that dark gold pistol aimed at him.

As a former high-ranking warrior, he knew all too well the power of that thing.

As long as the other party pulled the trigger, that beam could instantly erase him from the material realm, skin and bone alike.

This completely confirmed his previous speculation!

These people before him were definitely survivors of Terra who had mastered ancient technology!

Perhaps, they might even be the most mysterious legends...

Carmen took a deep breath, and when his gaze swept over Lin Li's face—which was pure to the extreme, without any trace of genetic modification—his bulging eyes suddenly widened, and he blurted out:

"Ancient... Golden Men?"

To those ignorant imperial civilians, this term might just be a myth.

But Carmen knew exactly what it meant.

The Golden Men were not known for their physical strength; their true power lay in their profound knowledge and creation abilities, enough to rewrite the laws of the universe!

Carmen subconsciously lowered his posture to the minimum, his tone even carrying a hint of pleading:

"This item is very important to me and my brothers. We are willing to pay any price to obtain it."

Lin Li appeared calm on the surface, but was calculating frantically in his heart.

"Something is being targeted by this brute? Looking at how persistent he is, if I don't give him some sweetness, this ticking time bomb won't be dealt with anytime soon."

Lin Li spoke coldly, his Gothic fluent and icy: "What do you need?"

Carmen did not hesitate: "I need their genetic data."

Good grief, asking for the trump card right off the bat.

Lin Li didn't even think, refusing decisively: "None. If you want my life, take it. Please leave."

Carmen was taken aback.

With such perfect cloning technology, how could there be no genetic backup data?

But he didn't dare to pry, and immediately settled for the next best thing:

"If there is no data... or, give me one of your [Incubation Pods]."

Lin Li's heart stirred.

An Incubation Pod? The Shelter had plenty of these; at worst, it just meant one less player could be resurrected temporarily.

This deal, it's worth it!

"Fine."

Lin Li said calmly, his gun still not lowered, "But I need one liter of [Nano-Repair Fluid] in exchange. Payment upon delivery."

Lin Li keenly noticed that the man named Carmen, upon hearing this condition, visibly relaxed his tense muscles.

"Twenty minutes, trade here."

Carmen dropped this sentence and turned around.

The next second.

"Bang!"

A deep pit was stomped directly into the ground.

Carmen's massive body, like a cannonball fired from a chamber, vanished into the end of the wasteland with a shrill whistling wind.

Lin Li was so shocked his jaw almost dropped.

"Twenty minutes? That's nearly forty kilometers round trip to the Food Factory! Is this guy human or a ghost?!"

The players watching the commotion were in an uproar.

"Holy crap! Teleportation!"

"Is this still a human? This speed must have broken the sound barrier, right?"

"This monster's level feels like at least level 100, right? I don't think I could outrun him even at max level!"

Lin Li forcibly suppressed the shock in his heart, regained his composure, and waved at the chattering players.

"Don't just stand there! Go to the underground resurrection area, detach the Incubation Pod on the edge, and carry it to the gate!"

Losing one machine didn't matter.

Only Pi She, who had just escaped death, protested from the side with a resentful look:

"Hey, hey, hey! Boss! You're carrying my bed! At least let me lie in it for a while to save my progress, can't you?"

Twenty minutes later.

Accompanied by a gust of wind, Carmen appeared on time outside the camp gate.

In his hand, he carried a heavy, sealed metal canister emitting a faint, ghostly blue glow.

Seeing the dormant Incubation Pod placed on the ground, a Flash of unconcealable ecstasy crossed Carmen's eyes.

He placed the sealed canister on the ground, then easily hoisted the several-hundred-pound Incubation Pod with one hand, turning into a gust of wind again and vanishing without a trace.

Not until the other party had completely left did Lin Li step forward, pick up the metal canister, and walk quickly back to the main control room on the first basement level.

Lin Li hadn't expected that the problem that had been holding him back would be solved like this.

"73! Inspect the goods!"

Lin Li placed the canister heavily on the table, "See if this thing is Nano-Repair Fluid!"

73's scanning beam flashed by.

"Confirmed, Creator. Pure industrial-grade Nano-Repair Fluid."

73's mechanical voice carried a rare hint of appreciation,

"You only need to pour out 428 milliliters to completely repair that primary Matter Constructor, which is in a semi-paralyzed state."

Lin Li did not hesitate; he opened the canister, took a measuring cup, and carefully poured half of the ghostly blue liquid evenly onto the core damaged area of the massive constructor in Room 3.

The ghostly blue liquid seemed to possess life, quickly seeping into the gaps of the metal.

While waiting for the repair, Lin Li leaned against the doorframe and asked casually:

"73, did you see through that brute's background?"

"From the current biological data, it is certain that he is a deeply modified mutant genetic weapon."

73 brought up a set of analysis charts,

"But he did not show any rejection reaction to our Shelter's Blackstone silence field, so it can be inferred that he has no Warp essence. This excludes the possibility that he is some kind of Primarch-level entity."

"However, there is a 25% probability that they are [Space Marines] with severe genetic mutations."

73 added,

"Specifics need more data to support. But what is certain is that their genetic chains have fatal defects. Combined with the previous inference, their capturing of clones and demanding of Incubation Pods is very likely some desperate reverse experiment, attempting to compensate for their own genetic collapse."

Lin Li nodded thoughtfully.

In the Warhammer universe, the various legions of Space Marines all have some genetic defects to varying degrees.

It is really too difficult to guess their specific identity based on just a few characteristics.

"Forget it, let it be."

Lin Li let out a long sigh,

"As long as they don't have strong hostility toward the Shelter, for neighbors of this level, if we can't afford to provoke them, can't we just avoid them? Taking what we need, and not interfering with each other is best."

Just then.

Inside the massive Matter Constructor in front of him, a crisp beep suddenly sounded.

Immediately after, the originally dim indicator lights on the machine body, like dominoes, lit up with brilliant blue light one after another from bottom to top!

"Matter Constructor core damaged area repair complete."

"Machine tool is performing autonomous upgrade and reorganization of underlying protocols... Estimated time: 60 minutes."

At the same time.

The pv terminal on Lin Li's wrist suddenly popped up a golden, flashing prompt box!

[Main Quest: The First Step of Revival — Quest Complete!]

[Quest Rating: Perfect.]

[Reward Distribution: Administrator Core Points 500.]

[Shelter lower level permission unlock countdown ended. Basement Level 3 (B3) access and all affiliated permissions are fully open!]

Lin Li's breathing suddenly became heavy.

He couldn't wait for the 60-minute machine upgrade, turned around, and sprinted, running all the way to the elevator next to the main control room.

Sure enough!

On the elevator control panel, which originally only had B1 and B2, a [B3] button flashing with green light had appeared!

Lin Li didn't hesitate and slapped it.