Chapter 158: Which part does A-Cheng want to see?

"What about their upper management? The leaders of the Black Island organization?"
"Unclear. Let's look around."
"There isn't a single person here. Really strange."
They pressed onward, arriving at the central area of Black Island's main base—a pitch-black, circular hall.
It was an elevator platform resembling an underground safe house.
"It seems Black Island's headquarters still has a subterranean section. Just not sure if their leadership is down there." Ji Cheng pondered, then pressed his earpiece to notify the people behind him. "Ahead is an elevator platform. Abilities with protective equipment, keep up quickly. I'm afraid there might be an ambush below."
Click.
Auto-induction lights flickered on one circle after another. Under the blinding white glare, disinfecting gas sprayed from small holes, only to be sucked away a few seconds later.
The elevator platform began to descend, taking a full five or six minutes before stopping.
What appeared before them was a vast, empty hall spanning hundreds of square meters, shaped like a regular pentagon. In the center stood a pure white curved counter, stamped with the insignia of the Black Island organization.
Ahead lay three alloy-forged corridors, brightly lit yet completely silent, steeped in a dead stillness as if no one had ever set foot there.
"At the current depth, instruments can't measure it, but judging from the descent speed and time, we must be deep underground," Ji Cheng glanced at the data on his wrist computer.
"Chen Qian, can you hear me?"
There was no response. That meant the depth was even greater than imagined—perhaps nearly a thousand meters?
"Look, there are so many surveillance screens here!"
An Esper pointed toward the curved counter. After rushing over, they saw countless card-sized light screens embedded inside the counter. With just a gentle tap, they expanded to display surveillance footage from various locations within the base.
"The armory, the archives, the raw material warehouse, the biological culture room, the gas chamber..." Centipede crowded to the front, the scar on his face twitching as he read off the names one by one. "Every place is empty. This base is just an empty shell!"
"How about splitting up to search? This base is too huge, and there are too many branching paths," suggested an Esper. "Grouping everyone together makes no sense and just makes movement inconvenient."
"That's right. Black Island has stood tall for so many years; they must have plenty of high-end technology and products. It would be a pity to miss out. Let's split up and search; it'll be more efficient."
"What does South Harbor say?"
"We request to split up for the search!"
"Ensure all spoils of war are sealed up, and South Harbor can distribute them later."
Seeing no enemies present, these Espers, whose muscle mass clearly outweighed their brains, were immediately blinded by the prospect of potential loot.
"Fine then."
Ji Cheng thought about it. With over a hundred people squeezed together, mobility was indeed restricted. If they actually ran into an ambush, well, tough luck for them.
There were three corridors ahead, so the Espers were divided into three groups. He tried to distribute the Tier 1 and Tier 2 Espers evenly among them.

Ji Cheng personally led the first group, while the second group was handed over to Lin Shou, the veteran powerhouse from Sand City. As for the third group, Ji Cheng nepotistically assigned Luo Rao to lead them.
Mainly, he feared that other people would secretly embezzle and swallow the Tyrant Serums. This arrangement gave him at least a two-thirds probability of preventing that.
Luo Rao's strength ranked relatively high among the Tier 2 Espers, so no one could find fault with Ji Cheng's arrangement. Soon, Ji Cheng led his group into one of the corridors.
"We've lost contact with the people upstairs, but our three teams must maintain communication. Report to me immediately if anything happens."
Footsteps echoed endlessly as they continued their exploration deeper into the facility.
...
Hours later, Lin Shou led dozens of Espers into a magnificent, colossal chamber filled with dense metal pillars resembling a primeval jungle.
"Look over there, magnetic-absorption weapon racks!" Yuan Feng from Anxi City whistled, his expression excited.
"As expected of the Black Island organization's headquarters." Lin Shou laughed, revealing a missing tooth knocked out long ago during a fight with a mutated beast.
"Coming along to help this time was definitely the right choice."
"Indeed. Who would have thought Black Island was so fragile? It was conquered without paying much of a price."
Suddenly—
"My goodness, the weapons stored here are probably all remnants of the Empire from before the disaster. Look at this workmanship and the engraving... Imperial Ministry of Industry, Year 1244!"
"This... why didn't Black Island use these things?"
The Espers were dumbfounded, their blank gazes fixed upon the weapon racks.
"Forget it, we're rich!"
...
At the same time, Ji Cheng and his people were gradually pushing deeper into the underground of the base.
Beep, beep—
His communicator chimed, and Ji Cheng pressed his earpiece.
"Sister, what's wrong?" Ji Cheng's tactical eyepiece synchronously displayed the name, indicating it was Luo Rao.
"Ah-Cheng, how is it over there? Did you find anything?" Luo Rao's voice sounded excited.
"Not very lucky, nothing discovered yet," Ji Cheng smiled.
"We found loads of weapon equipment and various chemicals over here!" Luo Rao bragged, as if fishing for praise.
"Oh, not bad. Send me a photo then."
"Which part does Ah-Cheng want to see?"

Ji Cheng paused, then covered his forehead. "Not a picture of yourself, take pictures of the spoils."
"Oh, okay."
Ji Cheng quickly received the photo. Finding nothing resembling the Tyrant Serum in the image, he immediately lost interest.
He didn't care much for other things. Aside from figuring out the probability engine and the navigation route shielding, only those serums could excite him.
"Alright, continue your search. Keep it up."
Ji Cheng coaxed Luo Rao with a few words and ended the communication.
"I've searched this corridor for so long, why hasn't anything turned up..." Ji Cheng called out to the Espers behind him, passing through a silver-gray door to press further inside.
Not far ahead of Ji Cheng lay a dark, gloomy injection room.
"It really is him."
"No matter how I alter the positions of the various corridors, he always chooses the correct one, leading straight to my location."
"This is the effect of the probability engine..."
"Let's confirm one last time."
A button was activated, and command signals traveled through countless circuits hidden within the walls. The Black Island base began to rotate like a massive compass, reorganizing the corridor layouts as pathways shifted silently.
Yet the Espers were completely oblivious to this, their normally keen perceptions seemingly paralyzed.
...
"Why is there another fork in the road? Which one is this now?"
"Should we just split up? The others have found plenty of good stuff, and we've still got nothing!"
"We haven't encountered any danger for so long. As long as we're led by a Tier 2 powerhouse, nothing will go wrong."
After a long while, Ji Cheng finally led his group into a deep, pitch-black room. By this time, only a few Espers remained behind him, all of them Tier 1.
"This smell... Is it the Tyrant Serum?"
Ji Cheng's gaze pierced the darkness, quickly spotting a large quantity of pale yellow liquid sealed inside a gigantic, teardrop-shaped glass apparatus, continuously radiating a grim and terrifying aura.
At that moment, a glowing mist drifted down from the ceiling, filling the room with flickering shadows.
The luminous fog surged and hovered above a high platform, its outline and form gradually becoming clear.