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Chapter 206 Orion Entrance

The signal lights in the control room started flashing again, and Su Wanqing casually stuffed the last vital signs report into a folder.

Lu Zhao was already standing by the control panel, wearing a freshly disinfected Class A protective suit, carrying a spare oxygen cylinder in his hand.

Su Wanqing glanced back at the pulsating energy curve on the main control screen, then checked the fusion status of the jade bracelet and the core.

"Shall we begin?" Lu Zhao tugged at the Velcro on his cuff, speaking bluntly, "There's not much time left; the army outside the barrier is still changing formation."

Su Wanqing pressed the bracelet tightly against her wrist and took a deep breath. The two energy cores had already fused completely within the jade bracelet, and she felt a warm current flowing through her cool wrist, her mind clearer than ever before.

She looked around and saw several faint bands of color in her field of vision, with various mixed energy fluctuations rippled slightly, like invisible ripples moving in the air.

She turned off the outside lights and whispered, "I can sense something now. If anything seems amiss, follow me."

Lu Zhao nodded. With Xiao Ran's final confirmation over the walkie-talkie, the two passed through the partition door and put on the protective suits that had been provided.

They carried only the most basic tools, a signal booster, and a few canisters of compressed oxygen.

"Shall we go in this way?" Lu Zhao reached out and pushed open the main control back door, where a narrow iron ladder led directly to the abandoned maintenance shaft below.

“That’s right. The shaft has been unused for decades, and the rest of the area has been locked up by the military.”

Su Wanqing glanced up at the mural. As she stepped into the well, the bracelet emitted a slight ripple, causing her to subconsciously touch her wrist. "The bracelet is becoming more and more responsive..."

The metal pedals beneath their feet made a low creaking sound as they slowly descended, one after the other.

The shaft opening was quickly sealed off by the metal door above, with only the emergency lights on the side emitting a very weak, cold white light.

About ten minutes later, the temperature began to rise sharply, and Su Wanqing's palms became sweaty.

"The oxygen is starting to thin." Lu Zhao checked the gauge while tightening his oxygen mask. "40.1 degrees, we've dropped to 200 meters."

Su Wanqing felt a tightness in her chest, but the icy sensation from the bracelet steadily expanded. "Look at the wall."

She shone her searchlight onto the well wall and saw that the originally yellowed and peeling concrete was covered with large areas of whitish corrosion pits, and in some places the steel bars were even exposed.

Most noticeably, a few meters below, there are three or four particularly deep claw marks that have torn through the outer steel plate, with the edges showing signs of blackening.

“Like traces of corrosive agent residue?” Lu Zhao said softly, then leaned closer to look more closely. “And these, the claw marks are very fresh, and there’s some reddish liquid on top, they just dried.”

Su Wanqing's eyelids twitched. The bracelet was now pulsating slightly, reminding her that the energy fluctuations in the shaft had changed.

She gritted her teeth and continued downwards, carefully avoiding the slippery pits from time to time.

“Something is very close.” She pointed to the marks on the ground, her voice lowering.

"Could it be that the experimental subject climbed out from downstairs?" Lu Zhao slowly moved over to look at the side wall. "The temperature is rising and the oxygen is falling. This is not a natural environmental change. There must have been an accident here before."

The two didn't say anything more and focused on descending. The oxygen alarm started sounding at a high frequency at 250 meters, so Lu Zhao simply pulled the shielding film up and checked the interface again.

At a distance of 350 meters, a barrier suddenly appeared in front of us.

It's an alloy protective door, but the entire door has melted and deformed, with half of it twisted into a wavy shape.

The security lock had completely malfunctioned; the latch was covered in clumps of black stains, and there were even large areas of flow marks from molten metal and concrete in the center. Su Wanqing slowed her pace and placed her hand on the alloy door fragment. She immediately felt a tingling sensation in her wrist, and the bracelet automatically popped up an energy reading interface.

A string of highly unstable thermal energy records flashed across the surface.

“It’s a biogas gate.” Lu Zhao inserted the small tool into the interface, carefully avoiding the deformed debris. “The alloy door is heat-resistant and leak-proof, and the upper part controls the gas pressure. This design is to prevent the experimental subject below from escaping. Judging from these marks, something broke through the door, and the temperature is far beyond that of a conventional flame.”

Su Wanqing frowned as she listened, and with each step she took, the alarm from the bracelet became more pronounced.

She withdrew her hand and strode through the half-ruined isolation door, leaving behind a few pieces of metal debris and a pungent, burnt smell.

"What do you feel?" Lu Zhao asked in a muffled voice.

“The bracelet is very sensitive, and there are complex fluctuations underneath.” Su Wanqing briefly described the unusual activity she sensed. “It’s not just a simple electric current or heat energy, there’s something else I can’t quite put my finger on.”

After descending to 400 meters, the communicator was reduced to static. Xiao Ran's last message appeared on the screen: "Your signal is about to drop. Military satellites in a sinking orbit to the east have detected an energy anomaly in the Orion region. Troops are assembling and may be looking for other entrances. If not necessary, evacuate immediately."

Lu Zhao lowered his voice: "Only the signal booster can send one-way messages. If we really encounter an emergency, the higher-ups won't pull us out."

Su Wanqing glanced at the communicator and saw that the text on the screen only flashed once and then disappeared.

She mentally calculated the time and route, pressed the bracelet against the well wall for a while, and sensed the residual energy again.

Calmly speaking, "The bottom is at 500 meters, and the Orion entrance should connect directly to the main layer of the experimental area."

They continued downwards, where the corrosion and scratches on the well walls became increasingly dense, and the thermometer had already exceeded 43 degrees Celsius.

Cold sweat began to trickle down my body inside my protective suit, and even my breathing became short.

The oxygen cylinder is half full.

Finally, the two of them went down to the bottom, where there was a huge circular metal door, more than three meters wide, embedded high in the black wall.

The door shows obvious signs of impact and repair, with the words "Orion Project Alpha Station" engraved in the middle.

The access control structure on the side of the door was mostly destroyed, but the light above the sensing area was still on, and the chip embedded in the panel was extremely complex.

Just as Lu Zhao was about to check the wiring interface, a row of green dots suddenly lit up. Even though no one had touched the access control, the infrared sensor had already detected Su Wanqing.

The next moment, the entire access control panel emitted a synthesized mechanical voice: "Welcome back, S-7 Project Manager."

Lu Zhao froze, speechless for a moment. Su Wanqing wiped the sweat from her forehead and her lips twitched: "I've never been to a place like this before."

The lock then slowly unlocked, and the heavy metal door opened from the inside.

A stream of heat, mixed with dust and a metallic smell, flowed out from the gap.

The bracelet sounded an alarm again, indicating an increased security level and a sensor malfunction.

The outside signal was completely silenced. Su Wanqing and Lu Zhao didn't exchange words, but simply held their weapons steady and quickly approached the door, carefully observing the remaining energy reaction inside.

The interior was dark and silent, with only the low hum of some kind of machine echoing in the distance, outlining the vague contours of the unknown space behind the door.