I can see experience bars after being transported to another world.

in the afternoon.

Sunlight shone on the copper surface around the cave entrance, reflecting a somewhat dazzling light.

Beren squatted about forty meters from the cave entrance, his right hand pressed against the surface of a copper coin, his left hand resting on a cane.

Kai'er squatted down beside him, holding a small notebook and a charcoal pencil, taking notes as needed.

Lu Yuan led two night watchmen to guard the perimeter.

The area in front of the cave entrance was very quiet.

This is always the case during the day.

Buren’s hand moved slowly across the surface of the copper plate.

He would stop every so often, tap the copper plate a few times with his fingers, and listen to the sounds coming from inside the plate.

"Lift this piece up."

Kel took a flat chisel from his toolbox and pried along the edge of the copper plate a few times.

The copper plate loosened, revealing a layer of compacted soil underneath and a copper tube embedded in the soil, slightly thicker than a finger, with fine engravings on its surface.

Buren bent down to look.

I watched it for about half a minute.

Then he straightened up and looked around.

"Lift two more pieces. The one on the left, and the third one in front."

Kel did as instructed.

After the three copper plates were lifted, three conductive veins were revealed on the ground.

Lu Yuan noticed that Bo Lun's expression had changed.

The old man was the kind of person who gets excited whenever he sees inscriptions, his eyes shining and his fingers gesturing incessantly.

But now he squats next to the second coin, motionless.

"What's wrong?" Lu Yuan walked over.

Buren did not answer immediately.

He pointed with his finger to the layer of soil that had been removed from the copper coin.

"Look at this."

Lu Yuan squatted down.

The soil has been turned over.

It's not natural settlement and compaction; it's the mark of being dug up and backfilled.

The backfill was looser than the surrounding soil and its color was slightly different; the newly turned soil was darker in color.

"When?"

Beren picked up a small piece of soil and rubbed it between his fingertips.

"It's hard to say. But it won't be long." He flicked away the dirt and debris.

"This looseness... a few months? Half a year? It's definitely not something left over from when it was first laid."

"Is there anything else you can see?"

"No." Buren stood up and walked to the other two uncovered copper plates.

Check them one by one.

Two of the three locations showed similar signs of soil disturbance.

Buren's brow furrowed more and more tightly.

"Someone recently lifted these copper plates, disturbed the underlying electrical channels, and then put them back on."

He glanced at Lu Yuan.

"It's not repair. Repair would leave traces of welding and grinding, which are not present here. It's more like...inspection."

Lu Yuan remained silent.

The gray-white text danced quietly at the edge of my field of vision.

[Current Status of Bronze City: +1...4/50]

Beren didn't care what Lu Yuan was thinking. He was already lying on the ground, his face almost pressed against the surface of the copper tubes that conducted the energy channels.

"The lamp." He reached out to Kael.

Kel handed over a small copper hand lamp containing a gold-plated phosphorescent liquid.

The pale blue light shone on the copper pipe, making the surface texture very clear.

Buren stared at it for a long time.

Then he took out a small knife and gently scraped a section of the copper pipe that had already broken off.

What was scraped off was not copper shavings.

It is a layer of dark powder.

Lu Yuan leaned closer to take a look.

The cross-section of the copper tube has two colors.

The outer layer is a normal copper color, which darkens slightly after oxidation.

However, there was a ring of dark brown corrosion marks on the inside of the copper pipe, as if it had been burned from the inside.

"We're in trouble," Beren said in a low voice.

"The corrosion is in the wrong direction."

"What do you mean?"

"Normal metal corrosion occurs from the outside in. The outer layer comes into contact with substances in the air and soil first, so the outer layer is the first to have problems," Beren said, pointing to the cross-section of the copper pipe with a knife.

"But the corrosion on the inner wall of this pipe is far more severe than that on the outer wall. In some places, it has been corroded through, while the outer wall is still intact."

Buren straightened up and walked to the second and third segments of the meridians, examining them one by one.

All three sections showed the same severe corrosion on their inner walls.

Lu Yuan looked at those cross-sections.

The transmission network is the conduit that transports the power of the city wall runes from the inner city to various parts of the outer city.

The power flows through the pipe.

If the pipe corrodes from the inside out...

"The problem lies at the source," Lu Yuan said.

Buren nodded.

"The things that flow in are not clean to begin with."

His tone changed from excited to serious.

"The runes on the city walls are still glowing, though they're getting dimmer each day, which means they're still emitting power. But right now, that power is corroding its own channels." Beren paused slightly.

"Copper, silver, and gold are the three great enemies of the bizarre. I've been working with this stuff for decades and I've never seen anything like it. It can flow inside copper and even corrode its structure in the opposite direction."

Lu Yuan did not respond.

He thought of the bronze pillars he had seen at the bottom of the abyss.

Beren had also gone down into the cave, touched the bronze pillars with his own hands, and knew that those huge bronze structures extended from the cliff face and plunged into the abyss.

But Buren did not know that the bronze pillar pointed towards the inner city.

They had no idea what that meant.

Lu Yuan didn't believe the Night Watchmen were unaware, so he didn't plan to tell anyone else for the time being.

Especially that old guy, Buren.

Lu Yuan had a premonition that as soon as he finished speaking, the old man would immediately find an excuse to slip away.

"I can fix this pipe," Beren said, tapping the copper pipe.

"The cross-section treatment, which cleans the decayed area, presents no technical problems."

"But if it's truly the power of bronze that's been corrupted, even if I finish repairing it, it won't last long."

"Should we still fix it?"

Beren stood up, leaning on his cane, his knee creaking.

"build."

Lu Yuan looked in the direction of the cave entrance.

"Tell me what you need."

Buren nodded and squatted down again.

Buren moved the entire toolbox next to the first break.

Kai'er opened the box, and there were more things inside than Lu Yuan had expected.

Copper bristle brushes, needle-like objects of various diameters.

A row of sealed copper tubes, several bottles of dark liquid, and a complete set of carving knives.

From the thickest to the finest needle, there were more than a dozen, inserted into a leather knife roll.

Buren squatted in front of the broken section and first used a copper bristle brush to clean about a palm's width from both sides of the cross-section.

Then he closed his eyes.

Place both hands flat on the cross-section of the copper tube.

After a while, a very faint blue-white light began to emanate from the tips of Beren's fingers.

The faint light spread from the fingertips to the palm, and then seeped into the surface of the copper tube where the fingers were touching.

The areas on the inner wall of the copper pipe covered with dark brown corrosion began to react.

The inner wall is covered with a dense array of patterns.

Beren's fingers hovered above those lines.

No contact was made.

His pupils shimmered with a blue light.

It resonates with the subtle light at your fingertips.

"Kail, remember." Beren's expression changed; he was no longer the old man who had been muttering to himself.

"In the first section, about 60% of the inscriptions on the inner wall remain clear. The style is consistent with the end of the city wall on the ground, but the engraving depth is increased by two to three times. The base texture is still intact and can be used as an anchor point."

Kel's pen moved swiftly.

Beren pulled a medium-sized carving knife from the scroll.

The tip of the knife hovered less than one millimeter above the inner wall of the copper tube.

He did not make the cut directly.

Instead, he used his left index finger to tap a spot on the inner wall that Lu Yuan couldn't discern as anything special.

The faint blue-white light at my fingertips lingered for a moment at that point.

A very subtle vibration came from deep inside the copper tube.

It was as if something had been awakened.

Centered on that point, a ring of patterns that Lu Yuan couldn't understand at all emerged from inside the bronze wall.

The lines are finer than a strand of hair, intertwined and coiled, taking on a dark gold hue under the blue-white light.

Buren stared at the patterns for about five seconds.

Then the carving knife fell.

Precisely cut into the break in one of the lines.

The sound of the knife tip scraping against the copper wall was almost inaudible.

But with each cut, the dark gold patterns brightened a little more.

Beren's breathing became rapid, as if he was expending a lot of energy.

The carving knife in his hand moved extremely fast.

But there is a very brief pause between each cut.

He paused for a moment to re-perceive the direction of the patterns before making his next cut.

Lu Yuan stood to the side, watching without moving.

He couldn't understand those patterns.

The gray and white text offered no further explanation.

But he could tell what Buren was doing.

He was reconnecting the invisible network of inscriptions inside the copper pipes, one by one.

Each time a line is connected, the surface of the copper pipe heats up slightly.

The faint light spread from the break to both sides.

A break in the wall.

It took Beren nearly forty minutes.

When he finished, he straightened up, put the carving knife back into the scabbard, and the bluish-white light on his fingers slowly faded.

The blue in his pupils also faded.

The old man's face was covered in sweat.

At the same time, the gray and white text flickered at the edge of my field of vision.

[You observed the repair and diagnosis process of the inscription's conductive structure...]

Unlock new knowledge.

[Inscription (Basic): +0.1...0.1/10]

Lu Yuan raised an eyebrow upon seeing this, and thought, "It works just as I thought."

"Next place," Buren said to Kel.

Kel had moved the toolbox next to the second break.

Throughout the afternoon, Burren repeated this process three times.

There are three breaks.

A total of approximately forty meters of conductive veins were connected.

When he finished the third part, Buren's hands were trembling slightly.

[Inscription (Basic): +0.1...+0.1...0.6/10]

"Alright." He patted the mud off his knees. "The pipes here and the runes on the city wall aren't integrated; there are obvious flaws in the workmanship in several places."

"But it's thanks to this that we could finish today, otherwise we really wouldn't have been able to finish. We'll see how it goes after dark."

"When the city wall runes light up, the power will be automatically transferred," Kael added.

"If it's working, the surface of this section of the copper plate should show a faint glow."

"That is, the wall runes will still light up tonight," Beren muttered.

The sun had not yet set.

Lu Yuan took Bo Lun back to the Alchemy Workshop.

Glock is on the first floor.

"What did they find out?" Glock asked, somewhat puzzled by Buren's condition.

Buren leaned against the wall and didn't say anything.

Lu Yuan spoke for him.

Two things.

"First, someone recently removed the copper plate in the Beifang area, disturbed the underlying transmission channels, and then covered it back up. This happened within a few months to half a year."

Glock's eyes narrowed slightly.

"I will investigate."

"The second item."

"The copper tubes that conduct energy are more severely corroded on the inner wall than on the outer wall."

Glock wasn't an inscriptionist, but he understood the keywords.

"Rotten from the inside?"

"Yes," Lu Yuan said.

"The thing that flowed through itself had a problem, but I don't know exactly what it was."

Glock looked along as he watched Buren.

Are you sure?

After a brief silence, Buren finally nodded.

"I've been working in this field for decades and I've never seen copper pipes corrode from the inside. There's only one explanation: the force being transmitted itself is corrosive."

Glock rested his hands on the map table and looked down at it for a while.

"This situation needs to be reported to the branch." He looked up.

"Damn it, when did so many things start happening in Bronze City?!"

Glock thought for a moment, then asked.

"Berlen," he called out. "Could you assess the trend of pollution changes in the section you repaired?"

"Yes." Buren's voice was a little hoarse.

"The rate and depth of pipe wall corrosion will change in tandem with the degree of contamination at the source. I only need to check it every few hours."

"Okay." Glock straightened up.

"I'm going straight into the city later. None of you are allowed to tell anyone that someone touched the coins."

He glanced at Lu Yuan and Boren.

"I'll handle things at the branch office, but until things are cleared up, this matter won't leave the Alchemy Workshop."

Neither Lu Yuan nor Bo Lun had any objections.

Glock turned and went upstairs to write his report.

it's dark.

The fifth night.

The runes on the city wall lit up.

It's even darker than last night.

Lu Yuan stood at the front of the new position, with the compressed defensive line behind him.

The area in front of the cave entrance was pitch black.

At the edge of my field of vision, the gray and white text lay quietly.

[Environmental Sensing: Very few pollution sources detected...]

This is the fifth night.

The ghouls still haven't come.

Lu Yuan did not relax.

He was waiting for the response from that nerve pathway.

Behind them, Beren did not return to the Alchemy Workshop.

The old man, wrapped in an old coat, squatted down next to the copper coin he had repaired that afternoon, his hands pressed on the ground.

Kai'er squatted down beside him, holding a lantern at his feet.

Then--

"Lu Yuan!"

Beren’s voice came from behind.

It's not big, but it's urgent.

Lu Yuan gestured for Bo'er to look straight ahead, then quickly walked over.

Buren's hand was still on the copper coin.

His face appeared very white under the pale blue light of the handheld lamp.

"Look."

Lu Yuan lowered his head.

Textures appeared on the surface of the copper plate.

The conduction pathways that Buren repaired in the afternoon were indeed unblocked.

The faint glow of the inscription patterns began to appear on the surface of the copper plate.

But the color is wrong.

Normal rune light should be a deep blue.

The light emanating from this copper coin has a grayish-green tint.

The gray-green light slowly spread along the inscription patterns, flowing from the direction near the cave entrance towards the position.

"Wrong direction." Buren's voice was strained.

"The direction of the runes on the city walls is from the inner city to the outer city. But this light is traveling upwards from the direction of the cave entrance."

"From underground."

Buren nodded.

"The pathways are bidirectional; something is flowing back in at the other end."

At the edge of my field of vision, gray and white text jumped out.

[Environmental Sensing: Unknown pollution source detected... It is recommended to maintain distance...]

"Can we sever this connection?" Lu Yuan asked immediately.

"If we don't cut it off, the underground contaminants will seep to the surface through the pipes," Beren said quickly.

"If this stuff can contaminate bronze with inscriptions, it can certainly contaminate uninscribed ground."