Long-term salvation

Chapter 252: Secret Experimental Base (4K)

Khoratshakhli is not very high, only 1096.7 meters, but it is part of the Ural-Balston Mountains. Like the other peaks, it lacks vegetation and is covered only with scree and lichen.

The exposed rock surfaces are glowing grayish-white due to the sunlight. The angular stones are stacked layer by layer and interlocked at strange angles. Every crack is filled with the chill left over from the retreat of the Quaternary glaciers.

The wind blew in from the Siberian plains, carrying the scent of taiga humus, but it softened the moment it touched the granite cliffs... What animals could survive here? Perhaps only humans—like the Dyatlov expedition—would be foolish enough to choose to climb to the summit, to wear the winter snow-capped peak as a medal of honor.

In the slightly chilly wind, Rhodes straightened his body and looked along the ridge. He was using the power of his all-seeing eye mask to scan for areas that might have abnormalities:

It had been decades since the last experiment went out of control, and the Soviets had completely sealed the cave entrance and buried it with dirt and rubble, making it almost impossible to find the entrance to the base among the vast mountains using normal means.

Fortunately, Perseus still had a map, but it was only a supply route map, so he could only make guesses based on it. He might have to spend the night here again, so he would have to send a helicopter down the mountain to get some tents or something.

However, this time, it wasn't just Rhodes who joined the search. Sablin also joined in. He stood beside Rhodes, gazing at the mountain, his gaze descending from the ridgeline. Following his intuition, he whispered:

"Perhaps we could look in that direction, yes, a little further west, on that raised ridge opposite."

Rhode looked in the direction of the finger and soon saw some clues from the slight ridge in the distance:

[A passage leading to the interior of the mountain, buried by rocks and soil]

"We found it," Rhode exhaled slowly and said with emotion, "I really should have recruited you into the Army Without Borders. You'd definitely be able to command a war zone across an entire continent."

"It's just good luck... Even though I can't see those eyes now, I still feel very uncomfortable," Sablin said sincerely. He refused the cigarette Rhode offered and instead watched Perseus and the others approach through the occasional waft of smoke. "It's like looking at a dark palette, only the colors in that direction are darker, and then choosing the 'most uncomfortable' one from the 'uncomfortable' ones."

"In that case, we need to find a way to blow that place up... Mr. Andre, are any of these Perseus soldiers capable of firing a cannon?"

Rhodes smiled and directly exchanged the pollution points from the other world for a 122mm D30 howitzer. This beast made of steel then fell to the ground and crushed the weathered rocks into powder - of course, no one would be surprised at this time.

The auxiliary hoe of the artillery was quickly knocked down. The great power from Mother Earth was helping it to fight against the tyranny of the gunpowder. When the first shell whizzed out of the barrel, the whole world seemed to be pressed the slow motion button.

The orange-red muzzle flash cast a distorted shadow on the barren land, and the flames licked the surrounding air, causing it to tremble slightly with fear. The dust cloud kicked up by the shockwave choked the gunner's brow, and this anger drove him to pull the trigger again, causing the steel beast to roar again:

There are only two kinds of people in this world, the artilleryman and his target!

"Check the ruler, hit the hoe hard, it's close, but we better hit it accurately!"

As Rhode spoke, he used the telescope function of his eye mask to carefully examine the rock formation that had been blown apart. After making an estimate in his mind, he turned to Marian, who was acting as a loader, and the gunner who was aiming, and said:

"Load high-explosive grenades, three rapid-fire rounds—fire!"

The moment the roar of artillery sounded again, a column of gray-black smoke suddenly rose from the ridgeline, and the cracked rock layers fell off like torn puff pastry. The fragments drew hundreds of nearly perfect arcs in the air, making the air scream shrilly.

When the dust and mist from the ninth shell cleared, Rhodes saw that the entire ridge was collapsing under the force of gravity. Large and small pieces of rubble, wrapped in dry soil, slid down the slope like a sand castle with its blocks removed. The resulting roar was almost comparable to the roar of artillery fire.

An irregular, dark hole immediately appeared in front of everyone, and dry, hot wind filled with the smell of sulfur immediately gushed out of it, bringing with it the breath of darkness and decay.

[Pollution points in the other world increased by 1]

The closer they got to the cave entrance, the stronger the smell of sulfur became. This familiar scene made Perseus frown deeply. He turned his head to look at Rhodes, but saw the latter looking back at him and whispered:

"The atmosphere here..."

“It’s very heavy.”

Sablin continued the rest of the sentence, gazing into the darkness within:

"Why do I have such a strange feeling? It's like... something has happened before, but not here."

"I already know what's in there," Perseus breathed slowly. He put on his gas mask and opened the pistol on his AK-74 rifle. "I just didn't expect that after more than forty years, I would still encounter them again."

"Let's go in."

Rhodes didn't say much. He put on his mask and turned on his headlamp, then turned his head to Sablin and said:

"The helicopter will be here soon, be prepared to stay with them."

"I understand," Sablin nodded slightly, not insisting stubbornly. If he hadn't been imprisoned and his body hadn't been tortured by the long imprisonment, he would definitely ask to go in together, but he obviously couldn't cause trouble for the soldiers now. "Please be careful. Even standing here, I can understand the depth of darkness that resides in there."

Perseus's soldiers smiled at him, then followed Rhodes and walked into the darkness without any hesitation.

After walking nearly two hundred meters inside, everyone saw a metal door that was stuck in a slightly open state. There were obvious welding marks between the gaps in the door, as if it had been knocked open by something from the inside, but the attackers gave up when they found that it was dark outside.

The light from the lamp pierced the darkness, its bright glow suddenly revealing the jagged scratches on the door. Looking inside, one could see some angular metal object lying on the ground. Rhodes recognized it as the butt of a half-broken AK47 rifle.

The wooden handguard of the Soviet standard weapon was turning dark brown due to mold, and mixed with the dust accumulated on it, it looked extremely unpleasant.

Where is its owner?

There was only a dark trace extending into the depths of the darkness.

"Marian," Rod whispered his lover's name.

"clear."

Nikki nodded. She and Rod stood on both sides of the metal door and tried to pull it open with force. A faint sound of metal twisting was heard, and a strange creaking sound was made in the silent darkness, echoing along the inside and outside of the passage, in front of and behind the door.

Rhode frowned as he pried open the left side of the door. He found that this movement was even easier than he had imagined. He had originally intended to create a gap just enough for one person to enter sideways, but now it could actually allow two people to walk side by side.

The gate's mechanical structure had been completely rusted, corrupted by supernatural forces, reduced to a fragile child's toy. If the gate itself were not heavy enough, it would have collapsed and toppled over, catching those who entered this place unawares and causing casualties.

"Let's continue in."

Rhodes said as he was the first to walk through the gate, followed closely by Perseus.

Inside the gate, one could clearly see the artificially widened natural rock fissure above. Time-eroded concrete walls revealed twisted steel bars. When a Perseus soldier brushed the dark red sign on the wall with his tactical-gloved fingertips, the dust-covered, dark red Russian slogan, "For the Progress of the Soviet Union and Humanity," looked like dried blood.

The team advanced in silence, stepping through the rising dust and enduring the discomfort of the sulfur smell that penetrated their noses. However, this smell was not real, but a strange premonition that was drilling directly into the human mind, reminding them that they were stepping into hell.

"A familiar smell... Exactly the same as what I smelled in that winter forest." Perseus chuckled, his voice dripping with blood and hatred. "I thought I would never see them again. Very good, very good."

"Ghouls... Now there's a problem."

As Rhode spoke, his eyes swept across the cracks in the wall. There were so many of them, intertwining and forming a spiderweb-like radial network that extended into the deeper darkness. Looking closely at the cracks, one could see a faint dark yellow light flowing, as if volcanic lava was flowing.

"Why do the otherworldly rifts and monsters that appeared on the East European Plain also appear here?" Rhode asked, as if he could hear the sound of a herd of wild beasts running. "Could it be that after the experiment began, the experimenters also used the sorcery to summon the so-called 'monsters'?"

"That's the only thing I can tell you for sure—it's impossible."

Perseus sighed, reaching out and pressing on the crack in the wall. He bent down and picked up the medal that had fallen into the dust and garbage. After wiping the golden object clean and putting it in his pocket, the old man slowly said:

"At that time, I destroyed all my notes and materials, and after World War II, I completely burned those evil books... But because of this incident, the Foundation's directors even complained about me, saying that I was 'not sensitive enough' to the affairs of the other world."

"I think--"

Suddenly, a long-lost pain pierced his brain, forcing him to subconsciously purse his lips, and his breathing became heavier. But before anyone around him noticed, he adjusted his breathing after learning the knowledge provided by the system and said steadily:

"I understand. The connection between the otherworld and the real world here is more like a lava tube, connecting to 'eruption points' spread across the entire East European plains or the Siberian permafrost. But one thing to note is that there's no physical connection between the two. Simply opening a crack in a certain area of ​​the real world will easily connect to a nearby 'otherworld eruption point,' and thus to the otherworld area where those sulfur-smelling ghouls gather."

"Ghouls will build their nests in the real world, centered around that rift, and thrive on the flesh and blood they prey on, along with the energy of the otherworld."

"That's still good. At least these things can be dealt with by guns and cannons. But that rift isn't 100% connected to this otherworldly area with ghouls... You won't be able to escape other kinds of otherworldly creations or disasters either."

Rhodes, with a helpless look on his face, held his forehead with his hand as he spoke. He himself felt dizzy - perhaps in the future, the people who would feel dizzy would be Sablin and a group of Soviet officers.

"So, it's not just big cities, but even sparsely populated areas where monsters might appear in large numbers?! They'll live and multiply in places we can't notice, and eventually attack human cities like an army?"

Perseus nearly screamed in shock. Not only him, but the surrounding soldiers also looked at each other at this news, their hearts filled with unspeakable worry.

"How could this happen?! How much energy will we need to expend to deal with and defend against it? In the future, the Soviet army will obviously face a swarm of ghouls again! History is repeating itself, and we're still using the blood of our soldiers to fight against the onslaught of creatures from the other world... Damn the Nazis, damn the White Dogs! Don't those idiots ever consider the consequences before they act?"

"The opposite of the icy frozen wasteland is a fiery sulfur hell, which perfectly symbolizes the two sides of the Slavs."

Rhode rubbed his temples. He still hadn't recovered from the pain of the system infusing him with knowledge, but Nikki's hands immediately took over from his own fingers, gently touching and massaging the acupuncture points on his head. After more than ten seconds, Rhode, feeling much better, slowly uttered his last words:

"This is the 'concept' you formed during your development and expansion. Over hundreds of years, this emotion has been shaped in the other world and has become a sharp claw that reaches into the real world. This is your 'original sin,' Russians."

“…Mother Russia’s cruelty and kindness shaped us.”

Perseus sighed and shook his head. He was silent for a few seconds, then said cheerfully:

"But we are not completely powerless now. Technology is developing, and the Soviet Union already has more powerful weapons and more advanced detection methods than before."

"Weapons aren't omnipotent... Never mind, let's not discuss this now."

Rhodes leaned over and saw what looked like a track operating console, with bloodstains and charred bullet holes on it. Ragged belts and waist bag fragments were scattered all over the ground... It seemed that their owners had also met with misfortune.

After entering the base, there was not even a single corpse on the road, and there was very little blood. It was so "clean" that it looked like it had been licked by a tongue:

The monsters that emerged from the cracks devoured all the corpses and living survivors here, and returned to the embrace of darkness again.

This is not good news.

In the darkness in the distance, the sound of beasts running could be heard, like a rolling mountain torrent.

Note ①: Chapter 17 of the original novel "Love, Death and Robots 1" can be subscribed to on Qidian... When Xianyu wrote this, he found out that the original novel had already been translated... Sad.

Chapter 253: Deep into the Darkness (1/4·4K)

"Ready to fight."

The light from the helmet lamp pierced the darkness, casting a swaying spot of light on the dusty wall, and the sound of checking the magazine brought an inexplicable sense of security to people.

"keep going."

Soldier Tymoshenko heard Rod say this and took several deep breaths, his PKM machine gun in hand. The sound was particularly heavy through his gas mask. But soon, the breathing valve on the mask opened and closed regularly in the darkness, and a hoarse pumping sound came from the filter element.

The restless heart gradually calmed down, and all the worries were put behind me.

When the ground began to tremble slightly, everyone heard the sound - a rustling sound like thousands of human skins rubbing against each other at the same time, coming from the depths of the base along the passage.

"Keep going, we're going deeper."

The voice repeated itself again, and Tymoshenko saw Rod walking in front of everyone.

Suddenly, the soldiers felt a little dry in the mouth, and every breath was filled with a strong smell of sulfur, mixed with the stench of some rotting organic matter, rushing towards them through the ventilation ducts in the long-hollowed-out mountain - the zombies in the darkness were approaching, they were hungry and craving fresh flesh and blood.

"Fire!"

The roar echoed in the arched mine tunnel. As the butt of the rifle hit his shoulder, Tymoshenko caught a glimpse of the bright golden line of fire passing by the leader standing in the front - Rod - wrapped in a shrill roar, but unable to shake him in the slightest.

Rhodes was sure that the soldiers would not hit him, and the soldiers were also sure that Rhodes would stand before them as a guardian:

Raising his hand, he stabbed a ghoul's chest with his dagger as it leaped out of the darkness. Rhodes threw the blasphemous form to the ground, and the sharp blade tore open a whole piece of flesh, causing the twisted and rotten organs to flow to the ground, emitting a faint warmth.

Without any hesitation, Rhodes raised his foot and stomped the monster's head to pieces. Before the corrupted blood splashed on his stealth suit, he raised his revolver and fired two shots at the largest monster!

"Garbage, let me give you a taste of this!"

Rhodes reached out and wiped the rotten blood off the transparent mask. He twisted his neck and took out a KPV 14.5x114mm heavy machine gun, using the B-32 - full metal jacket hardened steel core armor-piercing incendiary bullet (API), which was enough to penetrate 32mm homogeneous steel armor within 500 meters!

The roar of the heavy machine guns created a continuous sonic boom in the narrow pit, spewing out a rain of bullets wrapped in waste heat. Shell casings ejected like water, piling up in a mess, flashing dazzlingly in the flickering gunfire and echoing crisply with the monster's painful screams.

The rain of death tore the ghouls into a bloody curtain of flying limbs, but the creatures of the other world continued to charge on the remains of their own kind - their greed for human flesh and blood had long overwhelmed all fear - but clouds of blood mist suddenly exploded in the air... How could flesh and blood compete with steel?

"Push forward! Keep pushing forward!" Perseus shouted, pushing his noise-canceling headphones irritably. They made the veteran feel a little uncomfortable, but they were indeed very useful, especially when the heavy machine guns began to roar. "Who has the PKM?! Take over the suppressive fire!"

"On the way out!"

Soldier Tymoshenko roared in response. He wasn't sure if anyone else heard him, but he still slowly moved forward and stood beside Rhodes, providing cover fire for him as he was reloading. The soldier was then surprised to find that almost everyone had made the same decision as him, except for the lady called "Maryan". She had her back to Rhodes and fired steadily at the darkness in the direction she came from.

Seeing this scene, the soldier suddenly thought of his wife, who foolishly thought that he was driving a long-distance truck, starting from the Aurora Republic, all the way back to Leningrad along Siberia... Sorry, Margarita, I am going to die here in battle.

Shaking these thoughts from his mind, Soldier Tymoshenko twisted the muzzle of his gun and smashed the ghouls that emerged from the ventilation duct diagonally above into a pulp, completely wiping out the clever monsters in the passage.

"Boss, enemies are coming from other passages! They're everywhere!"

"Then fire everywhere!"

Orange-red fireballs suddenly rose from the muzzles of the AK74 and PKM. The loud noises from the continuous firing turned into materialized sound waves in the confined space. Amid the flying concrete debris, the shadows of the zombies on the wall broke into tiny pieces.

The monsters retreated temporarily, or rather, those that emerged from the cracks had been killed.

In the dark passage, at this moment, the only sounds were the breathing of humans and the wailing of monsters that had not yet completely died.

The smoke and dust settled, the roaring stopped, and the darkness returned to silence, but the smell of sulfur lingered for a long time.

"Two minutes. Check for injuries, count ammunition consumption... and we'll keep moving forward."

Although he enjoyed the painful screams of these creatures from the other world, Rhodes first collected the KPV heavy machine gun and picked up the AK74 rifle to shoot at the monsters that were still struggling one by one.

"We don't have a topographical map of the base's interior."

Perseus exhaled slowly. He wanted to take off his gas mask, to let the sulfurous breath completely ignite his lungs, so that he could embrace the death that was long overdue. Not yet, the old man told himself. So, he reached out and patted Rhodes' shoulder, saying:

"I spread fluorescent agents along the way to mark the direction and return path."

"Well... let's keep going. If nothing unexpected happens, the 'main testing area' will be our destination."

Rhode's eyes swept over the Russian signs on the wall. He felt the spatial state here was a bit strange, just like the time in the Spanish monastery. However, this wasn't a religious reason, but rather the veil between the otherworld and the real world was fragile. If there were any more stimulation, it would definitely... explode? Rhode actually hoped it would explode, completely blowing the entire mountain away!