Hunter of Mysterious Creature

Chapter 695 12: Heat Dissipation Shaft

The speed at which the wisp of black mist gathered was getting faster and faster, quickly leaving only a thin black line, and by this time, Sun Hang had already reached the outskirts of the Yong'an Street commercial area.

This place was a construction site, surrounded by isolation tape, with large hollow structures visible everywhere on the ground, through which the underground "Zodiac layer" could be faintly seen.

The black line passed through one of the hollow spaces, swiftly plummeting toward the Zodiac layer below.

"Underground?" Sun Hang hesitated for a moment, "Is this guy's ability... able to affect from such a distance?"

But he quickly realized—it wasn't that the other party's ability had a far-reaching influence, but the other party had been fleeing all along! This strange entity's hideout was probably in some unnoticeable corner of the Yong'an Street commercial district, and only after it realized it was exposed did it start moving in this direction, bringing Sun Hang along for the ride.

Sun Hang walked to the edge of the hollow, crouched down, and felt the ground with his hand.

There was a small pool of blood that hadn't dried up, the blood containing traces of the strange creature's miasma.

There were also some fabric fragments beside it.

The blood was human, and the fabric scraps also came from clothing worn by humans.

Was it an infected person? Or... a humanoid anomaly?

The concrete ground was rough; could it be that the anomaly had tripped while running and then stumbled its way down?

Or perhaps, in its desperate attempt to escape, it didn't notice the yawning abyss ahead until it was too late to stop, lost its balance and fell, then, driven by inertia, rolled down from the hollowed space?

Apart from two warning signs, there were no railings at the edge of the hollow space—after all, the entire construction site was barricaded off, with no way for ordinary citizens to approach.

This area was originally meant to be a large man-made well, where workers erected a support framework inside the well using steel structures, into which concrete was then poured, leaving these hollow spaces at ground level in the steel framework.

Today was the weekend, the construction site was on break, and Sun Hang looked around, unable to see the shadow of a single worker.

"Mainframe." Sun Hang tapped his bracelet, awakening the mainframe, "What's beneath here?"

"One of the thirty-six power hubs driving the operation of Chunming City." The mainframe answered promptly, "Your current location is the seventh heat pump tunnel of this power hub, currently under renovation."

"Heat pump tunnel? So can the temperature beneath instantly vaporize a person alive?"

"When the heat pump tunnel is operational, steam as high as twelve hundred degrees Celsius can pass through, although this temperature isn't enough to instantly vaporize a human, it is still lethal to most carbon-based life forms," the mainframe said, "However, the seventh heat pump tunnel is currently under renovation and disconnected from the heat piping network of the power hub, so it is safe."

"Safe?" Sun Hang stood at the edge of the hollow looking downwards, where it was pitch black and at least one to two hundred meters deep—if an average person fell, they'd be dead, regardless of whether there was high-temperature steam in the heat pump tunnel.

Of course, if it's a strange entity, that remains uncertain.

"Where does the seventh heat pump tunnel lead?"

"The seventh heat pump tunnel connects with the heat pipe network of the power hub, but currently, the independent module of the seventh heat pump tunnel has been disconnected, with all interfaces sealed off."

"So it's a dead end?" Sun Hang confirmed with the mainframe.

"Yes."

"Finally, to hear some good news, it's quite rare indeed."

Sun Hang walked halfway forward.

"Keep an eye on this sole exit for me, block anything that comes out." Sun Hang leaned slightly forward.

"As you wish."

Accompanied by a slight buzzing sound, the locked drone bay on the construction site suddenly came to life, dozens of drones instantly took off, hovering above Sun Hang's head.

The engineering mecha seemed as if they were possessed by electronic ghosts, moving autonomously—and the equipment installed on them, such as welding torches or pile drivers, had their power restrictions quietly lifted, transforming these tools into weapons in an instant.

"Pretty efficient."

Sun Hang gave a thumbs up to the drones in the sky before plunging headfirst into the heat pump tunnel.

The vertical part of the seventh heat pump tunnel was only the uppermost two hundred meters of the well path, beyond that was a sloped section at about a forty-five-degree angle, which grew gentler further down.

On this slope, Sun Hang also discovered some blood stains and clothing fragments along the way.

The air was filled with a barely detectable scent of blood and a faint whiff of the anomaly's miasma.

"How are the interfaces of the heat pump tunnel sealed?" Sun Hang asked the mainframe.

"With a number 45 alloy plug with physical resistance above level IV, six meters thick, with an additional fifteen polymer layers within, air-tight sealing applied at the periphery. Even if the module of the seventh heat pump tunnel was not disconnected from the piping network, high-temperature steam could still not enter."

Though Sun Hang didn't have much concept of the parameters or technical terms the mainframe mentioned, he understood the words "six meters thick." Leaving aside what the number 45 alloy was, even if it were a lump of scrap iron, six meters of thickness isn't something an ordinary person could breach.