novelraw Chapter 16: Bronze-Grade Blueprint
Chapter 16: Bronze-Grade Blueprint
A figure moved quickly through the sewer tunnel.
The flashlight's beam pierced the darkness, occasionally revealing a few damp rats scurrying back and forth; sometimes they would stop, stand on their hind legs, rub their front paws together, and study this unexpected intruder.
Yu Yuan slowed his movement, raised his left wrist, and a virtual map visible only to him projected from the watch into the air.
A green dot blinked continuously on the map. After carefully comparing it, Yu Yuan nodded slightly.
"This should be it!"
He couldn't hide the corner of a smile as he stared at the Positioning Watch on his wrist.
He hadn't expected this watch to have map scanning and virtual projection features.
It pleasantly surprised him.
He immediately scanned the Green Forest City East District Map into the watch, which produced the real-time positioning effect he’d just seen.
Of course, the accuracy still needed testing, and his current purpose was to verify how precise the Positioning Watch and virtual map really were.This was crucial for his future movements.
He climbed the ladder in the sewer and went up. When he saw an iron wire hanging down through the manhole cover above, his smile finally escaped.
The wire was rusted and, at the bottom, a small stone was tied to it.
He had placed it last night on Fairwood Avenue to mark this manhole.
His idea was simple: use this manhole and the Dental Clinic as anchor points to triangulate other streets’ corresponding sewers.
If he could chart detailed routes, the city's despised sewer network would become the fastest, safest passage for him to move between neighborhoods—without any danger.
Originally this would have been a long-term task, but because of the Positioning Watch and the district map, everything was accelerated.
New ideas formed in Yu Yuan’s mind.
Since the map positioning seemed reliable, his next destination would be the East District Waterworks Center.
The East District Waterworks Center was on Soren Avenue in District 7, not close to District 13. Even sprinting through the sewer, it took Yu Yuan over an hour to reach Soren Avenue.
Finally, behind the East District Waterworks Center he found a manhole leading to the surface.
He crouched at the manhole, listened to the outside for a moment, then carefully engaged the internal rotating bolt and began to twist with all his strength. As the lock contracted, he slowly pushed the cover open a crack.
It was just after nine in the morning; sunlight streamed through the gap and fell on Yu Yuan’s face as he cautiously scanned the outside.
The street was a mess—trash, overturned cars, fallen utility poles, bicycles corroded by acid rain—utter desolation.
Satisfied it was safe, Yu Yuan pushed the manhole fully open and crawled out. He wedged a cord through the slightly ajar cover.
In two quick strides he reached the back door of the Waterworks Center.
The main door was half-open. Peering inside, he saw the place had long since been looted.
Signs of smashing and ransacking were everywhere; all the glass was shattered. Yu Yuan slipped inside.
He kept the Kukri in his hand and his M1911A1 pistol holstered at his waist; if needed, he could fight immediately.
He skimmed past the first-floor lobby, ignoring irrelevant areas, and headed straight upstairs. His targets were the archives or the waterworks director's office.
Only those two places were likely to contain—city sewer pipeline maps.
The archive room was easy to find, and nobody would be interested in it anyway.
When he pushed open the archive door, although file bags were scattered at the entrance, the room itself hadn’t been heavily vandalized; while some racks had collapsed, the documents remained.
Yu Yuan quickly found what he needed—more than one sewer main blueprint, in fact.
Basic maps were updated roughly every five years; Yu Yuan scanned all of them into his watch.
Then, in the corner of the archive, he discovered a slightly faded blueprint in an archive box that made his eyes light up.
[Green Forest City Civil Defense Shelter Sewer System Completion Masterplan — East District Edition]
Quality: Bronze
Description: This master plan was constructed 89 years ago when Green Forest City prepared for the possibility of nuclear war—an integrated underground strategic structure combining air defense, shelters, and sewer diversion. Over time its existence had been forgotten, and by the time the wasteland came, no one remembered it.
Yu Yuan could hear his own heart racing.
A bronze-grade blueprint—this was his first time obtaining a bronze-grade item.
He unfolded the blueprint. Studying the incredibly precise, intricate lines, Yu Yuan knew he had hit the jackpot.
Compared to this, the earlier sewer maps were practically castrated versions.
He spread the blueprints on the floor as sunlight from the window shone down. The Positioning Watch projected a red scanning line from right to left.
This scan felt unusually long and painstaking—slow and meticulous.
By the time his arm started to ache, the scan finally finished. He packed all the blueprints into his backpack.
He couldn't wait to open the watch’s virtual map.
A perfect combined map appeared before him: the East District street map merged with a dozen updated sewer maps and this bronze-grade masterplan.
—East District Sewer Shelter System Mastermap.
That was the name the map displayed.
Yu Yuan stared, eyes wide, zooming in and out to examine the details on the virtual map.
Thanks to those dozen updated sewer maps, the sewer system structure on this map was clearer than ever before.
He could see how many manholes each street possessed, which manhole connected to which underground parking lot—everything was crystal clear.
He could also identify which city rivers or parks had stormwater outlets and their exact locations.
Which sewer slopes were steep, which had sharp curves—each was labeled with detailed annotations.
The civil defense shelter levels were mapped with the same clarity.
What had once looked like a maze of shelter passages now felt like he’d activated x-ray vision; a quick sweep told him exactly where to go.
Even if the sewer was pitch black, if he followed the map cursor, he wouldn’t get lost.
Yu Yuan understood.
From now on, the sewers would be his domain.
Once he entered them, no one could find or catch him.
Through the sewers, he could reach anywhere in the East District. He could also, in danger, precisely locate the nearest manhole entrance and escape.
In the sewers, he would be a fish swimming in the ocean, a bird in the sky—this was his turf.
Just as he reached this realization...
[Ping....]
A crisp, attention-grabbing but cold and clear mechanical alert sounded in Yu Yuan’s ears.
[Detection: Major progress achieved on the Yu Yuan Shelter title path!]
[Player Title — [Neighborhood Rat] has been enhanced.]
[Achievement unlocked.....]