The hall was still the same, but no one dared to laugh at this laborer who had only been here for less than two months.
"You're not a laborer in this place."
Machine Gun suddenly spoke. He looked at Ding Meng with a very calm gaze. "Definitely not."
No one else had seen Ding Meng's attack clearly, but he had.
Ding Meng had used the "Carp Leaping Over the Dragon Gate, Backhand Chop" he had used to fight the leopard the day before. But this time, his speed was so fast that ordinary people could not see him at all. That was why he had created that "blurry illusion" in the wild wolf's eyes.
Although the Origin Energy Cleansing brought about comprehensive changes to the body, the current Elementary Primitive Accumulation could only bring about explosive strength and speed. However, the Backhand Chop was the move Ding Meng was most proficient in. It could barely be considered a martial arts technique.
Even so, in Machine Gun's eyes, it was still quite shocking. The wild wolf was stronger than the leopard, but not much weaker than Machine Gun. Machine Gun was not completely confident that he could defeat Ding Meng.
At this moment, Ding Meng turned his head. "What are you trying to say?"
Machine Gun took two steps forward and finally said something shocking. "Do you know where this place is?"
Ding Meng stared at him. "Do you know where this is?"
Machine Gun sighed. "I know, but I don't know."
His words were really hard to understand, so Ding Meng could only wait for him to continue. "I came to this place six years ago, and I've experienced at least 20 accidents, big and small. If I had to die, I would've died a long time ago."
Ding Meng did not say anything. He knew that Machine Gun had not simply relied on luck to survive in this damned place for six years.
Machine Gun sighed, which was rare. "Do you know why I'm still alive?"
Ding Meng stared at him. "Maybe it's because someone doesn't want you to die."
Pain flashed through Machine Gun's eyes, but then he cast a look of admiration at Ding Meng. He did not expect Ding Meng to be able to think of this.
Machine Gun took out a palm-sized metal storage container from his bag. The port emitted rays of light, and a three-dimensional virtual map immediately appeared in the hall, emitting a faint blue light.
"What is this?"
Ding Meng noticed that the map was made up of countless complicated curves, and many places were marked with red, green, and white dots.
Machine Gun said, "This is the map of the main mine. I can guarantee that the map above is not as detailed as this one."
The map as a whole looked like a gourd buried in the ground. The mouth of the gourd was the sinkhole in the ground, and the curved lines were the excavated tunnels. From the sinkhole down, countless tunnels were expanding downward in all kinds of strange trajectories.
Ding Meng immediately communicated with Little Rascal telepathically. How reliable are his words?
Little Rascal said, "His heart rate is normal, 56 beats per minute, and his breathing is steady, 9 beats per minute. His eyes haven't changed much. So far, his facial expression has shown a total of 14 different expressions, and his body movements have only shown 5. According to my calculations, the chance of him lying is less than 7%, so his credibility is very high."
Machine Gun pointed at the map and explained, "The red dots on this map are the coordinates that are very difficult to dig through. Basically, they're dead zones. The white dots are the daily mining sites and resting areas."
Following his finger, Ding Meng noticed that most of the red dots were scattered around the edges of the gourd. The white dots, which were the most numerous, were located in the middle, and the green dots were the least numerous. Most of them were buried at the bottom of the gourd and were scattered around.
Machine Gun changed the topic. "In the past two years, a strange virus has suddenly appeared down here. Even the V-shaped medical pod is unable to treat it."
He suddenly pointed at Little Four. "It's the virus in his body."
Even though he did not know what kind of virus it was, Ding Meng knew that it was a mutated version of the K virus.
"These green dots are the source of the virus?" Ding Meng asked.
Machine Gun said, "That's right. They're all pools like the ones outside. Every pool has those tentacle monsters. That's the real reason why the mercenaries up there don't dare to come down so easily."
Ding Meng said, "But that doesn't seem to explain the existence of this place."
What he said made sense. It was normal for monsters to be buried underground. They might be primitive creatures, but the laboratory was different. It was definitely man-made.
Machine Gun said, "Six years ago, when I came to the base, it wasn't like this. There were wounded mercenaries being rescued from the surface. Their situation was exactly the same as Little Four's."
This time, not only was Ding Meng shocked, even Machine Gun's subordinates were shocked. No one knew about this.
Ding Meng said hesitantly, "You're saying that the outer walls of the base are there to stop the monsters outside?"
Machine Gun said, "Not entirely. Because in the past four years, there hasn't been any large-scale battles inside or outside the base."
He paused for a moment before continuing, "My guess is that this terrifying virus used to exist outside but not underground. But over the past few years, the virus has slowly seeped into the ground."
This guess was undoubtedly very reasonable. The virus might be slowly eating away at the base.
But what did not make sense was that the assault regiment definitely knew about the virus, but the commander and the others clearly knew about it. So why were they still digging in this dangerous place for so many years?
Machine Gun finally said something shocking. "The commander and the others might not be trying to find the virus. If they wanted to find it, they would have found it a long time ago. What they're really trying to find is how the virus is created and how it works."
Little Rascal suddenly said, "He's right. The K virus is harmful to most living creatures, but you're a special case. The manufacturing principle behind it is extremely complicated. Once someone masters it, it's equivalent to them possessing an advanced genetic weapon."
Ding Meng suddenly felt that a lot of things that he could not figure out before were slowly starting to make sense. However, he still had a vague feeling that things were not as simple as they seemed.
"From your tone, it sounds like you've been outside the base?"
"I have."
Machine Gun was expressionless. "I dare say that among all of us coolies, I'm the only one who's still alive after going outside."
Everyone's expressions changed. Ding Meng stared at him. "Then why didn't you escape?"
Machine Gun said calmly, "I couldn't escape."
Ding Meng asked, "Why?"
Machine Gun said, "Is it because you've never seen the outside world before?"
Ding Meng could not help but ask, "What kind of world is it like outside?"
Machine Gun had a blank expression on his face. His gaze also seemed very empty. He muttered with a sigh, "I can't describe what the outside world is like. I can see everything, but I can't see anything. But there's one thing I'm sure of, and that's that there's absolutely no way to escape …"
This time, not only did Ding Meng find it strange, even Little Rascal could not explain it.
Ding Meng suddenly sighed. "I kind of understand what you're trying to say now. You want to work with me?"
There was a look of admiration in Machine Gun's eyes again. "It's always fun to deal with smart people."
He was not an idiot. He had probably figured out the whole situation a long time ago. Black Gold Base was actually surrounded by the mutated virus. There was no way to escape above ground, and there was no way to escape underground. So, the end result was that everyone was waiting to die here. But suddenly, Ding Meng and Little Rascal discovered this underground experiment hall. Then, a new hope appeared. There might be a way out deep underground.
Instead of killing each other here, it was better to work together to find a way out. No matter how big the world was, nothing was more important than one's own life. If one had not stayed in Black Gold Base, one would not understand how luxurious it was to be able to live safely.
Little Rascal suddenly said, "Ding Meng, agree to his request. The energy drill torch they have has been modified. It can pierce through Quaternary steel plates. If they use the original digging method … the experiment hall has an area of 6,852 square meters. Let me do some calculations … there's a 60% chance that they can find a way out within two hours. If there's enough time, this probability will increase …"
Hearing the word 'way out', Ding Meng could not help but feel a rush of excitement.
But he knew that the more excited he was, the more he could not be careless. Machine Gun was not a kind person, and caution was the key to success. So, he said, "I can work with you, but I have a condition."
Machine Gun's attitude immediately became respectful. "Please speak."