Chapter 681: Mysteries Beyond the 19th Level

“Lord Yenir, have you come along?”

At the rear of the line, Ming Luo cautiously observed everything with three Military members.

Thanks to Yenir’s status—and their resonance reading wasn’t too high—the guards didn’t bother them, letting them stick to the back.

Their behavior was nothing like what the Rebels had claimed, as if they didn’t care about this test at all.

Unlike the excited survivors, Ming Luo and his team regarded the strange semicircular contraption before them as a ferocious beast; nobody knew what lay inside.

It was enormous.

In the 19th-floor underground structure, the semicircular metal device resembled a snail sprawled in the middle of the entire level, forcing the several thousand people inside to cram along the edges.

Odd sounds echoed from within the ‘snail,’ as if something was colliding inside.

Whether it was an illusion or not, Ming Luo couldn’t shake the feeling of a slight tremor beneath his feet—as if the base under him were hollow, or its structure flawed.

“Keep up and be careful. There’s a huge problem below the 19th level. I only managed to penetrate a bit with my mental power, and now a warning has been triggered.”

“There’s a serious issue under your feet!”

In the corridor on the 16th level, Yenir clung awkwardly to the ceiling as he dodged a suddenly assembled troop of guards.

Following Ming Luo and his team at a distance, he had planned to scout ahead with his mental power. But he hadn’t expected that barely breaking through two layers— or rather, the moment he touched the 19th-floor structure—a flood of guards would surge out as if an alarm had gone off.

Straining to mask his presence, Yenir watched helplessly like a lizard as soldiers raced beneath him, not knowing when the chaos would end.

His mental power was already heavily taxed, and to avoid detection from the soldiers overhead, he had to divert some of it as a reserve.

After tapping into his Blood Shadow power, he couldn’t help but carry a trace of blood on him.

“Could the 19th level be the final one? Is the base’s secret hidden below? That can’t be… When I scouted outside, there was clearly a whole extra stretch of underground structure.”

“Clank, clank… clank, clank.”

Patiently waiting for the Rebel alert to subside, Yenir furrowed his brow in puzzlement at the unfolding situation.

After a while, he figured that the space beyond the 19th level must connect with the rest—perhaps even forming one continuous expanse. The entire underground base appeared like two hemispheres: the upper levels divided into distinct layers, and the lower forming a vast, hollow mass.

In a rapid mental sketch, Yenir found that this layout resembled a monstrous nest.

“Report to the Warning Center: 16th level normal!”

“Report to the Warning Center: 17th level normal…!”

“Report to the Warning Center: The anomaly might be as before—no external intrusion…?”

“….”

Soon enough—perhaps because Yenir hadn’t been spotted, or triggering the warning wasn’t a big deal—the Rebels dispersed from their temporary posts and returned to their original positions amid a clamor.

Wasting no time, Yenir checked that his area was secure and then leaped down like a drifting leaf.

His eyes flashed as he glanced thoughtfully at the ground beneath him.

He realized why the Rebels had abandoned their search—if anomalies were a frequent occurrence, then it made sense…

“Could there be living beings past the 19th level? Or is it that they’re already here on the 19th level?”

An answer suddenly surfaced in his mind. Narrowing his eyes, Yenir bolted toward the 19th level.

Amid the earlier chaos, his status as a guard allowed him to blend in even more seamlessly than before.

—————

“Boom, boom! Boom! Boom!”

“qIA!”

The roar of steam blasting from metal valves echoed throughout the 19th level.

As the middle-level Rebels finished their presentation much like in the first test, in Ming Luo’s eyes the metal snail had transformed into a steam train, with hundreds of windows bursting open on this colossal device.

In the midst of dense water vapor, the formation quickly morphed into something resembling a ticket booth right before their eyes.

“Three hundred people at a time! Once the first group enters the testing window, put on your helmets! You might feel a bit of pressure during the test, but rest assured—it’s all normal!”

“Each test round lasts three minutes. Let’s begin!”

No sooner had the officer finished speaking than the clustered survivors surged forward, eager to be the first to enter the test.

To them, this massive metal contraption wasn’t just a testing machine—it was the Artifact that could elevate them to Third-Stage mid-level.

Rumors had spread, and everyone believed it would infuse them with power. Who knew if those in the last batch might absorb even less?

Meanwhile, Ming Luo and his group pretended to be overwhelmed by the crush and were jostled aside.

Watching the chaotic scramble, the group exchanged worried glances as their unease deepened.

“Did you notice? Our resonance levels don’t affect the testing order at all.”

“And these Rebels don’t even try to maintain order. Look at them—they’re watching us like animals.”

Ming Luo whispered, signaling his squad members to look up at the Rebels gathered on a raised platform.

There, whether holding guns or relaying reports, every Rebel looked at them with cold indifference—as if the survivors underfoot were nothing more than chickens scrambling for food.

This scene filled Ming Luo and his team with a heavy premonition.

Although they desperately wished to intervene, they knew it was beyond their power.

“There’s no choice; we’ll have to enter later too. Let’s observe carefully first and see what happens with the first group.”

“I can’t shake the feeling that these three hundred testing chambers are all connected, don’t you think?”

A Capital Military Third-Stage Awakener signaled to Ming Luo, motioning toward the nearest testing chamber.

In the eerie blue glow, a Burly Man from the Second-Stage fighters, who had rushed in first, excitedly donned his helmet.

The moment he put on his helmet, the small blue recess—big enough for only two or three people—slowly shut its door. In their final view, all Ming Luo and his team could see was a sudden burst of mist that filled the space.

One minute. Two minutes…

Ming Luo and his group stared intently, but nothing seemed amiss.

Apart from a few grumbles and excited whispers, those who had entered seemed fine.

But then, very soon,

As the three-minute mark approached, hundreds of dull crashing sounds erupted suddenly!

“Thump, thump! Thump, thump!”

The sounds were so heavy and chaotic, as if the first entrants were all silently slamming against the metal door behind them!