Trembling At A High Altitude

Upon entering the elevator, there were only two buttons: one for the floor where Li Teng currently was, which was the first tier below ground, and another for the first floor, the ground level.

It seemed that the laboratory where Li Teng was located only had two floors in total, one above ground and one below. The starting place for his mission's story was on the underground floor of this laboratory.

He pressed the button for the first floor, and the elevator emitted a creaking noise, followed by the sound of metal friction.

It looked as though it could break down and collapse at any moment.

But in the end, he arrived on the first floor without any mishap.

The elevator doors opened, and Li Teng stepped out.

After exiting, he looked around in all directions.

Although there was said to be only one level above ground, wasn't this floor excessively high?

It was at least a dozen meters high.

Huge pieces of machinery and equipment were placed all around, and above there were various metal pipes and thick cables.

Then there were the metal ladders, which led to the middle or top of some machines, evidently for maintenance workers to climb up for repairs.

On the first floor, however, he didn't encounter any robots or half-human, half-machine monsters.

"Daddy! Daddy!"

Anna's voice appeared not far away.

After a search, Li Teng located the source of the voice, a terminal device that was powered on.

The terminal's display was very clear; he could see Anna's image, but the video was intermittent, flickering like a slideshow.

"Anna, what's going on here? Where are you?" Li Teng hurriedly asked Anna.

"I'm at the transmission base, Daddy. Can you make it here?" Anna replied to Li Teng.

"How do I get there?" Li Teng continued to ask.

"You'll need to take the subway from there. Look for a map nearby; it should be…"

Just as Anna was speaking, the entire laboratory suddenly shook violently. Along with the shaking, the terminal became unstable, emitting squeaky electrical noises, and then it shut off abruptly.

The laboratory's shaking grew more intense, and Li Teng couldn't even keep his footing.

A huge piece of equipment next to the terminal couldn't withstand the shaking and collapsed with a thunderous crash.

Realizing something was wrong, Li Teng quickly ran to the side, but hindered by the bulky protective suit, he couldn't run fast. Even after a final desperate leap forward, his legs were still struck by the enormous device, pinning him underneath.

The laboratory's ceiling also collapsed, and chunks of concrete rained down from above.

With his legs trapped, Li Teng couldn't dodge and could only watch helplessly as the concrete fell toward his body, eventually burying him completely under the rubble.

Unable to escape and believing himself to be doomed, Li Teng discovered to his surprise that he was still alive after everything had quieted down around him.

The fallen rubble had formed a triangular space over his body, leaving his upper body uncrushed.

Apart from his legs being trapped, the rest of his body seemed unharmed and still movable.

Furthermore, the collapsed ceiling's concrete had fallen onto the other end of the large machine, slightly lifting the end that was crushing Li Teng's legs.

With a concerted effort using both hands and a strong kick of his legs, Li Teng, after a few minutes, managed to extricate his legs from underneath the massive device.

He was unharmed!

Li Teng couldn't help feeling fortunate; the metal shell of his protective suit, although cumbersome, was extremely sturdy. Although it had been dented, it hadn't affected his limbs. In that moment, even though he had been buried under the rubble, the protective suit had shielded him from any harm.

If he had been injured, he would have felt pain, numbness in his limbs, or something of that sort.

Clearly, he exhibited no such symptoms.

Carefully, Li Teng moved the rubble around him bit by bit. Several hours later, he finally made a passageway through the debris and crawled out from under the wreckage.

Standing atop the ruins, Li Teng did not feel the joy of escaping to safety.

Outside, there was neither sunny skies nor green mountains and rivers.

The sky was a greyish red, and the ground was shrouded everywhere in grey; snowflakes were falling from the sky... upon catching one, it wasn't a snowflake but seemed to be something like volcanic ash.

From time to time, the greyish-red clouds would flash with lightning; the climate was clearly very harsh.

Li Teng even began to doubt whether this was Earth.

These greyish-red clouds were also not normal, and with the volcanic ash in the sky, Li Teng guessed that the air must be highly toxic; without a protective suit, a few breaths could likely be fatal!

He didn't know how to remove the protective suit he wore, nor was he aware of how much oxygen remained, but for now, Li Teng certainly didn't dare try to take it off.

There was no indication of his oxygen supply, but it definitely wouldn't be much.

Time was pressing; he had to quickly find Anna at the launch base. Only by finding her could he understand what had actually happened here and what the main storyline of the mission was.

Was she alone? Was Zhang Mengdi still there? Would she be scared on her own?

Considering Anna's age, Li Teng guessed that he must be in middle age by now.

She said they needed to take the subway to reach the launch base, but where was the subway station? Was the subway still in operation now?

He needed to find it quickly.

Standing on the ruins of the laboratory, looking around, all was cloaked in a grey haze, nothing was clear.

Li Teng had no choice but to climb down from the ruins of the laboratory and could barely make out a road in front of the lab.

Thick volcanic ash had settled on this road, making it feel somewhat soft underfoot as he walked.

Anna had mentioned there being a map, which could be used to find the subway station.

But now, where to find such a map?

The laboratory had turned into a pile of rubble; it was certainly impossible to go back to search for a map.

So he might as well follow the road in front of the laboratory and see if he could find any signs for the subway station.

The road in front of the laboratory was one-way, leading straight to the entrance of the lab, so there was no need to consider which direction to go; just walking straight along this road would do.

One side of the road was a mountain, and the other side was a wilderness.

After walking about two hundred meters, a pole appeared ahead. Upon approaching, Li Teng saw a yellow sign with the letter M and an arrow on it above the pole.

Li Teng sighed in relief; it seemed his luck wasn't bad, as he had directly found the subway station.

Following the direction indicated by the arrow for a while longer, an artificial tunnel appeared in the mountain.

There was also a sign for the subway station beside the tunnel. After entering the tunnel, there was an escalator leading downwards, but it was no longer in use.

Li Teng went down on his own.

Passing through a long corridor, Li Teng finally entered the subway station.

A subway train was at a standstill on the platform, its doors all open, but it was empty inside.

Li Teng tried to get into the driver's cab but couldn't start the train.

"Squeak squeak gurgle gurgle…"

A series of electronic sounds appeared on the platform.

Li Teng looked out from the open train door and saw an old robot on the platform.

The robot was actually levitating magnetically, with just a round head floating half a meter above the ground.

It continued to make squeaking and gurgling electronic sounds as if it wanted to communicate with Li Teng.

Li Teng cautiously stepped out, always on guard for any possible attacks from the robot.

But the robot clearly did not intend to attack Li Teng; after making more squeaking and gurgling noises, it turned and floated away into the distance. After flying a few meters, it looked back toward Li Teng as if waiting for him.

Li Teng followed along.

The robot moved in fits and starts, leading Li Teng to the outside of a room.

The room's metal door was locked, but after the robot shot a beam of light containing information at it, the metal door quickly unlocked and opened.

Upon entering the room, Li Teng saw a map on the wall.

The map marked out subway stations, laboratories, and launch bases.

Unable to take the map with him, Li Teng memorized it thoroughly before he followed the robot to a piece of equipment.

Listening to the robot's squeaky noises, Li Teng carefully studied for a while and finally understood that the equipment could remotely control the operation of the subway.

He set the subway route on the device and scheduled the subway to leave in three minutes. Then, Li Teng left the room and quickly returned to the train.

After stepping into the carriage, he looked back at the robot.

But the robot showed no signs of entering the carriage.

"Thank you, little guy." Li Teng had mostly felt hostility from robots along the way; this was the first time he'd felt a robot's goodwill.

"Squeak, squeak..." The robot emitted a series of electronic noises that Li Teng didn't understand.

When the set departure time arrived, the subway quickly accelerated and left the platform, and the circular robot also disappeared from view outside the train's windows.

Li Teng sat down on the bench, took a deep breath, and then contemplated the current situation, analyzing the potential scenarios that might arise next.

From the map, the launch base seemed to be quite a distance from the laboratory.

The subway trip over would take half an hour.

Li Teng was worried that the subway would hit an obstacle and either get destroyed or stop halfway through.

He also feared that the subway might run out of electricity and stop en route.

Fortunately, none of the worries materialized.

In the end, the subway safely reached the station marked with the launch base.

The subway came to a stop, and the doors automatically opened.

Li Teng stepped out onto the platform outside.

Just like the other platforms, this one was deserted.

The whole world was deadly silent.

From the subway station to the launch base was still a distance to go.

According to the map, this distance was around five hundred meters.

In the middle, there was a bridge over a hundred meters long.

Upon exiting the subway station, the sky outside was still a grayish red, and the ground was also covered in a gray haze.

It was unclear whether there had been a nuclear war or an asteroid impact on Earth that had caused this situation.

But these were not Li Teng's concerns.

His main worry now was Anna, who was inside the launch base.

Soon enough, Li Teng reached the edge of the bridge.

However...

Over twenty meters of the bridge's midsection had collapsed.

Below was a river of extremely turbulent waters.

Of course, calling it water didn't quite fit anymore.

"Mud flow" would be a more accurate description.

Eyeing the mud flow below, Li Teng frowned involuntarily.

If he wasn't wearing this protective suit, Li Teng might have chosen to risk swimming across.

But now, clad in such a heavy metal suit, if he jumped into the mud flow, Li Teng felt there could only be one outcome.

He would sink into it and never be able to climb out again.

If he couldn't cross this river, he would be unable to reach the launch center.

What should he do?

As a last resort, Li Teng paced back and forth along the riverbank, scanning for a possible crossing point.

Disappointingly, there was none.

The long river stretched out with no end in sight on either side.

And the banks were covered in gray volcanic ash.

Having no other options, Li Teng finally decided to risk entering the river to probe the situation.

The water was mainly torrential in the middle section, about a dozen meters wide, but near the banks, the flow was not so strong.

Li Teng cautiously dipped one foot in.

He discovered the mud on the edge was shallow, and there was a firm ground underneath.

So he groped his way toward the middle of the river.

He only moved his other foot once the one he had stretched out found solid footing, ensuring he wouldn't fall.

Like this, Li Teng tiptoed cautiously to the middle part of the river, where the current was strongest.

By then, the mud had reached his waist.

The heavy metal suit prevented him from swimming, but it did give him an advantage—it enabled him to stand steady in the turbulent mud flow.

Of course, he needed to be extra cautious with his direction.

A slight misstep could lead to being swept away by the mud flow, and it would be very difficult to get up again.

Li Teng continued toward the deepest part of the river; the mud soon rose to his chest.

A strong force constantly tried to push him down, and even the heavy metal suit seemed frail in the face of this pressure.

Li Teng had to change direction, facing the flow of the mud, and then crossed toward the opposite side at an angle.

The mud eventually submerged up to Li Teng's neck, and he felt something soft underfoot, unsure if there were any deeper pits beneath.

At last, Li Teng crossed the centerline of the river, and the mud slowly began to shallow out, falling back to chest level.

Li Teng exhaled deeply, and then shuffled his feet sideways...

This time, however, he found only empty space! There was a pit below!

Li Teng's body instantly lost balance, and he was swept downstream by the turbulent mud.

He struggled to stand and regain his balance, but it was impossible. His heavy body bobbed up and down in the mud, completely at the mercy of the flow.

After bobbing a while, Li Teng felt the ground underfoot start to shallow again, and with great effort, he finally stood up.

Luckily, he had been washed to the shallow waters on the opposite bank by the forceful river.

Taking a deep breath, Li Teng moved forward, slowly but resolutely stepping toward the other side.

Finally, he reached the opposite bank.

Through the air thick with gray volcanic ash, he could barely make out the vague outline of a massive structure in the distance.

It was the launch base.

The place where Anna was.