The tunnel stretched on, sloping downward. There were lights inside, and they were still on. The sides weren't exactly spotless, but at least there was nothing creepy lurking about. The air had a strange smell, but it was breathable—making all those folks in hazmat suits and oxygen tanks look a bit silly. Jill Young took one glance and could tell this was just the old subway entrance passage. According to the info they'd gathered, they were still a long way from the real Steelbull Dungeon.
No One Under Heaven snuck in low-key this time. According to the intel from the archive, quality mattered more than quantity for this kind of adventure, so only four came down. Besides Jill Young, there was Xiao Di, Cake Dog, and Four-Eyed Kid. Jill wanted to go solo, but Xiao Di was stubborn and insisted on coming along. Cake Dog, the comic relief and Dragon Elephant Level Four powerhouse, was also a handy asset.
And then there was Four-Eyed Kid, who really had no business coming along. But driven by the soul of a mad scientist, he threw caution to the wind. He wanted to study the conditions that led to the appearance of the mysterious Original Liquid, hoping to solve his own puzzle. So, aside from Pierce staying behind to guard the gang’s base, all of No One Under Heaven’s top members came down.
The Syndicate wasn’t wrong—under Jill Young’s influence, the leaders of this gang were all the type to charge in headfirst.
Following the crowd, Jill and her crew arrived at a subway station that had been abandoned for ages. Once upon a time, this place was decked out with fancy amenities, but now only the basic stairs were still usable. The station was pretty big, with stairs plunging more than ten meters underground. The crowd bustled down, and every now and then someone with some super high-tech comm gear would yell, “What? Someone already found the treasure at Entrance Twelve?!”—which only hyped up the crowd even more.
But the four from No One Under Heaven kept their cool. Back in Steelbull Cloud City, Jill Young hadn’t expected her own clearance wouldn’t get her much info on the Dungeon—just a few vague hints. It wasn’t until Night Loli used her authority that they got reliable intel. Looks like Lucas didn’t get much useful info either, otherwise he wouldn’t have risked ambushing Night Loli.
“This spot should be one of the main entrances to the Dungeon,” Xiao Di whispered. “According to the map, we’ll see the real entrance if we go a bit further down.”
Steelbull City once built a massive network of underground transport, bomb shelters, mines, and refuges. These were the prototypes and basic framework for the Dungeon. Jill and Night Loli dug up those old maps and merged them into one. Plus, with scraps from reckless explorers who went Dungeon diving and actually made it back, they cobbled together a halfway decent map.
Of course, the deeper you go, the less reliable the map gets—so don’t trust it too much. The spot the four picked to enter was one of the more familiar and well-documented areas.
Sure enough, once they hit the bottom level of the station, there were no more stairs going down. On the platform, arrows made of glow sticks pointed everyone into the subway tunnel—obviously set up by Ghost Player. After half a mile down the tunnel, weird stuff finally started popping up. It was some kind of moss-like thing growing on the walls, but the whole patch was flesh-colored. No clue if it was animal or plant.
They walked on for another half mile and came across a subway car, tilted and jammed into the ground like a ramp leading even deeper underground. The car was so wrecked it barely held together—two people walked through and it groaned, split, and collapsed, totally useless now. But hey, anyone gutsy enough to join this grand adventure always had a trick or two up their sleeve. Nobody was bothered by a little obstacle like that.
The crowd pressed into the deeper tunnel, where there were no more electric lights, but instead glowing vines lit the way. At the end of the tunnel stood another giant steel gate. Sensing the arrival of the crowd, the gate flashed with blinding red lights and rumbled open. A cold, damp wind blew in, carrying a weird smell and faint, eerie sounds.
"Welcome to the Dungeon." An uncanny voice echoed, sounding like countless men, women, young and old, all locked in a steel box speaking at once: "If you want to join the Grand Annual Prize Game, please enter through the gate. To prevent my pets from escaping, the gate will seal behind you once you go in. When the game ends, the gate will open again, letting the winners out."
Turns out, behind this steel gate was the real Steelbull Dungeon. Staring at the shadowy, bizarre tunnel beyond the door, the crowd exchanged uneasy glances—none of that excited hustle from aboveground now. But everyone here was a treasure-hunting maniac; nobody was backing out, so the crowd started filing into the tunnel.
With a thunderous rumble, the steel gate slammed shut again, sealing everyone inside the gloomy underground world.
Jill Young wasn’t a stranger to tunnels or the underground—she’d been sneaking through the dark chasing mountain bandits since Black Dragon Camp, and even ventured into the ancient spatial rift’s underground realm. In the SD base at Dongwu Clan, she’d also done plenty of running and fighting in the dark. The faint light from the vines was enough for Jill to see everything clearly. Her sharp ears picked up every little sound, just like a bat.
Honestly, Jill Young had to thank her classmate Jill Qi’s natural gifts and knack for martial arts. Down here, she was like a fish in water, with a real psychological edge.
Plus, Jill Young was a master at memorizing routes. In these complicated underground tunnels, she led the other three, mapping as they walked. Her confident, steady vibe put the slightly anxious trio at ease.
"So, Cake Dog, does this place look familiar to you?" "Sort of... yeah, I think I’ve spaced out here before. The memory’s fuzzy, though—I can’t recall what actually happened." Cake Dog answered while casually snapping off a weirdly long vine from the wall and slurping it down. "Tastes weird, but it’s definitely drinkable water." The way she did it, you could tell it was pure muscle memory. Cake Dog was like a farmer with amnesia—doesn’t remember planting the field, but the minute she touches wheat, she knows how to harvest.
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All signs pointed to this Dungeon being the birthplace of Original Liquid.
The underground tunnels were a tangled maze, branching off in every direction and making it easy to get lost. There were plenty of people, but no one really knew where to look for what they wanted, so everyone just wandered off in different directions. Every fork split the crowd further. Still, after all this walking, they hadn’t seen any monsters—just felt like one big underground labyrinth.
Of course, there were no monsters—and no treasure, either.
Suddenly, shouts echoed from far away. The chaotic noise bounced off the tunnel walls, and if you listened closely, it sounded like some people had triggered a 'game.' Judging by the usual madness of these folks, whatever game it was, it definitely wasn’t cute. But if you beat it, you’d probably score a reward.
Treasure—finally on the scene.
"Should we go check it out?" Xiao Di asked. "Not like we have any leads right now." Everyone else thought the same, so they turned and headed toward the noise. But suddenly, two steel gates snapped shut like giant jaws, slamming together with a bang and cutting off the tunnel. The crowd panicked, and Xiao Di quickly checked on her teammates.
Cake Dog? Here. Four-Eyed Kid? Here too. "Looks like everyone’s fine. Jill Young, let’s move." Xiao Di called out, but got no reply. She glanced left and right, then exchanged looks with the other two—after three seconds, realization hit: the one person you’d never expect to get lost—Jill Young—had ended up separated on the other side of the gate!
"I’m good!" Jill Young’s voice echoed from the other side: "Looks like we triggered a game—something called Sudden Death Speed Round, I have no idea what the rules are… Holy crap, there’s a ton of weird bugs! I’m moving out—take care of yourselves!" As she spoke, her voice faded away. Meanwhile, there were lots of sharp screams, wailing, and creepy crawling noises that made everyone’s skin crawl.
"Damn it!" Xiao Di punched the steel gate. Judging by the sound, that thing was at least two inches thick. She looked at the other two—a determined woman who was always a bit odd, and a scrawny guy clearly lacking adrenaline. They’d have to rely on her to hold things together.
"Stick together, okay? Let’s not get split up by these stupid gates again. Especially you, Four-Eyed Kid—your life’s the most fragile here. Move!" Xiao Di marched out first.
Elsewhere, Lucas strode through the tunnel like he owned the place. Amidst the rumbling, he and a bunch of others ended up separated on one side of the gate. Ghost Player’s voice rang out: "Brave contestants, let’s warm up with a little survival game. In a moment, this place will be crawling with undead. Can you survive their attacks? I’ll be watching."
As Ghost Player finished speaking, scattered footsteps and shrieks echoed from the shadowy tunnels. Soon, a half-rotten undead lurched into view. Even the Steelbull City Black Gang had never met a horror movie monster like this before. Someone screamed and fired at the swarming undead.
But Lucas just calmly unbuttoned his sleeve, smirked, and said, "This is the so-called game? Piece of cake." Boom—a punch sent an undead flying. When it hit the ground, it was just a pile of boneless meat mush. "Pathetic," Lucas said. That punch was just to test the undead’s strength. Next second, he tore through the horde like a tiger among sheep, carving a bloody path with bare fists.
As the boss of his gang, Lucas naturally had powerful weapons. But he was a born pit fighter—brave and wild, preferring hand-to-hand combat. If he didn’t need a gun, he wouldn’t use one. And in this situation, his Killing Fist was way more effective and intimidating than any firearm.
Lucas was in his element, fighting for all he was worth.