Apocalyptic Disaster: I Hoard Billions in Supplies and Kill the Saint

204: Chapter 204 Interlocking LayerYe Nanxing slowly stood up, scanning the three teams standing before her:

Orchid Rock researcher Lin Sui clutched the ”Cold Plant Samples” she had brought, sweat dripping down her neck, yet her gaze never wavered;

Zhao Chenwu from North Ridge was covered in grease, his eyes filled with a ruthless determination to ”tear this damn place open”;

Wen Bai from Hanlin kept his head down, organizing his instruments; despite his pale complexion, his fingertips were rapidly vibrating to calibrate the model;

As for the Tianlang Mountain team, they were fully armed and stood quietly in the back, waiting only for the command.

Zhang Tianjin held his long gun and whispered, ”Sis—when do we set off?”

Zhao Wei took out his spare filter lens and put it on, grinning, ”I bet the moment she says ’down’, we’ll have to charge all the way to the bottom.”

Chu Yunting, however, had been staring at Ye Nanxing’s face, and suddenly whispered, ”Her eyes have changed.”

”That’s a hunter seeing their prey.”

Ye Nanxing finally spoke.

Her voice was not loud, but it instantly silenced the entire corridor:

”All teams, combat readiness.”

”Complete full-person heat source shielding and gas adaptation device calibration within ten minutes.”

”The descent plan is led by Tianlang Mountain, with others assigned to their respective coordination points based on expertise.”

”North Ridge will lead the excavation of the fault path, Hanlin will detect airflow, magnetosphere, and microbial activity, and Orchid Rock will join me in penetrating the central axis.”

She paused, her gaze cold and sharp, like a mountain peak splitting snow:

”We are not here to scavenge ruins.”

”We are here to dig out the—backbone—of the old world.”

”Today is not about finding scraps to survive.”

”It is about taking the entire old civilization—and pulling it out from the fault.”

Lin Sui’s eyes suddenly brightened, and she clenched her fist: ”We can coordinate all Cold Plant data modeling!”

Zhao Chenwu scoffed: ”I knew it. The people of Tianlang Mountain never just take a door off—they blow up the mountain.”

Although Wen Bai didn’t speak, the moment he inserted the instrument in his hand into his data strap, he seemed to transform from an ”experimenter” into an ”expeditionary.”

The wind blew along the fault valley, carrying the residual heat and the stench of decay from the depths of the rock core.

The sky was collapsing.

Yet, the people were still descending.

But at this moment—

They were not a group of desperate survivors;

They were a group preparing to dig the ”future” out from the Earth’s core—

”Humanity’s Spark Engineering Team.”

Morning mist hung heavy, with low-altitude clouds seeming to press down onto the ground. The entire rift valley looked like a sleeping spine that still retained residual heat, deeply split from the surface, with darkness swallowing the world below.

The lifting rig on the edge of the fault, constructed from discarded steel cables and concrete pillars, was rusted and weathered. When the wind blew, it emitted a sharp, clanging tremor, as if the remaining nerves of the Apocalypse were groaning in the air.

Everyone stood at the edge, no one speaking a word.

At this moment, no one was ”from Tianlang Mountain,” ”from Orchid Rock,” or ”from the research group”—

They were people who were going down together to dig up the coffin lid of the old world.

First Tier: Advance Detection Team

Zhou Cheng (Tianlang Mountain): Carrying Space Anchor Point sensor, handheld high-energy bio-probe

Lin Sui (Orchid Rock): Agricultural relic scanning specialist, responsible for detecting thermal plant infiltration rate

Cangmang Survivor Squad (2 people): Terrain guidance, have crossed the outer perimeter of the fault, familiar with the direction

Second Tier: Engineering Advancement Team

Zhao Chenwu (North Ridge): Leader of heavy pneumatic well-breaking/demolition unit

Far North Research Group (White-haired elder + 1 member): Recording abnormal electromagnetic currents, responsible for temporary containment

Zhang Tianjin & Zhao Wei: Logistics support + rapid response firepower, carrying thermal fusion weapons and acid mist interrupters

Third Tier: Backup Joint Control Team

Shen Qingyan & Lin Xiao: Remote support from main control room, data processing

Hanlin Fungal Strain Group (2 people): Analyzing potential deep-layer spore/humus microbe changes

After deploying a simple platform on the edge of the steel cable, Zhou Cheng squatted down with the anchor point stabilizer, precisely reading the feedback signals from the depths.

Vertical passage depth: 112 meters

Internal temperature: 39.6°C (regional fluctuation ± 1.5)

Air pressure index: 102.3 kPa (stable)

Acid residue: Low

Energy fluctuation level: Medium-low (no mutation peaks)

Space interference signal: Weak (connectable)

He breathed a sigh of relief, turned back, and nodded:

”Space Anchor Point can be deployed, signal transmission is good.”

”We can go down—now.”

Everyone stood before that vertical black opening.

Looking down from above, the bottom could not be seen; one could only see some kind of crimson light moving within the stone walls, like blood vessels squirming in the rock layers, the faint light flickering as if it had a ”heartbeat.”

Zhang Tianjin looked at the opening, his Adam’s apple bobbing: ”Honestly... it really looks like going to hell.”

Zhao Wei unscrewed the tactical buckle on his backpack, shouldered his heavy cannon, his tone low and hoarse:

”It’s fine.”

”We aren’t here to be reincarnated.”

”We’re here to—drag the dead back up and fight them again.”

Ye Nanxing stood in the wind, her gaze like iron, whispering:

”Everyone connect to me for communications.”

”Deploy an anchor point every ten meters, don’t wait for the sensing to finish—don’t stop.”

Descent depth reached 112 meters,

Space anchoring device stably transmitted back data: temperature constant at 39.2°C, air pressure 1.04 standard atmospheres.

There were no heat flow fluctuations, nor pressure changes—it was like entering a sealed, constant-temperature experimental chamber.

Slowly descending along the vertical rock wall, wherever the searchlight shone, the rock layers presented a structure of alternating dark gray and orange-red, like mixed rock that had been crystallized after being repeatedly scorched by high heat.

What was even more striking:

—Artificial steel skeletons were exposed in the rock wall, arranged neatly, crisscrossing.

Between the steel bars, there were grooves like nerve channels embedded within, and the standard markings of the old civilization era could still be identified on the surface:

”S7 Level Power Supply Channel · Encoding Position: R-13”.

Shen Qingyan took photos layer by layer with a portable imager, her voice low but clear:

”This is not a natural fissure.”

She traced a ”blasting guide mark” that had been melted but was still discernible,

”It is high-energy directional blasting, layer-by-layer fracture control.”

”This fault is a closed structure.”

”It didn’t collapse; they deliberately blew it open.”

She turned to look at the passage sinking deeper and deeper, her tone heavy:

”This is not a tomb.”

”This is a lock chamber—to lock something inside.”

At the end of the passage was a metal floor that was almost as smooth as a mirror.

Dust covered it thinly, occasionally flipping up to reveal the mottled silver-black alloy texture underneath, resembling the scales of some sleeping giant beast.

In the very center—

A dome door stood quietly. About nine meters high, symmetrically arched, like a giant optical valve closed halfway.

The surface of the door was covered with rust spots, but it had not decayed.

When fingertips touched it, one could still feel metal electric currents faintly wandering underneath, like some weak nerve pulse, not yet completely dead.

On the door, three lines of old civilization characters were engraved, the lines deep, as if chiseled into the bone:

[Experimental Site Number: R-13]

[Survival Calculation Model Intersecting Node · Interlocking Layer Unlocked]

[Status: Dormant]

Orchid Rock research team representative Lin Sui was almost touching the door body now, her fingers trembling slightly, her voice lowered to the limit:

”This is not an ordinary energy base station.”

”It’s a simulation chamber.”

She pointed to the details in the characters on the door: the dual-word structure of [Intersecting Node] and [Model Interlocking]—

”It is... the interactive master node of a simulated ecosystem.”

”Like a ’Digital Ecosystem Core’, and perhaps... it might even possess preliminary self-calculating capabilities.”

”In short, it doesn’t ’provide energy’.”

”It ’decides who gets to live’.”