"Hey!" came a voice from the ground, and he realized the passage had closed. He tried to reopen it from the outside but found it locked. The person inside the passage couldn't escape on their own, and the walls were closing in. "I'm inside, and there's a mechanism!"
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"Stand back!" he clenched his right fist and then struck the entrance. The rush of air generated by the impact with the metal plate blew his black robe aside, revealing a Weleagle skull beneath, and inside the passage, the figure was a Tiger Skullbreaker.
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With a large hole in the metal plate and straw scattered around from the impact, Tiger Skullbreaker quickly jumped out of the passage. They looked at the walls closing in, and if they hadn't escaped in time, the consequences would have been dire. Although there was enough space between the walls for a person not to be flattened, they would have been pierced by the spikes, enduring the pain until they bled to death.
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"Damn, I almost fell for such a low-level trap," Tiger Skullbreaker said. They had reached the fireplace. "This is the last place."
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Both Skullbreakers carefully searched around the fireplace and found that several bricks on the wall felt loose. They pressed them all down, and the fireplace moved backward, revealing a broad staircase leading underground.
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It turned out that the most dangerous place was the safest. The mechanism in the earth they had encountered earlier was deliberately created to deceive intruders and kill them mercilessly. It seemed like the creators were protecting something important that needed to be hidden. Was the absence of animals entering the village area also related to this?
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The staircase behind the fireplace spiraled downward. On either side were old walls, and darkness surrounded them, illuminated only by torchlight.
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After descending about a hundred steps, they reached a stone door at the end. The door was easily pushed open, without any mechanism, but they found themselves in a high-tech transition layer that was out of place with the dilapidated ground above. The walls were filled with various wires and cables. The transition layer was small, just a circular room, but it had many gates hidden in its walls.
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"Underneath this rotten house is something like this?"
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"In the depths of Paradise, in the center of the desolate village. Below the earth, above the core," the instructions were like this, so they had reached their destination. The next step was to destroy the core and then retreat to complete the mission.
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They began attacking everything in the room, and the entire transition layer shook. An alarm sounded. They stopped attacking and stood still, seemingly waiting for something.
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Suddenly, one of the gates opened, and several people in white robes, armed with weapons resembling the Firebird Rifle MKII but with some differences, rushed out. The one leading the group gave the order to shoot.
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Tiger Skullbreaker had already charged into the crowd, slashing without mercy. Unlike before, this time their strikes were precise, aiming at vital points. In moments, more than a dozen people fell. In such a narrow space, it was the most suitable environment for them.
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As they moved further into the passage, they didn't encounter the guards they had seen earlier but found many test tubes, facilities, and empty cells. There were also body parts of humans and animals scattered around, as if it were an underground biological experimentation facility.
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In this peaceful land, such an inhumane facility was hidden. Why had the two new types of Skullbreakers found their way here? Who was the owner of this facility? Was he still inside?
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The Skullbreakers destroyed everything they passed, all the way to the heart of the facility. Many white-robed researchers had started to flee in fear, but they all met their end at the hands of the Skullbreakers. They were leaving a trail of destruction, and by the time they reached the power hub of the facility, everything was shaking. It seemed that the "core" they had referred to had been destroyed, and the facility was about to collapse. The two Skullbreakers immediately left, retracing their steps to exit the Research Institute. However, the security system had altered the passages, and they couldn't find their way back to the transition layer where they had entered.
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Just as despair began to set in, they saw a researcher further ahead who seemed to be escaping in a hurry. The Skullbreakers followed him, hoping to find a way out through him.
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Strangely, the researcher seemed to be moving deeper into the facility, not towards the exit. Tiger Skullbreaker rushed ahead and grabbed him, seemingly wanting to ask him something, but he had a murderous look in his eyes.
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"For decades, no one has invaded this place. If you've found it, you must have been betrayed by an insider. Even if it costs me my life, I can't let you leave. You will be buried here!" With that, he closed the gate behind him and, using Tiger Skullbreaker's sword, sealed both Skullbreakers in the collapsing underground.255Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSPKWTYm5RJ
