Chapter 74: Eternal Sleep Project (Part 4)

Everything was proceeding as smoothly as a game. Liao Tianhua separated everyone in the laboratory from the bombs, and Xia Mi subsequently entered the nest.

For ease of movement, Xia Mi did not wear a Protective Suit. She only wore a pair of stylish goggles, which made it easier to receive information from Shield.

Liao Tianhua, on the other hand, had put on a Protective Suit. His physical resilience was not as terrifying as Xia Mi’s, and the suit would help him withstand physical attacks.

After entering the laboratory, the two of them had to wait for the bombs to be defused. Not in any hurry to act, they simply strolled through the facility.

Realizing she hadn’t been on a date with Liao Tianhua since they got together, Xia Mi took the initiative to grab his hand. “It’s rare for us to have such a leisurely walk,” she remarked.

Liao Tianhua looked at the terrifying monsters bowing to Xia Mi on both sides of the path. For a moment, he found it difficult to reconcile the word “leisurely” with their surroundings.

“Is this leisurely?” Liao Tianhua looked toward a glass-walled room. Inside, a person slammed their head against the glass, dissolving into a puddle of sludge-like fluid that clung to the pane, forming a large, weeping face directed at Xia Mi.

This place was more horrifying than any horror movie.

Xia Mi kept her eyes fixed ahead. “It’s very leisurely. Last time I went for a walk in the park with Xiao Feng, I was nervous to death. I didn’t know what to say to him, so I could only take him for a run.”

Liao Tianhua asked, “…What were you nervous about?”

Xia Mi replied, “Wasn’t he a bar model back then? I was afraid that asking him out would cost money. I was so worried he’d ask me for payment that I didn’t even dare look him in the eye.”

A sour feeling rose in Liao Tianhua’s heart. “You still asked him out even if he charged? Didn’t you say you were stingy and short on cash?”

Xia Mi sighed. “He was an enemy of the Immortal Foundation. I wanted to test him. It was all for work. I was just playing a part, forced by circumstances.”

Liao Tianhua: “…”

Prioritizing career above all else, Liao Tianhua silently swallowed his bitterness.

They wandered like this for three hours. With no news yet from Shield, Xia Mi was becoming visibly agitated.

The worship of the monsters in the laboratory was gradually awakening the Queen Bee’s will. Being in this environment for a long period was causing Xia Mi’s mental state to deteriorate.

The twenty-four-hour limit was a rough estimate Xia Mi had made; it could increase or decrease depending on the situation. Now that half the time had passed and she was in this environment, she could snap at any moment.

She paced irritably back and forth in the corridor, occasionally rapping on the laboratory glass and shouting at the monsters inside to stay away from her.

Liao Tianhua worried she might shatter the glass.

These monsters would not attack Xia Mi, but once they were out of control, they might engage in even more extreme behavior to stimulate the Queen Bee’s awakening.

Setting aside his embarrassment, Liao Tianhua hugged Xia Mi’s waist from behind to stop her movements.

Feeling Liao Tianhua’s firm muscles against her back, Xia Mi thought of the fit physiques she occasionally saw online. She didn’t struggle, allowing him to hold her.

Liao Tianhua said, “Let’s go rest somewhere with fewer monsters.”

“The only place with fewer monsters is near the blast-proof room,” Xia Mi said.

“Then we’ll go there. We have to deal with the people inside anyway,” Liao Tianhua said.

He led Xia Mi to the door of the sealed room, and the two of them sat on the floor. Xia Mi closed her eyes while Liao Tianhua took off his gloves and massaged her temples to ease her symptoms.

Xia Mi’s irritability lessened significantly. Under Liao Tianhua’s service – rubbing her shoulders and kneading her legs – she endured for another hour.

Just as she was about to reach her limit, a line of text appeared on her goggles: [Success. You can act now!]

Xia Mi snapped her eyes open and fired several shots at the surveillance cameras in the room, cutting off the feed.

She entered the communication network, observing the situation inside the room through Consciousness Threads. As expected, after she destroyed the surveillance, the researchers in the sealed room grew panicked.

They huddled together, keeping their distance from the Drones and watching them warily.

Xia Mi controlled one Drone to move toward the main door’s switch. The researchers, ignorant of the outside world, panicked and activated the electric shock switch on that Drone’s body.

This action greatly provoked the other Drones, making the atmosphere between the two sides even more tense. When Xia Mi manipulated another Drone to take a few steps toward the researchers, the panicked staff members knocked all the Drones unconscious.

Once the Drones were out, Xia Mi could no longer see the situation inside the sealed room.

However, with only a few researchers left who had little combat capability, they would be no match for Liao Tianhua even if they managed to leave the lab early.

Liao Tianhua was the master of the nest. Clad in a Protective Suit and armed with a machine gun, he held every advantage and had no reason to fear a few researchers.

Xia Mi confidently stepped into the elevator and pressed the button for the bottom floor.

She waited for a moment, but the elevator didn’t move. The control screen on the elevator kept flashing English text.

Xia Mi listened for a while and gathered that the English was saying she didn’t have the clearance to reach the bottom floor.

In the game, Xia Mi hadn’t chosen the “Xiao Mi” perspective, so she didn’t know what troubles Xiao Mi had encountered on her way to The Hive.

However, a small problem like an elevator refusing to descend wouldn’t stop Xia Mi.

She pulled out a Zhuo-fied knife. This was a weapon provided by the Disposal Bureau, capable of slicing through iron like butter once it was Zhuo-fied.

Xia Mi chose a suitable spot beneath her feet and thrust the knife forcefully into the elevator floor, cutting out a circle.

It wasn’t easy. Although the Zhuo-fied knife could cut through iron easily, this elevator wasn’t made of simple iron but steel, which was much sturdier. Even if the knife was sharper than the steel, cutting through it required immense arm and wrist strength.

Fortunately, Xia Mi didn’t lack strength. After some effort, she finally managed to carve a hole in the bottom of the elevator.

Below the elevator were steel cables and a pitch-black shaft, looking like a path leading to an endless abyss.

Xia Mi turned on the light on her goggles, put on her gloves, and grabbed the elevator’s steel cable, sliding down into the depths of the earth.

The elevator shaft was eerie, with things occasionally writhing on the walls, but Xia Mi wasn’t afraid at all. The further down she went, the more she felt as if she were finally going home.

After sliding for about five minutes, Xia Mi stopped in front of an exit. Sensing the location of “The Hive,” she kicked the elevator doors several times with force, eventually forcing them open and leaping out.

There were no more man-made structures here. It was unlikely the Immortal Foundation could find anyone to build much in a place like this; constructing an elevator was already their limit.

However, the place wasn’t as dark or terrifying as Xia Mi had imagined.

Outside the elevator doors were a series of hexagonal rooms. The floor was paved with hexagonal ores that emitted a soft glow – not particularly bright, but enough for Xia Mi to see her surroundings clearly.

Xia Mi switched off the light on her goggles and followed the guidance in her heart. She passed through one hexagonal doorway after another until she finally reached the vicinity of “The Hive.”

It was a massive, suspended hexagonal crystal. The exterior was covered in the symbol “8.” There was a crack in the crystal, and looking through it, the interior was completely empty.

This was where the “Queen Bee” was supposed to sleep.

Xia Mi circled “The Hive,” unsure of how to make the “Queen Bee” enter eternal sleep.

Did she have to lie inside it herself? That was absolutely out of the question.

After watching it for a while, she took out her phone and opened the “Project Queen Bee” game, hoping it would provide an answer.

In the game, the progress for “Saving The Lost Boyfriend” had reached 100 percent. It seemed she no longer needed to worry about Liao Tianhua’s safety.

A prompt popped up for the “Eternal Sleep Project” mission: [Please return “The Hive” to its place.]

Xia Mi was stunned.

“The Hive” was her ability – the game itself. Since the game was on her phone, did that mean she had to put the phone inside the crystal?

You’ve got to be kidding. They had given her a tri-fold phone with 1TB of storage; it cost over twenty thousand yuan!