Chapter 258: through the tunnel

Apart from the peaceful atmosphere in this location induced by the abundant breeze blowing relentlessly, another notable fact was the beasts that were here.

The king of demolition informed them of this also, so they were not caught off-guard.

As a location that was rarely visited by mercenaries and soldiers due to its weird geographical terrain, this place became a haven for animals to chill, most notably exobeasts.

Josh, Diana, and Anna stood watching with various emotions flashing through their eyes as the 2 heroes walked deeper with their backs kept straight and confident.

Dickson stood at the front, he acted as the melee specialist this time. His eyes were focused, sharp, and alert. His hands were steady, forming the perfect support for his heavy shield.

For the first mission of passing through the beasts without being noticed and to find the entrance of the ruin, Clark was starring as a ranged specialist.

Click!!

His 2-form gun made a click sound as he attached a small device to the gun’s muzzle, which fitted in perfectly. The small device was a miniaturized silencer with advanced features.

Since he arrived at the Everest and started the mission pursuit, this was one of the few gadgets that he didn’t find the time to use since its use was not really needed.

This was the first time that he was using this.

He softly patted the gun to confirm that the silencer fitted in properly before he gave an order to it.

The 2-form gun responded immediately as its configuration went through a change without any break-ups, it instantly took on its sniper configuration.

At the same time that this happened, his figure suddenly began turning illusory. Dickson was also experiencing the same thing; it only took a second before they both entered stealth.

They both found a foothold on the rocks rambling across, before starting their journey to find the entrance.

A soft whistling sound suddenly swept across, the next moment 3 beasts that were peacefully napping and drinking the flowing water had their heads burst to pieces, spraying blood like rain.

As their lifeless swaying figures fell down, something like a pillow, but more like a shield suddenly cushioned their falling momentum, letting them drop to the water without a sound.

Whoosh!!

A few other wind pressure silent bullets sound whistled across and the same thing happened, none of the beasts at the receiving end dropped with a thud sound to disrupt the peace here.

Unknowing to the beasts, 2 frightening predators were already in their midst.

With the sound of the wind blowing and the rapid water currents, Clark and Dickson’s stealth maneuvers could not be discovered by the beasts at all. They seemed invisible.

The other beasts that were not in their path did their own thing without the slightest knowledge that their brethren were being picked out for destruction.

With such a messed-up movement plan, both soldiers easily and swiftly bulldozed into the ranks of animals without arousing any suspicion. Their movements were deadly, efficient, and straight to the point.

It did not take many minutes before they got to the point where the interconnected rocks lying delicately on each other started appearing.

After getting there, they finally started searching manually. Clark protected from the back with his sniper, while Dickson manually groped the rocks in search of any irregularities.

This continued for about an hour as they both persevered without rest, checking rock after rock.

During this same time, dozens of animals and exobeasts already died to their forceful passage method.

Though a few strong exobeasts came close to busting their cover, they still dispatched of them after some clever maneuvers.

This was only possible because these few exobeasts were nowhere as formidable as any of the alphas of animal kingdoms that they’ve clashed with, there was no basis for comparison.

After checking for a few more minutes in the general direction that the king of demolition pointed them in, Dickson finally felt his hand grope something different from the rock that he’s been feeling since, something metallic.

“I think I found something”. He whispered into his comm as Clark who stood a few distances behind him suddenly perked up.

“Wait, I’m coming”.

Clark went closer while still alertly checking the environment for threats with the outrageous scope range of his sniper. After getting close, he finally dropped his 2-form gun a bit and extended his hand to touch what Dickson was showing him.

He also felt it. There was no mistake, this was not a rock, this was metal.

From the sensation transmitted back to his sensor gloves, he easily concluded through the help of his implant that this was something carved by humans. Probably a door.

Though the metal was extremely durable and it was not suffering from rust, he still deduced that this was something old.

“This is it, help me”. He nodded to confirm Dickson’s speculation before asking him for help.

Creak!! Creak!!

As expected, when both soldiers used their strength to apply force to pull the rock covering it out, the creaking sound of an old door opening was made.

After applying force for a few minutes, the outward layer of rock covering the secret entrance was finally removed.

Behind the rock was revealed a small black door, gleaming coldly and standing sturdily under the support of the rock underneath it.

Though age was already eating at it, its contours were still sharp and neat, making it obvious at a glance that it was a masterpiece design of human civilization.

From its attractive and dense surface, Clark deduced that it was probably made from an exotic metal though he could not identify which yet.

After looking through all the mechanical circuits attached to it, both soldiers’ eyes finally narrowed down to the center of the door.

At the center of the door stood a huge engravement, a huge red-colored A that was aesthetically pleasing to the eye was delicately carved on it. The design behind it was a work of perfection.

This was the symbol of the strongest and most prosperous country in the world, one of the big 5 powers, the Aragan empire.

Clark felt his blood flow increase exponentially all of a sudden, his adrenaline level increased as goosebumps crept underneath his skin. He was finally here!

Though he felt relieved on finally locating it, he did not smile. He turned his head to direct a solemn look at Dickson, he nodded at him before taking a special comm out of his pocket.

“We’ve found the secret door, we’re about to go in soon”. Clark paused for a moment.

“Diana, Anna, I want you both to remember that no matter what happens to us, keeping your lives safe should be your priority. This is my last order to you both, I hope you do not disobey me at such a moment”.

Without waiting for a reply from the other side, Clark kept the comm back in his pocket before going to work on the door.

Fortunately for them, no computerized technologically advanced locking measures were used on the door which would have been frustrating, only an extremely complicated mechanical puzzle was used on it.

Perhaps, back then during the great battle of supremacy, this would have been an unbreakable lock, but to the current Clark, he only needed a little effort and brainpower to decipher the puzzle.

It only took him 5 minutes before he cracked the puzzle. The door made a clacking sound all of a sudden as it started expanding outwards the next moment.

Bolts and screws loosened by themselves; metal parts were separated from each other as the door suddenly seemed like a snake that was shedding its old skin. The sight was novel and epic.

To both soldiers’ horror, this door was thicker than they imagined. Its thickness was easily a few meters thick.

It took a whole 2 minutes before the moving motion of the door stopped. By this time, hundreds of bolts, screws, metal parts, and interconnecting frames already loosened.

The creator of the door was a genius.

As soon as the door opened, what revealed itself before them was an extremely small tunnel that had its walls made from the same exotic metal that the door was made with.

The tunnel was so small and narrow that to pass through it, they had to crawl.

A notable fact was that inside the tunnel was the cleanest place that both soldiers have seen in their whole life. Everywhere was black, neat, metallic, meticulously designed, and quiet.

Clark gently knocked on the metal walls of the tunnel from outside and the sound echoed for about a minute at a frightening frequency, inside the tunnel felt like entering a hollow cylinder.

All these factors, when paired with the fact that the door took so long to open verified the soldiers’ guess that they were either the first squad that got here or the others discovered another entrance.

“What is your guess? Why was the king of demolition so truthful to us?” Clark suddenly inclined his head to his companion’s side and asked.

“I’m also puzzled”. Dickson laughed softly. “He has always been truthful to us which is weird. Despite all these, I still think that he has an ulterior motive. It cannot just be for bombs”.

“Well, he helped us to get here, and I’m grateful for that”.

Clark’s eyes suddenly grew sharper. “Are you ready?”

“After you, I can’t wait!”. Dickson’s eyes shone like lanterns in anticipation and excitement.

“Then let’s do it”.

Clark no longer hesitated, he unbuckled his bag, held it in his hand before entering the tunnel with his body placed horizontally. Placing his hands on the tunnel metallic walls, he started propelling himself forward.

Dickson did not waste time also. As soon as Clark entered, he followed but he also did one thing that the king of demolition told them to do in the case that he didn’t enter here at the same time that they came.

He used his legs to gently pull the door close, and the rest mechanisms pulled off by themselves.

As the bolts, screws, metal parts, and other mechanical cords moved to lock the door back in place, he used his leg to drop a small piece of paper at the entrance. A message was written in it for King.

As darkness descended back into the tunnel, their night vision goggles lit up, turning their vision to yellowish-green. Everywhere was clear like day to them.

The countdown officially began.

…

Outside, as soon as Clark sent the message on the long-distance comm, Diana received it immediately. She shared it with the others but they still didn’t leave, they waited a bit.

“Will they be ok?” Anna asked hesitantly.

“I don’t know”. Diana answered immediately. “That’s how life is, we never know. Let’s leave the rest to fate, the best we can do to help them is keep a lookout to see if any of our soldiers survived”.

“Ok”.

As they turned to leave, Josh looked back for the last time. “I think they’ll survive. And the next time that we meet, they would probably have grown and changed a lot”.

“Good luck, travel buddies”.

[Thank you for reading this chapter, I really appreciate it.]