A rich, strange scent wafted up from below. It was clearly fragrant, yet Bai Zhou found it more nauseating than any stench.
The crisscrossing ventilation ducts gave off a continuous whine as they extracted those smells, then great gusts of "fragrant wind" rushed straight at Bai Zhou. The scent practically felt like it was prying open his skull.
Holding his breath and covering his nose, Bai Zhou simply gave up breathing. Even so, he feared that if he stayed too long, the smell would seep into him.
What was that—
Through the stacked cargo crates, Bai Zhou saw a group of people in gray work uniforms sorting and crushing plants and minerals that glimmered with strange luster.
But the smell was not coming from there.
In this underground space, utterly opposite to the world aboveground, this place was likely only the most basic outer perimeter.
So, without a sound, Bai Zhou continued forward.
The Black Cat blended into the darkness of the ducts, making no sound as he moved.
The black ribbon bow around his wrist swayed gently twice, and Ya's voice reached Bai Zhou's heart. "Now I understand why one of the major budget allocations in that fully encrypted Account Book was called 'park construction'—"
Bai Zhou nodded. "It really is a park."
It was too large.
The space below stretched beyond sight. Dense streams of employees moved through it, carrying goods, while watchful Overseers patrolled everywhere. It brought to mind a bustling underground ant nest.
The Black Cat Bai Zhou had become traveled silently through the ducts for a long time, navigating the crisscrossing pipework like a maze of entwined pythons before finally leaving that enormous factory building.
As he gradually approached the core area, the ducts ahead began to branch. Different rooms corresponded to different duct junctions,