The bottom of the shaft
Although "Good Night" almost died because of the voices of the other members of "Order" suddenly appearing in the voice channel, but...
Good Night has experienced far too many incidents that are "shameful" or even "socially devastating"!
Whether it was accidentally sharing a video intended for someone in the work the Many last week, or mistakenly thinking Senior Sister from your club was going to confess her feelings to you in college and going to the playground in a suit with flowers only to find out she wanted you to move the sound system, or working at a convenience store back in the Peninsula era and being filmed by a classmate who then uploaded it to Socializing media...
Although Good Night still feels embarrassed when he encounters "shameful" situations, he has adjusted very quickly.
"Xi Ba... I'm going to keep going. The sound insulation in this pipe doesn't seem to be that good. Xi Ba, I'm not going to say anything more!"
Inside the pipe, Good Night patted his cheeks and spoke again into his In-Ear Monitor.
That's right...
The comrades in charge of "Order" are generally of high quality.
Although the situation was indeed very awkward, and everyone either scolded or teased me, once they realized my breakdown, no one continued to make fun of me.
Of course, it could also be because I was indeed "carrying out a mission".
This wasn't really a suitable time or place for jokes.
After Good Night finished speaking, he slowly stood up from the bottom of the pipe.
Although it uses a "Ventilation Duct," it is one of the main air ducts for air conditioning exhaust and ventilation on all floors of the Divine Power Tower, so its exhaust volume is naturally astonishing. The size of the middle section is almost like a small elevator shaft, which can easily accommodate Good Night standing and moving around inside.
Good Night slowly walked past the bend with his flashlight in hand, and then came to the next section of the wind tunnel that went straight down and seemed to have no bottom.
"Xi Ba... that's really high."
Good Night stared at the pitch-black wind tunnel. Because Xiao Nian had temporarily shut down all the warning devices, the tunnel, which might have been flashing red light, was now completely dark.
The faint beam of my flashlight shone down, like a small fish swimming in the deep sea, its bottom nowhere in sight.
Good Night stood at the edge of the parallel section of the pipe, feeling the airflow coming from the darkness below, which made his ankles feel cold and his legs feel weak again.
"Xi Ba..."
He was thrown down by Xiao Nian just now—but now, Xiao Nian isn't here to throw him down again.
But...
They were already halfway down, and Good Night could only tug at the Descent Rope and grit his teeth.
He closed his eyes and then took a step forward.
"Xi Ba, let's go for it!"
As Good Night spoke, he began to fall again.
The sound of air whistling past my ears made a rustling noise inside my In-Ear Monitor.
After Good Night's speed reached a certain threshold, the "Descent Rope" on his body began to take effect—the device above the rope began to control Good Night's speed so that it would no longer increase, but because of Xiao Nian's settings, this speed did not decrease much.
Good Night quickly reached the bottom—this time, because she wasn't thrown down but jumped down herself, Good Night adjusted her posture early in the air and landed with a beautiful forward roll.
Thump!
The gentle Good Night bumped against the bottom of the air duct and landed on a thick metal mesh.
The flashlight beam illuminated the bottom layer of the tunnel, where four large fans were spinning at a moderate speed beneath the metal mesh, generating upward airflow to power the exhaust system.
Standing on the metal mesh, Good Night tapped his In-Ear Monitor.
"Xi Ba, I've fallen to the bottom. Which way should I go next?"
Good Night spoke, a rustling sound came through her In-Ear Monitor, indicating a possible signal problem.
Following the instructions from the In-Ear Monitor, Good Night could only vaguely hear a few distorted sounds.
"Go to... the bottom, duct number 006..."
Good Night took the flashlight and circled around, and sure enough, he saw many different kinds of air duct entrances leading to various places, extending outwards like a spider web.
The numbers on them were also painted in red, probably to help maintenance personnel identify them.
"Number six, number Xi Ba... Ah, found it, here it is -- I really chose a good landing spot, it's right next to me."
Good Night spoke, he walked to the edge of the wind tunnel, looked at the entrance to number 006, and went straight there.
Just as Good Night began to move, the Descent Rope around his waist suddenly encountered resistance, as if trying to pull him upwards.
"Hey, Xi Ba... what are you doing?! Are you going to recycle it already?! Say something, Xi Ba!"
Good Night cursed and frantically pressed the buckle button, managing to untie the rope before it pulled him down.
Then, a muffled sound came through the In-Ear Monitor.
"Unfasten... the safety buckle..."
Upon hearing this voice, Good Night said helplessly, "Not only is it blurry, but it's also delayed... Xi Ba, the underground signal is really bad! Even the communication devices of the Barren Realm can't overcome this problem of no signal underground?"
"There's a delay, Xi Ba! Next time, give the command a few seconds earlier— Xi Ba!"
"You almost pulled me down and dragged me up Xi Ba —then I'd have to jump again!"
Good Night spoke, he looked at the slowly rising Descent Rope, shook his head, and then walked into the entrance of the No. 006 ventilation duct with a flashlight.
The entrance to this ventilation duct is about the height of a person, and there is a huge exhaust fan spinning there. At the same time, warning red lights flash on the walls of the duct—there is one every few meters, extending to the deepest part.
"Xi Ba, is the alarm on? Can I go in now?"
Good Night asked, and fearing a bad signal, he repeated himself, speaking more slowly and briefly the second time.
"The alarm, Xi Ba it switched off?"
Good Night spoke, all she In-Ear Monitor was background noise.
But...
A few seconds later, a beeping sound came from the Ventilation Duct, and the flashing red light of the alarm turned into a solid green light.
Seeing this, Good Night scratched his head.
"This means it's working now, right? Xi Ba, can't you say something... is the signal really that bad?"
He thought for a moment, then took out his "Item" keyboard from his pocket and threw it in, dragging the keyboard's data cable along with it.
"Clang!"
The heavy keyboard fell to the bottom of the pipe without triggering any alarms.
Good Night grabbed the data cable, pulled the keyboard out and put it away, then looked for the gap between the two fan blades and turned it right in front of him. He crouched down and crawled inside, then quickly crawled out again.
After going in and out like that, Good Night stood at the edge of the passage, craning his neck to observe, like a meerkat or a groundhog standing guard on the prairie.
After several tens of seconds, there was still no movement inside the pipe.
"Looks like Xi Ba is really alright!"
Good Night spoke, he then crawled back into the pipe.
After pausing for a few seconds at the entrance, Good Night cautiously began to move forward.
And just as Good Night had taken a few steps...
"Waaaaah--!"
Behind him, a loud roar came from the fan. The fan speed increased to such a high speed in just a few seconds that only the afterimages of the blades could be seen. The huge Wind Pressure created a considerable suction force, which startled Good Night.
"Wow, Xi Ba!"
Good Night quickly braced himself against the pipe wall, but after Leng Jing down, he realized that the suction was far from enough to pull him in; it only made his clothes flutter.
But for a brief moment, Good Night was indeed terrified.
"Xi Ba, Xi Ba... I almost turned into mincemeat! What happened?"
"And... it's so Xi Ba noisy! This Xi Ba fan!"
The noise from the fan made the background noise in the In-Ear Monitor even worse. The buzzing noise and whistling wind made Good Night's ears hurt, and she felt as if she had returned to that afternoon when she first went to a nightclub.
Back then, I had thick hair and plenty of collagen in my face. All I needed to do was apply a BB cream, and I wouldn't be rejected by bars in the most bustling areas of the Peninsula's capital because of my age or looks...
However, when he was younger, Good Night had only been there once, since he really disliked noisy places—it had absolutely nothing to do with being startled by a tattooed male companion glaring at him for staring at a hot-dressed woman dancing for too long!
While Good Night complained about the wind and noise, a faint sound came through her In-Ear Monitor.
"Feel sorry..."
"This is... a side effect of... turning off the alarm..."
Hearing the voice in his In-Ear Monitor, Good Night Ye sighed, "Xi Ba, so there's still a signal... Xi Ba, you can hear me!"
"It's nothing, a small problem, Xi Ba... but how am I going to get out of here?"
"Never mind... Damn Xi Ba, I remember you said Paper Kite would attract attention, so does that mean I won't have to walk through the Ventilation Duct Xi Ba?"
Good Night asked, but the sound in her In-Ear Monitor disappeared again.
"Damn Xi Ba, no signal again?"
He shook his head and continued walking deeper into Ventilation Duct number 006.
After all... even though communication is impossible now, Xiao Nian must have planned out his escape route!
They're all comrades in the "Order" movement, how could she possibly harm herself?
"Damn it... Good Night... Can you hear me? Hello! Hello! Hello!"
On the Rooftop, Xiao Nian looked at the empty Descent Rope that had been retrieved, listened to the cacophony in his In-Ear Monitor, and his expression was very serious.
Communications... have been cut off!
Someone has hacked into everyone's Communication Device!
Not just "Good Night"...
Now, "Paper Kite," "Dionysus," "Ren Gu," "Loquat Candy"... have all lost contact with me!