"Drip, drip."
Water seeped from an iron pipe wrapped in green moss, falling drop by drop onto the slick concrete floor of the hidden passage.
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The passage was cramped. Cold, musty air brushed Xia Lun's nose, and alongside graffiti of human faces, wartime propaganda posters dotted the green-stained walls.
One showed a thick-browed, wide-eyed soldier in a steel helmet, his sleeves rolled up over bulging muscles. Beneath him were the words: "The front line and the home front are both battlefields. Step up production. Resist the Borlan invaders."
According to the Boy, the passage leading beneath Winden Thermal Power Plant had been built as an air-raid shelter during the war. For reasons even he didn't know, no Nightmares roamed inside it.
After roughly three hours, they passed through the safe passage and arrived near Winden Thermal Power Plant.
"We're almost there." The Boy, walking second, glanced at a mold-covered metal sign ahead and lowered his voice. "Turn right at the next corner. This passage leads to the bottom of the Cooling Tower."
At the front, Flathead silently raised his flashlight. Its amber beam lit up a foul-smelling pool before the crossroads.
"You should head back now," Xia Lun said from the rear. "It'll be too dangerous from here on."
The Boy licked his lips and shook his head. "Nobody's scavenged the power plant. There's bound to be plenty of stuff inside."
"Big rewards, big risks." Flathead carefully stepped over the puddle.
The Boy followed him over it, unimpressed. "But big risks mean big rewards."
The journey had gone so smoothly that the two had even started bickering. But the moment they rounded the corner, both went rigid as if struck by lightning and fell silent.
Click.
The flashlight went out, plunging the passage back into darkness. Apart