Zhang Ping had already begun to suspect that the passageways were not straight. Their angles kept changing, spiraling downward with each turn.
In other words, Zhang Ping was no longer at ground level. He was beneath the island, though without his superpowers, he had no idea how many meters underground he was.
Zhang Ping had relied too heavily on his superpowers. He usually left problems like this to Information Control, and now that he could not use it, he was completely at a loss.
As Zhang Ping continued forward, a half-human, half-machine man deep inside the fortress suddenly opened his eyes.
"An intruder? Already past the warning line?" A red light flashed in the man's eyes, and the well-hidden cameras along the passageway locked onto Zhang Ping.
The man got out of bed, went straight to a nearby console, and pressed the first red button.
If the intruder was a Mutated Beast, it would be driven out. If it was human, the professor had to be awakened to decide whether they were an enemy.
Deep within the fortress, an old man slowly opened his eyes inside a Nutrient Tank. The nutrients around him immediately drained away.
He dropped to the bottom of the Nutrient Tank, and the glass slid open.
"A human intruder?"
He walked over and picked up his clothes, talking to himself as he dressed.
Then he picked up his watch and glanced at it. He sighed. "Another few hundred million years have passed before I knew it. When will these days ever end?"
Even so, if the choice was death, he did not want to die.
Once dressed, he left the room. Zhang Ping happened to find his way there, and the two met in the passageway.
It was no coincidence. Their meeting was inevitable by design.