Bronze-Quality Blueprints

A figure moved swiftly through the sewer passage.

The flashlight beam pierced the darkness. Now and then, a few damp-furred rats scurried past. Some even stopped, reared up, and rubbed their front paws together as they studied the intruder.

Yu Yuan slowed to a stop and raised his left wrist. A virtual map only he could see projected into the air from his watch.

A green light point blinked steadily on the map. After comparing it carefully with his surroundings, Yu Yuan nodded.

"This should be the place!"

He looked at the Positioning Watch on his wrist, unable to suppress a grin.

He had never expected the watch to have map-scanning and virtual-projection functions.

It was a wonderful surprise.

He had immediately scanned the Green Forest City East City District map into the watch, producing the real-time positioning display he had just seen.

But he still needed to verify its accuracy. That was why he had come here: to test both the Positioning Watch and the Virtual Map.

His future plans depended on it.

He climbed the sewer ladder. When he spotted a length of wire dangling through a hole in the manhole cover above, he could no longer hold back his smile.

The wire was already rusty, with a pebble tied to its lower end.

He had placed it on Felwood Avenue last night to mark this manhole.

His plan was simple: use this manhole and the dental clinic as reference points to locate the sewers beneath the other streets.

Once he mapped out the routes in detail, the city's despised sewer network would become his quickest and easiest way to reach other districts, without exposing himself to danger.

He had expected it to be a long-term project, but the Positioning Watch and district map had moved everything forward.

And Yu Yuan had a new idea.

Now that he knew the positioning worked, he set his next destination: the East City Water Affairs Center.

The center stood on Soren Avenue in the 7th Block, a fair distance from District 13. Even running flat out through the sewers, Yu Yuan took more than an hour to reach the avenue.

Only then did he find a manhole leading to the surface on the street behind the center.

He listened through a hole in the cover for a while. Hearing nothing outside, he carefully gripped the locking bolt beneath it and twisted with all his strength. As the latch retracted, he slowly pushed the cover open a crack.

It was only a little past nine in the morning. Sunlight fell through the gap onto his face as he cautiously surveyed the street.

The street was a desolate mess of garbage, overturned cars, fallen utility poles, and bicycles eaten away by acid rain.

Once he was sure it was safe, Yu Yuan pushed the cover aside and climbed out. He left it slightly ajar, wedging a length of wire into the gap.

A few quick strides brought him to the center's rear entrance.

The door stood half-open. He peered inside and saw that the place had long since been looted.

Signs of smashing and ransacking were everywhere, and all the glass had been broken. Yu Yuan slipped in.

He held the Kukri in one hand, with the M1911A1 pistol tucked at his waist. If trouble appeared, he could fight at once.

He hurried past the unimportant areas of the first-floor lobby and went straight upstairs. His target was the archives or the water affairs director's office.

Those were the only two places likely to hold a map of the city's sewer pipes.

The archives were easy to find, and no one had much reason to loot them.

When he pushed open the door, he found plenty of file folders scattered near the entrance, but the room itself had suffered little damage. The shelves had toppled, yet the records were still there.

Yu Yuan soon found what he needed—and more than one master plan of the sewer pipes.

The plans had been updated roughly every five years. Yu Yuan scanned them all into his watch.

Then, in a file box at the very back of the archives, he spotted a set of blueprints whose lettering had grown faint. His eyes lit up.

[Green Forest City Wartime Air-Raid Shelter and Sewer System As-Built Master Plan—East City]

Quality: Bronze

Description: Built 89 years ago in preparation for a possible nuclear war, this master plan depicts Green Forest City's strategic underground complex, combining air-raid defense, shelter, and sewer diversion. Its existence was forgotten over time. Even when the Wasteland arrived, no one remembered it.

Yu Yuan could hear his heartbeat quicken.

Bronze-Quality blueprints. This was the first Bronze-Quality item he had ever obtained.

He unfolded the plans. One look at their extraordinarily precise, densely detailed lines told him he had struck gold.

Compared with this, the sewer plans he had found earlier were mere stripped-down versions.

He spread the blueprints on the floor where sunlight streamed through the window. A red line shot from the Positioning Watch and began scanning from right to left.

This scan felt unusually long. The line moved slowly and meticulously.

By the time it finished, Yu Yuan's arm ached. He packed all the plans into his backpack.

He could not wait to open the watch's Virtual Map.

A complete map combining the East City District map, more than a dozen updated sewer maps, and the Bronze-Quality master plan appeared before him.

East City District Sewer Shelter System Master Map.

That was its name now.

Yu Yuan stared, transfixed, zooming the Virtual Map in and out to inspect its details.

Thanks to those updated sewer maps, the system's layout was now clearer than ever.

He could see how many manholes lay on each street and which ones connected to which underground parking garages.

He could also see the rainwater outlets along the city's rivers and in its parks, down to their exact locations.

The map marked which sewers had steeper slopes and which had sharper bends.

The Air-Raid Shelter Level was just as detailed.

The Evacuation Passages that had once seemed like a maze to Yu Yuan were now laid bare. One glance was enough to tell him which way to go.

Even in the pitch-black sewers, he could follow the map's marker without losing his way.

Yu Yuan understood.

From now on, the sewers were his territory.

Once he entered them, no one would be able to find him, let alone catch him.

He could use them to reach any point in the East District. If danger struck, he could pinpoint the nearest sewer entrance and escape.

Down there, he was a fish in the sea, a bird in the sky. It was his domain.

And the moment that realization struck...

[Ding...]

A crisp, compelling yet cold and distinct mechanical chime sounded in Yu Yuan's ear.

[Major progress detected on the Fish Abyss Shelter Title Path!]

[Player title—Street Rat—has been strengthened.]

[Achievement Unlocked...]