Under the Ruins

"What was that sound?"

Wang Chuan pricked up his ears, trying to determine where it was coming from, but just as he began listening closely, the sound faded away again.

"What's going on?"

After a moment of confusion, he quickened his pace and continued forward.

After walking some distance, he saw what looked like a dark "wall" in the distance ahead, cutting off the uninterrupted lighting. The illumination abruptly ended there, as if there was nothing beyond it but pitch-black darkness.

A flicker of concern passed through Wang Chuan's heart. He took a deep breath, described what he had seen into his recording device, and stepped forward again...

He drew closer and closer to the black "wall," and Wang Chuan grew increasingly tense.

Though he was a well-trained special forces soldier, he still felt fear in the face of the unknown.

People were not machines. He had somehow arrived in this city alone, with no idea where his teammates had gone. If not to gather more intelligence, he would never have risked venturing into this unknown place beneath the ruins by himself.

"Humanity still knows too little about the Abyss Sixth Layer. The more I learn, the fewer detours those who come after me will have to take."

Wang Chuan's reasoning was simple, without any lofty purpose behind it.

If later arrivals also became lost in this city, the intelligence he uploaded might help them. Why not do it?

As he thought about it, the fear in his heart gradually faded.

This city looked lifeless and seemed to conceal countless secrets, but he had encountered no danger so far. The tunnel was brightly lit. Wang Chuan told himself not to let his imagination run wild. Once he reached that black wall, he would see what it was.

He quickened his