Steam Sprayer

"You really didn't buy even a scrap of information from an Information Broker before coming in?"

"Mm."

"Heh, no wonder you dared to stay in Room 2012."

"..."

"This Anomaly 407 Containment Facility currently has four explored floors, with a hundred rooms on each floor. Some rooms contain monsters, while others are empty. The twelve hours when the iron doors are shut are nighttime. The monsters go berserk and roam the bunker corridors. Anyone who leaves their room will be killed, and sometimes they even break into rooms to kill people. The twelve hours when the iron doors are open are daytime. The monsters are trapped in their rooms then, making it the best time to explore this Alternate Dimension. But it's not absolutely safe. If you want to kill monsters for materials, you have to explore the rooms. And opening a door means facing an unknown monster directly. That's why the Mortality Rate is so high."

"How strong is a B-Class Calamity, roughly?"

"As far as we know, Rooms 1099, 2012, 3045, and 4011 each contain a B-Class Mutated Monster. Apart from the Corrupt Giant in 1099, which has been killed before, the other three B-Class Calamities have never been killed. At least several hundred people have died trying. After all, this Space Limitation restricts the entrants' ranks. B-Class Calamities are difficult to kill without a large team."

"Then why are you...?"

"The Fallen Witch is special, and she's Mental Type. She has her own weaknesses. I have some special methods to counter her, which will make things much easier. I'll explain some of the details later."

"..."

Although the Mechanical Arm Girl spoke with the instinctive indifference and wariness she had toward strangers, she did not hide anything that needed to be said.

She had a straightforward personality and did not waste words.

Ji Xun found her quite agreeable as well.

He asked vague questions whenever possible to conceal his complete ignorance, gradually learning some useful information.

The veil over this mysterious fantasy world was slowly lifted through their conversation.

It seemed to be a world where both humans and monsters possessed Extraordinary Power. There were also magical objects, such as Steam Machinery and enchanted cards.

Open doors, stay alert, search.

The Mechanical Arm Girl could handle it all by herself.

Ji Xun did not need to do anything. He only had to follow behind her as dead weight.

More than a dozen rooms along the way had been empty.

Ji Xun walked at an easy pace.

He did not feel even the slightest hint of the danger implied by the seventy percent Mortality Rate.

But as they walked, he seemed to notice something unusual. His expression suddenly froze as he silently pondered, The doors are spaced twenty steps apart. Was the layout of Room 2012 really abnormal?

He did not know what his small discovery meant, nor did he say anything. He simply continued following her forward.

The Gas Lamps in the corridor were unstable, their dim yellow light stretching their shadows long.

As they talked, they arrived before Room 2049.

Just as before, the Mechanical Arm Girl intended to go in and take a look.

But the instant she pushed open the iron door, something changed.

The sound of the door opening alerted the monster inside. With a loud clang, even the heavy iron door was blasted open by a fierce gust and smashed hard against the wall.

The stench of rotting flesh, mixed with a bloody wind, rushed at them.

Ji Xun's pupils abruptly contracted.

After opening so many rooms, this was the first time they had encountered a monster.

Before he could react, a twin-headed hound that looked as though it had been skinned charged out.

It was clearly a malformed dog, yet it possessed the body of a lion and the oppressive presence of a demon.

He immediately saw the prompt above the monster's head.

Bartholomew's Twin-Headed Hound

Details: A Tier 1 D-Class Calamity Body, a Hell Species mutated hound-form creature skilled in Mental Intimidation. It possesses astonishing burst speed and biting power.

"Mental Intimidation? The monsters in this world really aren't normal..."

Ji Xun instantly understood what that almost tangible pressure was. The hand resting on the revolver at his waist tensed at once, ready to defend himself.

But the Mechanical Arm Girl was clearly faster.

She seemed completely unsurprised that a monster would burst out of the room. Like lightning, she raised the Steam Sprayer on her right arm and calmly pulled the trigger.

The high-pressure sprayer suddenly vented, and her body jolted with the recoil.

"Bang!"

A deafening blast of compressed air exploded through the corridor.

The monster had already pounced to within a foot of the girl, but the instant white steam erupted from the barrel, its lion-like body froze in midair. After a brief stalemate, its muscles were torn apart inch by inch by the high pressure, and it was instantly blasted into a cloud of blood.

"Drip, drip..."

Scarlet blood sprayed everywhere.

The steam vanished in an instant, and their view became clear again.

The entire room was covered in radially scattered flesh and tissue. Even through the Gas Mask, the stench made one vaguely nauseated.

"What absurd power."

Looking at this steam-powered black technology, Ji Xun suddenly felt that avoiding a conflict with her earlier had been a wise decision.

Inside such a narrow bunker, it was far more useful than bullets. The area damage of that ultra-high-pressure cannon was practically unbeatable.

Perhaps she had been using this method to issue him a warning: don't try anything clever in front of me.

Ji Xun's brow lifted slightly. Her way of thinking is certainly direct.

Out of the corner of his eye, he glanced at the emptied pressure gauge on her Mechanical Arm. He silently estimated the Energy Accumulation time. It should take more than thirty seconds, which was a weakness.

If this temporary teammate of his developed any ill intentions, that weakness could be exploited.

After instantly killing the monster, the Mechanical Arm Girl turned back and looked at Ji Xun. "You..."

Whatever she had wanted to say, she swallowed it.

That shot had indeed been meant to display her strength.

But what surprised her was that this guy had not been intimidated by the calamity?

Is it a talent that enhances Mental Power?

She muttered it to herself, said nothing more, and walked into the room.

Of the hundred rooms on the second floor, they had explored over forty, yet Room 2049 was the only one where they had encountered a monster.

The unopened rooms were marked by the Information Broker as "unknown-risk rooms."

The Mechanical Arm Girl had a clear objective: the Fallen Witch. She had little interest in the monsters in the other rooms.

She also had no intention of taking the elevator to the other floors.

What surprised Ji Xun, however, was that aside from the two of them, they had not encountered anyone else on the second floor. They had, however, seen more than a dozen mangled human corpses.

Wanting more information, Ji Xun asked, "Is there no one else on this floor?"

Since the dead weight had caused no trouble along the way, the Mechanical Arm Girl's tone was noticeably friendlier as she explained, "Most of the Mutated Monsters on the second floor are Mental Type. Those monsters usually have strange methods of attack, making them troublesome to deal with. The easy ones were mostly cleared out yesterday. The rest are troublesome monsters that require special methods to handle. Ordinary hunters would rather go to the Third Floor, where the Mortality Rate is even higher, than seek trouble on the second floor. This is a Hundred-Person Team Space. There should still be dozens of survivors above and below us, but if we can avoid meeting them, it's best not to."

Then she added, "Don't touch unopened doors. No one knows what's inside. If we run into a C-Class Calamity or above, it could mean Total Annihilation."

"Mm."

Ji Xun did not say much.

That was the advantage of buying information.

You would not blindly stumble into monsters you had no way of dealing with.

The Mechanical Arm Girl said, "Let's go. On to the next room."

While Ji Xun and the girl searched the empty rooms of the second floor one by one, outside Room 1099 on the first floor, more than twenty well-equipped people were clearing up the corpse of the B-Class Calamity, the Corrupt Giant.

These people were not ordinary treasure hunters. They were the Vanguard Elites of the Blackwater Mercenary Group.

For unofficial professionals, only an elite team with seamless coordination like theirs had any chance of hunting a B-Class Calamity.

Even so, they had suffered significant casualties.

But as they looked at their haul, the mercenaries broke into smiles again.

"Hahaha! A finished Brilliant Silver Quality Contract Card actually dropped, and it's the rare Four of Clubs—Mystic Sequence. We're rich this time!"

"Yeah. If this thing goes to auction, it'll definitely be in high demand. Once we get out, our bonuses will be substantial."

"Hey, did you notice? Even after a Brilliant Silver card dropped, that 'boss' wasn't interested at all. What materials did he come in here looking for?"

"What do you know? Didn't you hear the captain say that this 'boss' is a true Great Figure from the Upper City? The Silver Talent Cards we consider incredibly rare probably aren't much to those great figures. He's obviously after rarer materials. Besides, this Alternate Dimension is less than fifty percent explored. There must be plenty of Hidden Scenarios yet to be uncovered. Who knows, maybe even the legendary Gold Cards might drop."

"Heh, true enough."

"So what if they do? Killing that Corrupt Giant cost both elite teams of our mercenary group dearly. Who can kill those B-Class Calamities on the second, third, and fourth floors?"

"Exactly. This damn space even restricts the ranks of those entering, while the monsters are absurdly powerful. I've explored dozens of Alternate Dimensions, and I've never encountered one this cursed."

"Who cares? The boss personally went to the fourth floor. We're paid to do a job, so we just wait here."

"..."