"Whew..."
The Inner City was noticeably colder than the Outer City.
Lin Lan exhaled a breath of cold air, surveying the surroundings and proceeding up the road.
Buildings stood on platforms extending from the shaft wall. To facilitate travel between buildings, countless bridges connected the platforms.
Holographic images hung in mid-air; perhaps due to the apocalyptic influence, the images had lost coherence, blending advertisements and news into bizarre scenes.
Flawless humanoid maids raised wine bottles to the camera, armed soldiers drowned by seawater, a starship plummeting in flames, and horrific eyes opening on a star's surface...
The images flickered at a disconcerting frequency, and Lin Lan withdrew his gaze, standing beneath a large building where the images were broadcast.
He took a deep breath and forcefully pushed open the long-sealed glass door.
Strangely, despite the outside world being as bright as day, the building's interior was pitch dark, even though they were separated by transparent glass.
It seemed as if the entire city was wrapped in a shiny facade.
"This place is awfully creepy..."
Lin Lan muttered to himself, walked into the room, took out a flashlight from his bag, and shone it around.
It appeared to be a factory, yet the environment inside was in stark contrast to the bustling scenes outside.
Thick dust covered the ground, the walls were moldy and decayed, smashed storage boxes were scattered everywhere, and grayish-white building debris was all around.
This factory had clearly suffered severe human-inflicted damage.
Lin Lan inexplicably breathed a sigh of relief.
Perhaps this was the true appearance of the Space Ladder. In his view, the city's bustling facade was something beyond rational comprehension.
He looked around, rummaging through boxes, and began searching for collectible items in the dungeon.
A moment later.
[You have obtained: intact mini nuclear battery *7]
Lin Lan appeared extremely excited.
Well, it was worth coming to the Inner City; the nuclear batteries hard to find in the Outer City were everywhere in this warehouse!
Besides, he discovered other new dungeon items in the boxes.
[Identifying the items you have picked up!]
[Item: Activated Metal Composite Material]
[Quality: White]
[Function: Lightweight, extremely high strength and rigidity, suitable for producing product shells]
·
[Item: Small Light Beam Cutter]
[Quality: White]
[Function: Basic capabilities to cut, weld, sculpt, and perform surface treatments on high-strength materials]
Buoyantly, Lin Lan shouldered his bulging backpack, cheerfully lifted the flashlight, and continued exploring deeper into the factory.
The environment grew ever darker and more complex.
Dust danced in the beam of light, Lin Lan pushed open a broken iron door with effort and crawled into the tunnel at the warehouse corner.
The end of the tunnel seemed to be a processing machinery workshop.
The silver-white walls and floor merged, and large mechanical arms hanging from the ceiling resembled silent sculptures. In the finished goods placement area, vaguely humanoid silhouettes were piled up.
Lin Lan's heart skipped a beat, he raised his head, and the sign above the tunnel came into view.
——Humanoid Mechanical Servants Core Manufacturing Workshop.
"Humanoid Mechanical Servants? Could they be intelligent robots?" Lin Lan picked up his pace, entering the workshop.
Countless complex mechanical devices filled the space, leaving a tight area for walking. Lin Lan approached the placement area, and the humanoid contours became clear under the flashlight's glow.
All of them retained only heads and chest cavities, entirely white, with all female designs.
On closer inspection, the surface of every body was blemish-free, their curves naturally harmonious, akin to art pieces displayed on a stage.
[Item: Humanoid Mechanical Servants Torso]
[Quality: Blue]
[Description: The company's seventh-generation humanoid mechanical servants, safe, harmless, intelligent, perfect. This section is equipped with a power furnace and housekeeping service chip]
"Great stuff!"
Lin Lan's eyes gleamed; he immediately attempted to lift one.
It was inexplicably heavy.
Lin Lan's face reddened; the density was astonishing and his back nearly gave out under the weight.
"If only there were a cart available..."
He grimaced, letting go, and eyed the humanoid torsos—there were dozens of them, retrieving them all to the spawn point wouldn't be easy.
Just as Lin Lan was pondering how to transport these treasures back, the flashlight in his hand suddenly flickered.
Lin Lan paused, instinctively tapped the flashlight. It was nuclear-powered, never having malfunctioned.
A sense of foreboding rose in his gut.
Tap... tap... tap...
Light and shadows flickered violently as abrupt footsteps echoed from the depth of darkness, drawing closer and sounding piercing in the still world.
Simultaneously, the torsos around Lin Lan suddenly opened their eyes, and the system panel revealed corresponding text descriptions.
[At the end of the Third Era, Mrs. Martina's Space Ladder attracted the gaze of the stars]
[Starlight consumed the city like a swarm, and company-made mechanical servants experienced large-scale malfunction for the first time, raising their blades against panicked humans]
Lin Lan's expression turned to shock, and a strikingly beautiful, almost inhumanly exquisite face emerged in the darkness before him.
'She' had white hair and white pupils, a slender figure, clad in a black-and-white maid's long dress, with a playful and cute smile on her face.
In the next instant, she threw a dining knife towards Lin Lan.
"Damn!"
Lin Lan squeezed out a brief shout from deep in his throat, tumbling awkwardly, as the knife streaked past his cheek, embedding deeply in the surface of a mechanical arm.
"Why are there monsters in this dungeon!"
Frightened, Lin Lan touched his cheek, performing a deft maneuver to swiftly distance himself from the monster before him.
The humanoid maid stood in place, tilting her head slightly as if puzzled.
"Why do you reject my affection, Master?"
Her voice was gentle and melodious, akin to a heavenly tune. The maiden stepped to where Lin Lan stood before, single-handedly extracting the dining knife deeply lodged in the steel.
The heels of her leather shoes produced a crisp tap on the ground.
She approached Lin Lan step by step, her tone filled with tender affection: "Please stay with me, forever."
Lin Lan's lips twitched, and without a word, he turned and ran.
This couldn't end well!
A wise man doesn't suffer today's losses—better safeguard the collected dungeon items first.
Lin Lan began sprinting, teeth clenched, as the flashlight completely lost its light. Slivers of starlight had already slithered into the dark, silent factory, rendering the path to the exit particularly lengthy.
Suddenly, dull footsteps erupted above him.
BOOM!!!
The ceiling of the passage ahead of Lin Lan shattered in an instant.
The maiden's skirt fluttered wildly in the wind as she gracefully landed, her smile enticingly unchanged.
Lin Lan was now cornered with no escape.