24 Chapter 24: Tracing_1

[An entrance to a tunnel built by a person had not been opened for a long time; it seemed that the entity hidden beneath was also unaware of this additional passage. At this moment, through the tunnel opening, one could faintly smell the stench of blood and decay.]

"Lucky to have found some clues."

Colin sighed in relief, put away the lens, and wiped the sweat from his forehead. His brain was very tired from using this thing multiple times in a row.

However, it consumed far less energy than the "Book of Fate: Fragment", but it was still tiring to use so much.

"Can't rush, rest for ten minutes..."

Colin took a deep breath, found a random spot to sit, and took out a piece of nut chocolate from his pocket to put in his mouth.

Crunch, crunch...

The sweet flavor of nuts mixed with chocolate melted in his mouth.

His mental energy rapidly replenished.

Colin glanced outside the cabin; under the dim and gloomy sky, everything was in ruins, empty, and without a single enemy in sight.

He had thought that after revealing his identity in a face-off, he would be bombarded by an endless wave of attacks. Unexpectedly, that guy had sent the nun's corpse as a probe and then promptly fled.

The escape was exceptionally decisive, without the slightest hesitation.

"If he retreated because he foresaw through premonition that I could kill him in return, then if I go underground to find him now, it's likely I'll walk right into a trap."

Colin realized this, yet time was pressing; even if it was a trap, he had to rush in and take his chances.

After all, the "Book of Fate: Fragment" was not invincible; the information it provided normally lacked details, especially now that the enemy was aware of it and prepared, it was hard to say who would win or lose.

Shaking his head, Colin put the remaining chocolate wrapper back into his pocket, stood up, and dusted off his pants, then from the "Storage Room," he took out a protective suit and a gas mask and put them on. He then squeezed out some milky liquid from a bottle of shower gel and spread it over his protective suit.

With this liquid for protection, he didn't have to worry about accidentally harming himself with the Blended Oil later on.

Following that, he cautiously crawled down along the crevices between the walls at the tunnel entrance.

After descending about the height of two or three stories, Colin reached the bottom.

The landing was a subterranean crevice, not very large but neither too cramped, with walls covered in moss and similar plants glowing with a green luminescence.

Such glowing plants also existed in the ruined town above.

Colin had never heard or seen such plants on Earth, but it was thanks to these that he wasn't completely in the dark now.

"Natural caves... I wonder if this world has black gunpowder or the Nitre-Boiling Old Man."

Looking at the eerie cave, Colin couldn't help recalling some caving videos he had seen online...

In those videos, nine out of ten caves like this bore traces left by nitre-boilers from the last century.

The purpose of boiling nitre was due to the chaos of that era; various homemade firearms were everywhere, and some villages even had homemade cannons.

Nitre was a key ingredient that powered these devices.

Shaking his head slightly to clear the clutter from his mind, Colin first pulled off his mask to take a sniff and detected a faint, barely discernible odor.

Then, he took out the "Analytical Lens" to start gathering some information.

[A faint scent of blood, filled with agony, wafted from this direction...]

"I thought it was crazy enough that I could smell it, but this thing is even more outrageous, able to discern whether the smell is painful?"

Colin muttered to himself, and without much hesitation, he moved quietly towards that direction. Soon, he found himself at a crossroads.

After briefly determining the direction, he chose the one on the right.

Minutes later, Colin abruptly left the natural cave behind and encountered signs of human alteration below.

It looked like a corridor, lined with grey stone bricks, and the walls and ceiling were embedded with stones emitting a faint green glow.

"If I weren't short on time, I'd definitely have to take a couple of these..."

Colin's gaze moved away from the glowing stones and he continued on his way.

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After turning left and right for over ten minutes, he discovered something peculiar about this underground artificial construction - it was just too vast.

Moreover, it was extremely complex. Every few steps he took, he would come across a number of branching paths, as well as empty rooms, and secret doors that could not be detected without using the "Analytical Lens," almost like a bewildering underground labyrinth.

These secret doors sometimes were above his head, sometimes under his feet or in some corner...

Each appeared to stretch endlessly without knowing where they led.

"Who on earth built such a massive underground maze, and, importantly, how is the ventilation here so surprisingly good? I have no idea how they achieved that..."

Colin kept walking, marveling at the vastness and magic of this underground world.

After another ten or so minutes and passing through a tunnel, Colin suddenly stopped in his tracks as he smelled a faint odor mixed with the stench of blood.

"I must be getting close..."

Colin slowed down, poked his head out from the corridor, and saw that beyond was an immensely spacious hall, likely several thousand square meters in area.

Unlike the previous ones, in this hall here were several candles burning. In the soft candlelight, an enormous oval table stood in the center of the room with exquisite tableware on it...

But in stark contrast to these calming surroundings were the bloated, pale corpses hanging from the ceiling.

And the screams like those of a dying person were coming from behind a door in the hall.

They were the people from before... Colin narrowed his eyes, not rushing to act but instead looking up again at the corpses hanging from the ceiling, many of which looked familiar.

Indeed, they were the villagers and others from before. A quick scan revealed that there were over two hundred bodies...

He picked up the "Analytical Lens" and took a glance through it.

[A group of puppets not yet activated, they are currently like ornaments, actually serving no real purpose.]

"It looks like they haven't noticed me..."

Nodding slightly, Colin quietly entered the hall and carefully made his way to the edge of the door.

Then, with his body sideways, he carefully looked around...

His pupils dilated slightly, taking in more light into his vision.

He saw that, about five meters down the hallway, there was a spacious and enormous kitchen.

Inside the kitchen, a vast creature, three meters tall, was facing away from him, processing something. Its back was covered with bumps the size of human faces...

To be precise, each bump was a human face.

And on top of this back was an enormous head, made up of exposed muscles, blood vessels, and brain tissue.

The head was covered with constantly moving eyeballs and had many arms hanging down below...

At first glance, it looked like a giant fatso wearing a jellyfish hat decorated with eyeballs.

And beneath it was a multitude of legs, akin to those of a centipede...

As Colin looked at the monster, he happened to see it tearing off the right hand of a "Brave One" nailed to a desk, and then inserting the hand under its brain.

Then... the arm could suddenly be used!

"Hiss... some Human Patchwork Monster."

Colin's eyelid twitched; the last plug-and-play entity he remembered was the dance master Uchiha Madara.

In other parts of the kitchen, were scattered a variety of fresh ingredients, including fresh eyeballs, lung sashimi, blood tofu, raw brain flowers, red oil dressed seaweeds, caramelized ribs, and bursting intestines...

Meanwhile, a person who had apparently passed out from pain, was once again awoken by agony as his arm was sliced off, screaming painfully.

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ps: As expected, gory descriptions get censored, but listing dishes doesn't. I've suddenly had a realization.

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