Smoke and dust permeated the narrow passageway, the crisp sound of flying gravel shattering the deathly silence of the abandoned factory grounds.
Wang Ruofei instinctively raised her hand to shield her face, her vision momentarily blurred by the rising dust. When the particles settled slightly, she finally saw the scene before her—that wall spanning between two passageways, seemingly indestructible, had now been violently breached, revealing a jagged, pitch-black opening.
And atop that heap of rubble, Lin Xiao was calmly retracting the hammer in her hand, brushing away the dust clinging to her clothes.
"This brittle? No wonder it was abandoned." Lin Xiao stood beside the broken opening, offering her commentary in a flat tone.
"..."
Wang Ruofei, who had witnessed the entire process, opened her mouth but ultimately said nothing. Her cognitive faculties were quite limited at the moment; after realizing what had happened, she relied purely on instinct to glance around quickly, confirming that no one else had seen this scene before finally breathing a sigh of relief.
Moreover, Wang Ruofei tried her best to think it through and concluded that the wall's destruction couldn't really be blamed on her classmate. After all, they were just ordinary university students worried about finding jobs, possessing absolutely no ability to go toe-to-toe with industrial architecture. The wall had likely crumbled simply due to its own shoddy construction—a tofu-dreg project.
Lin Xiao, however, was not surprised that she had been able to shatter the wall before her. After all, the information on the sign had been written quite clearly—the path before her was essentially not a "T-shaped" intersection, but rather a "cross-shaped" intersection with part of the passageway concealed.
When she faced left, the right side was the original middle; when she faced right, the original middle was to her left.
So those two signs were both expressing the meaning of "go straight"—it was just that the middle path had been sealed off by this wall.
The entity that left the information naturally wouldn't have designed this wall to be excessively sturdy, since it required those who came to proceed straight ahead. This was clearly a "back door" left for those who followed.
What Lin Xiao found interesting was that once someone understood the meaning of the signs, another question would naturally arise.
For instance, why didn't the signs describe the method of entry more explicitly? Why force people to smash through walls like they were solving a riddle?
Lin Xiao felt that this kind of deliberately vague expression could itself be viewed as a hint. The entity that arranged all this was actually telling her—someone who had the opportunity to see the hidden information—that her previous speculation had been correct. The instance did indeed contain two opposing forces.
The pale red script encouraging temporary employees to head to the convenience supermarket without lights was one type; the pale blue script warning temporary employees not to go to the convenience supermarket without lights was another. From the current situation, the latter was clearly being suppressed.
Because it was being suppressed, it couldn't convey accurate information and could only choose more indirect forms of expression, hoping someone would crack these puzzles.
With this thought, Lin Xiao naturally couldn't ignore another question.
Since the instance contained two opposing forces, when she followed the pale blue text's suggestion to head to the abandoned industrial zone, would the other, more powerful faction choose to turn a blind eye?
The answer was obvious—Lin Xiao activated [Insight Eye] once more. She glanced at the threads of fate on her body and, not entirely surprisingly, discovered that she was being shrouded in misfortune.
The silent, crisp bushes around her seemed to come alive, transforming into some kind of massive, shapeless creature. They were quietly writhing toward this location, wanting to envelop Lin Xiao within them.
And in places Lin Xiao couldn't see, the pale-faced intern employees had already stepped onto the grass, their pitch-black eyes gradually brightening.
They were searching.
They were about to find her.
"Rustle—"
A breeze blew past, causing the tree shadows to sway, producing a teeth-grating friction sound.
The instance's suppression of Lin Xiao's abilities was like the living expenses bill at Xiangyang Welfare Institute—an invisible, heavy thing that never relaxed its grip on her for even a moment. After a brief glance, Lin Xiao immediately deactivated the skill and swung the hammer again, expanding the opening to a size that would allow an adult to pass through.
This hammer was extremely useful—truly worthy of being a tool obtained from a living supplies pack.
After successfully opening the passage, Lin Xiao called over her classmate, whose face screamed "this scene absolutely cannot be discovered by the school or the company," and step by step entered the industrial zone through the opening.
The interior of the industrial zone was certainly full of unknowns, but outside the industrial zone, danger lurked on all sides.
Lin Xiao walked slowly and cautiously. Fortunately, the information on the sign at the entrance was true—the middle path had demonstrated its sufficient safety through complete silence.
After both of them passed through the opening, the already dim light inside the factory grounds instantly darkened.
Lin Xiao didn't need to turn around to know that the hole they had just broken through had automatically refreshed, standing steadily on the correct route toward the building's interior.
From the outside, Abandoned Industrial Zone Number 17 had already returned to its original, unvisited appearance—lifeless and dull, with no indication whatsoever that it was currently being explored.
Three minutes after she entered the industrial zone, the pale-faced intern employees finally arrived at this area. They opened their black eyes, their gazes shifting about, then moving away again.
—if one got close enough, one could discover that the abandoned buildings on the empty ground had never been reflected in the intern employees' eyes from beginning to end.
The blue text's authority had barred the uninvited from the target.
Compared to the beautiful grounds outside, full of vitality and intern employees, the interior of the industrial zone was covered in dust, spider webs, iron nails, and scattered bricks.
Moving through unfamiliar territory caused cold sweat to form in Wang Ruofei's palms. She spoke very softly, as if worried that slightly louder movements would trigger unnecessary accidents: "Are there no lights here?"
Lin Xiao first shook her head, then realized something and asked: "Can you not see anything right now?"
Wang Ruofei answered: "It's very dark all around."
Her consciousness floated in the darkness before her eyes, sensing neither herself nor others. If she hadn't been continuously pulled along, when Lin Xiao wasn't speaking, Wang Ruofei would have thought she was the only one left around her.
Lin Xiao wasn't sure whether Wang Ruofei's inability to see was because she hadn't discovered the hidden markings on her identification card, or because she lacked special abilities. Of course, if she had to evaluate, she thought the former was more likely. After all, even if the force behind the pale blue text could arrange for people to come here, it couldn't ensure that those arranged would definitely possess good vision.
Wang Ruofei whispered: "Then can I turn on my phone's light?"
Lin Xiao answered equally quietly: "Better not."
Since the sign had said she was walking on a safe path, darkness might also be an important condition for ensuring safety. In certain circumstances, the inability to be seen was actually a form of protection.
Lin Xiao continued forward. Although she could see some of her surroundings, this vision was also extremely blurry. Every step required maintaining sufficient attention to avoid leading herself and her classmate onto a wrong path with sharp obstacles.
She carefully bypassed piles of miscellaneous items with components too complex to categorize conveniently anywhere other than a recycling bin, and finally arrived at a relatively open area.
In the middle of this area, there was a solitary workbench.
Compared to the garbage in the industrial zone that had clearly been tossed about haphazardly, the workbench before her had a sense of deliberate, designed orderliness. Gloves, screwdrivers, hammers, and other tools that had once been used were all properly placed in their own positions.
"..."
Upon discovering new items, Lin Xiao made no move.
It wasn't that she didn't want to react, but rather that in the instant of observation, her entire attention was captured by the object at the center of the workbench.
The moment she witnessed that object, Lin Xiao became a drop of water in a desert, all rationality rapidly evaporating under the scorching sun.
Her spirit was undergoing a torrential roasting.
Beside Lin Xiao, Wang Ruofei, who couldn't see the surrounding environment, had no reaction. She simply felt her classmate suddenly stop walking and begin to tremble unconsciously.