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Sometimes, looks can be deceiving: a lesson I learned when I truly entered the munitions factory…

The moment we stepped out of the barely lit elevator, hidden within an unassuming above-ground warehouse, we were all stunned. All it took was a single glance of the factory’s insides to take our breath away.

According to the bald general, there should still be a ton of munitions and weapons left here. There might be some in disrepair due to the lack of maintenance, but they should still be here… or at least, that was what the intelligence would lead us to believe. When we stepped out of the dimly-lit elevator, we found… absolutely nothing!

“Your Highness, are you sure this is the right place?” Lixiang looked at me in confusion, but the moment she found that my face was indisputably black, she immediately shut her mouth.

“The coordinates are definitely correct.” As a seasoned soldier, Floater was more than experienced with navigation, thus her opinions were definitely trustworthy. “This is the underground munitions factory. Or at least it was a munitions factory.”

“But there aren’t any weapons here, not even their parts.” Lixiang finally couldn’t hold herself back.

My face cramped up …

Yes, we all can see that the fabled underground weapons factory which was supposed to be filled to the brim with weapons is, in fact, not filled to the brim with weapons… Thanks, Lixiang.

Didn’t baldie promise us weapons? Why is it empty now? Did that bald general receive the wrong information, or have the weapons been moved away?

“Check the area for any clues.”

There’s no way there’s nothing here, I refuse to believe we came all the way here for nothing! This underground factory alone has several blocks, one of them has to have a hidden door or sorts.

The three of us stuck together as we searched through the emptied factory storage floor.

A while later, Lixiang actually found something significant. “Your Highness, there’s a storage device here.”

A storage device? I thought to myself in surprise as I rushed over to her side.

Perhaps the girl truly had some sort of talent in searching, but there was actually a storage device hidden in a corner, as she said.

The so-called storage device she found was an old USB-style device used to store data. Because our electronic AIs came with a wide variety of functions, including data storage, such devices had now become obsolete.

In fact, I probably would not have even recognised it, if not for a game I used to play mentioning such a device.

As I held the black, thumb-sized device, I had this strange feeling that this little thing was the key to unlocking this mystery.

“Where did you find it?”

“Over here.” Lixiang rode her standardised exosuit to a corner. A conspicuous black mark stained the ground; clearly someone had tried to burn something here.

“Those are remains.” After observing the area for a while, Floater stated, “A person was probably burnt to death here.”

“How do you know that?”

Her words were so sure, I could have sworn she saw the deed herself.

“There are drag marks here.” Floater had two of her detachable bits scan the ground, after which she quickly came to a conclusion, despite Lixiang and I still being completely in the dark. “This way.”

Lixiang and I exchanged a glance with each other, a look of resignation present in both of us.

I guess we have no choice but to follow…

I shrugged my shoulders then followed Floater. Lixiang made the same choice as well.

We soon found ourselves outside of the storage floor, but Floater did not seem to be slowing down in the slightest, not till we reached a kitchen of sorts.

The kitchen wasn’t large, but there were a bunch of scattered odds and ends inside, of which there was a giant food processor shaped like a vat. An entire hog could probably fit in its massive opening in one go…

Given how small this kitchen was, it wouldn’t make sense to have an industrial-scale machine like this here. Something was clearly off, and it all stemmed from that machine.

Floater stopped in front of the processor. She did not make any motion at all, merely standing silently.

“I have a bad feeling about this…”

I pulled out the virus detection pearl from my pocket and found that its white pearly exterior was starting to turn black. There was something unclean nearby…

“This one agrees.” Lixiang agreed with me, perhaps on purpose, or perhaps genuinely.

Floater leaned forward a little in an attempt to open the food processor. At the side, I watched with bated breath. For some reason, I couldn’t help but feel that something was going to happen, but I couldn’t exactly find a reason to stop her either.

The moment her hand was about to touch the lid, a voice suddenly spoke up.

“Please… don’t open it.”

It was a young man’s voice; a little feminine, or maybe just afraid.

“Who’s there? Who’s speaking?” Even though she had already plastered a bunch of talismans in her exosuit, Lixiang still shivered a little. “Who was that just now? Your Highness? No… that wasn’t his Highness’s voice…”

“It’s not me.” I swallowed out of anxiety. This entire situation was just too creepy, so I kept quiet while I continued watching.

However, this sudden newcomer did nothing to deter Floater whose hand had already touched the giant machine.

“Don’t look at me!”

A shrill scream pierced the air around us, reverberating painfully in our ears to the point where Lixiang nearly jumped.

“Please… don’t look at me… weeping noises… don’t look at me…”

What’s going on? Look at who? Where is he even hiding?

Perhaps the mysterious voice’s pleading had finally worked, but Floater seemed to have stopped, though her hand was still on the lid of the machine, ready to open it at a moment’s notice.

Realising that the other party was scared, Lixiang seemed to have regained some of her composure.

She breathed in deeply, then asked, “Who are you… where are you?”

“Who am I… I… don’t remember…”

Don’t remember? Is this the legendary potato brain?

Shameless Self-promotion

Announcement: I’ve re-opened my Patreon in case anyone wants to sponsor more chapters. Every end of the month, those chapters in early access will be released for free for all to read. If you sponsored a chapter, you will gain permanent early access to these chapters. Essentially, everyone gets more chapters to read, but those who donated get to read earlier. More chapters will then be translated at the start of the month. Explanation on the Patreon itself.

LINK HERE