Zhang Chen found it difficult to conceal his inner excitement, but at the same time, reason cautioned him that everything was proceeding too smoothly.
It was unrealistically smooth!
If he had known earlier that he could find the natives' lair this way, he wouldn't have wasted so many opportunities.
Zhang Chen forcefully suppressed his surging emotions and slowly walked towards the iceberg.
He gazed at the iceberg for a moment, and soon, a set of information slowly emerged:
[The entrance is beneath the ice layer and requires identity verification and sterilization before reaching it. However, it's evident your appearance has alerted the enemy. Defense mode has been activated, and they are prepared to flee...]
As this prompt appeared, the iceberg before him suddenly began to slowly sink into the ground.
It seemed the natives were quite cautious, not placing the transmission beacon's origin within the base itself. This prevented enemies from directly assaulting the base if they managed to infiltrate.
This base could sink and escape?
This indicated the base possessed the ability to move underground, thereby fending off attacks from powerful monsters in the apocalyptic world!
It seemed the progressives had gotten smarter!
After finally finding their lair, he wouldn't let them escape so easily!
Zhang Chen activated his Absolute Vision and looked down below the ground. Only then did he discover that the iceberg on the surface was merely a very small corner of the entire base.
The entire base was fifty stories high, with a width of one to two hundred meters, resembling a colossal cruise ship.
As the base slowly sank, the apparent entrance was immediately reinforced with alloy steel plates.
A blue energy grid instantly enveloped the surroundings of the base.
"In that case... if there's no entrance, I'll have to create one myself!"
Zhang Chen's expression turned serious, and instantly, a ball of golden flame engulfed him!
[Divine Soul Burn]!
Then, Zhang Chen took a deep breath, slowly raised the finger of his right hand, and pointed at the mid-section of the slowly sinking iceberg.
[Annihilation Finger]!
Buzz!
An extremely thin beam of light instantly shot out from his fingertip, directly slicing into the iceberg.
The iceberg, encased in a dark red energy grid, instantly crumbled upon contact with the thin beam, causing massive ice blocks to cascade down.
Zhang Chen's index finger moved lightly.
Swish!
The entire iceberg was sliced in half from its mid-section! The black metal was split cleanly into two, and the exposed areas flashed with electrical sparks.
"This is it!"
Zhang Chen executed several rapid flashes, arriving at the cut.
The severed upper section appeared to be an observation post; this was a spacious corridor.
Originally, there were over a dozen guards clad in nano-battle suits inside.
However, they never imagined that Zhang Chen could breach the base by cutting it in this manner – nor could they have predicted his immense power!
A gust of extreme cold wind, carrying the dark red energy grid, surged in, instantly draining the energy from their bodies and freezing them into ice sculptures.
Zhang Chen leaped into the corridor and slowly walked towards the elevator.
At this moment, everything in the corridor was instantly frozen. The ground and walls were covered in a thick layer of frost, making it feel like stepping into a crystal palace.
Ding!
The elevator doors opened, and Zhang Chen slowly stepped inside.
He then pressed the button for the lowest floor.
Based on Zhang Chen's experience dealing with the progressives, they had a strong tendency to place their core laboratories and confidential materials on the lowest level.
Therefore, Zhang Chen predicted that the person in charge of the base would also be on the last floor.
Even if he didn't find the person on the last floor, Zhang Chen could still work his way up, floor by floor.
After all, with the natives' fragile adaptability, they would likely face certain death if they left the base.
"Alert, alert, base invaded by external force!"
"Invader is using elevator 15 to descend to level negative 32. All combat personnel prepare for interception!"
As Zhang Chen's elevator descended rapidly, he could hear the panicked shouts of the natives outside the elevator on each floor, along with the sound of chaotic footsteps.
It seemed his appearance had indeed disrupted their plans.
Furthermore, level 32 seemed to hold something significant that made them extremely wary of his approach.
Boom!
When the elevator reached level negative 20, the enemy activated emergency measures and jammed the elevator.
A group of heavily armed native guards, holding energy beam guns, aimed at the doors of elevator 15.
"Fire!"
At the command, dozens of laser beams instantly covered every corner of the elevator, attacking from all angles with no blind spots!
Bang!
The elevator doors were melted into molten metal by the concentrated energy beams, fusing the elevator car and the floor together.
However, the elevator car was empty!
The guard captain gestured to a soldier beside him.
Immediately, a soldier cautiously rushed to the elevator entrance and looked down.
He saw a large hole in the bottom of the elevator car, and Zhang Chen had directly jumped to the lowest level!
"The enemy has invaded level negative 32! All guards report to level negative 32 immediately and prepare your AI battle suits!"
Upon hearing the captain's order, all the squad members exchanged bewildered glances. They knew very well what this order entailed.
During previous battles, they had worn nano-battle suits and used energy beam guns.
This was to prevent the excessive destructive power of combat from directly destroying the base.
Now, with the deployment of AI battle suits, such high-intensity combat would undoubtedly lead to the base's destruction!
In this apocalyptic era, building a mobile base was no easy feat. Were they truly going to let it be destroyed?
Therefore, the soldiers hesitated, suspecting they had misheard.
"Execute the order! The enemy has already infiltrated the critical level negative 32. You all know better than I do what is on level 32!"
"Once they make contact, the consequences are completely unpredictable!"
"If we have to choose between preserving the base and stopping the enemy, we must choose the latter! Do you understand?!"
The captain reprimanded them sternly.
"Yes!"
"Understood!"
The soldiers immediately retrieved their wristbands and operated them quickly.
The wristbands transformed into battle suits that covered the soldiers' bodies.
At this moment, the entire squad of over thirty people was clad in the same tactical gear.
They leaped down the elevator shaft one by one, prepared for a decisive battle.
Concurrently, a large number of natives immediately entered escape pods and were rapidly ejected from the iceberg base like bullets.
As they flew into mid-air, teleportation portals suddenly opened out of nowhere, engulfing the escape pods.
This was an escape strategy for emergencies, where the portals connected to parallel worlds.
The time flow in those worlds was far slower than in the real world. This allowed the natives to hide in the parallel world for several hours, and upon returning to the apocalyptic world, several days or even weeks would have passed. This method was used to evade enemy pursuit.
Meanwhile, Zhang Chen had already reached the critical level negative 32 before the soldiers could arrive!