Chapter 18: Up or Down
The underground tunnel gaped like an ink-black gourd, silence pooled cold as still water.
The girls stood braced, eyes sweeping the dark like lantern light combing reeds.
A thin thread of blood-scent hung in the air, like rust dissolved into fog.
“What’s going on? There should be guards on patrol! And why are the gun towers wrecked?”
Dr. Li Jue trailed the girls, nerves tight as bowstrings. If not for Dixue’s cutting aura, he might’ve clung to them.
But the space beside LittleSnow was reserved for only one person.
“LittleSnow, I can feel it—the breath of life bleeding away nearby…”
Anxiety pricked first, then Yue Liuyi gripped LittleSnow’s hand, confusion eddying like mist.
What was that explosion at the research center? Why the sudden raid?
(Could it be the Council’s troops launched a night strike? But the Lindream Council has no fighters—how could they bomb us?)
Even with LittleSnow at her side anchoring her like a harbor, the more Yue Liuyi thought, the more tangled her thoughts became.
And the world moved to prove her dread.
They hadn’t gone far before Luyao, out front, stiffened like a hound catching scent.
“There’s a body here!”
In the pillar’s shadow lay a security guard, crimson spread on the ground like spilled lacquer. No saving him now.
“Private security?”
“Did the Council’s troops force their way in through the tunnels?”
“T-this is… Sister Liuyi, it’s dangerous here! We need to leave now.”
The purple-haired girl’s eyes widened, a steady gaze flickering like a lantern caught by wind.
At that exact heartbeat, something tore the air and came screaming at them.
Zzzzt!
A pitch-black spike spun like a drill, edge keen as winter.
“Huh?”
Before Yue Liuyi could move, LittleSnow lanced it through with a silver beam.
The silver pierced clean—but the attack didn’t end.
The spike came apart, and a sheet of green fluid splashed out like venomous rain.
“It’s poison!”
Purple Illusion moved. The umbrella in her hand—tech from the Inner Ring—woke like a spirit.
Scan, predict, deploy—everything cascaded in one breath. Under the warding umbrella’s seal, a gale kicked up in the tunnel, flinging the toxin to the walls, where it sizzled down in biting trails.
“I’ve got the ambusher!”
Luyao was already rounding the pillar. He coiled like a spring and leapt high.
His target hid behind the corpse—a small thing, mean as a thorn.
“Die!”
It wasn’t big, a shade larger than a tennis ball. Its body was black steel, matte as a dead moon, hovering in midair where eyes could miss it.
One punch from Luyao settled it. Like a home run, his flaming fist swatted the “ambusher” into the wall, bursting it into scattered parts and sparking wires.
“Huh? A Mechanical Bee. And that guard—was killed by a Mechanical Mantis!”
“Huh?”
“Monsters from the underworld came up here.”
Purple Illusion pointed to the wound on the corpse, then edged closer to the wheelchair where their elder sister sat.
Only then did Yue Liuyi notice it: the guard’s chest had been punched clean through. The shape and angle matched the spear that had once skewered her.
“Don’t talk nonsense, girl! I’ve met Mechanical Mantises. They wander deep near the earth’s heart, sometimes up to the lower metro levels. No way they’d reach here!”
“Oh? You dummy don’t believe me?”
Purple Illusion took orders from Yue Liuyi with quiet grace, but with Luyao she was all thorns.
“Hmph! I’d believe you if ghosts walked noon. You little imp, must be pulling another trick—huh?”
A chill licked Luyao’s back. Something sharp flew for his heart like a hawk stooping.
(Another little toy?)
He twisted, fear nowhere in him, the attack slipping past. He whipped a counterpunch back, aiming to make the sneak-thief pay.
His knuckles crashed into armor thick as a tank’s hide. Even Luyao couldn’t crack it.
“Ow!”
“Brother Luyao, watch out!”
His strike only staggered the Mechanical Mantis, a brief hitch in its gears. It snapped back its scythe-blades, ready to lunge again.
Farther down, another Mechanical Mantis skittered closer, metal legs clicking like teeth.
“Sakura-Flurry, Butterfly Rain!”
At the brink, LittleSnow moved.
…
…
They made it to the entrance of the Mystic Illusion Cafe, shaken but unharmed.
Along the way, the girls cut down two Mechanical Mantises and five Mechanical Bees. Terrifying, yes—but before Yue Liuyi and Yue Dier, they were no real threat.
Aside from Dr. Li Jue nearly wetting himself, and Boss Luyao getting his pride shredded—mostly because Purple Illusion roasted him—the girls took no losses.
The Mystic Illusion Cafe, though, wasn’t so lucky.
The entrance was piled with mechanical scraps. The dreamy violet corridor wore clawed gouges, messy as storm-torn silk.
“Sister Purple Illusion, bad news—the cafe was attacked by Mechanical Monsters!”
“Anyone hurt?”
“Thankfully, no one. But…”
They pushed through the door and found Aya waiting behind it.
While the girls had gone to the research center, Mechanical Monsters crawled out across the tunnels like ants after rain.
Not just Mechanical Mantises. Mechanical Bees, Mechanical Rats, even Mechanical Kangaroos and Mechanical Roaches showed up.
They carried all kinds of attacks, a landslide no ordinary people could stop. The wave nearly scared the maids out of their wits.
Thankfully, their target didn’t seem to be Purple Illusion’s cafe. After Teng Ying stepped in and cut down a few strays, the rest didn’t try to breach the safe door. They raced upward instead.
“Upward? To the upper levels?”
“Mm. That’s what the feeds show.”
Aya gripped her skirt, fear fluttering like a caged bird. Still, Sister Purple Illusion’s new backer looked strong. Maybe they’d all live through this.
“The upper levels… could it be…”
Yue Liuyi glanced at Dixue. Dixue was already looking back. Even Purple Illusion’s gaze met hers in the same way.
Their faces mirrored each other, and so did their guess.
The raid on the research center—very likely, it was the work of these Mechanical Monsters.
