BXBX NOVEL Chapter 371 Are You Regretting?
Chapter 371 Are You Regretting?
He had been searching around the mountainside for at least one hour and as the time ticked by…
Chen Xiaolian felt like giving up.
The contents of the system prompt were very clear. He needed to arrive at the mining site and occupy the control centre of the mining site within 24 hours.
He had spent nearly 20 hours for the trip here. At present, he had been searching around this place for so long only to find no sign of even the entrance to this mining site.
He watched as the amount of time gradually decreased. If he still could not find the mining site after the 24 hours were up, this quest of his would end in failure.
Could it be I would have to fail just like this? Not only that, I would also have to participate in another punishment instance dungeon next – there is too much injustice here!
This damnable quest is too confusing. Couldn’t it give some more details?
This is completely against the norm!
Normally, the quests that he had participated in would give him a rather detailed content on the quest. After going to a place indicated by the quest, there was no way he would not be able to find the designated spot.
This feeling was like…
It felt was though this quest was a counterfeit product.
Seeing that there were only two hours left, Chen Xiaolian became furious.
He simply retrieved a sapper shovel from his Storage Watch and began to dig furiously right there on the mountainside!
Lin Leyan and the others were dumbfounded as they observed what was happening. They did not understand why Chen Xiaolian would suddenly pull out a sapper shovel and begin to dig the ground of the mountainside, as though possessed.
There was rage within Chen Xiaolian’s eyes as he dug the ground and he muttered to himself. Seeing that, Lin Leyan figured that he was feeling emotionally disturbed. However, she did not know what to say to him. Thus, she simply stood there by the side and waited for Chen Xiaolian. He dug for a good half an hour. With his powerful strength and endurance, he was able to quickly dig out a huge hole. Then, seeing him stop a while to rest, Lin Leyan walked forward and said in a lowered tone, “What are you doing? Is there something troubling you? Maybe… if you talk to us, we can help you out?”
Chen Xiaolian sighed and cast a glance at Lin Leyan. Then, he laughed.
“My mind just went off on a tangent for a bit. It’s all right now,” replied Chen Xiaolian who shook his head as he thrust the sapper shovel into the ground. “Whatever, I’ll just have to chalk this up to bad luck. This is all because I was too greedy and curious.”
Chen Xiaolian who had given up and was about to lift his leg to move away suddenly heard a system prompt.
[System prompt: C11 ore found. C11 vein found.]
Mm?
Chen Xiaolian was stunned.
That… that actually worked?
…
Chen Xiaolian crouched down and continued digging the hole for a bit. Then, he pulled out a fist-sized crystalline rock from within the hole.
The item appeared gloomy and dull, nothing out of the ordinary. At a glance, it would appear no different to ordinary rocks. However, the surface of the rock was dotted with star like crystals, giving it an appearance similar to quartz. When he carefully inspected it, he realized that the star like dots resemble the stars in the night sky, flashing out faintly.
Although Chen Xiaolian did not know what it was, when he held it in his hand, he could sense that this was no ordinary item.
Chen Xiaolian gripped the rock and was satisfied to receive another system prompt.
[System prompt: Picked up a C11 ore, 569 grams. Amount contained, unknown. Grade: Medium.
[System prompt: Please go to the Ore Extraction Station to process it. The coordinate for the Ore Extraction Station has been placed within your personal radar.]
Ore Extraction Station?
Chen Xiaolian’s heart skipped a beat!
He finally found the way!
A very noticeable green dot appeared on his personal radar. There was only around 200 metres between it and Chen Xiaolian.
He turned his head toward the spot and was flabbergasted by what he saw.
It was the empty grounds that Una claimed was the spot where a glass building used to be. At that moment, the surface layer of a rock that was lying on the ground suddenly peeled off the rock.
After its surface was peeled off, the rock had become a transparent, rhombus-shaped glass box like item.
Chen Xiaolian uttered a laugh before striding forward.
Green light could be seen flowing through the surface of the transparent glass box. Chen Xiaolian recalled the metal orb in his base of operations and placed both his hands on the surface of the box that had the green light.
The box instantly split up.
The ground beneath the box shook and it split apart, revealing an entrance that would allow only two people to walk in side by side… it was the entrance into a mine!
Chen Xiaolian laughed out loudly!
…
Chen Xiaolian had felt that this quest was rather screwed up. However, now that he had discovered this entrance, it was only natural for him to discard the idea of abandoning the quest.
He pulled out a tactical flashlight and led Lin Leyan and the others with him into the mine.
Una’s eyes were widened as she followed Chen Xiaolian closely, her eyes carefully assessing their surroundings.
Although she could not see anything due to the darkness within the mine, this mine was something that she had never seen before even though she had known of its existence from her work papers. Now that it had been revealed before her, how could she miss the chance to observe it?
They walked deep into the mine. However, as they made their way in, they found that there was no atmosphere of stuffiness. Instead, they could feel the flow of cold and moist air blowing outward.
The deeper they went, the brighter their surroundings became. Metal frames could then be seen on both sides of the shaft. Clearly, those were manmade mining equipment. On both sides of the shaft, star like dots shined out. Those were ores; the same ores that Chen Xiaolian had found outside and they shone within the darkness of the mine.
Chen Xiaolian kept away his tactical flashlight.
After making their way through around 100 metres, they saw two iron tracks.
Several hopper cars were left upon the iron tracks. Judging by their appearances, they were quite new, devoid of any traces of rust.
Chen Xiaolian checked their surroundings and saw no other entrance or exit passages. Thus, he jumped onto one of the hopper cars and found that there were pedals to move forward and brake. The hopper car was also very spacious, capable of accommodating several people at once.
Chen Xiaolian called out to the others and had them enter the hopper car with him before moving the hopper car forward along the iron tracks, going deeper inside the mine.
As the hopper car moved forward, a whistling wind blew upon their faces. Chen Xiaolian took several deep breathes and was able to feel that the oxygen content within the air was very normal. He secretly thought to himself: It seems this underground spot has its own ventilation hole.
The tracks twisted and turned and they travelled underground for who knows how long. However, the farther down they travelled, the mineshaft grew more spacious.
Eventually, they saw a bright light before them and saw that the shaft had come to an end. When they reached the end of the tracks, they became dumbfounded!
This was clearly an underground cave!
It had the standard size of a gymnasium, rising up to a height of tens of metres. The starry shine from the ores sparkled out from the surrounding walls. Metal frames could be seen fixed around the place.
Although the track had stopped there, there were around seven to eight other tracks beside theirs, each with hopper cars on them.
Those tracks led into different places, going into five to six different mineshafts. Although iron tracks had been laid into the mineshaft, they did not know where those mineshafts would lead to – perhaps, they would lead to a deeper underground mine?
Chen Xiaolian led the others down the hopper car and stood there. He could sense that there was a thin layer of sand on the ground. Crouching down, he pushed his hand down through the layer of sand and was able to feel the hard ground beneath it. He then grabbed a fistful of the sand in his hand and was able to faintly see the sparkling star like shine from the sands… it seemed like a by-product from crushing the ore. However, the star like shine appeared much weaker.
Chen Xiaolian turned his head back and saw Una crouching down to grab a fistful of the sand as well before secretly stuffing it into her pocket.
He considered it and elected not to stop her from doing so.
In the middle of this underground cave was something that appeared like an ore processing place.
Something that looked like it could be either a furnace or an agitation tank towered in the middle of the cave.
Beside that object was a metal signboard. There were also arrows pointing in different directions, indicating the various mineshafts.
Chen Xiaolian ran over and looked at it.
The words written on the metal signboard was not of any language that Chen Xiaolian knew of. However, thanks to the system, he was able to understand it.
Looking at the blank looks on the others’ faces, he knew that they could not understand what the words on the metal signboard meant.
Chen Xiaolian sighed to himself.
These words… it would seem that they are not part of this world!
Mine no. 1… mine no. 2… mine no. 4… mine no. 6… mm, these are the entrance passageways… mm, this signboard is pointing toward… the main control centre? Eh? This place also has an underground transport pier?
Chen Xiaoilan stood before the signboard and looked at it while Lin Leyan and the others watched him curiously. That was especially true of Una who was unable to resist asking, “These words, do you understand them?”
Chen Xiaolian glanced at her but chose not to reply.
The main control centre was located in the southwest corner of this underground cave. Chen Xiaolian walked over in that direction and saw that it had the appearance of a dug out passageway, just like that of a cave dwelling.
Chen Xiaolian gave the entrance a glance before stepping through it.
After taking one step inside, the interior of the cave suddenly lit up.
Chen Xiaolian’s eyes flashed.
The interior was… a room!
The room was circular and not square-shaped. One-third of the room’s wall comprised of metal screens. The moment Chen Xiaolian stepped inside, the metal screens lit up.
Chen Xiaolian noticed that there was a row of round buttons on the lower left corner of the metal screen on the wall.
Looking at the row of buttons caused Chen Xiaolian’s heart to pound… the first one was a green button with a sign on it.
“Start all operations.”
Chen Xiaolian reached out with his hand. However, when his finger made contact with the surface of the button, he did not press it. He hesitated a moment before pulling his hand back.
He walked back out of the room and looked at the surrounding people.
“Come,” said Chen Xiaolian with a sigh.
He stayed silent after that as he led them all to the other side of the underground cave. They then made their way into one of the mineshafts.
This mineshaft descended further down. The farther they go, the lower it went. However, there were also tracks there.
There at the end of the mineshaft was an underground river!
An underground river of this scale was likely very rare in Africa.
As they reached the river, they saw a well-constructed pier there.
Chen Xiaolian was pleased to find that there was a boat beside the pier.
To Chen Xiaolian’s surprise, the boat was not the type that could move on its own. Iron tracks had been constructed within the underground river itself and the boat was affixed on those tracks.
Chen Xiaolian saw that a map was displayed by the pier and he walked over to check it out.
Then, he turned his head to look at Lin Leyan and Hans.
“It seems this is goodbye for us.”
Lin Leyan was stunned.
Chen Xiaolian pointed at the boat and said, “That should be a transport boat. After embarking on it, it will go along the tracks until it is out of the mountains. I’ve checked the map. At the end of the tracks, you will be safely out of the mountains in a river near Congo’s border. There, just disembark and walk to the border and enter Congo. Once you disembark, the boat will return by itself.”
Lin Leyan bit down on her lips and cast a tangled look at Chen Xiaolian.
Hans who was beside her said in a hushed tone, “I understand… … this… the things here, all of them are strange. I think this is not something we can be part of.”
After a pause, Hans continued with a whisper, “Don’t worry. After we get out, we will not say anything about what we’ve seen here.”
Chen Xiaolian only smiled. He was not concerned about that.
He had a faint feeling… the matter of confidentiality was something he did not need to worry about. It was likely that the system had already prepared something for that.
Lin Leyan said in a low tone, “Truth is… I can stay behind to accompany you. Maybe, maybe I can help you out somehow.”
Chen Xiaolian looked at her in silence.
Lin Leyan understood the meaning conveyed through Chen Xiaolian’s expression and the smile on her face turned bitter. She said, “That’s true… these are all things that I don’t even understand… perhaps, I really would not be able to help you out in any way. I…”
“Our meeting is a form of fate. To have such a fate is not a bad thing in itself.” Chen Xiaolian then continued in a low tone, “What we need to do is to cherish this fate – but that is all there is to it.”
“… … … I will remember you,” said Lin Leyan in a whisper as she gritted her teeth.
“… me too,” said Chen Xiaolian with a sigh.
The volunteers came to Chen Xiaolian respectively to bid farewell to him before jumping aboard the boat.
Una was the only one that Chen Xiaolian had stay behind. As he did so, a nervous expression appeared on the African woman’s face.
Chen Xiaolian ignored her and walked over to the boat to bid farewell one last time. He hugged Hans for a moment before turning his attention to Lin Leyan who was biting her lips as her body trembled.
Chen Xiaolian moved closer and hugged her as well. However, he found that the woman was tightly holding onto him, seemingly unwilling to let go.
Chen Xiaolian sighed and patted her back in a comforting manner.
“I have a question for you. You must give me an honest answer.”
Lin Leyan’s voice resounded by his ear.
“Mm, go ahead.”
“That night… are you regretting it now?” Lin Leyan’s face blushed.
Chen Xiaolian took a deep breath. He released his embrace of Lin Leyan and looked into her eyes before exhaling. Then, he said solemnly, “My intestines are already green from regret!”
Lin Leyan blurted out a laugh. Even so, the tears trickling down her eyes gradually increased. In the end however, she chose to let go.
The boat began moving. It did not take long for it to move along the iron tracks embedded into the underground river. Chen Xiaolian who was standing on the pier waved at them. Lin Leyan waved back with all her might as tears filled her cheeks as she knew that they will never meet each other again.
Una who was standing beside Chen Xiaolian had a dejected look in her face. She opened her mouth and said, “Why did you have me leave behind? Do I still have any value for you? You promised not to kill me!”
Chen Xiaolian looked at her before saying, “By staying, you can continue to live on… don’t worry, I will keep up my end of the deal.”
After saying that, Chen Xiaolian led Una away from the pier and back into the huge underground cave and into the main control room.
Standing beside the row of buttons, Chen Xiaolian finally placed his hand on the ‘Start all operations’ button once more. He suddenly smiled.
“I wonder. What will happen after I press this?”