Chapter 330 Preparing to Hunt Down the Gray Contract Society

Klaus looked at him.

The silence lasted for a few seconds. The only sounds in the pipe network were the faint crackling of the warlights and the subtle, writhing friction of the inscriptions on the distant copper wall.

Klaus's gaze remained fixed on Lu Yuan's face. Lu Yuan couldn't quite put his finger on what was in that gaze; it was more like he was confirming something he had vaguely sensed but hadn't said aloud.

"Can."

Klaus nodded.

"But before that, let's go take a look."

The three walked towards the copper wall.

Glock and the two Night's Watchmen were left at the edge of the inscription's spread. Klaus glanced back at Glock.

"You stay here and keep watch. If there's any unusual activity, retreat immediately."

Glock nodded, held the communication crystal in his hand, and leaned against the wall, with two Night's Watchmen standing guard on either side of the passage.

The three continued to venture deeper into the area.

The suppression from the dense inscription area quickly became apparent. One by one, Rex's tentacles retracted, and the slow, undulating movements that had begun to recover on his body surface stiffened again, as if something were binding him from the outside.

"The suppression is stronger than last time." Rick's voice was muffled, as if it came from behind a layer of cloth. "My abilities are being severely compressed."

Lu Yuan took out a silver piece from his inner pocket and handed it to Klaus.

"Keeping it close to my body reduces the suppression, so I experience very little suppression myself."

Klaus took it and weighed it in his hand. He ran his fingertips over the inscription on the surface of the silver piece, without asking any questions about its origin, and tucked it directly into the lining of his inner clothing.

Lu Yuan noticed that Klaus's pace did not change at all, and after the silver plate was applied, the weakening of the dark green luster on the bone ring was significantly reduced.

"Rex, you stay here." Klaus stopped and turned to look at Rex. "Lu Yuan and I will go in."

Rick nodded, leaning against the copper wall, his tendrils completely retracting into his body. His body now looked no different from that of an ordinary thirty-year-old man, only the overly stiff face beneath his short brown hair betrayed his condition.

Klaus and Lu Yuan continued deeper into the area.

The range of the marching lights was reduced to less than five meters, leaving only thick darkness beyond their illumination. The eerie inscriptions on the wall slowly writhed and twisted, their strokes stretching and rearranging, silently moving across the copper surface.

"Don't look at the distorted inscriptions; they can drag people away from their reason."

Lu Yuan lowered his head, avoiding the swirling spiral symbols, and reminded Klaus, then relied on his aura vision to determine direction. The gray-gold aura concentration was highest directly ahead, steadily pointing towards the copper wall.

Klaus walked half a step to his right. The dark green glow on the bone ring was much weaker, but his steps remained steady, clearly showing that his rationality was much stronger than Rex's.

It took more than ten minutes to walk.

A copper wall appeared.

The number of bulges nearly doubled, densely covering the copper surface in varying sizes.

In several places, the copper surface was pushed out by nearly a finger's width from the inside, and the copper sheet was deformed and stretched to its limit. The surrounding cracks spread out in all directions like a spider web.

The largest crack was wider than before. The light from the marching lamp shone into the depths of the crack, and Lu Yuan saw a faint light, but it wasn't the dark blue of the inscription.

The color is dark and grayish, like looking at a distant fire through a layer of murky water, flickering on and off.

The inscriptions were falling off even faster, with streaks of runes peeling off the copper surface and crawling along the ground and ceiling towards the pipe network like living things.

There was an inscription passing by Lu Yuan's feet. He lifted his foot to avoid it, and the inscription silently slid past his boot.

The entire wall was moving.

The slow, rhythmic undulations were like something breathing behind the wall.

Klaus stood in front of the copper wall.

Not moving at all.

The light from the marching lamp shone on his face, and Lu Yuan couldn't see his expression. He could only see that his gaze was slowly sweeping over the bumps, one by one.

This was the first time Klaus had seen this wall in person.

He had read Boren's report and heard Lu Yuan's description, but no matter how detailed the written words were, they couldn't compare to standing here for a second.

Klaus extended his right hand, his fingertips hovering half an inch from the bronze surface. A wisp of dark green light emerged from the bone ring, extending towards the surface of the bronze wall.

The light trembled the moment it touched the bronze surface.

Klaus withdrew his finger, without touching the wall.

He stood there, staring at the largest crack for a long time. A faint, dim light flickered within the crack.

Grayish-white text jumped out at the edge of Lu Yuan's field of vision.

[Current Status of Bronze City: +3...32.2/50]

Lu Yuan suppressed these words in his mind and squatted down.

He took out a few thin sheets of paper and a small piece of charcoal pencil from his inner pocket.

I selected a few sets of inscriptions on the wall that hadn't yet peeled off, covered them with thin paper, and quickly rubbed the paper with the side of a charcoal pencil.

Each group of characters takes about ten seconds to form a set; the technique is very fast. The inscriptions wriggle beneath the paper, but the speed at which they are imprinted is faster than the speed at which they fall off.

After finishing the four sets of rubbings, Lu Yuan folded the thin paper and stuffed it into his inner bag.

"I'm going to send it to Burren..."

Lu Yuan offered an extra explanation.

Klaus seemed to be confirming something, and his silence indicated his agreement.

Lu Yuan stood up, his brows furrowed, as his rationality had wavered a little more.

"Let's go."

The two walked back. The copper wall undulated slowly behind them, and a dim light flickered deep within the cracks.

On the return trip, we passed the bronze pillar monitoring point.

The Night's Watchmen who were stationed there immediately stood at attention when they saw Klaus.

"Deputy Chief of Staff."

Lu Yuan noticed the changes immediately. The pillar had grown taller than before, and there were two new marking lines on the wall, each significantly higher than the previous one.

The night watchman opened the logbook.

"The speed is increasing; current measurements indicate that what's below appears to be becoming increasingly active."

He turned a page, lowering his voice.

"Moreover, the other pillars are also moving. But not in sync; some are moving faster than others, but they are all emitting gas."

Klaus didn't speak. His fingers slowly traced the bone ring, his gaze fixed on the staggered lines of markings on the pillar.

"Continue recording. Report any changes immediately."

He turned and walked towards the pipeline exit.

"Back to the branch."

When they returned to the branch, Glock had already arrived and everyone was there.

The door to the conference room on the first floor was open, the oil lamp was turned up to its brightest setting, and a map of the underground Bronze City was spread out on the long table, with several circles marked on the map in different colors of ink.

Glock stood by the window, clutching a communication crystal in his hand, his expression grim.

Bohr sat on one side of the long table, with the map in front of him, his finger resting on a coordinate of the pipeline layer.

Margaret leaned against the cabinet by the door, holding a stack of supply lists in her arms. She looked tired but her eyes were clear.

Rick came in last and closed the door behind him.

Klaus walked to the table and stood still. He didn't sit down; in front of him was a map, and his left hand rested on the edge of the table.

"The bronze wall hidden beneath the Bronze City—though we don't know exactly what it is—is now causing problems," Klaus stated succinctly. "The bronze pillars are emerging at an accelerated pace."

Glock's expression grew increasingly grim.

Bohr pressed his finger on the coordinates of the copper wall on the map, applying slight pressure with his fingertip, creating a crease in the map.

Margaret looked down at the list, her lips pressed into a thin line.

"Two things are being done simultaneously at the moment."

Klaus's gaze swept over everyone present.

"First, the Gray Pact. They must be dealt with before we dive; we can't let people with knives in our backs jump into the abyss."

"Second, dive down. We can't wait any longer with the copper walls and bronze pillars; we need to find out what's happening down there."

No one spoke in the meeting room.

Klaus looked at the map and moved his finger from the copper wall coordinates to the inner city area.

"Jie and 9 have my tracking marks on them, which can be activated to lock their location for a period of time."

He paused for a moment.

"But the Gray Contract Society isn't just the two of them."

Lu Yuan took it.

"The Gray Pact's numbering system is based on playing cards, currently confirmed to be at the fourth tier," he said, pointing to each member one by one. "9, physical combat type, mutated superhuman, severely injured by you, has a tracking mark. Ring, mental erosion type, also severely injured, has a tracking mark. J, liquid control, bizarre superhuman, liquefied and escaped during the last retreat, no mark on him."

He paused for a moment.

"And then there's K. His specific abilities are unknown, but his existence is confirmed."

Glock frowned. "K? When was that confirmed?"

"Before the ambush on Klaus, I predicted that the Gray Contract would at least have the number K." Lu Yuan didn't elaborate. "According to the poker system, 9, J, and Q are already there, so K is highly likely to exist as well, but there's no direct evidence yet."

Rick spoke up from the doorway.

"There's one more."

Several people turned their gazes to him.

"I saw a Tier 4 in the pipeline layer, not a Ring, not a 9, not a J." Rex's voice wasn't loud, but every word was clear. "An extremely strong one. I might not be his match."

Bor looked up at Rex. Glock gripped the communication crystal tightly.

"That person appeared once on the pipeline and then disappeared." Rick leaned against the doorframe. "Identity unknown; could be K, or someone other than the one with the assigned number."

Klaus's finger paused on the map for a moment.

Lu Yuan mentally reviewed the numbers. The enemy had four confirmed Tier 4 units: 9, Ring, J, and Q. There was also K, plus the one Lei Ke encountered on the network, bringing the maximum to six Tier 4 units.

Our side consists of a fourth-tier hero, Klaus, whose afterimage is reduced to only one and is still recovering, along with Rek, whose combat power is not particularly outstanding.

Two against six.

Klaus had obviously done the math, but he didn't dwell on the gap.

"The forces we can mobilize," he said, pushing the discussion downwards. "Let's start with the internal situation."

His gaze swept over the people present, finally landing on Margaret, who was holding a supply list by the door.

"Margaret."

Margaret looked up and met Klaus's gaze.

"If needed." Her voice was soft, and there was no hesitation in her tone.

Klaus nodded without saying anything more.

Lu Yuan glanced at Margaret. She was still holding the stack of supply lists in her arms, her face was tired, and her posture was slumped. She looked like an ordinary night watchman who was exhausted by logistics work.

But the way Klaus called out the names said it all.

She is also at the fourth level.