She had already killed 18 high-level Night Demons above Level 5 and a number of low-level Night Demons, obtaining 14 common treasure chests and 4 bronze treasure chests.
She had gathered the Bronze night demon set, including a cloak, helmet, soft armor, and boots. After putting them all on, her overall defense increased by 15 and speed by 10, which was a significant upgrade.
There were also some supplies she didn't need for now, which she didn't examine closely and simply stuffed into her bag.
Countdown: 1 hour, 9 minutes, 16 seconds.
The map was too large. When she ran to the northwestern edge of the sixteenth floor above ground, she suddenly discovered a narrow passage on the thirteenth floor underground that extended to another mountain.
The thirteenth floor underground was the experimental level.
Based on the Night Demons' locations, it could be observed that Night Demons below Level 5 acted on instinct; they would not actively enter closed empty rooms.
The behavior of Night Demons above Level 5 was more unpredictable; they might find a place they liked to stay, as Xia Sanfu noticed traces of cleaning and tidying in the places where high-level Night Demons resided.
The personnel on the experimental level might have evacuated earlier, and most laboratories were closed, so there were no signs of violent impact, and the Night Demons only stayed in the corridors.
Because there were fewer Night Demons on this floor and many doors were closed, she initially overlooked it, thinking there were no high-level Night Demons.
Now, noticing this passage leading to another mountain, Xia Sanfu's heart sank.
She still hadn't found the Level 10 Night Demon King mentioned in the notebook; could he be hidden in there?
But it was too late to say anything. This amount of time wasn't even enough for her to go to the thirteenth floor underground.
The novice protection period was also about to end. If she didn't leave and run immediately, she would be blocked by hundreds of thousands of Night Demons.
To be safe, it was better to deal with the high-level Night Demons on the current floor and then immediately leave Fushan Base.
Staying here would mean directly facing the Night Demon horde.
Xia Sanfu swung her Wolf Tooth Club, smashing the scholarly Night Demon on the seat. This was the last high-level Night Demon within her line of sight.
Suddenly, she heard a faint sound of metal friction.
Ten minutes ago, six people appeared cautiously at the entrance of the cave.
"Holy moly, Brother Bin, we found a Night Demon nest!"
"Damn it, we're finished, we found a shelter and ended up here."
"What should we do? The novice protection period is about to end, and we can't escape far at all!"
"Brother Bin, Brother Bin, there's a manual door opening and closing device here. Just turn this helm, but it's rusty, so a few people need to help!"
Brother Bin rubbed his bald head, "Brothers, it's not easy to see so many monsters. I'm unwilling to leave like this. I'll give you ten minutes to kill monsters, then close the door and retreat!"
"Okay!"
The six people either carried machetes or clubs. Among them, Brother Bin had some skill and even pulled out a homemade Molotov cocktail, throwing it forcefully, causing sparks to explode!
"Time's almost up!"
"Heave-ho! Heave-ho!"
The helm creaked, and the giant steel door hidden above the cave entrance slowly descended.
"Clang, clang, clang~"
Urgent knocking sounds came from deep within the cave.
The six people pricked up their ears vigilantly.
One person hesitated, "Is there someone inside?"
Brother Bin's eyes flickered. The knocking sound was three short, three long, then three short—an SOS distress signal. "It might be a sign of monsters awakening. We need to hurry."
The few people exchanged glances. Some were silent, some were convinced, and they quickly turned the helm.
After the giant door descended halfway, it would automatically lower without further turning, so the six people quickly bent down and escaped.
On the other side, Xia Sanfu clung to the railing, flipped down, and saw the light at the end of the thousand-meter-long passage growing narrower.
She ran as hard as she could, picking up Night Demons one by one and throwing them towards the door. Some flew out of the door because she didn't control her strength well, while others landed under the door.
The steel giant door seemed to descend slowly but was actually very fast, crushing the piled-up Night Demons with a crunch.
Seeing only two fists' distance left, Xia Sanfu threw her Wolf Tooth Club. The Wolf Tooth Club pushed out the Night Demon pulp, getting stuck between the door and the ground!
It was still one step too late!
Xia Sanfu gritted her teeth, supporting the steel giant door and trying to lift it. Veins bulged on her forehead. Even with her 10 points of physical potential development, possessing peak human strength, she only managed to move it a few millimeters.
Even the spikes on the Bronze Qingtong Grade Wolf Tooth Club were bent by this door.
Xia Sanfu saw the helm nearby and quickly ran over, but unexpectedly, with just one turn, the entire helm was pulled off by her!
Of course, it wasn't because of her strength, but because the connecting shaft behind the helm had been corroded away.
She belatedly smelled a strong, pungent odor.
On the main road leading out of Fushan Base, a commercial vehicle was speeding, and the faces of the people inside showed the relief of having escaped death.
"Brother Bin's idea was still thorough. Now that the helm is corroded, even if it has intelligence, it won't be able to open it."
"Otherwise, how could he be the big shot who got a car right from the start? Now I get a headache just looking at my tricycle."
"Don't even mention it, Brother Bin is a Level 4 big shot, he's on the combat rank leaderboard!"
"As long as the game doesn't separate us, I'll stick with Brother Bin!"
Countdown: 56 minutes, 21 seconds.
Xia Sanfu calmed down. She stuffed the helm into the gap between the door and the ground, then found two metal pieces to wedge in. Then, with one foot on the Wolf Tooth Club, she pushed hard upwards on the steel giant door.
The moment the giant door loosened, her foot on the Wolf Tooth Club sharply kicked back, pulling the Wolf Tooth Club out.
Click, the giant door sank, and the helm and metal blocks were instantly flattened a bit.
Fortunately, a gap was left, allowing air to come in.
Xia Sanfu didn't completely panic. While clearing the high-level Night Demons, she had noticed that there were emergency stairwells in this base.
The emergency stairwells ran through all floors, with the exit at the top of the mountain.
The emergency entrance/exit on this floor was on one side of the passage.
The emergency entrance/exit had a typical 1.5-meter-wide air-raid shelter door, which was open at the moment, or rather, most of the emergency safety doors on various floors were open, indicating a state of urgent escape.
This also caused many Night Demons to crowd into the stairwell.
Xia Sanfu killed her way to the end, one Night Demon per swing of her club, and then saw two doorways, one to the south and one to the north, appear in the stairwell.
Entering the south doorway led to a large fighter jet parking level. A strong wind blew in from the huge fighter jet entrance/exit, making her hair fly wildly.
She walked against the wind to the entrance/exit and saw mountains outside and a cliff below. This opening was on a sheer cliff face, so climbing down from here was impossible, at least not at night!
She walked a distance into the north doorway and couldn't help but curse, "Damn it, it collapsed!"
This doorway led out to the helicopter helipad at the very top.
She didn't know if it was a natural collapse or if someone had blown it up.
The three uses of the Night Vision Goggles had long been used up. How could she fight the Night Demons who had regained their mobility with a flashlight in one hand and a Wolf Tooth Club in the other?
Xia Sanfu felt truly chilled at this moment. She took out her flashlight and stumbled and crawled to close the emergency safety doors on each floor. If a door was broken, she had to go to other places to dismantle doors and move heavy objects to block it!
Sixteenth floor up, seventeenth floor down, a total of thirty-three floors. She ran until she was drenched in sweat.
Countdown: 10 seconds.
Xia Sanfu closed the last door and leaned against the wall, panting.
10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1!
World Announcement: Novice protection period has ended, communication channel activated, mini-map activated, Service Area activated, dungeons activated, Storm Forest map activated. It is now Day 1 of Storm Forest, 00:00. We wish everyone a pleasant game!
Xia Sanfu clicked on the communication channel. The communication channel was divided into two parts: one was the H0081 Region Channel, showing online players (99878 / 100000). No, wait, how did those more than a hundred people get themselves killed during the absolute protection period?
The other was the World Channel, with online players (3.5 billion / 3.5 billion). 3.5 billion was the total number of players on the entire server. The entire server was divided into thirty-five thousand regions, with 100,000 people per region.
There was no limit to the number of posts in the Region Channel, but each post could not exceed fifty characters.
To post in the World Channel, one had to buy a loudspeaker first, and the character limit was three hundred.
A Bronze loudspeaker cost 100 points, for one use only; a Silver loudspeaker cost 500 points, for 10 uses only; a Gold loudspeaker cost 1000 points, for 12 uses only, with a top-pinning effect and no character limit.
Too expensive to buy.
Xia Sanfu returned to the game panel and saw a map icon appear in the upper left corner.
Just as she was about to click it, a series of prompt sounds rang in her ears.