Deep Sea Embers

"This is a safe place. For at least the past fifty years, the Frost authorities have never known that there is such a secret hidden under their feet," Nemo Wilkins walked into the deep underground hiding place, turning to He turned around and said to Duncan and the others who came in, with obvious pride in his tone, "These ancient sewers are crisscrossed, most of the areas have been abandoned, so they are dry and safe, and there are some branch roads leading to the upper pipeline system, but All the connections are safe, and even if one or two are found, the City Hall can't search the entire underground structure-they don't have that many people."

As the "tavern owner" said, he came to a nearby concrete wall and turned the valve on a certain pipe, and there was a faint hiss of airflow from afar - and suddenly more gas lamps came on Get up, and those gas lamps that were always on also became brighter.

"In fact, the current Frost City Hall can maintain the basic operation of the city is already quite good," he turned around, grinning, with a hint of mockery on his slender face, "the sewers hidden half a century ago What are you talking about? I am afraid that only the old craftsmen who served the Frost Queen back then can understand."

"...This is a facility left over from the queen's era?!" Fan Na immediately guessed the truth from the other party's words, and she opened her eyes slightly in surprise, "These underground waterways...how did you hide them? "

Nemo shrugged: "I didn't experience the chaos half a century ago, but my grandfather told me half my life - he told me that the Frost Queen once built a huge underground structure for the entire city-state. It is to deal with land pressure and lay the foundation for the long-term development of the city-state. These underground structures include underground waterways, power pipelines, power grids, and a complete set of transportation systems that were world-leading at the time, and the 'sewer' in front of you is the deepest one among them—— Strictly speaking, it should have been named the 'Second Waterway', because there is a first waterway above it, which is the sewer system currently used by Frost.

"After the great rebellion, the city-state did not fall immediately—although the rebels later publicized that they 'completely disintegrated the Mad Queen's last guard in a very short period of time', but the reality is that the female For seventy-two hours after the royal palace—that is, the city center today—was captured, the battle continued. The loyalists who remained in the city moved from above ground to underground. In the criss-crossing network of subway stations and power pipelines, There are people fighting everywhere.

"The rebels who entered the city center are declaring victory, the newspapers are publishing the news of the regime change, the citizens are hiding in their homes and are anxious, the subway station is blocked, people lie on the ground near the tube well, listening to the news from the distant depths below. Come all kinds of disturbing sounds.

"All this continued until the day of the execution—the roar of the collapse of the sea cliff shook the entire city, and finally ended the last underground resistance.

"After that, the Queen's Guards blew up all the shafts leading to the Second Waterway and closed the gates connecting with the First Waterway. Coupled with intermittent skirmishes and artificial collapses, eventually, the entire Second Waterway The waterway is completely separated from the upper level."

As Nemo Wilkins said, he raised his head and glanced at the thick dome above, as if he wanted to scan through the layers of steel, cement and stone to scan the busy streets of the city-state above.

"In fact, the new government established by the rebels is not ignorant of this sewer, they know the existence of the Frost Underworld - but so what? They just know of its existence.

"The sea cliff collapsed, the city suffered heavy damage, and the frost after the civil war took decades to recover, and the boiling gold became the only remaining economic pillar of the city. The once number one city-state of Lengliehai now only has history. Book splendor, the city still uses the Queen's plumbing system to this day.

"Under these circumstances, who has the ability to search the vast webways deep beneath the city-state? The cost of reopening the shafts and reorganizing the Second Waterway is unacceptable to the new government - and to the post-war population and the city As far as Frost has been reduced in scale, the 'First Waterway' on the upper level is enough."

"Since it's enough, let's make do with it." Fan Na suddenly remembered a sentence Morris had said not long ago, and subconsciously murmured softly.

"That's right, enough is enough to make do with it. This city is already riddled with holes, and I really can't afford to go to war again," Nemo said with a smile. It's not a big deal to hide a little 'moss', cults of heresy, dark breeds, shadows of night, out-of-control anomalies - there are plenty of things hiding in the gutter, and none of them are more worthy of the authorities than us and church headaches."

Duncan didn't say much all the time, just listening to the "informant"'s rambling narration, and then he suddenly said: "Such a huge underground facility, and I think there are gas and electricity supplies here - it can't be relying on Did you maintain it by yourself?"

"Of course it's impossible," Nemo Wilkins laughed. "We still have some manpower, distributed all over the city, even in some departments of the city hall, most of them were from the Queen's Guard back then. Later generations, like me, and others were brothers and sisters who passed the test under General Tyrian and were confirmed to be loyal and reliable-but they are not fit to show up."

"...Tirion said he planted some 'informants' in Frost, he is really modest," Duncan couldn't help shaking his head, "Did that kid actually bury such a large amount of power in Frost... "

Nemo heard the name Duncan used when referring to Tirian. The expression on the middle-aged man's face stiffened obviously, but he didn't say anything.

While the few people were talking, Morris was always observing the underground world with great interest. His eyes swept over the towering dome and the abandoned pipes that criss-crossed from high altitude, as well as many nearby walls that were obviously installed later. After a while, he suddenly asked: "Do you still control the entire second waterway?"

"Strictly speaking, it's only a small part of it," Nemo shook his head regretfully, "Although I really want to say that the entire underground kingdom is under control, after all, our manpower is limited, and the scale of the entire Second Waterway is beyond imagination— — Only about one-fifth of the abandoned sewers are now under our control, other areas are either isolated from each other by collapse, abandoned, or covered with toxic sewage, and some places are eroded by dangerous forces and difficult to access.”

"Dangerous power erosion?" Fan Na immediately frowned, her professional sensitive cells began to throb.

"Sometimes, illegal transcendental beings who are being hunted will mistakenly enter the sewer, and they will die here, causing large-scale pollution, but in more cases, it is the darkness itself that breeds monsters," Nemo said. It is a huge underground world, and the gas we sneaked in from the pipe well above cannot maintain the lighting of the entire Second Waterway, and when the brightness is not enough... Some places fall into darkness, and they will fall into darkness forever."

Fan Na stared, not knowing what to say for a while, feeling a little suffocated.

Coming from Prosperous Prosperity, and as the protector of the city-state order, it is really hard for her to imagine that a city would allow such a thing to happen—a large-scale underground facility has been in a state of darkness for a long time, and it has even begun to breed shadows that cannot be purified , that's okay too?

However, the facts in front of him proved that this is indeed possible, and the Frost people have lived like this for half a century, and nothing major seems to happen.

"It's not ruled out that there will occasionally be unlucky people who strayed into the ground and disappear, or that the death rate of the guards at night is higher than that of other city-states, but everyone is used to it."

Nemo obviously saw the astonished expression on Fanna's face. He had already judged that the people in front of him were all "foreigners", so he naturally knew why the other party was surprised.

"Clean up several dangerous areas on the first waterway and the branch line of the subway every few years, pour incense and holy ashes into the ground every few years, and increase the death pensions of the guards a little, so that the gatekeepers usually make two extra trips , most ordinary people are still alive and well... This is already a very good situation."

As he said that, the "tavern owner" paused, then turned his head with a smile: "Believe me, most of the city-states are actually not much better, and they haven't been much better since ancient times."

Duncan and the others looked at each other for a moment, not knowing what to say, but after a brief and awkward silence, it was Fanna who spoke first—she looked at Morris next to her and asked, "What's your judgment?"

"There should be no signs of cognitive disturbance, and thinking and memory should be clear."

Morris was answering Fanna's question, but his eyes kept falling on Nemo Wilkins, and in the old scholar's eyes, a pale silver glow was gradually dissipating.

Nemo blinked, with a confused expression on his face: "What are you... talking about?"

Duncan turned his gaze and watched the other party quietly: "Mr. Nemo, congratulations, you are not affected by cognitive interference."