Hunter of Mysterious Creature-Chapter 409 - 48: Ventilation Ducts (Part 2)

"How about digging a tunnel?" the field agent suggested again.

"The steel-structured outer wall goes fourteen meters underground, and we don’t have suitable digging tools... How many hours do you plan to dig?" Ding Chao replied helplessly.

Just as everyone was at a loss, Yin Xiang looked up and saw a vent covered with wire mesh, high above the ground, more than twenty meters up. Inside the vent, a few dirty propeller blades were slowly turning.

"A vent!" Yin Xiang said, "We can crawl in through the vent!"

"A vent..." Ding Chao fell into thought.

Though the production workshop of Plant No. 105 is completely sealed, the personnel restrooms and offices inside the building are connected to the outside via vents. But Ding Chao clearly remembered the design blueprints stating that all the interior ventilation ducts were of a 400mm by 550mm specification. A normal human could not fit through... unless the person was an acrobat skilled in the ’Bone Shrinking Skill.’

"Can’t crawl through the vent, right..." Ding Chao stated, "Too small..."

At this moment, his gaze lingered on Ling Xiao and Jiang Yu.

Ling Xiao was just a child, shorter even than the slender Sharma... As for Jiang Yu, she was naturally slender, and coupled with her infectious meme from the Tai Sui, she could indeed perform the ’Bone Shrinking Skill.’

"The two of you... can you try?" Ding Chao asked.

"Me? I should..." Jiang Yu hesitated for a moment, looking up at the narrow vent, her expression uncertain, "should, should be able to."

"I can try," Ling Xiao responded, straightforwardly.

"I’ll use a drone to clear your path. The communications inside the plant aren’t jammed, so if the leading drone spots any trouble, you can retreat immediately," Ding Chao added.

"Alright... okay." Jiang Yu nodded.

With the help of other agents, the two quickly shed their excess gear, remaining only in a tight combat suit, not even leaving their shoes on.

Ling Xiao hung the holster containing the "Godslaying Spear" around his neck, biting down on a sheathed military knife in his mouth.

Jiang Yu changed her weapon to a foldable short bow, tightly strapped to the outside of her thigh with an elastic band. On the other side, she secured several arrows specific to the short bow and a curved hunting knife, serrated on the back.

She let down her ponytail and braided it into a plait, tucking it into the collar at the back of her neck.

After being transformed into a Hunter, her hair grew back, thick and black, a stark contrast to its previous sparse appearance.

A field agent climbed up to the vent using suction cups, cutting open the wire mesh with a welding torch, and dismantling the fan inside the vent.

Next, the group hoisted Ling Xiao and Jiang Yu to the front of the vent using a pulley system and rappelling ropes.

Jiang Yu glanced at the dark vent, instinctively feeling some resistance.

"I’ll go in first," Ling Xiao said, noticing Jiang Yu’s hesitation.

"Still... I should go first," Jiang Yu gritted her teeth, "I’m older than you and a Hunter, I should take the lead."

"Suit yourself," Ling Xiao replied, maintaining his expressionless demeanor.

A remote-controlled car-shaped drone was first sent into the ventilation duct. After it moved forward for a minute, Jiang Yu carefully unfastened the rappelling rope around her body and crawled into the conduit.

Next was Ling Xiao, with the knife in his mouth.

The duct was narrow, so narrow that Jiang Yu’s slender physique couldn’t stretch her limbs—she could only curl up and crawl forward like a caterpillar.

Fortunately, the Tai Sui meme endowed her with incredible muscle strength and allowed her to perform some inhuman joint movements. Even crawling, her speed wasn’t too slow.

Due to his bizarre family environment and lack of resources, Ling Xiao’s body was slim and short even among his peers. Compared to Jiang Yu, a former athlete, he could move nimbly with his limbs in the duct.

"The drone hasn’t detected anything unusual," Ding Chao’s voice came through their earpieces, "Keep moving at this speed and distance."

"U-understood." Jiang Yu replied, her voice low, as if afraid of startling something.

Ling Xiao, with the knife in his mouth, didn’t respond. He continued silently crawling after Jiang Yu.

From Ling Xiao’s perspective, he only needed to look up to see Jiang Yu’s silhouette outlined through the combat suit, her white feet beneath her. However, with his emotions and desires stripped away by Anna, Ling Xiao had no thoughts of gender issues. His only focus was on how Jiang Yu performed such astonishing movements with a human body.

"Are you both okay?" Ding Chao asked, his voice tinged with concern.

"I’m fine... At first, my body felt a bit awkward, but now it’s much better." Jiang Yu, crawling through the duct, replied. 𝕗𝗿𝕖𝐞𝐰𝗲𝕓𝐧𝕠𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝐨𝚖

Ling Xiao responded with a nasal "Mm," indicating he was also fine.

"I’ve just checked the blueprint of Plant No. 1 again, the duct you entered is Vent A3, communicating with three employee lounges, a changing room, an ordinary equipment storage room, and a leisure room on the fourth floor of the plant. All these rooms have exits. The closest to you should be the leisure room... Move forward another twenty meters, take a turn, and you’ll see it."

As Ding Chao described, Jiang Yu, after crawling twenty meters and squeezing through the right-angled turn with effort, saw up ahead the start of a downward branching duct. Light, sliced into countless small grids by a grill, shone up from below, illuminating the duct walls.

"Below is the leisure room, the drone doesn’t have additional equipment to open the duct, so you’ll have to manage it yourselves," Ding Chao said.

"Okay..."

Jiang Yu crawled a little further, positioning her upper body inside the main duct and extending her lower body into the branch duct—the branch only half a meter long, her bare feet instantly touched the cold metal grill.

"Should I just... kick it down with force?" Jiang Yu asked.

"Yes, but be careful."

Upon receiving a positive response, Jiang Yu took a deep breath, gripping the main duct’s edge to focus all her strength on her right leg, and kicked hard.

With a "crack," the screws holding the metal grill flew off instantly, the heavily deformed grill crashing down—luckily, covered by a thick, velvety carpet on the leisure room floor, it made no alarming noise.

Jiang Yu exhaled slightly, released her grip, and dropped into the room below.

The leisure room wasn’t large, just over thirty square meters, basic at best, entirely windowless, save for a tightly closed door.

A billiard table dominated the room, with two peeling old sofas lined against the wall, dartboards hanging above them.

Near the door stood a motorized mahjong table, but apparently suffering from malfunction, its inner gears jamming, tiles clattering faintly.

"I’m in," Jiang Yu reported, pressing on her earpiece, "No sign of humans or aberrations in the room."