Chapter 146: Meeting Liang Ye

"The facial recognition program is done."

While Friday spoke, pictures and brief info about the person identified by facial recognition popped up on Chu Cheng's screen.

"The target is identified as Liang Ye, an agent of Secret Service Nine and a candidate for the 'Sentinels' project, also known as the Phantom Counter."

"I remember. You showed me this morning. My memory isn't that bad," Chu Cheng replied.

The Sentinels file on Friday showed that Liang Ye was the second agent, after Fana, who could use the power of the Phantom. According to Miyazaki's evaluation, Liang Ye seemed even better than Fana.

Chu Cheng hadn't seen Liang Ye in action, but he'd heard that Liang Ye was a good fighter. Given the "extremely dangerous" note in the file, Chu Cheng had a feeling there might be more to Liang Ye's danger than just his fighting skills.

Right now, Liang Ye was approaching the disguised Batman, waving and acting friendly. 

Chu Cheng felt nervous about communicating himself. As a gaming geek, he wasn't good with words and couldn't pretend to be a well-trained agent without getting caught. But he had Friday to help. The helpful AI assistant prepared responses for him. While they spoke, Friday typed lines on the screen in front of him, just like a teleprompter, and Chu Cheng read them out loud.

There was still the problem of voice tone, but the Master handled that. Batman's voice and facial expressions automatically matched the detective's tone. Chu Cheng guessed this must be one of Batman's basic skills, so it wasn't a big deal.

Following Friday's guidance, Chu Cheng gave a quick intro. He said he was part of the advance team sent to retrieve evidence from the airship that was lost by their boss. But they couldn't find the evidence, the airship was damaged, some people were missing, and everyone's morale was low.

Hearing this, Liang Ye laughed and shook his hand, saying, "What a coincidence, I'm lost too..."

Chu Cheng thought they might need to review the team back at the Secret Service. He felt like this place was either filled with clueless people or some kind of smooth-talking leader. Otherwise, how could they keep running into strange accidents on their missions?

They scanned the area and didn't see any other teammates nearby, so it seemed like it was just the two of them. They naturally teamed up and started exploring the area together.

Earlier scans showed the underground structure was stable, with no signs of a large-scale collapse. But it didn't seem like a normal collapse.

As Ms. Sonar said before it happened, it felt like the entire ruins were some kind of living thing. It might have been asleep before, so no detection methods showed any abnormalities. However, once someone entered, it woke up immediately.

If an ordinary tomb raider or archaeological team had shown up, they might have just called it a day after the first wave of attacks.

But since the team of agents sent today is highly trained and special, they're still trying to rescue anyone who might be in danger.

These special people have tougher physiques than normal folks and are equipped with protective gear. As long as injuries aren't life-threatening, they usually heal up just fine.

"Did you find anyone else?" Chu Cheng asked, switching off his microphone and turning to Friday.

"Sorry, sir, I still can't find the signal right now," Friday replied. "It might be due to something underground causing interference. But I did gather some data from the sonar device before the connection was lost. I can infer a model of the ruins from that incomplete data."

"What's the model like?" Chu Cheng asked.

"Based on the sonar feedback, the space doesn't resemble any known human-made building. The rooms and platforms are scattered in all directions and seem to be connected in a complex way. It's like a giant clock, with each room acting as a gear."

"Or you could think of it like your Iron Man armor," Friday suggested. "When it's in suitcase form, each part is separate, but when you assemble it, it transforms into armor. Each room in the ruins is like a part of that suit."

"It's like my MK5 armor transforming from suitcase to full armor," Chu Cheng said. "So, we're like bugs stuck in the armor's parts. Got it."

If Friday's guess is correct, this underground structure is much larger than they first thought. It's more like a massive fortress that can transform, similar to the defensive fortress in Transformers.

"By the way, what did you say your name was?" Liang Ye, who was leading the way, suddenly asked.

"Snake," Chu Cheng responded over the microphone.

"Oh. You seem pretty young, newcomer," Liang Ye said with a laugh, trying to lighten the mood.

"Joining the action team is tough, isn't it?" Liang Ye continued.

"Yes," Chu Cheng replied with a dry smile.

Liang Ye might have been trying to make Chu Cheng feel more at ease, but Chu Cheng knew it's best to listen rather than talk too much.

"I had a hard time during my assessment," Liang Ye said. "Fighting is easy, but I struggled with guns and stuff. I wanted to get a qualification certificate so I could join the mobilization team later, but it turned out to be a lot of travel and little else. It's like a siege."

"Do you know what a siege is?" Liang Ye asked.

"Well..."

Without waiting for an answer, he went on.

"Besieging a city is like being pregnant," Liang Ye said.

Chu Cheng was confused.

"It means people outside want to get in, and people inside want to get out. It's a vivid way to describe it."

Chu Cheng was even more confused.

"Interesting metaphor," Friday commented. "But you might want to stay alert, sir."

"I noticed," Chu Cheng said, still scanning the area with his detective mode. He spotted a strange shadow.

Through the wall, Chu Cheng saw a figure in the shadow. It had unusually long limbs, a tilted head, and twisted bones. It was crawling quickly on all fours.