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墨書 Inktalez
Zhong Kui's Diary
19th of the Month
The first Doll is complete. Although it lacks muscle and skin, resembling a skeleton, it possesses its own consciousness. However, we found that this Doll's intelligence is only at the level of a toddler and cannot evolve. This setback is a significant blow to us; what went wrong?
Could it be that the neural connections need enhancement?
Date Unknown
Old Zhang proposed an outrageous plan. This plan greatly intrigued us, but it is quite radical. Old Zhang shared many profound insights with us, emphasizing the need for our country to swiftly become a strong nation. In the end, both Old Ji and I agreed to this plan.
May 8th
The second Doll is finished. Compared to the first Doll, its intelligence has significantly improved, and it has the ability to learn. Ah, we have succeeded.
However, to be honest, seeing it standing before me like a neighbor's boy made me wonder if what we are doing is truly right.
……
The diary ends here; the remaining part has been torn away. It is unclear what this so-called radical plan entails, but it seems that the plan was successful. Moreover, one term in this diary caught my attention.
Doll.
What exactly is a Doll? Based on the literal understanding, it should be something akin to an intelligent being. The first thing that came to my mind was the Golden Skeleton arm that was dragged down from the mine with Fatty. Could this be the Doll?
Right, Li Yunfan and their team need a large amount of gold. Where else could there be more gold than in that gold mine? With this thought, I became even more certain of what Li Yunfan's research topic is—they want to create Dolls out of gold.
I expressed my thoughts aloud, and Fatty was momentarily stunned before stammering in response: "You mean, Li Yunfan and their team are making robots out of gold? Is this robot what dragged us underground?"
"Not a robot? It's an intelligent being, and the one who dragged us underground is Doll!" I asserted.
"Then how do you explain that skeleton pulling us into the rock and then dropping us into the water?" Fatty pointed at the rocks above us. "I don't think these stones are made of jelly."
"Uh, that's not very clear." I shook my head. "By the way, during the last battle between Lion's Hall and Flying Swallow Gang, didn't you pick up a yellow Golden Finger bone? Why would this golden Finger Joint appear in the parking lot? Before the lights went out, did you see Zhou Yaodong kick one person's gun away while hovering in mid-air?"
Fatty frowned in recollection. "Yes, I saw that. There seemed to be a flash of golden light. Could it be that person was Golden Puppet, and Zhou Yaodong kicked his hand bone off?"
"Very likely."
The two of us made various speculations about Doll, and in the end, we summarized three points: First, Doll was created by Li Yunfan and others, and it has a significant connection to gold; Second, Doll infiltrated Flying Swallow Gang to stir up trouble, igniting a conflict between the two gangs; Third, at least one more Doll is watching us in this underground world.
The first two points were manageable, but the third point sent chills down my spine and Fatty's. Damn it, Doll has learned to spy; it's too perverse. Why learn something like this? What kind of world is this?
"Let's hurry and find an exit!" Fatty and I exchanged glances and said in unison.
Returning to the initial question, since the place we found was merely a resting area for Li Yunfan and others, there must be a laboratory we haven't located yet. Well, the laboratory isn't important; what's crucial is that Li Yunfan and his group go to the surface for sunlight every week, which means there is an exit leading to the surface—we just haven't found it yet.
"Ghost Brother, where exactly is this exit? It's not in this notebook either." Fatty was too lazy to add more fuel to the fire and stood up to look around.
"Let's assume that this exit is inside the laboratory. If we find the laboratory, we might discover the exit." I pointed at the house. "This building is their resting area. Logically speaking, the laboratory shouldn't be too far from here; in fact, it should be within a hundred meters."
Fatty nodded. "Yeah, I think so too. For these science freaks, their laboratory is their life; they would want to eat, drink, and do everything in there."
"In the diary, we learned that Li Yunfan and his group need a large amount of gold for their research. Therefore, their laboratory should be located closest to gold." At this point, I pointed at the ceiling above us. "The nearest source of gold would be right above us at Yangshan Gold Mine."
Fatty bent down to pick up a flashlight and started shining it all over the cave ceiling. "It doesn't seem like there are any openings."
"When we first fell down here, we couldn't find any holes either. Perhaps there's a Portal covered with paint of the same color as the rocks. If that's the case, can you spot it with your eyesight?" I stood up and pointed at the cave ceiling as I asked.
"If there is enough light, I can see the differences, but in this situation, I can't tell," Fatty said, scratching his head and shaking it.
"Alright, let's continue to assume that if this entrance is really at the top of the cave, what methods can you think of to get up there?" I asked.
"We could use a rope to climb up," Fatty squinted at the cave ceiling about seven or eight meters high and chuckled.
"Li Yunfan and the others are all intellectuals; I believe they have neither the interest nor the ability to climb on a rope," I said, rubbing my nose, feeling that I had caught a glimmer of inspiration.
"What do you mean? Is there an elevator?" Fatty also grasped my meaning, his eyes gradually widening.
"Either there is a hydraulic machine underground that raises a platform, or there is a pulley above with a basket hanging down," I began walking toward the room. "I think, regardless of which possibility it is, the answer should be inside the room."
Returning to the room, I turned on the lights in each room. The ceiling was not high, about three meters. I asked Fatty to move a reclining chair from the study and stand on it to look around. Finally, he discovered a cover panel in the center of the living room ceiling that corresponded to a square table below.
I tried to push it and found that this table was actually welded to the ground. Squatting down, I knocked on it; the floor beneath made a metallic sound. When I pushed the long bench, it turned out to be welded to the floor as well. Upon closer inspection, there was a two-meter square Iron Plate on the ground, and both the square table and long bench were welded onto this Iron Plate.
"If scientists sit on the long bench and then press a switch, this Iron Plate will rise up. Who came up with this idea? It's so... so... incredibly lazy," Fatty exclaimed several times, struggling to find a word to express his opinion about the designer.
Indeed, no one would expect that this set of table and benches was actually an elevator.
The next task was to find the switch. In such a small room, the switch should be easy to locate.
Once again, things took an unexpected turn. Fatty and I nearly turned the entire room upside down but couldn't find any mechanism.
"Ghost Brother, you’re not telling me it's controlled by a remote, right?" Eventually, Fatty gave up searching and plopped down on the long bench.
"A remote? What kind of remote would exist in that era?" I wasn't sure if I was right; all I knew was that wireless remotes only became popular in the Nineties. In the Eighties, you had to walk over to change channels on your television.
It seemed that sitting on the iron bench made Fatty uncomfortable. He shifted his position slightly and was about to speak when suddenly the square table and long bench shook.
"Eh?" Both Fatty and I hummed at the same time, with Fatty jumping up from the bench. We both stared intently at the square table and bench, but the shaking stopped, and there was no further reaction.
I reached out and pressed down on the table, applying a bit of force. I felt the table sink down by a millimeter or two; if one wasn't paying close attention, they definitely wouldn't notice it.
Understood, this is something similar to a scale. When someone sits on it, the scale's needle moves, reaching a certain mark that triggers a mechanism for the elevator to rise. This mark should correspond to the weight of Li Yunfan and the other two.
Thinking of this, I asked Fatty to sit back down, and then I sat on another bench. I felt the Iron Plate beneath us shake a few more times, but still, the mechanism did not activate.
"Not enough weight! Damn, Fatty, you disappoint me. Your weight didn't even exceed that of two scientists." I laughed as I moved the chair that Fatty had propped his feet on to the square table. The solid wooden chair weighed about ten to twenty pounds. This time, the table shook a few times, and with a clattering sound, the ceiling panel gradually moved aside. Looking through the square hole in the panel, I discovered that there was also a square hole at the top of the pit, darkening deeper and deeper; I had no idea how deep it was.
Then came a series of creaking sounds as the Iron Plate beneath us began to rise slowly.
I took out my flashlight and shone it into the hole above. As we got closer, I could even see metallic reflections within it. When we reached the height of the hole, the Iron Plate did not stop but continued to rise for about three or four more meters before finally coming to a halt. In front of us appeared a passageway two meters wide and three meters high.
I reached out to touch the bottom of the passage; it was hard rock, not jelly-like, which reassured me enough to walk across. I certainly didn't want to step in and then fall down—over ten meters high with no water below; falling would either kill me or leave me crippled.
The two of us cautiously walked about ten meters before pushing open an iron door. As I shone my flashlight around, what lay before me and Fatty made us gasp in shock, momentarily freezing in place.
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