He pressed his finger to his forehead.

    "My special ability is Spiritual Investigation. The moment I set foot in here, I realized that there were lethal weapons everywhere, and..."

    "There are also extremely unusual energies that I can''t make sense of, like..." The crew-cut man hesitated for a moment, with a look of incomprehension:

    "The monitor in the room, it should be a machine, but I can sense the presence of life in it."

    Everyone frowned.

    Machine? Life?

    "Could you be mistaken?"

    The crew-cut man shook his head. "I don''t know, but there''s definitely something strange about this place. Everyone, please be extra careful."

    Now that everyone was in the same situation, there was no competition, only a chance for unity.

    Su Qi looked at the elevator approaching; it was gradually getting closer.

    The information that the crew-cut man had probed was similar to what he saw, though he knew a bit more.

    A place where machines could have life, wielding special energy, and a completely different path of sequence manifested.

    That could only possibly originate from one place.

    "Divine Machinery Kingdom."

    But the problem was,

    according to what Su Qi knew... the Divine Machinery Kingdom had been destroyed by an existence named the Terminator.

    And,

    the ultimate core of the Divine Machinery Kingdom was also in his own hands.

    So...

    Su Qi speculated about this world.

    After all, this was the Dark Zone, filled with a great number of dormant World Fragments.

    And it seemed that this place was also part of the world belonging to the Divine Machinery Kingdom.

    "Did it just happen to survive because it fell into a slumber?"

    That was Su Qi''s rough guess.

    At the same time,

    he was also observing everything here, because... the existence of this world didn''t seem very friendly from the current situation.

    "Let''s just wait and see; after all, we don''t have much information at hand."

    The movement of the elevator was not ascending but seemed to move in all directions, making it difficult to discern the direction.

    About a minute later, there came a mechanical click from the elevator, and the doors opened directly.

    Only then did they see the scene outside.

    "This is..."

    Their eyes trembled slightly, the whole area was covered by a massive electromagnetic storm in midair, blocked by a huge Energy Shield, obstructing paths all around.

    A multitude of robots and Mechanical Life stood outside the protection zone, their bodies adorned with various precision parts, emitting a metallic cold gleam, mechanical red eyes coldly observing everything below.

    And below,

    there were numerous creatures of flesh and blood, using human labor with various tools, digging and transporting some kind of shiny material from this Magnetic Storm Zone.

    On the holographic display of the protection zone, a few large words were written.

    [No.24 Energy Mining Area]

    "So it turned out to be a damn black mine..."

    "The so-called forced labor is to mine here."

    The five exchanged glances.

    Su Qi, however, quickly came to terms with it; in just one glance, he saw that everyone here was an outsider, contrasting with the Mechanical Life outside the protective shield.

    And the surrounding people were not surprised at their arrival; some looked on numbly, others with schadenfreude.

    "Those six fools are still standing there gawking."

    "Little do they know... in this place, a moment''s inattention can spell danger." Sear?h the Novel?ire(.)ne*t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

    At this very moment,

    a message suddenly appeared in the form of a hologram.

    [999999, your obligatory labor has been issued. Report to your work site within one minute, or face a second-level punishment.]

    Su Qi looked at the item that popped out from his badge while the other five also received the same message.

    They were all appointed to the same mining work area.

    "You''re not running yet!"

    A middle-aged man with a pushcart was transporting goods, wiped the filth from his body, "Don''t underestimate punishment!"

    "Even though it''s not far, once you violate the rules they''ve set, there''s no compromise, just icy cruelty!"

    The five were startled and immediately remembered the agonizing pain from before, feeling a sink in their hearts, they quickly started running.

    Even though Spiritual Energy was suppressed, they could still use about 1% of it.

    That few hundred points of Spiritual Energy didn''t do much in resisting the Mechanical Army, but for mining and other obligatory labor, it was enough.

    As for Su Qi,

    he was constantly absorbing Spirit Coins, and now his Spiritual Energy was almost a million, so even just 1%,

    meant he had almost ten thousand Spiritual Energy.

    However,

    None of that was the most important part, this amount of Spiritual Energy, though substantial, was far from enough to charge through this world unobstructed.

    The equivalent rank of this world was very high, and judging from the surrounding Mechanical Lives, there must also be ancient and powerful existences.

    After all,

    this was the Dark Zone, a place where countless ancient World Fragments congregated; anything could happen.

    Luckily, within a minute, everyone reached their designated work area according to the coordinates provided.

    Old miners were silently working there already, and without much hesitation, the five picked up their tools and dispersed to their spots to start working.

    It wasn''t that they were too obedient, but rather, they didn''t understand the situation here and could only learn as they went along.

    "Take your tool, kid, and stop daydreaming."

    An old man beside him, with a pipe in his mouth, tossed a shovel to Su Qi.

    "Daydreaming can cost you your life."

    Su Qi took the shovel, "Is it that strict? Even cattle can only work to the death at 996."

    The old man deeply inhaled his pipe, looking at those Mechanical Lives in the distance, "For machinery, they are deemed perfect with no tolerance for error, cold and heartless."

    "And you, coming here for the first time, will indeed be very uncomfortable and confused, but even so, you''ve got to work hard if you want to stay alive."

    "And,"

    His eyes seemed devoid of any hope, muddy and numb, "Don''t even think about resisting. Many have tried to rebel and lost their lives; this place is no simple matter."

    Su Qi looked at the old man, arching an eyebrow lightly, "How long have you been here..."

    "Eighty years."

    Just as he thought.

    Even though the old man was an outsider to this world like them, he was not from their era.

    At least since the ancient times, the old man had already been working here illegally, waking up only recently with this world.

    Su Qi extended the shovel and started digging.

    All the while chatting with the old man.

    The old man munched on his pipe, knowing Su Qi wanted information, but he did not refuse.

    Su Qi quickly understood.

    The No.24 Energy Mining Area they were working in was crucial for all Mechanical Lives in this world.

    But because of the terrible electromagnetic storms, it would greatly affect them, so from ancient times, they employed Life to mine.

    "Employed?" Su Qi noticed the word.

    "Yes, back then... these Mechanical Lives were fair and friendly, and we, the Life forms, got along quite well with them, but later..." The old man chewed on his pipe, not elaborating further, seemingly omitting part of the information, "It turned into what it is now."

    Su Qi was about to continue asking.

    "Kid," the old man calmly took a draw from his pipe, "stop asking. You''re not the first newbie to ask me these things. If you want to know about the past of the ancient times, better focus on surviving first."

    "The mining isn''t so simple; if you can''t complete the tasks, it can get very miserable."

    The old man carried an ax over his shoulder, his muscles like sturdy tree trunks, and with a fierce swing, he struck the metal ore, cracking it.

    When Su Qi looked at the five, they were continually striking for almost five minutes and had only managed a small crack.

    "So many newcomers from the outside world have chatted with me, but not a single one has survived," the old man said as he brought down his ax again, enlarging the crack.

    At first, these outsiders entered, each appearing as a Heaven''s Chosen Son, said to be the rising generation of the Present World.

    He once thought there might be hope to pin on them.

    But now it seemed,

    it was all just idle talk.

    "If you can''t survive, what good is there in knowing, anyway?"