Chapter Ninety-Four: The Tek Cave

Not long after the Fire Dragon fell, a prompt appeared in Qin Fei's diamond-shaped crystal bracer.

Fire Dragon defeated!

Sample implant upgraded!

Imprint skills acquired: Tek teleporter pad fabrication, lunar pool chamber fabrication, cloning chamber fabrication, Tek force field shield fabrication!

Tek technology acquired: Tek leggings fabrication, Tek chestpiece fabrication!

Special item acquired: x400 Tek energy element

As team leader, you will receive a special item reward upon defeating the Fire Dragon: Fire Dragon trophy!

During the battle with the Fire Dragon, Qin Fei had to endure not only the searing heat of the surrounding environment and the dragon’s breath, but also maintain absolute concentration at all times.

Only then could he shift his position in time whenever the Fire Dragon moved or changed its stance, so that he could always remain between its two forelegs and hold it in a dead angle.

By the time the battle finally ended, Qin Fei was drenched in sweat and gasping for breath.

Exhausted, he collapsed straight onto the ground.

At last, it was over...

A flash of white light swept past.

Qin Fei and Xie Nainai were sent back beneath the Green Ark.

Since Pulsing had been killed by the Fire Dragon, Qin Fei's team was now down to three members in total.

In PvE mode, aside from mission items, nothing in a deceased survivor's backpack drops upon death.

So Qin Fei had been unable to recover the supplies in Pulsing's backpack.

After slaying the Fire Dragon, Qin Fei finally obtained the fabrication blueprints for the last two Tek pieces.

The Tek leggings and the Tek chestpiece.

With the Tek replicator's 3D-printing capability, it took Qin Fei only a few minutes to make both items.

Tek leggings: once worn, the user gains high-speed movement. Initial acceleration is 10 meters per second, and after 4 seconds it reaches a maximum of 40 meters per second. However, it cannot turn.

Tek leggings, function 2: when worn, the user can run across water at high speed, but once movement stops, the wearer will sink.

Tek chestpiece: the chestpiece can expel gas from its back, granting the wearer the ability to fly. At the same time, it also allows high-speed movement underwater.

Tek chestpiece/leggings combined function: when used together, the chestpiece and leggings allow rapid movement through the air. Flight speed is 80 meters per second, but turning is impossible.

After Qin Fei finished crafting these two pieces, he had now collected all five Tek armor pieces from the Ark.

These five Tek items could grant the wearer detection, night vision, underwater breathing, high-speed underwater movement, flight, high-speed aerial movement, immunity to fall damage, wall adhesion, increased melee strength and speed, and the ability to run across water.

Once clad in this set of Tek armor, Qin Fei's overall combat power was no longer what it had been before.

Its only flaw was that wearing the Tek armor continuously consumed Tek energy elements from his backpack.

By the time the 40 energy elements spent on crafting the Tek chestpiece and leggings were deducted, Qin Fei still had 600 Tek energy elements left in his backpack.

That was already a great deal, enough to last him a very long time.

But energy elements were, after all, a nonrenewable resource, so it was best to save as much as possible.

For that reason, Qin Fei did not wander about in full armor during ordinary daily activities.

Aside from Tek equipment, Qin Fei also obtained four new imprint skills: the Tek teleporter pad, the lunar pool chamber, the cloning chamber, and the force field shield.

The Tek teleporter pad was essentially a teleportation array, capable of transferring people over long distances.

The lunar pool chamber was a structure for underwater habitation.

The cloning chamber could clone all kinds of creatures other than humans, though the stronger the target, the more Tek energy elements it consumed.

The force field shield could create a protective barrier within a certain range, one that blocked all objects.

Aside from the rather high consumption of Tek energy elements, these four technologies were all extremely practical.

After collecting the trophies from the three major bosses — the Broodmother, the Gorilla, and the Fire Dragon — Qin Fei and the others could finally open the entrance to the Tek Cave.

With the help of the flight function of the Tek chestpiece, Qin Fei, Xie Nainai, and Caesar soon reached the summit of the volcano.

In the center of the volcanic lake at the summit stood the Tek Cave.

Looking down from the volcano, more than half of the distant Blue Ark had already been swallowed by that eerie purple hue.

Half of the Green Ark had also turned into the cave's rock walls.

The Red Ark, too, had already sunk mostly into the earth.

And above the isolated island, even the sunlight had been largely extinguished, leaving the whole sky dim and oppressive.

The entire island was undergoing some strange transformation...

Before the entrance to the Tek Cave stood a terminal identical in shape to those found in the Ark.

On the terminal were three differently shaped recesses, resembling the heads of a gorilla, a spider, and a fire dragon.

These corresponded to the trophies obtained after defeating the three major bosses on the island.

Qin Fei placed the three trophies into the recesses.

Boom...

A thunderous sound came from the mouth of the Tek Cave.

A few seconds later, the center of the entrance split open, revealing a passage wide enough for four people to walk abreast.

Tek Cave opened. Time remaining until closure: 2 hours.

Tek Cave entry limit: up to 50 survivors and other life forms at one time!

Qin Fei put on the Tek armor and drew the Tek rifle into his hand.

Could they make it through the Tek Cave in two hours...?

In the game, players had only one hour to pass through the Tek Cave after entering it. Now they had twice that time.

Inside the Tek mine was a spiraling passage descending underground, with lava continuously flowing along the walls.

The temperature inside was extremely high.

Along the way were all kinds of creatures made of steel.

These mechanical life-forms were almost all modeled after the various dinosaurs of the island.

Because their bodies were made of machinery, even if some part of them was damaged, they would not immediately lose combat ability.

Moreover, their mechanical bodies granted them far greater strength and physical durability than flesh.

Without gathering the full set of Tek armor, Qin Fei might have found it difficult to advance even a single step inside.

But now things were different. With the Tek chestpiece's ability, Qin Fei and the others could fly all the way through the air.

Of course, because it was a cave, they did not fly very high. Some mechanical beasts with strong jumping ability could still reach them.

However, Qin Fei and the others had Tek rifles in hand, allowing them to keep firing at the mechanical dinosaurs below and swiftly clear away any threats that might lie on the ground.

As a result, it took the three of them less than an hour to pass through the cave.

After emerging from the Tek Cave, Qin Fei and the others arrived at the center of the volcano.

The temperature here was not as blazing as in the Tek Cave; on the contrary, the volcanic core was extraordinarily cold.

Qin Fei examined the surroundings.

The scene here was exactly the same as in the game.

The three of them kept moving forward, and when they reached the end of the road, they saw a data panel emitting white light on the ground.

Qin Fei stepped forward and used the diamond-shaped crystal on his wrist to touch the panel.

Control terminal: activate teleportation panel? Yes/No

If Qin Fei had guessed correctly, passing through here should lead to the hidden place where the Overseer was located.

He chose the teleportation option on the terminal...

You will be teleported in one minute.

A few seconds later, a circular teleportation array appeared beneath their feet.

Then a burst of green light erupted from the terminal and shot toward the ceiling of the cave.

The light grew brighter and brighter until, at last, its blinding radiance made it impossible for Qin Fei and the others to even open their eyes...