Is this really a Game?!

The tunnel continued its transformation, twisting and turning in ways that defied logic. The group found themselves on a rollercoaster-like ride through the underground complex, unsure of where they were headed or what awaited them at the end of the journey.

After what felt like an eternity, the tunnel finally came to a stop, depositing them in a vast chamber unlike anything they had ever seen. The chamber was filled with strange, advanced machinery that was powered by mana, gears were spinning around, large metal claws were moving about, relocating some parts of the huge mechanism to another part, and more.

They all stared in shock at what was in front of them.

What they saw in the previous chamber was already much more advanced than what they expected and was not at all what they thought they would find below the desert, but, this was far beyond what was present in the previous chamber.

"What in the world is this, how the hell did they make all of this?" Tank asked in wonder as Aelrinder stared in slight disgust at the machinery.

As an elf, he preferred nature, he preferred trees, plants, and greenery, not the cold machinery that was present here.

"Maybe they didn't make it, what if they just stumbled upon this place, similarly how we came across that spaceship, and how this guy, who's still in my sword had stumbled upon the portable base in the past?" Wolf suddenly asked as Reign nodded at his words.

"That could very well be the case, after all, this is just too much for a faction to create right now, the complexity of everything present here, the sheer scale of it, and the immense mana consumption it had couldn't be something that one faction could just create and utilize."

"But if they have all of this, why does their main base seem so … primitive?" Reign said with slight confusion as he remembered how Aethion had described the base of the enemy faction. It was nothing special, in terms of looks, it was more like a medieval village than anything, and that led them to believe that the only thing the enemy had that was making them strong was corruption, nothing else.

But what they just stumbled upon was far beyond what they thought they would stumble upon. They did believe that there would be places where the enemy had used the runes to cover secret passages and the like, but they never expected to see such advanced machinery.

"Wait, why is it so bright here, shouldn't they have no need to keep this place so bright, I mean, I understand to make things visible, but why put something so large and bright on the ceiling?" Shadow commented with slight annoyance as he looked up, only to see a huge light that was making the entire place incredibly bright.

"Wait, this … couldn't this be what the enemy was using to make it seem like the sun was outside?" Beast asked as Reign's eyes slightly widened.

Previously, Aethion did speak of how the arrays around the enemy base made it difficult for the sun's rays to penetrate and made the base look incredibly gloomy at all times. They thought that the enemy had perhaps just fiddled with the arrays and made it seem like the sun was shining outside, that they had done so to trick their own people into believing they were outside.

But what if the 'sun' was actually a similar light source as this one?

That meant that they were close to the base, that the enemy was using some place near here for their main base, a place that had the same kind of light as this one on the ceiling.

The group realized they were on the verge of a major breakthrough. The underground complex they had discovered was not just a base but a highly advanced facility that could potentially be the heart of the enemy's operations. But there was still one question remaining in their heads, what was all of this machinery for?
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Reign gathered the group and outlined a plan. They would explore the complex, gather as much information as possible, and if feasible, find a way to sabotage or destroy key components of the machinery, they wouldn't do it right now, but later, once they decided to attack the enemy.

However, they needed to proceed with caution, as they still had no idea what was going on there and what the enemy was doing with all of the machines present there.

As they navigated the complex, they encountered various obstacles, including automated defenses and security systems. There were arrays in place, many of them present to scan for intruders and activate the security systems, but they were unable to penetrate through the barrier that Reign and Shadow were still keeping around the group.

They had no idea how powerful the defenses were, nor did they know just what the other security systems were, but they certainly didn't wish to find out now, lest chaos ensued and they became forced to fight.

Eventually, they got to the other end of the large chamber, after passing through many different kinds of machines. There was nothing but a wall present, but they made sure to slowly walk around and try to find out if there was anything present that they could use to open up a path.

They soon found something.

Another wall with runes on it.

Laura got in front of it and started following the runes, activating them.

The wall opened up, prompting them to glance at one another before heading inside the new passage that had appeared in front of them.

The tunnel they went inside was not too long, only taking them about 3 minutes of walking to pass through before they got to the exit, which was another huge chamber, but this one was empty.

There was only a large light source present on the ceiling, which was about 30 meters high, and nothing else.

"This is it." Reign said instantly as he channeled mana to his eyes, allowing him to see what looked similar to fog in the middle of the large chamber.

It was the array that the enemy was using to hide their base, the same one that was being used to hide their location from the inside as well.

"What do we do now, does the enemy know about us, have they realized we have infiltrated this place, or are we still safe?" Shadow asked Reign who shook his head as he was also unaware of that.

The enemy might know about them, but there was also the possibility of the enemy being completely unaware of their existence.

"Let's just observe a bit, we have no idea what the enemy is doing with the machinery right outside of this chamber, if we can wait for one of their higher-ups to appear, to go out, we might be able to learn more," Wolf said as the others nodded and stayed put.

Still, they couldn't stay here forever, the mana consumption on Reign and Shadow was not low thanks to the barrier, and even though they could keep it up for hours, they had already spent some time in the underground area, they could keep the barrier active for about 3 more hours.

Had some things not happened, like the tunnel suddenly shifting and moving about, they could have kept it up for an hour longer, but thanks to the tunnel shifting and everything that had happened, they had to consume more mana and focus more on the barrier in order to keep it active.

They stayed in the same location for about 30 minutes before Reign stood up and stretched a bit.

"You know, we should also go for a walk, explore around the base, try to see if there are any weaknesses present in the array around it that we can exploit."

"Simply sitting around and hoping one of their higher-ups will leave the base is not the best course of action in my opinion."

Wolf glanced at Reign after the latter spoke before sighing and nodding his head.

"Why not, the more we can find out about the base, the better."

The others all stood up as well and made their way closer to the base, keeping themselves on high alert at all times and making sure to not get close to any trap or array that the enemy had placed near the base.

It was not a small base by any means, it was large enough to fit thousands of people inside, and the array made it truly impossible for even Reign and the others to catch even a glimpse of how it looked like through the array.

All they could see when channeling mana to their eyes was fog, that was all.

It was a thick fog that made it impossible for them to see through it, and it was a bit annoying, but that was how it was.

Still, Reign and the others continued circling around the base, trying to see if any spot was a bit thinner, a bit weaker, and easier to penetrate through.