SSS-Tier Extraction: From Outcast to Overgod!-Chapter 70: Testing Ground Infiltration

The thirty minutes before the challenge began was a blur of frantic activity for Ryan. He didn’t waste a second. While his team checked their gear and Emma studied the map of the Testing Ground, Ryan was in his own little world of high-tech crafting.

He stood in a quiet corner of the Core Chamber, a collection of strange and powerful items floating in the air around him. He had the Stormheart Crystal, still buzzing with the power of the Alpha Sky Titan.

He had several shiny components he had extracted from defeated Precursor robots. And he had his amazing Weaver’s Interface Gauntlet.

"Okay, let’s see if we can make you even better," he muttered to the gauntlet.

He used his Ultimate Infinite Extraction System, but not to break things down. He used it to carefully weave the items together. He pulled the pure lightning energy from the Stormheart Crystal, shaping it into thin, golden threads.

He took the "Targeting Matrix" from a sentinel’s brain and the "Energy Flow Regulator" from another robot’s chest. He carefully combined them, guided by the schematics he had learned from the Weaver. It was like being a super-advanced magical blacksmith.

His gauntlet glowed brighter and brighter, until it was almost too bright to look at. When the light faded, the gauntlet looked different.

It was sleeker, with fine golden lines running through the silver metal. A small, perfect crystal, a tiny piece of the Stormheart, was now embedded on the back of the hand.

[Item Upgrade Successful!]

[Weaver’s Interface Gauntlet has been enhanced.]

[Skill "System Override" has been upgraded. Now has a higher chance of success and can affect more complex systems for a longer duration.]

Ryan flexed his fingers. He could feel the difference. The connection to the Weaver, to all the Precursor technology around him, was stronger, clearer.

He felt like he had just upgraded from an old dial-up internet connection to super-fast fiber optics.

With his new and improved toy, he felt ready. The final seconds of the countdown ticked away, and the world vanished in a flash of white light.

They arrived in a place that felt cold and dead. The Precursor Testing Ground was a huge, dark, underground complex. The air was still and smelled of old metal and ozone. The walls were made of a smooth, black material that seemed to drink the light, and faint blue lines of power ran along the floor and ceiling like glowing veins.

Every few hundred feet, a large, hulking shape stood motionless in an alcove. These were the War Golems, ancient security robots waiting for someone to trespass.

Ryan and his team appeared in a designated starting area, a large, empty chamber. A few moments later, at the far end of the chamber, another flash of light announced the arrival of the Iron Wolves.

There were five of them, just like Ryan’s team. But they looked twice as big. They were all covered head-to-toe in thick, heavy iron armor that was scarred and dented from countless battles.

They carried massive weapons like giant axes, heavy hammers, and spiked shields. At their lead was Ilsa "Steelheart" Varkov. She looked even more terrifying in person. She saw Ryan’s team across the chamber and gave them a cruel, confident smirk.

Then, without a single word, she pointed her massive power axe down a wide, main hallway and roared, "FORWARD!"

The Iron Wolves charged. They ran like a pack of rhinos, their heavy boots thundering on the metal floor. They weren’t sneaking. They weren’t planning. They were just going to smash their way through the front door.

A War Golem in a nearby alcove whirred to life, its red eye lighting up. It stepped forward to block their path.

"Out of my way!" Ilsa bellowed. She swung her giant axe in a massive arc. The axe hit the Golem with a sound like a church bell being hit by a freight train. The Golem, a ten-foot-tall robot made of solid metal, staggered back, a huge dent in its chest. The other four Iron Wolves swarmed it, their hammers and axes crashing down again and again. In less than ten seconds, the powerful security robot was a heap of smoking, broken parts.

The Iron Wolves didn’t even slow down. They just ran over the wreckage and continued down the main hall, their battle cries echoing in the huge, empty space.

Ryan’s team watched them go, their mouths slightly open.

"Well," Chris "Boulder" Magnus said after a moment of stunned silence. "They’re... loud."

"They’re a sledgehammer," Ryan said, a thoughtful look on his face. "And you don’t stop a sledgehammer by standing in front of it. You stop it by not being there when it lands."

He turned to his own team. "They can have the main hallway. We’re going to be ghosts. Scarlett, you’re up. Find us a quiet way."

Scarlett nodded, her eyes already scanning the dark corners of the chamber. She spotted a small, dark opening in the wall near the ceiling, a ventilation shaft that was almost invisible in the gloom. With her Sky Lord’s Mantle, she could easily fly up to it.

"Follow me," she whispered, and with a soft whoosh of air, she disappeared into the darkness.

One by one, the team followed her, climbing up the wall and into the tight, dusty shaft. It was a much slower way to travel, but it was quiet.

Their journey became a masterclass in stealth. Scarlett moved ahead, a silent shadow in the dark. Emma, using a small, handheld datapad linked to Ryan’s interface, guided them through the maze of vents and access tunnels, her "Tactical Insight" allowing her to see patterns in the complex layout.

"Take the next right," she would whisper. "There is a Golem patrol in the main corridor below us, but this route goes around it."

Jennifer "Quake" Lee was their ears. She would press her hand against the metal floor of the vents and close her eyes. "Wait," she would say softly. "There’s a hidden security plate in the floor of the room ahead. It triggers a trap. We need to go over it, not through it."

While the Iron Wolves were making a huge amount of noise, fighting every Golem they saw and smashing through locked doors, Ryan’s team moved through the Testing Ground like mice in the walls, completely unseen and unheard.

After about twenty minutes of careful crawling and climbing, Emma held up a hand, signaling for them to stop.

"We’re here," she whispered, pointing to a grate below them. "According to the schematics, this is the chamber holding the first artifact: the Chronal Regulator." freēwēbnovel.com

Ryan peeked through the grate. The room below was large and circular. In the center, floating above a pedestal, was a beautiful object that looked like a gyroscope made of silver and gold, spinning slowly. The Chronal Regulator.

But it wasn’t unguarded. Standing around the pedestal, completely motionless, were three sleek, bronze-colored War Golems. They were thinner than the one the Iron Wolves had smashed, and they hummed with a strange energy.

"Chrono-Golems," Ryan breathed, his "Lore Scanner" instantly giving him the information. "Level 8. They can bend time in a small area. This is going to be tricky."

He looked at his team and grinned. Tricky was their specialty.

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