Author here:

I accidentally uploaded Chapter 674 first and Chapter 673 after that, so please read accordingly. Sorry for the mix-up!

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"Run."

The word had barely left Tyler’s mouth when the robot opened fire.

A burst of bullets tore across the chamber.

The control panel beside Tyler exploded into sparks as he grabbed Tansy by the wrist and pulled her sideways. Metal fragments flew past their faces while the floor where they had stood a moment earlier erupted under the impact.

Tansy did not hesitate.

The moment Tyler dragged her, she kicked off the ground and rolled behind one of the support pillars holding part of the containment frame.

The robot adjusted instantly.

Its red eye brightened.

More gun barrels unfolded from hidden compartments along its body until nearly half its frame had transformed into weaponry.

Then it fired again.

The pillar beside them cracked violently.

Chunks of metal and concrete burst outward.

"This thing has too many guns!" Tansy shouted.

Tyler looked around rapidly.

The containment chamber offered almost no safe cover. Every machine here was fixed in place, and most of them were already damaged from age.

The robot rolled forward.

Its weapons locked onto their movement.

Then—

A sharp mechanical alarm began blaring through the chamber.

Not from the robot.

From the creature.

The bullets that had missed Tyler and Tansy had struck the suspended corpse several times.

At first nothing happened.

Then the dark cracks across the creature’s body suddenly lit faintly.

Silver veins inside the strange ore pulsed once.

Then again.

The enormous dead body twitched.

Both Tyler and Tansy froze for a fraction of a second.

The robot did not.

It continued firing.

Another volley struck the creature directly across its chest and the apparatus that are holding it.

This time the reaction was violent.

The corpse convulsed.

The giant restraints holding its body began trembling.

The thick rods plunged through its shoulders bent visibly under sudden force.

Then one eye opened.

A molten glow burned inside it.

The chamber shook.

The creature let out a low sound— deep, unnatural, like magma grinding beneath stone.

Tansy stared upward.

"It’s not dead—"

The words were cut short when the first restraint snapped.

The sound was like a metal bridge breaking.

The creature’s massive arm moved.

Or rather—

The thing fused where its arm should have been moved.

A thick barrel made of blackened metal and volcanic stone rotated into position.

Then it fired.

A blast of blazing heat mixed with violent electricity erupted from the barrel.

The beam crossed the chamber in an instant.

The robot vanished. It simply ceased to exist where the blast hit.

Its metal frame melted instantly into glowing slag, while the wall behind it exploded into molten fragments.

The path beyond the robot collapsed under the force.

Even the floor cracked open.

Tyler pulled Tansy down just as a second blast erupted.

This one swept across the opposite side of the chamber.

Machines melted like wax.

Support beams bent and collapsed.

The enormous central control systems exploded into showers of sparks.

Every remaining robot in the chamber that had begun moving toward them was erased under the blast before they could even fully enter.

The creature moved again.

Now fully awake.

Half its body still resembled volcanic stone, dark magma cracks glowing brighter with every movement.

The other half remained fused with old machinery—metal plates embedded across its ribs, cables hanging like torn veins, and both arms replaced by enormous rotating gun-barrels thick enough to fit a person inside.

Its head lifted fully now.

Molten breath escaped between its teeth.

Tyler immediately understood. This was not something they could fight.

"Let’s escape through Portal!" he shouted.

Tansy turned.

They were easily able to escape because the path created by the monster’s attack.

Soon they arrived at The wall where the spatial distortion had been.

But the passage is gone.

The blast had torn through it completely.

The chamber beyond had partially collapsed, burying half the route back under burning debris.

"Great," Tansy snapped. "Now what?"

The creature roared again.

This time both barrel-arms rotated together.

Blue-white electricity gathered along the glowing cracks in its body and surged into the barrels.

Tyler’s eyes widened.

"Move!"

They jumped just as twin blasts fired.

The floor behind them vaporized.

Heat slammed into their backs like a furnace exploding.

They ran through the collapsing corridor while molten fragments rained around them. Ceiling lights burst overhead one after another.

Another robot entered from the side corridor—

Only to be struck directly by a stray blast.

It melted instantly, wheel first, collapsing into glowing liquid metal before even firing.

Tansy leapt over falling debris while Tyler shoved aside a half-collapsed maintenance droid blocking their path.

The corridor behind them shook violently.

The creature was moving now.

Slowly.

But each step sounded like thunder.

Its heavy body dragged machinery behind it while molten cracks spread across the floor beneath its feet.

"We can’t go back the same way!" Tyler shouted.

Tansy saw it too.

The original corridor had collapsed.

Then her eyes locked onto another side passage.

"Left!"

They turned sharply.

A narrower maintenance tunnel opened ahead.

Too small for the creature.

Perfect.

They sprinted through just as another blast struck the corridor entrance behind them.

Fire and electricity filled the tunnel opening.

Heat rolled over them.

Tyler grabbed Tansy and pushed her forward as the shockwave threw both of them down the slope beyond the tunnel.

They rolled hard across cold metal flooring until finally crashing into another chamber.

For several seconds neither moved.

Only their breathing filled the darkness.

Then distant behind them—

A furious metallic roar echoed through the collapsing facility.

Tansy sat up first, hair disheveled, face pale.

"Well..."

She looked at Tyler.

"That thing definitely wasn’t supposed to wake up."

Tyler slowly pushed himself upright and exhaled.

"No."

He looked back toward the destroyed tunnel.

"But in someway it helped us escape."

---

After a long and exhausting struggle through the collapsing maintenance tunnel, Tyler and Tansy finally emerged back into the outer ruins above.

The moment fresh forest air hit their faces, both of them stopped and bent forward, breathing heavily.

Behind them, the underground entrance trembled faintly once more before settling into silence. Dust drifted upward from the shaft, but no further explosions followed.

For several moments, neither spoke.

Tyler looked back toward the ruined hatch with obvious dissatisfaction.

His expression darkened slightly.

After everything they had seen— the hidden facility, the strange machine, the videos, the monster, the robots— he had hoped to leave with something useful.

A tool. A device. Or A sample. Or Anything.

Instead, the deeper chamber had collapsed, the portal route had been destroyed, and whatever secrets remained below were now buried beneath molten metal and shattered concrete.

"We nearly died," Tyler muttered, brushing dust from his sleeves. "And I didn’t even get anything useful out of it."

He sounded genuinely disappointed.

Tansy, however, looked far less troubled.

In fact, she looked suspiciously pleased.

She glanced around once, as if making sure no one else was nearby, then stepped closer.

Without warning, she loosened the front of her dress slightly and reached inside.

Tyler blinked well he doesn’t mind if the girl wants seggs.

One packet appeared.

Then another. Then another.

Salted pumpkin seed packets.

Several of them.

She kept pulling them out one after another like a magician revealing hidden treasure, stacking them proudly in her arms until Tyler realized she had stuffed far more inside her clothes than should have fit comfortably.

"We didn’t leave empty-handed," she said with clear satisfaction.

Tyler stared.

"You hid all that in your dress?"

Tansy nodded proudly.

"There was no time to carry them properly."

She held one packet up like a trophy.

"And these survived."

Tyler looked at the pile of packets, then at her completely serious face.

After everything that had happened underground— spatial fissures, ancient laboratories, killer robots, and a half-magma monster with gun-barrel arms—

This girl had still found time to steal snacks.

Tyler rubbed his forehead.

"I’m starting to think your survival instinct is built entirely around food."

Tansy tore open one packet immediately and tossed a few seeds into her mouth.

Crunch.

Her expression softened with instant happiness.

"These are worth risking death for."

Tyler could not even argue.

Because somehow... after everything, she looked like the one who had truly won.

Tyler took a packet.

"You can take two." She said seriously.

"One is enough." Tyler said with a smile, " For me.... One is enough."