Chapter 152 Resonance Chamber

The end of the deep, dark maintenance tunnel was a shell-like gate, but in front of the gate stood two siren sentries armed with weapons. Hao Ren hid behind several pipes, looking up at the guards in the distance, "I figured they wouldn't let us pass... and they don't look like the kind of mindless siren puppets."

Hasse carefully took out his crossbow: "Looks like we have to fight. I'm confident I can take them out instantly without making too much noise."

Shakira quickly stopped him: "Wait!"

"We have to act," Hasse seemed to misunderstand Shakira's meaning, "these sirens have been controlled. Now they are the enemy."

"I'm not talking about that. If you kill them here, they'll just revive somewhere else in the palace district, and it'll attract a whole bunch of guards," Shakira waved slightly. "Without proper preparation, it's very, very difficult to completely kill a siren. It requires a complex sealing ritual."

Lily twitched her ears: "Woof... so why did you guys evolve so awesomely?"

But Shakira's word "sealing" reminded Hao Ren. He quickly observed the surrounding environment and waved, indicating he had a solution: "You guys step back a bit. Shakira, can you make a little noise to attract them?"

Shakira didn't understand, but nodded anyway. After the others retreated a distance, she opened her mouth towards the two sentries. The others didn't hear anything, but the two sirens became vigilant at the same time. They looked at each other and then swam towards the corner where Hao Ren was hiding.

As they got closer, Hao Ren's body tensed up. When the two siren sentries were less than five meters away from Hao Ren, they clearly sensed the presence of a stranger in the water. Their expressions changed slightly, and they raised their tridents high!

In that instant, Hao Ren burst out, his body as swift and powerful as a released spring. The two siren sentries were startled. By the time they reacted, they had been grabbed by their tails. Then, with a "whoosh," both sirens disappeared.

Hao Ren clapped his hands, exhaling a string of bubbles: "Done."

Shakira stared blankly: "Where did you throw them?"

"My personal space," Hao Ren shrugged. "Right now, they're fighting two mechanical tentacle monsters. Oh, they've been tied up..."

Shakira: "Huh?"

Nangong Wuyue looked strangely at Hao Ren's hand: "Wait, why does that technique feel a bit familiar?"

Hao Ren chuckled: "Of course. I usually drag you back like that when you're crawling around the house."

Everyone: "..."

Vivian patted Hao Ren on the shoulder: "Let's go quickly. That brain monster will probably sense that it's missing two pieces soon. It'll send people to investigate. We'd better leave this place immediately."

The group quickly swam towards the gate. This time, they finally got lucky: the gate wasn't locked. Shakira and Sorma operated a few levers next to the gate, and the shell-like door slid open to the side with a string of bubbles.

Hao Ren swam ahead, leading the way. After crossing the gate, he was shocked: "Whoa... you guys look!"

Behind the gate was a fan-shaped hall. In the center of the hall, a spherical luminous body resembling a super-sized pearl floated quietly. Illuminated by the luminous body, neat rows of rectangular platforms could be seen around the hall. On each platform lay a "person" quietly. Their skin was pale gray, lifeless, wearing old, tattered World War II uniforms, and a strange gray-blue crystal was embedded in their chests...

They were the so-called "water ghouls," the Allied soldiers from World War II!

Vivian heard Hao Ren's exclamation and was the first to enter. She was startled by what she saw: "Water ghouls? Are they charging here?"

"Looks like this Resonance Chamber is where their crystals are charged," Hasse pointed to the gray-blue crystals on the chests of the dead. The crystals echoed the luminous sphere in the center of the hall, changing in brightness in a noticeable pattern. "These corpses all seem to be asleep right now."

Elizabeth looked curiously at the luminous sphere. There was a mysterious rune platform beneath it, and the little girl couldn't resist approaching it. She swam over with her small screwdriver, just about to poke it when someone grabbed her collar and pulled her up: "I told you not to touch things here!"

Elizabeth flailed her arms in mid-air, held by Hao Ren: "Uncle Ren, there's something embedded here! Something embedded here!"

Only then did the others notice that a large crystal was embedded in the center of the rune platform beneath the luminous sphere. The appearance of the crystal looked a bit familiar. Bai Huo stroked his chin and thought for a moment, suddenly remembering where he had seen it before: "The shape looks like the crystals embedded in the weapons of those siren overseers?"

Bai Huo's reminder made the others recall the strange weapons they had seen the siren overseers holding outside the city. The weapons were shaped like halberds, and the most striking feature was a large sapphire-like object installed between the two curved blades at the tip, making it look more like a staff than a fighting weapon. Moreover, only the siren overseers responsible for commanding the "water ghouls" carried this kind of gem. The sirens monitoring the alien slave workers used ordinary halberds.

The crystal in front of them was almost identical in shape and color to that sapphire, and even the patterns of the runes on the surface were similar, only much larger in volume. Vivian immediately realized what it was for: "Is this what's controlling these undead? Is this a master controller?"

Upon hearing this, Shakira immediately reached for the crystal: "Then it must be destroyed!"

Nangong Wuyue stopped her: "Don't rush. What if this isn't a controller? What if it's an alarm?"

Shakira hesitated. Hao Ren saw this and pushed her hand away: "Wait, let the Data Terminal scan what this thing is..."

But before he could finish speaking, his finger accidentally touched a corner of the crystal. In front of everyone's eyes, cracks quickly spread across the surface of the crystal, and then it silently turned into a pile of debris.

Hao Ren was dumbfounded: "Wait... I didn't do anything!"

Vivian was also stunned for a moment, then slapped her forehead: "It's your sometimes working, sometimes not working exorcist physique!"

"What the heck," Hao Ren immediately felt that his life was being provoked by fate again. "Who did I offend... wait, they're moving!"

The destruction of the "master control crystal" didn't trigger any alarms, but it produced an even more unexpected result: with a strange, chime-like sound, the water ghouls sleeping around the hall stood up one by one!

The scene was eerie. Countless World War II undead who looked like zombies got up one after another, adjusting their balance with stiff movements, confusedly examining their own state, and then uniformly turned their gazes towards Hao Ren's side. Countless shriveled, deformed eyes stared at him alone. Hao Ren's cold sweat wouldn't stop—he could even feel himself sweating on his forehead while being in the water; that was quite an innovation.

Of course, Hao Ren wasn't afraid of zombies. He just found the atmosphere too creepy!

Lily and "Roll" bristled at the same time, one with its tail between its legs and the other with its back arched, retreating backward. The others were also on guard, but only the carefree Doudou swam out happily to greet the zombie uncles, only to be dragged back by Nangong Wuyue by the tail. Hao Ren looked strangely at these swaying World War II heroes and awkwardly raised his hand in greeting: "Ahem, well, we don't mean any harm... we wanted to help you get rid of the control."

He greeted them in several languages, including English, French, and Russian. Hasse was surprised: "Didn't realize you were so versatile."

Hao Ren shrugged, not answering, but looking at the World War II soldier closest to him: a Soviet submarine commander wearing an officer's uniform. "Sorry to disturb you. We were just passing by and saw you were being tormented by magic and couldn't rest in peace, so we wanted to help. Didn't expect the operating procedure to have a problem."

The Allied officer tilted his head slightly, seemingly trying to get his stiff brain working again. Then he looked down at the gray-blue gem on his chest and suddenly raised his arm high, as if cheering silently.

Hao Ren: "?"