Chapter 354 – The Second Waterway

Chapter 354 The Second Waterway
“This is a safe place, at least for the last fifty years, the Frost authorities never knew such secrets were hidden beneath their feet,” Nemo Wilkins said with obvious pride in his tone as he walked into this deep underground hideout, turning to Duncan and the others who had followed him in, ” These ancient sewers crisscross the city, most areas are abandoned and thus dry and safe, there are other offshoots that lead to the upper levels of the plumbing system, but all the connections are secure enough that even if one or two were to be discovered, the city hall would not be able to search the entire underground structure – they simply don’t have the manpower. ”

The “tavern keeper” said, moving to a nearby concrete wall and turning a valve on one of the pipes, and from the distance there was a faint hissing of airflow – more gas lamps came on, and the ones that already stayed on for a long time became brighter. and those that had been kept on for a long time became even brighter.

“In fact, the current Frost City Hall is quite good enough to maintain the basic operation of the city,” he turned around, grinning with a hint of mockery on his long, thin face, “What was hidden in the sewers half a century ago? I’m afraid only the old craftsmen who served the Frost Queen back then can tell.”

“…… This is a facility left over from the Queen’s era?!” Vanna immediately guessed the truth from the other party’s words, her eyes widening slightly in surprise, “How did you hide these underground waterways ……?”

Nemo shrugged, “I didn’t live through that mess half a century ago, but my grandfather told me about it for half my life – he told me that the Frost Queen had created huge underground structures for the entire city-state, initially to cope with the pressure on the land as well as to lay the foundation for the long-term development of the city-state, and these underground structures included the world’s leading underground waterways at the time. These underground structures included the world’s leading underground waterways, power lines, power grids, and a whole transportation system, and the ‘sewer’ you’re looking at is the deepest of them all – technically, it should have been named the ‘Second Waterway’. Technically it should have been called the ‘Second Waterway’, because there is a First Waterway above it, the sewer system that Frost is currently using.

“After the Great Rebellion, the city-state didn’t actually fall in the first place – although the rebels later advertised to the public that they had ‘completely dismantled the Mad Queen’s last guard in a very short period of time’, the reality was that, after the For a full seventy-two hours after the capture of the Queen’s Palace – now the Civic Center – the battle raged on, with the Loyalists who had remained in the city moving from above ground to below, fighting everywhere in the crisscrossing network of subway stations and power conduits.

“The rebels who had stormed the city center were declaring victory, the newspapers were carrying news of the change of regime, citizens were hiding in their homes in jittery anticipation, the subway stations were on lockdown, and people were lying on their backs on the ground near the tube wells, listening to all sorts of disconcerting noises coming from the distant depths below.

“This went on until the day of the executions – the roar of the collapsing sea cliffs shook the whole city and finally ended the last underground revolt.

“After that, the Queen’s Guard blew up all the shafts leading to the Second Waterway and closed the gates connecting it to the First Waterway, and with the intermittent skirmishes and man-made collapses that followed, eventually, the entire Second Waterway was completely split off from the upper levels.”

Nemo Wilkins said, looking up at the heavy dome above him, as if his eyes were trying to scan through the layers of steel, concrete, and stone to the traffic-laden streets of the city-state above.

“The truth is, the new government the rebels established was not ignorant of the sewers, they knew of the existence of the Frost Underworld – but so what? They were only aware of its existence.

“The sea cliffs collapsed, the city suffered heavily, and it took decades for Frost to recover after the civil war, and with Boiling Gold becoming the only economic pillar left in the city, what was once the first city-state of the Frigid Sea is now nothing more than a glory in the history books, and to this day, the city still uses the plumbing system left behind by the Queen.

“Under these circumstances, who has the ability to search the vast network of pipes deep beneath the city-state? The cost of reopening the shafts and overhauling the Second Waterway would be unacceptable to the new government – and having the upper tier of the ‘First Waterway’ would be more than enough for Frost, which has shrunk in population and city size since the war. ”

“Since it’s enough, we’ll make do.” Vanna muttered softly subconsciously as she suddenly remembered something Maurice had said not too long ago.

“That’s right, if it’s enough, let’s make do, this city is already riddled with holes, it really can’t afford to make another big fuss,” Nemo said with a smile, “Besides, for such a big city, even if there’s a bit of ‘moss’ hidden in the depths of the sewer, it’s not that big a deal. ‘ isn’t a big deal, heretical cults, darkness breeding creatures, night shadows, anomalies left out of control – there are plenty of things hiding in the gutter, any of which are more worthy of a headache for the authorities and the Church than we are.”

Duncan hadn’t said much, just listened in silence to the “informant’s” ramblings, before he suddenly spoke up, “Such a large underground facility, and I see there’s a gas and electricity supply – it can’t be maintained by you alone, can it? It can’t be maintained by you alone, right?”

“Of course it can’t be,” Nemo Wilkins laughed, “We still have some manpower spread around the city, even in certain departments of the city hall, most of which are descendants of the Queen’s Guards from back in the day, such as myself, and others who passed the test with General Tirian and Brothers and sisters who were recognized as loyal and trustworthy – but they are not fit to show their faces.”

“…… Tirian is being modest when he says he’s planted some ‘informants’ in the Frost,” Duncan couldn’t help but shake his head, “The boy has actually buried such a large swath of power in Frost?” ……”

Nemo heard the epithet Duncan used in reference to Tirion, and the expression on the middle-aged man’s face visibly stiffened, but nothing came out. While several people were talking, Maurice, on the other hand, was always observing the underground world with interest, his eyes sweeping over the towering dome as well as the abandoned pipes that crisscrossed the area from a high altitude, as well as the many valves and pipe branches on the nearby walls that had obviously been installed at a later stage, before he suddenly asked after a while, “Are you still in control of the whole of the Second Waterway now? ”

“Strictly speaking, only a small portion of it,” Nemo shook his head regretfully, “As much as I’d like to say that the entire Underground Kingdom is under control, but after all, we have limited manpower, and the entire Second Waterway’s size is beyond imagination- Only about a fifth of the abandoned sewers are now under our control, while other areas are either isolated from each other and abandoned due to collapses, covered in toxic sewage, and in some cases eroded by dangerous forces that make them difficult to access.”

“Dangerous power erosion?” Vanna on the side immediately frowned, her occupationally sensitive cells beginning to thump.

“Sometimes hunted illegal transcendents make the mistake of entering the sewers, and when they die down here, they cause widespread contamination, but more often than not, it’s the darkness itself that breeds the monsters,” Nemo said, “It’s a massive underworld, after all, and the pipe shafts we sneak in from above gas gas can’t keep the entire second waterway lit, and when it’s not bright enough …… some places fall into darkness, they fall into darkness forever.”

Vanna stared, not really knowing what to say for a moment, just feeling a little choked.

Coming from the prosperous and thriving Prand, and being the protector of order in the city-state herself, it was really hard for her to imagine that a city would allow such a thing to happen – large-scale underground facilities were in a state of darkness for a long period of time, and had even begun to breed shadows that could not be purified, and that was okay?
However, the facts before her proved that it was, and the Frost People had been living like this for half a century, and nothing much seemed to be happening.

“It can’t be ruled out that occasionally an unlucky person who mistakenly enters the underground will evaporate, or that the guardsmen’s death rate at night exceeds that of other city-states, but everyone is used to it.”

Nemo obviously saw the shocked expression on Vanna’s face, he had already judged that these people in front of him were “strangers”, so he naturally knew what the other party was surprised about.

“Every few years to clean up the first waterway and the subway branch line of a few dangerous sections, every now and then to pour into the ground incense and sacred ashes, and then to raise the guardsmen’s death pension a little bit, so that the gatekeepers usually make two more trips, most of the ordinary people are still living a good life …… This is already considered a very good situation up.”

Said the “tavern owner” paused and turned his head with a smile: “Believe me, most city-states are actually not much better, from ancient times to the present day is not much better.”

Duncan and the others looked at each other in disbelief, not knowing what to say, and after a short and awkward silence, it was Vanna who spoke up first – she looked at Maurice next to her and asked, “What is your judgment?”

“There are no signs of cognitive interference, and both thought and memory should be clear.”

Morris answered Vanna’s question, but his gaze kept falling on Nemo Wilkins, and underneath the old scholar’s eyes, a light silver-colored glow was gradually dissipating.

Nemo blinked, a confused expression on his face, “What are you …… talking about?”

Duncan turned his eyes and gazed at the other party quietly, “Mr. Nemo, congratulations, you have not been affected by cognitive interference.”

(End of chapter)