Being woken up and swearing, it's not just the residents of Pugang Town.

He Kao can only hear the commotion around Pugang Town. In fact, tonight in the Qi Yuan City District, there have been firecracker noises from various locations, such as quiet parks, small community squares, and open construction sites...

Some of these places were the work of masked individuals, but not all.

People have a habit of mimicking; some, not yet asleep in the second half of the night, have firecrackers at hand. Hearing firecrackers outside, they go out and find a place to light some.

The police caught a group setting off fireworks, but they weren't masked individuals; they were staff on duty at a construction site.

There happened to be firecrackers and fireworks in the site warehouse, originally prepared to celebrate the topping-off of the building, which is a customary practice in the real estate industry. Upon hearing firecrackers elsewhere, a few workers on duty took out some fireworks and set them off in an open area.

But the place where they set them off was unfortunate, right across from the police station, leading to the on-duty officers being startled out.

Compared to the city district's chaos, the commotion in Jiangbei was relatively quieter. The masked individuals seemed to not care about their days anymore anyway, and whatever strings of firecrackers and double-bangers left in He Kao's third-floor apartment were eventually all taken by him.

When He Kao drove to the main entrance of Joy Valley, he found that there were also many scraps of paper left from burnt firecrackers on the open area outside — it seemed the masked individuals had deliberately set off fireworks here.

He continued to drive inwards, passing by the indoor pedestrian street, noticing that the previously parked cars outside and the bodies on the steps were all gone. Following the park road further, and curving around the Ferris wheel and roller coaster, he arrived at the foot of Bai Ma Mountain.

When the developer built Joy Valley, they enclosed a large piece of land, including the area from the foot of Bai Ma Mountain up to the halfway slope within the walls.

It is said that the second phase of the project had matching commercial real estate ventures, including family hotels and leisure resorts, allowing people to stay inside and play for days... However, unfortunately, it didn't materialize.

There is another site with significant historical value here, it's the air raid shelter.

Approximately over seventy years ago, Eastern Country experienced a wave of military preparations and famine preparedness, building civil defense projects nationwide. Some projects were of very high specifications and quality standards, still in use today, with details not disclosed to the public.

Some sites have been transferred to local civil defense offices, stored away or used as warehouses in peacetime, and reportedly even turned into hot pot restaurants. Still, they could serve as air raid shelters during wartime.

Some civil defense projects have now been developed into tourist sites, open for visitation, like the underground project in Divine Turtle Lake at the center of Qi Yuan City, and the complex historical military tunnels beneath Riverfront Observation Tower.

Clearly conveying Qi Yuan City's emphasis on civil defense construction in the past, various air raid shelters were dug wide and deep, aiming for higher specifications and scale.

Air raid shelters were built by official organizations and also in response to calls, voluntarily by civilians.

The air raid shelter in Joy Valley was dug by combining manpower from dozens of natural villages, gathering various limited machines of that time, and took nearly two years to excavate... He Kao's grandfather worked here too.

It is said that the requirements from the local area were high, the main passage could let a field artillery in and out.

Unfortunately, the excavation later encountered collapses, reportedly causing several casualties, halting the project temporarily, and eventually ceasing due to changes in international circumstances.

Due to collapse risks, it was abandoned in the wilderness, sealed with a large iron gate, located not far from the live-action CS shooting game site.

At this moment, the iron gate unexpectedly opened, revealing a dark tunnel entrance, resembling a monstrous mouth eager to devour. He Kao turned on the headlights, driving inside, noticing a somewhat damp feeling. The air was permeated with a rotten smell, unpleasant.

After driving several dozen meters, bifurcations and rooms appeared on both sides, dark inside, not clearly knowing what was there. Before tonight, He Kao would never dare come to such a place at this time.

However, after tonight's events, his Divine Soul seemed to have gone through a refinement — not that his courage grew, but he felt different, including his views on many things.

Driving further forward, He Kao couldn't help but be amazed — how did the entire township manage such a large-scale project back then? Almost two hundred meters in already! At this point, the main tunnel made a turn, and he saw reflections ahead.

It was the reflection from the taillights of cars; several vehicles were already parked inside the tunnel. It turned out the masked individuals had driven the cars in here too. He hastily ran out of the air raid shelter along the same path, unwilling to linger another second.

Once outside, he locked the iron gate, discovering an opened padlock with rust on the surface, origin unknown. He locked the door casually.

Now without a vehicle, he had to walk back. Reaching several hundred meters away, he suddenly heard a dull explosion behind him, even feeling vibrations in the ground beneath.

The nearby Ferris wheel shook off one of its cabins, creating a massive collision and a series of rolling noises. And the distant large iron gate seemed to have been hit with tremendous force, producing prolonged impacts and tremors.

He Kao suddenly realized how the masked individuals planned to destroy the evidence — driving all the cars into the tunnel, likely disposing of the bodies deep inside, then detonating explosives to collapse the air raid shelter... Perhaps the batch of fireworks missing from his house is among them.

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