The tunnel was spacious, large enough to accommodate two layers of traffic boats as big as four subway cars, and at this moment, in the pitch-black silence, only a Flying Carpet fluttered silently.
Walking was too slow; the situation was changing rapidly, and Su Ming was in a hurry.
So he took off the Magic Floating Cloak and let the two women sit on it, advancing based on the route Tanis pointed out.
But in reality, it wasn't much faster.
The route that could follow the traffic line wasn't long, and soon they needed to turn into a maintenance passage, climbing down a simple ladder where the narrow terrain made it impossible for the Magic Floating Cloak to operate.
The sound of several people climbing the ladder echoed in the darkness, reminding Su Ming of the sewers. Atlan naturally had a sewer system, but they recycled water, with zero pollution and zero emissions.
The water flushed down the toilets, after high-tech treatment, could be used for cooking and drinking. Understandable, since long-term life in outer space required such measures, and the Moon had no water.
From a human perspective, Su Ming felt a bit disgusted.
"Tap tap tap..."
The three of them seemed to be entering a deep well, one that could turn, and finally, they reached a gate.
Tanis was so exhausted that she couldn't stand up straight, having given birth not long ago and even with Inhuman physique, it was still difficult.
Su Ming, however, was unfazed, with Hel adding 'heart doesn't skip a beat.'
"Is this it? Are you sure there's an energy supply here?" he pointed at the gate, for the surroundings were pitch black, and so was the room inside.
"This is an emergency repair point, with independent energy storage inside. All you have to do is go in and open it to restore the room's power supply and start the terminal."
Tanis replied with certainty. Having seen her brother's corpse, her desire for revenge was even stronger, and at this time, she spoke no lies.
"Then be ready. Once the power supply here is activated, it will be equivalent to exposing that there are living people here. The forces occupying the central control room can see us, so we must act quickly."
Su Ming said, and directly sliced open the gate with Godslayer, and a few people filed in.
Tanis quickly found the emergency button and slapped it down.
The room lit up, with a gentle white light from the walls, the material like hard plastic, semi-transparent and also luminescent.
Then, she gently placed the baby on a tool bench at the side, pulled down the terminal from the wall, and began operating it swiftly on the panel.
Su Ming peeked over and saw, "Hmm, three-dimensional projection interaction technology, comparable to Asgard, but it displayed in Kree script."
Soon, a full panoramic three-dimensional projection of Atlan appeared before them, constructed of blue light lines, every detail vivid and lifelike.
Not only the buildings but even the forests and lakes on the ground were displayed clearly.
The greening efforts were undertaken by Inhumans after coming to Earth; the types of trees here were actually extinct on the surface, only surviving in Atlan's unique enclosed environment.
Tanis raised her hands, clawing at the floating image in mid-air, pulling with both hands to enlarge the image.
"Here, this is where we are." She pointed with her slender finger in the light, which soon lit up with a shining light, then she pointed to another place, "Here is the destination."
Su Ming nodded slightly without speaking, imprinting the structure, complex like a ball of yarn, in his mind.
Atlan appeared not much different from the comics, with most of the ground buildings in Kree-style domes, mixed with the needs of the Inhumans, which included building tall skyscrapers.
Honestly, with an Arabic-style dome atop a dozen-story building, it looked quite awkward.
Their city planning was a complete mess, like a child's scribble, erratic and chaotic. Even many roads were skewed, bending at ninety degrees to avoid some buildings, not to mention inclined or upright three-dimensional traffic networks.
As for the various underground network passages, those wouldn't even qualify as children's scribbles, utterly like walls after a cat's scratch.
Drainage, water supply, ventilation, power supply, traffic, maintenance, propulsion - a plethora of lines. Even Su Ming needed some explanation to understand them.
However, the more complex the underground situation, the safer it seemed. As long as they were all treated as sewers, Su Ming had an absolute advantage in the complex underground network.
Calculating distances, enemy reactions, potential scenarios, Su Ming memorized the entire architectural map within dozens of seconds and planned the route.
"Alright, let's move. From this point, break through the wall into the main ventilation duct."
With that, Su Ming directly drew his weapon, cutting a neat circle from the wall and kicking it in.
"Bang! Clap, whoosh whoosh whoosh..."
The circular cover, like a manhole cover, crashed onto the other side's duct wall and then fell downward, only the whizzing sound of air cutting could be heard without a sound of impact.
Su Ming spread the cloak inside, tightly crowding the three of them on it, the cloak turned into a small elevator, carrying the three upward.
Tanis held the child, gently rocking him, seemingly completely calmed down. Hel stood with her back against Deathstroke, exuding an icy aura like a corpse.
The duct was just this wide, barely fitting the three crammed together standing, and even the initial segment was already considered easy to navigate.
Just after they left, Tanis's husband arrived at the infant cultivation center with people to rescue his wife and child, only to find it empty.
He noticed traces of his wife's departure, but her scent mingled with unfamiliar ones, and the dense scent of blood made it hard for him to be at ease, thus intending to catch up and regroup with Tanis first.
But as they returned, they encountered a fugitive faction's military investigation, both sides engaging in a superpower battle in the darkness, leading to heavy losses for the resistance faction.
These happenings in the darkness were unnoticed by Su Ming; they were already far from there, and after over ten minutes of quiet actions, their current location was the underground water storage area.
Breaking through the wall and duct, switching from the ventilation duct to the water supply pipe, then entering the underground reservoir.
The cloak, like a small boat, carried the three floating in the gigantic water pool, and the giant water pump in the distance was out of commission due to energy loss, which was foreseen.
However, unbeknownst to Hel and Tanis, Su Ming's primary target wasn't the control room but the highest security vault where Terrigen Crystals were stored.
Requesting the full area map was essentially for this purpose. The crystal concerned the survival of all Inhumans; asking Tanis might lead to hesitation and wasting time.
It was better for Su Ming to look himself, analyze, and determine that the most important items must be in the most well-defended place. Previously, Tanis mentioned containment mechanisms, so by comparing energy conduits and traffic lines, Su Ming could lock on a location.
Without securing the Terrigen Crystals in his hand, it was inevitably insecure.
The fugitive faction had already acquired enough infants and juveniles, probably preparing to abscond with technology and materials, and if they secured the crucial crystals, even without capturing the next Speaker, they could exit anytime without loss.
But if Su Ming seized all the Terrigen Crystals, the fugitive faction would be destined for extermination. Without crystals, there would be no Inhuman offspring, and they would have to stay to reclaim them.
Whether they escape or not is unrelated to Su Ming, but placing a card in play, at least he could see if the person who killed Dr. Xavier was among them.
He still remembered Little Charles' commission, capturing the person who killed his father and exchanging it for Su Ming's future benefits was more important, ensuring Earth's safety being just a secondary objective along the way...