madnovel Chapter 1582 Sniper Wolf
Chapter 1582 Sniper Wolf
--- Hunter ---
Hunter spread out her aura and then just ripped the hatch open. This wasn't like the giant doors that would require some effort to open quietly and may unleash a robot army or something, this was an elevator hatch and it was removed swiftly and without too much noise. The welding was pretty weak and a good tug was all it took. Hopping down into the elevator it had clearly seen better days.
It had a bunch of scratches and scorch marks on it, having probably been used during the fighting on the floor above. The real issue, considering Hunter wasn't planning on using the elevator, was that the doors were welded shut.
Sighing and keeping her aura up Hunter jammed her fingers straight through the welding and tried to push the door open. Instead, the much weaker metal of the elevator doors simply gave way under her fingers instead of letting themselves be torn open.
Hunter reacted quickly, pulling out a knife and slicing first upwards then straight back down to cut all of the welding away and pressing the manual override on the panel.
As partly expected nothing happened. Hunter did hear a click in the walls implying something should've been released but the mechanism either failed at some point or was intentionally broken. Hunter just decided to get on with it and tore a hole through the metal and bringing herself face to face with another door.
This one had a keycard attached to it but through the gaps she could see that the behind the door a number of steel plates had been welded across to keep it shut even if you had a keycard.
So, the good old rip your way through was utilised once again with Hunter slicing through the metal using the gap in the door including the deadbolt keeping it in place. Now, technically the door opened towards her... but a good kick and the sound of screeching metal had it opening the 'correct' way leading Hunter in to what looked like a reception area.
It was clean but not as well maintained as the rest of the place. The carpet looked old and rotten, the circular desk for the receptionist to sit at had a number of cracks running through it and more than a few old stains.
Lining the walls were a collection of couches in various states of disrepair. The cushions were fraying, some of the legs had snapped at some point, the pieces left around to just sit in place and unlike the desk that had clearly been dusted at some point in the past few years the couches needed a much better cleaning. The paintings on the walls actually looked pretty good in comparison.
They were in glass boxes and while the boxes now gave everything a slight orange tint the paintings on the inside seemed to be fine if unremarkable.
Hunter looked around the elevator for and way to open it. The obvious force open for the doors had been welded over for some reason which made entering the elevator much harder then it needed to be. *Hmm... I didn't see any traps or anything so why would they do this? Was it really a concern or was someone just being stupid? Maybe kids?
I could see them playing around in the elevator shaft if there wasn't much else to do.*
Hunter examined the welding carefully and compared it against her memories of the other welds. Quickly confirming that this one was much, much older then the ones blocking her entry to this floor. *Alright. So I can't be certain this was for child safety reasons but I can at least confirm that it isn't to stop the robots.
I could spend some time chipping away at the manual override here but I'm not sure the mechanism would still be working after all of this time with motel metal stuck to it. Hmmm....*
Hunter started tapping the walls nearby looking for a hollow panel that could be removed but wasn't having any such luck. It wasn't uncommon in elevators, but wasn't super common either. The hatch she managed to find under all the dirt and grass had probably been in the back of a maintenance room once upon a time so that would probably work here but... Hunter glanced at the ceiling.
*Could there be another entrance in the wrecked floor? I feel like if there was it would've been sealed a bit more thoroughly then some shoddy welding and steel beams... but maybe they didn't know?
It's hard to tell exactly how long ago the robot uprising was and with a rough idea of where this elevator IS I should be able to head to the matching spot in the floor above me to look for a maintenance hatch. At the same time... hmm...*
Hunter moved to the nearby doors looked at the locks. Basic, and now she had a better reason to make her way into one. Pulling out a set of lockpicks Hunter was able to swiftly get the lock open and walked inside. It was an old bedroom setup.
The mattress was gone but the frames were left behind, the closet was empty of everything including clothes hangers and sadly, there was no convenient vent in the closet that led to the outside. There was an old desk that was part of the wall, but it was against the wrong wall for the vents and didn't have anything on it anymore.
It was kind interesting that it had managed to remain for so long though, especially with all the dust indicating disrepair.
Hunter could also see under the bed through the missing mattress and dismiss that as a location as well so she locked the door and backed out, checking the other room nearest to the elevator with practically identical results it was just that the room was mirrored. *Hmm... heading upstairs is looking more and more like the best idea.
I'm sure there are other rooms I could check around the elevator shaft but these are definitely the closest.*