Chapter 368: Steel

Right now, the display on the right was blinking red, and Nick could see a big exclamation mark appearing and disappearing.

'This display most likely shows the door's status,' he thought.

Then, he looked around the display.

'But there are no levers or buttons anywhere. Can I not operate it?'

Nick put his finger on the display, and he saw it change.

Letters and words Nick had never seen before appeared on the display.

He had no idea what the display said.

Nick tapped the display a couple more times and noticed that dots appeared in the middle every time he pressed.

'It actually reacts to my touch. This is so strange,' he thought.

The dots stopped appearing after they became eight.

'I presume this is some kind of password to deactivate the alarm and to open the door.'

Nick furrowed his brows.

'Yeah, I'm not going to be able to guess that, and there is probably also some kind of fail-safe.'

'Might as well go in the hard way.'

SHING!

The blade on Nick's right arm activated, and he rammed it into the door.

Luckily, since the alarm was already active, nothing surprising happened except for Nick's blade burying into the door.

'This is just normal steel. Maybe it's a bit harder than normal steel, but not a lot more,' Nick thought.

'But it's a lot of steel. That door is probably over half a meter thick.'

'Why would they use that much steel, though? Why not use materials treated with Zephyx? What's the point of putting ten meters of steel in front of me when I can just cut through it?'

'Did they not have access to better materials? Were they that primitive?'

Nick looked at the display to the right.

'No, probably not. That display is clearer and more versatile than any I have seen. Even the displays for the Fog's Containment Unit aren't this advanced, and that Containment Unit costs millions of credits.'

Nick raised an eyebrow.

'Did they not have access to harder materials?'

'I mean, without Zephyx, steel should be the hardest material you can get in bulk.'

'So, did they not have access to Zephyx?'

The more Nick thought about it, the more sense it made.

But then, he remembered what had happened when the Crimson Sea broke out.

Nick had seen a bit of what had happened back then, and Wyntor and Julian had also told him what had happened.

The ruins immediately below Crimson City were made of materials harder than steel, and the ruins below those, which should be even older, were made of even more durable materials.

They definitely had access to Zephyx.

Even more, the entire floor of ruins had been made with extremely durable materials, which meant they were not lacking in those.

So then, why was only steel here?

There were discrepancies that didn't make any sense to Nick yet.

Nick's blade easily cut through the door like it was slime.

After cutting out a circle, Nick grabbed the inner part and pulled.

CREEEEEE!

The entire door creaked loudly and violently.

Right now, Nick's ability was active, which meant that he was 500 times as strong as he would be as a normal person, and his body was already extremely athletic.

One could say that he was 1,000 to 1,500 times as powerful as a normal human.

Naturally, even the extremely thick steel door was groaning under his power.

Yet, nothing actually happened.

Apparently, being that strong still wasn't enough.

'Change of plans,' Nick thought as he put the side of his right blade to the door.

CRRRRRRR!

Then, he moved it down like he was shaving the door.

A layer of steel came off and rolled up like it was cream.

Nick grabbed the roll and threw it to the side before he pulled off another layer.

It took a couple of minutes, but Nick managed to finally get through the door.

Shockingly enough, the door was two whole meters thick!

As soon as Nick got through the door, he was surprised to see bright lights everywhere.

He found himself in a hallway that was brightly lit with lights on the ceiling.

Even more, these artificial lights seemed to keep the Nightmare at bay, which was still crazy to Nick.

Sure, Solace could do the same thing, but they had a Specter.

'Wait, does that mean there's also a Specter here?' Nick thought.

But then, he looked back at the destroyed door behind him.

'Not sure. If they had a Specter, they would probably have access to harder materials.'

'What is going on?'

Next, Nick looked around the hallway.

It was made of uniform steel, which was colored with green and orange colors, creating a certain kind of style.

Nick saw no gaps in the steel except for the doors at the side, which was crazy.

'Did they melt all of this into one? That's insane!' Nick thought.

The next moment, Nick saw something to his right.

He knew what that was.

A locker, and a big one at that!

Even more, there were ten of those.

While the alarm was still screaming into Nick's ears, he walked over to one of the lockers and tried to open it.

Sadly, it was locked.

CRK!

Nick just used more power and tore the door off, which was about ten centimeters of steel.

When Nick saw the thing behind it, his eyes blinked a couple of times in surprise.

It was a suit made of steel!

It was a bit taller than two meters, greenish black, and the face was made of glass.

Nick grabbed the suit and pulled.

CRK! CRK! CRK!

The suit was fixed to the wall, but Nick just pulled the bolts out with the suit.

Then, he looked at it while he handled it like a shirt.

'Is this some kind of primitive armor?' Nick thought. 'I don't think walking around in steel is very comfortable.'

'Maybe it's harder than it looks?'

Nick grabbed one of the feet of the suit and squeezed.

CREEEEEEE!

And turned it into a thin tube.

'Or not,' he thought. 'Can something like this really act as armor?'

'Were the people of the past really that primitive?'