Infinite Cosmic Cafeteria Chapter 67: The Great Blackout

Translator: Stellar Novels Editor: Stellar Novels

Speaking of keys, Ma Lu recalled that Setta had given him a key before—a Earth Dragon Tooth, which was also related to a secret treasure.

When Ma Lu left, he had thrown it into the storage point, but this time, on a whim, he decided to bring it along.

He rummaged through his pocket and found the Earth Dragon Tooth, but when he brought it to the stone door, there was no reaction, and there wasn’t anything resembling a keyhole on the door either.

“Huh, could there be multiple treasure rooms, each with a different key?”

“I’m not sure,” Mai Mai said. “The existence of these treasures is already a mystery. As for how many there are, no one really knows. But even if there are multiple, there probably wouldn’t be too many. Otherwise, besides Hogang, the leader of the Golden Sword, no one else would have obtained a secret treasure, and even then, there’s no concrete evidence that Hogang ever had one.”

“Let’s search along the way,” Bocchi suggested. “Start from where we encountered Jin Jian, especially the cave where we fought the Black Hand members. In his haste, Jin Jian wouldn’t have hidden the key too far away.”

The group spread out and began searching for the key.

Since they didn’t know what the key looked like, they picked up anything they could find along the way, including bones, rocks, and even tufts of fur.

But none of these items could open the stone door.

Two hours later, the members of the Double Sunflower hunting group were exhausted, unable to think of any other places where Jin Jian might have hidden the key.

Until Ma Lu suddenly had a thought, “Jin Jian was full of lies. He kept leading us to believe he threw the key somewhere else, but maybe he was just deceiving us.”

“But I searched him—not just once—and there was no key on him,” Bocchi said.

“Maybe your search wasn’t thorough enough.”

“What do you mean?”

“There are more places on a person’s body to hide something than just pockets,” Ma Lu replied.

“For example?”

“The mouth.” Ma Lu said as he pried open Jin Jian’s mouth and stuck his fingers inside, rummaging around but finding nothing.

“Looks like your guess wasn’t right.”

“No, there’s one more place.” Ma Lu’s gaze shifted downward, finally settling on Jin Jian’s backside. He looked at Mai Mai and said, “This time, it’s your turn.”

Mai Mai’s expression changed, “No need to be so polite between us. Since you’re the deputy leader, you should do it.”

“What’s there to be afraid of? Jin Jian’s already dead.”

“You know it’s not the corpse I’m afraid of.”

“Fine, I’ll do it.”

However, Ma Lu clearly overestimated his resolve and courage, as his fingers awkwardly hovered in the air.

“Do it already.” Mai Mai had already covered her eyes but kept her fingers slightly parted out of curiosity, watching the scene unfold and urging him on.

“I just thought of another way—we might not need to take the key out.”

Ma Lu withdrew his fingers. “Let’s just bring Jin Jian’s body over. If the key is inside him, the stone door should react.”

“Good idea.”

Ma Lu’s suggestion brought an inexplicable sense of relief to everyone.

Setta manipulated his sand puppet to carry Jin Jian’s body to the stone door.

Before the puppet even set the body down, a rumbling sound came from the other side of the stone door, as if some mechanism had been activated.

“It actually worked.” Mai Mai looked pleasantly surprised, while Setta and Senqi held their breath.

But the most excited at this moment was Bocchi, because if what Jin Jian had said was true, it meant that the flaw in her psychic ability might be permanently corrected.

Activating a second psychic ability meant a new beginning for her.

As the stone door slowly opened, it revealed a small, dust-covered room.

The room was barely 4 square meters in size, containing nothing but a stone cabinet.

Ma Lu eagerly rushed forward to open the cabinet, only to find a few iron plates carved with texts and diagrams inside.

At first, Ma Lu thought they were some kind of secret cultivation techniques, but after a quick glance, he realized they looked more like some sort of engineering blueprints.

The others also gathered around.

“These... look a bit like equipment designs,” Mai Mai was the first to speak. “They seem more complex and intricate compared to the standard equipment available on the market today.”

Maggie also seemed to recall something and whispered, “I remember our teacher mentioned in class that about a thousand years ago, our civilization experienced a decline and lost a vast amount of knowledge.”

“Oh, you mean the Great Blackout? The sun disappeared for half a month, and all solar devices lost their function. The world quickly plunged into darkness, doomsday theories spread like wildfire, and chaos erupted everywhere, completely shattering order. People vented their despair in every conceivable way.”

“Huh, is there really such a history?” Ma Lu asked.

“Yes, the damage caused by the Great Blackout still hasn’t been fully remedied to this day,” Mai Mai said. “These blueprints are most likely from that lost technology.”

“So these iron plates aren’t the secret treasure?”

“Probably not,” Mai Mai said. “It seems Jin Jian’s information was inaccurate, but these iron plates are still valuable. I know a friend who is a weapon specialist and owns an equipment factory. He would likely be interested in these iron plates.”

“Would he pay a high price for them?”

Setta, who was initially disappointed that the room didn’t contain the secret treasure, felt hopeful again after hearing Mai Mai’s words.

“He should. That guy is loaded and obsessed with lost technology.” Mai Mai nodded. “We could probably even ask him to custom-make a few pieces for us, which would make our future hunts easier.”

“That’s great!” Setta was delighted to hear there was still money to be made.

Ma Lu was also in good spirits, having managed to secure some 4-star ingredients along the way.

Only Bocchi had a faint, almost imperceptible trace of disappointment flash in her eyes, but she hid it well, showing no signs of anything unusual.

They packed up the iron plates and instructed everyone to haul up the Stinger-Legged Whip Spiders and also moved the motorcycles left by Jin Jian and his team outside. They then covered the entrance with the stone slab once again.

The desert’s wind and sand were fierce; in just a few dozen minutes, the area would be covered by sand. In a few hours, any signs of disturbance would likely be undetectable to outsiders.

However, with a deputy leader and two full teams missing, Black Horn certainly wouldn’t just sit back. It was only a matter of time before Sang Lu started investigating the Double Sunflower hunting group.

Despite Jin Jian’s lies, he was right about one thing: killing him would only escalate the situation.

Bocchi clearly realized this as well, her expression turning slightly serious, just as Ma Lu spoke again.

“Might as well go all the way—how about we take out Sang Lu too? Um… when’s he supposed to leave the city?”

“…………”

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