Chapter 215

Chapter 215

"Stupid." Song couldn't bear to watch. If it were an open environment, a thousand years would have been enough for the buildings to turn to sand and disappear without a trace. Only in sealed or semi-sealed environments could these thousand-year-old traces be preserved.

In fact, only the underground parts of the mushroom-shaped buildings remained; the above-ground sections had long since vanished with the passage of time.

On this land that had returned to its primitive state after so long without human presence, there still existed traces of the Tachiku civilization, and the underground spaces were still usable today.

Seeing the thick metal plates violently pushed aside to reveal a dry, confined passageway, even the officials who had anticipated this were excited.

What would they find inside? Could they glimpse the appearance of the Tachiku civilization from back then?

The students compared the images stored on their phones.

"That's right, this is the building we're looking for, but only the underground part remains. I think other buildings would be similar, given how far removed they are from our era."

"If that's the case, would the routes on the map also change? The world has changed so much."

"It's hard to say."

Worried about possible terrifying creatures lurking in the basement, neither the mercenary groups nor the nobles' small teams wanted to enter first.

So the Special Operations Group sent down several robotic dogs to check the situation.

Once they confirmed the environment was relatively harmless, the officials went down first, followed closely by the students.

Initially, the passage was just over two meters high, widening slightly to three or four meters. At the bottom, they discovered a space more than ten meters high, filled with unattended equipment.

There were streamlined space capsules, capsule-shaped glass rooms with many electromagnetic patches hanging inside, and a strange creature submerged in putrid water below.

The researchers in the official team rushed forward like wolves smelling meat. The students, a step behind, started examining the diagrams on the walls.

From the straight lines and metal plates that hadn't corroded in a thousand years, they could see the advanced nature of this civilization. But standing in this abandoned basement, surrounded by spaces separated by metal, glass, and other unidentifiable materials, and filled with technologically advanced equipment, they still felt a sense of disbelief.

Was this really a "ruin"?

Seeing so many things, including the glass chambers containing what appeared to be ancient biological remains, the nobles and mercenaries who entered later became breathless with excitement.

"Hurry up, pack everything into sealed boxes! Quickly!"

"These are treasures!"

"What are you doing? What are you doing?"

"Don't pretend. We didn't come here for a tour, did we?"

"You bastards, you're being too rough. You can't do this."

A conflict arose between those looting and those conducting research. One side thought the other was hypocritical, while the other found them too rough. The students, meanwhile, avoided these people and casually collected some items into their storage bracelets.

Ji Xinghai didn't do this; he felt something wasn't quite right.

"It seems they were researching the connection between brains and machines. Were they studying mechanical life?"

"So cool?"

Ji Xinghai turned around and saw several students murmuring about the diagrams on the wall. These were the researchers who specialized in the Tachiku civilization's script; Cha Cha was among them, quickly jotting down notes.

"Quick, take photos!" someone shouted nearby.

It turned out that humans had been in this sealed basement for less than two minutes when the originally colorful diagrams began to fade.

The researchers immediately took out their most advanced cameras, and the students, who had experienced the metal plate incident, were prepared. They had been recording video since entering.

"Oxidation? Because it was in a relatively sealed environment?"

"Not necessarily; it might just be programmed."

As they spoke, the researchers surrounding the equipment cried out in alarm: "Quick, record everything."

Not only were the images fading, but the equipment that had looked like it was from last week was now visibly aging at an alarming rate, turning into piles of brittle debris within moments.

The researchers jumped in frustration but could only watch helplessly.

"Run!" Ji Xinghai noticed something and grabbed two Hungry Academy students, rushing toward the passage.

The other two students from different academies immediately followed, even though they didn't know what was happening. Better safe than sorry, especially when the top-ranked student was sprinting away.

"Aaaaah—" screams echoed behind them, and the group of ten sped up even more.

Behind them, someone had triggered a mechanism, or perhaps the system was set to activate upon intrusion. Purple smoke spewed from holes in the ceiling.

By the time they noticed, the room was already filled with purple smoke.

"The gas masks don't work! Run outside!" Many wore gas masks, yet they fell to the ground almost instantly upon contact with the spray. Fortunately, the smoke rose, giving them time to escape.

Everyone in the room turned and rushed for the passage, which could only accommodate a few people at once, causing a bottleneck.

In those few seconds, another batch of people exposed to the purple smoke collapsed. Eventually, most managed to escape, staring back at the black passage through the metal door, their faces pale with shock.

Inside the passage, besides those who succumbed to the smoke, others were trampled in the rush and fell behind.

Those who fell weren't completely dead; small blue-black mushrooms rapidly grew on their bodies, quickly rotting and turning into pools of black water.

The previous looters carefully checked the items they had packed into sealed boxes, only to find that everything had aged and crumbled beyond recognition.

Cha Cha and the others, who had left earlier, reluctantly took out the shattered remnants from their storage bracelets.

"If only we had been better prepared before entering..." The researchers weren't concerned about their lives; they only regretted losing the equipment.

"There's no time left. This island might sink back into the sea soon. We don't have much time," said the general in charge of the exploration.

Ji Xinghai listened to their conversation and felt there was more to it than met the ear.

Despite the tragic events, they had no time to linger and mourn. The team, now reduced by a third, set out again for their next destination.

The students from the three academies naturally gathered together, cautiously discussing what had just happened.

"The most valuable thing we have now is the footage we captured, especially the diagrams on the walls. From the content, it's clear that this is an underground research facility studying the most mysterious part—the brain. But I'm more concerned about why they called this research the last hope."

"Moreover, their underground facility is over two hundred meters deep, surrounded entirely by metal, as if they were guarding against some powerful enemy. Even the self-destruct mechanism seems abnormal."

Initially, they thought the threat faced by the Chakumu civilization was monsters, but it seemed there might be intelligent beings involved as well.

Typically, monsters evolve with physical strength, while humans evolve with balanced intelligence and physical abilities. But this research facility clearly wasn't just guarding against mindless monsters.

"Perhaps other underground structures can give us answers."

The team headed to the next location. The authorities no longer hid the fact that they knew many secrets, but no one asked further—General's face was dark and intimidating.

The mountain range recorded on the metal plates had long since been transformed by geological movements into a rugged path strewn with rocks of various sizes, like speed bumps deliberately placed along the way. Wheeled vehicles were rendered useless on this terrain, leaving them with only two options: fly or walk.

The wealthy students from the Gold Academy deployed a small spider vehicle capable of navigating such terrain. With eight metal legs, the spider vehicle could squeeze through narrow spaces barely a meter wide and intelligently adjust its angle and speed based on the situation.

"Why didn't I find such a vehicle?" the students from the other two academies were envious, but the spider vehicle was already full.

"It must be something they made themselves."

Seeing their longing gazes at the departing spider vehicle, Ji Xinghai took out three silver-white hoverboards from his storage bracelet. "I prepared these before we came. Do you know how to use them?"

Kira's eyes immediately fixed on the boards. "Yes, yes, I'll figure it out in no time."

Chacha also grabbed one of the remaining boards. "Thanks, Ji."

On the first day of entering this scenario, he saw senior members using these low-altitude hoverboards to battle three-axe monsters. He had always wanted to buy one, and now he finally did.

Apart from being expensive, there was nothing wrong with them.

One group had a spider vehicle, another had hoverboards, and Duxi from Zhentian College almost shed tears of envy. She silently turned to look at the logistics officer and deputy.

Lai Duoduo merely shrugged. "Too expensive. Your mech was bought on credit; where would we get the money? Besides, the head of our academy provided these. If anyone should be envied, it's you."

Duxi held back her tears. "How expensive are they?"

"100,000 contribution points each, not including the energy blocks."

"...Never mind." Indeed, they were expensive.

Midway through the rocky path, the team suddenly stopped. It turned out the researchers had made another discovery.

"There's an abnormal energy fluctuation."

The team quickly gathered, drawing strength from their collective presence.

The students knew they were approaching the area where the monsters were located. They remained vigilant, listening intently and watching the official team's movements.

But they weren't attacked until they left the area.

"There might have been a secret realm here, but it has collapsed," said Parry, a researcher from Zhentian College, in a low voice.

"When I chose my research direction, I studied secret realms. When these small folded spaces collapse, the resources inside explode, altering the form of underground minerals into energy stones and creating chaotic magnetic fields. Additionally, they change the genes of surrounding creatures, turning them into monstrous beings and passing this curse to their offspring."

Parry paused, and everyone else's expressions tightened. They thought of the corpse submerged in the decaying fluid.

Could it be... that the high-intelligence enemies the research facility was guarding against were these mutated humans?

But no one voiced this suspicion aloud. Parry continued, "Generally, areas where secret realms explode are dangerous, but here, it's been too long, leaving only slight fluctuations. Moreover, there have been faint energy fluctuations all along the way, just too weak to notice."

He pulled out his portable device and showed them the recorded energy fluctuations since they landed. Indeed, the readings had been fluctuating continuously, with particularly high peaks in certain areas.

"Do those energy fluctuations also come from secret realm explosions?" Duxi asked, puzzled. "Then there must be too many secret realms here."

"1,369. That's the number of new secret realms since we entered the game," Song suddenly reported. "Senior members of the Special Operations Group rarely appear on monster battlefields because their task is to eliminate the monsters in these secret realms, making them disappear. What if human strength can't keep up with the rate at which secret realms appear?"

"Shiver." Feng hugged himself tightly.

"When I researched the Chakumu civilization, I encountered fairy tales supposedly originating from them. Almost every tale had shadows looming over them. Perhaps back then, the secret realms and monsters were so numerous that they overlapped, leaving no room to step. Humans struggled to survive under these conditions, constantly wary of their own kind who had mutated," Chacha added.

Everyone shuddered at the image.

Regardless, the absence of monsters was a good thing. They arrived safely at the second building, another secret underground research facility. Here, they found even more disturbing things: grotesque human corpses in containers, massive monster skeletons, and terrifying experiments fusing humans with monsters and machines.

The danger here came from these human-altered creatures emerging from glass tanks filled with solution.

Half-human, half-monster, with terrifying killing power. Due to these monsters, the human team was reduced once again, now only half its original size.

But they still needed to continue to the third location.

"All the research was aimed at survival, even if it meant existing in another form. It seems the humans back then were pushed to the brink."

"We've lost half our team, yet we must continue. We're driven by the main mission, but what drove them?"

The answer was clear. The so-called keys to evolution and mysterious wealth were mere disguises. Those on land had realized they might be the next Chakumu civilization.