Chapter 699 - The Bottomless Crack
Chapter 699: The Bottomless Crack
The two of them took the elevator platform and descended slowly.
Meng Chao noticed that the elevator platform was purely mechanical. Other than a spirit power system similar to a winch, there was also a human-powered control system using cranks and pedals.
The entire machine appeared to be clunky, thick, but extremely sturdy. It ensured maximum safety and stability in an environment where spirit interference was severe and matter was constantly changing shape.
Almost all the buildings and facilities at the bottom of the underground space were in the same style. They were clunky, bulky, heavy, and sturdy, with a lot of gears, chains, and exposed crisscrossing pipes. When many of the pipes hissed sharply… colorful spiritual energy would spurt out, immersing the entire space in a rainbow mist.
Except for the slightly different construction style, the place resembled the university town, where the alliance of the five universities was located, and the combination of the military base in Dragon City’s Jiangnan District.
One by one, the hard-roofed tents with silver shells were arranged in a row. Outside many of the tents, pictures of lightning, flames, or skull crosses were hanging on the walls, indicating that it was “extremely dangerous and strictly forbidden to enter.” Inside, there were also sounds of mechanical failure, the rumble of cannons, and the roars of monsters… There were all kinds of strange sounds.
Beside these silver tents, Meng Chao also saw numerous strange things that had been dug out from the ground.
There was a ruin that looked like the legendary sword tomb. It was densely packed with hundreds of oddly-shaped sabers and swords.
The sabers and swords were rusty as well as crooked. Forget being sharp, even the runes carved on their surfaces were indistinct. There were still streams of murderous intent soaring into the sky, as though endless ghosts lingered in the sabers and swords. They were trying to break the rusted seal and descend on Dragon City today.
Judging from the size of the blades, it did not seem like they had been prepared for Earthlings who were less than two meters tall.
Instead, they seemed to be several times larger than humans—the weapons of ancient intelligent life.
At that moment, some scientists were busy surrounding the sword tomb.
They carefully scraped the rusted metal powder from the ancient swords and sabers, analyzed the components, then cleaned and copied the runes on the swords.
The metal components of the ancient sabers and swords could provide assistance in Dragon City’s new cold weapons forging technology. These runes, combined with the surging of crystals, could greatly increase the power and range of cold weapons.
In another ruin, countless broken war machines were buried.
The shape of one wreckage resembled a six-legged crab armored vehicle made by Dragon City, but it was larger and more primitive than human rune machines.
The weapons attached to the remains still managed to make Meng Chao’s pupils shrink after thousands of years of erosion. Not to mention, the murderous aura of a fierce beast was being emitted from the depths of the machine.
It was as if… the machine was still alive.
Gazing deeply at the remains of the ancient war machine, the roar of the ancient war seemed to ring in Meng Chao’s ears. In a trance, he saw a picture painted with blood and flames that was a hundred times more magnificent and tragic than the Monster War.
“Is this… the ancient ruins’ summon?”
Meng Chao took a deep breath to calm down.
In order to divert his attention, he looked at the center of the underground space.
However, his attention was immediately taken away by something else.
In the middle of the underground space, there were no research facilities in an area of about one hundred meters.
On the contrary, a circle of heavy machine guns, anti-aircraft guns, spirit magnetic coils, high-voltage power grids, automatic fire catapults, and other defensive weapons were deployed on the periphery.
Judging from the airtight configuration of the inner three floors and outer three floors, the defense line was even tighter than the one deployed on the periphery of Dragon City to deal with the beast horde.
Behind the defense line, there was a group of special forces equipped with the most advanced Black Horn Armor. They were ready to fight.
Meng Chao sensed the vibrating vitality magnetic fields of the Black Horn Warriors.
It indicated that they were in a state of high alert and even a little fear.
It was as if they were surrounded by layers of defensive lines. Something was going to come up from the depths of the underground space at any moment and slaughter these individuals, who were armed to the teeth.
Meng Chao looked past the Black Horn Warriors and the layers of defensive lines before he saw a bottomless gap at the center of the underground space.
It was seventy to eighty meters long and twenty to thirty meters wide at its widest point. It was like an ugly reptile covered in tentacles that crawled on the ground and continuously spewed out faint black gas.
Above the crack were several lifting machines that looked like dragon door cranes.
There were also hanging baskets and lifting platforms that could transport humans or resources to the depths of the crack.
Around the crevice, more than ten meters away, four high drilling rigs had been erected. They were akin to four gigantic nails that were deeply embedded into the corpses of the ancient civilization.
“That’s the entrance to the ancient ruins?”
Meng Chao muttered, “It’s… spectacular!”
“That’s right. The space we are in is only the surface of the ancient ruins. There are several faults below this crevice. The horizontal crevices and caves all contain the secrets of the ancient civilization. This vertical crevice is extremely deep. At least, the equipment we use to probe its depths is far from reaching its limit. Perhaps, it doesn’t exist in our space. If we were to descend tens of thousands of meters, would we be transported to a brand-new world?”
Wu Haibo explained, “The ancient ruins now are much more desolate than they were twenty to thirty years ago. When the Supernatural Tower was just completed, the number of researchers and explorers here was ten times more. That was considered ‘spectacular’!”
“Is that so?”
Meng Chao looked around and saw many signs of facilities relocating. There were also many construction equipment that had been abandoned after completing their historical mission. There was indeed a sense of desolation. He could not help but ask, “Why?”
“Because those ancient mysteries that are easier to excavate and research have all been excavated and researched.”
Wu Haibo shrugged and said, “Many research projects have been moved to the surface. Dragon City University, the alliance of five universities, the other three research centers, and the laboratories of the mega corporations are going to carry out the research. No one wants to stay in this ghostly place, where they might encounter ancient monsters at any time or simply be attracted by the ancient ruins’ summon, only to end up becoming ancient monsters.
“Besides, the remaining immemorial relics are both difficult to excavate and highly dangerous. It’s also very difficult to replicate and study them. They’re all hard bones with little flesh and sharp thorns[1]. Nobody wants to gnaw on these hard bones before the immemorial mysteries have been fully explored.”
Meng Chao remembered that Battle God Lei Zongchao had said something similar.
He asked Wu Haibo, “I see. Has our exploration of the deep dive zone stopped?”
“It has stopped.”
Wu Haibo sighed and regretfully said, “As a researcher and explorer, there is nothing more unnerving than the mysterious treasure right in front of you. There is only one door between us, but we can’t open it. After all, the mountain is right there.
“But from Dragon City’s perspective, I also realize that our civilization is not qualified to continue exploring for the time being.
“The people of Dragon City are like a group of primitive people who have been fed with raw meat and blood. They are surrounded by fierce enemies. Just when their lives are hanging by a thread, they accidentally discover a highly advanced military base that has been sealed for thousands of years and uses nuclear power as its energy source.
“There are all kinds of weapons, production lines, research and development centers, and laboratories from the outside to the inside of this military base.
“There are ordinary handguns, rifles, sniper rifles, and heavy machine guns.
“There are also grenades, mines, mortars, and rocket launchers.
“There are tanks, armored vehicles, and attack drones too.
“Of course, not forgetting, bacterial bombs, poison gas bombs, incendiary bombs, various chemical weapons, and small tactical nuclear weapons.
“Ultimately, there may be information about the development of all the weapons, including theoretical textbooks about all the basic sciences as well as the nuclear reactors that keep everything running.
“Despite that, how far do you think we should explore this military base as primitive people?
“If it is just grenades, rifles, and rocket launchers that are driven by gunpowder, even primitive people who are ignorant and unaware of the chaos will be able to master them after paying a certain price.
“Even if something goes wrong, the most they can do is blow themselves up with grenades and shoot a few of their companions to death. At most, they can blow a hundred of their companions to the sky. To the entire primitive tribe, such a price is acceptable and worth it for the power of firearms.
“As for tanks and armored vehicles… if they are designed in a modular way and operated like idiots, it is not necessarily impossible for primitive people to master them.
“The primitive people might not be able to understand the principles of guns, grenades, and main battle tanks, on top of mathematics, chemistry, physics… all kinds of complicated knowledge…
“But that doesn’t stop them from knowing that these things, which spurt out flames and lightning with thunderous roars. They help them destroy all the wolves, tigers, and leopards; they are divine weapons bestowed upon them by the heavens or the creator.
“However, do you think that the primitive people should spend all their efforts to study bacterial bombs, nerve gas bombs, chemical weapons, and even tactical nuclear weapons?
“These tribes eat raw meat and drink blood. Regardless of whether or not the primitive people can figure out how to use the deadly weapons, which even if they do, do you think that it would be a good thing for them to control tens of thousands of nerve gas bombs? They could be triggered at any moment.
“Most importantly, there is the issue of energy.
“Energy is the starting point of all civilizations. No, all life. Without energy, there would be nothing. If you can control energy, you can control everything.
“However, this does not mean that primitive people should recklessly explore and research the nuclear reactors that drive the entire military base before the jackals, tigers, and leopards are wiped out. They have not even grasped physics at a junior high school level.
“For primitive people, as long as they are proficient in individual weapons, including tanks, armored vehicles, and attack drones, it is enough to slaughter all the wolves, tigers, and leopards or domesticate them.
“When it comes to the people of Dragon City, known ancient technology is enough to help us kill the monster civilization and turn all the surviving monsters into obedient biochemical pets. For the time being, that is enough, isn’t it?”
[1] figure of speech to show how tough the study is