บท 17: The Ruins
บรรณาธิการ: Nyoi-Bo Studio
In a small open-air campsite, Cooper was shouldering the responsibility of the night watchman.
All of them had gone through genetic enhancement, so they only needed to sleep two hours a day to meet their physiological needs.
At this moment, Cooper was reading an old manuscript in his hand with a flashlight.
This was the secret left to him by his father before the latter passed away. It recorded his exploration experience of an ancient ruin.
Cooper had no idea when his father had joined such a private expedition team, but according to the records, his father was the only one who had returned alive with the manuscript.
After that, his father went into seclusion and barely communicated with the outside world. Even Cooper himself rarely saw him.
But even so, an abnormal fire still took his father's life, and all his belongings were burned to nothing, leaving only this manuscript that Cooper had been repeatedly told to carry with him.
Cooper felt that there was a vast and terrifying secret waiting for him to discover.
He put the manuscript back in his arms, and his keen senses suddenly sensed that something seemed to be approaching the camp.
He immediately became alert and stared at a patch of grass in the distance. With the extraordinary vision he had obtained after genetic enhancement, he could clearly see that something was stepping on the grass and gradually moving toward him.
"Something's coming!" Cooper immediately sounded the alarm, waking up the people who were sleeping.
The professor was the first to roll to Cooper's side. He lowered his body and quickly noticed the abnormal marks on the grass. His pupils immediately constricted with shock.
"Hurry up! Pack up! Get ready to run!" After their experience with the giant spider, they no longer dared to be careless about any abnormalities on this planet.
Even though they hadn't seen anything yet, they still decided to leave as soon as possible.
While they were running, the young man who was always bickering with Cooper couldn't help but ask, "What's that?"
"We couldn't see it with our naked eyes. We could only see it through its steps on the grass, which means that it is completely invisible. On top of that, the alarm we set up in advance didn't work, which means that our current detection means are ineffective toward it. This is obviously a mysterious existence that has exceeded our technological level. Could it be a native of this place? Or other extraterrestrials? Or an ancient unknown creation?"
Cooper quickly shared his thoughts. At the same time, he had already come up with the idea of some kind of alien creature that could be completely invisible.
The running professor was also thinking about the current possibilities from his decades of experience, but none of them could match the current situation.
He couldn't help but turn around to take a look, and what he saw made his heart jump.
A mysterious thick black fog was surging out from all over the mountains and fields, coming toward them overwhelmingly. In the black fog, the professor could vaguely see some terrifying unknown existence rolling and surging.
The knowledgeable old professor showed a rare expression of fear.
Life always had a fear of the unknown. If what appeared in front of him was some kind of ferocious animal, he would not have felt such deep fear. After all, no matter how ugly such animals were, they were still living creatures. They were organic and could be recognized.
But now, this black mist that seemed to be able to devour everything was completely beyond his knowledge. The old professor, who had maintained a materialistic worldview all his life, felt a sense of chaos.
"Hurry up! We need to find a place to hide!" He immediately shouted without any grace, his old face twisted and full of fear. It was hard to imagine that an old professor would show such an expression.
The rest of the people were shocked by his abnormal state. But when they turned around to look, they all revealed looks of fear as well, wishing that they could use all the strength in their lives to escape.
But how could one find a safe hiding place so easily?
In the end, everyone turned their eyes to an ancient ruin not far away.
Countless debris and ruins were buried deep under the soil, surrounding the giant building in the center.
It was like an upside-down pyramid, the tip of which was inserted into the ground. At the root of the building was a door that could be passed through.
The thick tower looked up into the sky. It was like a platform for docking spaceships, but also like a beacon, waiting for the arrival of those being guided.
"That's the only place we can go! Even if there are more dangers inside the ruins, we must first survive the present!"
Everyone understood this logic and finally managed to run into the ruins before the black fog caught up to them.
Following this, they saw that the originally menacing black fog instantly slowed down a lot, seemingly afraid of this place. However, it seemed unwilling to let them go so easily either, and was eager to enter the ruins.
Seeing this, everyone's heart couldn't help but tremble. They quickened their pace and finally disappeared into the ruins.
The black mist hesitated for a long time. After confirming that no one came out from the ruins, it slowly dissipated.
During this process, a figure stepped on the grass. Starting from its feet, it slowly left its invisible state.
This figure was a synthetic humanoid with full-vision stealth technology. Its controller, Li Wenyuan, exclaimed, "Tsk, tsk, this technology is quite useful. I didn't expect to be able to create such a wide range of holographic projections. The living standards of people in that era were really unimaginable..."
Of course, he was not referring to the full-vision stealth, but another technology on the technology tree.
[Moving Holographic Theater]
[Technology level: 3]
[Introduction: The popular holographic technology has pushed entertainment to a new height. At this point, everyone will be able to create their own fantasy empire.]
[Possible technology: Planetary holographic network (1.2%), holographic temple (0.9%); mirror universe project (0%)]
The black fog that had covered the sky was actually an illusion created through projection.
It was hard to notice the abnormality of such a realistic projection without personally experiencing it. No wonder the group of aliens had been easily scared.
"So this is the ruin they entered..." Looking at the huge inverted pyramid, Li Wenyuan's eyes revealed a light of interest.
He had explored most of the ruins on the planet with his synthetic humanoids, and some of them were extremely dangerous.
The inverted pyramid in front of him was one of the safer ones. At least, Li Wenyuan didn't encounter any danger inside, but he didn't find anything either.
However, he didn't believe that it was empty inside. He must have not found a suitable way to get the items.
After all, if there was nothing in the ruin, could it still be called a ruin?
"Perhaps... Can this group of aliens surprise me?" The synthetic humanoid's eyes glowed as it turned invisible again and entered the ruin.
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