While repairing the vehicle, Xiao Han reflected on the problems exposed during the battle.
His current combat style was primarily sniping. The best tactic was kiting, but his movement speed was not particularly fast. So he should build some gadgets to increase his mobility.
Powered legs were a decent option, but Xiao Han found them too bulky. With his current level and knowledge, he could build something more flexible and new.
He felt he could further refine his combat style, such as assembling a squad of robots to provide fire support and compensate for the slow fire rate of sniping.
Anyway, mechanics mass-produced their own gear, self-sufficient, filling whatever gaps existed.
After quickly fixing the vehicle, Xiao Han drove the Thorn back to the Phironia entrance, following the coordinates marked on his radar. He immediately spotted a trail of footprints extending to the edge of the hole and disappearing. After a moment's thought, he knew the wanderers had gone down first.
An ordinary person might have worried about someone else getting to the treasures first, but Xiao Han thought this was actually better. They could clear the path for him.
He stood at the edge of the hole and peered down. The rock face was layered. At the boundary between sunlight and darkness, he could vaguely make out rusty metal extending downwards.
"The rock face shows signs of artificial excavation. There's a fishy smell in the air... rust. I haven't seen this place before. Let's go down and have a look."
Xiao Han gathered his equipment, held a torch in his mouth, and climbed down the rock face, occasionally shining the light below.
As he moved further from the surface, the sunlight gradually faded. He noticed that the rock face curved.
Soon, the sunlight was gone. Total darkness surrounded him, with only the torch as his sole source of light. The eerie atmosphere put Xiao Han on high alert. A faint chill seemed to appear out of nowhere, clinging to his thoughts. He had to slow his heartbeat to ease the tension.
After about three minutes of climbing, the torchlight finally illuminated the ground below. It was a hollow metal floor, covered in dust, with thick cobwebs filling the gaps, untouched for a long time.
Xiao Han dropped down with a thud. The echo carried far into the distance, sounding hollow and unsettling in the pitch-black environment.
The space around him was vast and deep. The torchlight was like an isolated island in a sea of darkness. Faint rustling sounds came from the shadows, as if the sound of his landing had attracted the attention of some unknown presence.
He swept the torch around. He was in a metal corridor, resembling the architecture of a base. Reinforced concrete was everywhere. The walls were covered in yellowish-green rust and oxidation, with strange, soft worms crawling through the corrosion.
Dust covered the hollow metal floor. A fresh set of footprints extended forward, presumably left by the pilgrims who had gone ahead.
There was likely more space beneath the hollow metal floor.
Xiao Han turned the torch down towards his feet and saw the sight below.
Through the gaps in the metal floor, countless dense, red compound eyes stared silently up at him in the darkness.
"Holy shit!"
Xiao Han's scalp went numb. He quickly withdrew the light and marked the lower level as a no-go zone.
He carefully followed the pilgrims' footprints forward. The surroundings were deathly quiet, with occasional faint rustling sounds of creatures moving. When he listened closely, the sounds vanished. It was deeply unsettling, making him tense up involuntarily.
After walking for some distance, he came to a fork in the path. The pilgrims' footprints disappeared into the right branch.
Just as he was hesitating, hurried footsteps echoed from the right corridor, as if many people were running in panic, approaching rapidly.
Xiao Han quickly ducked into the other branch, turned off his torch, and put on the night-vision goggles from the Farian supply.
"Quick! Run!"
"Monster!"
The pilgrims stumbled out of the corridor in panic, as if fleeing from some unspeakable horror. Their clothes were stained with blood, and their numbers had dwindled.
"What are they running from?" Xiao Han wondered.
Suddenly, from the other branch of the fork, a low, beast-like growl echoed. It was hoarse, heavy, like the sigh of a giant, reverberating with a deep hum. Just hearing it made Xiao Han's blood surge and his chest tighten. He was secretly alarmed.
"This is a high-level beastly pressure, definitely over level forty!"
The pilgrims' faces were filled with terror. They scrambled backwards on their hands and feet, as if fleeing from some unspeakable horror.
But the monster did not seem to come out. The pilgrims slumped to the ground, their expressions those of people who had narrowly escaped death.
That monster made no sound when it moved. Xiao Han noted that.
"Joel was eaten by the monster... waaah..."
"This place is too terrifying."
The old pilgrim trembled, his spirit broken. "This isn't Phironia. There's nothing here for us. Let's get out of here. We need to find the real ruins."
The legendary magical ruins should have been filled with mystery and ancient grandeur, carved with incomprehensible runes, built primarily from stone. But this was just a man-made steel base. On the walls, he had seen the emblem of their lost nation. This was one of the old nation's secret military bases.
The pilgrims fell silent. A young man spoke up. "Maybe this is the real Phironia. Our nation found the ruins and built a base here to study the treasure of the desert."
The treasure of the desert. The legendary treasure of Phironia, said to control the Somar Desert.
The old pilgrim shook his head bitterly. "Impossible. If the old nation had possessed the treasure of the desert, how could it have been destroyed?"
"This isn't the place we're looking for. The real Phironia ruins are still hidden somewhere in the desert!"
The old pilgrim said firmly.
The pilgrims helped each other up and left.
Xiao Han listened to their discussion and finally resolved some of his confusion. As far as he knew, there was no magic on Blue Planet. The so-called miracle of the desert treasure was most likely just the effect of some kind of technological weapon.
But people always had an inexplicable faith in mysterious things they did not understand, clinging to unrealistic fantasies. It reminded him of a story: when a flood came, a man prayed on his rooftop for God to save him. God sent a boat, but the man just waited for a miracle.
He did not understand why the pilgrims were so convinced that Phironia was connected to magic. But it did not seem to concern him. Or was this another hint for a hidden quest?
Steadying himself, Xiao Han waited until the pilgrims had gone before stepping out. He stood at the fork, hesitating.
The pilgrims had revealed that there was a monster on the right. Dangerous. But the left was unknown, possibly even more dangerous. How to choose?
"Going by experience, these pilgrims are acting as dungeon guides. They've pointed out the monster on the right. That's a clear sign. But it could mean two things. First, a warning not to go right because of the monster. Second, a deliberate misdirection to make me go left..."
Xiao Han gritted his teeth and chose the right. The unknown was more terrifying than any monster. He still remembered those countless red eyes below. If he ran into those, he would be in for a world of hurt.
He put on the electrothermal cutting gloves, ditched the torch, and used only the night-vision goggles. He entered the right corridor. The world was a dull green, barely enough to see the way ahead.
On the ground, there were massive footprints, different from human ones. They were probably from the monster. The prints showed two legs and five toes. Based on human proportions, the monster was about three metres tall.
After walking for a while, he came to a room with its door open. The monster's footprints ended at the entrance.
Xiao Han crept to the door. A foul stench hit him—like rotting meat, mixed with a hint of fresh blood.
He peered inside.
A pair of eyes, large as bells, stared down at him from above, barely half a metre away.
Xiao Han's hair stood on end.