Volume 5: Bottomless Sinkhole Chapter 232 The Eighteenth S-Class Relic
"Not counting the underwater city where exploration progress has been temporarily stalled and hunters are currently restricted from going there, there are now a total of 17 ruins that are rated S. Excluding the three super ruins that once reached the SS level, there are only 14 left for us to choose from."
None of the known S-class ruins have been explored to a degree of more than 50%, so this restriction can be completely ignored. The only thing that needs to be paid attention to is the value of the spoils. According to the standards given by the hunting group's office, the minimum threshold must reach a total of 40 million credit points - generally speaking, as long as it is an Alpha civilization technological product with technology related to the institute's hot topics, it can basically be worth this price. If some new technology can be discovered, it can easily be valued at hundreds of millions.
"What's this place like? Ruins No. S-011, 'Floating City of Deval', exploration level 29.8%, comprehensive survival rate 44.76%, average return rate 29.983 million. Although the return is a bit low, at least the survival rate is the highest among the fourteen S-level ruins. As long as we can find some good things and exceed this average return rate, the mission will be completed." Layton said, pointing to an item in the ruins list.
"The literal data cannot explain the problem." Ke Lan shook his head and vetoed Layton's proposal. "I have had an idea about this floating city before, and I have also spent money to buy relevant information from certain channels. This relic should be the high-end residential area of the Alpha civilization. It is suspended 860 meters above the Hazam Plateau by an anti-gravity device. The largest proportion of the spoils excavated are the daily necessities of the Alpha people, followed by the structural components of the floating city itself. The gravity technology related to it has almost been figured out by the research institute. The value of both is not very high."
Ke Lan continued, "Moreover, the relatively safe outer city areas have been almost completely plundered by the major hunting groups. If you really want to gain something, you must go deeper into the city. However, due to the damage to the core anti-gravity device, the central city area of Deval has been split into hundreds of independent floating plots. These floating plots are shrouded in countless chaotic gravity fields that are invisible to the naked eye, and these gravity fields can change at any time. If you take a wrong step, you may be torn into pieces or crushed into a meat paste..."
Ke Lan pointed at the data in Layton's hand and said, "Layton, you can look through the detailed exploration records of the S-011 ruins, and you will find that these data have not changed for several years. This is because in recent years, no hunters are willing to go there, because there is nothing to be gained in safe places , and going in is even more dangerous than the other S-level ruins."
"It's true... The most recent exploration record was 37 months ago. The explorers were the 'Pathfinder Hunting Group' under the 'Morgan Consortium'. There were zero casualties, but the profit was only a pitiful 12 million..." Layton scratched his head awkwardly.
"The reason why Ruins S-011, 'Floating City of Deval', is rated as an S-class ruins is because no one can enter the central city alive. Its actual exploration value is only A-class at best." Hound commented, "I feel that even among A-class ruins, there are many richer ones than this one."
"What about this?" Layton immediately found the second target, "S-005 ruins, 'Gray Forest', exploration level 39%, comprehensive survival rate 40.95%, average rate of return 45 million..."
Before Layton finished speaking, Zhuoligetu interrupted him directly: "I have been to the Gray Forest with several large hunting groups. The only thing that can be exchanged for money there is the biological samples of mutant tree monsters. The more valuable the sample, the stronger the tree monster. Those large hunting groups directly use mechas equipped with heavy weapons to crush it... I remember that the most valuable sample of the harvest was sold for more than 30 million. The source was a tree monster covering several acres. Although those large hunting groups were fully prepared, they still lost more than half of their mechas. The casualty rate of hunters like us who were temporarily hired to assist was about one-third... Exploring that place depends on the number of people. If there are not many people, you will be swallowed up by this man-eating forest before you go far."
"I don't like that place either," the hound added. "The trees there all look like ghosts, and you can't tell which are real trees and which are tree monsters that will suddenly attack... The most annoying thing is that those trees are not afraid of fire and can't be lit."
"If these two don't work... then the combined survival rate of the remaining S-level ruins is below 40%. And just looking at the description and the casualties recorded in the previous explorations, you can tell that they are a bunch of tough guys, even harder to deal with than these two ruins... Huh?" Layton suddenly let out a surprised cry, which immediately attracted everyone's attention.
"What's wrong? What's the fuss?" the hound rolled his eyes at him and asked.
"There's an extra S-level ruins?" Layton said with a stammer. "There have been so many big events recently that even big news like this has been suppressed!"
"The 18th S-class ruins has appeared? It has been confirmed? Could it be a mistake made by those 'experts' in the rating committee?" Hound snatched the tablet from Layton with some disbelief, and immediately saw an extra line of information at the end of the list - "Relic No. S-018, 'Bottomless Sinkhole '."
There is no "tentative" in front of the number, which means that this relic named "Bottomless Sinkhole" is indeed the genuine eighteenth S-level relic.
"My goodness, when did this relic appear? " The Hound couldn't help but raise his eyebrows. For a newly discovered S-level relic like this, the casualty rate during the initial exploration is undoubtedly extremely high, but from another perspective, this period is also one of the peaks of yield - the relic yield curve is generally like this: it is the highest when it is first discovered, and then as the exploration rate gradually increases, the yield rate declines all the way. After the core area is breached by hunters, the exploration yield will reach a second peak due to the high-value loot in the core area.
For newly discovered ruins like this, Ke Lan and his team don't need to go deep into the dangerous ruins. They only need to explore the outer areas to accumulate spoils worth 40 million credit points.
"I think this is good and we can study it." Ivan said.
But when the Hound clicked on the detailed information of the ruins, the people sitting around the table were all stunned.
This bottomless tiankeng, numbered "S-018", is exactly the twin ruins that were exposed after the collapse of the "A-087" glacial ruins that they explored!
