Volume 5: Bottomless Sinkhole Chapter 233: Bottomless Pit
Ke Lan can still clearly remember the news footage he saw on the hospital TV screen - the collapsed glacier, the collapsed mountain, the crescent-shaped tiankeng filled with a large amount of white dust...
This is actually an S-level relic?
The information merchant "ACMS_0420" in the forum had tried to sell the information about this relic to me before, but at that time I had already accepted the commission from Leviathan, so I didn't pay attention to the news in this regard.
At that time, according to the data from laser ranging, the depth of this tiankeng was more than two thousand meters... From this point of view, the location of the twin ruins should be directly below the original "A-087" ruins, which is much deeper than the location explored by Ke Lan and others before.
"Why is this relic classified as S-level? What did the advance team find inside?" Ke Lan couldn't help but ask.
"They..." The Hound stared at the screen and swallowed hard, "They found traces of what appear to be prehistoric creatures... at a depth of 400 meters in the tiankeng."
"Primitive species? There's a primitive species down there?" Leighton suddenly jumped up from his chair, and the mechanical structure on his body made a strange "cracking" sound.
After experiencing the Leviathan incident, everyone was more or less "allergic" to the term "primitive species" - although Hound had planned to name the hunting group "primitive hunting group", in fact, they all knew in their hearts that in front of the primitive species, which could almost subvert the laws of nature, humans were too weak, and the power of an individual could almost be ignored...
If there really was a primitive creature lurking beneath this bottomless tiankeng, they would definitely not choose to take on this task.
Only those who have truly witnessed the horror of this creature can deeply understand the despair and powerlessness.
"No... the biological detection device did not find any signs of life under the sinkhole... they only found traces..." The Hound's expression eased a little, and everyone else breathed a sigh of relief.
"That's strange. If it were just traces left by the ancient species, why wouldn't the people from the rating committee classify this relic as S-level?" Ke Lan asked with some confusion.
When he dived into the underwater city, he had seen similar "traces" in the underground facilities of the deserted island. He was sure that a primitive creature had been "imprisoned" there... But the problem was that the danger level of that place was not that high. The only two threats were probably the underground maze and the seeds of erosion. However, the former often appeared in many C-level and B-level ruins, while the latter was completely defeated by stalagmites and the active cells of flesh-eating worms.
Although the vast majority of relic hunters have never come into contact with the Seed of Corrosion, and are not even aware of the existence of such monsters, the rating committee is definitely aware of this information - monsters like this that have restraints will not be regarded as "major risk factors" by the rating committee and the relic level will not be significantly increased.
The advance team must have other discoveries inside the ruins.
"Uh...wait a minute, I'm buying detailed paid intelligence."
There are three historical exploration records of the S-018 ruins "Bottomless Sinkhole". As this newly emerged S-level ruins has attracted the attention of a large number of hunters, the detailed contents of these three exploration records have risen to a price of nearly 10,000 credit points.
However, compared with the average revenue of hundreds of millions each time from these three explorations, these nearly ten thousand credit points are just a small amount. Ke Lan noticed that these contents have been purchased more than one thousand four hundred times... In other words, at least fourteen hundred hunting groups or lone hunters have spent nearly ten thousand yuan for this information.
"It's really... very popular." Ivan couldn't help but sigh.
"Look... this is the first time we've explored and obtained spoils!" said the Hound, pointing at the screen. In the photo were nearly a hundred stone tablets of varying sizes. These tablets were sealed in translucent ice, but from the photo, it was impossible to make out the contents on the tablets clearly.
"These steles were found on the walls of the tiankeng, with depths ranging from 150 to 200 meters. They were cut from the ice by hunters using lasers..." When the Hound said this, he looked at Ke Lan meaningfully - everyone present knew what was in his sight very well: since Ke Lan possesses the ability to decipher the Alpha language, as long as he can decipher the contents on these steles, then this relic will have no secrets for them. It is no exaggeration to say that this is a home ground specially tailored for their hunting group.
The second photo shows dozens of relic hunters wearing engineering power armor, using the transport plane hovering above the sinkhole as a fulcrum and hanging themselves into the sinkhole with steel cables. They hold stable brackets equipped with explosive bolts and small laser cutters in their hands, while the wall of the pit on the other side is covered with square cuts.
"Old Dog, enlarge the photo - I want to see the details of the pit wall." Ke Lan said.
"Yeah." The Hound nodded, dragged two fingers lightly across the screen, and the photo was instantly magnified several times.
Although the photo became blurry due to pixel limitations, they could still see that there were more stone tablets sealed deep in the cuts in the pit wall.
The first few groups of hunters who entered the tiankeng were limited by the power of their handheld equipment and could only take out the stone tablets in the shallow layer. As for the stone tablets deep in the ice layer, they would probably have to use large drilling equipment like the "Lance of Longinus".
" It seems that the number of these stone tablets is astonishing... If we are sure to choose this relic, we have to speed up. The longer we delay, the less valuable these things will be." Leighton said.
The Hound flipped through a few more pages, but the content of this record file basically only contained photos of the stone tablets that had been taken out, actual photos of the cutting operation, and a few related videos. Other information was pitifully scarce.
"Damn it... Didn't these hunters encounter any guards at the ruins? Even if there were no guards... there weren't even any traps? Why does it feel like two completely different styles from the ruins No. A-087? Back then, we were almost killed by those traps." The Hound said indignantly.
"Perhaps the collapse of the glacier destroyed the mechanism in the ruins?" Ivan guessed.
"No, in my opinion... this information should be incomplete." Ke Lan shook his head. "If there is no danger, it cannot be rated as S-level just because of the huge number of stone tablets... Moreover, the introduction mentioned the traces left by the primitive creatures, but this exploration record does not mention it at all. Don't you find it strange?"
