Volume 5: Bottomless Sinkhole Chapter 260: Double Lunar Eclipse
"Sorry, I was a little too..." The hunter named Martin said awkwardly, "In my memory, there seemed to be an explosion and an avalanche at the end..."
"Memory? At the end?" Ke Lan narrowed her eyes. "Don't you remember what you just dreamed about?"
"Dream? What dream? Do you mean when I was unconscious?" Martin said in astonishment. From his very natural expression, it can be seen that he should not be lying.
Ke Lan and the Hound looked at each other and nodded - it seems that the mental attack of the bottomless pit is not a "covering attack". Like Martin and Qin Zhao, they were obviously not troubled by nightmares, they were just stunned.
"Can you two tell us what exactly happened? Also, where is this place? Could it be... could it be that we are at the bottom of the tiankeng?" Martin looked around the stone chamber in panic, while Qin Zhao, who was standing next to him, was much calmer. She lowered her head, not knowing what she was thinking about.
"We don't know where this place is, but it's probably not far from the tiankeng." Ke Lan said, "As for what happened before, the exile convoy attacked the observatory and your Polaris camp. The explosion triggered an avalanche. We were affected just like you and fell into the tiankeng. When we woke up, we were already here."
"In other words, we were moved into this stone chamber by someone?" Qin Zhao raised his head, frowned slightly, and asked Ke Lan.
"It should be, but it's hard to say whether the person who moved us was a 'human'."
"Then let's find a way to leave here now. I feel that if we stay here, we will be in great danger!" Martin said quickly.
"We also want to leave here, but there is no exit here." The Hound shrugged.
"No exit? How is that possible? Then how did we get in?" While Martin was still shouting, Qin Zhao had already walked into an adjacent stone chamber. Her voice came over from the next room: "Are all these stone chambers the same?"
"Nine rooms in total, all identical," the Hound replied. "Don't waste time. We've already checked them countless times."
"Are we trapped here to death?" Martin looked a little dejected. "When I fell from the pit wall, I thought I was dead, but I didn't die... I didn't die, but I couldn't live even if I wanted to..."
He knelt on the ground, raised his head, and said with a sad face: "I don't want to die... I'm still a virgin, and there are still many things I want to do but haven't done yet..."
Hearing his sigh, the Hound suddenly burst into laughter. He turned his head to look at Ke Lan, but was glared back at by the latter.
"We are trapped to death, but not completely." Ke Lan looked at the watch, "There are still twenty-five minutes left, and the mechanism in the stone chamber should be activated."
"Mechanism? What mechanism?" Martin was suddenly shocked when he heard that there was hope of getting out, and he stood up and asked.
Qin Zhao also quickly returned to the stone chamber, staring at Ke Lan with burning eyes.
"Not sure. The only clue we have is the 'double moon eclipse', and the nearest double moon eclipse is still twenty-four minutes away." Ke Lan replied.
"Wait and see what - I advise you not to be too happy too soon, no one knows what will happen then... maybe nothing will happen." The Hound added.
"Why is it a double lunar eclipse?" Qin Zhao stepped forward and asked, "How did you get this clue?"
"This involves commercial secrets. You are a member of the Polaris Hunting Group, so we can't tell you." The Hound said, and suddenly showed a wicked smile, patting the holster on his waist, "Of course, if you really want to know, I can tell you... But after I finish, I will kill you. How about it? Do you want to be a seeker of knowledge who is willing to die if he hears the truth in the morning?"
"I don't want to know. I don't want to know at all. Please don't tell me!" Before Qin Zhao could say anything, Martin had already taken the lead and lay on the ground. He closed his eyes tightly and covered his ears with his hands, for fear that he would accidentally hear the "trade secrets" from the hound's mouth.
"Well... forget it." Qin Zhao looked timid and shook his head slightly.
After all, they were just a group of rookie hunters with little experience. They were too green in front of Ke Lan and the hounds.
"Twenty more minutes." Ke Lan said lightly.
The hound walked over and pulled up Martin, who was lying on the ground. The latter was so frightened that he trembled, thinking that he was going to be silenced.
"Why are you so cowardly? How dare you come to explore the S-level ruins when you are so cowardly?" The hound was so angry that he slapped the other's butt hard.
"Because... because... they said... this relic is not dangerous, the casualty rate is almost zero, and the people who died all fell down due to operational errors... I... that's why I came..." Martin said timidly, "They also said that this relic might be downgraded soon, so I should come here quickly before it's downgraded... This way, the reward will be much higher, and I can also add an S-level exploration qualification to myself... They said this opportunity is rare..."
His articulation was not very clear, but Ke Lan and Hound still understood the general idea. Hound sighed and shook his head reluctantly: "Who are 'they'? People from the Polaris Hunting Group?"
"No, it was someone I met at the Hunter's Gathering and the bar. They said they had a reliable connection and would ..."
"It seems like he's been sold out and is still helping others count money." The Hound said, "You've all been deceived. It's true that not many people died in this ruins, but more than half of them went crazy after returning. I guess they didn't tell you this, right?"
"Crazy, crazy?" Martin was stunned and asked in disbelief, "What's going on?"
"Mental attack. There should be some device in the ruins that can launch mental attacks on people who enter the tiankeng. This kind of mental attack cannot be detected by human senses. Anyone who is attacked will fall into a nightmare and be unable to extricate themselves..." Ke Lan said.
"So, that's why you asked us if we had any dreams just now?" Qin Zhao said.
"Yes." Ke Lan did not intend to hide this matter. After all, this was a dispute between Qin Zhao and others and the Polaris Hunting Group and had nothing to do with them.
"Then they...Cao Feng and the others, were they subjected to mental attacks?" Qin Zhao looked at the people lying on the ground.
"Three of them can be confirmed to have been attacked mentally, but I have injected them with dream date preparations and neutralizing agents, so they will not be in any danger for the time being." Ke Lan said, "The only problem is that they have to last for a full twelve hours... Oh, no, based on the injection dosage, it may take more than twelve hours."
Ke Lan gave them another shot later, so by this calculation, Cao Feng, Ivan and Asano Akira's sleeping time will be extended to more than twenty hours.
"What about the others?"
"They should just be unconscious..."
Before Ke Lan finished speaking, Layton had already sat up from the ground, mumbling dazedly, "Where... where is this? Wait! Didn't I fall into a tiankeng? Old dog? Ke Lan?!"
"Stop shouting, they're all alive." The hound walked forward, kicked Leighton in the butt, and then pulled him into a stone chamber next to it.
There are some things that Qin Zhao and Martin must not know... Otherwise, according to what the Hound said, they will have no choice but to be silenced.
Not long after, Zhuo Ligetu also woke up. Through communication, we learned that neither Layton nor Zhuo Ligetu had any nightmares... or rather, they had completely forgotten about it.
Ke Lan glanced at the watch again. There were only two minutes left before the "double moon eclipse".
At this time, Qin Zhao suddenly spoke up: "Um... can you give us our weapons? In case of any unexpected situation, Martin and I can provide you with some support."
"Support?" The Hound glanced at Martin who was standing behind Qin Zhao. "If something unexpected really happens, are you sure this kid won't accidentally hurt one of his own people in his panic?"
"No, no, no, I can't..." Martin explained hastily, "I got full marks in the shooting subject in the recruitment assessment for Ruin Hunter..."
"It's a good thing that you got full marks in shooting, otherwise I doubt you would have passed." The Hound complained, "With your mental state, it's useless no matter how good your shooting skills are... Shooting at a target is completely different from shooting at a monster that's rushing towards you."
"Monster...Senior, have you ever encountered a monster in the ruins? What do those monsters look like?"
"That's a lot..."
Just when the hound wanted to brag, Ke Lan interrupted him: "Don't brag now, there are only 30 seconds left."
After that, Ke Lan turned around and said to Layton quickly, "Layton, give the guns back to them. If something really jumps out, we can't spare any manpower to protect them. We have to let them have some ability to protect themselves."
"Hey, go ahead." Layton threw two pistols in holsters to Qin Zhao and Martin. "Newbies, remember one thing, never point the muzzle of the gun at your own people, even when the safety is off!"
He only gave each of the two men one magazine. In Layton's opinion, if one magazine couldn't solve the problem, having a few more magazines would not help either, especially for such an inexperienced rookie.
The purpose of giving them guns is to give them courage rather than self-defense.
"Five seconds." Ke Lan stared at the pointer on the dial .
Everyone held their breath involuntarily. They felt that the last five seconds seemed to be extremely long. The slender second hand seemed to be stuck with glue and did not move for a long time.
…
"It seems like nothing happened?" The Hound said softly. He held the gun tightly with both hands, raised his head, and looked at the ceiling above his head cautiously.
"Shh... there seems to be some sound." Ke Lan made a gesture to keep quiet. The next second, his expression suddenly changed, "It's the sound of water! It's the sound of water!"
Although there were no cracks or holes on the floor of the stone chamber, a large amount of clear liquid actually came out directly from the floor and in a blink of an eye it had already covered everyone's feet.
"Lift the man who's lying on the ground!" the hound shouted, "and put him on the stone platform!"
The liquid soon reached the height of Ke Lan's chest, almost flush with the surface of the stone platform. Just when Ke Lan was worried about how he would solve the breathing problem after the stone chamber was filled, the water level finally stopped rising.
"It seems to have stopped." Martin couldn't help but say. He glanced at Ke Lan and the others, "We...what should we do?"
"Let's test the composition of these liquids first." Ke Lan nodded to Leighton and said.
"...This stuff is real water. According to the analysis results, it contains a certain amount of mineral impurities, but it is not toxic, has no radiation, and no parasites or other microorganisms have been found... In a sense, it is cleaner than most of the water sources on Alpha Planet and fully meets the fourth-level drinking standards."
"Can I drink it?" The hound was stunned for a moment, and couldn't help but scoop up a handful of water and put it in front of his nose to smell it.
"Just filter it a little and you can drink it." Leighton nodded.
"But this is not the key point. The key point is... where does the water come from?" Ke Lan said in a deep voice, "It is impossible for the small gap at the connection of the stone chamber to reach such a flow rate."
"You mean... maybe a certain passage has been opened, and the water is pouring in from this passage?" The person who spoke was Qin Zhao. Ke Lan couldn't help but look at her more - although this young girl was an intern hunter, she was calm in the face of things and her thinking and reaction speed was also very fast. If they could get out alive, they could consider recruiting her into the God Hunting Group.
After all, a consortium-level hunting group can't always rely on the six of them. If they want to make it stronger, they must absorb fresh blood, and Qin Zhao is a good candidate.
In comparison, the guy named Martin behaved like most rookies.
"Yes, so I suggest that everyone spread out and look for the entrance to this passage... The duration of the 'Double Moon Inner Eclipse' is less than four minutes. After this node, the passage may be closed. We must hurry."
As he spoke, Ke Lan took out a breathing mask from his equipment bag and put it on his face: "Old Dog, take Layton and Zhuoligetu in that direction--"
He pointed at Qin Zhao and Martin: "You two, follow me."
…
The water was not turbid and the visibility was not bad - but since there was no light source in the stone chamber, it was entirely dependent on flashlights for illumination. It was difficult to see the underwater scene through the water surface, so Ke Lan could only dive into the water and swim forward while checking the underwater walls and ground with lights.
As for the part above water, it was handed over to Qin Zhao and Martin who did not have breathing masks.
