Chapter 2324: Strange Underwater Phenomena
In the command center, the military's person in charge and the players were gathered around a projection, discussing where to re-enter the ruins. When they heard the door open, the conversation stopped abruptly. The relationship between the military and the Special Defense Department had eased considerably, but the military was still primarily in charge here. So when Jiang Qiao led Xu Huo in, everyone in the room temporarily paused their work.
"Get back to your business." Shangguan Jing, who had once had a conflict with Xu Huo, was the military's person in charge for this incident. Seeing Xu Huo again, he showed no trace of resentment. After instructing his subordinates to continue working, he invited Xu Huo to sit in the next room.
Xu Huo followed Jiang Qiao inside. Shangguan Jing had clearly already communicated with the higher-ups. Without much preamble, he opened and displayed the detailed materials compiled by the military.
"We've invested a lot of manpower and resources exploring beneath Hidden Immortal Lake, but we haven't gained much so far." Shangguan Jing said, "Many of our people have disappeared into the folded space and haven't responded yet. If it's convenient, I'd like to arrange for a few people to go underwater with you."
Xu Huo neither agreed nor disagreed, first carefully observing the materials.
The first version of the data showed that when energy fluctuations first occurred at Hidden Immortal Lake, there was a sizable ancient civilization ruin in the rock layer beneath the lake. The entire area was not small. Just surveying and entering to explore took the military a full three months. The ruins not only included a palace symbolizing royal power, but also an altar dedicated to the ancient civilization's gods and a dedicated sacrificial site. In addition, there was a burial complex built specifically for the royal family. Except for the burial complex, the military had entered and inspected every other area.
"Why didn't you enter the burial complex?" Xu Huo asked.
"A group of aquatic creatures has taken over the burial complex." Shangguan Jing opened a new file and projected some video footage into the center of the room. "These are all evolved fish. They are highly aggressive and can release a type of interference sound wave that can disrupt or even destroy our instruments and equipment. Coupled with their speed and attack power, entering is not easy. Furthermore, they have evolved a certain degree of poison resistance; common toxins have no effect. If we wanted to poison them all without much effort, it would likely affect the entire lake, making it unsafe for the players going down."
"Do they only stay in the burial complex?" Xu Huo asked again. "Are there similar evolved species in the folded space?"
"Not in the first layer." Shangguan Jing scrolled through the files, speeding up the playback. "Currently, our people have only entered the first layer. Even those who came out alive don't know exactly what happened inside."
Xu Huo saw the later data on the wounded. "Missing limbs? Doesn't look like a beast attack."
"It's indeed not a beast attack," Shangguan Jing said. "None of the injured people know exactly what happened. They felt no significant pain, just lost a limb in an instant. The wounds show signs of petrification, and there wasn't even any bleeding."
"Petrification?" Xu Huo was slightly surprised. "This doesn't seem like an ordinary instance attack."
The instances he had entered so far tended to be reality-based. Instances like the one Yuan Yao entered that could absorb human fat, or Yan Jiayu's Big Mao where stones turned into living creatures, were extremely rare. The only slightly unusual ones were the curator of the Hundred People Art Museum and the mutated plants in the Goddess instance that had gained human consciousness. Overall, they were still within his understanding of the upper limits. But petrifying a human body in an instant completely deviated from reality and entered the realm of mythology.
"In the mythological stories of many civilizations, there are legends about turning people to stone. The most famous is probably Medusa. We considered the possibility that evolution led to the birth of mythical figures, but the situation doesn't match." Shangguan Jing said, "The expert team's opinion is that it's more likely they experienced a million years in an instant within the folded space, rather than a genuine mythological resurrection."
After all, time evolution wasn't an absolute secret in the game. The high-level government of District 014 would first lock onto these extremely rare resources and wouldn't spare any effort in researching them. Time power could cause a person to rapidly turn to dust, so it wasn't entirely impossible that the folded space contained a space from ten thousand years ago.
Xu Huo was surprised by his candor. "And you can still continue the exploration under these circumstances?"
"If we don't figure out what's in our own backyard, and someone else gets their hands on it and uses it against us in the future, then we'll truly regret it." Shangguan Jing's expression darkened. "For the future, any sacrifice is worth it."
With that, he stood up, said "Excuse me," and walked out of the room.
Work outside resumed. Jiang Qiao closed the door, turned back to Xu Huo, and said, "Take a good look at these materials. I just don't know how much help they'll be."
The more Xu Huo read, the more alarmed he became.
Since the appearance of multi-layered space beneath Hidden Immortal Lake, there had been continuous energy fluctuations. The military had classified them based on their characteristics, totaling nineteen types.
In other words, the folded space might not be fixed, but at least nineteen different types of space had appeared. Whether they persisted continuously or appeared according to a set pattern was still unclear. Because the internal space was nested within space, it was no longer possible to obtain accurate information from outside the ruins. This data was bought with human lives.
The fate of the missing people was unknown, but the players who came out injured were mostly physically mutilated. Some were unlucky, and when their teammates forcibly brought them out, they were only half left...
The room was very quiet. Jiang Qiao stared at the materials, remaining silent.
"Were all the current casualties and injuries caused by the same type of power?" Xu Huo asked again after a moment.
"Except for the burial complex, that's the case in the folded space." Jiang Qiao replied. "After the folded space appeared, there were new changes on the burial complex side. The previous aquatic creatures all went into hiding, as if a new evolved species had been born. Players probed the entrance and detected a powerful life energy. The thing inside didn't come out. To avoid unnecessary complications, we didn't force our way in."
"So it's possible it was brought by the folded space?" Xu Huo said.
"It's hard to say." Jiang Qiao opened a document beside her and placed it in front of him. "Our instruments could still detect the appearance of the folded space, but we were completely unaware of when the thing in the burial complex appeared. We only sensed something was wrong when the other mutated fish suddenly changed their activity patterns."
"Currently, among the mutated species in the country, which ones have the greatest lethality?" Xu Huo asked instead.
"Mainly marine life. Animals that were originally large and aggressive in the deep sea have evolved the most significantly. On land, it's mainly beasts, generally showing obvious evolution in physical fitness, speed, and carapace. So far, there hasn't been a large-scale emergence of gene mutations into new species like in other districts."
"The only major change is in the snake species."