Chapter 2328: Entering the Ruins
"Then I'll thank you in advance." Nie Xuan downed the wine in his cup in one gulp, then asked, "What are your plans next?"
Xu Huo raised an eyebrow. "In what regard?"
"You should have a fixed base in other districts, right. District 014 won't be peaceful for a long time to come. Haven't you considered moving your family to another district for a while?"
This was actually the thought of many elite players. Now that it was convenient to relocate ordinary people, protecting one's family to the greatest extent was only human nature, and the government didn't interfere much.
"Not yet," Xu Huo said calmly.
Nie Xuan didn't argue. To him, indeed, most districts weren't truly safe, and outstanding abilities didn't always bring good things.
"There's another matter." He continued, "You previously commissioned the Special Defense Department to help you find clues about the Seventeenth Hospital."
"Players from the Special Defense Department occasionally obtain some delayed information, but when they go to investigate further, it's usually something that happened a long time ago."
"However, someone recently discovered a player who once established the Seventeenth Hospital. Over a decade ago, this person set up a psychiatric hospital called the Seventeenth Hospital in a district under a B-level wormhole point. Because too many people died in the hospital, it was shut down ten years ago."
"The person who established the hospital then moved to another district, doing shady work for the local government. I've looked at the files. Their methods were similar to what they did in District 014—using an authoritative identity to induce parents to forcibly intervene with their children. It might be related to the person you're looking for."
Nie Xuan handed him a recorder. "It's all in here."
Xu Huo took it and put it away.
After his fight with Zheng Yuci, he still had a puzzle ball she had given him. The clues inside were very likely the closest he could get to Dr. Zhang. Unlike Chang Bei's tactic of using others to kill, Zheng Yuci was another extreme—she didn't fear threats, she preferred to face them head-on. So it wouldn't be surprising if the puzzle ball contained Dr. Zhang's address.
But this was no longer his top priority.
What he needed to do now was, first, break the Water Cube's seal on his body, and second, find the "Food Guest" to obtain a further Perfect Evolution Potion and increase his evolution rate.
"I'll take a look when I have time."
Nie Xuan nodded, glanced at the lake surface, which was much cleaner than before, and gestured. "Want to go down and take a look?"
Xu Huo didn't say much. He put down his things and vanished from the lakeside.
The two dove underwater, slowly descending along the cliff face. After passing a naturally formed stone wall, the ruins lay deeper below.
The ruins weren't directly exposed. They had to probe deeper into the cliff. By now, no military players were working below—only some fully automated instruments were active.
Xu Huo also received information transmitted back by his robots.
"A thousand meters ahead is the first folded space. It's estimated to be packed with entrances. If we get any closer, our instruments will be interfered with," Nie Xuan communicated through the earpiece. "To measure, we'll have to rely on our hands and feet."
Xu Huo made a gesture, then checked the robot's data.
His robots had also been modified with the Platinum Eye, making them roughly equivalent to the highest-level detection instruments currently used by the military. So the results were similar—the ruins contained folded spaces, and they were unstable. At any given time, there were usually over a dozen of them, though it was uncertain if they were the same folded spaces persisting.
The military's elites had mostly fallen in the second folded space, less than two thousand meters from the entrance.
The first two thousand meters constituted the first layer of folded space, which overall looked like a flat mouth. To enter the ruins without damaging them, one basically couldn't avoid this area. Digging through from elsewhere was also nearly impossible, because the ruins were already part of the folded space, and the military didn't have such weapons.
Although the records stated that most missing players disappeared after the two-thousand-meter mark, according to the military's analysis, the first layer of folded space was equally dangerous. Those players whose limbs had petrified might not have actually entered the second layer—their blurred senses had simply caused them to lose accurate judgment.
Xu Huo and Nie Xuan arrived at the entrance. Looking at the narrow crack, covered in greenish stone spots like the mouth of a giant beast, they exchanged a glance in the murky lake water, then slowly stepped inside.
Despite being wrapped in protective items, the moment they entered, both felt a crushing pressure from all directions.
It wasn't water—it was a spatial force different from the outside.
Moving inside wasn't as easy as outside, so they walked slowly, able to clearly see the humanoid stone statues placed near the entrance.
According to the military's investigation files, many corpses had originally floated nearby. Because the water temperature was too low, the frozen bodies remained undecayed, possibly sitting there for decades or even centuries. Later, for convenience, they were cleared out one by one. As for the humanoid stone statues, they were originally deep in the ruins. When the forces inside fluctuated, some statues were pushed out and had been piled at the entrance, left untreated.
Xu Huo observed carefully. Those humanoid stone statues didn't contain any special power—they weren't the cause of the military players' petrification.
'Let's go deeper.' Nie Xuan moved over, patted his shoulder, and pointed inward.
Xu Huo nodded and didn't linger.
As they went deeper, the instruments they carried began to fail. First, the communication system for their conversation went out. Then the detection instruments. Next, their lighting instruments. The robots also stopped working. In the end, the only things still usable were their lighting items.
And even the range of the lighting items was extremely limited, because the two soon saw what it meant for "light to be cut off."
Just over ten meters away, the light from their lighting items hit a wall, as if folded. Taking the fold line as a boundary, the side near them was bright, while the other side was pitch black. It looked as if something had blocked it off, but they both knew there was nothing substantial there.
The scene was somewhat fragmented, like a video image cut in half, with one half blacked out.
Nie Xuan tried to manipulate space rays, but the limit he could feel was also at that boundary line. It was as if the space rays had reached their end, unable to advance another inch.
Xu Huo naturally felt it too. He raised his hand and pointed to the side, signaling to go around.
But just as they turned, an extremely faint presence suddenly brushed past them!
The two instinctively separated, simultaneously putting distance between them, and heightened their alertness to the surroundings. But that moment felt like an illusion—there was nothing in the water, not even a single fish.
This must be the unusual power of the folded space—fast and extremely faint, which was why the military players hadn't noticed it.
Just as Xu Huo decided to move forward, the same feeling came at him from behind. He reflexively controlled space rays, and the Water Cube barrier immediately formed in the middle. But that force was no illusion—it mixed with the undercurrent and pushed him deeper into the ruins!