Chapter 3089: The Undersea Nest
"In your opinion, what exactly is the district government looking for?" Xu Huo asked again.
The man smiled with a hint of longing. "It's definitely Dr. Wu's formula for the Perfect Potion."
"Primordial Stones, Perfect Potions—none of them are as important as the formula. If Dr. Wu is here, it must be because the raw materials for the potion are here. If someone could figure out the formula, no district in Zone 025 would be able to match the status of an A-level wormhole point!"
Xu Huo didn't say anything more. If the district government was searching so aggressively, it was impossible for not a single word to leak out. Even if they kept things strictly confidential, as long as Dr. Wu was involved, everyone would naturally guess in those directions.
Looking at it that way, it was hard to tell what was true and what was false.
He noted down the map and gestured for the other man to leave.
The man looked at him with uncertainty, not believing he would be so kind. But Xu Huo had already turned and leaped onto a nearby building, showing no intention of staying.
After waiting a while longer, the man finally emerged from the workroom and hesitated before daring to actually leave. But he hadn't gotten far when a spatial force pierced through his head, and he collapsed to the ground without a sound.
The several players hidden nearby dispersed one by one after the body fell.
Following the map's directions, Xu Huo located the area near Mining Shaft No. 3. He didn't recklessly break through the blockade barrier. Instead, he found a suitable spot nearby and entered the mining shaft from underground.
The mining operations were all machine-run, so the tunnels were quite spacious. Aside from fresh footprints near some of the ore pits, most areas were covered in thick dust, untouched by anyone.
Even after being mined, there were still plenty of good ores in the underground tunnels. The district government and companies probably looked down on these low-value ores, so they were scattered everywhere in the tunnels, and there were even designated dumping spots—piles of worthless ore and dirt stacked together, ignored by everyone.
Xu Huo went over to take a look, then continued deeper along the tunnel, entering the underground passageways dug by the company.
Some of the tunnels that went straight down to the seabed connected with the mining shafts, allowing one to pass directly from one end to the other. However, some of the elevators in the tunnels were damaged or dismantled, and others had discarded machinery thrown into them. The first tunnel he chose was blocked for several hundred meters, making the descent troublesome.
The next two tunnels were the same. What was surprising, though, was that some tunnels had large excavators stuffed inside. Logically speaking, even damaged equipment like that wouldn't be treated as scrap, yet several of them were wedged at the turns.
Xu Huo went down to take a look and found claw marks beneath the machines. He pried off a white tooth embedded in one of them—it was nearly as long as a palm, probably a canine from some kind of mutant beast.
Judging by the size of the tooth, the mutant beast's body couldn't have been small. If such a large animal was burrowing and living underground, the city above couldn't possibly have been built. And since there were no claw marks in the other tunnels, could it have come in through the seabed exit?
Just as he was about to continue descending, a faint roar came from deep within the tunnel, followed by a rustling sound—like a large mass of things climbing. Soon, a swarm of pitch-black mutant rats charged up the tunnel, their glowing red eyes flickering in the darkness. In the blink of an eye, they were right in front of Xu Huo.
The defense barrier kept the rat swarm at bay. He initially thought they would just pass by and continue up the tunnel, since he was protected by the barrier and no different from the machines stuck in the tunnel. But unexpectedly, the rats kept gathering outside the barrier, eventually forming a large ball and rolling him directly toward the depths of the tunnel!
When they came up, they climbed along the tunnel walls at a controllable speed. But carrying Xu Huo down like this was like a ball rolling through a curved tunnel—there was no stopping. And they were still several kilometers from the seabed exit. Falling all the way down like that, not to mention the rats, even a human couldn't withstand it.
During the high-speed descent, they inevitably collided with the tunnel walls. The mutant rats outside the barrier were constantly crushed to death and tumbled downward, but more mutant rats kept emerging from below, quickly plugging up the tunnel. Then the rat swarm started retreating from the tail end, dragging the rat ball wrapped around Xu Huo down with them.
Meanwhile, the mutant rats wrapped around Xu Huo kept gnawing at the barrier. They couldn't bite through it, but their bite force was clearly nothing to scoff at. So many mutant rats living in the underground tunnels, yet not a single one seen in the city—that was strange.
But soon he understood why these rats didn't go up to the surface. The rock layer beneath Challenge Island near the seabed had become their nest. It was riddled with holes and passages in every direction, looking no different from a hollowed-out giant sphere.
To prevent seawater from flooding in, the company had built a pressure chamber at the bottom of the tunnel. The pressure chamber was still operating normally, and Xu Huo watched as the mutant rats lined up in batches, queuing up to enter the pressure chamber and leave the tunnel.
He was at the tail end of the line, with several dozen larger mutant rats bringing up the rear.
Animals were all intelligent, just not as obviously so compared to humans with wisdom. After the game world evolved, many plants and animals were also evolving. They no longer relied solely on foraging and reproduction to drive their groups, but would consciously train themselves—like a special society with different values from humanity.
Xu Huo soon sank into the seawater and was dragged and pulled about three thousand meters away into a large pit.
This place was probably the center of their nest, with a pile of newborn pups inside.
When Xu Huo arrived, the adult rats in the group were feeding the pups fish they had caught. The pups, which looked only palm-sized, were huddled together one second, then swarmed around the fish beast the next. The sounds of tearing and chewing lasted only a few seconds before the pups scattered, leaving behind nothing but a stripped skeleton floating in place.
Then, the hungry pups all turned their heads in unison to stare at Xu Huo.
Xu Huo had seen enough. He manipulated the space barrier to gradually expand, pushing away the mutant rats nearby and all the water in the nest from his position. But since he was underwater, the space he could expand was limited, so he had to move while making his way out of the nest.
The mutant rats treated the fish beasts in the sea as food, and of course, the fish beasts treated them as food as well. Nearby, several large sea beasts were constantly hunting the mutant rats that drifted out. Among them was a sea beast whose teeth resembled the ones left in the tunnel earlier. It looked more like a lizard in appearance, but its teeth and claws had evolved to be exceptionally sharp, and it was very fast.
"Bang!" A sea beast slammed into the space barrier. Finding that it couldn't get past this empty space, it immediately turned around and rammed again. This time with even more force, it was bounced back. Whatever its brain was made of, after two consecutive failures, it swam farther away and then accelerated for another charge!