Chapter 118: The Ancient Sanctuary

"......" Everyone fell silent. You get tired from reading, so you switch to archaeological materials to rest your brain?

Wasn't this the legendary "a hacker who doesn't want to be a biologist isn't a good archaeologist"?

Most infuriating of all, the female academic genius apparently also knew electronic repair and mechanical machining—she was the one who fixed the particle disruptor last time, and Xia Youyou's strong-magnetic gloves were also designed and manufactured by her...

"Would you guys hurry up and decide already!" Xia Youyou, who was blocking the front together with Bai Yuxi, yelled, "If we delay any longer, this cave is going to be sealed up by rat corpses!"

"Let me say this first! Even if you kill me, I'm not crawling over a pile of dead rats!"

Alright, everyone was used to being intellectually crushed by the female academic genius, and they trusted her wide-ranging knowledge. Since she said it wasn't an ancient tomb, then ten times out of ten it probably wasn't. They didn't fear the living, so why would they fear the dead?

"Go in!"

"Fortune favors the bold!"

"What if it's like last time, and we all skip a grade collectively?"

Chicken Leg decisively made the call: "Even if we run into danger, it's worth it!"

At the thought of leveling up across the board, everyone felt a surge of heat in their hearts. Even knowing full well that entering the cave could very well bring danger, they still couldn't resist taking the risk.

Bai Yuxi took point, with Chicken Leg and Jason guarding his flanks. In the middle were Su Xiaoke, protected by Xia Youyou and Willie, while Luo Fei and Maya brought up the rear.

With Bai Yuxi clearing the way, everything in their path was swept aside.

The over-limit combat skill "Particle Bombardment" seemed almost inherently suited for this kind of environment—a corridor reminiscent of ancient architecture.

Although his "One-Five Shield" was merely a defensive combat technique, against mutated rats with a danger rating of only around F0.1, the energy oscillation generated by outputting over thirty degrees of X-energy was more than enough to blast them into oblivion.

Moreover, the X-energy consumption of the "Thousand-One-Two. One-Five-One-Five Style. Shield" was almost negligible for Bai Yuxi.

A loss of 1/1000° unit of X-particles wasn't even enough to fill a blink of his eye before it would automatically recover on its own in the hyper-aggregated state!

In other words, as long as his body could withstand it, he could keep blasting nonstop for an entire day, and the X-energy in his body would still remain at full capacity!

Furthermore, the One-Five Shield covered an extremely large area—the oscillation of its fifteen-ring energy was enough to blanket the entire cross-section of the corridor. That was a much larger defensive area than the square shield in Chicken Leg's hands or the small round shield Jason carried!

The only thing Bai Yuxi needed to worry about wasn't the mutated rats breaking through his defense, but whether this cave, which delved deep into the mountain, might collapse under the energy oscillation!

Fortunately, although the ancient corridor inside the mountain was already battered and worn, it seemed to have been carved out on the basis of a naturally formed cave. Hidden within the mountain for who knows how many years, it still remained quite intact—so it didn't seem like collapse was a concern.

They blasted and killed their way forward, and before long, the group had penetrated several hundred meters into the mountain. Although the path twisted and turned, judging by distance, they had already left the range of the hill where the D24 sniper position was located and gone deeper into the more interior regions of Hualan Mountain...

Based on her distance estimates, Su Xiaoke concluded that they had even passed through a barrier wall formed by an energy field set up by the LDH from underground!

No wonder, under such layered lockdown, large numbers of mutated rats were still escaping the blockade of the over-limit warriors, slipping in and out to the outer perimeter of Hualan Mountain.

It was dark inside the cave, but at least the thick fog no longer obscured their vision. After everyone activated the low-light illumination devices on their bodies, the data goggles on their faces began to function again. With a glimmer of refracted light enhanced by the high-gain brightening adjustment, their vision was essentially no different from daytime.

After passing through a rugged stretch of underground karst caverns, they finally began to encounter branching paths ahead.

But after some deliberation, in order to avoid danger befalling the understaffed Seventh Squad, everyone decided it was better not to split up for exploration. According to horror movie logic, once you split up, something bad usually happens.

After going deeper into the mountain and passing through several sizable caverns, the facts once again proved the female academic genius's speculation correct.

This really was an ancient refuge used by people of old to escape natural and man-made disasters. In some of the drier caves, they discovered pottery, earthenware jars, and other daily-use items.

Clearly, the ancients who once lived near Hualan Mountain had stumbled upon this cave system reaching deep into the mountain and converted it into a sanctuary.

The only pity was that they hadn't found any treasure—just some grain stored in earthen jars, which had long since rotted to the point that even the rats wouldn't eat it.

Signs of human activity only appeared in the first half of the cave system. Although caves continued beyond that point, they were either too difficult to pass through or too complex in environment. The ancients had feared getting lost in there, so they hadn't dared to venture deeper.

Now, however, cracks that had once been entirely impassable had been chewed into a riddled network of holes by the mutated rats.

The rat holes that were too small were naturally impossible for Bai Yuxi and the others to get through, while the slightly larger ones weren't suitable for human passage either... it wasn't like they could crawl through on their hands and knees like rats, after all.

The group discussed it and decided to take the risk of exploring the natural caves a little further. After all, with the 3D map simulation function on their information terminals, they didn't have to worry about not finding their way back.

But as they went deeper and deeper underground, everyone noticed that the number of mutated rats they encountered was climbing sharply. Even their individual strength was starting to increase, and their size was growing larger!

This was a clear sign of evolutionary differences caused by varying lengths of exposure to X-particle contamination.

When the size of the mutated rats they encountered jumped from that of a house cat to that of a stray dog, the danger rating also rose sharply from F0.1 to around F0.5!

For the members of the Seventh Squad, this was already enough to threaten their safety, and they had no choice but to stop their advance deeper.

Bai Yuxi, no matter how formidable, was only one person. It was difficult for him to protect everyone in the squad all around, especially Su Xiaoke, a non-combatant.

For the female academic genius's safety, Luo Fei began to consider whether they should first send Su Xiaoke back to camp.

"Haven't you all noticed?"

Unexpectedly, Su Xiaoke shook her head in refusal. Pointing at Bai Yuxi, who was still fighting at the front, she asked, "Has Xiao Bai's 'effect field' activated again?"

Everyone was taken aback. Only then did they notice that the ultra-active energy levels within their own bodies were steadily rising!

Although each individual mutated rat provided only an extremely faint amount of aberrant energy—and most of it was absorbed by Bai Yuxi at that—the sheer number of rats he had blasted was simply too great. Under the 100% lossless conversion effect of Bai Yuxi's "effect field," everyone sharing this "cheat" had gained no small benefit.