Chương 44: Entering the Ruin

The entrance to the Fifth Biological Warehouse was quieter than Rowan had expected. There was no imagined stench of rot. The entire warehouse was half-buried between layers of gray-white sand and twisted ridges of rock, like the giant metal corpse of some forgotten age. Its outer alloy walls had long been scoured dull by wind and sand. Gray fibers like dried vines crawled across the surface, but the main structure remained intact. A few magic array lines could even be seen faintly, not yet completely extinguished.

"D3-grade semi-sealed ruin." Adams adjusted his mask. The contamination detection probe in his hand trembled slightly, pointing toward a pale blue reading.

"The Tainted Energy concentration outside isn't high. The protection array is still running at low power. At least this entrance area is stable." Carl grinned and hefted the folding heavy axe he had just taken out onto his shoulder.

"Sounds like good news." Adams glanced at him.

"It is. The bad news is that places like this usually aren't safe. The danger is sealed inside. It just hasn't leaked out yet." Logan said nothing. He only removed a shield plate from his back and locked it onto the outside of his left arm. His job was clear: protect the rear line, especially Syringe and Adams. Solly stood at the front of the team and looked up at the alloy door, more than ten meters tall. The door itself had no obvious handle, nor any modern mechanical lock.

It looked as if a whole slab of metal had grown out of the wall, with fine dust packed into every seam. But the real thing blocking their way was not the ancient door. It was the faint silver array pattern on the ground in front of it. That was the seal left by the Explorer's Association. Syringe crouched down and took three short nail-like magitech devices from his backpack, each as thick as a thumb. He drove them into three nodes along the outer edge of the array.

"Don't step on the lines," he reminded them without raising his head.

"This thing is disposable, but if someone messes it up by stepping on it, it'll mark all of us as illegal intruders." Carl lowered his head and glanced at the silver line by his foot, then clicked his tongue.

"Those bloodsuckers from the Explorer's Association really don't forget to take their cut, even at the door."

"You can choose not to take the mission," Syringe replied while connecting the cables.

"Then pry the door open yourself, go in, come back out, and get skinned in turn by the Association, the Republic patrols, the Resource Registration Bureau, and three different Consortiums."

"In that case, I prefer letting them take their cut first," Carl immediately changed his mind. Rowan stood in the middle row, his gaze resting on the Association seal. This thing was not physical hardware. It had no exposed ports, and no mechanical structure that could easily be corroded by wind and sand. It was more like a magic array written into the ground and the air in advance. It remained asleep most of the time and would only awaken briefly when someone approached.

Syringe opened his portable terminal, and a pale blue light screen unfolded before him. He entered the mission spell-code Solly had obtained from the Explorer's Association. The next second, the silver array pattern on the ground lit up. Lines of cold text emerged in the air, as if carved into the dust by an invisible hand. [Warning: This is a ruin registered with the Explorer's Association.] [Ruin ID: Seventh Abyssal Hive Outskirts, Fifth Biological Warehouse.] [Mission Grade: D3.] [Entry by any individual without mission authorization will be treated as illegal excavation.] [Removing any unregistered samples, materials, devices, or other resources will be treated as appropriation of registered assets belonging to the Association and the Republic.] [Any individual who causes Tainted Energy erosion or contamination leakage through unauthorized damage to the protection array shall bear joint cleanup costs.] Carl stared at the last line, his cheek twitching.

"They even make us pay the damn cleanup costs? This is a D3 mission, and they're still this stingy?" Adams smiled.

"If you turn a semi-sealed ruin into an uncontrolled ruin site, of course the Association will make you pay. If it worsens into a Tainted Nest Zone, you could work yourself to death and still not cover the debt." Rowan quietly remembered those two terms. Uncontrolled ruin site. Tainted Nest Zone. In Terra, "ruin" was clearly not a simple word.

A place only qualified as a ruin if its protection array was still intact, its resources could still be recovered, and external Tainted Energy had not yet invaded on a large scale. Once the protection array collapsed, Tainted Energy from the wasteland would pour in, contaminating the preserved samples and life-support systems together. At that point, an exploration mission would become a cleanup mission. Or even a lockdown mission. The Fifth Biological Warehouse before them was right in the middle.

It had not fully gone out of control. And that was precisely why a lower-level exploration team was qualified to come into contact with it. Syringe's fingers moved quickly over the terminal.

"Captain identity confirmed."

"Mission team confirmed."

"Team members confirmed." Thin strands of silver light rose from the seal array, each as fine as a strand of hair, connecting to the chests of the team members. Rowan lowered his head toward the point of connection. It was where the Citizen Personal Magitech Chip was located. [Authorization granted.] [Team ID: Abyss Stimulant.] [Mission objective: Preliminary exploration of the outer layer of the Fifth Biological Warehouse.] [Mission Grade: D3.] [Recording coordinates...] [Exploration marker written into outer-layer supervision protocol of Citizen Personal Magitech Chip.] Syringe reminded them, "This is the Association's exploration marker. It doesn't directly monitor your body. It only writes a one-time mission record into the outer layer of your Citizen Personal Magitech Chip. After we return, we need to take the mission record, sample list, and site playback to the Association for verification. Once the verification is complete, the marker will be cleared."

Logan asked in a low voice, "What if someone hides something?"

"Depends on what it is," Syringe said.

"Ordinary material? Fine. Registered resource? Confiscated. High-risk sample? Exploration license revoked. If whatever they bring out causes an accident..." If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it. He paused.

"Then it won't be the Association coming for them." Solly raised his hand and cut off the conversation.

"Enough. Syringe, local network."

"Setting it up." Syringe took six thicker green signal spikes from his backpack and threw them one by one toward the area before the door and the walls on both sides. After landing, the signal spikes unfolded automatically. Tiny supports stabbed into the metal seams, and a ring of faint green light spread outward.

"External signal cut off," Syringe said.

"The Association marker is still active, but real-time transmission won't get through. From here on, all records can only be stored locally. We upload them after we get out."

"So, whatever happens inside, the Association can't see it right now?" Carl raised an eyebrow and smiled. Syringe gave him a helpless look.

"You really shouldn't say that like it's good news." Solly did not laugh. He only glanced at Grey Raven at the rear of the team. Grey Raven was still wrapped in that loose black robe, his face hidden under the shadow of his hood. Since arriving at the ruin, he had spoken even less. But Rowan noticed something about his position. He was not at the very front. Nor was he at the very back. He stood slightly to the side in the middle-rear section of the formation.

From there, he could support the front line, observe everyone, and be the first to break away from the formation if things went wrong. Buzz— After the Association seal completed authentication, the silver light screen gradually contracted. A moment later, a thin beam of light dropped from the center of the seal array and landed on an array node on the old alloy door. It was not the Association seal opening the ruin. It was passing the mark of "legal entry" to the protection array on the outer layer of the old door.

The alloy door, silent for so many years, began to tremble. Dust packed into the seams fell in streams, like dry snow. A low grinding sound came from within. It did not sound like a modern hydraulic axis. It was more like an ancient array dragging an entire slab of metal with the last of its remaining mana. Cold air flowed out through the gap. The smell could almost be called clean. It carried a faint sweetness of medicine, the scent of metal dust, and the cold breath left behind by old preservation fluid.

When the door opened, a wide entrance passage was revealed. The walls on both sides were still lit by weak old-style magitech emergency lights. The floor was dry, the dust evenly settled, with no signs of large-scale biological activity. Syringe threw out two fist-sized floating scout orbs. The scout orbs rose silently and hovered in front of the team. Thin observation slits opened across their surfaces. Last came four spider probes. Each probe was only the size of a palm.

Once they landed, eight thin legs unfolded, and they crawled through the open door. Adams stepped forward and activated his detector.

"Air is breathable. Tainted Energy concentration below warning line. Protection array remnants stable. No obvious corruption spores." Solly nodded.

"Formation." Everyone moved at once. Carl took the front, heavy axe hanging at an angle, responsible for first contact. Logan stayed in the middle-rear, shield plate half-deployed to cover the flanks of Syringe and Adams. Syringe controlled the floating scout orbs and spider probes, continuously building the internal map. Adams followed behind Syringe, in charge of contamination detection and medical support. Grey Raven stood on the right side of the team, silent as a black shadow.

Rowan was placed slightly left of the middle row, responsible for mobile reinforcement. Solly stayed in the center of the formation, ensuring he could see everyone. The formation was professional. At least, it was far more professional than the temporary scavenger teams Rowan had seen in the lower hive zones. They entered the passage. As the last person crossed the threshold, the Association seal at the entrance flickered faintly. Rowan glanced back. The door did not close.

But he had a feeling that from this moment on, they had already been recorded by something. In resource-starved Terra, even adventure had to be stamped with someone else's seal first. The entrance passage was not long. After they advanced a few dozen meters, the view opened up. They arrived at the first outer warehouse. It was much larger than Rowan had imagined. The dome was three stories high, and countless aging pipes hung from above.

Along both walls stood rows of transparent preservation covers, each with its own small life-support array beneath it. Some arrays had gone completely dark. Inside those covers, only dried roots and shattered bone fragments remained. Others still glowed faintly green. The plants inside were still alive. They were strange plants Rowan could not name. Some had leaves like translucent blue membranes, with tiny points of light flowing through their veins.

Some had roots coiled into the shape of a heart, contracting softly every dozen seconds. Some flower buds were completely closed, their surfaces covered in scale-like crystal powder, releasing faint mana fluctuations under the life-support light. Carl whistled.

"Now this looks like a D3 mission." Solly's eyes also brightened slightly, but he did not rush to let anyone harvest them.

"Adams." Adams immediately stepped forward and used a fine needle to draw a little air from the outer layer of one preservation cover.

"Low contamination. Life-support array still active. Don't break the cover directly, or the sample may die from the external mana-pressure change."

"Syringe, number them."

"Already recording." The floating scout orb rose slowly and projected the structure of the entire warehouse onto the local map. The spider probes climbed onto the walls and moved quickly through the gaps between preservation covers, assigning temporary numbers to each group of samples. At Solly's signal, Logan walked to a row of preservation covers whose arrays had already gone dark and carefully removed the outer locking clasps. His movements were not crude.

Although he looked like a heavily armored brute, he clearly knew what could be smashed and what should not be touched.

"Crystallized bone plate," Adams said after examining a translucent bone fragment.

"Preservation is decent. Rustwater should be willing to buy it." Carl grinned.

"We risk our lives, and those bastards get rich." Solly smiled.

"They also pay." Rowan stood before a preservation cover that had not fully gone dark, watching what was inside through the glass. It looked like some kind of vine. But the ends of the vine did not have leaves. Instead, they were lined with tiny barbs. At the base of the barbs were translucent tubular tissues, like some kind of weapon interface. Rowan activated AR scanning. Pale blue lines quickly covered the inside of the preservation cover. [Low-activity plant sample.] [Structural abnormality: terminal tissue possesses piercing, adhesion, and fluid-injection functions.] [Suspected non-natural product.] Rowan frowned slightly. This was probably not an ordinary medicinal herb. It looked more like plant tissue designed as some kind of living tool. He looked at another cover beside it that had already gone dark. Inside lay a shriveled animal forelimb. The bones were well preserved, but the claw tips were not natural keratin.

They were three nested layers of thin blades, and faint mana reactions still remained along the blade edges. At that moment, Carl's voice came from up ahead.

"There's still something good preserved on this rack." Everyone turned. It was a half-collapsed sample rack. The outer preservation cover had cracked open halfway, but the internal array film was still running. The film looked like a thin layer of waterlight, barely wrapping around three green fruits the size of fists. Carl reached out to pry it open.

"Don't touch it." Grey Raven suddenly spoke. His voice was not loud, but Carl's hand stopped in midair. Carl turned back toward him.

"What?" Grey Raven did not explain much. He only took out a slender black tool from beneath his robe. It looked like a scalpel. There were no obvious markings on its surface, only a few dark lines slowly lighting up along the metal shell. Looking at the tool, Rowan suddenly felt a trace of familiarity. He seemed to have seen something similar somewhere before. Grey Raven placed the black probe near the edge of the array film.

The tip of the probe trembled slightly, and the film parted slowly like combed strands, opening a narrow gap.

"Anti-disassembly protection array," Grey Raven said.

"If you had forced it open just now, the preservation fluid inside would have carbonized instantly, and the fruits would have been ruined." Carl's expression turned a little ugly.

"You actually know this stuff?" Grey Raven did not answer. Solly spoke for him.

"I didn't invite him just to add another fighter." Rowan's doubts deepened. If Solly had known Grey Raven was good at handling high-risk samples, why had he not explained that to the team before departure? And if this was only an ordinary D3 ruin mission, why did they need someone this specialized? Grey Raven removed one green fruit from inside the array film and placed it into a preservation box. Syringe immediately recorded the number. Adams confirmed contamination levels. Logan sealed the box.

The entire process was smooth, like a small industrial assembly line. The gains from the outer warehouse were higher than expected. Within half an hour, they had collected seven low-contamination plant samples, three crystallized bone plates, two jars of preservation fluid that still retained activity, and over a dozen recyclable fragments of array structures. The caution on Carl's face faded a little under the weight of the earnings.

"If the rest goes this smoothly," he muttered, "this one trip could be worth three months of cleanup missions."

"Don't jinx it," Adams said while sticking a temporary label onto a jar of preservation fluid. The moment he finished speaking, Syringe's expression changed.

"Wait." On the local map, the spider probe at the very front sent back footage. At the end of the deeper main corridor, there was a containment door that had been damaged. The door was much heavier than the sample covers in the outer warehouse, and its surface was covered in array patterns that had already failed. At the center of the door was a crooked tear ripped open by some tremendous force. The edges curled outward, as if something had once smashed its way out from inside. Syringe enlarged the footage.

Incomplete text appeared before everyone. Most of the writing was already blurred, but a few lines could still be made out. [Chimeric Armament Containment Unit] [Sedation sequence must be completed before opening.] [Do not release restraints while life-support array is in low-power state.] The warehouse fell silent. Carl cursed under his breath.

"Chimeric armament? That doesn't sound like a normal mana-beast." Solly looked at Syringe.

"Any life signals?" Syringe operated the terminal quickly.

"No. At least the probe isn't reading any living heat source, and there are no normal breathing fluctuations." Adams took the data and looked at it for a few seconds.

"So there's nothing inside?" Logan asked. Syringe frowned.

"According to the readings, yes." Solly remained silent for a moment before finally speaking.

"We don't touch that door for now." Carl sounded regretful.

"Boss, we're already here. Not even a look?"

"Clear the outer layer first," Solly said, his tone leaving no room for argument.

"Take what we can secure first. Don't rush straight to the deepest area the moment we enter." Rowan quietly looked toward Grey Raven. Grey Raven was also looking at the image of that containment door. The shadow of his black hood hid his face, and Rowan could not see his expression. But Rowan could feel that Grey Raven was not surprised by the term "Chimeric Armament." Syringe recalled the spider probe and prepared to continue mapping the area.

The floating scout orb slowly turned toward another normal warehouse zone. The team moved again. No one entered that corridor. After the probe left, in the darkness behind the damaged containment door, deep inside a huge half-cracked life-support pod, a tiny bubble suddenly emerged. Glug. The bubble drifted upward through the cloudy sedative fluid. Then it broke soundlessly.