Chapter 693: 693

When he mentioned this bizarre and unfathomable maze, Battle God Lei Zongchao’s facial muscles twitched again.

For an instant, Meng Chao felt his vitality magnetic field become incredibly unstable, and his figure became blurry as if he was about to split into different versions.

Fortunately, after he took a deep breath, he became stable again.

Lei Zongchao recollected himself and continued, “The process of exploring the ancient ruins is similar to diving deep into the sea. The farther down you dive, the greater the pressure you have to face.

“When you’re more than ten thousand meters under the sea, you’ll face a pressure that’ll make you feel like a few hundred thousand elephants are standing on needles that are piercing you. They can completely flatten main battle tanks, and motorized armor that can withstand head-on blasts from rocket projectiles will be as brittle as aluminum cans.

“The mental stress you face deep in the ancient ruins will be similar to water pressure. The farther down you explore, the greater the mental stress you face. Your mental strength index can plummet at any moment, and your mind will break.

“With the current human technology and cultivation realm, our exploration limit is five hundred to one thousand meters underground.

“The explorers who explore this region are like divers who dive in the deep sea. They’re known as deep explorers.

“Deep exploration is the most dangerous occupation in Dragon City. The difficulty is one hundred times greater than hunters facing an Apocalyptic Beast head-on. They might face unidentifiable and undefendable mysteries at any moment when they’re more than one thousand meters underground.

“What’s even more terrifying is that once they reach the maximum depth, the deep explorers will often hear mysterious voices and see fragmented images in their heads. Those voices are like bewitching songs from sirens that call them to continue going down the ancient ruins.

“Then, they go 1,500 m, 2,000 m, 3,000 m downward…

“If exploring as far as five hundred to one thousand meters underground is already something that is highly dangerous to the deep explorers, then going farther down will only ensure their death.

“I once teamed up with a deep explorer, and we explored the area eight hundred meters underground in the ancient ruins. In the end, this teammate of mine heard a mysterious call and stumbled down a crack that went diagonally downward, and he ended up in a spot more than one thousand meters underground.

“At that time, all the deep explorers carried a safety harness mixed with crystal powder and monster bone powder. It’s soft and sturdy. When we noticed that this teammate had disappeared down the crack, we risked everything and dragged the rope back. We’d rather have him heavily injured while we dragged him back. At the very least, he’d still be alive.

“But it was already too late.

“It took us five minutes to drag this teammate back from the crack, and by then, he had already turned into stone.”

“What?” Meng Chao was dumbfounded.

“Stone…?”

“More accurately speaking, he was a stone statue. He looked alive and vivid. The statue’s facial expression, physical details, and even the creases on his clothes were the exact same as the person we knew. Even the safety harness was still bound on him. It was untouched.”

Lei Zongchao’s eyelids twitched, and fear laced his voice. “Meanwhile, his facial expression was eternally frozen during the moment he met something that caused him great fear. I had never seen someone display fear so perfectly, and you just wouldn’t dare to think what he had seen during those short few minutes he was lost in the crack.”

Pain stung Meng Chao’s brain.

He had seen countless dazzling images, and they had all been the horrific images of the extraordinary beings in the Other World.

He had to admit that compared with the extraordinary beings in the Other World, the “monsters” were really pretty and harmless.

Were the existences deep in the ancient ruins more terrifying than the extraordinary beings in the Other World, or were the ancient ruins connected in some way with the extraordinary beings in the Other World?

Lei Zongchao continued, “That deep explorer is still lucky. At least, he turned into a stone statue in an instant. Aside from experiencing momentary fear, he should not have experienced more torture and suffering. But that might not be the case for other deep explorers.

“Some deep explorers were enticed by the calling in their head, and they never came back after they crawled deep into the underground cracks. No one knows whether they went straight to hell or not.

“Some of the deep explorers managed to escape after much struggling, but their minds were broken. They’re constantly dancing madly and singing something that no one understands.

“There are some who appear healthy and have their minds intact. They also passed their mental tests, and their mental strength indexes are always between eighty to one hundred and twenty. They can return to normal human society, but no one knows that they’ve already turned into ticking time bombs. Once they explode, they will turn into the most terrifying lost people. They enter spirit energy deviation, face complete destruction of their humanity, and commit horrifying crimes.

“After countless tragedies and watching so many outstanding young adults with bright futures ahead of them encounter accidents during the exploration, as well as crying while we subjugate them and even kill them, the scientists and powerful people in Dragon City came to a unanimous conclusion: the ancient ruins one thousand meters underground is not a place that we can explore and analyze for now with the current technology from Earth. We should seal it and leave it for smarter and stronger descendants.

“Right now, the main exploration and research area for the ancient ruins research center are the regions within five hundred meters underground.

“Even the ancient technology contained in the regions closer to the surface are not something that we can fully absorb in an instant. Many of the advanced technologies remain a mystery to us. We can use them and replicate them, but we can’t decipher their principles. There is a difference between our fundamental sciences, after all. Perhaps we will need three hundred to five hundred years, an astronomical amount of funds, and countless geniuses before we can close the gap and catch up to the ancient civilization.

“Unfortunately, time, funds, and geniuses are things that we lack at present.

1

“The current Dragon City is still surrounded by powerful enemies, and while we face the crisis of possible destruction at any moment, we need to become stronger practically. We need weapons and cultivation plans that we can use the moment we pick them up, not ancient secrets that remain vague to us.”

Meng Chao nodded.

He could understand that.

Even if they expanded their forces of power to the entire Monster Mountain Range, Dragon City still faced a lack of resources. The pie was limited, and should someone have a larger slice, then someone else would have a smaller slice.

If the funds for the development of the super armored airship increased, then the funds for the controllable transmigration technology would decrease.

The development of the super armored airship seemed like the correct choice, and they could control it. They could obtain results the moment they poured loads of funds into it.

As long as they equipped a large number of super armored airships and sent them out of Monster Mountain Range, they could get one hundred times the resources for Dragon City, so the return on investment was really high.

That was why the nine mega corporations were willing to invest in the super armored airship project. However, the uncertainty in controllable transmigration technology was too great, and the resources they used were too great.

Even though being able to freely traverse between Earth and the Other World sounded like a great idea, no one knew whether it was just a fantastic idea, and they did not know when it was ever going to come to fruition either.

This chapter is scrapped from readlightnovel.org

If the research failed, the huge number of funds and resources would all go up in smoke.

It was not just a problem of the investors suffering a major loss.

In fact, it might lead to the Survival Committee’s finances breaking down and delaying Dragon City’s footsteps in expanding outward. They would miss a rare period of time where they could gather blessings all over the place!

Hence, the nine mega corporations and the Survival Committee always had a lukewarm attitude toward the controllable transmigration technology project. Plus, the team itself had to gather most of its funds for itself.

Meanwhile, controllable transmigration technology was already one of the more practical technologies among all the ancient technology they uncovered, and it was the one that humans could somewhat understand.

Something in your hands was always worth more than something that did not belong to you.

Since the current ancient technologies were already enough for Earthlings to spend a long time exploring them and the capital, as well as risks of exploring the ancient ruins further, were just too high to bear, the most logical choice for them was to seal it for the time being.

Lei Zongchao said, “If you want to observe the ancient ruins and train there, I can be your guarantor and get a pass that has higher authorization. You can move around freely within the shallow area of three hundred to five hundred meters underground. After decades of exploration, we can ensure your safety somewhat when it comes to exploration in that area.

“But I must say this first, the danger of entering deep into the ancient ruins is really high. As you advance to every level, you must receive relative tests and training. Even so, we still can’t fully guarantee your safety.

“If you really start hearing strange sounds, see bizarre images in your head that keep telling you to explore further, and become bound by some mysterious force in the end, thus turning you into a monster that is no longer human, we will not hesitate to kill you. It won’t matter even if you’ve gained countless achievements and you are the youngest blood medal bearer in Dragon City. In fact, I will personally kill you so that you can have a swift death.

“After understanding all of this, do you still want to explore the ancient ruins?”

Meng Chao pondered over it for a while.

He thought, ‘I’m already seeing countless strange images and hearing really weird things in my head.’

He had to enter the ancient ruins.

It was not due to greed and wanting to instantly understand all the secrets of the ancient civilization, it was just that there were two things he needed to understand.

One, the mystery of his return to the past.

Luo Hai, son of Soul Breaking Saber Luo Wu, once told him that on the afternoon of his return from the apocalypse, a major explosion had happened in the ancient ruins research center.

It appeared that an entire lab and all the project members inside had been destroyed.

Meng Chao did not believe in coincidences.

He believed that if the lab could be rebuilt, then there was a possibility that he could decode the secrets of his return to the past.

Two, the ancient curse—the X-shaped eye.

He wanted to know what the curse was, and whether there were other side effects aside from awakening to a bloodline after being implanted with the X-shaped eye.

Besides, was the only way to break the curse really to have people implanted with the X-shaped eye kill each other until only one was left?

That concerned his sister’s safety and happiness.

No matter how dangerous it was, he had to figure it out!

Once he thought of it, Meng Chao nodded.

“Master Lei, thank you for your reminder, but I still want to enter the ancient ruins and take a look at the power that completely changed human civilization,” Meng Chao said seriously. “I will be responsible for my own actions, and I won’t cause trouble to anyone.”

“I believe in that, Meng Chao.” Lei Zongchao smiled and extended a finger to say, “Shall we make a trade, then?”