Su Mo stopped and began surveying his surroundings.
Following the route he had taken to get there, Su Mo lay on the ground and sensed a distinct rise and fall in the terrain.
"If I'm not mistaken, this place should be a basin."
From three kilometers away, looking back along the route he had taken, the distant landscape had already blurred, with part of the scenery hidden beyond the horizon.
Looking west, he could clearly feel the terrain rising.
After carefully surveying the area, Su Mo found the location of the ruins.
"Is this where the Prehistoric Ruins are?"
The terrain here was much like that around the shelter.
The place where the underground ruins lay also formed a small hill. Because of the terrain, there were no proper drainage facilities around it, resulting in a large accumulation of water.
Of course, without the map's marking and the ruins' existence, this would still have been an excellent place to build a shelter. After installing pipes to drain the standing water, it could make a perfect shelter foundation.
"Woof, woof, woof!"
Oreo came back from the distance and asked for his master's opinion.
Because of the torrential rain that had lasted for more than a day, the water around the ruins was extremely deep. Even wearing a raincoat, Oreo found it difficult to wade across.
Seeing the fear in Oreo's expression, Su Mo said without hesitation, "We have to investigate this shelter thoroughly. It's the only treasure site we know of nearby. Wait here for me. I'll go over alone."
"Woof?"
Oreo wagged his tail, unwilling to part from his master.
Lowering himself, Su Mo rubbed Oreo's head and comforted him.
"Don't worry. Keep watch for your master outside. The acid rain inside is terrifying. If it touches you—"
"Hiss! Your fur will be gone!"
Oreo, who had been eager to give it a try, was immediately startled by Su Mo. Fear, grievance, and reluctance showed in his eyes, and he could only squat obediently where he was, wagging his smooth, large tail.
Standing up, Su Mo took a deep breath, pulled a raincoat from the Storage Space, and began putting it on.
The fluid-like raincoat did not hinder his movements at all. After checking it for tears and leaks, Su Mo began wading forward, placing one footprint after another.
The hill was about two hundred meters away.
The water had already risen above his feet.
To be safe, Su Mo decided to take a detour around the hill and approach from behind, where less water had accumulated, to scout it out first.
The soil on the plains was not firm to begin with. After being soaked by the rain, it had all turned into sludge.
Every step was extremely difficult for Su Mo.
Sometimes, half his leg sank into the mud, and he had to expend considerable effort to pull it free.
Wading through the water, he spent a full twenty minutes covering only about a hundred and fifty meters.
As the terrain rose, the soil began to harden, and the standing water gradually disappeared.
However, the scattered footprints on the ground made Su Mo's heart tighten.
The footprints looked extremely "fresh." Even after being washed by the heavy rain, their shapes remained clearly visible.
Some belonged to creatures with two-toed feet, while others were clearly the paw prints of a feline.
Occasionally, he could even see a few strands of fur in the cracks in the soil.
Crouching down, Su Mo carefully picked up the fur from a crack in the ground and examined it closely.
"It does look like feline fur. With this kind of resilience, it definitely isn't from an ordinary animal."
With unease in his heart, Su Mo opened the Game Panel and pressed the Monster Compendium for the second time that day.
No Mutated Beast detected within a one-kilometer radius of the player. Uses today: 1/3
"Strange. Felines should have an extremely strong territorial instinct. If one came here, there's no reason for this not to be part of its territory."
Felines used claw marks and urine to mark the boundaries of their territory. They also used them to tell other animals when they had passed through, preventing accidental encounters and conflicts.
After surveying the area, Su Mo shook his head. He had found no nearby markers.
"Is this blood?"
When he reached the side of the hill, Su Mo suddenly discovered a patch of blood-red color that had already seeped into the earth.
He lowered his head and sniffed the ground. Aside from the earthy stench left by the rain, he could also detect a faint trace of blood.
There was still a large amount of fur near the bloodstain.
There was also a blasted area.
"What is this? Damn, was this blasted by a Hand Grenade?"
The farther Su Mo went along the side of the hill, the more animal traces he found.
After circling all the way to the left, Su Mo was astonished to discover a patch of charred ground.
The grass beside the mark was still lush and green, but not a blade of grass grew at its center.
This blasted area was extremely strange. Judging by the diameter spreading from the central explosion point, it was only about fifty centimeters across.
Moreover, the ground itself had not been blown up. That was highly unreasonable for either a precisely placed explosive or a hand-thrown grenade.
A bad feeling rose in Su Mo's heart.
He hurried back to the center of the hill and followed its highest point. When he was nearly at the end, he found several more blast marks.
At the very front, there was an enormous, pitch-black hole blasted open.
"???"
"Has someone beaten me to it?"
Taking a flashlight from the Storage Space, Su Mo switched it on and peered into the hole.
From the opening down to the ground was a drop of more than four meters, roughly the same height as the shelter's floor. The architecture here gave Su Mo a strange sense of familiarity.
"Why does this feel so familiar? Could this really be a human shelter?"
If this were an RPG, countless question marks would surely have floated above Su Mo's head.
Should he go down and investigate? Once the bold thought appeared in Su Mo's mind, it immediately began to grow wildly.
Everything here was too strange. The inexplicable feline fur, several precisely targeted small-area blasts, and the design resembling a human shelter had all cloaked this underground ruin in mystery.
After opening the Storage Space and searching through it, Su Mo decided to use the most primitive method: weaving a Hemp Rope.
The drop was more than four meters. Jumping down would be easy, but climbing back up would be difficult.
Taking out two units of plant fiber, Su Mo sat at the hole and began carefully weaving the Hemp Rope.
He repeatedly twisted several strands of tough plant fiber together. Working downward, he took less than twenty minutes to weave a Straw Rope about three meters long.
He took out two units of Iron Block and placed them on the ground. After tying one end of the Hemp Rope to the Iron Block, he had completed a simple device for going up and down.
At that moment, Su Mo was immensely grateful that he had joined his university's DIY handicraft club.
Otherwise, even such a simple task would have been rather difficult for an ordinary person.
After putting everything in order, Su Mo tried throwing small stones around to make sure there were no traps. Then he began his first descent into the ruins.
He had read plenty of tomb-raiding novels, but putting it into practice was another matter.
Awkwardly holding the flashlight in his teeth, Su Mo grabbed the rope and began sliding down.
The rough texture of the plant fibers greatly increased the friction during the descent. Each time he slid down, Su Mo had to expend considerable strength to hold on.
When only a meter remained, the strength in Su Mo's hands suddenly gave out, and he naturally dropped the rest of the way, landing on the ground.
He had been holding his breath while exerting himself. Once he recovered, Su Mo immediately began gasping heavily.
But when he raised his head and used the flashlight to look ahead, his heart gave a sudden lurch.
A person (×) a skeleton (√). Although he had dealt with five thugs only the previous night, at that moment, when he saw the skull lying on the ground, tilted toward him—
A chill suddenly swept up his back.
Thanks to Duxing Wannian for the 500-coin tip, thanks to Qinglian Daoge for the 1,500-coin tip, thanks to Yantian Qingfeng for the 500-coin tip, thanks to Nanpingshan Dayezhu for the tip, and thanks to all the readers who tipped 100 coins. Thanks to everyone who voted. It's a new day, so please keep voting and collecting this novel!
Before you continue