Entering the Ruins

"Captain, I found it," Pike said excitedly.

Hatton froze. It took him a while to remember what Pike meant.

"You... really... found it?" Hatton grew excited too. He hadn't expected Pike to give him hope just as he was about to despair.

"I found it. We have a chance to get revenge."

Pike confirmed it, then told Hatton what he had detected. Afraid Hatton wouldn't believe him, Pike even brought up the Energy Detector and showed him the data.

Hatton gazed joyfully at the records on the Energy Detector, seeing hope of wiping out the Budaso Adventure Team.

"Excellent! Excellent! Well done!"

After a long while, Hatton's excitement settled a little, and he finally had room to think. New questions began to surface.

"Pike, you found beasts with energy readings over twenty thousand. Why didn't you lure them to the Budaso Adventure Team?"

Pike gave a bitter smile. "Captain, it's not that I didn't try. I couldn't lure them at all! They're a bunch of creatures like rocks, and the Beast-Luring Incense didn't work. I came back to see if you could think of anything."

"Hmm..." Hatton's mind raced. As for why he hadn't called the others over to brainstorm—

Hatton knew all too well what his team was like. They could fight, sure, but asking them to think was worse than killing them.

The two of them hid in the tent and came up with one idea after another, only to reject them all.

"Captain, those monsters are a little strange. It's like something's restricting their movements. And nothing happened even when I stood on them." Pike shared what he'd discovered.

Hatton was at a dead end.

The aircraft hovered over a secluded valley, and Reke landed behind the others.

"Poison Scorpion, Six-Arms, we'll bring up the rear. Especially you, Six-Arms. Don't charge ahead like an idiot." Looking at the cave leading into the ruins, the middle-aged man with graying temples reminded his two companions.

"Don't worry, boss. I'm not some idiot," the Big-Breasted Woman said, tossing her long hair.

Six-Arms shot the Big-Breasted Woman a vicious look, then nodded.

"Everyone, this cave leads underground. There's a barrier every five hundred meters as you descend. Beyond each barrier, a group of monsters will attack us."

"The deeper we go, the higher the monsters' energy readings get."

"We've broken through four barriers so far. The highest energy reading we've encountered is three thousand. I don't know how many barriers remain."

"The only thing I can say for certain is that what lies below is absolutely a relic of the Super Ancient Civilization. The information we posted for the mission also came from what we found after breaking through those four barriers."

Parsona gathered everyone together and pointed at the cave with a beaming smile.

After hearing him out, the group exchanged glances. No one suggested turning back. They were all waiting for someone to take the lead.

Reke moved, wagging his tail as he ambled into the cave.

Would you look at that—once Reke started moving, no one else could sit still. Afraid he'd get all the spoils, they followed him into the cave.

Reke could tell that the cave really did lead underground. Before long, he reached the first barrier.

He reached out and pressed his hand against it, passing through without the slightest resistance.

Reke stepped through the barrier, and an enormous space came into view. It was empty, though traces of past battles could still be seen all around.

"What is this? Why is there such a huge space underground?"

"Look up there..."

"Is that a passage to the next barrier?"

The quiet space filled with voices as the people following Reke entered.

"Boss, Parsona didn't come down," Poison Scorpion said quietly to the middle-aged man with graying temples after entering the space.

"I know," the middle-aged man replied, taking his eyes off the ceiling.

Reke had already looked over the murals above when he came in and found nothing of value to him.

He headed toward the second barrier.

Some people noticed Reke moving and hurried after him, while others continued examining the murals overhead.

Reke paid them no mind. He continued downward, quickly passed through the fourth barrier, and stopped in front of the fifth.

Without waiting for the others to gather, he walked straight through.

Hundreds of statues appeared before Reke.

As if detecting an intruder, the statues' eyes lit up red. Stones began to fall from their bodies, revealing metal underneath.

"Intruder detected. Initiating extermination." Hundreds of robots turned to face Reke in unison.

Whoosh—

The robots attacked Reke, unleashing hundreds upon hundreds of beams.

Hum—

Reke drew on the vast energy inside him. White aura flared around his body, enveloping him.

The attacks were so weak he couldn't be bothered to dodge. If he weren't worried about his clothes getting damaged, he wouldn't even have bothered using his aura.

The robots' beams met Reke's aura and vanished without a sound.

"Vast energy detected. Self-destruct sequence initiated."

"?" Reke was dumbfounded. These robots, with combat power around five thousand, couldn't take a loss.

They'd attacked once and were already going to self-destruct. Seeing their bodies flicker, Reke immediately realized they were about to blow themselves up.

He didn't care whether they died. The problem was the murals above and this space.

If the robots destroyed all of it, wouldn't all the time he'd spent here go to waste?

There was no time to think.

Reke vanished, then slowly reappeared a second later.

Bang, bang, bang—

The hundreds of robots were smashed to pieces in an instant, and their self-destruct sequence was forcibly stopped.

Though he'd dealt with the robots, Reke was still puzzled. If things worked this way, why hadn't the earlier chambers been blown up?

Why hadn't Parsona mentioned anything like this? And why hadn't the robots self-destructed as soon as they detected him, instead of waiting until after they attacked?

Reke thought it over and spotted the problem.

The robots had started the self-destruct sequence right when he released his internal energy.

"Damn, what a bunch of sneaky bastards."

As Reke pondered, the others gradually began appearing in the space.

Seeing the wreckage on the ground, they didn't dare move carelessly after entering.

They'd arrived just moments apart, and in less than a minute, Reke had taken out hundreds of robots.

They didn't know the robots' exact energy readings, but they could guess they were high. Parsona had already mentioned that the fourth chamber had a reading of three thousand.

It was terrifying. This also meant Reke could take them all out in an instant. Even the most unruly among them wouldn't dare cause trouble now.

They were afraid Reke would kill them.

Reke glanced at everyone, slowly floated into the air, and looked at the murals that had appeared after he destroyed the robots.