Entering the Ruins

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

Hatton froze, and it took him a while to remember what Pike was talking about.

"You... really... found it?" Hatton also became excited, not expecting Pike to bring him hope when he was about to despair.

"We found it, and we have hope for revenge."

Pike affirmed, then told Hatton what he had detected. Fearing he wouldn't believe it, Pike even opened his energy detector and showed Hatton the data he had detected.

Hatton looked at the records on the energy detector with great joy, seeing hope for avenging the Budaso Adventure Team.

"Good, good, good! You did well!"

After a long while, Hatton calmed down a bit, and his mind began to have room to think, with new doubts arising.

"Pike, why didn't you lure the beasts with over 20,000 energy reactions to the Budaso Adventure Team?"

Pike gave a wry smile, "Leader, it's not that I didn't go, it's that I couldn't lure them at all! They are like creatures made of stone, and the beast-luring incense has no effect. I came back to see if you had any ideas."

"This..." Hatton's mind raced. As for why he didn't call others to brainstorm together.

It was because Hatton knew too well what kind of people were in their team. They were fine for fighting, but asking them to use their brains was more painful than killing them.

The two hid in the tent, thinking of one method after another, only to negate them all.

"Leader, those monsters are a bit strange, as if their actions are restricted by something, and they don't react even when I stand on them," Pike shared his findings.

Hatton had hit a dead end.

The aircraft hovered above a hidden valley, and Reke landed behind everyone.

"Poison Scorpion, Six-Arms, you two will be at the back. Especially Six-Arms, don't rush forward like an idiot," the middle-aged man with graying temples reminded his two companions as he looked at the cave entrance to the ruins before them.

"Don't worry, Leader, I'm not like some idiot," the busty woman said, flicking her long hair.

Six-Arms glared fiercely at the busty woman and nodded in acknowledgment.

"Everyone, this cave leads all the way underground. Every 500 meters down, there will be a barrier, and after crossing each barrier, a group of monsters will attack us."

"The deeper we go, the higher the energy reaction values of the monsters."

"We have already broken through four barriers. The highest energy reaction value encountered so far is 3,000. As for how many barriers are left, I don't know."

"The only thing I can be sure of is that below is definitely something left by the Super Ancient Civilization, and the information we posted on the mission was discovered from the four barriers we broke through."

Parsona gathered everyone, pointing at the cave entrance with a smile.

Everyone looked at each other after hearing this. As for anyone wanting to back out, there were none; they were all waiting for the first person to take the lead.

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

Good heavens, it was fine when Reke didn't move, but once he did, everyone else couldn't stay put. Fearing that Reke would get all the benefits, they all followed behind him into the cave.

Reke could sense that the cave indeed led underground, and before long, he encountered the first barrier.

Reke reached out and pressed against it, passing through without any resistance.

Reke's entire body submerged into the barrier, and a vast space appeared before him. It was empty, but traces of battle could still be seen around the edges.

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

"Look up there..."

"Isn't that the passage to the next barrier?"

The quiet space was broken as the crowd following Reke also appeared in this space.

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

"Got it," the middle-aged man replied, retracting his gaze from above.

Reke had already examined the murals above after entering and found nothing of value to him.

He was now walking towards the second barrier.

Some people noticed Reke's actions and quickly followed him, while others were still examining the murals above.

Reke ignored them, continuing downward, quickly passing through the fourth barrier, and standing before the fifth.

Without waiting for the people behind him to gather, he walked in without hesitation.

Hundreds of statues appeared before Reke.

As if detecting an intruder, the statues' eyes lit up with red light, and the stones on their bodies began to fall off, revealing the metal underneath.

"Intruder detected. Commencing annihilation," hundreds of robots turned their gaze towards Reke in unison.

"Whoosh—"

The robots launched an attack on Reke, and hundreds, even thousands, of rays shot out from them.

"Buzz—"

Reke channeled the vast energy within his body, and white flames erupted around him, enveloping his entire being.

Reke was too lazy to dodge an attack of this magnitude. If it weren't for the fear of damaging his clothes, he wouldn't even bother using his energy.

The robots' rays came into contact with Reke's energy flames, and the rays were silently annihilated.

"Massive energy detected. Initiating self-destruct sequence."

"?" Reke was dumbfounded; these robots with combat power around 5,000 were sore losers.

They were initiating self-destruct after only a single wave of attacks. Watching their flickering forms, Reke immediately realized these robots intended to detonate.

Reke didn't care whether they lived or died, but the murals above and this entire space were a different matter.

If these robots managed to destroy everything, wouldn't all the time Reke had spent here be wasted?

There was no time to overthink it.

Reke's figure vanished, only to slowly reappear a second later.

"Bang, bang, bang—"

Hundreds of robots were instantly smashed to pieces, and their self-destruct sequences were forcibly terminated.

Although he had dealt with the robots, Reke remained puzzled. If things were always like this, why hadn't the previous spaces been blown to bits?

Why hadn't he heard Parsona mention such a situation, and why didn't they self-destruct the moment they detected him instead of waiting until after the attack occurred?

Reke recalled the events and pinpointed the source of the problem.

It was exactly when he released the energy within his body that the robots began to initiate their self-destruct sequences.

"Damn it, how underhanded."

While Reke was deep in thought, the figures of others gradually began to appear in this space.

Looking at the wreckage on the ground, they didn't dare to move recklessly after entering.

They had arrived less than a minute after him, yet he had already wiped out hundreds of robots.

Although they didn't know the specific energy readings of the robots, they could guess they weren't low, especially since Parsona had long ago stated that the fourth area contained ones with a value of 3,000.

It was terrifying to think about, and it also proved that the man could eliminate them in an instant; even the most unruly individuals didn't dare to cause trouble at a time like this.

They were terrified that Reke might take them out as well.

Reke glanced at the crowd, slowly flew into the air, and turned his gaze toward the mural that had appeared after he destroyed the robots.