Professor Han had already prepared himself for all of them to perish.
He was not afraid of death.
He was simply heartbroken that his apprentices and students would die innocent deaths because of all this.
They were all still so young.
If he had known this salvage excavation would end like this...
He would rather never have come.
But when heaven came to claim lives...
He could not stop it.
Professor Han knew that although human technology seemed powerful, when faced with natural disasters such as wildfires, Sea tsunamis, volcanic eruptions, and hurricanes...
Humanity was still insignificant.
Humans could not even destroy the Earth.
All they could destroy was themselves.
Just as his teacher had said.
Everything was fate.
Professor Han had once scoffed at fatalism. Now, he had nothing to say.
His teacher had disappeared after an archaeological expedition.
Would the same happen to him?
He studied the USB drive for a moment, then closed his hand around it. If something really did go wrong...
The professor decided that, of the two USB drives containing identical data, he would wrap one securely and bury it nearby.
He would swallow the other.
It might tear his esophagus, or he might not even be able to swallow it, but he had no other choice.
After taking the photographs, he picked up his teacher's notebook.
On its flyleaf, his teacher had drawn a Snake in carbon ink.
An ouroboros.
Its mouth swallowed its tail in an endless cycle.
Usually, when he read these books, he knew they represented his teacher's life's work, yet deep down, he still read them with a critical eye.
Many of his mentor's theories seemed utterly fantastical.
It was almost laughable: in circumstances like these, he had actually become calm.
Outside, rain poured down, and a strange fragrance