Fantasy Game: Infinite City

Chapter 633 Submerged Ruins (1)

Han Zu's steps were steady and swift, each step precisely landing between the cracks in the bluestone slabs, avoiding the loose stones caused by the collapse. He could clearly feel the resistance of the seawater increasing, and the direction of the current becoming more and more erratic; clearly, the structure of the corridor was undergoing drastic changes. He didn't turn around, simply letting the flying rubble and bone fragments hit him; after all, those things wouldn't hurt him, so he might as well conserve his energy.

Time passed slowly amidst the monotonous sounds of water and collapses. According to Han Zu's estimation, he had been moving forward in this manner for nearly half an hour. Just then, the sensation beneath his feet suddenly changed—the silt that had covered the bluestone slabs disappeared, replaced by an unusually smooth surface, as if it had been polished by seawater for a long time. He stopped and looked around. The scene before him eased his tense nerves slightly, but also filled him with more doubt.

The seawater had risen so high that it submerged the entire corridor, just above his shoulders. The icy water enveloped his body, yet had no real effect on him. The corridor seemed to have widened considerably. The cracked stones on the walls were gone, replaced by an unknown material with a dark blue sheen, its surface exceptionally smooth, even reflecting the outline of the flame at his fingertips. The vaulted ceiling had also vanished, replaced by a deep darkness. The light of the flame extended upwards for tens of meters before being completely swallowed, as if above lay an endless abyss.

"The structural changes in this place are far too bizarre."

Han Zu muttered to himself, the flames burning on his arms flickering slightly, releasing even stronger energy fluctuations. He could sense that the surrounding energy field was unusually stable, without any dangerous aura, only the faint energy reaction generated by the flowing seawater. He took a deep breath, dimmed the flames slightly to avoid being too dazzling and missing the details around him, and then strode forward, continuing along the corridor completely submerged by the seawater.

Visibility in the seawater remained very low, only a few meters. Han Zu could only rely on his energy perception to judge the road conditions ahead. After advancing about fifty meters, a group of faint life signals suddenly appeared in his energy perception. These life signals were very peculiar; they were neither as vibrant as those of marine life nor as stable as those of terrestrial life, but rather exhibited an intermittent fluctuation, as if they might disappear at any moment.

Han Zu immediately slowed his pace, suppressing his internal energy to avoid disturbing these unknown creatures. He withdrew the flames from his body and moved forward cautiously, each step extremely slow and as quiet as possible.

As he drew closer, the life signals became increasingly clear. When he was about ten meters away from the creatures, he finally made out their appearance. These creatures were not large, about the size of an adult's fist, covered with a thin, pale purple carapace covered with fine patterns that shimmered eerily in the dim firelight. Their heads were small, hidden beneath the carapace, revealing only a pair of tiny, bean-like eyes that warily observed their surroundings. Their limbs were short, ending in pincer-like structures that were unusually small and appeared harmless.

Upon seeing these creatures, Han Zu immediately recalled the images of the bone walls he had encountered earlier. Although these creatures were not large, their pincers seemed well-suited for carrying small bone fragments, and their presence in this area filled with bones made it difficult not to associate them with those bone walls.

"Could these be the remains of the guys who made the raw materials for those bone walls?"

Han Zu secretly wondered, his eyes filled with vigilance. He had seen many skeletal remains on the bone wall before, and the owners of those skeletons were obviously quite large. These little guys looked so weak, could they really hunt those large creatures?

To verify his hypothesis, Han Zu decided to get closer for observation. He held his breath, his body gliding gently in the water like a fish, minimizing the ripples. When he was only three meters away from the creatures, he finally saw what they were doing. These little guys were using their tiny pincers to pick up small bone fragments from the mud, then carrying them to a corner not far away, where a considerable amount of bones had already accumulated, forming the rudimentary form of a small bone wall.

Han Zu stared intently at the creatures' movements, his doubts deepening. He noticed that their movements were incredibly slow and clumsy, taking a long time to move even a small bone. More importantly, there was no communication or cooperation among them; they simply focused on moving the bones, like a group of mindless machines.

Just then, a slightly larger creature seemed to sense Han Zu's presence. It stopped what it was doing, raised its head, and looked in Han Zu's direction with its small eyes. Han Zu immediately stopped moving, remaining still, and warily observed the creature's reaction. However, to his surprise, the creature did not show any aggression. It simply stared at him blankly for a few seconds, then turned away and continued to move the bones with its pincers, as if he were nothing more than an insignificant clump of seawater.

Seeing this, Han Zu's vigilance eased slightly. He decided to conduct another test. He gently raised his hand and released a faint energy fluctuation towards the creature. The energy fluctuation spread out like ripples on water, touching the creature's body. However, the creature only trembled slightly before continuing with its own activities, showing no sign of resistance or even attempt to escape.

Han Zu tested several creatures in succession, and the results were all the same. These creatures seemed to have no hostility towards him, and didn't even see him as a threat. They were unusually docile, focusing solely on moving skeletal remains and building those strange bone walls. Han Zu's doubts grew stronger, and he began to carefully observe the details of these creatures, trying to find the answer.

He discovered that these creatures possessed distinct crustacean characteristics, such as a hard carapace and pincer-like limbs. However, they also exhibited some features not typical of crustaceans. For instance, their bodies seemed to have some kind of vertebral structure supporting them, and their breathing method was also peculiar. Unlike fish that breathe with gills or mammals that breathe with lungs, they absorbed oxygen from seawater through the fine grooves on their carapace.

"A fusion organism?"

A thought popped into Han Zu's mind. He had seen many kinds of fused creatures in some of the Infinite Corporation's facilities. It was said that some creatures, in order to survive in extreme environments, would gradually fuse with the surrounding organisms to form a completely new species. These little guys in front of him were very likely fused creatures that had formed after long-term adaptation to the environment in this strange area submerged by seawater.

But a new question arises: why would these gentle, small, fused creatures expend so much effort to build those bone walls? Those bone walls appear exceptionally sturdy, clearly not intended to defend against weaker creatures like themselves. Furthermore, besides him, there seem to be no other large creatures in this area. What, then, is the purpose of their bone walls?

Han Zu decided to continue observing. He found a secluded corner, concealed himself in the darkness, and quietly observed the creatures' behavior. Time passed slowly, and he discovered that the creatures' transport routes were very fixed. They always dug up skeletal remains from a fixed area and then carried them to a fixed location to pile them up. Moreover, the way they piled the bones was also very regular, always pointing the bone tips in the same direction, exactly the same as what he had seen on the bone wall before.

"Could these walls of bones be some kind of signal?"

Han Zu recalled the bone walls he had seen in the corridor earlier. They seemed to be built along the corridor's direction, and the spacing between them was very even. If these bone walls were connected, would they form a special pattern, or point in a specific direction?

Another guess surfaced in his mind: "Perhaps these bone walls are to block something?" Although he didn't sense any danger at the moment, this area was so eerie that it was likely hiding some unknown creature or danger. These fused creatures built the bone walls perhaps to keep those dangers out of the area and protect their own living environment.

He also noticed that the area where these creatures were digging for bones had an unusually high density of skeletal remains in the silt, and these remains were of a wide variety, including the non-human bones he had seen before, human bones, and even the bones of some creatures he had never seen before. These bones seemed to have been gathered here by some force, otherwise they could not have been piled up so densely in one area.

Just as Han Zu was lost in thought, a faint, strange sound suddenly reached his ears. The sound was peculiar, like both the roar of some creature and the scraping of metal, muffled and oppressive, coming from the darkness deep within the corridor. The instant he heard it, Han Zu's body tensed. Flames formed from the unique energy within his body surged forth, burning near his neck, the dark red light instantly illuminating an area several meters in front of him.

To his further surprise, the fused creatures, who had been focused on moving the bones, immediately panicked upon hearing the strange noise. They dropped the bones and scattered in all directions, turning the previously orderly process into chaos. Some smaller creatures even bumped into each other in their panic, tumbling into the mud before quickly getting up and continuing to flee away from the source of the sound.

Han Zu's gaze was fixed on the fleeing creatures, his vigilance heightened to the extreme. He could sense that these creatures were filled with terror at the strange sound, as if it were a summons from hell. Just then, he felt a slight ripple in the water behind him. He instinctively turned around and found several larger fused creatures hiding behind him, trembling as if they had taken refuge in him.

Upon seeing this, Han Zu immediately made a judgment: the source of the strange noise was most likely some other creatures or monsters that fed on these fused creatures. These fused creatures were docile and non-aggressive, clearly at the bottom of the food chain, and the source of the strange noise was likely their natural enemy.

Just as Han Zu was intently focused on the direction from which the sound was coming, he suddenly felt a slight movement coming from his pants pocket. The movement was so faint that he wouldn't have noticed it if his senses hadn't been exceptionally sharp. He was startled; he remembered not having anything in his pocket. What could be causing this disturbance?

He instinctively reached out and touched his pocket. The instant his fingers touched the pocket, there was a sudden, violent struggle inside, followed by a sharp bite on his finger. The bite wasn't strong; it didn't cause any harm to his tough skin, only a slight stinging sensation.

Han Zu was filled with doubt. He slowly reached into his pocket and felt a small, furry creature. The creature was still struggling, its body trembling slightly, seemingly terrified. He pulled the creature out of his pocket, examined it closely, and was stunned.

It was the same little mouse he'd seen near the library inside the Bastinburg. It was incredibly small, only about the size of a thumb, covered in gray fur with a small tuft of golden hair at the tip of its tail, which shimmered faintly in the flames. The mouse's eyes were tightly closed, its body twitching violently, and it clutched a small piece of skin in its mouth—the very piece it had bitten off Han Zu's hand. Clearly, it had been underwater for so long and was nearly suffocating; in its desperate struggle, it had bitten Han Zu's skin and swallowed it whole.