They stayed in the cave for five hours, waiting for the soldiers to rest.
Josiah led the genetically-modified soldiers and led the way.
Ten minutes later.
Eric Jr. and his team followed slowly. Because they needed to rotate and rest, half of the two hundred soldiers stayed behind to guard the cave.
"That's strange. Why haven't we seen any monsters? Did they know we were coming and hide? " Griffon had been careful, but he realized that his worries were unnecessary. They walked in the dark swamp for half a day, but not a single animal appeared, let alone attacked.
"This might be an abnormal phenomenon." Lin Dong reminded everyone to be careful.
"No movement or abnormal?" Griffon was confused.
"Yes." Lin Dong nodded.
"Why?" Even Fawkes, who was beside him, was curious.
"There are no animals around. If it was outside, there might be a strong animal that threatened the animals and made them extinct. For example, a tiger. Its appearance would make all the animals in the forest run away. By the same logic, if a king cobra appeared in a place, then all the snakes in that place would become extinct. The rats we encountered were strong, hungry, and crazy, but there are no rats here. There's not even a single underground creature. It doesn't make sense! "Lin Dong explained.
"Hiss!" Griffon gasped. "If that's the case, doesn't that mean there's a monster here that's stronger than the rats?"
"I hope not," Lin Dong said. Everyone felt their scalps go numb.
"What do we do now? Retreat into the cave? "Eric Jr. didn't want a monster that was scarier than the rats to come out of the darkness.
"What we need is to stay calm. Maybe we're already in the monster's hunting range. If we show weakness, the situation will be more dangerous. You've walked here many times before, but you've never encountered this powerful monster's attack, so it might be hibernating or completely ignoring our existence. I hope humans aren't on the enemy's menu. After all, powerful monsters won't lack food like rats, "Lin Dong's words reassured everyone.
"We have to leave this place as soon as possible. Speed up." Josiah, who was leading the way, was also shocked when he heard Eric Jr.'s report.
The soldiers suppressed their fear.
He quickened his pace.
After advancing for about an hour and a half, there was finally some movement in the distant darkness.
It was either the chirping of an unknown insect or the hissing of a lizard. When the soldiers saw a few black shadows that looked like mutated giant rats running away from the torchlight, they all felt inexplicably touched.
He had finally escaped. Those who had not experienced the threat of death would never be able to imagine the terror that shrouded their hearts!
After walking through more than half of the swamp, there were some large rocks on the ground with countless glowing mushrooms growing on them. These glowing mushrooms could not provide illumination. On the contrary, they emitted a faint glow that looked very strange. Lin Dong carefully examined these mushrooms with the torchlight and found that they were surrounded by a food chain.
The mushrooms glowed and attracted insects or small animals.
The long-legged spiders hiding in the mushrooms would hunt down these deceived prey and suck them dry until they turned into dried corpses. The excrement of the long-legged spiders, as well as the remains of insects and small animals, were turned into nutrients for the mushrooms.
Next to some of the mushrooms, there was a type of giant frog that was higher in the food chain.
Each of them was estimated to weigh a few kilograms and was as big as a washbasin.
They looked so ugly that it was indescribable.
There were all kinds of black thorns on their mouths and backs. Some species even had thorns on their eyelids, which looked disgusting.
"Mr. Wood, why are you interested in these small animals?" The female soldier who was responsible for escorting Lin Dong couldn't help but be curious. She couldn't understand why he would be interested in such ugly giant frogs and long-legged spiders. In comparison, weren't the huge mutated rats more worthy of research? However, seeing that Lin Dong was interested, she volunteered and asked, "Do you need me to catch one?"
"No, I just want to see the level of radiation pollution in this area. According to the genetic variation of the organisms, this place is probably not far from the pollution. At least, this direction is correct. "Lin Dong made his judgment.
"Then should we continue or take a break before continuing?" Eric Jr. asked Lin Dong's opinion.
"Let's continue!" Lin Dong wasn't a weak bookworm.
They walked for another three hours.
Josiah, who was in front, stopped.
He returned with the genetic soldiers and frowned. With a serious expression, he said to everyone, "The path we explored has disappeared!"
Everyone was stunned. How could the path we explored disappear?
Don't tell me you don't want to take us there?
Philip and Fox looked at each other.
Big Ivan wanted to say something, but Philip shook his head at him.
Josiah looked at Lin Dong and explained, "We've marked the path we explored, but the place we marked has been submerged. The place that we had walked through before was a swamp with a few rocks, but that place had now completely turned into a swamp country. Not to mention the ground, we can't even find a rock. "
"How long has it been since your last exploration?" Lin Dong thought for a while and asked.
"Less than a month," Josiah said.
"How deep is it?" Lin Dong asked.
"We've tested it. It's more than two meters deep within a few steps." Josiah said that the soldiers were carrying too much weight and couldn't swim across. Moreover, this was the underground world. If there were monsters in the water, they would all be wiped out.
"Maybe it's because of underground water infiltration. Did you guys touch any traps before?" Lin Dong suggested.
"I don't think so. We've always been careful." That was what Josiah said, but Big Ivan and the others suspected that he was lying. Based on their Uncle Sam's character, if he saw any traps, how could he not touch them? Audacious cowboys like them were the ones who had no idea what was good for them! Without touching the underground traps, it was impossible to suddenly have a large swamp with a depth of more than two meters. But now that things had come to this, everyone was too lazy to expose them.
"Let's take a detour!" Lin Dong also didn't think that swimming in unknown waters was the right thing to do.
"But we haven't explored the area we have to take a detour. It's very likely that there will be unknown changes and dangers!" Josiah still suggested to be cautious. It was best to temporarily retreat to the cave to rest and reorganize. After resting, they could explore again. They had plenty of time anyway.
"Let's take a look first. Maybe more places will be submerged!" Lin Dong suspected that the swamp was just the beginning.
Once underground water infiltrated, the total amount would be huge.
At that time, the entire swamp might become a large lake.
What made everyone feel lucky was that the swamp was only low-lying land. After passing through the swamp, there was obviously a downhill slope. After the long slope, they would reach the swamp. In the pitch-black underground space, it was hard to tell how vast the water was. It was indeed a very stupid thing to do to swim across from the surface. But the next problem was, if they really had to take a detour, how would they do it?
"Mr Wood!" The female soldier escorting Lin Dong suggested. "Mary has an inflatable raft in her backpack, but it can only be used by two people!"
"Our soldiers here also have a few inflatable rafts. We can do this. We will go there first, then send the soldiers back. We will go back and forth a few times. First, it won't affect our progress. Second, we don't need to take a detour on an unfamiliar road that we haven't explored before. "Professor Jeffrey made a good suggestion.
"If the water is safe, this is a good idea!" Lin Dong used a strong flashlight to slowly sweep the dark surface of the swamp.
At first, there was no strange phenomenon.
But.
After a long time.
Everyone found that there was a strange light on the surface of the water. It looked like fireflies, but they could not fly.
Fox and the female soldiers hurried to help with their flashlights. Griffon and the others all joined in, hoping to see what the firefly-like light was. Soon, more light spots appeared, too many to count. They floated densely on the water.
"Is that a kind of glowing insect?" Big Ivan's voice trembled. He knew that it was not, but he hoped that Lin Dong would confirm his guess.
"Crocodile eyes. At night, crocodiles look like this." Griffon cursed loudly. "Damn, the water is full of crocodiles. Fortunately, we didn't go into the water. Otherwise, we would have become their delectable snack!"
"Not crocodiles!" Fox put down the binoculars.
"If not crocodiles, then what is it?" Griffon snatched the binoculars from her hand and was stunned.
Because he found that the water was full of monsters that looked a bit like crocodiles. Their eyes were extremely small, but their bodies were surprisingly large. From their floating backs, they looked a bit like toads. What was different from toads was that there was an unusually thick and slightly flat tail on their backs. This cunning species had been hiding at the bottom of the water. It was only when the flashlight attracted them that they slowly floated up.
If Lin Dong had not listened to Professor Jeffery's suggestion and taken the inflatable raft.
There would have been nothing left of more than a hundred people.
Professor Jeffery's face was ashen.
Eric Jr. swallowed nervously and waved his hand to order the soldiers to retreat immediately and leave the dangerous waters.
"Let's test it!" Josiah's courage was like cast iron. He ordered a soldier to pick up the previously sealed piece of rat meat, weigh it, and then throw it into the water dozens of meters away.
The rat meat was thrown into the water, creating a large splash.
Those monsters seemed to be very timid.
They sank instantly.
They disappeared without a trace.
After a long time, the creature did not appear again, as if it was scared away by the piece of rat meat.
"Ha, hahaha, these cowards! I dare say that they are vegetarian creatures. Otherwise, they wouldn't be so large! Judging from their ugly and defensive appearance, this' crocodile frog 'should be relatively low in the food chain. They might eat some fish and shrimp or prey on some insects, but they would not attack humans. They did not have the aggression of carnivorous creatures at all. Moreover, only low-level creatures would be attracted by the light! Most importantly, crocodile frogs were social creatures. Even if large carnivorous creatures lived in groups, there would not be thousands of them. This was the patent of vegetarian animals, such as the wildebeest or water buffalo on the prairie! Everyone, don't panic. Crocodile frogs shouldn't attack humans. They might just be a frog, but their bodies are surprisingly large. No matter how they change, they are still frogs! Judging from their mutation, we are not far from the source of the radiation source! " Professor Jeffery laughed when he saw this. He was eager to save his face. Not only did he analyze the other party's carnivorous nature, but he also made the decision to name this creature as a frog.
"Try throwing another piece!" Lin Dong let Josiah continue.
"Dong!"
Another piece of rat meat was thrown into the water.
However, the sinking crocodile frog did not react at all. It was as if it had already fled in fear.
Everyone looked at Lin Dong. Could it be that this was really a frog that only looked impressive? Why did it grow so big?
Lin Dong gestured to the female soldier beside him to take off her backpack, pour out the contents, and put a large piece of rock on it. At the same time, he asked the female soldier to help, "Give me an inflatable raft! I want to test it again! "
The inflatable raft was quickly inflated.
Lin Dong put the backpack with the rock on it. He thought for a while and gestured to the female soldier to take off her clothes. He even put her submachine gun on the edge of the inflatable raft.
The female soldier shyly did as she was told. She took off her bulletproof jacket, revealing a fit and beautiful figure in a tank top. Fox and Griffon helped push the inflatable raft into the water.
The inflatable raft slowly drifted forward under the effect of the propelling force.
There was no movement.
However, when it was about 20 meters away from the shore, it slowly drifted to a position about 30 to 40 meters away from where the crocodile frog was sinking.
There was a loud bang on the surface of the water. The entire inflatable raft soared into the sky. Several crocodile frogs broke out of the water at lightning speed. They opened their ferocious mouths and viciously bit the inflatable raft in mid-air, as well as the backpack that was thrown up.
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