After some discussion, the team did not return to the surface. Instead, they found a room near the main hall of the underground palace to spend the night.
The reason for this arrangement was Rheia's suggestion based on her experience and professional knowledge. It may seem risky to rest in the underground ruins, but in fact, the inside of the ruins was far safer than the outside. First, as mentioned before, the magic-mutated monsters were active on the outside of the ruins, and they would not encounter any monsters in the ruins. Second, the underground ruins were much sturdier than expected. After examining its main material and structure, Rheia found that the palace's framework was made of an insanely tough alloy. While the subsidiary buildings on the surface were destroyed, the main building had a special performance index. Even if it was buried deep underground, there was no risk of it collapsing. Unless there was a sudden crack in the Great Pit that split the underground palace in two, which was almost impossible. Third, Rheia felt that sleeping near the Great Pit was particularly exciting. She could brag about it for at least half a year when she got back.
Hao Ren felt that the third reason was the real reason.
In all fairness, a group of sane mercenaries would not accept such a bold arrangement from their employer. They would have broken up the moment they knew that the crypt was so close to the Great Pit. But Hao Ren and his team were here to dig out the truth. They could not wait for Rheia to stay in the crypt for a while longer. So, no one objected to the arrangement when they heard that they were going to have a rest tonight.
This made Rheia even more worried about whether the mercenaries were going to kill her to get their share of the inheritance.
The underground world did not distinguish between day and night. Even if there was a timer to tell the time, the lack of changes in the environment made people at a loss. Rollie and Y 'lisabet were the most affected. The former thought that they should sleep at all times, and the latter thought that they should not sleep at all. But in the end, the demon lass was forced to sleep by her father on the grounds that "children must go to bed on time, or they will not grow up."
After Vivian, the last member of the All-Nighter Immortal Party, went to bed, the underground palace finally quieted down again.
Everything returned to darkness.
Hao Ren did not know how long he had been asleep. It had been a long time since he had a deep, dreamless sleep like he had in the past few days. While a dreamless sleep could help him recover better, it also made it difficult for him to tell how long he had slept. When he woke up, he thought it was already the next day, but he found that no one was up yet. Even Vivian, who was always up early, was still hanging on the roof.
Hao Ren rubbed his eyes. As his vision recovered, the thick darkness around him gradually receded. He helplessly looked at Vivian, who was hanging upside down above him. The vampire lady usually slept on a bed, but apparently, the buried palace ruins had stimulated her. Perhaps she was reminded of the familiar environment of the catacombs or caves. She decided to hang herself tonight to reminisce about the past and the good times.
"Everyone has moments when they can't be steady." Hao Ren muttered. He felt that he was no longer sleepy, and he would not be able to sleep if he continued to lie down. He got out of the sleeping bag, straightened his slightly wrinkled clothes, got up, and left the room.
Walking alone in an ancient underground palace that had been abandoned for tens of thousands of years was a test of courage, but for the fearless Hao Ren, it was an alternative way to relax. As he walked along the corridors that could still vaguely see the ornate decorations of the past, he contacted Nolan in his mind.
"How's the situation up there?"
"Nothing much has changed," the shipgirl said a little lazily. "It's so boring, just floating in the sky, and there's nowhere to go … I can't even get out of the atmosphere. As a spaceship, I feel like I'm going to be useless."
"Grow up, you've only been here for a few days," Hao Ren said a little helplessly. "Why didn't you complain when we usually enter the port for maintenance?"
"That's different. When I enter the port for maintenance, I just go into the virtual space to have some fun, and I don't feel anything even if I stay there for two months. But here, I have to turn all the sensors on just to stare at this quiet world. Don't you think it's boring?"
"Pfft — I asked you to send out the probes, is there any news?"
"Yeah, almost scanned the entire planet," Nolan said lazily. "The map is synchronized with the MDT, you can check it anytime. Just as you guessed, this world called L 'Haronne is really suspicious. I found the shadow of almost every race in the Plane of Dreams on the planet's surface. Not only werewolves, vampires, and humans created by the goddess of creation, but also native races like the sirens. But some of these races seem to have some 'changes', as if they only retain their racial characteristics on the surface, but have other names. For example, the sirens are divided into the terrestrial 'nagas' and the aquatic 'mermaids'. The people of L 'Haronne see them as two different species. Also, I found a race that looks exactly like the Tannaeans in a desert in the southern part of the continent, but they are called the Zeronians. Other than that, there are many other similar situations. "
Hao Ren slowed down his pace. "It sounds like … a species sample vault, and some of the races in this' vault 'have changed their names …"
"Maybe it really is a vault?" Nolan guessed. "As for the name change, it should be the cultural discontinuity caused by the passing of 10,000 years?"
Hao Ren frowned slightly. "Actually, Muru and the rest had mentioned that the goddess of creation had a 'Plane of Dreams Species Database', and Heve was once a guard in this database. This database is said to be used to store all life samples in the Plane of Dreams, but they did not elaborate on the form of this database. Perhaps it is just a virtual database, or a planet storing physical samples … If it is the latter, and L 'Haronne is this database, then a lot of things can be explained."
"If we want to verify this, we need to conduct a lot of statistics," Nolan said leisurely.
"Yes," Hao Ren's mind started to work. "Life is not just limited to various intelligent races, from birds and beasts to bacteria and viruses, these are all living things. The Seed of Origin has evolved into countless ecosystems according to the different environments of the planet, and each ecosystem is probably made up of tens of millions or even hundreds of millions of species. If L 'Haronne is really a database, then the number of species living on this planet will definitely reach an absurd number. Even if your sensor performance and computing speed is increased tenfold, it will not be easy to complete the statistics."
"And so many species crowded on a planet … I find it unbelievable no matter how I think about it," Nolan said. "Let's not talk about how such a large number of species' squeezed 'in, just the fact that they came from different ecosystems is enough to give us a headache. Their living environments are different, and even their basic life structures are different, and yet they can coexist on such a planet … Is the species database built by the goddess of creation that simple and crude?"
"So I did not directly confirm that this planet is the so-called 'Vault'." Hao Ren laughed. "If I have to say the deepest impression that this place left on me, it can be described in four words: Specious. There are indeed all kinds of species here, and all intelligent creatures in the Plane of Dreams can be found here. But the sirens have become two distinct branches of the snake people and the merfolk, the Tannaeans have become the Zeronians, and the elves have become the wood elves, sea elves, magical elves, and so on. Many of the species have not only changed their names, but even their physiological structures have changed, and it is hard to believe that these changes were completed in just a short 10,000 years. Did you know? There is an ancient legend in this world that says that L 'Haronne is actually a' new world ', and before it, there was an old L' Haronne that was destroyed. While there are many mistakes in this legend, it gave me an inspiration … "
"Inspiration?"
"This planet has experienced a big explosion, but it is still full of life. It doesn't look real." Hao Ren smiled. "I'm afraid it is just a counterfeit."
The ship girl thought for a moment and gave a pertinent comment. "Every time you come up with something, it sounds like it is real."
"Every time I come up with something, it is reasonable and well-founded."
Hao Ren stopped. Before he knew it, he had already left the atrium of the underground palace. The corridor was cut off here, and a great canyon filled with endless darkness lay in front of him.
He had actually walked to the entrance of the Great Pit. Was this the entanglement of fate?
After ending the communication with the ship girl, Hao Ren squatted alone at the entrance of the Great Pit. In fact, he did not wander here by accident. He really cared about this strange Great Pit. While the latter was dangerous, it had aroused Hao Ren's interest because of its strange nature. Hao Ren had planned to find a chance to study it from the beginning.
A soft flapping sound came from behind, followed by Vivian's voice. "I knew you were here."
"Are you awake?" Hao Ren asked without turning his head.
"My head hurts," Vivian muttered, rubbing her head. "I don't know how I got used to sleeping like this. The big bed is more comfortable."
"When people reminisce about their childhood, they often ask themselves what was in their head," Hao Ren said with a smile. He then raised his hand and pointed to the canyon. "What do you think it looks like down there?"
Vivian stared at Hao Ren. "Are you going to jump down and have a look?"
Hao Ren quickly shook his head. "Don't make a fuss. Although being an inspector is a reckless profession, it is not that reckless. I just have a bold idea. I want to throw the MDT down and have a look — "
Before he could finish, the MDT popped out of his pocket. "Stop! I have an immature suggestion for your bold idea. Just f * cking jump down! "
"Get out of my way. This is just a preliminary plan." Hao Ren pushed the MDT aside and then took out a probe from his dimensional pocket. "Now, I am going to try it with the probe."
"… You scared the hell out of me," the MDT said.
Hao Ren gave the PDA a sideways glance before he activated the probe and threw it into the black canyon in front of him.
According to Rheia, the Great Pit would unconditionally devour anything with life or magical energy. So, was the probe on the list?
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