Chapter 365.1: We Come In Peace [Part 1]
Chapter 365: We Come In Peace [Part 1]
The mural contained a lot of things—depiction of sea beasts, caricature of humans and more—but it was the game board of Link of Gypsophila that assured Cillin that it was the work of the Xi Family.
Someone who had never seen a Link of Gypsophila game before wouldn't be able to make heads or tails out of the differently-sized speckles on the wall, but Cillin wasn't one of them. If he wasn't mistaken, the board state depicted on the mural was level 7 or higher.
There was a round-shaped pedestal on the second floor, and at the center of it was a recess that looked like it could fit the Aurelio star map fragments perfectly. So, Lung did it. Everyone watched as Lung joined the fragments together before placing them inside the recess.
Kra kra kra—
The pedestal wasn't a singular structure. It had multiple ring-shaped sections that, after the star map was inserted, began rotating not just in different directions, but also at different angles as well.When nine rings had come to a stop, the hologram of a sea beast was projected above the pedestal.
The sea beast looked like an amphibious reptile to Cillin, but both Lung and Big Rock were certain that it was a deep sea creature. Cillin didn't know how they arrived at the conclusion, but he trusted them to know better in this field.
The Andrea Family didn't possess a record of the sea beast in question. They hadn't encountered it on their way down either.
"What on earth does this mean?" Lung asked while looking at the pedestal.
Cillin glanced at Wheeze and noticed that its ears were twitching again. He was about to pick its brain when an intense shaking interrupted him.
"What's going on?!"
"Is it an earthquake?"
A screen appeared on the circular wall while everyone was letting out various exclamations of surprise. It seemed to be a live feed of the scenery outside the cave. Countless hemisphere-shaped buildings—yes, actual buildings—were rising from the ground, and bright lines were shining all across the sea bed. At first glance, they looked like the roads of the rising city.
"It's an actual underwater city..."
To say that the group was stunned by what they were seeing would be the understatement of the year.
Somehow someway, someone had built a goddamn city on the sea bed of the infamous Sea Paradise. Just how extraordinary the builders had to be to achieve such a feat?
That wasn't all. When the buildings began rising to the surface, a film-like, hemisphere-shaped substance also expanded from the center of the city and repelled the sea water. It kept growing until the entire city and some more was completely covered by it.
The sounds of excited breathing could be heard when the commotion finally subsided. This was especially true for Lung's group because they, seamen who were born to the sea knew exactly how difficult it was to pull off such a feat. It wasn't that building an underwater city was an unprecedented feat—quite the contrary, it was almost trivial on planets with the right environment—but this was THE infamous Sea Paradise! A planet with monstrous sea creatures, an unusual magnetic field, a terrible environment and countless more disruptive substances!
It was hardly a bad thing, of course. After all, it meant that they were exactly where they needed to be, and that God's Tear had to be somewhere in this underwater city!
"Let's go," Lung said while moving back down the staircase. Big Rock and the rest of his subordinates followed right behind him. Not Cillin though. He shot Wheeze's fully erect and occasionally turning ears a glance before asking, "Did you discover something?"
The gray cat answered, "I'm not sure. I keep having this feeling that there is something else in the area, but I can't confirm what it is since my detection range is shorter than normal."
"Is it a machine?"
"No. I'm talking about something alive. A living creature," Wheeze clarified while kneading its paws a little.
"I sense a massive mechanical construct in the underground," Czedow said after observing the surroundings for a bit. "Geothermal energy is probably what empowers this whole place."
Cillin didn't doubt that Czedow's analysis was true. It was why he grew even more impressed with the old Xi Family.
No wonder they were known as the generation that even the gods were jealous of!
"Let's catch up with the others and see what's changed outside."
By the time Cillin, Czedow and Wheeze had stepped back into the open once more, they discovered that Lung and his men had removed their breathing masks.
"The atmosphere composition of artificial atmosphere is more or less the same as the planet's atmosphere. Even the atmospheric pressure is almost identical," Lung said after Cillin had emerged from the entrance.
Thanks to the bright lines on the ground, they no longer needed the luminous stones to see their way anymore. It was so much brighter that there were practically nothing they couldn't see clearly.
"There must be a place where the atmospheric composition and pressure could be changed as the controllers pleased," Cillin said while looking at the new buildings all around them.
The buildings varied in size, but not shape. Built from what looked like common stone, they were all shaped like hemispheres and were completely opaque. There were also no entryway where they might be able to look through or get inside.
Lung wanted to continue the search for God's Tear immediately, but had no idea where to begin. It was because all of the buildings looked more or less the same, and attempts to cut a hole with their blade only left shallow scratches on the surface.
Cillin removed his breathing mask and protective suit. Then, he touched a nearby building with his bare fingers.
There are DH50s in this "rock", Cillin thought to himself. And unless he was sorely mistaken, the building blocks of each and every building had DH50s in them as well. He couldn't help but be impressed by this discovery. DH50s were incredibly rare in GAL space, but this entire city was made up of it! Sea Paradise was definitely rich with the black ore.
"There are working mechanisms inside them," Czedow said. He could sense the mechanical activities within the hemispheric buildings as clear as day.
Cillin had sensed the same thing as well. "Yes, just like any house or skyscraper on the surface, these buildings must have an entrance or ten. I'm sure that the creators of this underwater city have more surprises in store for us as well."
"Young master! Can you come over here for a minute?" beckoned Big Rock suddenly with a note of worry and urgency in his tone.
Cillin stayed where he was while Lung made his way to his subordinate. It was because he felt Wheeze poking his shoulder unconsciously with its claws. Usually, this meant that Wheeze had sent a prey nearby.
Lung had just reached Big Rock when suddenly, he glanced around warily before locking his gaze behind Cillin. He cried out a warning,
"Cillin! Watch out!"
Cillin felt something rushing toward him the second the first syllable had escaped his lips. It was quick and as imperceptible as a shadow. One moment there was nothing, and the next it was speeding toward him.
Cillin still didn't move a muscle. Wheeze was getting ready to extend its claws, and Czedow was ready for battle as well. However, the creature suddenly stopped in its tracks when it was five meters away from him. It let out a couple of raspy cries that sounded like a warning, but it didn't attack him.
Seeing as the anticipated fight hadn't occurred for some reason, Cillin turned around and got a good look of his ambusher.
The creature was about 15 meters in length. It had four limbs with well-developed epidermis and a long tail. Although its black surface wasn't covered in scales, he had a feeling that they wouldn't be easy to penetrate. It had no pupils, and its eye color was identical to the color of the sea water. That being said, it was possible to identify its emotions from its deep, dark eyes. There were thick skinfolds around its neck. They were tightly constricted around its neck when it was charging toward him, but after it came to a stop they relaxed into something that looked like a constantly expanding and folding umbrella.
It was a strange species to say the least.
"Predator!" Lung and his men immediately drew out their weapons. Energy weapons were difficult to use in this environment, so they had only brought firearms and melee weapons with them.
Every few years or over a decade or so, the Andrea Family would dispatch an investigation team to Sea Paradise for a scientific expedition. Of course, most of them only observed the sea creatures from the air or the sea surface. Certainly no one had ever ventured to the bottom of the sea like Lung. That was probably why they had only ever caught the Predators in action one time, and they had never had another encounter until now.
The Predators were incredibly fast creatures. In that footage, three Predators had been seen forcing a midnight zone sea beast to the sea surface before killing it. Their claws were far sharper than they looked, and their incredible speed gave them the ability to slaughter a prey a hundred of times bigger than them without a scratch.
The footage of the Predators were only available to the core members of the Andrea Family. This meant that Lung and Big Rock were the only ones among their group to have seen it.
The reason Big Rock had become worried called Lung to his side was because he had spotted a Predator's claw mark on one of the buildings. On a related note, the tamers who caught the footage had attempted to tame the Predators to no avail. The black creatures had continued to attack their prey without paying them any heed whatsoever.
When Lung saw the scratch mark on the building's surface, he too began to pay attention to his surroundings only to discover that one such creature was behind Cillin almost immediately. They were much better at detecting aquatic creatures than most others thanks to their racial trait. Lung had cried out his warning as soon as he could, but what happened afterward confused both him and Big Rock.
"Why did the Predator stop suddenly?" Lung asked Big Rock as quietly as he could.
They didn't speak or move too overtly because they didn't want to provoke the Predator into a rage. That would only make it harder to deal with.
Big Rock was confused as well. After the Andrea Family had analyzed the footage and various data, they had come to the conclusion that the Predator were vicious creatures whom, once the hunt had begun, wouldn't stop their assault until their prey was dead. Some analysts even deduced that the Predators might not have a natural enemy. Whether or not their analysis was correct, it didn't explain why the Predator—who were clearly hostile toward them and were acting as such—had suddenly decided to stop its attack.