The end of the world: mountain and sea disasters - #204 - Chapter 204: Working

Hundreds of meters deep underground.

The ruins of the mine that existed thousands of years ago, Yu Ke immediately started to sense as soon as he stepped onto the platform.

There is no life here except him and the wind chimes!

Where did the sound come from?

Yu Ke held the Leviathan Ax in his right hand, and tapped the wind chime’s neck with his left hand, who immediately dived into the shadows.

His eyes locked on the shelf with the bronze bell hanging on it.

The blue light cast by nearby lantern flowers reflects the bronze patterns on the frame.

When Yu Ke passed by before, his eyes only stayed on the bronze bell and did not notice the humanoid relief on the surface of the shelf.

At this moment, Yu Ke, who was looking for the source of the sound, accidentally caught a glimpse of the human-shaped relief and blinked. He was surprised and suddenly took a step forward. Upon closer inspection, he found that the relief had returned to its original shape.

Is it an optical illusion caused by confusing lighting?

No, you read that right, the relief just blinked!

Calculation analysis: This trait greatly enhances Yu Ke’s perception. Under normal conditions, he would never be dazzled.

Yu Ke had no time to guess whether it was his own intrusion or the fluorescent light released by the lantern flowers that triggered the mechanism.

Quickly walking to the front of the bronze bell, Yu Ke just wanted to take a closer look and use the characteristics of detecting and filling gaps to obtain information, when he saw the human-shaped relief surrounding the bronze frame suddenly expanded as if it was injected with life.

The flat lines bulged and transformed into solid shapes. Seven or eight humanoid monsters with only upper bodies hung on the shelves. What was even weirder was that none of these monsters had heads.

The eyes are located on the nipples, and the mouth is open on the abdomen, making a high-pitched sound, as if calling for something.

Before Yu Ke could figure out their intentions, the headless men seemed to have received unified instructions. They pressed their upper bodies against the bronze bell, raised their arms high and then lowered them at extremely fast speeds, continuously slapping the surface of the bronze bell.

After a long time, the bronze bell was rung again.

The dust on the surface of the clock body was scattered. First, the rhythmic knocking sound echoed on the platform, and then the huge bronze bell began to shake amidst the continuous vibrations.

Until the frequency of the knocks gradually overlapped, the shouts of the headless people “growing” on the shelf became louder and louder.

clang! clang! clang!

The bell rang three times in a row, and Yu Ke, who was nearest, felt like the world was spinning. Thanks to his spiritual awakening and mental anchoring qualities, he was able to quickly regain consciousness. He then swung his ax at the copper chain connecting the bronze bell and the stand without hesitation. .

Yu Ke’s intuition told Yu Ke that the ringing of bells one after another was not normal and must be stopped.

It turns out that nothing can withstand the ravages of time.

Even though it still looked normal on the surface, when the wind-and-frost ax blade struck the copper chain, it was cut off without much effort.

The bronze bell fell to the ground, throwing up a large amount of smoke and dust.

At the same time, the headless man on the surface of the bronze platform soon calmed down and returned to his original state because he lost the target of his knocking.

“How on earth is it done? No matter how sophisticated the mechanism is, it is still usable in this age?”

This sudden change was indeed beyond Yu Ke’s expectation. He took a breath and stared at the bronze bell and whispered to himself.

But in the next second, a new knocking sound suddenly sounded.

This time it was not a bronze bell. The sound came from the abyss surrounding the platform, and it no longer had a specific rhythm. What came to Yu Ke’s ears were chaotic knocking sounds from all directions.

They are not so much bells as they are more like the sound that is most common in mines, the sound of a pickaxe hitting the ore.

The whole mine seemed to be back a thousand years ago. Thinking of this, Yu Ke’s expression became more and more serious, and he just felt ridiculous.

The mine was completely abandoned thousands of years ago. How could anyone still be mining?

However, such a mixed sound cannot be produced by the ferocious beasts living in the cave, not to mention that the timing of their appearance is quite special, just after the bronze bell rings!

After repeatedly confirming that he was not hallucinating, and that the sounds heard by his ears did exist, and even became clearer as time went by, Yu Ke quickly realized that there might be secrets hidden in the abyss around the platform.

Returning to the stone bridge that he passed earlier, Yu Ke bent his bow and arrow, trying to use a strong light arrow to see the situation at the bottom of the abyss.

The string was loosened, and the strong-light arrow shot out, bursting out with dazzling white light halfway, illuminating areas that were difficult for searchlights to reach.

When he saw the situation clearly, even Yu Ke could not help but feel his scalp numb and horrified.

Just as the light spread to an area more than 300 meters deep, Yu Ke saw the bottom of the abyss, and at the same time he saw dozens of black humanoid monsters.

They are distributed throughout the area shrouded in light, waving the manuscripts in their hands, and constantly tapping the ore, like programmed robots, just immersed in their work, completely ignoring what is happening in the outside world.

Previously in the underground palace of the temple, Yu Ke briefly saw the scene when the bronze tripod was cast thousands of years ago.

At that time, a large number of aliens appeared in the workshop, and now it seems that the person responsible for mining should also be a certain alien race.

The question is what kind of alien race can survive for thousands of years, or is it in an underground cave without any water. This undoubtedly violates the most basic laws of life, and Yu Ke has to suspect that they have been transformed into some kind of monster.

From the time Yu Ke entered the mine cave to the time the bronze bell was rung by the Headless One, they should have been in a dormant state.

If there is no external influence, they will most likely remain dormant.

However, Yu Ke’s arrival broke the balance. The bronze bells on the platform were activated, and they also woke up.

Of course, the above is just Yu Ke’s speculation based on the existing information. He cannot be sure, but one thing is certain, that is, these guys below are most likely miners from a thousand years ago!

In other words, as long as they still retain some intelligence, there may be a chance for forest spirits to communicate with them.

Is there any more direct way to obtain information than this when communicating with alien races from thousands of years ago?

Although this idea may be a bit ridiculous, it’s already here and you have to try it anyway.

Judging from their current behavior of mining, these humanoid creatures resurrected after falling into dormancy. Regardless of whether they are intelligent or not, at least they are still habitually maintaining their original state.

This means that after digging a sufficient amount of ore, they will most likely return to the platform and pile the excavated ore next to the blast furnace. That will be Yu Ke’s chance to take action!

Yu Ke was not lacking in patience. Rather than heading along the cliff outside the platform to the unknown abyss, he was more willing to wait here.

At least it was very close to the escape route. If an accident happened, Yu Ke could retreat along the original route at any time instead of being trapped and die in the abyss.

Having made up his mind, Yu Ke did not rush down to shoot the strong light arrow. Instead, he returned to the platform and picked up the piece of ore that he had chipped. He wanted to take advantage of the opportunity to find out what the ore in this vein was. What is the origin, while inspecting the bronze bell.

Along with the tinkling sound of knocking, the characteristics of these two things gradually emerged in Yu Ke’s mind.

Black Copper Ore: An extremely rare ore. The Black Copper contained in it is nurtured by heaven and earth. It has a strong suppressive effect on certain existences!

Bronze Soul-Calling Bell: A treasure cast with a special technique. The sound of the bell emitted by striking at a specific frequency can touch the soul.

The characteristics of the bronze soul-calling bell are enough to prove that it is indeed the key to awakening the group of guys below. Yu Ke even suspected that humans thousands of years ago used it to control the alien races below, using the bell to control them to mine ore day and night.

No wages, no food and water, a true zero-zero-seven model.

Compared with them, the work and life of social animals is a paradise.

What’s more important is that the black copper ore Yu Ke has on hand is the main material for casting the bronze tripod. Its characteristics are indeed related to the suppression effect, and this so-called “specific existence” should be the source of the beast tide.

Playing with the black copper ore in his hand, he put it into the mark space with his backhand.

After understanding the characteristics of this type of ore, Yu Ke’s eyes lit up when he looked at the several hills of black copper ore stacked on the platform.

Without the casting technology provided by the aliens, it would be unrealistic to recast the bronze tripod. However, with modern casting technology, there is no problem in using these black copper ores to create a set of equipment.

Needless to say, the power of special attack treasures against monsters such as beast tides.

It’s so beautiful just thinking about it!

With this harvest, this trip will not be in vain.

Just when Yu Ke was thinking about how to use the black copper ore to build weapons, armor, or other equipment, the forest spirit suddenly reminded him,

“They’re climbing up, be careful!”

In order to avoid disturbing the situation, Yu Ke, who woke up from his fantasy, hurriedly evacuated the platform.

The knocking sounds in the abyss have indeed become much sparser, and it seems that many miners have reached the target.

Crouching in the middle of the stone bridge, Yu Ke turned off the searchlight and let the forest spirit help cover his breath. At the same time, he put on his helmet again, turned on the telescope, and kept scanning the edge of the platform back and forth.

Those miners climbed much faster than expected.

In only a minute or so, Yu Ke saw a black shadow leaping up from the northwest corner of the platform and landing on the platform. Behind it, more than a dozen tall black shadows appeared one after another.

The lantern flowers planted by Yu Ke in advance came in handy at this time. When they entered the lighting range of the lantern flowers, Yu Ke immediately saw their general appearance.

As expected, they are just aliens in human form.

The monster’s feet are about twice the size of an adult, with sharp claws that allow it to climb on steep rock walls. Its burly body is generally more than two meters tall, and its body is covered with dark hair. The bronze coffins neatly arranged next to them are about the same size.

Two strong arms about the same thickness as thighs hung down by his sides. Yu Ke noticed that each arm would split into two palms about the same size as paws at the front, each carrying a huge pickaxe.

When it walked closer, Yu Ke could see the monster’s exposed heart. At first glance, it looked like a sarcoma wrapped in blood and meridians. It kept shrinking and swelling, and there seemed to be some tentacles on the surface. He was grabbing something from the empty space in front of him.

The line of sight went up to the huge and ferocious head, with rows of eyeballs growing on both sides of the cheeks. What surprised Yu Ke was that the alien’s mouth was not horizontal, but grew vertically in the center of the head, penetrating the Tianling Cap.

This caused its head to look like a wide open mouth with sharp fangs in the middle, and the eyeballs on both sides were blinking.

Seeing the “handsome” faces of these aliens that could be called “wanton”, Yu Ke realized that the difficulty of communicating with them was absolutely huge, so he could only suppress the idea of ​​showing up first to see what these aliens wanted to do. Something.

The aliens who returned to the platform from the abyss all had a large amount of black copper ore tied with hair on their backs. They looked as if they were carrying a hill on their backs. They walked like puppets being manipulated, with extremely awkward postures.

In just a few minutes, Yu Ke saw nearly a hundred aliens with almost the same appearance on the wide platform. They gathered near the blast furnace, unloaded the ore from their bodies, and then turned and walked towards the bronze coffin next to them.

The entire process showed no response to the surrounding environment, which made Yu Ke’s heart sink.

Any creature with some intelligence should realize that everything in the mine is no longer what it used to be. However, the eyes on both sides of the heads of these guys in front of them are obviously for decoration, completely ignoring the surrounding environment.

‘Could it be that they are actually dead and were made into zombies thousands of years ago, and then use bronze soul-calling bells to control their actions, and continuously mine black copper ore for mankind’

After moving forward for a while, Yu Ke thought to himself that this seemed to be the only explanation for the scene in front of him.

Zombies can exist for many years without decaying. They do not need to eat or drink. They are extremely powerful and only need a coffin to rest. This is highly consistent with the characteristics displayed by these alien races.

However, what happened next overturned all Yu Ke’s speculations.

As if they knew the location of their coffins, these monsters swayed to the side of their own bronze coffins.

Yu Ke originally thought that they were preparing to rest, or lie down in the coffin to replenish energy.

After all, they have been in the abyss for who knows how many years. Even if they are zombies, it is time for maintenance.

But after they stood still, they dropped the pickaxe in their hands, then raised their hands to clasp the sarcoma on their chests, which was their “heart”, and forcibly pulled it out of the body, then leaned towards the coffin, like It is to put them into the soil inside the coffin.

Yu Ke stared at several monsters and noticed that the moment their hearts entered the bronze coffins, their bodies would completely stop moving.

What does it mean to let the “heart” enter the bronze coffin, but the main body is guarding beside the coffin?

All kinds of strange phenomena made Yu Ke’s brain almost unable to turn around, and he was filled with confusion and no answers.

“Do you think they can communicate?”

Yu Ke asked the forest spirits in his mind. Rather than guessing by himself, it was undoubtedly more convenient to ask them directly.

Yu Ke responded with a long silence from the forest spirit.

It is said that communicating with living creatures is the best ability of forest spirits, but these aliens who appear out of nowhere are really jumping back and forth on the boundary between living things and non-living things.

After much thought, Yu Ke decided to wait until they all “slept” before trying to get closer.