532: Chapter 532 Beneath the Ruins

In the polar regions of Aetherland, eternal cold winds swirled with ice crystals, lashing against the exposed black rock layers.

The sky was an oppressive leaden gray, and occasionally, aircraft trailing dim wakes silently swept across the sky, flying toward the depths of that unmarked area.

Konks's ship was currently disguised as an inconspicuous, slightly darker piece of frozen rock, resting quietly in the shadow of a deep ice crevice.

Full-spectrum silence, with optical camouflage and thermal signal suppression turned to the maximum.

He had been lurking and observing here for four standard days.

The ship's energy reserves had dropped by a third, with most of it spent on maintaining the high-intensity stealth System.

The compressed food and recycled water he brought had also been significantly consumed, but the results were remarkable.

He had roughly figured out the patterns of those mysterious aircraft.

They did not operate 24 hours a day but had fixed shifts.

Every day, there were about 3-5 sorties flying from the direction of the Holy Capital, Aetherland; the models were uniform, being the heavy transport aircraft common in the Void military.

They would fly straight toward an area about seventy kilometers to the northeast.

That area was a total blank on the map, but his ship's scans showed what seemed to be faint heat sources and metal echoes from a large artificial structure.

The aircraft would stay there for one to two hours and then return the same way.

Occasionally, other smaller and more agile aircraft would take off from that direction, flying toward different Hive Cities.

That place was the core of the red circle on Elwen's map.

But Konks did not choose that place as his first target.

It was too conspicuous, and the security was bound to be tight.

He turned his gaze elsewhere, to an anomaly marked by the ship's AI during its continuous scanning and analysis of the surrounding terrain.

About fifteen kilometers from that core area, there was a valley completely buried by ancient glacial movement and landslides.

The radiation readings there were ridiculously high, and the geological structure appeared unusually messy, unlike a natural formation.

More importantly, the flight paths of those Void aircraft would deliberately bypass that area, as if there were something unclean there.

"This is the place." Konks made up his mind as he looked at the red dot on the screen marked "High Radiation Abandoned Zone - Suspected Artificial Ruins."

If the Void was covering something up, then this ruin, which they deliberately avoided yet was so close by, likely hid the key to uncovering the secret.

He spent half a day using the ship's sensors and miniature reconnaissance drones to conduct a preliminary scan of the valley in as much detail as possible.

The results were startling.

The radiation dose was enough to kill an unprotected Shankong person within half an hour.

Beneath the rocks and permafrost, there were indeed buried outlines of large-scale man-made structures, their style starkly different from the current Void designs that had a biological feel.

They leaned more toward a heavy, angular industrial style and were severely damaged, as if they had experienced a catastrophe.

Most importantly, the scans showed that deep within those structures, there seemed to be relatively intact enclosed spaces.

It was time to go down and take a look.

Konks did not act rashly.

He first calculated the intervals between those transport aircraft shifts and found a window of about four hours.

Then, he began to take gear out from the ship's supply reserves.

The exploration suit was a top-tier civilian model ordered from the Company.

The name was very simple: "Trailblazer Type VII All-Environment Protective Suit."

But those in the know understood that, aside from not being equipped with weapons, its protection, life support System, sensor suite, and embedded AI were essentially a civilian stripped-down version of the light reconnaissance armor issued by the Company's Enforcement Department.

As for the price, it was equivalent to a decent household shuttle.

Konks couldn't help but sigh at this moment; fortunately, he was quite wealthy.

He put on this grayish-black "tin can" and started the self-check.

The field of vision inside the helmet lit up, with countless status parameters and data streaking across the edges of his vision.

The internal circulation System brought fresh air at a constant temperature.

The exoskeleton module provided basic assistance, allowing him not to feel the weight of this nearly hundred-kilogram equipment.

The multi-functional tool backpack was stuffed with various small toys.

High-energy cutters, micro-engineering drones, universal decoders, environmental samplers, as well as several high-energy batteries and emergency rations.

Of course, the most important items were a civilian Self-Defense Pulse Pistol and a retractable Polymer Vibration Blade.

The Company product catalog stated it was suitable for wilderness cutting, sample collection, and the possible repelling of dangerous creatures.

Everything was ready.

Konks took a deep breath, and a line of status prompts flashed across his helmet visor.

[External Environment: High radiation, extreme low temperature, oxygen deficiency. Protection Level: Sufficient. Recommended action time: No more than 6 standard hours.]

"Here goes."

He pushed open the ship's belly hatch, and a gust of cold wind mixed with ice grains immediately poured in, but it was deflected by a deflector field a few centimeters from the protective suit.

He leaped down nimbly, landing almost silently as the exoskeleton absorbed all the impact.

Looking back at the ship that was almost integrated with the rocks, Konks activated the positioning beacon and emergency call device on his wrist.

This thing had only one purpose: when it was activated, the Company's commercial security insurance, which cost 1 million credit points a year, would prove its worth.

You will see the stars twinkle for you... that's impossible.

But within five minutes, a Codenamed Squad would appear before you and then rescue you from the "fire."

As long as you are within the service range of the Company's Silver Rail, it's mission accomplished.

"I hope I won't need it."

He took a deep breath and then strode toward that valley of death.

Fifteen kilometers, with the help of the powered exoskeleton, was not far.

He walked extremely carefully, using the terrain and rocks as cover to avoid all possible directions of observation.

On the helmet display, the radiation dose readings were red all the way, and the environmental threat level always showed as "lethal."

Without this tin can, he would probably be feeling nauseous and dizzy by now, and his skin would be starting to ulcerate.

"This armor is quite effective."

He muttered to himself, essentially to cheer himself up.

Finally, he arrived at the edge of the ruins marked by the scan.

Before him was a mountain of twisted metal and concrete blocks half-buried by ice and snow, on a scale even larger than he had expected.

The marks of time and some kind of immense destructive force made this place look not like a building, but more like the carcass of a giant steel monster.

He activated his backpack and released four micro-scanning drones.

Like black beetles, they spread out silently and began a more refined 3D scan and modeling of the ruins.

Soon, a preliminary 3D model was constructed in his field of vision.

The main body of the ruins seemed to be a massive structure partially buried underground, with most of it covered by the mountain.

On one relatively intact side, the drones found the outline of a massive and heavy metal structure.

It looked like a door, an isolation door large enough for heavy vehicles to pass through.

But now it was severely deformed, with most of it jammed by rocks, leaving only a slanted, rust-covered corner exposed.

"This is the place."