20: nest

"Wake up. Stop playing dead," Chen Feng's voice was devoid of warmth.

The unconscious Ma Liu didn't react, lying there like a bag of discarded trash.

Chen Feng ignored him. His entire focus was fixed on the sea of eerie green "stars" ahead.

The owners of those "eyes" emerged from the darkness.

They looked like a pack of creatures formed from a fusion of black crystals and rock, about half a meter long and resembling weasels from Earth. Their bodies were covered in jagged black crystals that reflected a cold, deathly sheen under the spotlight's faint glow.

"Screech—!"

One of the crystal creatures let out a sharp shriek and lunged with sudden force. Like an arrow from a bow, it instantly sprang from the ground to the cave ceiling, its sharp claws leaving a trail of dazzling sparks on the hard rock wall. The whole movement was so fast it left only an afterimage.

Chen Feng's pupils constricted sharply.

He had never seen this creature in any of Giant Star Mining's biological encyclopedias. It was a native organism of Ashen Earth Star, a monster mutated by high concentrations of undead crystals.

"Screech! Screech!"

As the leader signaled, the entire pack moved.

Instead of foolishly charging the steel behemoth of a robot head-on, they utilized the complex tunnel environment to launch a multi-dimensional assault from all directions!

"Bang! Bang! Crack!"

One lunged from a hole in the side wall, slamming hard against the robot's mechanical arm joint! Another pounced from above, hanging upside down while its sharp claws frantically scratched at the cockpit's observation window! Even more rushed toward the robot's treads and chassis, attempting to cripple its mobility!

"A pack of clever beasts," Chen Feng remarked, his tone unreadable—neither praise nor mockery.

"Warning! Left sensor number three damaged!"

"Warning! Outer armor pressure exceeds threshold!"

Red lights flashed violently inside the cockpit, and the piercing alarm was loud enough to tear eardrums.

"Shut up." Chen Feng coldly deactivated the alarm system, his gaze becoming even more composed.

He didn't activate the high-energy mining laser—that was for rock. Using it against these agile little things would only waste power for nothing.

"Switching to combat mode. Objective: Close-quarters clearance."

He calmly switched the operation mode.

"Hum—"

The mining laser module on the robot's right arm retracted, replaced by a massive metal heavy hammer equipped with pneumatic pistons. The collection claw on the left arm also pulled back, and a high-speed rotating alloy drill bit extended!

These were built-in tools for clearing small rock obstacles. Now, they had become lethal melee weapons!

"Come on, let's give you a taste of the power of 'industry'."

A bloodthirsty glint flashed in Chen Feng's eyes.

"Bang!"

The high-pressure pneumatic hammer slammed down, crushing a crystal creature that had just pounced into a pulp of flesh mixed with black crystal shards!

"Screech—"

The rotating drill bit acted like a ruthless meat grinder, instantly piercing and shredding another monster that was trying to bite the treads!

However, there were too many of them. For every one killed, three more took its place. They were fearless, drawn by the aura of the robot's energy core like gluttonous Taotie encountering the most delicious feast.

"This won't work... energy consumption is too high."

After flattening another monster with the pneumatic hammer, Chen Feng's gaze swept over the energy readings on the screen, his brow furrowed.

Just then, he noticed something strange.

Whenever he maneuvered the robot into large movements that brought it closer to the source of the "harmonic noise," the monsters' assault would falter and become chaotic for a moment.

"Could it be..."

A bold idea flashed through his mind.

He immediately pulled up the interface for the "audio spectrum analysis plugin."

"They're attracted by energy but repulsed by these high-frequency sound waves..." Chen Feng instantly understood the logic. "To them, this noise isn't background music; it's noise pollution—it's torture!"

"Since you dislike it so much..."

A smile that could only be described as cruel appeared on Chen Feng's face.

"...then I'll give you an earful."

He quickly reversed the plugin's function, changing it from "passive reception" to "active simulation and amplified transmission"!

"external speakers, set to maximum power. Playback frequency, lock onto 'harmonic noise'."

"Confirm execution? This operation may cause irreversible damage to external equipment," the system warned.

"Confirm."

In the next second, a sound wave completely inaudible to human ears but as sharp as a physical object blasted out from the robot's external speakers!

"Screech—aaah—!!"

The entire world was instantly filled with an indescribable shriek!

The previously ferocious crystal creatures were thrown into total chaos, as if they had been dropped into a vat of boiling oil! They rolled on the ground in agony, smashed their heads frantically against the rock walls, and even began biting and attacking one another!

The scene was momentarily so chaotic it was almost comical.

"Screech-ga—"

A few seconds later, the monsters acted as if they had seen a ghost. Letting out desperate wails, they fled in panic, swarming back into the holes in the surrounding rock walls and vanishing without a trace.

A bloody, fierce battle had ended dramatically in an almost absurd fashion.

"See," Chen Feng even had the leisure to say to the unconscious Ma Liu beside him, "Knowledge is the most efficient weapon."

With the "natives" driven away, the path ahead suddenly opened up.

A massive underground cavern appeared at the end of the spotlight's beam.

In the center of the cavern stood a bizarrely shaped, massive metallic ore, three stories high. That intense "harmonic noise" was being continuously emitted from this very ore.

On the ground surrounding the ore grew a patch of shimmering, deep blue plants that twinkled like stars. They emitted a soft glow, making the entire cavern look like something out of a dream.

"tranquility grass..."

Chen Feng whispered the name, and even in his voice, there was a trace of suppressed excitement.

He had finally found it.

This was the lair of those crystal creatures and the place where the tranquility grass grew.

He carefully piloted the robot, slowly approaching the patch of deep blue grass. He noticed that the healthiest and most lush patch of tranquility grass was located directly beneath a specific rock layer in the cavern.

He looked up, and his heart suddenly sank.

That rock layer was covered in a spiderweb of fine cracks, looking as if it might collapse entirely at the slightest touch.

But that wasn't the worst of it.

On the cracked rock wall, he saw something incredibly familiar.

An inconspicuous marker flashing with a faint red light—a remote monitoring probe from Giant Star Mining!

Although it was in sleep mode, that eerie red light was like a demon's eye, staring fixedly at the priceless treasure in the darkness—and fixedly at him.