Page 167
Konno said this, shutting up Yamanaka and making a "V" sign to Beidou.
The tank's engine roared, and it took off from the hangar and flew into the sky on its own without the need for a tractor.
Noriko issued an emergency evacuation order for the Keihin area. Because the New Year had just passed and many factories had not yet started work, the evacuation work was much easier.
After the platypus reached the designated location, it began to land and then burrowed into the ground. The drill on its head began to work, and the entire body vibrated violently.
"Ah, ah, no matter how many times I sit here, I can never get used to this feeling."
When the platypus burrowed into the ground, the earth was disturbed, and Ling also felt something.
"It's begun." The ground beneath her feet was like ripples of waves. She took a step forward and her whole body melted into the soil.
The platypus can travel underground at speeds of up to 90 kilometers per hour, using a liquid compression fuel twin-engine propulsion system, but Lingye is even faster.
"Infrared detection is working normally, sonar positioning is working normally, and a large underground cave has been detected. We are moving forward along the cave!"
Konno closed his eyes nervously. The last time he almost suffocated underground was unforgettable.
"Konno, open your eyes. You are a machine gunner, so be alert to your surroundings."
“I understand!”
But even if you open your eyes, it is still pitch black underground. There is no sunlight here all year round, so vision is not a useful ability.
"The current depth is 800 meters." Mu Kaji observed the readings on the instrument panel. "We found an underground water system, which is consistent with the hydrological data. No abnormalities were found."
"Depth of one thousand meters, two thousand meters"
"Five Thousand Meters Deep"
As you go deeper, the temperature gradually drops. Even in the hottest summer, it is close to 0℃.
Once it gets close to the earth veins, the temperature will rise again due to geothermal heat. The Platypus continues to advance underground, and after breaking through the depth of 10,000 meters, the temperature that had dropped to freezing point begins to rise again.
"The current depth is 32 meters, and the temperature outside the cabin is degrees Celsius. Sonar... sonar detected an abnormality, a large hole appeared in front! There seems to be a man-made structure!"
"Man-made building? Stop moving immediately!"
"Understood. Engine power has been reduced, thrusters have stopped operating, and forward movement has now stopped."
The thrusters stopped. Forty thousand meters underground, there was no air circulation and almost no oxygen outside the cabin.
Human beings' understanding of the underground world is still at its initial stage of ignorance. Apart from deep-well operations such as coal mining and mineral mining, this is an area that humans have not yet set foot in.
"Analysis of the samples showed that there was only a trace amount of oxygen in the air outside, which was not enough for breathing. There was some methane in the air, but no harmful gases were found."
"Put on your oxygen mask, let's go out and take a look!"
A group of people wearing oxygen masks filed out of the cabin. It was pitch black outside. Konno turned on the searchlight. The high-intensity light illuminated the area several dozen meters ahead. But he still couldn't detect the end of the hole.
"This is 40,000 meters underground. There are no animals or plants. It's so quiet. Wait, Beidou, doesn't your rabbit need to breathe?"
"What? Oh, you mean the rabbit." Beidou remembered that he was still holding the rabbit in his arms. He was wearing an oxygen mask, but not the rabbit.
Because he knew in his heart that the rabbit was a monster, and coming underground was like going home, so he subconsciously ignored this point, but did not consider the opinions of others.
The rabbit, which was originally lazily in his hand, suddenly kicked its legs and jumped out of Beidou's hand. It ran away without anyone knowing where it was.
"Beidou, your rabbit ran away! It seems to be very energetic even without breathing."
"Idiot, every animal needs to breathe!"
"Although the oxygen content in the air here is not high enough for humans to breathe, it may be enough for small animals like rabbits." Mu Kaji forced a scientific explanation, saving Beidou the trouble of explaining.
Beidou could only smile and indicate that was the case.
"Don't you need to get it back?" Konno asked.
"It's okay. I don't think it will run away. The mission is more important now."
Just now, the platypus' sonar detector detected traces of artificial buildings, and now they want to confirm it with their own eyes.
"Konno, turn down the brightness of the searchlight. There may be enemies over there. Be careful not to alert them and attract their attention."
They walked step by step towards the depths of the cave. At first, they did not find anything and even suspected that the results of the sonar detector were wrong and the imaging was just a natural landscape that happened to resemble artificial shapes. Until Konno accidentally shone the searchlight into the sky.
"Wait, Konno, look up there, what is that!"
Konno once again moved the searchlight upwards, and this time they could see clearly that it was a huge regular geometric sculpture. It was huge and extended for thousands of meters in radius. Then they realized that it was not that they had not found any traces of human intervention, but that they had already stepped into an underground city since some time.
This is a complex of buildings built by intelligent creatures in the distant past.
"Who built such a huge city?"
It won't be human. It's a huge project to dig out such a huge space 40,000 meters underground, enough to fill dozens of football fields, to build an underground city.
But more important than this is whether there is still life inhabiting this city.
"Did you hear any sound?" Beidou asked.
"Sound?" Listening carefully, Shan Zhong also heard it, "It seems to be the sound of the wind."
But that was not the sound of the wind. Several people moved closer to the direction of the sound and saw the huge monster lying on the ground.
"It's a monster!"
It was a monster that looked like a giant mole, with sharp protrusions on its head. It was too dim to see clearly whether they were fangs or tentacles.
The monster was still sleeping. Even though there was no oxygen underground, it was snoring and no one knew what gas it was breathing.
"Is it the murderer who attacked Keihin Industrial Zone last night? It really looks very vicious. Captain, please give the order to attack. We should destroy it quickly while it is still sleeping."
"Ha, humans are indeed so cruel. They want to destroy everything they see."
Before Captain Long could speak, another voice rang out behind them. The members of the TAC team quickly turned around and drew their guns to be on guard.
A strange-looking creature appeared behind them. Compared to an ordinary human, it was very tall, about two meters tall, but its torso and limbs were very slender, and its appearance was like a scarecrow in the field.
"who are you?"
"You ask me who I am? You are the uninvited guests who came to my city, yet you ask me who I am."
“Is this your city?”
"Of course, I am Angramon, the underground man. This is my city. You are a bunch of uninvited evil guests who have invaded someone else's home. Do you still have to make excuses? Or, in your opinion, the earth only belongs to humans, and other life forms have no right to live here?"
Beidou and Konno were unable to answer.
Although Yamanaka felt from the bottom of his heart that the Earth should belong to humans, he could not bring himself to say that life forms born on Earth should not be allowed to live there.
"Whether we are bad guests or not, I think it depends on your answer." Captain Long took over the topic.
"what?"
"This monster is the one that attacked the factory last night, right? If you want to call us evil guests, shouldn't you explain first? An entire factory was destroyed, and three humans were killed."
"That's all humankind's fault! Your factory has polluted the groundwater, and it has threatened the survival of us underground people! There is already enough water on the surface, mountain spring water, water from rivers and lakes, isn't that enough for you to use? The groundwater belongs to us underground people."
"If you can promise not to use groundwater anymore, I promise that Jitjitaja will not attack any buildings or lives on the ground anymore. How about that? Can you promise?"
Captain Long was speechless for a moment. He could not and did not have the right to make such a statement on behalf of mankind.
"Look, you can't. You don't have any sincerity."
"Wake up, Gitgitaga, and let humans see how powerful you are!"
"No, run away!"
Long knew that if a battle took place here, the TAC team would have no chance of winning.
"Go back Platypus!"
Chapter 201 Cheap Justice
In the huge underground space, the members of the TAC team were running in the direction they came from, with a monster chasing them closely behind them.
Although weighted running is a daily training item for the TAC team, there is no oxygen here, and carrying oxygen cylinders and breathing apparatus greatly affects their speed.
"No, we can't escape the monster's speed. Captain, I'll intercept it here, you go first!" Yamanaka stopped and fired a few shots backwards with the TAC gun.
"No, I'll stay!" Beidou also turned around and shot.
The bullets from the TAC gun hit the surface of the monster's body, splashing sparks. Its skin was very hard, and the bullets exploded directly on the surface and could not penetrate.
Captain Long was willing to let Beidou stay behind to cover the retreat. Because even in the most dangerous situation, Beidou still had other options. But he had no reason to say so. Taking a deep breath into the breathing mask, Long looked down and saw that the oxygen scale was still halfway.
"Don't argue, I'm the captain, I'm staying. All of you hurry up and get on board the Platypus!"
"But--"
"This is an order!" Captain Long took out his gun. His TAC gun had a strange shape. After he pulled the trigger at the monster, an orange bullet was fired.
No, it was a cannonball that was fired. After it exploded on the monster, a small mushroom cloud rose up, and the entire underground space shook, and gravel fell, and the monster's steps also stopped.
"I have a secret weapon, don't fight with me. Hurry up, after you get on the Platypus, use the main gun to support me!"
Yamanaka and Bokuto looked at each other and could only nod.
Watching the team members leave, Captain Long put away the special gun and pulled out an ordinary TAC gun.
The weapon he used just now came from Captain Kiriyama. In order to respond to the Ultra Warriors, the Space Development Bureau is secretly developing equipment that can fight alongside the Ultra Warriors. The code name is confidential, and that gun is one of the early results, but it is only a prototype, so there is only one live bullet.
Of course, even if there were more bullets, Long would not dare to use them again. The previous attack had caused part of the tunnel to collapse, and small rocks kept falling from the top of his head. Once the tunnel collapsed completely, no one could escape at a depth of 40,000 meters underground. Maybe there was magma not far from his feet.
The previous blow hit the monster's chest, and the armor on its chest was somewhat charred. It had no real effect, but made the monster even more furious. It strode closer, and its body rubbed off large chunks of rock.
The red tentacles on the monster's head spewed out a large amount of white smoke-like gas, which quickly filled the tunnel.
“Smells like alcohol!”
It was indeed it! It was exactly the same smell of alcohol that he smelled at the scene in the morning. But after inhaling the gas, just a little bit, Long felt a numbness in his lungs. It was not real alcohol, but a strong anesthetic. He felt that he couldn't even get oxygen into his lungs.
Long tightened his breathing mask, but when the respirator exchanged gas, some alcohol smell still entered the mask. Because the space of the entire underground tunnel was limited, it was completely filled with white smoke.
"So that's why those security guards suffocated to death!"
The lungs were paralyzed, so they could not breathe on their own. This was the real cause of death for the three security guards. Long felt his vision was a little blurry. There was still a lot of oxygen in the oxygen tank, but his body was powerless.
He was going to die? He had a premonition that this day would come when he joined the TAC team, so Long did not feel panic, but just a little regretful.
The breathing mask fell to the ground.
In a trance, Long seemed to see a small figure holding a rabbit in his hands, but he soon lost consciousness.
The feeling of suffocation was not good, but it was not as painful as he had imagined, because he had already lost all feeling, and was instead in a hazy state, like being in a dream that was difficult to wake up from.
He felt the monster chasing him, felt the earth shaking. He couldn't tell whether this feeling was real or a dream. Perhaps it was just the last remnant of brain waves.