Chapter 466 Falling into the Deep Sea (9)

Chapter 466 Falling into the Deep Sea (9)

"What do you think?"

"What do you mean?"

“The drone.”

"I tend to think that it wasn't already in the ocean, but appeared later."

"You mean someone is following us?"

“Yes, but not entirely.”

"How to say?"

According to Han Zu's idea, although the two were unable to connect to the Tigrin control network and the contractor's matrix due to their location, the equipment on Han Zu was specially made. It was basically impossible to locate his position unless there were contractors nearby. Even if there were contractors, they would never attack Han Zu, but would more likely provide help.

As for the engineering armor on Xin's body, Xin has evolved and is out of the racial category of the Tig people, so he cannot use the Tig people's equipment in his body to authorize. The way to activate the armor is to overwrite the permissions and change the control sequence through Han Zu's contractor equipment. Therefore, even if it can be connected to the command network, this engineering armor will be displayed as not yet started. From these points of view, the two of them are impossible to be tracked.

But what Han Zu said was not entirely correct. It was referring to the status of the underwater drone before. According to the behavior records on the engineering armor, it can be confirmed that it first locked onto Xin's engineering armor before moving towards Xin's position and launching an attack. Moreover, Han Zu recalled an important detail, that is, when he started to attack the drone, the opponent did not launch a counterattack immediately, but continued to try to attack Xin's position. Finally, the change of combat target was also a helpless move because Han Zu reduced the distance between the two sides.

"So what you mean is that the operator of that drone must first eliminate me? But why? Is there something wrong with me?"

"I'm not sure about this either. I don't have any clues at the moment, and there is one situation that I think is a little strange."

"what's the situation?"

"The drone attacked me. Before I destroyed it, it used some powerful particle weapons to fight back. According to my data scan of your engineering armor, those particle weapons can cause damage to your engineering armor. Even if they cannot completely destroy the engineering armor, they are enough to destroy the energy system on the armor. In terms of speed, your engineering armor has no advantage at all. But when the drone attacked you, it only used some small torpedoes. This does not conform to normal combat logic. This is also the reason why I can't understand it."

"Perhaps the other party wants to test the capabilities of my armor?"

"I think it's unlikely. Your armor doesn't have long-range attack capabilities, and the drone discovered this very early. Otherwise, it wouldn't have kept a certain distance from you."

"But if what you said is true, the drone can fully exert its strength to destroy my engineering armor. It took you a long time to rush over from a distance, which is enough time for it to defeat me. But why didn't it do so?"

Without a clue, the two temporarily stopped searching for the entrance, thinking about the reason while being alert to other units that might appear again. During this process, Han Zu accidentally glanced at the metal structure next to him. The metal structure he saw gave Han Zu a possible reason.

"What if the drone doesn't actually want to kill you, but rather restrict your movements and trap you in this area?"

"But what's the reason for it to do that? It doesn't seem to be of any benefit to it or its controller, right?"

"It looks like that, but..."

Han Zu stretched out his finger and pointed to the metal structure area next to him.

"But if it's related to this thing, it's not completely impossible."

Following the direction of Han Zu's finger, Xin saw the giant metal structure next to it. After thinking quickly, he roughly understood what Han Zu meant.

"You mean, there's some force that doesn't want us to get close to these giant metal structures?"

"This seems to be the only explanation that makes sense at the moment, but... I can't guarantee it."

"If that's the case, I think we must find a way to get into these metal structures. There must be something extraordinary inside."

There were no further threats around for the time being, so the two resumed their task of finding the entrance. Although they had a hunch that the patterns on the metal plate were most likely related to the patterns on the metal structure and might be the key to entering them, their search had not been smooth so far.

A long time passed, and the two had searched all around the three metal structures, but still could not find a location that was exactly the same as the pattern on the metal plate. Just when the two were about to give up, they found a naturally formed, downward-facing underwater cave entrance at the bottom of the third metal structure. There was a bright light coming from the depths of the cave, and the water temperature near the cave was very high. It seemed that there should be an underwater crater underneath.

"Go down and take a look?"

"I have absolutely no interest in bathing in lava."

"That's not what I meant. I meant that this cave leads right to the bottom of this metal structure. The bottoms of all metal structures are tightly attached to the seafloor plates. This is the only location we haven't searched. The cave entrance is still a long way from the submarine crater. Maybe we can observe the bottom of the metal structure after entering the cave. Maybe the location we are looking for is there."

"Well, there's nowhere else to go right now."

Following the cave entrance, the two continued to dive deeper. From some positions, they could see that a considerable part of the metal structure above was buried under the seabed structure. The temperature was moderate at 500 meters from the cave entrance, where a large number of marine life could be seen. Although there were many species of creatures that they had never seen before, the size of these creatures in the cave was much smaller than those that they had seen before, which were tens or hundreds of meters long. But compared to them, the body length of almost no less than two digits was still very large for Han Zu and Xin.

There are tunnels in the seabed cave that lead to various locations. A large number of aquatic plants and animals live in them. According to the equipment's calculations, these tunnels are not all dead ends, and some tunnels lead to other locations. These locations are the targets of Han Zu and Xin.

"Om~~~"

A few hours later, when the two passed through one of the tunnels and arrived near the opposite exit, the metal plate currently kept by Han Zu suddenly vibrated. Through observation, it was found that the position of the glowing patterns on it had changed again.

Unlike the previous one that had always been lit, this time the light on the pattern flickered and moved slowly. According to the two people's attempts, they found that the moving light seemed to represent their distance from a certain location. Following the guidance of the light on the pattern, the two people passed through the tunnel and came to a natural cavity located directly below a giant metal structure. Above the cavity was a part of the metal structure.

"The patterns here are exactly the same as those on the metal plate. We have finally found it."

"But I can't see any difference here. It doesn't look like a location that can be opened."

"Maybe that metal plate can do something. We should try it."

After careful observation, the two found that the shiny lines on the metal plate were fixed and maintained a special shape. On the plane where the same lines appeared on the metal structure, the two tried to touch the same position, but nothing happened.

"Maybe we need to inject some energy into these locations?"

"I'll try."

Han Zu injected some energy into the position with the same pattern, but it still had no effect.

"Are we thinking wrong? Or is there something wrong with the order of our operations?"

"Not sure. Let's try again. I think we are in the right place."

The information that can be provided on the metal plate is really limited, and there is nothing worth noting around except the sea water.

"Current area temperature: 43°."

At this moment, Han Zu accidentally glanced at the panel of the device. There was nothing important on it. It only displayed some basic environmental data, such as the depth, pressure, temperature, etc. The first thing he saw was the temperature display.

Han Zu didn't pay much attention to these basic data, as they didn't seem to be useful now. He turned his attention to the metal plate again. While observing, he seemed to notice that the brightness on the metal plate seemed to have become a little higher.

"Pululu~~"

Several strange marine creatures swam past nearby. Han Zu had some impression of these kinds of creatures. Their unique physiological structure allowed them to spit out some very cold and high-pressure water streams to prey on the surrounding arthropods. After being penetrated by these cold and high-pressure water streams, the body temperature of some very weak arthropods would drop rapidly, making it difficult for them to move.

As it happened, there were several half-human-sized arthropods being chased by them. Before one of them was attacked, it went around behind Han Zu, used his body to block an attack, and then swam away quickly. Those marine creatures that could spit out low-temperature and high-pressure water streams did not take Han Zu seriously at all. They bypassed his position and went straight to chase the escaped arthropod.

"How are you?"

"It doesn't hurt or itch, it feels cool."

This low-temperature, high-pressure water flow seemed to be much more powerful than imagined. Half of Han Zu's body that was hit was briefly covered with some frozen frost, but the surrounding water temperature was not low, so the frost was melting rapidly.

"Ok?"

At this moment, in order to confirm that the metal plate was not affected, Han Zu used the lens in his body to take a look at the condition of the metal plate. He suddenly found that the brightness of the metal plate was much lower than before, but it was slowly recovering to its previous brightness.

As the frost was melted by the nearby temperature, the brightness of the patterns on the metal plate returned to normal. Han Zu took the metal plate in his hand and thought about it carefully. After a while, he seemed to have found a clue.

“Is it the temperature?”

"Temperature? What temperature?"

"When I was hit by low temperatures and frost appeared on my body, the part of my body where the metal plate was was hit. In order to confirm the status of the metal plate, I took a look and found that the brightness of the lines on it had decreased a lot. As the frost disappeared, the brightness of the lines returned to normal. Apart from the temperature change, nothing else happened near us, so I speculate that the brightness of the lines on the metal plate may be related to the temperature."

"That is to say, if we increase the temperature of the metal structure at the same position as the metal plate, it is possible to open an entrance?"

"The temperature of the metal structure is much lower than that of the surrounding seawater. According to the equipment, the temperature of the surrounding seawater is about 43°, but the flat surface of the metal structure is still very cold. I think there should be something inside that can regulate the temperature, perhaps some kind of mechanism. If we heat the same position as the lighted pattern on the metal plate, we should be able to open the mechanism."

"What are you going to do?"

"Use my high-energy rays to directly attack the same grain position. This special metal structure is very strong, so don't worry that I will damage the metal structure. I should be able to handle the heating issue, but I need your help."

"Just tell me what to do."

According to Han Zu's request, Xin needs to use the plastic module on the engineering armor. The plastic module is a special force field device. When the energy is sufficient, it can create a limiting force field on the outline of the specified position, which can absorb excess energy and ensure that the energy does not overflow the required outline. This engineering equipment, called the plastic module, was originally used for fixed-point excavation or adding subsequent structures to completed buildings. To put it simply, it acts like a mold used when firing porcelain. It's just that the plastic module is more advanced, safer, and more durable.

After Xin used the plastic module to confirm the range of the lines, Han Zu immediately used high-energy rays to attack the target's line position. The powerful high-energy rays quickly raised the temperature of the target's line area, and the lines on the metal structure gradually glowed. I don't know if this kind of metal is difficult to raise the temperature, or if there is indeed a mechanism behind it that can control the temperature. The process of heating the target line area is not easy. According to Han Zu's calculations, he has maintained an uninterrupted output of high-energy rays in the past ten minutes. Using other items as an example, Han Zu has now released enough power to cut off part of the previous invisible battleship, but for the metal structure in front of him, it is only slowly raising its temperature.

"Buzz~~~!!!"

"Phew! This is no small event. This metal structure is so strong that there is not even a scratch left!"

After another ten minutes and nearly half an hour of heating, Han Zu finally made the lines on the plane of the metal structure reach the same brightness as the lines on the metal plate. Fortunately, Han Zu's energy was very strong, otherwise he might not be able to meet the heating requirements.

There were some obvious vibrations on the metal plane, which proved that the two were not doing useless work. Soon, a 5x7 area centered on the position of the luminous lines on the plane was completely lit up, but it still did not appear to be turned on.

"Why isn't it on yet? Is the temperature not high enough?"

"Maybe I need to do it manually? Let me try."

Just as Han Zu was about to reach out and touch that area, the metal plate in his hand suddenly vibrated. Before Han Zu had time to take a closer look, the metal plate suddenly seemed to be pulled by some force and was pulled out of Han Zu's hand. After leaving Han Zu's control, the metal plate immediately floated to the 5x7 range and immediately merged with the plane of the metal structure. After the second vibration, the metal plate completely merged with the plane of the metal structure and disappeared.

Immediately afterwards, an unexpected situation appeared in front of the two people. The 5x7 flat area in front of them suddenly shrank to both sides like the ebbing tide, opening an entrance.

"It's dry inside, and seawater can't penetrate. What's the pressure at this depth, the isolation field?"

"The space inside is not small. And why do I feel that the space inside is much larger than the outline we see outside?"

"How about going in first? This entrance may not always be open."

"rational."

There were indeed some noises at the opening entrance. In order to avoid a wasted trip, the two did not observe the interior, but still entered the metal structure without hesitation. After entering, the entrance behind was immediately closed. The two finally left the ocean and felt normal gravity again. The ground here was very high from the inside of the metal structure. Han Zu used the biological force field to ensure that the two temporarily hovered in this position.

"It's very dark. My night vision doesn't work completely. I think it has something to do with this unknown metal material."

"Do you need me to turn on the floodlight?"

"Not yet, we'd better keep a low profile."

In the dim light, the two found the nearest place to stay, which was the middle of a strange structure. Due to its special style, the two were not sure whether the structure had always looked like this or if there was some damage that caused it to become like this.

"What do you think of the things around you?"

"No, it looks like some stream-of-consciousness-style weird shit from a literary work. There's no clue what it's about."