The first action meeting of The Gates of Hell expedition team began.
In the meeting room.
A three-dimensional holographic image was presented above the round table.
Lu Zhou stood right in front of the conference table. He looked at the members of the scientific expedition team and spoke in a serious tone.
“Although I originally planned to hold this meeting in the evening, what I’m about to say next is important. So this meeting has been advanced.
“Over the past two months, project 128 team dispatched a variety of detection equipment such as remote control cars, wire-controlled probes, seismic wave detectors, etc. to explore the situation underground.
“The holographic image you see now is the tunnel distribution model under the ruins. The green line corresponds to the most recently detected route, the yellow line is the historical route. The number marked next to it corresponds to the detection time.
“Due to the length of the control distance, the maximum exploration distance of the remote control vehicle we sent is only about one kilometer. It does not reach the deepest point of the ruins. It is not difficult to see that the passage under the ruins is dynamically changing.”
Discussions spread around the conference table.
Lu Zhou looked at the people with different expressions on their faces. He paused for a while before continuing in a serious tone.
“So far, the reason for the changes in these tunnels is not clear, but it is clear that we may not have a fixed map to rely on. We can only rely on intuition and luck to find the way to the underground ruins.
“What worries me is not that we might get lost, but the reason for this strange phenomenon… I’m guessing that the secrets hidden behind the ruins under The Gates of Hell may be more interesting than our phenomenon.
“I’ll be straightforward. There may be certain risks in this task. It is not too late to withdraw.”
Lu Zhou sat back in his chair and gave the team members sitting at the conference table time to discuss.
In fact, he had a feeling before coming here that this trip to Mars would certainly not end so easily. After chatting with Fan Tong earlier, he was even more certain of this.
The reasons behind why the passage to that underground ruin was so complicated, why the Holy Relic set up so many obstacles for this conversation, how its “maze” kept changing… All of these were suspicious to Lu Zhou.
Due to limited information, the current clues were not enough to support him in making a 100% certainty answer.
However, although this was full of many uncertain possibilities, one thing was certain—this mission would be full of danger.
The proof of the ABC conjecture might only be a threshold; the test from “higher civilization” had only just begun.
Just like how the person who claimed to be a Holy Relic didn’t care how many years to wait, if no one could pass the test set by The Observer, they would wait until the next era.
After all, they had waited for billions of years, so a few hundred years might be just a blink of an eye for them.
If the Chosen one could take on the heavy responsibility, they would certainly not hesitate to increase the difficulty of the test.
And even Lu Zhou himself wasn’t certain in passing this test.
This wasn’t just an IQ puzzle game.
It was a gamble on the future destiny of human civilization…
Five minutes went by.
The whispers and eye contact at the conference table continued, but no one stood up to express their withdrawal from this evil mission.
Perhaps they did not realize the seriousness of the problem.
In any case, Lu Zhou had given them the opportunity to choose.
Lu Zhou sat up straight from the chair and slowly stood up with his hands leaning on the conference table.
“Very well, it seems that you are all mentally prepared, so I won’t say much. The meeting ends here. There is nothing more we can do now. We can only wait and see what happens.
“Nighttime is free time. Whether it’s writing letters or making videos, do whatever you want. If there is an accident, someone will give these letters to your family… Of course, hopefully, there aren’t any.
“We’ll leave tomorrow morning!”
The meeting ended.
Everyone stood up and exited from the conference table.
Professor Aubrey glanced at Professor Vernal next to him and spoke with a weird expression.
“Is this implying that we should write a will?”
Professor Vernal shook his head; he was dumbfounded.
“I don’t know… Don’t ask me.”
…
The next day.
At exactly eight o’clock Beijing time, the land of Mars was still shrouded in the dark.
The quiet night was suddenly disturbed.
The silver-white hatch opened. A Mars rover with tires about a meter high drove out of the garage, leaving a straight path in the desert. It went toward The Gates of Hell mountains in the distance.
The secrets of Martian civilization were buried there.
There was also a message that did belong to the human civilization.
The mission of this expedition was to dig these things out from below the surface. If the situation was optimistic, it was best to establish friendly diplomatic relations with the neighbors outside the solar system…
Wang Peng sat on the rover. He took out a unique heavy-duty rifle from the toolbox and assembled components.
This scene frightened the people next to him. Even Fan Tong, who was driving, could not help but ask, “You also brought a weapon?”
“Just in case.”
After installing the scope, Wang Peng adjusted the crosshair position.
Lu Zhou glanced at the rifle in his hand and recognized the model.
The QBZ-20 rifle was a multi-purpose paratrooper rifle jointly designed by the Chinese Weaponry Research Institute and the Aerospace Science and Technology Institute. It had an elegant name called “Hellfire”.
As for why Lu Zhou could recognize the model, it was mainly because he had trained with the garrison near the Jinling launch site for several weeks. Even if he did not use such awesome equipment, he had seen it many times.
Wang Peng didn’t seem to be joking, so Fan Tong said with a weird expression, “I think… If there is an accident, this thing probably won’t be useful.”
Wang Peng raised his eyebrows.
“Oh, really?”
Fan Tong: “Their technology is totally beyond our knowledge. I tried to continue to explore the ruins, but an invisible wall blocked me. It is difficult to explain clearly. You’ll know when you enter…”
Wang Peng simply nodded and didn’t respond.
It would be best if there were no conflicts. They themselves came here with a peaceful purpose.
But if an accident happened…
He had to protect at least one person.
