Chapter 399: Depth 2475 meters
According to the information provided by Ms. Carnot, Lin Ye followed a circular path deeper into the Bottomless Pit. As the depth increased, the surroundings gradually darkened, and the number of adventurers on the road also began to decrease.
While descending, Lin Ye absorbed spiritual energy to strengthen his body. After obtaining the spiritual energy core, his control over the spiritual energy within his body had improved somewhat. After adapting for a while, he began injecting compressed spiritual energy into the spiritual energy core.
This way, he could use compressed spiritual energy to enhance his body and continuously improve his control over compressed spiritual energy.
Occasionally, some mutated monsters would jump out to attack Lin Ye along the way, but they all ended up as spiritual energy materials in his small bag. Before coming, Lin Ye had specifically organized his spatial items, leaving all the unnecessary things in his hotel room.
'The monsters here are quite enthusiastic.'
Lin Ye casually collected some spiritual energy materials. Although he could now earn several million Free Coins from a single commission, he wouldn't miss such easy money-picking opportunities.
The journey was uneventful, and Lin Ye smoothly found the researcher mentioned in the materials at a depth of seven hundred meters.
The other party was trapped deep inside a cave, which was littered with the corpses of Carnot Heavy Industries security personnel.
"Are you the rescue personnel sent by the company?"
Derrick asked excitedly. Derrick, male, fifty-two years old, a sixth-tier spiritual energy user, an important researcher at Carnot Heavy Industries. Research focus: spiritual energy materials and weapon development.
At this moment, Derrick was inside a spiritual energy shield. Beneath that area, a massive Mutation Creature was hiding.
"That's right, Ms. Carnot hired me!"
Lin Ye also replied excitedly.
"Please, save me quickly! The thing below is about to wake up!"
Derrick's face flushed with excitement as he impatiently patted the inner wall of the protective item.
"No! I'm completely exhausted just getting here! I need to replenish my strength first!"
Lin Ye excitedly pulled out an extra-large takeout box he had gotten from the hotel restaurant, filled with various dishes that still tasted good even after cooling down.
"Huh? You're going to eat in a place like this?!"
Derrick thought there was something wrong with his ears.
"Exactly! Don't talk for now! I prefer to eat in a quiet environment!"
Lin Ye spread a piece of spiritual energy material on the ground and started eating breakfast as if on a picnic.
"...You saw through it?"
Derrick looked at Lin Ye with a cold gaze.
"Not completely stupid. Even if I had never met Researcher Derrick, I wouldn't be fooled by such a crude trap. But I still have to give you some credit. After all, you probably just received the news this morning. Being able to set up this trap in such a short time is already quite impressive."
Lin Ye ate his breakfast. When he saw the security personnel corpses, he felt something was off. Although there were no signs of movement, the positions of those corpses were very unnatural. Professional security personnel would never die in such positions.
"Heh, then do you know why I've been wasting time talking to you here?"
Derrick revealed a mocking smile.
"Because of the mixed poison gas in the air? Sorry, but that poison gas has already been processed by my Alienation liver and kidney circulation. Next time, remember to use poison gas that can't be metabolized... So, do you know why *I've* been wasting time talking to you here?"
Lin Ye finished his breakfast and put away the food box. Derrick wanted to deactivate the protective item to lure out the spiritual energy creature below, but found he could no longer move.
"Of course, it's because I've been controlling a parasite that can pass through spiritual energy shields to control you."
Lin Ye walked out of the cave. Derrick deactivated the protective item and involuntarily followed behind Lin Ye. The Mutation Creature he had placed high hopes on showed no reaction whatsoever.
"Where is Researcher Derrick?"
Lin Ye didn't think the other party had already succeeded;
otherwise, there would be no need to ambush him here.
Derrick let out a mournful wail. He clutched his head and crouched on the ground. The skin on his body began to peel off, revealing a humanoid mutated monster without an epidermis underneath.
After a while, the mutated monster emitted a dull voice:
"Depth 2475 meters. Pasture."
"Damn, that deep? This five million really isn't easy to earn..."
Lin Ye retrieved the parasite, then threw the monster that only had its surface layer left into the Bottomless Pit.
After dealing with the trouble, Lin Ye began rapidly descending straight down into the Bottomless Pit. After exceeding a depth of one thousand meters, Lin Ye slowed his descent speed, because dangerous entities that even he couldn't ignore had begun to appear here.
In the darkness, some things had already latched onto him.
If he continued descending rapidly, he might be surrounded by a large number of dangerous entities and die here.
Lin Ye sensed his surroundings. The things that had latched onto him were respectively: a corpse, a monster that appeared indistinct in his perception, and something that kept making noise.
That noise-making thing was extremely concealed;
Lin Ye couldn't sense its location at all.
Lin Ye ignored them and continued descending into the Bottomless Pit. Since these things were just following behind him, let them come along.
As long as he didn't provoke other things, these wouldn't pose a threat to Lin Ye.
'If you have the guts, follow me all the way down to 2475 meters underground. Nobody backs down.'
Lin Ye continued descending straight down into the Bottomless Pit. Just after reaching fifteen hundred meters, the corpse was taken out by something else.
The noise became intermittent, and the indistinct monster's size had shrunk considerably.
Lin Ye wasn't having an easy time either. Earlier, a mouth that suddenly appeared in the darkness almost bit his head off.
After the descent depth exceeded two thousand meters, Lin Ye had to constantly maintain a compressed spiritual energy shield to defend against things that suddenly appeared in the darkness.
Fortunately, these things weren't very interested in Lin Ye. After discovering he wasn't easy to deal with, they left.
Now, only that intermittent noise was still following Lin Ye. The indistinct monster had already disappeared.
Lin Ye continued descending, but found a metal signpost pointing in different directions standing ahead.
In front of the metal signpost was a fork in the road leading in different directions.
Three words were engraved on the signpost: Pasture, Ruins, and Port.
'Pasture and Ruins are understandable, but what the hell is a Port? A port built over two thousand meters underground?'
Lin Ye carefully observed the signpost but found no traces of it having been moved.
'Should I follow the direction indicated by the signpost? The information on it could be wrong, but would Derrick have followed the signpost's directions?'
Lin Ye pondered this question. He wasn't sure of Derrick's purpose in coming here. If the other party had some key information about this place, it would be difficult for him to make the same choice as Derrick.
'In the end, why would a researcher come to a place like this? There must be something important on his person or in his mind, which is why Ms. Carnot wants to retrieve him.'
Lin Ye thought for a while, and finally, he entered the path marked "Port" on the signpost.