It was still yellow sand, yellow sand that stretched as far as the eye could see.
The scorching heat waves drifted across the desert, even distorting the air.
The wristwatch displayed: Current temperature: 802 degrees, humidity lower than 5%. In such a scorching environment, Randy could only raise the visor of his Jade Light Armor. Unlike the others, he had a powerful Origin Energy foundation that could directly resist the sun and heat.
At this moment, Songqing's spaceship had already entered a transparent "camouflage" mode. It had completely merged with the desert, and the real body could not be seen at all. The people who came down from the spaceship were: Cheng Da, Qu Xiaoqing, Ding Meng, Little Qiu, Randy, Xing Yi, Long Ming, and Claus. The eight of them were fully armed and slowly moved forward in the desert.
At the same time, eight screens rose from the control panel of the spaceship's command module, displaying real-time images of the data sent back by the ion scanning eyes on everyone's helmets. Ruo Lan was responsible for organizing and analyzing the data.
In Ruo Lan's field of vision, although Ding Meng and the others were standing in the middle of the desert, they were actually standing in a very small crater surrounded by sand dunes.
Xin Jie was pinpointing on the map. "The coordinates show that it's right below your feet."
"Roger that."
Cheng Da paused the communication and turned to the others. "Everyone, let's get to work here."
Actually, there was no need for them to work. They opened their backpacks and took out their toolboxes, and the intelligent drilling robot was assembled in just a few minutes.
This kind of drilling robot didn't actually have the appearance of a robot. It was an alloy probe with a diameter of ten meters, and its tail and wings were equipped with ultra-high pressure coagulators and rapid cooling fans. It was as if countless fans were pushing against a bullet head as it drilled deep into the ground. Along the way, it could decompose the earth and rocks that it drilled. At the same time, it could also spray metal mixtures on the walls, quickly solidifying an artificial passage.
What tens of thousands of laborers in Black Gold Base had taken several months to complete, this robot only needed ten minutes to complete. Of course, the value of this robot was incomparable to that of laborers.
Looking at the pitch-black hole in the ground, Ding Meng's expression was as if he was in a daze.
Little Rascal couldn't help but ask, "Have you been here before?"
Ding Meng nodded slightly. "This place used to be called a sinkhole. Although it has changed a lot, I can still tell that this is definitely a sinkhole."
The sinkhole was the huge pit 50 kilometers away from the Black Gold Base. It was also the entrance to the main mine's elevator. Ding Meng transmitted his thoughts to Little Rascal, and Little Rascal immediately understood. "Without the dome, the high temperature can directly evaporate the water, and the sun can quickly destroy the original terrain to form a desert. So the sinkhole is now a sand pit, right?"
"But that's not the most important point."
Ding Meng's gaze landed on Cheng Da in the distance. "The important thing is, why did Songqing's spaceship stop nearby the moment it arrived? Why didn't Cheng Da go anywhere else? Instead, he ran straight here after getting off the spaceship. How did he find the location so accurately?"
Little Rascal didn't say anything. She completely understood Ding Meng's thoughts. The Empire's military was most likely here for the K-virus.
The robots were still digging. Waves of tremors came from underground. The black hole in the ground was like a terrifying maw. After staring at it for a long time, Little Rascal felt that familiar feeling again. It was just like when he first discovered the metal door in the experiment hall. It was as if he saw some kind of ominous disaster floating out from behind the door.
At this moment, Ding Meng felt that the black hole in the ground was just like that door. The solar eclipse a few months ago had buried that terrifying hell underground, but now they had opened the door to hell again.
Why do humans always like to do stupid things?
This strange thought suddenly popped into Ding Meng's mind.
In his mind, the tunnel rumbled, and not long after, the drilling robot rose back to the ground. The blades at the back of the robot were all closed, forming a smooth and flat chassis. It was obvious that people could stand on it. It was going to send everyone down.
Sure enough, Ji Ming's voice rang out in everyone's ears through the communicators. "Everyone, it's up to you now. Good luck."
The main mining area hadn't changed much. It was still the familiar scene of the damp tunnel and muddy ground. The only difference was that there was no one in the mining area anymore, because those workers had probably been eaten clean by the monsters.
Randy took out two fist-sized metal objects from his backpack. Xing Yi couldn't help but ask, "What are these?"
Randy smiled. "These are robot dogs."
"Dogs?" Xing Yi was curious.
Randy tossed the metal objects into the air. The metal objects immediately buzzed and emitted red lasers in all directions. They could clearly see that the lasers illuminated every corner within a ten-meter radius of the tunnel. Finally, the metal objects flew rapidly into the depths of the tunnel …
Ruolan's voice rang out in the communicator. "These are curved light detection dogs. Everyone, please wait patiently for a moment. We'll be able to figure out the terrain very soon."
As more and more detection dogs were released, a large amount of data was fed back. A three-dimensional model was gradually forming on the control panel of the spaceship. This was the topographic map of the underground warship. Ruolan also sent it to everyone's wristwatches.
"It really is a warship," Xing Yi exclaimed as she looked at the map.
Long Ming frowned. "This warship isn't small. It should be a starship, but I feel that its shape is a bit awkward."
Claus agreed. "There's no such warship in active service."
"It should be a 'Kun Peng' warship."
Randy was indeed a statistician. He could even identify the model. "It's a very old warship. It's no longer in service many years ago. The Norse Empire has the most of these warships …"
Cheng Da clapped his hands. "Yes, this is our empire's warship. It crashed here many years ago. Back then, our empire and the Federation were at war, so we couldn't come here. Now, it's a peaceful time. Everyone, do your best."
Everyone nodded in unison. This explained the ins and outs of this operation very well. Many years ago, the war between the empire and the Federation was unprecedentedly tragic. Back then, both sides didn't have a large territory. This K8 series was probably at the periphery of the war zone. It was normal that few people knew that the warship was lost here.
Ding Meng sighed inwardly. Only now did he feel that Machine Gun's death at his hands was an injustice.
It took Machine Gun a few years to figure out the internal structure of the warship. Of course, it wasn't Machine Gun's fault. They didn't have detection dogs.
The main reason was that the warship had been buried underground for a long time. Many of the tunnels couldn't be dug casually. Otherwise, it would easily collapse. Therefore, on Machine Gun's map, there were red dots that represented death. Almost no one dug deep.
Randy's explanation reminded Ding Meng that if the warship was in the shape of a Kun Peng, then the red dots corresponded to the upper part. It was actually the lower right part of the main warship. At least half of it hadn't been excavated yet.
The map definitely couldn't show the whole picture, but Ding Meng could already see that they had dug a hole in the Kun Peng's back that went straight to the internal organs. Therefore, the original map looked like a gourd. Area PC35 was located at the heart, and the experiment hall was obviously the core. The red dots were almost all around the edges of the internal organs. Therefore, the wings, head, and tail weren't discovered.
Ding Meng thought to himself, The bridge, storage, connecting cabin, and armory shouldn't have been discovered.
Little Rascal said, "In theory, yes, but we can't rule out the fact that many parts have rotted over the years."
Ding Meng said, "Is there a possibility that what they're looking for is in the bridge or the storage?"
Little Rascal seemed to know what he was worried about. It explained, "Even if it's the energy storage, it's useless because the energy used to modify Ding Meng was a very special synthetic energy. Only Dr. Harsin knows how to make it. Even if there are other energy sources on the ship, they won't be able to find any clues about the K-virus."
Ding Meng sighed. "Sometimes, clues don't have to be found by searching. Speculation and analysis can also be found …"
At this moment, the map of the known terrain was completed. Cheng Da suddenly said, "Everyone, in order to increase efficiency and complete the mission as soon as possible, I suggest that we split up."
No one objected to this suggestion because everyone had already seen that the interior of the warship was too big. It would be very difficult to complete the mission in a short period of time if they didn't split up.
"How do we split up?" Long Ming asked.
Cheng Da pointed at the map and said, "You and Randy will be fine, right?"
This allocation actually had a deeper meaning. Long Ming was the strongest, and Randy was the weakest. If they encountered any danger, at least they would be safe.
However, Randy immediately jumped up. "Why?
Why do I have to be in the same group as a man?
I won't do it. "
He definitely wanted to be in the same group as Qu Xiaoqing, but Star Art started to blink and mock him. "Do you want to be in the same group as Sister Qu?"
Before Randy could answer, Cheng Da said to Qu Xiaoqing, "Miss Qu, it's better to be in the same group as Ding Meng."
In this group of people, Ding Meng's score was the highest. Letting Ding Meng follow Qu Xiaoqing was undoubtedly the military's greatest protection for Qu Xiaoqing. After all, she was the strongest.
Randy undoubtedly understood Cheng Da's arrangement. You can't let Miss Qu protect you, right?
However, he was still unconvinced. "Humph, it's your loss not to be in the same group as me. Let's wait and see."
Cheng Da continued, "Lan Qiu will be in the same group as me."
Xiao Qiu did not object at all. "Okay."
The grouping obviously followed the principle of "men and women working together would not be too tiring". Of course, it was mainly for safety reasons. He could not be in the same group as Claus and let the other two girls work together. After all, Star Art was relatively weaker, and it was more suitable for Claus to take care of them.
After the grouping, the routes and areas were naturally arranged. The four teams spread out in four different directions. Before leaving, Ding Meng looked at the map again. Cheng Da's arrangement was exactly as he had predicted.
Everyone's location was indeed a red dot area.