The Record of Unusual Creatures
chapter-638

Chapter 638: Underground Sanctuary

As the group was just about to pass through the hall’s door, a wall panel closest to them suddenly lit up and a human figure appeared on the screen. Hao Ren and the rest immediately reacted with alarm as they looked at the figure on the screen. It was a white-haired, dignified middle-aged man. He wore a smart black uniform with golden linings. Two rows of big gold buttons ran across the length from his neck to the belt.

The man on the screen looked at Hao Ren and his group, surprise apparent in his eyes. “How were you people outside?”

Hao Ren had already reconciled the fact that this planet had no inhabitants, a planetary level ghost city, yet on the screen was someone alive and that shocked the jimmies out of him. “Oh f*ck me…. There’s still someone on the planet?”

“There’s still someone?” The middle aged man on the screen was perplexed. “What are you talking about? Did you all left the sanctuary? Or did you came from other areas?”

Vivian immediately caught on and coughed softly. “We… we came from other place. The last place may have some problems and we got lost here.”

She purposedly kept things vague out of caution, and tried to muddle the group’s origins. The man on the screen however did not pay too much attention and simply nodded. “Very well, the most important thing is that you are back in a safe area. I hope that you all were not harmed by the reactor’s radiation. The guiding robot will bring you to the sanctuary, and the civil officers will be checking on your situation.”

As he finished, the screen on the wall faded and returned into a proper wall. Hao Ren and the rest looked at each other, and was curious about the sudden appearance of the man, yet they could not tell what was amiss.

“There’s still someone on the planet?” Lily muttered, her face incredulous.

Vivian rubbed her chin. “Based on what the man said, there seems to be a sanctuary of sorts… I never thought that we would actually run into survivors!”

Under the guidance robot’s lead, the group went past the hall and entered a long corridor that was lit with red light. The robot advised that they would complete the contamination process at the end of the tunne. As he walked Hao Ren mumbled. “Something’s not right…”

“It is not right.” Vivian remembered the previous discussion. “The planet’s sun that went supernova ten thousand years ago, but the planetary reactor was only activated a hundred years ago, so technically speaking that any survivors would’ve already missed the escape window. Even if some survived, why none of them took flight? Don’t tell me they had slumbered on a frozen iceball of a planet for a millenia?”

“You think people sleeps like you?” Lily quipped, her words venomous.

This husky just couldn’t help herself on taking a jab at her mortal enemy even in the most inopportune of times.

Nangong Wuyue had a complicated look on her face, a mixture of anticipation and fear. “Will my parents be in the sanctuary?”

Hao Ren immediately realised the possibility. “Yes! If there is a shelter there, your parents might be brought into there as well, just like us!”

Everyone thought that is was plausible and hastened their step across the corridor. As they reached the end of it, another guidance robot was waiting for them. The little robot opened the semi-circle hatch at the end of the tunnel as a special room appeared before them.

There were nothing in the empty room, only a tubular platform stood in the middle. At the front of the tube was a semi-transparent glass door, and through it an elevator-like mechanism was seen. Seems like the sanctuary was underground.

As to arrive at the shelter without a hitch, Hao Ren and the rest were very cooperative as they waited quietly for the robot to activate the elevator and ushered them into it. As everyone stepped into the elevator, something caught Hao Ren attention.

It was a long, serpentine tail… Wuyue’s

“Wait a minute” Hao Ren raised an eyebrow as something ran through his mind. “Wuyue, you have been in this shape since just now?”

Wuyue did not understand the question and simply wiggled her tail as she coiled into a more comfortable form. (With a narrow place like an elevator, her serpentine form would be takig up quite a lot of space, but she did not had the chance to change into other form) “Yeah, what’s with it?”

“… What man on the screen did not seem to be alarmed by your form.” Lily too realised what Hao Ren was talking about as she touched her ears and tail. “My form too…”

Wuyue’s tail immediately coiled into a tighter form as she got nervous. “Can it be a trap?”

By then the elevator door had closed and the platform descended with increasing speed. Hao Ren saw the metallic frame and machinery levels that flashed across, and gritted his teeth. “Well, forget about that. We’ll see when the time comes. Just stay alert, but don’t make any unnecessary movements unless its an emergency.”

Lily nodded as she drew her Frostfire Claws. “No worries Mr Landlord, I will protect you!”

Vivian immediately pushed the husky aside. “You fool, keep your claws. This is an elevator… AHHH my shirt! One of my two only good shirt!”

“Can you two bloody behave?” Hao Ren have the two bickering fools an exasperated look as he shuffled into a corner to cool down. Y’zaks looked down on the floor of the elevator platform: The floor was made out of transparent glass and one could see what was going on beneath them. Only towards the far end of the elevator tube could someone see faint source of light. “Seems like the sanctuary is somewhere really deep underground.”

“Or to use the geothermal energies to maintain the ecosystem.” Hao Ren thought. “The most common way of a low tech-level civilisation to survive.”

The elevator did not seem to have an end as the party had been in there on alert for agood while. Lily’s serious demeanour didn’t last five minutes before she squatted on the floor and started drawing figures on the floor. By the time she finished a sketch of three puppies only did everyone felt a shudder as the sound of the mechanism locking itself came from outside.

Y’zaks looked up as he spoke. “Seems like about ten kilometers deep… Seems like you are right, they are using the lava to maintain the heat level of the sanctuary.”

With a hiss, the elevator door opened. Nangong Sanba immediately threw out a small runic card and the card turned into a human silhouette that took a few steps. Seeing that no traps or whatsoever was triggered, he then lifted his crossbow as he carefully moved out. “All clear, lets move.”

“Your brother seems to be reliable at times.” Vivian quipped.

Wuyue pouted. “If he did not have even such basic demon hunting skills, he’d probably be dead somewhere in a haunted castle…”

Wuyue’s own sentence was cut short by her own yelp. As the group got out of the elevator, the scenery that greeted them left all of them stunned.

Beyond the elevator was not a foreboding steel sanctuary, and neither was it layers upon layers of small habitat blocks akin to a prison. It was a huge, proper city!”

A wide and clean road stretched miles on end, as buildings of various shapes and sizes made up the rows alogn the street. Between them were lush greeneries and decorative structures. Turning back, Hao Ren realised that the elevator they took earlier was actually a pillar connecting the sanctuary to the surface of the planet. The elevator stood in the centre of a plaza that intersected with a few trunk roads. And from afar, Hao Ren could see a few other similar pillar.

Seems like the entrance and exit is not restricted to the one they came from.

Lily gawked for a good while before she managed to speak. “…. For a sanctuary…. this place is pretty grand!”

Y’zaks looked up again, and noticed that the city was not shrouded in darkness, conversely it was very well lit by seemingly powerful lights. Blinking hard, the demon saw from the gaps between ‘web of light’ massive rock roof and equally massive supporting metal structures. “Above the place is lava… This is a giant cavern. Not sure if it s excavated or formed naturally.”

Vivian looked at the rock dome above here as she muttered. “Cavern eh….”

Hao Ren quipped without even thinking. “Don’t tell me you are gonna take a nap here.”

Vivian immediately recoiled as she shook her head. “No worries, I can control myself!”

Turning away, Lily spat. “Pffftt, Battie.”