coobybook Chapter 338 Painting on the Ground
Chapter 338 Painting on the Ground
After a short rest, Lin Yeming, Daigo, and Shirosaki Jin returned to the exploration vehicle and established a temporary safe zone.
The Flying Swallow hovered over the valley, and the engineering team dispatched by the Carlo base quickly arrived to begin setting up a more sophisticated detection network and protective equipment around the ruins.
The atmosphere inside the command room was heavy.
“According to the data transmitted from the scene, the energy structure of ‘Phantom Golza’ is 87% similar to the physical Golza we encountered on Earth, but it has an additional energy coding layer. This coding is completely consistent with the underlying language of the relic defense system.” Ye Rui reported while quickly operating the console. “It can be confirmed that this phantom is part of the defense system and is a manifestation of some kind of ‘automatic defense program’.”
“Automatic defense program…” Megumi crossed her arms and rested them on her chin. “Using the image of an ancient monster as a defense mechanism? That’s too deliberate. It’s more like… some kind of warning or sign.”
"How's the time machine repair going?"
Yumi Kenmura said helplessly, "We've used a lot of materials to repair it, but we still can't open it."
Megumi shook her head: "This time machine is completely useless at crucial moments."
Lin Yeming listened to their complaints and didn't know what to say.
Should we tell them that the most crucial moment hasn't arrived yet?
“Perhaps it’s trying to warn those who can recognize Golza,” Vice Captain Zongfang said in a deep voice. “If it’s an ordinary explorer who knows nothing about the ancient civilization and monsters, they would just see the phantom as an unknown monster. But if it’s someone who knows, like us, they would immediately understand that this ruin is directly related to the ancient civilization and the appearance of the monsters.”
“It’s filtering visitors,” Lina whispered. “Or rather, it’s waiting for ‘specific’ visitors.”
Horii stared at the complex energy pattern simulations on the screen: "What's more troublesome is that this defense system can operate stably in the lunar environment for decades or even longer, and its energy source and level of intelligent control far exceed our current technology. If it really is just the tip of the iceberg of a larger system..."
His words brought a brief silence to the command room.
“Captain,” Ye Rui suddenly looked up, a hint of confusion and surprise on his face, “When I was re-comparing the global anomaly database, I discovered an extremely weak signal correlation. At the same time that the energy shield of the Royal Valley first fluctuated, seven locations around the world recorded almost negligible background energy ripples at the same frequency. These locations… are all areas where ancient civilization relics or suspected relics have appeared, including the pyramids of the Land of Tiga, the underwater ruins of the Crimson Islands, the Andes, and so on.”
"Energy ripples?" Shinjo asked. "Is it resonance?"
“It’s more like… a response.” Ye Rui pulled up the waveform graph. “It’s very brief, but in terms of timing, the energy fluctuations in the Royal Valley came first, followed by ripples in other locations, with a delay in the millisecond range, which matches the characteristics of some kind of long-distance sensing or quantum entanglement. It’s as if… the ‘shielding weakened’ of the Royal Valley sent a ‘state change’ signal to other ruins, and the other ruins responded with a ‘confirmation’.”
This discovery sent chills down everyone's spine.
“A network of ancient ruins spanning the globe?” Megumi’s pupils contracted slightly. “They’re connected? In ways we can’t detect?”
“If this is true,” Lin Yeming’s voice came through the communication channel, carrying the slight distortion unique to the lunar vacuum environment, “then the Valley of the Royal Family may be more than just a hidden ruin. It may be one of the network’s… ‘nodes,’ or even ‘control centers.’ Its ‘exposure’ may mean that the entire network is being activated, or at least, entering some kind of new ‘phase.’”
Daigo's voice followed, trembling slightly: "Captain, just after the phantom disappeared, the detector inside my helmet captured an extremely brief, high-frequency sound wave signal. After some simple reconstruction... it sounded like some kind of language fragment, repeated three times. Nori, I'll send the data to you."
A few seconds later, Ye Rui played the restored audio.
From the loudspeakers in the command room came a cold, ancient syllable with a metallic, abrasive quality, completely unlike any language known to humankind. Yet, the rhythm within that syllable combination strangely gave one a sense of "calling" or "announcing."
“A fragment of language…” Horii murmured, “is it ‘speaking’? To whom is it speaking?”
Lin Yeming's voice came again, this time with a certain certainty: "It is speaking to 'light'."
He paused, seemingly organizing his thoughts: "Captain, I request permission to use the deep geological scanning equipment at the Carlo base to conduct a penetrating scan beneath the Royal Valley. The spawn point of Phantom Golza, the triangular distribution of energy nodes, and the direction of those geometric patterns... I suspect that the true main body of the ruins is not behind the rock wall entrance we see, but deeper beneath the moon. That entrance may just be one of many passages leading to the underground structure, or even just a 'decoy' or 'detection point'."
Megumi Kijima barely hesitated: "Approved. Director Kinosaki, please cooperate with Yoru's scanning request. Daigo, you are in charge of on-site security coordination. Flying Swallow, expand the alert area and watch for any abnormal spatial fluctuations."
"understand!"
The deep scanning equipment from the Carlo base was quickly transported to the site. With the assistance of the engineering team, multiple scanning probes were deployed at various key locations in the Royal Valley.
As the scan continued, the structure beneath the lunar surface was gradually revealed.
When the preliminary results were displayed on the large screens in the Caro base command center and command room, everyone gasped.
Below the Valley of the Kings, about 500 meters below the lunar surface, lies a huge, nearly perfect spherical cavity, with a diameter of over two kilometers.
The inner walls of the cavity are filled with extremely complex, nested energy circuits and structures.
Most surprisingly, extremely faint signs of life could be detected there.
This anomaly immediately silenced both sides.
The shock of the scan results caused a brief silence in both the command room and the Carlo base command center. Even the vacuum of space seemed more "noisy" than the silence on the communication channel at that moment.
"Life...life response?" Shinjo's voice broke the silence first, dry and incredulous. "Five hundred meters underground on the moon? A place that's been sealed off for thousands or tens of thousands of years? How is that possible?!"
"The readings are extremely weak, and... unstable, intermittent, more like the signs of some kind of life form in deep hibernation or cryogenic preservation." Jin Shirosaki's voice came from the lunar site, striving to maintain the objectivity of a scientist, but his tone still trembled slightly at the end. "Spectral analysis and energy signature comparison... cannot match any known Earth or extraterrestrial life forms in the database. Its energy fluctuation pattern... has some kind of... symbiotic or parasitic relationship with the energy of the remnant defense system we detected."
"Symbiosis? Parasitism?" Horii lunged at the control panel, pulling up detailed data, his eyes wide behind his glasses. "The energy flow data shows that the underground cavity's structure isn't just a building, but more like a... life support device or confinement chamber! Those complex energy circuits, partly to maintain the cavity's stability, and partly to continuously deliver extremely weak, specific-frequency energy flows to that life source! Is this... is it providing energy to sustain life, or is it using energy to bind it?"
Vice Captain Zongfang's face was ashen: "Regardless of the type, we are facing more than just a ruin. Something that may be alive, sealed beneath the moon by an ancient civilization in such a complex way... Its exposure is definitely not accidental."
Megumi tapped her fingertips lightly on the table, a habitual gesture she made when she was deep in thought.
My gaze swept across the spherical cavity structure diagram on the screen. The intricate and beautifully crafted structure, the faint yet persistent life signals, and the ripples from the phantom Golza and the global network of relics... the fragments were piecing together, pointing to an astonishing scene far beyond my initial imagination.
Lin Yeming remained silent for a long time before proposing a different approach.
"Captain, should we ask Karen for her opinion on this matter?"
When Ye Rui heard the name, his heart skipped a beat, and he quickly realized that this was an opportunity.
Karen's original files have been ordered to be destroyed by Director Sawai.
The new information records that she was rescued at an arcade by herself and a computer genius girl named Mai Midorikawa.
Karen, who is older, was recruited to TPC, but the process is still underway.
He couldn't speak because of his unusual relationship with Karen.
Megumi's sharp gaze swept across the communication screen, finally landing on Nozue's slightly nervous face.
Lin Yeming's suggestion seemed abrupt, but it actually pointed precisely to a special resource that had been temporarily shelved.
“Karen…” she murmured. The “girl” who displayed astonishing computer talent after the Game City incident and established a special connection with Nori might indeed offer a unique perspective on the current predicament due to her ability to process and analyze unconventional data.
"What stage is her onboarding process at now?" Megumi asked directly.
Ye Rui replied immediately, her voice carrying a barely perceptible urgency: "The special approval from the Personnel and Technology Bureau has been granted, and the security review and adaptability assessment have also been completed. In theory, she can access TPC's internal network at any time as a 'Special Technical Advisor' and work in a monitored environment."
“Monitoring is necessary, but trust also needs to be established.” Zongfang crossed his arms and looked at Jujian Hui. “Captain, I think it’s possible. We know too little about ancient civilizations, especially those related to high-dimensional energy and intelligent systems. Karen’s way of thinking… might be able to uncover the blind spots in our habitual human thinking.”
“I agree,” Horii nodded. “She’s probably much faster at deciphering that anomalous energy code than we are. And the information she obtained in the game city is far superior to what we can.”
Without further hesitation, Megumi decisively ordered: "Yorui, immediately use the Victory Team's authority to formally invite Karen to join as a 'Special Technical Advisor for Project Moonshadow.' Grant her temporary high-level data access, with a priority of A, but all operations must be conducted under the dual log monitoring of you and Dr. Kenmura. Primary task: assist in analyzing the energy-life signal coupling data of the underground cavity of the Royal Valley, attempt to decipher the information encoding logic that the ancient civilization may have used, and... assess the true intention of that 'thawing program.'"
"Understood!" A glint flashed in Ye Rui's eyes, and his fingers began to fly across the keyboard, preparing the access protocol and security isolation zone.
"As for the scene..." Megumi's gaze returned to the images transmitted from the moon. "Yoru, Daigo, Captain Hayate, suspend all in-depth exploration until further analysis results are obtained. Establish a secondary isolation zone around the entrance to the ruins. Switch all detection equipment to passive receiving mode to avoid any active signal transmission that could be interpreted as a 'stimulus' or 'response.' The Flying Swallow will continue to be on alert, but be careful to maintain distance."
"Understood!" the three people at the lunar site replied in unison.
Daigo felt somewhat relieved.
The introduction of Karen means having an additional powerful ally.
He subconsciously touched the magic light stick in his arms again.
The warmth was still there, and it seemed to fluctuate very slightly in sync with the life signal underground.
This discovery made him uneasy, but he dared not easily speak of it.
Lin Yeming noticed Daigo's unusual behavior and privately asked him, "Daigo, have you discovered something?"
Daigo didn't dare reveal to Lin Yeming that he was Ultraman Tiga.
The idea of humans turning into Ultraman is too absurd; no one would believe it if I told them. You can't just transform directly, can you?
Daigo could only give a vague answer: "Brother Yeming, why do I feel like this place is a bit creepy?"
Lin Yeming understood as he looked at Daigo's somewhat shifty eyes and his subconscious gesture of touching his chest.
"Daigo, it feels like a premonition."
"Do you trust your feelings?" Lin Yeming patted Daigo on the shoulder, his gaze fixed on the deep valley entrance in the distance. "In the universe, sometimes 'feelings' reach the truth before instruments do. Stay alert, Daigo. If any 'feelings' become particularly strong... don't ignore them."
His words were suggestive, yet he didn't explicitly state them.
Daigo felt a chill run down his spine and nodded solemnly.
On the other hand, geologists made other discoveries.
A huge geoglyph has been discovered in the Andes.
The lines drawn on the ground are very simple, and they look like a painting created by nature.
However, due to the recent anomaly in the area, the incident was reported to headquarters as a precaution.
The South American branch also sent people to investigate and cordon off the scene.
They had a vampire beast appear in their area before, so this action was somewhat out of necessity.