"Look at this spiral corridor, this sunken passage, and the etched patterns on both sides—without a doubt, these are remnants left before the Void invasion."
Gaslin quickly descended the steps, excitedly pointing at the ordinary murals:
"It is said that before the Asterca Dynasty, the Void hadn’t truly reached this planet. Swordsn not only practiced swordsmanship but also drew strength from the Void to enhance their own power. These must be diagrams depicting their battle techniques!"
"Gaslin is truly knowledgeable."
"It seems that even with amnesia, it’s only his identity he forgets; his knowledge and insights remain intact."
"How wonderful, Gaslin is beautiful, kind-hearted, and profoundly knowledgeable—so likeable."
"Uh, these just look like ordinary totems though..."
The freckled girl, Xiven, mumbled quietly, imdiately drawing cold stares from everyone.
"Gaslin, don’t get too happy just yet, the main event is still to co."
Seeing this, Polina imdiately stepped in to smooth things over, shifting the topic:
"By the way, Gaslin, how did you discover this cave?"
"Well, it was a coincidence." Gaslin smiled slightly, his supernatural charm imdiately making the n and won in the team’s hearts flutter.
"Half a month ago, didn’t a vehicle from the Fermi Research Institute pass by our village?"
"Ah, I rember those people, one of them wore a white coat, closely followed by a hunched, emaciated man in bandages, inseparable." Polina recalled, "Could it be that they were here to excavate these ruins? I’ve never heard that people from the Fermi Research Institute liked archaeology."
"It’s hard to say, but I just followed their tire tracks all the way here."
Gaslin shrugged.
"Now that you ntion it, I also rember the Institute’s vehicle—it was as huge as a house, yet it moved like a ghost, completely silent."
"That’s quite normal, the Institute has long been working on converting Alige and Void Energy for civilian use, so it’s not unusual for vehicles, piston engines, aircraft, and telephones to exhibit such properties."
Rather than that, Polina was more concerned about the whereabouts of the Fermi Research Institute:
"Co to think of it, why haven’t we seen them afterward?"
"They disappeared," Gaslin said.
"What do you an?"
"Just that—’disappeared.’ Vanished off the face of the earth, along with their cool vehicles, without a trace."
The freckled girl suddenly realized sothing:
"Huh? Could it be that they already cleared out the ruins and then just left?"
"Don’t talk nonsense!" Gaslin retorted, "The thing I took out that day wasn’t fake. You all saw it with your own eyes; it was sothing I took from here, and only here would have that thing."
"That is true..."
No matter what, these words had so impact on the mbers of this small expedition team, causing so of the boys to whisper among themselves. From their conversations, Polina learned that they were starting to doubt the authenticity of the ruins.
However, seeing Gaslin’s confident deanor, Polina didn’t think he would lie.
They continued downward, taking about a few hundred steps down the winding staircase. The air wasn’t getting thinner, and initially, they were startled by the occasional falling pebble, but they gradually got used to it, making the whole process mundane. The gloomy visibility wasn’t friendly, and they had to be careful with every step; a mont of carelessness could cause them to trip over bones or pieces of armor.
"So boring."
Soone muttered, and suddenly the whole team beca lively; the small group of just ten people instantly split into four factions, whispering among themselves, sharing jokes from all over to pass the boring ti.
Polina and Gaslin always found themselves in conversation, occasionally patted on the shoulders, Polina was busy to no end, almost forgetting she was in the depths of the darkness.
The freckled girl, Xiven, was left out alone, pushed to the back of the line, trying to speak with Polina. Suddenly a pair of twin girls blocked her way.
"Jessie, Lixi..."
"There’s no place for you here," said Jessie with a ponytail on the left. "Go sowhere else, Freckled Sister."
"You don’t belong in this circle, just stay where it suits you," said the long-haired sister, Lixi, sneering. "We only brought you along because you have a good relationship with Polina, don’t think everyone is willing to hang out with you."
Xiven wanted to say sothing more, but the sisters didn’t give her a second glance, turning around to rejoin the conversation.
She looked at Polina and Gaslin in the crowd; they shone like the sun, always surrounded by people, beautiful people seem to be welco everywhere.
But she not only had freckles... she was also short, from a poor family, far behind compared to Polina. Standing next to soone as stunning as Gaslin, she felt utterly insignificant.
She pinched her skirt, a thought erging in her heart:
’If only I could be as beautiful as Polina.’
As she thought this, a sudden scream ca from up ahead.
"Oh my god!"
Xiven looked ahead, the two sisters who had just made things difficult for her sat on the ground in terror, their faces drained of color. In the dim light of the lantern, the tragic scene in front unfolded dimly—
A boy nad Narta in the team stepped into the void, and then half of his body fell through an opening in the staircase. A sharp tal spike tore through his abdon, and his intestines and liver imdiately spilled out. With his head tilted sideways, the light made his skin look ghastly pale; blood flowed profusely from the corners of his mouth and nose. His hands dangled beside the staircase, his fingertips weakly clutching the crevice to prevent himself from falling further.
"Quick, save him!"
Polina rushed forward, ignoring the dirt and blood, wrapped her arms under Narta’s ribs from behind, and pulled him backward, trying to avoid additional injuries. Several people scrambled to grab his arms and hauled him up.
Narta’s body twitched continuously, emitting groans of ’hmm.’
Polina laid him flat, then examined his wounds in the light of the lantern, ensuring there was no damage to the intestines or the aorta.
Thank heaven. This ant there was no risk of major bleeding or intestinal fistula.
She hurriedly unbuckled her coat, took off the dical kit she carried, put on gloves, and pulled out a clean gauze. She wetted it with the water she carried and wrapped up the intestines that had fallen out.
"Ah!"
Narta convulsed suddenly, overwheld by pain, nearly passing out.
Slap!
Polina hastily slapped Narta across the face, "Don’t pass out, hang in there, this isn’t a fatal injury!"
"I... ugh... I feel... nausea... pain... so dizzy..."
Narta’s eyes were unfocused, his words slurred.
"His condition looks bad." Gaslin touched his head, saying gravely, "He’s experiencing hypoglycemia, and there was earlier vomiting of blood—maybe there’s internal bleeding due to organ shock. He might not make it."
"How can this be—Narta, hang on."
Panic set in for Polina. She skillfully arranged the intestines and covered them with a clean wet towel to prevent air from entering the abdominal cavity, which could cause infection. Gaslin rummaged through his backpack for a large glass bowl to cover him imdiately.
This at least saved his life for the mont. He needed to be moved to a safe place for a professional physician to stitch him up; then, he wouldn’t be in danger.
However, Narta struggled in pain. His body instinctively wanted to curl up, and he couldn’t keep the glass bowl covered, only whimpering:
"It hurts... save ... please save ."
"You’re okay, Narta, don’t panic."
Polina soothed him, also gently touching his forehead, which felt a bit cold. She turned to the girls behind her and asked:
"Do you have any candy?"
The twin sisters were terrified, the air thick with the sll of blood and Narta’s dreadful condition before them, they were hardly able to respond.
"Save ..."
Narta cried weakly.
"Narta! Don’t be like this, good brother, survive." Dulin, one of the older kids, imdiately panicked. He was very close to Narta, and now kneeled beside him, holding his hand and repeatedly saying, "Aren’t you going to be a knight of the Kingdom Parliant? How can you fall here?! Hang in there, Narta, don’t die, don’t die, brother, please don’t die..."
"It’s no use..." Gaslin shook his head, "We didn’t prepare enough fast-acting sugar foods, he doesn’t have the strength to resist, and the relic’s environnt is clearly not clean, it’s easy to get infected."
Dulin was struck as if by lightning, he hastily grabbed Narta’s hand:
"No, don’t leave us! Narta, don’t listen to him, you’ll be okay, buddy, wake up, don’t fall asleep, please, don’t die, don’t die, brother, don’t die..."
Seeing this, Polina fell silent. She knelt on one knee beside them, looking at her plastic gloves stained with blood.
She had tried everything her grandfather taught her, but the circumstances here were simply not enough to save him.
What is this... Wasn’t learning all this ant to be useful in critical monts?
What was supposed to be a routine adventure had turned into this disaster.
Narta too had a family, elders who loved him like her grandfather did. She rembered that his father was a simple and honest farr; this was their only child...
If he found out his son had died in her team, how devastated he would be!
Slap!
Polina opened her waist bag and pulled out a tube of black dicine, skillfully loading it into a syringe gun.
Gaslin glanced and imdiately his pupils constricted, "That is—"
"Narta."
Polina crouched down, slowly pulled back the gun’s bolt, giving the syringe gun enough Energy Storage, said solemnly:
"You might feel a bit nauseous next—but hang in there, it won’t hurt you."
As Narta sobbed, Polina hesitated for no second. She pulled up his head, aid the gun at his cervical spine, and pulled the trigger.
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