Chapter 83: Inside the ruin
Alex stood silently in front of the massive ruin gate.
His eyes were fixed on the enormous door before him.
The ruin gate towered nearly forty ters high, embedded directly into the rocky cliff face. The material was unlike any tal Alex had seen before. Its surface was a smooth dark alloy that reflected faint silver lines under the dim light of the underground chamber. Thousands of microscopic patterns covered the entire structure, forming intricate circuits that seed both chanical and organic.
The mont Alex focused on them carefully, he realized sothing unusual.
The patterns were moving.
Extrely slowly, the thin silver lines shifted across the surface like flowing rivers of light, constantly rearranging themselves into new geotric formations.
"This is definitely not sothing built by humans," Alex muttered quietly.
He stepped closer.
The mont he ca within ten ters of the door, the surface suddenly emitted a faint humming sound.
The silver patterns began to glow.
A deep chanical vibration spread through the entire ruin gate.
Then a sharp beam of blue light suddenly scanned across Alex’s body from head to toe.
Alex instantly tensed.
All his defensive chanisms were ready to activate at any mont, but the scanning beam disappeared as quickly as it appeared.
For several seconds, nothing happened.
Then the gate suddenly spoke.
A cold chanical voice echoed through the chamber.
"Biological entity detected."
"Unknown species."
"Gene structure incompatible."
"Access denied."
The glowing patterns on the door abruptly dimd.
The humming stopped.
The gate returned to its previous silent state as if nothing had happened.
Alex stared at it with a slightly darkened expression.
"So that is how it works," he said slowly.
The ruin clearly required so kind of biological identification system.
The cha Race must have designed the gate to recognize only their own genetic structure.
Alex frowned slightly.
"I could destroy the door," he considered briefly.
However, the idea disappeared just as quickly.
The material of the gate was extrely strange. Even with his current strength, Alex was not confident he could break it. More importantly, if the ruin was truly built by a cosmic chanical civilization, there was a high possibility that destroying the gate would trigger a defensive protocol.
That could be far more troubleso.
Alex placed his palm on the tal surface.
It felt perfectly smooth and unnaturally cold.
"Rafael," he said calmly.
"Analyze this gate."
A faint glow appeared in Alex’s pupils as the soul system began scanning.
Several seconds passed.
Then Rafael replied.
[I cannot hack this system.]
Alex raised an eyebrow slightly.
"Oh?"
[The technology level of this ruin is extrely advanced. The core control network is located inside the ruin, not within the gate itself.]
[The door is only a biological recognition terminal.]
Alex slowly withdrew his hand.
"So unless I have the correct genes, the door will never open."
[Correct.]
Alex crossed his arms and stared at the gate in silence.
Several minutes passed.
Then his gaze slowly shifted toward the surrounding cliff walls.
"If the door is only an entry point, there should still be ventilation channels, maintenance tunnels, or energy pipelines connected to the ruin."
He began carefully inspecting the surrounding rock surface.
The chamber was enormous. The cliff walls extended nearly two hundred ters upward, disappearing into darkness.
Normal martial artists would have problems to find anything here.
However, Alex’s perception was far beyond ordinary limits.
His divine sense spread outward like an invisible net.
Every inch of the cliff wall was scanned.
Stone.
Stone.
More stone.
Then suddenly Alex’s eyes narrowed.
He found sothing.
Nearly eighty ters above the ground, hidden behind a thick layer of rock, was a thin cylindrical structure.
It was extrely small compared to the gate.
Barely two ters in diater.
But its internal structure was clearly chanical.
Without hesitation, his body rose into the air.
Within seconds he reached the location.
Alex placed his palm against the rock surface and released a focused gravitational pulse.
The stone disintegrated instantly.
A hidden tunnel was revealed.
Inside the opening was a long tallic pipeline that extended directly into the cliff.
Alex leaned forward and examined it.
The interior walls were filled with chanical grooves and small energy nodes.
"This looks like a maintenance tunnel," he said.
Rafael responded almost imdiately.
[Correct.]
[This structure is likely used by maintenance drones.]
Alex smiled slightly.
"So I can enter from here."
He crouched down and stepped into the narrow tunnel.
The mont his body fully entered, the pipeline suddenly lit up with red warning lights.
A piercing alarm echoed through the tunnel.
"Unauthorized intrusion detected."
"Defense units activated."
Alex’s expression instantly changed.
Before he could even react, the tunnel walls split open.
Dozens of chanical panels unfolded simultaneously.
From within them erged sleek tallic weapons.
Energy cannons.
Hundreds of tiny barrels instantly aid at Alex’s body.
"Warning."
"Exterminate intruder."
The next second the tunnel erupted with light.
BOOM!
A terrifying beam of condensed energy blasted directly toward Alex.
The power contained within that single attack was enough to vaporize an entire mountain.
Alex’s pupils contracted.
The space around him twisted violently.
The energy beam bent slightly as if striking an invisible wall.
However, the force behind it was still overwhelming.
BOOM!
Alex’s body was blasted out of the tunnel like a cannonball.
He crashed directly into the stone ground below.
The entire chamber trembled.
Dust and shattered rocks filled the air.
Several seconds later Alex slowly stood up from the crater.
His clothes were partially burned and faint blood appeared at the corner of his mouth.
His expression was no longer calm.
"That attack...," he muttered.
"That was definitely at the Star Realm level."
The tunnel above him continued flashing red warning lights.
More chanical weapons extended outward.
Another wave of attacks began charging.
Alex imdiately moved.
His body vanished from the crater and reappeared several hundred ters away.
The next instant dozens of energy beams rained down onto the ground where he had been standing.
Each explosion created massive craters.
Alex looked at the devastation with a dark expression.
"If I stayed there for one more second, I would have died."
The ruin’s defense system was far more dangerous than he expected.
Even with his current abilities, those attacks were lethal.
Alex stared at the tunnel above.
For a mont he considered abandoning the attempt entirely.
"There is no point risking my life here," he thought.
"Whatever treasures are inside the ruin are not worth dying for. I’ll coback later after becoming powerful enough."
He turned slightly, preparing to leave the chamber.
Then Rafael suddenly spoke.
[Wait.]
Alex stopped.
"What?"
[I may be able to control them.]
Alex frowned.
"What do you an?"
[These robots are operating on a centralized command network.]
[If I can access their data stream, I may be able to override their authority hierarchy.]
Alex crossed his arms.
"And how long will that take?"
[Thirty minutes.]
Alex looked back at the tunnel.
The warning lights were still flashing, but the weapons had returned to standby mode after losing their target.
"Thirty minutes," Alex repeated slowly.
"And during that ti?"
[You must remain within signal range.]
[If you leave the ruin’s communication field, I will lose access to their network.]
Alex’s eyes narrowed slightly.
"So basically I have to stand here and hope they do not fire again. What a bullshit!"
[Correct.]
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