690: Chapter 676: The Truth About the Gems 690: Chapter 676: The Truth About the Gems “…So this camp has been established for seven years, huh?”
More and more information surfaced with the increase in the number and quality of captives.
Among the captured Aus people, there was a high-ranking official from a mercenary company.
Through him, the camp’s new owners naturally obtained more information.
more accurately, Hod company, had been operating here for over a decade.
Their initial investment in this area wasn’t significant until they found the first Vortex Ore.
They didn’t make a substantial investment at the start, and they weren’t even the first Aus company to “invest” here.
However, after discovering Vortex Stone, they either acquired, squeezed out, or used direct force to expel all competitors.
The reason this unlucky captive knew so much was that the first company to discover the treasure was his former employer.
Hod company directly acquired the mining technology and frontline base, forcibly entering the market and pushing out other big companies.
He went from being a mid-level manager in the original company to a high-ranking official in a mercenary company under Hod…
It’s no wonder he harbors resentment, and his loyalty is nonexistent after being captured.
“…Is this the mining area?”
As they entered the cave, it wasn’t pitch black as expected.
Instead, there were fluorescent lamps hanging high above their heads, providing an abundance of illumination.
On the gravel path, there were “Lamp Bricks” embedded in the floor.
Lu Ping’an stepped on one, finding them sturdy and firmly set into the ground, unlikely to be removed by ordinary means.
The lighting here was even brighter than outside, and Lu Ping’an and his group had a hard time adapting to it.
The distant rumble of running footsteps revealed the true purpose of the lights.
“These creatures are afraid of light…
more accurately, they’re afraid of fire, but they can’t tell the difference between light and fire.
So, we use these lights to drive them away.”
Hearing this, Lu Ping’an’s expression turned strange.
If you had such control over the mining area to freely install these devices, why not just exterminate the creatures and mine peacefully?
“No, first of all, they aren’t ordinary living beings and can’t be killed easily.
Secondly, our mining requires them…”
Lu Ping’an and his group followed the manager further into the mine, conveniently “inviting” the workers inside to come out and replacing them with their own people.
The deeper they went into the mine, the more Lu Ping’an felt something was wrong.
This was completely different from the mining area he had envisioned…
“…This is too clean.”
Even if there were no bustling miners, the ground should show signs of carts and fallen ore and gravel.
The surrounding rock walls showed no signs of excavation at all.
If he didn’t know better, Lu Ping’an would have thought this was a cave tourism attraction…
In fact, considering the exotic atmosphere and the lighting display above and below, it did seem like one.
“…This is the mining area.”
Finally, after venturing deep inside, they entered a cavernous space as large as a baseball field, and Lu Ping’an found the actual mining area.
At first glance, Lu Ping’an noticed something was off.
Anyone would question what this had to do with “ore.”
“At first, when only a small section of ‘it’ was exposed, we thought it was ore.
But as we dug further, something felt wrong…
By now, I think everyone knows what it is.”
What lay before them was a bone, or rather, half a bone.
While only half of it had emerged from the soil, it already covered most of the area.
Trucks and locomotives seemed like ants in front of this giant, and the broken bone was larger than the largest behemoth Lu Ping’an had ever seen.
The enormous size of the bone wasn’t the only thing that scared him.
The instinctual fear he felt just by laying eyes on the remains revealed the level of Life that had once existed within it.
Even though it had fallen and was now just a pile of decaying bones, these remains still commanded awe from mere Mortals.
Lu Ping’an couldn’t imagine how outrageous such a creature would have been when it was alive…
It was likely far more formidable than even the mythical beasts that roamed the continent and were left unchecked by any.
The familiar orange-yellow glow on the bones was identical to the Vortex Ore Lu had seen before.
At this moment, Lu Ping’an was increasingly astonished as the giant cat beside him repeatedly gasped in surprise…
“Even after death, can you…
dig through such a creature?”
Even the hardest drilling machine can’t make a hole in it.
But we have other ways…”
Saying this, the manager got busy, heading to the control panel and operating the equipment and machinery.
Suddenly, the lights went out.
But the night vision screens in the control room still showed the scene clearly.
The next moment, a crane overhead dumped a viscous liquid onto a designated area of the bone.
The familiar sound returned as Stone Monsters raced over and quickly pounced on the liquid.
It seemed to be some kind of nutrition, as they feasted, merged, and decomposed…
Their bizarre life structure had no real core; they appeared to be an agglomeration of inorganic matter.
Soon, after the nutrition was fully consumed, the Stone Monsters reformed into individual shapes and left.
Some lay down elsewhere, seemingly satisfied with their fill of food and drink.
Some of them half-melted onto the bone, slowly seeping into the ground…
and into the bones beneath.
Eventually, each of them had half their bodies sticking out, while the other half melded with the bone, creating a bizarre scene.
“Nice, nice, there’s a lot of them.
Good luck!” At this moment, the manager showed excitement, and then turned the lights back on.
The next moment, these embedded monsters stood up, ready to flee…
But the flickering floor lights forced them into a predetermined passage, where a giant cage awaited them.
As the cage fell, the moment for this “ore” to be produced arrived.
Seeing this scene, and remembering the ore he had obtained after killing one of the creatures earlier, Lu Ping’an pondered.
No wonder they didn’t kill these creatures; it turned out they were the real “miners,” periodically collecting ore through their unique survival mechanism.
The manager, ceasing his operation, explained to the new owners:
“This set of equipment is actually pretty inefficient, so we don’t use it much anymore.
Nowadays, we feed them directly, then chase them outside and harvest them with perimeter machine guns, which is much more efficient.”
“Give me all the data, including the original design of this mechanism,” Lu Ping’an said as he sensed something familiar in it.