I Am Also An Extraordinary Creature-Chapter 1387 - 987: Truly Tragic

Searching for suitable people around the Dusk Territory nearby... indeed, new clues have been found.

In an underground cavern, the place is filled with an aura of despair, and wandering souls exist within the environment.

Zheng Yichen picked up a skeleton head from the ground and examined it. Two ghostly glows brightened inside as a wandering soul emerged. After exchanging a glance with Zheng Yichen, it dove back inside.

Nodding, he placed the skeleton head back in its original spot. They continued forward and found a sealed crystal gate.

The gate, standing more than ten meters high, was crafted not from translucent crystal but amber-colored. It had complex codes etched on it, and a faint stream of light would glow upon being touched.

"Boss, let me decode it," Lilith voluntarily stepped forward and placed her hand on the amber crystal gate.

Having a tangible body helped her greatly; this wasn’t assistance in computation but rather a natural biological reaction. The biological response and the simulated biological reactions she created had some subtle differences.

For instance, emotions such as an accelerated heartbeat differed slightly from the simulated projection.

If one were a powerful soul form that could disregard bodily influences, then having a body would make no difference in performance. However, she lacked a functioning soul, thus missing the sensations typical of a natural living being.

This body, crafted with World Tree fruit, compensated for those deficiencies. Moreover, during such direct contact decoding, she effectively obtained an additional new interface.

The lines of light on the amber gate began messy but didn’t take long to become orderly, quickly transforming into a complete pattern.

Then the pattern split apart on both sides, and the closed amber gate slowly opened.

No overwhelming aura of despair was felt on the other side of the gate.

Putting away his fishing rod, Zheng Yichen stepped inside first, scrutinizing the environment.

The space behind the gate was vast, filled with items not characteristic of primitive societies. Additionally, many hibernation chambers were visible here.

Through the light yellow crystal covers, one could see humans preserved in good or poor conditions inside.

Those well-preserved had full flesh, appearing simply asleep. The poorly preserved ones had become skeletons; relatively better were mummified corpses with skin.

Zheng Yichen inspected the hibernation chambers; they were all well-maintained, with no leaks.

The disparity in the condition of the hibernating individuals likely stemmed from personal reasons.

Not being in a hurry to open these chambers, Zheng Yichen decided to check other areas. Tanshia Firlo pointed out a direction from mid-air, "Fosterer, there’s a pool over there that can still be used."

"Let’s take a look." Arriving at the place indicated by the small white dragon, there was a pool the size of two football fields. The liquid inside was in a state of boil, but this wasn’t ordinary water, rather a more viscous fluid.

The pool still had more than half of the liquid remaining; this boiling phenomenon was essentially a process of energy release.

"Is this considered the energy hub here?" Zheng Yichen surveyed the surroundings, surprisingly finding no substantial defenses.

Yet, as he moved closer, he felt a repelling pressure, seemingly formed by the liquid’s energy release, creating a natural pressure preventing external entities from approaching.

"Is this yet another new element?" Zheng Yichen waved his hand forward, resisting the pressure to keep moving, but as he approached, he seemed to trigger a balance issue, making the viscous liquid in the pool boil further.

The emerging large bubbles emitted extremely loud sounds.

Seeing this, Zheng Yichen halted his approach.

The repelling pressure appeared ten meters from the pool’s edge, increasing nearly twenty-fold after advancing two meters.

The more he advanced, the more apparent the pressure’s intensification became.

Zheng Yichen estimated that under normal circumstances, he indeed couldn’t break through normally.

Contemplating the aeration, he decided to abandon it, thinking he could surely enter but then what? Disrupt the pool’s balance and trigger a chain collapse?

"Quite impressive ’natural’ protection, can identify what this liquid is." Zheng Yichen said to Lilith, "Have you found the control panel?"

"Found it." Lilith looked in a direction where the control panel was located.

This place was a sanctuary left behind by the natives.

During the process of cracking the gate, she gained some access permissions to the sanctuary.

Conducting the decoding herself wouldn’t have been this swift, but with the Virtual World Core’s assistance, direct hard decoding was possible.

No matter how superior the gate’s defense mechanisms were, could they rival a core capable of simulating an entire world?

While decoding, Lilith also gleaned information about the civilization’s codes contained within the gate.

Through the control panel, she quickly acquired control over the sanctuary and even connected to other nearby sanctuaries.

The amber screen displayed a map, marking six regions, totaling seven including this place, encircling the Dusk Territory.

Clearly, the destroyed civilization knew the uniqueness of the Dusk Territory, otherwise, they wouldn’t have strategically placed sanctuaries around this area.

However, lingering around the Dusk Territory holds no meaning.

The changes in the world’s environment and resources have gradually led this civilization’s survivors to ’extinction’.

To put it bluntly, it is resource scarcity. They cannot adapt to the changes in survival resources; if they do not choose hibernation, the people here will all ’starve to death’.

The impact of those meteorites on this world does not only affect animals and humans; plants and even microorganisms are affected.

These changes continuously squeeze the survival space of the glittering crystal beings. Even relying on the Dusk Territory, they cannot continue to survive normally.

The Dusk Territory is only so big, and even if many original species are preserved, it cannot grant them much room for survival.

In their most powerless time, they chose collective hibernation.

And during hibernation, they integrated the last of their resources, waiting for future generations to solve the issues.

Perhaps in the future, a new civilization will solve the environmental and ecological problems, allowing them to emerge again. Even if this emergence is as rare animals, it is still better than the entire race being wiped out.

Looking at the records of the glittering crystal beings, Zheng Yichen felt somewhat emotional. This world is too much like a breeding ground for poisons. Survival of the fittest?

This is not at all survival of the fittest. From the records extracted by Lilith, no matter how he looked at it, all he saw was the struggle and resistance of the glittering crystal beings.

When they were on the brink of extinction, they had actually solved many problems and overcome numerous difficulties.

But every time they solved a difficulty, they would encounter another, even harder predicament due to newly arriving meteorites from outer space.

After overcoming these issues time and again, they finally could not withstand it any longer.

And difficulties are like homework; not solving them doesn’t make them disappear—they just rapidly accumulate. Small difficulties grow into large ones, and initially unsolvable ones turn into catastrophic disasters for civilization.

The glittering crystal beings were utterly powerless to reverse their fate. Even then, they did not give up, trying to escape through the Dusk Territory. However, their luck was not good.

Among the glittering crystal beings, there were none suitable to be Dusk mercenaries, nor did they encounter other Dusk mercenaries visiting this world.

It must be said, the technology of the glittering crystal beings is quite impressive. After their collective hibernation, the shelter continued to operate normally. To date, it has been functioning for over twenty thousand years.

That massive pool is their energy hub, equipped with natural protection, and judging by the storage inside, it can continue functioning for at least another twenty thousand years.

As long as there is sufficient energy, time will leave no substantial mark on this shelter.

"An inspiring civilization, it’s a pity they couldn’t hold on,"

Zheng Yichen said with considerable regret. Not only did they fail to persevere, but even subsequent civilizations fell short generation after generation.

The glittering crystal beings at least developed sufficiently excellent technology and methods for utilizing strength.

Their knowledge is even inscribed on the exterior channels, including the password to open the door.

If the door-opening password cannot be found, forcibly opening the door is also feasible, as the shelter’s self-destruct system has long been dismantled.

When applying force to the door, if the attack strength reaches a certain level, the password becomes unnecessary, as the door will automatically open before being broken.

Of course, without a password and without enough strength to break the door, don’t even think about opening it.

In short, the door is like a harmless trial.

If you fail, you can try countless times. Succeed, and the door will open.

However, if after countless failures the door remains unopened, it means that the person’s civilization level or usage of strength is utterly inadequate.

Though the glittering crystal beings hoped for successors, they had their dignity.

The conditions for opening the door have been lowered to such an extent, even allowing violent breakthroughs, yet if they still can’t open it, what else can the creatures outside be relied upon for?

If they can’t open the door, then let them rot here.

Zheng Yichen glanced at the hibernation area. Hmm... indeed, some of the glittering crystal beings have already decayed.

Having checked the monitoring information of those hibernation areas, the glittering crystal beings’ life-sustaining technology is still decent. Despite over twenty thousand years, there’s still a 41% survival rate in the hibernation area.

This survival rate is not very high, but it’s commendable because these glittering crystal beings are all diseased.

The drastic environmental changes have caused the glittering crystal beings to contract some ’genetic diseases’. This is an unavoidable situation; it’s challenging to eradicate these issues completely despite any protective measures against the omnipresent environment.

Even the smallest illness, when accumulated, can amplify over a period exceeding twenty thousand years.

Without such genetic disease constraints, the survival rate of glittering crystal beings in hibernation pods might be estimated at over 90%.

Just look at that mortality analysis chart to know. Initially, the mortality rate was very high, but over time, it gradually decreased.