The Informal Tomb Raiding Diary: She is the occupant of the tomb!-Chapter 357 - 292: Having a Casual Meeting

Unlocking secret mechanisms is Chen Qinghan’s specialty. He took less than an hour to open the exit’s mechanism.

As the boulder descended, the entrance was revealed. Although only a portion was visible, it was enough for one person to pass through. Lilith and the others completed simple bandaging and were able to walk without issue.

Everyone filed out silently, almost no words were exchanged. Once we reached the surface, we drove to the nearest hospital. Their injuries weren’t gunshot or knife wounds, so we told the doctor they’d been attacked by wild animals.

The doctor didn’t suspect anything, stitching where needed and administering IV drips as necessary.

Chen Qinghan contacted back home to arrange the transport of the transparent boxes we brought out with us.

These boxes indeed weren’t as simple as Lilith said because their illusions persisted. Even after returning to the surface and being admitted to the hospital, the hallucinations didn’t disappear.

Fortunately, they were aware that they were hallucinations and could temporarily overcome them. But a permanent solution was needed, or living with illusions for a lifetime would become a true ’disease’.

We didn’t bring the boxes into the city because of their quantity and our uncertainty about how many people they could affect. Bringing them into crowds could complicate matters.

Transporting these items back required a solution from the top.

We just needed to return the people. The rescue mission was considered a failure, but the few individuals I managed to bring out all survived. As the team leader, I can only say it was a neutral outcome.

Normally, we could rescue the trapped individuals, but we still don’t know when they turned into Mosquito Men.

Back home, the captain gave us two days off. After the break, we were called for a meeting.

This matter was taken very seriously from above; Lilith and the others were admitted to the department’s special hospital.

While I was on break, they were undergoing observation and treatment in the hospital. The internal hospital is different from those outside.

External hospitals only check normal range items, possibly adding a psychological evaluation.

The department’s internal hospital included unconventional checks, such as examining for Gu, spells, and other supernatural conditions that’s undetectable by devices.

A specialized group was tasked with deciphering the mechanisms; the transparent boxes were handed over to them for study.

Chen Qinghan’s task report had already been submitted. Initially, the report for our group was supposed to be written by me, but the captain considered my temporary involvement and lack of familiarity with this type of business. Since I might not participate again, it was unnecessary for me to learn for this specific task, so the task of writing the report was given to Lilith.

The only requirement was for her to show it to me first, and once I confirmed it, it could be submitted.

Lilith’s report was extremely ’objective,’ without a hint of emotional words mixed within.

She included our disagreements and admitted her lack of comprehensive consideration in analyzing problems.

I initially wondered if she might question me, asking why I didn’t tell them earlier that the exit was beneath the stone platform, as it implied putting colleagues’ lives in danger, and so on.

But she didn’t. From underground, on the road, she didn’t say a single word.

Before being taken to the examination room, she whispered ’thank you.’ Had I not been right beside her, I wouldn’t have realized she was addressing me.

The captain led us in a debriefing meeting, revealing some situations I hadn’t understood before.

When Chen Qinghan’s team initially assembled, everything was normal; a few days later, he sensed something was wrong.

This feeling was purely his intuition, lacking direct evidence, so Chen Qinghan didn’t discuss it with anyone nor report to the captain.

He wanted to wait until he found concrete evidence; initially, team members liked being around Moli, which he didn’t mind.

Because Moli was attractive and had a gentle personality, drawing the single men in the team to show her abundance of attentiveness was normal.

Subsequently, some team members caught colds, fever, and coughs. The team doctor prescribed them medicine, and they recovered in a few days.

It’s common for one person catching a cold to infect the whole room, and after medications, they recover quickly, so Chen Qinghan didn’t dwell on it. 𝕗𝗿𝕖𝐞𝐰𝗲𝕓𝐧𝕠𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝐨𝚖

Many traveled directly from cold regions to tropical ones, experiencing such drastic climate changes resulted in normal discomforts, even acclimatization issues.

Plus, they had all recovered before entering the tomb, and work wasn’t delayed, so Chen Qinghan had no reason to postpone the mission timing.

He just felt these people were a little too obedient to Moli, almost like they were little followers doing whatever was instructed.

This subtle change in attitude couldn’t serve as evidence, but once inside the tomb and the exit disappeared, Chen Qinghan’s feeling intensified.

Though he was the team leader, regardless of the issue or challenge, these people would turn to Moli for her opinion.

They totally ignored him, the leader, and followed none of his orders. Before the mission, he had reviewed these people’s profiles and documents.

Confirming they were all native Huaxia citizens, with no prior contact with Sakura.

Meanwhile, Moli was a native Sakura citizen, having learned Mandarin from teachers over there, and hadn’t visited Huaxia before this mission.

If there wasn’t some specialized communication channel, ordinarily they shouldn’t be so obedient to her within such a short period.

In the team, there were two middle-aged individuals in their forties or fifties who were reserved and dutiful, and initially, their attitude towards Moli differed from the younger members.

However, after entering the tomb, they too became obedient to Moli, and Chen Qinghan noticed a difference in their behavior within and outside.

Being passionate and attentive isn’t equal to being obedient without individual thoughts.

Admirers and servants cannot be equated, so Chen Qinghan chose silence, avoiding rivalry, wanting to understand what was with them and Moli.

Later they encountered secret mechanisms and the tomb’s owner, others were trapped in the burial chamber, Moli was seized by the tomb’s owner, Chen Qinghan hid and slept in the shaft, until we entered the tomb. Chen Qinghan was unaware of the happenings during those days.

If Moli truly were controlled by the tomb’s master, holding hands with Nanduo while unconscious, those mutated individuals must have changed before entering the tomb.

Perhaps they were unaware they weren’t human until Moli transformed them.

One thing was certain: from the moment they were ensnared, Moli had control over them, regardless of being human or monster, they adhered to her directives.

After rescuing them, they remained aligned with Moli, unaware some thought they’d undergone a life-and-death ordeal, blindly trusting her.

No wonder Chen Qinghan chose to be an invisible presence; he’d known of their oddity all along, silently observing.

If Lilith hadn’t taken my team leader position, their animosity might have been directed at me.

All the same, I wasn’t concerned or afraid they might target me. Those big mosquitoes couldn’t harm me.

It’s just Moli; she doesn’t seem like someone who could be controlled by the tomb’s master...