The Informal Tomb Raiding Diary: She is the occupant of the tomb!-Chapter 372 - 301: Sleeping Is Dangerous (Part 3)

It’s not that surprising anymore to hear that the stone figures can move.

Mike leaned closer to the Stone Man and said that many people from the team that entered had gone missing, but each person had a nameplate hanging around their neck. Finding this item would reveal their identity information.

The Stone Man’s body was curled up, with only its hand exposed; its face was buried between its arms, thus obscuring its features. Moreover, it had already transformed into stone, so its original appearance might be unrecognizable.

Mike found a metal chain around the Stone Man’s neck; of course, this chain had also turned to stone, transforming into a thin stone chain.

Luckily, the nameplate wasn’t tucked inside the clothes—it hung down with the chain, resting on the Stone Man’s chest.

Several lines of small text were engraved on the nameplate. The list of missing personnel wasn’t included in the data given to us by Kangaroo Country; only Mike knew who had entered previously.

Because when his team entered this area, they were on a rescue mission, so he was familiar with the identity information of each missing person and had seen their photos.

"It’s him, David Thompson, the team doctor of the Black Python Squad," Mike said after confirming the information on the nameplate.

"Why is he here?" Wang Le asked as his eyes surveyed other areas.

My gaze followed his, and we soon noticed several other stone figures, some lying down and some sitting, leaning against other stones, gradually merging with those rocks.

Before I could look closely, Mike suddenly leaned backward, and the Stone Man, initially curled up, unexpectedly stretched out an arm to grab his chest.

Crack crack crack—

The sound of stone shattering came from around us; those previously immobile stone figures all extended their limbs and approached us.

They first crawled and then stood up. Qinghan swiftly drew his sword and chopped off the head of the Stone Man beside him with decisive action.

The treasure sword was so light when chopping stone that the Stone Man’s head rolled to the corner, yet its body kept moving, continuing to approach Qinghan.

This sword strike at least proved that the Stone Man didn’t rely on its head to command its actions. Besides Qinghan’s sword, the other weapons of the team weren’t as effective.

Doctor Du’s dagger merely poked a pit in the Stone Man, so she simply gave up using blades and resorted to grabbing, raising her leg, and kicking—only then did she suppress the Stone Man with the advantage of strength.

Mike directly pulled out a gun. Among us, he was the only one armed with a gun, and its firepower was fierce, shattering the Stone Man.

The plant-like figures we encountered previously were clearly non-aggressive, but the stone figures, surprisingly emotional, erupted violently to attack.

Inside the cave, five stone men were dealt with by us in two minutes; their power was ordinary, but Huang Zaijiang and Wang Le were concerned about why they moved.

For stones to move on their own is a scientifically implausible thing, let alone them being able to walk and grab people.

Mike thought and said, "Their team got separated during their return journey; the team doctor and four members broke away from the main force."

"The best strategy when separated is to gather at a location that everyone knows. The five of them might have intended to stay here and await rescue," Wang Le analyzed.

"Perhaps, the material in this place not only devours the dead but also absorbs the living," Doctor Du said.

"So, does that mean if we sit on these stones long enough, we’ll merge with them?" I asked.

"We can’t be certain of the exact time, but judging by their actions, they were definitely resting or sleeping," Doctor Du said, glancing at the shards on the ground.

"Teams that entered before them had all camped here," Mike interjected.

His point was that earlier teams camped here but didn’t mutate; it was only these few individuals who came in after a change occurred.

Doctor Du said this wasn’t surprising, hypothesizing that some force was altering this space. Such transformation requires process; before the qualitative change, there is gradual change, so earlier teams entered before the place was fully remodeled, thus it hadn’t ’activated.’

Mike was silent for a moment before saying, "Yes, the data of this place changes every once in a while."

He stated that since communication fails upon entering, those who came before would leave recorded data at fixed campsite points; if electronic instruments failed, they’d measure using primitive tools and record with paper and pen, storing them at fixed spots.

This was to prevent total team annihilation, ensuring subsequent teams obtain information from predecessors.

Mike’s team had unearthed numerous records of prior data, each team’s recorded data varied, sometimes particularly drastically.

This led Mike to believe they were affected by hallucinations, which resulted in erroneous records, lacking reference value.

It’s akin to three people observing the same tree: the first says it’s only one meter tall, the second says the tree is ten meters tall, and the third sees the tree as merely three meters tall—the disparity between their accounts is too large, hence people are more inclined to trust what they see with their own eyes.