The Informal Tomb Raiding Diary: She is the occupant of the tomb!-Chapter 395 - 309: Entering the City (2)

After Little Red came up, its eyes darted left and right, as if scanning the street scene. How large is its memory capacity? Has it recorded the information accumulated over millennia?

"Have you noticed? Throughout our journey, we haven’t seen any clues left by Miss Tang and her team," said Doctor Du, standing at the base of a crumbling city wall, looking up at the tall buildings in the distance.

Later, during a meeting, Qinghan mentioned that Miss Tang contacted him for the last time, claiming she’d leave clues for him. If he couldn’t make it, that was fine, but if he did, he could follow her clues to find her.

But after entering the Death Zone, we only noticed traces left by explorers from Kangaroo Country.

"Could they have changed their minds and already returned?" Wang Le asked.

"If they came in, they would definitely find a place to camp. They arrived earlier, and with the scorching sun, it’s impossible they traveled day and night," Huang Zaijiang said.

"There are no new tracks on the path," Qinghan remarked, practically ruling out the possibility that Miss Tang and her team used the underground passage.

"There’s another possibility," Mike said: "There are exceptionally skilled people in their team."

Could it be? I recalled Miss Tang approaching Shunfeng, unless she hit the jackpot when hiring and blindly stumbled upon a master willing to risk the dangers with her.

The more I thought about it, the likelier it seemed. Miss Tang could afford it, and if a master took an interest in the Ancient City itself, they would agree, going with the flow. So, Miss Tang and her team might take a different path from us.

No matter how perilous an ancient tomb is, there’s always a master who can break through it; there are still hidden experts out there.

Thinking about this, I looked once more at the tall buildings ahead. We had climbed up from the side of the city wall, still at the city’s outskirts, so the houses were generally low, with most being three or four-story buildings.

It was clearly a civilian area, as the houses were simply decorated and were essentially affordable housing.

The closer you got to the city center, the taller the buildings became. Carved statues stood atop the buildings, presumably one at each corner, each corner with one perched.

There were human figures, beast statues, and flying birds among others. Although the Ancient City emerged from underground a year ago, some of the paintings on the buildings remained as vivid as new.

We didn’t see any of those ’cars’ from the Undersea City, and the streets were clean, just us, with no need to split up. Once deciding on a route, we’d walk together.

Mike mentioned after entering the Death Zone that they only reached the city’s outermost area and returned upon seeing the city gate.

At that time, Wang Le asked him why they didn’t venture inside since they had already arrived.

Mike replied with a stern face, saying they lost two members at the city gate.

For the then small remaining team, losing two at the city gate led the rest to hesitate.

Mike said that spikes encircled the outside of the city hidden in the sandy ground. As soon as a person stepped on the sand, spikes would suddenly thrust up from the ground, higher than the city walls.

Among the two dead members, one was impaled by spikes upon approaching the city gate; the other, attempting to use a grappling hook to swing over without touching the ground, was killed mid-air by the spikes. 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝒆𝔀𝒆𝙗𝓷𝒐𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝓶

Upon hearing this, Wang Le wondered whether the spikes weren’t triggered by vibrations or pressure but by sensing, like automatic doors at a store.

Witnessing the gruesome deaths, Mike decided to retreat, as they’d already lost many resources. To find spikes buried underground, they’d have to dig manually. With little water and food left, they had to conserve energy and minimize activity.

Already losing two outside the city, they’d face complete annihilation within. That’s how Mike felt at the time.

Yet he didn’t anticipate the dangers on their way back were equally perilous; the preparations they made on entering were far from enough.

Hence, we were fortunate that the spikes only thrust upwards and didn’t impale our small train.

Even at the base of the city wall, there were none, or we would’ve been skewered climbing up.

The Ancient City’s inhabitants naturally wouldn’t set traps against their own. Spikes were likely for defense against external foes. Why there were none under the path might be because once an alarm sounded, residents outside the city would flee inside, sealing the path, eliminating concerns.

But what about the hospital and Life Spring outside the city?

I had many questions, recalling Little Red mentioning those patients were ’top secret.’ Thus, I suspected the Amber Hall was likely a laboratory.

A secret laboratory, meant to remain hidden from certain people, positioned outside the city.