The Informal Tomb Raiding Diary: She is the occupant of the tomb!-Chapter 425 - 320: The Black Water Bites

While Qinghan and I were bickering, Chen Qinghan circled around, inspecting the surrounding objects. Finally, from a position where the cowboy hat couldn’t see, he nodded at me.

I took off my jacket and shoes and lay in the groove, fitting perfectly. I inexplicably felt like I was back in an ancient tomb.

I lay in my own coffin, with a foreign Tomb Raider standing by my side.

Mike stood on the other side, opposite the cowboy hat’s expression, looking concerned and nervous. I felt like I was lying on a hospital bed, and he was a worried... parent?

After lying there for a few minutes, and daydreaming for a few minutes, there was no movement around.

"If I lay here any longer, I’m going to fall asleep." Because in my tomb, whenever I feel bored, I fall into a slumber.

"This thing hasn’t been used for so many years, maybe it’s broken." Huang Zaijiang leaned in and said.

The cowboy hat said it was like this when he arrived, it should be correct. This space is like a factory, and many of the things inside are immovable.

For example, there are eight pools the size of bathtubs, which are connected to the floor and can’t be moved.

Chen Qinghan asked the cowboy hat what the liquid in the pool was, and the cowboy hat still said he didn’t know. It was like this when he came.

We know that this Ancient City has been vacant for ten thousand years. Any liquid exposed to the surface should have evaporated within a year.

Mike asked the cowboy hat if he noticed any traces of others visiting when he arrived.

The buildings in the Ancient City are covered in thick dust, and if anyone came in, not only would there be footprints, but also other traces, like touching something here.

The cowboy hat said no, it was like this when he arrived. The gate was sealed with stone, and the lower floors had no windows, only this roof area did, which he climbed up with a rope.

So, when he arrived, there was water in the pools. He only used some tools to process his seaweed paste.

He wanted to know what was processed here, so he didn’t move any of the objects to ensure they could work properly.

The groove I’m lying in is like a battery slot, and I’m the battery to make a machine run.

But ten minutes have passed since being ’installed,’ and nothing has resumed working because of my presence.

Mike said it was enough, these things are already broken and there’s no need to try further.

The cowboy hat didn’t insist. He said maybe the energy models of the Ancient City residents and modern people are different, no matter how similar in appearance, if the core is different, it’s useless.

This comment made me recall what Little Red said; according to her, the Ancient City’s ancestors and I might be of the same race.

So coming here to act as a battery should be fitting, why wouldn’t it work? Is it because the other parts are old and malfunctioning?

As I was about to sit up from the groove, Little Red walked over to the two metal rods. The rods, like antennas, stuck out from a stone box, resembling an old black-and-white TV.

Little Red reached out and connected the separate metal rods, and the surrounding area began humming and clattering with tiny noises, as if something had been activated.

The cowboy hat immediately told me, "Stay down."

Now, the place didn’t feel like a factory anymore; it felt more like a scientific laboratory.

The unknown liquid in the pools started bubbling, and the metal pipes connected to the stone platform below me sputtered with electric sparks.

"What, is it going to explode?" I heard the ominous noises, my gaze landed on Qinghan. His brow furrowed, seemingly puzzled by something.

"Get out! Quickly—" Qinghan leapt over in a few steps, reaching out and grabbing me. He shoved the cowboy hat aside. The cowboy hat didn’t want to budge, but he found himself losing in strength to a ’slender’ fair-faced young man.

The cowboy hat was pushed back several steps by Qinghan, stabilizing himself by grabbing a shelf.

His expression of shock was fleeting, then he attempted to stop Qinghan, but unfortunately, I had already been pulled out by Qinghan.

No, accurately speaking, I was scooped out by him in a princess carry.

However, he was still a step too slow, as from the eight pools around us, human-like figures began slowly emerging.

Because the unknown liquid was black, these human-like figures were also dark. They had no features, only a head, torso, and limbs.

They looked like black plastic mannequins placed in store cabinets. Huang Zaijiang, who was closest to one of the pools, raised a folding shovel and swung it at the black figure.

The swing felt like cutting through water; the chop broke the water, and the water flowed ever more...

The wound created by the shovel closed instantly, leaving no trace.

"Get up, to the rooftop." Qinghan held me while I grabbed my clothes and shoes.

The things in the pools quickly found their mobility, leaping out and reaching for the closest person.

Huang Zaijiang was grabbed by one of them, yelping in pain as blood gushed out. He covered the wound with his other hand. We had no time to check his injury in detail, only when reaching a safe spot could we talk about it.

But at least we knew not to make direct contact with the black water.

It might well be a member of the acid family, touching it could cost you a chunk of flesh.

The last to reach the rooftop was Doctor Du, who was grabbed by a Black Water Person.

Luckily, she broke free in time, and there was a cover at the rooftop exit. The cowboy hat pushed a stone cover over it, separating the Black Water People below.

They seemed to lack the strength and didn’t attack the stone cover.

Doctor Du checked her foot and saw no injury, which puzzled her. She quickly looked at Huang Zaijiang’s wound, finding a chunk of flesh the size of a fist missing, exposing the white bone beneath.

If the black water were acid, Doctor Du’s shoe would have no sole. Qinghan asked if she was sure she had been grabbed hard.

Doctor Du, while treating Huang Zaijiang’s wound, said, "Yes, it was a solid grip. Almost pulled my shoe off when I broke free."

So the black water wasn’t acid, nor something similar. Qinghan asked Huang Zaijiang what it felt like when he was touched by the black entity.

Huang Zaijiang, after being given anesthetic, felt better and recalled, "It was like being sucked, then the flesh was gone."

Such a scenario is quite like being bitten by a living creature, like an insect. However, Qinghan had previously checked the water in the pools, and it was definitely not insects.

Thus, we could only assume that the liquid couldn’t corrode inanimate objects like stone, wood, rubber, fabric, but could corrode living organisms.

Being a doctor, Doctor Du was concerned about the origin of the black water, suspecting it to be my duplicate.

Or a ’replica’ with some of my attributes, though she still lacked concrete evidence, only having a suspicion, as those instruments and the human-like grooves reminded her of a movie.

I knew that movie – an old foreign one called something like Frankenstein.