Meanwhile, the most chill pair was Clovis and Melody.
"This is not bad. You’re driving not too fast but not too slow either." Melody casually looked around. "We should go that way. I’ve gathered some information. It’s said that there are ruins that turn into a large nest. For a large nest to be found, it needs to be a big building.
In this way, there’s an indication of a mall."
"Oh?" Clovis nodded and turned around. "So are we going around to find ruins?"
"Yup! Rather than taking our time in smaller groups, it’s better to beat a large nest. Our number is lacking, but in the worst-case scenario, we can always go back. I will place multiple explosives and radar to ensure we can go out." Melody nodded, explaining her plan.
Since she was the leader this time, Clovis agreed right away. "Sure."
It didn’t take too long for them to reach the mall. "It’s a small mall?"
"Yes, but it’s said to have four floors…" Melody raised her head, only finding two floors. There didn’t seem to be any destruction on the upper part. "It seems that the mall is built underneath the ground."
"Seriously?" Clovis made a wry smile. "Are you sure we’re going to use explosives here? We will be buried, you know."
"I’ll just change the placement a little bit. The fact that it’s underground allows us to seal the entrance easily."
"I can’t deny that." Clovis nodded.
"It should be fine. Let’s park there." Melody pointed to the small place near the entrance. It was a small security post with a boulder next to it, hiding the UTV from plain sight.
When they entered the mall, Clovis was a bit surprised by the open space concept of the mall. The natural light lit up the two floors, allowing him to make a quick scan. "There doesn’t seem to be anything here."
Melody looked at the radar before showing it to Clovis. "You sure?"
"Holy…" Clovis sucked a cold breath. "How many are there?"
"I don’t know. My estimate is above a hundred. I believe they are hiding underground." Melody looked up.
"Considering this number, I don’t think anyone has explored this place yet."
"Yeah." Melody nodded.
Even though Melody determined the beasts hiding in the underground, they still checked the two floors above the surface to make sure of it.
As expected, there was no beast on the surface, so they immediately walked to the stairs. Once they reached the underground floor, the light became scarce. Clovis could barely see anything beyond ten meters from the stairs and had to use the night vision Melody had prepared.
"There’s nothing here." Clovis couldn’t help but furrow his eyebrows. The radar was showing that there should be a lot of beasts around here. Even if most of them were hiding on the bottom floor, some should reside on this floor.
"True." Melody couldn’t find anything either. "Surprisingly, I couldn’t hear any sounds either."
Their voice echoed on this floor, so it was strange when she didn’t hear any footsteps.
"Let’s go that way first. We should take a peek at the lowest floor. There might be a beast that controls the remaining beast to stay at the lowest floor."
Clovis agreed with her. The layout of the underground floor was rather unique. The mall should be 40 meters wide. That was why the open space concept on the surface gave the majestic feeling.
On the other hand, the underground floor was divided into five by the kiosks. It would be hard to notice any movement in this kind of path.
Melody felt slightly disturbed. Because of the kiosks, the sound ended up bouncing back to her ears, making it hard to detect the noises around her.
Still, both of them continued forward until they found the stairs. Melody placed an explosive along the way, carefully making sure that it wouldn’t end up burying them.
The lowest floor had a similar layout. However, once they reached the fourth floor, they noticed one weird thing. Out of the five small paths, the one on the further right was closed by a wall.
Melody frowned. "This is weird."
"What’s wrong?"
"The radar is telling me that there are a lot of beasts on our right."
"But it’s closed." Clovis pointed at the wall.
"I know. It’s probably a room… maybe their maintenance room or something." Melody nodded. "For now, we should go around to check the area. If possible, let’s check that room."
Clovis agreed. When they passed the area, a small rubble suddenly fell off that wall.
"Mhmm?" Melody halted her step, hearing that sound.
"What’s wrong?"
Melody didn’t hear anything else, so she thought it was just a rat or something. "Nothing."
Clovis could only nod since his senses weren’t as sharp as hers. They moved from one place to another. Despite seeing some movements on the radar, they actually found no beasts around them.
"This is weird." Clovis frowned.
"Yeah." Melody agreed. "Is it possible that there is another entrance leading to an area or a cave underneath the mall?"
"Animals that create underground caves, huh?" Clovis couldn’t deny that possibility.
"If that’s the case, won’t it be even more dangerous?"
"True. Their cave system is hard to map, and we’ll easily get swarmed by them. I think we should go back and not explore any further." As Clovis said that, they halted their steps. "Look, another wall."
"We have been finding walls in this floor. Is the mall’s structure bad or something?"
"Don’t ask me. Anyway, let’s go back. You know the path we’re going, right? This place is like a labyrinth."
"I mapped it." Melody assured him.
New novel chapters are published on freewёbn૦νeɭ.com.
The only thing they needed to do was go back. That was what they thought until, all of a sudden, the path they crossed earlier got blocked by a wall.
"Huh?" Clovis frowned. "Did we go here earlier?"
"It should be. I don’t think I’ve made a mistake." Melody felt something amiss, but there was simply no suspicious sound.
Clovis extended his hand. "Give me a grenade."
Melody handed him what he wanted. Surprisingly, Clovis also pulled out his weapon and gestured for Melody to pull the pin.
As soon as she pulled the pin, Clovis tossed the grenade to the wall.
*Bam!*
The explosion suddenly broke apart the wall as numerous scorpions fell to the ground. They all immediately crawled toward Clovis and Melody.
"!!!" Melody instantly noticed footsteps from all around them, as if all the walls on this floor had crumbled. It wasn’t a wall, it was giant scorpions stacking on top of each other. Because of the lack of light, they couldn’t determine it. In addition, these scorpions were able to do it quietly, to the point where Melody couldn’t even hear them.
In an instant, they were surrounded by more than a hundred scorpions, each of them spanning two meters in length. Melody’s AI immediately identified them and put their information forward.
Name: Pulmonoscorpius Kirktonensis
Description: One of the largest scorpions, living in the early Carboniferous period. It has a tough and flat exoskeleton, using their body to camouflage to avoid their predators.
"What the—!"