Chapter 620 Budding Civilization (1/2)
Han Xiao looked into Herlous' eyes and saw nervousness and hesitation in them. It seemed like Herlous cared a lot about what he was going to say next.
Ever since Han Xiao became Calamity Grade, the Grade B officers had started to respect him more and more. He had known Herlous for many years and knew him well. Herlous had wasted many years before starting to help his race. Compared to these Sunil warriors who had been suffering for a long time, he was not as decisive and thought more about things.
In the previous life, Herlous had been willing to die while stopping the Catastrophe; he was very heroic. Now that his experiences were different, naturally, his mindset was different as well.
”You're overthinking it. There are no ethics or morals in the battle of survival, just different sides. If I don't help, the Sunils will be the ones that meet their end. Isn't this what you guys hired me to prevent?”
Han Xiao patted Herlous' shoulders and said, ”Indeed, Sunils are outsiders, and the Subterranean Mutants are innocent. They've done nothing wrong. However, the rules of the jungle apply everywhere; the Subterranean Mutants are an obstacle to the survival of Sunil. Since you have no choice, don't empathize with your enemies…”
”I know that, but how are we different from DarkStar if we do this?” Herlous replied.
Sunil's mother planet had been invaded and destroyed by DarkStar; they were the victims. Now, they had become the invaders like DarkStar. Herlous did not know how to feel about this change of character.
”Sunil isn't DarkStar. DarkStar destroys for the sake of destroying, but you people are trying to ensure your race's future. The motives are different. This is a battle for survival between races. Since you Sunils can't migrate again, the only thing left to do is to eliminate your enemies. There's only the weak and strong, no wrong or wrong. Don't feel too guilty about it…”
Han Xiao paused and added, ”If the Subterranean Mutants paid to hire me and told me to chase the Sunils away, I might be on their side. You wouldn't hope for me to chase away your race, would you?”
As a chaotic neutral and a professional mercenary, this was not an issue at all. He had no intention of interfering with Sunil's decisions.
Battles of survival happened every day around the universe. A large number of species were being killed every second while many were being born.
Han Xiao's attitude toward this made Herlous feel relieved. At least Black Star did not dislike him because of this.
”Stop chatting, let's start,” Sehrinde said coldly and impatiently before jumping right into the cave.
Herlous sighed and jumped down, too.
Han Xiao activated Berserk Ape and followed behind.
…
The three of them descended for a while, and the cave entrance started to become hard to see. Their vision was filled with darkness, and there was not a single light source. Han Xiao turned on night vision.
About a few thousand meters underground, the three of them finally arrived at the bottom of the cave and stepped on solid ground.
In front of them was the pitch-black underground, the tunnels were twisted and complex. There were quite a few Prophecy Stone mines around there, which meant there were also many Subterranean Mutant nests. The Sunils had first discovered the Subterranean Mutants' existence when they drugged till here. They had lost some exploration teams, so the digging had been stopped.
There were only marks of mining near the cave—any areas further in were the world of Subterranean Mutants. It was enormous; just the discovered area was already much bigger than Forest City. The Subterranean Mutants had probably reproduced for many years to be able to build such a magnificent underground world.
The temperature this deep under the ground was very high and contained rich heat energy. Han Xiao opened the vital sign detection radar. On it, a nest far away was filled with dense dots. Each dot represented a Subterranean Mutant, so their numbers were terrifying. In just one nest, there were tens of millions of Subterranean Mutants.
Sunil numbered these nests. The one that they were going to was the nearest Nest No. 1.
This was just the tip of an iceberg of the underground world. With how large Planet Sunil was, there was still an unknown number of nests that they had yet to discover. There were hundreds of millions of Subterranean Mutants. They were undoubtedly the owner of this planet.
The nests spread out from the Prophecy Stone mines. The dots were most dense right around the nests, like a city center.
After following the radar for a while, the three of them got closer to the nest. The corrosive slime from the Subterranean Mutants started to appear on the ground and the walls. From years and years of the Subterranean Mutants living here, the slime had turned into a thick and rubber-like layer. It felt dense and tough to the touch.
Beep beep!
This time, the radar suddenly rang. More than ten Mutants passed by in front of them. Han Xiao turned on the binoculars and locked onto the Mutants.
With one acceleration, Han Xiao instantly closed in on them. His movements left a series of afterimages, and in the blink of an eye, all the Mutants were beaten to the ground. In the face of Han Xiao's Calamity Grade strength, the battle was completely one-sided.
Herlous and Sehrinde approached and secured the Mutants. Their mission was just labor work.
The Subterranean Mutants were more than one meter long, and they had certain characteristics of insect species. Their carapace protected their muscles, and hair extended from the gaps in between their carapace, secreting slime from the inside. Their head was very small, and they had yet to develop eyes, only four agile antennae on their head. Their mouth was filled with sharp teeth to aid them in consuming rocks. They had four very lean legs with backward joints, allowing them to sprint and jump. They had a spine and a tough tail covered in carapace with a shovel-shaped end. Their overall appearance was rather vicious.
”We've caught the samples. Shall we return now?” Herlous asked softly.
”You guys go first, I'm going deeper into the nest to take a look.” Han Xiao waved. The two of them did not object; they had no reason to worry about Han Xiao, given how strong he was. They took the ten or so Subterranean Mutants and returned the way they came from.
Han Xiao was the only one left. He looked at the battle information from earlier, and the attributes of the Subterranean Mutants popped up. Their total level was about thirty to forty, and they were beast type beings. They all had the Psychic Resistance talents. Other than that, there was nothing special.
Their psychic resistance is quite high indeed; they won't be affected by the Prophecy Stones. Han Xiao nodded. Now, he had to find out the reason these Subterranean Mutants lived near the Prophecy Stones.
Activating the stealth function, Han Xiao moved deeper into the nest. He started to meet Subterranean Mutants more and more frequently. However, Berserk Ape's stealth function was definitely not something that the Subterranean Mutants could discover. It was a smooth journey.
The closer he got to the center of the next, the bigger the Subterranean Mutants got. From over one meter long to more than four meters long, their carapace was also thicker.
Han Xiao suddenly realized that there were some skew slash marks on one of the stone walls that formed images with unknown meanings. He looked at it carefully and confirmed this was a drawing made by Subterranean Mutants using their tails.
”Is this a type of recording? The Subterranean Mutants' language?”
The creation of words usually meant that civilization was sprouting.
Are the Subterranean Mutants in the transition from beasts to an intelligent species?
This thought flashed past, and Han Xiao continued forward. Very soon, he came to a Prophecy Stone mine. He noticed that there were not any signs that it had been mined before, as if the Subterranean Mutants had never used the Prophecy Stones, only guarding the mine.