CHAPTER 447: CHAPTER 415 HELL

The entrance to the mountain was a hole approximately one meter in length and one meter in width, with an artificial rebar ladder extending upward from within the mountain...

Descending about ten meters along the ladder, you could see the split sides of the mountain dotted with purple and brown crystals.

These were high-quality Purple Crystals and smoke crystals!

As to their exact value, Mountain Eagle didn’t know, since he wasn’t a professional.

But simply judging from the quantity and quality, these crystals held significant mining value.

Of course, to talk about large-scale mining out of context of the surrounding environment is nonsense; however, if it’s just a personal endeavor, carrying out a bag of high-quality Purple Crystals would definitely be profitable!

Mountain Eagle had Golden Cicada as a scanning tool, which allowed him to clearly sense whether there were any anomalies around. As he descended the rebar ladder, he found that areas around the ladder had clearly been swept by people who had come and gone frequently, so there weren’t any particularly valuable Purple Crystals.

In order not to leave empty-handed, Mountain Eagle performed a challenging stretch, smashed a Purple Crystal the size of a fingertip into his pocket as a souvenir.

About 30 meters down the ladder, Mountain Eagle stepped onto a surface.

It was only here that he realized the mountain’s internal structure was incredibly complex...

Due to the mountain’s immense size and an elevation of around 600 meters, descending 30 meters hardly reached the true interior of the mountain.

Golden Cicada, running at full power, conducted a high-powered ultrasonic scan of the surrounding space, and soon a complex internal traffic network of the mountain’s belly was revealed before him.

There was an enormous space at the bottom of the mountain, and above this space, numerous pathways spread out like a spider web.

Some of the nodes of these ’spider webs’ were fairly large, so they had been utilized by people as workshops or even resting areas.

The designer of this place was extremely clever; the vast inner space within the mountain would turn Grotto Heaven into an animal shelter, housing the animals from outside, providing protein for the people inside over the winter.

He had installed ventilation systems throughout the complex upper passageways, allowing people inside to breathe fresh air, and lit the pitch-black pathways with LED strips to prevent anyone from getting lost inside.

Perhaps due to the complexity of the internal structure, or maybe because of power or resource constraints, Mountain Eagle didn’t find any cameras or motion sensors within the passageways.

Following the guidance of the LED strips, twisting and turning, ascending and descending, Mountain Eagle traveled close to 10 minutes and reached a passage node.

The space inside the node was about thirty or more square meters, with uneven ground, and dozens of plastic boxes were placed against the walls, filled with many drone parts and batteries.

Around a corner, Mountain Eagle saw two people repairing a drone while loudly complaining...

"When does our shift finally end? I hate this job..."

"Six more hours. Just hurry up and fix the drone. Once we release it tomorrow to confirm that those Big Dogs surrounding us are still doing fine, we can go down and rest.

I spoke with the guards from the lab, and for 80 bucks, we can go find some company to have a good time with."

"I like your perverted side. What’s the special feeling about sleeping with a bunch of women injected with muscle relaxants?"

"No special feeling, they’re like corpses. But if you’re willing to look in their eyes, that’s different, it’s thrilling..."

.........

Mountain Eagle frowned deeply as he heard the two men’s conversation, but he didn’t disturb them, choosing instead to squeeze through a narrow, unmarked passageway beside him. After navigating for a while, it took him more than an hour to delve deeper inside...

The space inside the valley was like an egg, and within the eggshell-like rock layers, there were several huge natural cavities.

Now, these spaces had been transformed into laboratories and rest areas for personnel.

The kind of brightly lit scenes from sci-fi movies with smooth metal panel walls did not exist here.

The so-called personnel living areas were tents one after another; bulbs hung from simple aluminum alloy frames, and makeshift tables and chairs set upon barely leveled ground served as the dining area.

The laboratory area was even more rudimentary, with an aluminum frame and sterile curtains counting as a lab.

The space was large, and there were many people, but not much humanity...

To be honest, if it were merely the transformation of animals or even humans, Mountain Eagle thought it was still acceptable...

Adventuring with trained animals and enhancing oneself with various drug injections, that was all a choice these people made themselves.

After all, these people signed contracts of their own accord, accepting the remuneration from Dimension Card Company. Even if there was deception involved, if you, a group of adults who live by the gun, choose not to rebel, then you must pay the price for your choices.

But when Mountain Eagle infiltrated the so-called laboratory and saw what they were specifically doing, a flame of anger uncontrollably began to burn in his heart...

He originally thought that these people were only conducting genetic experiments and selective breeding on animals...

Extracting sperm and eggs from genetically modified animals, selecting the highest quality embryos, and implanting them into the bodies of female animals for artificial cultivation.

Through generation after generation of selection and elimination, they could obtain the breeds they wanted at a much faster pace than nature.

This practice is quite common in animal husbandry, where only the strongest males are allowed to breed and the others culled, minus the step of artificial genetic intervention.

Mountain Eagle never imagined that they would do this to humans...

When he squeezed out of a crevice in the mountain wall, he heard the cries of a baby from a tent nearby...

Soon, a few people in white lab coats came out carrying a wet baby and placed it into an incubator inside a sterile room sectioned off with curtains.

A few minutes later, two people in sterile suits came out of the tent carrying a stretcher dripping with blood below...

"This is the sixth death from dystocia this month; we should inform Dr. Wendy to adjust the embryos. These genetic babies are developing too fast in the womb and are too large."

"That’s not our responsibility. Whether Super Soldier Phase 3 can succeed depends on whether these babies’ monitoring data can meet the standards. Stopping our project now would mean failure."

"Then we need to inform the outside, we need more qualified test subjects. Those we have left are almost done for."

...

Mountain Eagle stood silently in the corner waiting for the two to leave, then grabbed a white coat from a tent next to him, put it on, took out his phone, and entered the tent they had come from...

Under the dim lights of the tent, there were rows of beds, all holding women.

They were covered with blue sterile drapes, half of them heavily pregnant...

Creepily, aside from breathing, these women made no sound; they were like living containers rather than living beings.

Mountain Eagle suppressed his inner rage, pulled out his phone to document the terrible scenes in the tent, and then left through the other side before anyone could enter...

The condition was the same in two tents—there were over forty women in total. Judging by the number of empty beds, some must have died already.

After leaving the second tent, Mountain Eagle quickly checked another tent nearby, where a group of children ranged from the smallest still in incubators to those around four years old, totaling about a dozen.

Each had a small space, but it was enclosed in an iron cage—likely to prevent them from running around.

Mountain Eagle retreated to a spot near the mountain wall and took a few deep breaths, struggling to contain his surging anger, but no matter how hard he tried, the fire seemed to grow ever more intense...

Just as his rage was about to burn through his reason, the voice of a child startled him...

"Who are you..."

Mountain Eagle was shocked; following the voice, he saw a gap by the wall of the tent, through which a tousle-headed little kid peered out at him...

The large-eyed child’s gaze was filled with curiosity about the outside world. Surveying Mountain Eagle, who leaned against the mountain, the child flashed a smile and asked, "Are you new here?"

Mountain Eagle hesitated for a moment then nodded slightly: "Yes..."

The child looked around and said, "Can you ask why they didn’t let us out today? We’re supposed to go outside every day around now...

I don’t like it here. I like it outside. Can you let me out?"

Mountain Eagle leaned closer to peek through the tent gap, seeing that the child had poked his head through the cage...

Through the gap, he saw other kids either restless or quietly staying in their cages. Mountain Eagle stroked the child’s head and said, "Don’t worry, I’ll come to take you all out in a few days..."

As he spoke, Mountain Eagle pulled out a candy, unwrapped it, stuffed it in the child’s mouth, then gently touched his face and promised earnestly, "Wait for me. I’ll get you all out..."

The sweetness of the candy made the child’s eyes light up, and he looked at Mountain Eagle excitedly, "What’s this? Do they have this outside?"

Mountain Eagle wiped the drool from the corner of the child’s mouth and nodded seriously: "This is candy. You can have as much as you want!"

The child, hearing this, squeezed a bit harder and, as flexible as his body was, pushed his arm out; he looked at Mountain Eagle with those large eyes and asked, "Can you take me with you..."

Nothing shook Mountain Eagle more than a child’s plea, but there were too many of them, and too many pregnant women; he couldn’t take them all out by himself. He needed a complete plan...

A plan that would let the damned perish, and those deserving of life continue to live!

Looking into the child’s bright eyes, Mountain Eagle couldn’t help but tousle the fluffy head and said forcefully, "Don’t tell the others I was here. Wait for me. I’ll come to get you all out in a few days...

Take all of you out with me!"

After Mountain Eagle sent the child back inside the tent, he looked at the dim dome above, then quickly moved through the shadows of the tent.

But to Mountain Eagle’s surprise, shortly after he left, the same child poked his head out of the tent again, and then, as if he possessed the Bone Shrinking Skill, he squeezed out of the cage and stepped outside.

The child stood where Mountain Eagle had just been, sniffed around with a wrinkled nose, then grinned and followed barefoot...