CHAPTER 500: CHAPTER 377: UNDERGROUND TOMB, A TANGLED WEB OF MYSTERIES!_2

Looking at the skeleton, Lin Yue seemed to understand something.

Then those outside, were they done by this person or someone else?

The shelter’s exit was blocked, so...

This tragedy allowed Lin Yue to almost reason out the whole picture, but there were still some things he could not comprehend.

However, what exactly caused this event?

The torch suddenly crackled twice, Lin Yue looked at the flickering flame, walked in the direction away from its swaying, and found a fist-sized crack in the corner of the wall, from which came a constant chill breeze.

The crack wasn’t big, but it was enough to allow one thing to freely pass through.

Yes, the little creatures in this world responsible for decomposition—the insects and lizards!

Lin Yue glanced back at the skeleton, recalling similar situations before.

The Belger couple.

Then, he saw the bones of the Belger couple in the underground mine of Belger’s shelter.

They hadn’t been dead for long, yet not a bit of flesh remained on them; other tissues naturally did not remain either—only two skeletons leaning together.

The dead Lizardmen and beggars in the Underground Ruins Zone C also became mere skeletons in a very short span.

The reason being, devoured quickly by numerous, ubiquitous scavenging insects and small lizards.

Seems like the cause of these bodies becoming skeletons was possibly found.

Normally, within this sealed shelter, decay might be a lengthy process, and remnants like hair or nails would remain; however, none of these bodies were like that.

Most likely, those insects and lizards burrowed this crack as an entrance/exit, and upon smelling decay from the dead inside, they swarmed in, leaving only skeletons behind before exiting through the crack.

Lin Yue put on the night vision device, shone his flashlight inside, unexpectedly discovering a rather vast space beyond the crack!

"Where does this lead?" Lin Yue took out the Diamond Iron Pickaxe, struck a few times, and rapidly the crack turned into a passage he could enter. After striking about half a meter deep, he entered this wide space.

He suddenly realized, this place seemed familiar.

"This torch resembles those in the Underground Ruins?" Lin Yue looked at a torch on the wall, which looked like those inside the Underground Ruins.

Looking around, the stone brick walls, floor, and ceiling were of stone too.

The torch marks on the walls appeared every few meters, extinguished yet orderly.

Goodness, did he really come to the Underground Ruins?

Lin Yue pulled out the gun, readying for battle again; he continued to tie the flashlight to his arm, inspecting the surroundings with a torch.

The rectangular large space had no exits or paths on any wall, but...

"What’s that?" Lin Yue suddenly noticed a black hole on the ground, two to three meters wide, square-shaped, with stair steps extending downward.

A deja vu flood his mind suddenly.

Seems like, he’s been here?

"This underground entrance, like the passage downward the first time I went into the Underground Ruins, also like this large space!"

Wait, couldn’t be...

Lin Yue felt a tingling on his scalp, this strong deja vu made him impatiently open the system panel, quickly checking the area map.

It turned out, this was the Underground Ruins F Zone!

It was just the large space he reached when he first passed through the Underground Ruins Stone Gate!

However, the hole was in another corner, totally unnoticed before as a crack.

Goodness, Lin Yue exclaims goodness.

Unexpectedly, the Underground Ruins F Zone was merely tens of kilometers from his shelter?

Moreover, this mysterious underground shelter could also lead to the Underground Ruins!

Is this a coincidence?

The Underground Ruins are intricate, mysterious, and dangerous.

Lin Yue had imagined how deep the Lizardmen of the Underground Ruins would be underground, but never did he imagine the Underground Ruins were possibly just tens of kilometers away from his shelter.

The Underground Ruins Zone F connected through the Ice Lizard Cave to the Underground Ruins Zone C and Zone C2, making the actual distance to his shelter closer than imagined.

"Could it be that the stone gates of the Underground Ruins usually appear near shelters? No, back then he encountered Xing Lingfeng and others, their shelter was much farther away than here.

Lin Yue didn’t continue exploring; in this place he had broken into, there was nothing worth lingering over—everything worth taking had been taken, even the Lizardmen were all gone.

Though anew mysteries arose, now wasn’t the time to ponder them.

Retreating back into the shelter, Lin Yue blocked the crack with stone and added a thick iron wall layer.

Next, he walked toward the skeleton lying on the chair.

Even though these bodies were devoured clean by insects, the dark yellow on their bones, and thick dust covering, couldn’t be formed within mere dozens of days.

So...

The key to the puzzle may lie near this skeleton, or in this shelter!

Lin Yue looked at the skeleton, carefully searching around but found nothing.

The shelves were filled with books, Lin Yue stored each book in the Storage Space, yet the system gave no special sound—only told the names of books.

The bookshelves stored into the Storage Space revealed nothing either, these decayed, distorted wooden shelves were seemingly on the verge of crumbling at a touch, without hiding anything.

Storing all books and shelves in the space yielded nothing from the ground either.

Finally, he looked toward the skeleton on the chair.

Only it was left.

According to his earlier reasoning, a tragedy once occurred here.

Those corpses on upper floors were all killed instantly or decapitated; means were cruel, not one survived. The direction of escape was toward the exit, likely chased and killed one by one.

Moreover, the alloy door of the shelter was locked from the inside, and there was no other exit here, thus confirming the killer was among these people.

Amidst all skeletons, the only one not killed by others was this skeleton before him, lying toward back on the chair, with a round hole on its head, and a pistol on the ground!

It probably suffered some illness, locked the shelter, then killed everyone inside, before finally eliminating itself.

However...

This may be the answer to this event, but not the answer to unravel this enigmatic shelter.

The antiquity of the skeletons, the dust covering—both are strange.

Even if they were killed from the first days, their bones wouldn’t age to this extent; they should be ash white, like the Belger couple.

Perhaps, the matter is more complex than imagined.

With such thoughts, Lin Yue again looked around the skeleton.

The chair and surroundings had nothing noteworthy; the wall behind held no information.

What remained was that giant skeleton.

Lin Yue examined it closely, suddenly noticing the left chest and belly area of the coat it wore seemed bulging, like something inside.

Putting on gloves, holding a dagger, Lin Yue gently sliced the buttoned coat, immediately cutting it apart, swiftly slicing the area surrounding the bulge three times, and soon the object inside the coat dropped out.

With a thud, the object hit the chair, creating a sound immediately suggesting to Lin Yue it might be a book.

However, picking it up, Lin Yue realized it was indeed not a book.

"A diary? Another diary..."

Yet, after flipping through its contents, Lin Yue couldn’t help but gasp!

"What? How could it really be like this? Impossible...were we truly not the first?"