Of course, that sculpture could not come to life.

After confronting that thing for more than ten seconds, Lin Xi shivered and then came to her senses—extreme darkness and silence can cause all sorts of psychological problems, such as stress, tension, fear, and others.

Lin Xi felt that this was undoubtedly the reason why she was so frightened by a strange fossil sculpture.

"Who would have thought that I would actually start to miss your nagging now, Bryce."

Lin Xi secretly rejoiced that only he knew about the humiliating scene just now.

The audacious Lin Xi was actually unsettled and terrified by a silent fossil sculpture.

Even a few hours ago, if someone had said this to Lin Xi, she would have thought that person's brain must have been damaged by radiation from space.

Lin Xi composed himself, then bypassed the sculpture and began to continue inspecting the devastating scene of the damaged goods as he circled the warehouse.

To everyone's relief, only the sculpture was in the most serious condition. The plants and other small animals native to Sunu, the artifacts of the Sunu royal family, and a large quantity of precious metals remained intact in the containers.

"Wow, man, it looks like those damn alloys are targeting you."

After inspecting the goods, Lin Xi forced himself to ignore the subtle resistance rising deep inside him and returned to the fossil sculpture.

He needed to examine the thing more closely, since it was the only one in the entire warehouse that had slipped out of the storage container.

Moreover, it is the most valuable item among this batch of "goods".

The fossil sculpture's surface is intact, except that the insulating gel covering it is drying out.

In those areas, the surface color of the fossil gradually darkens and oxidizes. The degree is not very serious, but those light spots are hard to ignore.

“I bet you that if Taran saw you like this, he would probably have a nervous breakdown on the spot.”

As Lin Xi clumsily maneuvered the mecha, smearing the remaining isolation gel on the fossils, he muttered under his breath to the strange pupa-like object in his line of sight.

The tactile sensation of the fossil was transmitted to Lin Xi's fingertips through the mecha's sensory system; the eerie feeling was somewhat indescribable.

Unlike the softness perceived by the eye, the Sunu fossils feel hard and rough to the touch, as if there are many invisible scales or bumps on their surface. The insulating gel also gives them a subtle stickiness and slipperiness...

"That bastard Taran should have experienced this thing for himself..."

The warehouse was so quiet that Lin Xi almost subconsciously started talking to herself to ease the oppressive stillness and silence.

Even so, as soon as he stopped speaking, silence would return.

Lin Xi could even hear the sound of his blood flowing in his veins. That gurgling sound was very likely to make people nervous in this environment, because it sounded just like something was wriggling inside his body.

Oh, damn it, wriggling.

A strange image popped into his mind.

It was a constantly wriggling, indistinct mass of flesh.

There are also some brightly colored spots.

Lin Xi trembled slightly at the unexpected thought that came to her.

He vaguely remembered that what he had just recalled was a scene from one of his nightmares.

Okay, so the truth is out.

Lin Xi glanced at the strange and bizarre fossil sculpture again. It was probably because it looked so much like something from his nightmare that it made him so apprehensive.

But overall, he didn't think too much about it.

Lin Xi never thinks too much; he's not Bryce.

He quickly swept those meaningless thoughts aside and focused his attention on his damn task.

Lin Xi could certainly use the equipment to record everything in the warehouse, and then just turn around and leave.

Once the situation stabilizes a bit, others will slowly climb down from above and clean up the mess in the warehouse. However, from Lin Xi's observation, the sculpture's condition is indeed quite bad. Who knows if leaving it exposed like this will affect its strange internal activity, and thus the secretion of the "earth milk" that drives Earthlings crazy?

Lin Xi did find a lot of empty storage devices in the upper warehouse, but the power required to re-insert those devices into the slots and inject the isolation gel was not something that the light mech's built-in battery could provide.

Elisa must have sensed something, which is why she reminded him to restart the system settings.

This woman's sixth sense was sometimes so sharp it was almost like some kind of superpower.

Lin Xi sighed resignedly and retreated from the warehouse on floor B-3.

However, just as he was about to turn around, a dark gaze fell on his back.

Lin Xi suddenly turned around.

The warehouse remained as quiet as ever.

Only the sculpture remained wet, lying motionless on the ground, its grotesque face seemingly staring at Lin Xi.

"..."

Lin Xi swore that he really didn't like the things carved by the Sunu people.

He slammed the warehouse door shut (though it was completely unnecessary) and then moved quickly toward the machine room. Whether he wanted to admit it or not, he was much faster than before.

Lin Xi genuinely didn't want to stay on B-3 and be with that monstrous thing anymore.

Fortunately, things have become much smoother at this stage.

At least resolving the system malfunction was simpler than Lin Mao had imagined.

Yes, just as Elisa reminded her, the system only froze, not burned out. ("God, I'm really falling in love with you, Elisa..." Lin Xi muttered.)

After a short while, Lin Xi, who was able to complete the adjustments, suddenly pulled down the heavy switch, once, then again. Immediately afterward, the delightful humming sound from the various mechanical parts rang out.

Lin Xi returned to B-2, carried down the unused storage containers and isolation gel, and then, panting and exhausted, opened the warehouse door.

Then, staring at everything in front of him, his mind went completely blank.

The sculpture remains in its original location.

Just like he saw when he left.

However, the abundant light at this moment made it look...

It was extremely terrifying.

Dark oxidation marks were already visible on the surface of the sculpture, and in the short time Lin Xi was away, those oxidation marks had clearly turned dark brown.

The source of that special tactile sensation became clearer—Lin Xi could see distinct segmented carapace-like structures emerging from the sculpture's originally pupa-like body.

"...I had no idea that isolation gel was such an important thing."

After a long while, Lin Xi finally spoke to himself in a dry voice.

Things are getting a little complicated.

Of course, strictly speaking, this trouble has little to do with Lin Xi; his mission records can explain everything. But even so, looking at the statue that has clearly changed, Lin Xi still felt a little heavy-hearted.

For the first time in his life, he regretted that he always dozed off in history class; otherwise, he might have been able to sift through his memories to find some useful information to explain the fossil's unusual appearance.

Now, staring at the increasingly horrifying and disgusting fossils, all he could recall were the most basic concepts about the Sunu people.

The Sunu people love insects.

A more accurate statement is that the lives of the Sunu people were closely intertwined with insects.

Their food, clothing, production materials, medicine, and even religious beliefs are all centered around insects.

Even their most revered god—the Star God—was depicted as a giant insect.

Um... it's similar to the sculpture in front of him.

Lin Xi took several deep breaths and calmed down a bit.

In any case, the immediate priority is to put the sculpture back into those storage containers and then fill the area around it with insulating gel.

Lin Xi had already witnessed firsthand what would happen to this damned sculpture without enough insulating gel, and he had no intention of letting things get any worse.

However, having already witnessed the unusual appearance of this Sunu fossil sculpture, the psychological pressure of putting it back was much greater than before.

Lin Xi was disgusted.

The sculpture still felt hard and rough to the touch, except that the dried insulating gel had become even stickier.

Moreover, the backup storage device had a smaller capacity than the original, and Lin Xi had to put in a lot of effort to barely fit the sculpture inside.

Several times, he even suspected that he was about to burst the sculpture's bulging, slightly protruding belly—but each time he found that he was just being overly tense.

"I'm so sorry, I really didn't mean to, but... oh... God..."

Lin Xi was frantically chanting to the sculpture in the empty warehouse.

Beneath those indescribable, shell-like shells, he seemed to see a row of curled-up appendages.

Lin Xi now inexplicably understands why those Sunu people went mad—if the person he worshipped every day looked like that, he might have gone mad even earlier than those Sunu people.

Lin Mao finally let out a breath after the container made a "beep" sound after it was sealed and he saw the insulating gel filling all the gaps.

He then realized that he was unconsciously holding his breath.

"Oh, this is wonderful. Midway through life, I've finally discovered that I'm actually afraid of bugs—"

Lin Xi said to herself.

He really didn't want to admit it, but even the sculpture that wobbled slightly in the container because of the gel injection almost made him scream.