The moment Chen Hao's hand touched the palm-sized piece of ore, it changed.
It didn't heat up gradually; it suddenly became as hot as red-hot iron. He instinctively pulled his hand back, and the outer layer of his glove sizzled as if it had been branded. He took half a step back, his heart skipping a beat.
The ore neither fell nor sank; it simply floated in the current, its surface beginning to shimmer with a dark silver glow. Suddenly, a low tremor emanated from the surrounding rock walls, as if something were waking from a slumber.
"Something's up," he said into the communicator, his voice low.
Nana's voice immediately followed: "Underground structural resonance detected, frequency 3.7 Hz, consistent with the signal band of the ruins' secret chamber. Immediate evacuation is recommended."
“I want to leave too.” Chen Hao stared at the cracks spreading in front of him. “But the exit is blocked.”
The rock strata above had begun to crumble, and pieces of debris were falling one after another, turning the water murky. He looked up at the depth gauge: 6,800 meters. In a place like this, a landslide meant the chances of escaping were slim.
"Karl!" he shouted, "Is the boat still moving?"
“The thrusters are working properly, but the passageway is too narrow to turn around.” Karl quickly checked the systems in the control room. “We can only wait for you to come out.”
“No,” Susan’s voice broke in. “There’s a crack on the right, three meters wide, leading diagonally upwards. The water is flowing in the right direction; it’s the only way out now.”
"Are you sure?" Chen Hao asked.
“I’m not sure,” Susan said, “but I just saw a fish swim by. Alive.”
“Let’s take a gamble.” Chen Hao took a deep breath, hoisted the drilling rig onto his shoulder, and said, “I’ll clear the road.”
He increased the drill bit's power and aimed it at the base of a visibly loose rock pillar nearby. That kind of rock had a high metallic content, was brittle, and would easily break at the slightest touch. He didn't expect to blast open a large space; he just wanted to cause a collapse sooner, cutting off the subsequent chain reaction.
"Three seconds to go," he said. "Everyone, get ready to move."
No one responded, but the breathing on the communication channel tightened.
He pressed the start button.
The drill bit spun at high speed, sending sparks flying the moment it touched the rock surface. The rock emitted a screeching sound, followed by a muffled crack, and the entire pillar began to tilt. He turned and ran, but behind him, a huge chunk of rock crashed down, the shockwave propelling him forward two meters.
Dust and debris billowed up, reducing visibility to less than five meters. He turned right based on his memory, slipped, and nearly fell. He reached out to brace himself against the rock face, feeling a cool sensation in his palm—it wasn't stone, but some kind of smooth surface.
“I touched an artificial structure,” he said. “There’s really something down there.”
“Never mind what’s there,” Nana said. “You’re sinking right now. If you don’t move, you’ll be buried.”
He gritted his teeth and pressed forward, finally spotting a faint blue light ahead. It was the crevice Susan had mentioned. He crawled inside, using both hands and feet to climb upwards, the sound of cracking echoing behind him, as if the entire mountain was collapsing inwards.
Three minutes later, he rushed out of the narrow passage and crashed directly into the mechanical arm of the exploration vessel.
Carl immediately initiated the ascent procedure. The hull tilted and rose, avoiding the last wave of falling boulders.
"Is everyone here?" Chen Hao asked, panting.
“Everything’s ready.” Susan looked at the monitor screen. “The ore sample is also in the sealed chamber.”
"That hot one?"
“Just as you let go, it floated into the sampling bag on its own,” she said. “It was like…knowing it was going to be taken away.”
Chen Hao didn't speak. He leaned back in his seat, his hands still trembling. Not because he was afraid, but because for a moment just now, he felt as if the ore had glanced at him.
Of course not. Stones don't judge people.
But he remembers that temperature. It wasn't ordinary heat; it was a burning heat that went straight to his bones, like someone had set his nerves on fire.
“Nana,” he said, “check if there are any records of biological reactions to this metal.”
“There is currently no relevant data,” Nana said. “X-7 is still classified as inorganic matter, and no signs of life have been found.”
"But it got hot."
"It may be that energy is absorbed and then released."
Why did it have to happen just when I touched it?
The channel was silent for a few seconds.
“It’s a coincidence,” Nana said. “Or the triggering mechanism may be related to the human body’s electric field.”
“That’s troublesome,” Carl interjected. “Next time, whoever goes digging will have to wear insulated gloves.”
“Not only that.” Susan flipped through the footage she had just recorded. “Look at this.”
The zoom-in image captures the instant the ore floats. Around it, the water forms an extremely thin spiral, as if pulled by something unseen. And that flow points directly into the depths of the cliff.
"It's pointing the way," Chen Hao said.
“It could also be turbulence,” Carl said. “Don’t scare yourself.”
“I’m not trying to scare you.” Chen Hao looked down at the sealed box. “I just feel… it doesn’t want to be taken away casually. That collapse just now was like a warning.”
“Even after the warning, he was still taken away,” Susan said.
“So it fell silent,” Chen Hao said softly. “It hasn’t been hot since then.”
A brief silence fell over the submarine. The only sound was the ticking of the instruments.
They all knew that luck played a large part in their survival. If Susan hadn't discovered the passage, if Carl hadn't repaired the backup power supply beforehand, and if Nana hadn't calculated the collapse time precisely so they could evacuate ten seconds early, everyone would be stuck in the seabed rock formations by now.
“We have enough materials.” Karl opened the sealed compartment to check. “Twelve pieces of raw ore, the smallest is the size of a fingernail, and the largest is almost the size of a fist. Enough for a small-scale smelting test.”
“Let’s not talk about smelting yet,” Susan said. “We don’t even know how it generates heat. If it suddenly explodes in the lab, the entire base will sink.”
"Then let's do an isolation test first," Chen Hao said. "Put it in the lowest explosion-proof room, with three layers of shielding. No one is allowed to get close."
"Didn't you just say you wanted to keep it safe yourself?" Karl chuckled.
“That was before,” Chen Hao said, looking at the box. “Now I know it doesn’t obey.”
Nana had been running data analysis in the background. Suddenly she said, "Anomaly readings detected."
"What?"
"At the moment the ore broke away from the rock strata, it released a pulse signal that lasted for 0.4 seconds and had a wavelength outside the range of conventional communication. I compared it with the database and found that a similar signal had appeared in the drilling records of Antarctic ice sheets 30 years ago."
"Then what?"
“The expedition team went missing that time,” she said. “Seven people, along with their equipment, disappeared. The official record is that they fell into the sea after the ice cracked.”
"Is it possible..." Susan paused, "that they encountered the same thing?"
“Unable to confirm,” Nana said, “but the signal pattern similarity is 89 percent.”
The cabin fell silent again.
Chen Hao stared at the ore in the sealed box. It lay there quietly, its color dull and unremarkable. But he knew this was different from ordinary metals.
It will respond.
It will make a choice.
It might even... remember.
“We have to go again,” he said.
“What did you say?” Carl turned to look at him.
“I said, we have to go back,” Chen Hao said in a low voice. “Not to mine more ore, but to see what’s down there. That ore isn’t unique; it was placed here by someone. Or rather, it was kept here.”
"Are you crazy?" Susan said. "I was almost buried alive just now."
"That's why I'm going," Chen Hao smiled. "What if it won't let me leave next time?"
No one responded.
The exploration vessel continued to rise, and the water pressure gradually decreased. The spot of light above became increasingly clear, as if a slit had been torn open.
Chen Hao placed his hand on the outside of the sealed box.
It's cold.
It's completely different from before.
He suddenly remembered something.
The moment the drilling rig detonated the rock column, the duration of the ore's glow was exactly the same as the length of time they first received the signal from the seabed—thirty-seven seconds.
Not a penny more, not a penny less.
He opened his mouth as if to say something, but suddenly there was static coming from the communicator.
Sizzle—
Then came a short sound, like some kind of response.
A faint silver light flashed across the edge of the ore inside the sealed box.
Chen Hao's fingers were still pressed against the box.
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