The passage ended in a maze of collapsed rubble, the air stifling like a sauna. Chen Hao wiped the sweat from his brow, panting, and said, "Now we're in trouble. A maze in front, a monster knocking at the door behind us. Should we draw lots to decide who will lure it away?"
Carl, who was inspecting the acoustic decoy device, nearly dropped the circuit board when he heard this. "Can you stop always suggesting escape plans involve self-destruction?"
"I was just trying to lighten the mood," Chen Hao said, shrinking his neck. "Those three knocks just now, weren't they creepy? If someone had copied us, they would have rushed in already. But it didn't come, which means... it's not human."
Nana stood at the front, the scanner's light slowly moving across the wall. "The heat signal disappeared for over twenty-seven minutes; no life was detected approaching. The wind continues to blow from the north, and the lingering odor has spread to over three hundred meters away. Overall assessment—the external threat is temporarily neutralized."
"Temporarily?" Susan leaned against the rock wall, her fingers still gripping the short stick. "When did you say 'completely safe'?"
“I didn’t say that.” Nana turned around. “But I now suggest we keep going. Going back the way we came is not feasible, and staying put will increase the risk of exposure. The only viable path is to go deeper with the airflow.”
She pointed to a narrow side path on the right, from which a faint breeze blew, carrying a hint of coolness.
"Going forward again?" Chen Hao rolled his eyes. "We've never gone back the way we came. Sooner or later, we'll find that we've actually been going around in circles."
"So you're willing to stay here and wait for the next wave of knocks?" Carl packed up his equipment and dusted off his pants.
"Let's go," Chen Hao sighed. "Anyway, I'm fat, so walking a few more steps will help me lose weight."
The four of them walked in a line, slowly making their way along the slippery wall. The passage widened, and the rusty pipes overhead gradually disappeared, replaced by natural rock formations. Tiny cracks began to appear in the ground, like a dried-up riverbed.
After walking for about twenty minutes, a faint light finally appeared ahead.
“It’s not natural light.” Nana stopped in her tracks. “Wavelength analysis shows it’s a cold light source with extremely low intensity, possibly from mineral reflection or residual energy.”
"So... there's something outside that reflects light?" Karl's voice was a little tense.
“It could be a hole,” Susan said in a low voice. “Don’t make a sound yet, let’s get closer and take a look.”
They slowed their pace, practically crawling for the last few steps. The exit was half-hidden by a pile of rubble. Chen Hao pushed aside a few stones, peeked out, and froze.
"Why?"
"What's wrong?" Susan asked.
"You...come and see!"
The three of them emerged from the passage one after another, and looked up after they had stood still.
A stone building is half-buried in the mountainside, its walls covered with signs of weathering, yet its outline remains straight and its edges sharp. Scattered on the ground in front of the building are broken stone slabs, arranged not so much as if they had collapsed randomly, but rather as if they had once formed a road.
The building has a door on the front, not tall, but large enough for two people to enter side by side. Above the door is a relief: three overlapping circles with wavy lines extending downwards, and several engravings of varying lengths on the side.
No one spoke.
After several seconds, Chen Hao murmured, "This thing... is it a house?"
“It doesn’t look like it was formed naturally.” Carl had already stepped forward and reached out to touch the wall. “The material density is uniform, and there are polishing marks on the surface. These grooves are too regular; they couldn’t have been caused by wind erosion or water flow.”
Susan went around to the side and crouched down to examine the ground. "The color of the stones here is different from the surrounding rock layers. And look—" she pointed to the edge of a piece of gravel, "the break is clean, it was obviously cut and transported here."
Nana activated the optical enhancement mode and scanned the wall. "The main material is high-silica mixed rock, with trace amounts of iron and titanium. The structure has good stability, and its load-bearing capacity is estimated to meet the earthquake standard of magnitude 8. Non-natural landform features confirmed."
"Wait a minute." Chen Hao suddenly turned his head. "You mean... this is man-made?"
“The logical deduction is correct,” Nana nodded.
"No, I'm not asking about logic," Chen Hao raised his voice. "I'm saying, are there really man-made structures here? Aren't we the first ones here?"
“The identity of the builders cannot be determined at present,” Nana said. “But one thing is certain: intelligent life with engineering capabilities once existed on this planet.”
The scene was quiet for a few seconds.
Then Chen Hao plopped down on the ground, grinning, "Damn, we're rich!"
"What did you say?" Susan frowned.
“Think about it!” Chen Hao spread his hands. “What does discovering ruins mean? It means recording, it means technology, it means—maybe we can even find a kitchen where we don’t have to eat compressed biscuits every day!”
"Is there nothing else on your mind besides food?" Karl couldn't help but say.
"I'm just being pragmatic!" Chen Hao retorted. "It would be a miracle to produce results while doing research on an empty stomach. Besides, we've come this far; do you really think you can just go back and report 'discovered a suspected artificial structure' and be done with it?"
“Of course not.” Karl’s tone became serious. “But we need to be cautious. Without equipment and support, it’s too risky to rush in. I suggest we mark the coordinates first, return to base to prepare the tools, and then come back.”
“By the time you’re ready, this place might have already been blown away by the wind,” Susan said. “And we don’t know if we’ll be able to find the same entrance next time. Once we lose our spot, we might miss this opportunity forever.”
“We can’t just rush in,” Carl insisted. “We should at least do some perimeter mapping, collect samples, and figure out the basic situation before deciding on the next step.”
“I’ve already started collecting samples.” Nana squatted in the corner, scraping off a little powder with a sampling knife and putting it into a sealed bag. “At the same time, I’m recording the distribution of symbols and mapping the building’s orientation. Preliminary scans show that the wall is about 60 centimeters thick, the internal space is intact, and there are no obvious signs of collapse.”
"Look!" Chen Hao jumped up. "Nana has already made her move, what are you still hesitating for?"
“I’m not hesitating,” Carl glared at him. “I’m talking about scientific procedures!”
"Will the process allow us to get a good night's sleep tonight?" Chen Hao pointed to himself. "I just ran for my life and my legs are about to give out. Now you want me to walk several kilometers back to check in? And come back tomorrow? What if I run into that weird thing knocking on the door again on the way?"
He paused, then looked around at the three of them: "We've endured all this way just to find some clues, haven't we? Now the clues are right in front of us, we can even see the door, and you're telling me 'come back another day'?"
No one responded.
Carl pursed his lips, his fingers tapping unconsciously on his knee. Susan stared at the door, her expression complex. Nana continued recording data, the symbolic graphs on the screen constantly updating.
After a long silence, Karl said softly, "...You're right."
Chen Hao was taken aback: "Huh?"
“I mean,” Carl looked up, “you’re right. We can’t turn back. Now that we’re here, we have to figure out what this is, who built it, and why it’s here.”
Susan nodded: "Then let's do an external reconnaissance first. We won't go inside, just gather information. We'll go in officially tomorrow after we've gathered all the tools."
“Agreed.” Nana closed the terminal. “Current task assignment: I’ll be responsible for data recording and environmental monitoring; Carl will collect wall samples; Susan will check the surrounding stability; Chen Hao… you can assist with the rubbing of symbols.”
"I'll be very serious!" Chen Hao immediately took out a charcoal pencil and paper. "I promise I won't miss a single word."
He squatted by the door and began to trace the relief. His hand trembled a little, and the circles he drew were crooked, but he didn't care and continued drawing stroke by stroke.
Carl used a sampling knife to scrape stone chips from different locations. Susan walked along the perimeter of the building, occasionally crouching down to examine cracks in the ground. Nana stood in front of the main entrance, her terminal screen lit up, constantly displaying new analysis results.
A gentle breeze was blowing.
Chen Hao suddenly stopped writing and looked up at the sky.
"Hello."
"What?" Susan asked.
"Do you think... it's possible that this place... was originally meant to be seen by people?"
"What's the meaning?"
“I mean,” Chen Hao pointed to the pattern on the lintel, “if it really was left by the ancients, why would we see it at this particular time? A landslide blocked the road, forcing us to take a tunnel all the way here—isn’t that too much of a coincidence?”
No one answered.
Nana's scanner suddenly emitted a beep.
She glanced down at the screen, her brows furrowing slightly.
"What's wrong?" Chen Hao asked.
“We just detected a faint energy fluctuation,” Nana said. “The source… is inside the building.”
"How weak?"
"Intensity less than three percent of the warning threshold, duration 0.6 seconds. Type unknown."
"Could it be a malfunction of the equipment?" Karl walked over.
"Three consecutive identical readings rule out the possibility of a false alarm."
Susan walked to the door and pressed her hand against the stone wall: "Has something inside been activated? Or... has it always been running, and we've only just gotten close enough to detect it?"
“Possibly.” Nana pulled up historical data. “There was electromagnetic interference in the previous channel area, which may have blocked the signal. Our current position is right in the receiving range.”
Chen Hao swallowed hard: "So... this door could open at any moment?"
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