Chapter 129
Yuan Ling admitted that she was not convinced, so she would stab Song Yue from time to time to vent her anger.
Don’t other people understand Yuan Ling’s anger?
It was just a three-star mission, but they actually sent a level 10 investigator like Shen Xin. To be honest, they were jealous.
But unlike Yuan Ling, Yan Zhuo chose to remain silent and accept everything arranged by the bureau, while Ran Yan used a half-joking and half-serious way to let Song Yue understand that they were actually reluctant.
In the end, it was Shen Xin who came out to smooth things over and let everyone understand the bureau's policy, and Yuan Ling didn't say anything more.
At 5 p.m. that day, as the investigation was unsuccessful, everyone went down the mountain and returned to the original ice cave.
Song Yue looked at the gradually setting sky and couldn't help but feel puzzled.
Isn't this instance a polar day + polar night? Why is the sun still moving along its normal trajectory?
Could it be that the natural disaster hasn't started yet? Do we have to wait a little longer?
That shouldn't be the case. Based on her previous dungeon experience, the elements of natural disasters usually appear on the same day. Even if they don't fully manifest, they will usually show some signs.
For example, in the acid rain dungeon, a drizzle began to fall in area C not long after she entered; for example, in the financial crisis, although the official government admitted that the crisis broke out several days after the dungeon, certain industries in the entire city had already shown signs on the first day, which could be discovered by carefully reading the news.
Today, she came here at 6 o'clock in the morning, and 11 hours have passed since then. Neither polar day nor polar night has occurred.
I always feel like there's something wrong.
Song Yue leaned against the cave wall, thinking over and over again.
Remembering that the complete dungeon mission had not been displayed, she decided to click in to see if there was any progress.
The next second she was stunned.
The copy... is gone...
Yes, there was originally a triangle button in the lower left corner of her field of vision for viewing copy information, but now it has disappeared!
When did he disappear? How come she didn't notice at all?
Wait, Song Yue suddenly thought of something.
She quickly summoned the item menu.
However, no matter how she shouted, the props just didn't appear!
The dungeon is gone, the items can't be summoned, and 088 has lost contact...
Song Yue felt her heart suddenly stop.
She seems... not in the copy.
This was a situation that Song Yue could never have imagined. She thought that the system was temporarily offline, so the copy information could not be displayed.
Then she spent a full hour sorting it out before she finally understood and accepted the reality.
——It’s not a system disconnection.
——But she went to a place that the system could not reach.
Connecting this to the strange tunnel he had seen before, Song Yue suspected that he had gone to another world, or plane? Dimension?
In short, no matter what words are used to describe it, she is neither in reality nor in the copy.
In other words, she is now in a state of chaos where no one can help her.
Snoring sounds gradually rose around me.
Song Yue came to her senses and thought that the one snoring the loudest was Yan Zhuo.
But when she looked in the direction of the voice, it turned out to be the cute-looking Ran Yan.
In addition, there were a few mutterings from time to time. When she looked closely, it turned out to be Yuan Ling, who was particularly rude to her during the day.
Yuan Ling put her hands under her ears, her eyes moved left and right under her eyelids, and she was muttering to herself.
"I want to eat hot and sour noodles..."
"I want to eat spicy rabbit head..."
“I still want to eat…eat Chen Xin…”
Song Yue was shocked. This was not something she wanted to eat.
Oh, if it means eating in that sense, it's not impossible. We are all adults anyway, so we can understand.
Many thoughts popped up in his mind. Gradually, Song Yue felt sleepy and fell into a deep sleep.
The next day, the sun rose from the east as promised. The group simply washed their faces and rinsed their mouths with melted snow water, took turns to relieve themselves outside, and continued their investigation.
The Hernandez Polar Region is vast, with glaciers and ice fields everywhere. Every time Song Yue steps on it, he can feel the cold air rising from the soles of his feet.
This cold air not only sticks to the skin, but also penetrates into the bone marrow, from the ankle bone to the calf bone to the thigh bone, and finally spreads throughout the body along the entire spine.
Coupled with the cold wind that was strong enough to tear the skin, it cut into Song Yue's face again and again, causing so much pain that she could hardly speak.
Before going out, Ana Shen deliberately measured the temperature and told everyone that it was minus 82 degrees Celsius. Everyone agreed that it was okay and not the coldest.
However, for Song Yue, there is no difference between minus 20 and minus 80. They are both cold, the same coldness.
She was very curious. They were all human beings, so why was it that the four people walking in front of her didn't feel cold at all, while she was shivering from the cold, even though they were wearing clothes made of the same material?
Noticing that she was walking at the end of the team and suspected of falling behind, Yuan Ling couldn't help but sigh: "If you can't keep up with the physical strength, don't come on this kind of mission. It will delay things."
Ran Yan kindly reminded: "Sister Xiaoyue, please walk faster, otherwise you will be buried by the wind and snow!"
Song Yue didn't expect that after going through so many copies, she would actually fall in the polar region. She felt quite resentful, but finally gritted her teeth, took big steps, and quickly caught up.
Anyway, follow the team to complete the investigation first, and then think about how to leave here.
Song Yue asked yesterday that the snow-capped mountain they were exploring was the highest peak in Hernandez, with an altitude of 5,600 meters.
The scientific expedition team disappeared one after another in this area. What they had to do was to climb this peak from top to bottom in the face of polar wind and snow.
Yesterday they found the wreckage of a crashed plane at an altitude of more than 1,000 meters, but no one was found. Today, they found a camp at about 2,000 meters and finally found people.
——It’s just a dead person.
One skinned corpse after another was hung on the clothesline in the camp, their internal organs hollowed out, leaving only dry skeletons swaying in the cold wind.
Ran Yan was so surprised that she half opened her mouth: "...This...are they making air-dried bone slices?"
"Instead of thinking about what kind of dish this is, I think we should think about who did it." Although Yuan Ling was targeting Song Yue the whole time and seemed quite unreliable, she was actually very serious and upright when she got into work mode.
Song Yue asked a question: "How long did it take from the time the last member of the expedition team disappeared to the time we took over the mission?"
Yuan Ling clicked her tongue. "You can't even remember what's written in the documents? What kind of investigator are you?"
"Half a month."
What Song Yue didn't expect was that it was Yan Zhuo, who spoke the least, who answered her question.
Yuan Ling glanced at Yan Zhuo unhappily and said nothing.
Song Yue thanked Yan Zhuo and pointed to the tent about 10 meters away from the skeleton. "There are lines on the ice. Could they have been left by the skinner?"
The reason why he used the word "guy" instead of "people" was because Song Yue felt that half a month was enough for the wind and snow to cover up the traces of the crime, but now, many clues could still be seen near the tents scattered on the ground.
She felt that the expedition team might not have been killed by humans, but by some creatures living in the snow-capped mountains.
However, she did not understand this world and could not remember what information Yuan Ling had mentioned, so she did not dare to say too much and only pointed out that there were patterns.
Her words caught everyone's attention.
Ran Yan blinked, jumped over, squatted down, looked carefully at the place Song Yue pointed, and then exclaimed: "Wow, brother Chen Xin, look, there is really something here!"
After saying that, he took out the special camera provided by the bureau and took a few pictures.
"What do you think this mark looks like?" Shen Xin came over and asked everyone after checking it.
Ran Yan tilted her head and gestured as she spoke: "Like a sleigh? Like this, like that, and finally like that."
The gist is that someone used a sled to drag the skeletons to the clothesline, leaving track-like marks on the ground.
Yan Zhuo shook his head, denying Ran Yan's guess: "No. These traces are cut off in the middle."
If someone was moving the car, they would definitely pull it under the clothes rack instead of abandoning it halfway. This doesn't make sense logically.
Yan Zhuo's explanation was recognized by Shen Xin, who inspected the team members and finally set his eyes on Song Yue: "What do you want to say?"
Song Yue had originally been throwing out some ideas to get everyone thinking, but she didn't expect to be cueed by Chen Xin, so she answered honestly: "I don't think it looks like a human trace."
"Tsk~"
Yuan Ling scoffed for the nth time. She crossed her arms over her chest and looked at Song Yue with a haughty attitude. "If it's not artificial, how could it be completely natural? Think before you speak. Even if it's speculation, it has to be based on reality. Understand?"
Song Yue ignored Yuan Ling's words and walked over to one of the lines. She squatted down and scratched at it with her gloved hands. "Yan Zhuo just said that it's been half a month since the incident. If it was a sled or something else man-made, half a month would be enough to be covered by wind and snow. But look here."
She had just swept away a lot of snow around the lines, revealing the true mark underneath. "This is the true width of the mark, almost half a meter. The skids on the sleds aren't that wide."
She then carried over the broken blade she had seen not far away and threw it on the open ground for everyone to measure. "This one, at most thirty centimeters."
It is far less than half a meter wide.
It was quiet for a moment, with only the whistling of the wind in my ears.
Song Yue noticed that Yuan Ling's expression suddenly changed, and his previous arrogant attitude disappeared in an instant.
“…Chen Xin, are we really on a three-star mission this time?”
Her voice was trembling, revealing her fear.
Ran Yan's expression was not much better, his face turned pale: "...Brother Chen Xin...could it be that this mission is not man-made or a natural disaster...?"
The atmosphere suddenly dropped, and even Yan Zhuo, who never showed his emotions, frowned. "Did the bureau make a wrong assessment?"
Everyone’s eyes turned to Ana Shen, expecting him to give an accurate answer.
However, Ana Shen’s slightly solemn expression said it all.
"There are cases where star ratings are incorrect," he said.
"Half a year ago, I was in charge of a one-star mystery. The mission was simple and we estimated it could be completed in one day. However, we were unexpectedly hit by a tsunami during the investigation, and a rookie investigator died."
Yuan Ling nodded stiffly. "We know about this. The bureau later held an emergency meeting and raised the mission's star rating to two stars."
Yan Zhuo: "I remember the director said at the time that tsunamis were uncontrollable factors, and no relevant signs were found during the assessment, so they were not taken into consideration, and then the star was assigned."
Shen Xin: “Well, that’s right.”
Song Yue followed their train of thought and asked, "So this mission could be exactly what you said, with a star rating of four, not just three?"
A four-star mission must be very difficult. No wonder everyone looks so panicked. Song Yue is in the dark village.
Yuan Ling gave her a cold look and forced a stiff, helpless smile. "You probably don't know how big the difference is between four stars and three stars, right? Let me explain it this way. The difficulty of a first-grade test corresponds to one star, and a fourth-grade test corresponds to two stars. Although there is a gap of several grades in between, it's still the level of elementary school education."
"Three stars is roughly equivalent to the third year of junior high school. Four stars is the third year of high school. Five stars, I can't find a standard to correspond to, because so far, the entire investigation bureau has only encountered it once, and that was over fifty years ago. For our generation of investigators, it's impossible to experience it."
Ran Yan took a deep breath and continued, "Four stars is basically the limit for our generation of investigators, and not everyone is qualified to participate. Among us, only Brother Shen Xin has that level of ability."
Since the original owner's memory was blank, Song Yue had no idea about these star ratings. Now, after hearing Yuan Ling and Ran Yan's explanation, his heart suddenly skipped a beat.
Only big guys like Shen Xin are qualified to join the four-star mission. If they run into it this time, doesn’t it mean... it’s over?
But Song Yue didn't understand why, after seeing a half-meter-wide mark on the ground, she suspected the mission was more than three stars difficult. Could there be some logic behind it that she didn't understand?
Song Yue was a little confused.
Yan Zhuo patiently explained to her again: "If we rule out human activities and natural disasters, the remaining possibility is most likely caused by other species."
Song Yue understood this: "Like polar bears? Like Antarctic penguins?" Or seals and the like.
"I'm not quite sure what you mean by the North Pole or the South Pole," Yan Zhuo looked at her suspiciously, "but investigators of our level rarely take on cases involving wild animals eating people. Those are closer to one or two stars."
Song Yue paused, and suddenly a bad guess came to her mind.
Seeing that she had an epiphany, Yan Zhuo changed his words and comforted her: "It's okay, we still have Shen Xin, he is a top-level investigator, we can definitely complete the task."
Suddenly, a few faint calls came from behind the camp, interrupting their speculation.
"……Help……"
"...Is there anyone outside...Help..."
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