So, Zhang Yanhang was now preparing to first return to the westernmost side of the inner area, where the Achievement Vending Machine was located, to check the situation there. Thus, having just fully restored his Energy Value, Zhang Yanhang immediately began to retrace his steps, this time without the need to run and time himself.
Upon arriving back at the westernmost side of the inner area, Zhang Yanhang silently scanned the corridor before him with his Seeking Fortune and Avoiding Evil ability. He had to admit, the Crimson Iron Ants truly had a gift for tunneling.
Although they had only spent a short amount of time, they had already excavated a tunnel over a hundred meters long with a standard diameter of three meters.
Even standing at the end of the tunnel, because he was facing a mass of Crimson Iron Ore, the range of Zhang Yanhang’s Seeking Fortune and Avoiding Evil scan was severely weakened and could only extend a few hundred meters. Within this small range, it was clearly impossible to find any trace of a new Crimson Iron Ant Nest.
Therefore, Zhang Yanhang now faced a difficult decision: should he continue to dig straight ahead, or should he dig vertically, either downwards or upwards?
As someone mildly afflicted by decision-making difficulties, Zhang Yanhang felt the all-too-familiar premonition that he was about to excruciate, and to prevent the resurgence of his indecisiveness, he prepared to use his own judgment to solve the problem.
"Since I just restored my Energy Value to full, it shouldn’t be too difficult to just use Multiple Choice to help me predict the things I might encounter in each direction.
Choose! Which direction should I dig the tunnel to find a new Crimson Iron Ant Nest?"
Zhang Yanhang didn’t hesitate to trigger the relevant options. Unsurprisingly, unlike with the Divination Tarot Card he had used before, as soon as he started speaking, Time Pause descended once again inside the Crimson Iron Ant Nest, and a large array of text options automatically appeared in front of him.
[Would you like to dig a tunnel in another direction?]
[Option One: Forward (Because the Crimson Iron Ant Queen had already pointed out the direction, after some thought, you decide to keep digging forward. Finally, after digging straight for one hundred fifty-nine kilometers, you successfully break through to a new tunnel related to a Monster Nest.
When you pierced the last meter of the tunnel wall, you were taken aback to find precisely the Monster Nest you longed for, containing tens of thousands of Large Crimson Iron Ants. You commenced a massive Slaughter within, quickly gathering enough Ant Power necessary to upgrade your S-level Talent ’Bear Power’.）]
[Option Two: Downward (Although the Crimson Iron Ant Queen had indeed pointed out the direction of the large Crimson Iron Ant Nest, you felt that just digging straight down might not truly reach the large Crimson Iron Ant Nest. So, following your intuition, you turned ninety degrees to the left and dug straight for one thousand nine hundred eighty-two meters before going straight down.
After digging down straight for seventy-seven kilometers, you unexpectedly discovered a new Monster Nest. Although it is unrelated to the Crimson Iron Ants, the monsters inside also possess the Ant Power Talent. After weighing your options, you decide to give up on searching for other Crimson Iron Ant nests.)]
[Option Three: Upward (Feeling that just digging straight in the direction given by the Crimson Iron Ant Queen to find another nest seemed entirely like a stroke of blind luck, which was incredibly unreliable, you turned seventy-two degrees to the right and dug straight for three thousand two hundred seventy-eight meters but to no avail. After that, you chose to dig upward.
After digging upward straight for two hundred twenty-six kilometers, you unexpectedly found yourself having dug through the entire Crimson Iron Ore Vein, reaching the outer layer of the vein. There, you discovered a completely new species of monsters, which not only had no relation to the Crimson Iron Ore but also possessed completely opposite Attributes in terms of power.)]
"Holy shit! One hundred fifty-nine kilometers?! Are you serious? The world’s longest underground tunnel is only about fifty kilometers, and you’re having me here trying to break a world record?
If I really dug through, it would be equivalent to digging through three of the world’s longest underground tunnels, even managing to leap to the world’s first place while immediately monopolizing the second to fourth place in terms of length combined..."
Zhang Yanhang felt an intense sense of powerlessness throughout his body after reading the first option. The length clearly required a significantly lengthy period to excavate. If he actually went through with it, it would practically be akin to performing a Spiritual Qi Recovery version of the Foolish Old Man Who Removed the Mountains.
"Apart from the first option, the third option is equally ludicrous, requiring me to dig upward for two hundred twenty-six kilometers through the entire Crimson Iron Ore Vein. The height of this ore vein seems somewhat excessively exaggerated, doesn’t it? Mount Everest’s height is only 8848 meters, which rounds up to barely nine kilometers.
Me having to dig upward for two hundred twenty-six kilometers would be like digging through twenty-five Mount Everests to find a Monster Nest, and furthermore one unrelated to the Crimson Iron Wolves, digging such a lengthy passage would be a total loss no matter how you think about it."
Compared to digging forward, Zhang Yanhang felt digging upward was undeniably more ridiculous. If he did dig it out, it could likely become a super trap where most flying-incapable monsters would probably shatter on impact if they fell in.
Of course, given the length, the monsters might even have time to take a nap during the fall and then welcome death in their sleep.
"The only option that seems somewhat feasible among the three is the second one, but its feasibility is only slight. Although it doesn’t require digging hundreds of kilometers like the other two options, it still requires excavating a depth of seventy-seven kilometers.
If I remember correctly, the average depth of the Earth’s crust is only seventeen kilometers, and even the highland regions generally have only a few dozen kilometers of crust at most. This means if I wanted to dig a seventy-seven-kilometer tunnel on Earth, I’d likely reach the mantle halfway through.
But this is the Ashen World, which definitely has a completely different structure than Earth. So not only can I dig upward for two hundred twenty-six kilometers, but I can also dig down seventy-seven kilometers, feeling for the first time clearly the difference between the Ashen World and Earth."
Although one order of magnitude smaller, from three digits down to two, Zhang Yanhang still felt quite overwhelmed by the colossal number seventy-seven kilometers.