Snow swirled outside the window, accompanied by howling winds.
The room inside, however, remained bright and warm.
Zhou Yi sat on the leather sofa, flipping to the latest page of his notebook.
——Establish a main base, clear (crossed out) the surrounding area.
——After finding rice and wheat, plant them to achieve self-sufficiency in rice and noodles.
The first item had essentially been achieved.
The second would require gradual progress. For now, they were working on growing sweet potatoes and peanuts—it was a work in progress.
With a sign pen, he marked a new target on the following line.
——Conquer Snake Island Hospital.
But that had to be done step by step.
Winters in the Wasteland were turbulent times, and since Zhou Yi had come ashore, he still didn't know enough about the Land. For now, the focus was on defense and observation.
If he had to pinpoint the upcoming priority during this time, it would be the evaluation of the young Hunters.
Zhou Yi had had a brief chat with Lie Hai, even asking about its mother's condition.
It said, "Maybe she went to scout or conquer other worlds."
However, what the Hunter truly thought was,
——Damn it, I can't reveal anything about Mom. If it finds out she's dead, it probably won't take me in.
Zhou Yi simply told it, "You need to tell me the truth."
"I love telling the truth."
"How did your mother die?"
Dejectedly, it suddenly let out, "So you knew all along, Chairman..."
"Two years ago in winter, Mom took me hunting in the eastern Dead Sea. Usually, we would dive into the middle and lower layers of the sea, the Hunter's hunting grounds. But that day, for some reason, a huge hole appeared in the sea."
"The hole seemed to have come out of nowhere in the Dead Sea. It was as if it tore open the space, from above, from below, all we could see was a black hole."
"Mom seemed to recognize it and told me to run immediately."
"A giant black monstrosity emerged from the hole, reaching straight for us. I was so terrified, I just ran desperately, far away... By the time I came to my senses, I couldn't find Mom anymore."
"I waited a long time, but I couldn't wait for Mom to come find me, so I went back, toward that hole."
"The hole was still there, but I could no longer sense Mom's aura."
"Only in the fog of the nearby Dead Sea did I find some of her shattered bones and blood... She had been eaten."
"I am a waste; I did not fight, I ran."
The Hunter's glow dimmed.
Based on its inner activity, Zhou Yi judged that this time it was telling the truth.
In the Dead Sea, even Hunters, a B-level creature, could become prey to other monsters.
Zhou Yi thought, "Red Kestrel, check out what that hole is."
He had encountered something similar before.
Under a viaduct outside an unpopulated area, there also was a dark hole. However, unlike the one Lie Hai and its kind encountered, that hole was calm, and nothing emerged from it.
Several seconds later.
"Based on the Hunter's description, that should be a 'Dark Domain' of the Dead Sea. Highly condensed Death Light forms a special high-energy space. These spaces use Death Light as a medium, connecting with other high-energy regions and using light as a medium to project themselves onto each other..."
The drone provided a detailed description.
Zhou Yi skipped the complicated and long-winded terms and summarized.
The other end of the Dark Domain is connected to other worlds. Only a body with A-level strength can safely pass through the Dark Domain and project itself to explore the other world. One could say that navigating the Dark Domain is a privilege exclusive to Skywalkers.
Similarly, powerful life forms from other worlds can project themselves here through the Dark Domain.
However, Dark Domains also vary.
The High-class Dark Domains only exist in high-density Death Light areas, with stable projections and large coverage areas—it's the usual choice for powerful beings.
The sea floor has lower Death Light density, and the one under the viaduct belongs to a lower-class Dark Domain, which is less frequently chosen due to its instability and narrow projection range.
After listening, the Hunter fell silent for a while.
"Dark Domain... Skywalker..."
"I'll probably never reach that level in my lifetime, never able to avenge my mother. I don't even know what kind of monster from that other world did it..."
Zhou Yi simply replied, "Focus on the present; you might be able to do it in the future."
Suddenly, Lie Hai asked, "Chairman, aren't the Dead Sea Aliens unable to communicate? Why can you talk with me and humans? Are you some sort of special kind?"
"First of all, I am not the Dead Sea Alien."
Zhou Yi corrected, "I am me, Jade City is Jade City, and it's me you're talking to, not it."
Hunter floated at the height of the 31st floor, maintaining its glass sphere shape, as its upper and lower pairs of barrel-shaped red eyes blinked.
"I understand, Chairman."
"I won't talk nonsense, rest assured."
However, it thought to itself.
—What an astonishing secret! This is the secret of the Dead Sea Alien!
—No wonder other colleagues said the Chairman was just returning to Jade City...
—The Dead Sea Alien itself is incomplete, which means that the Dead Sea Aliens found on land are all missing their brains, just mere remnants of their bodies. Inside their massive structures, there exists something akin to a brain—a consciousness core. But while the body enters land, the brain ended up lost at sea.
—That's it! The Dead Sea Alien is a headless living entity; it needs the head to return so it can unleash its true power.
—No wonder Mom could talk to the Chairman in the past, because the head was still there. Later, the head must have returned to the Dead Sea, probably to recharge.
Zhou Yi found Hunter's unfounded speculations a bit amusing, yet ridiculous.
While Hunter might be timid, it certainly wasn't short on wild ideas.
In some ways, he wasn't afraid of it causing trouble, because it simply didn't have the guts.
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Zhou Yi sat on the sofa, contemplating that if there were no problems this winter, he might sign another contract with Hunter next winter, to continue its role as Patrol Guard.
Having such a Level B creature patrolling the company's airspace would have a great deterrent effect on outsiders.
Suddenly, a bright light appeared outside the window.
A glowing meteor rushed towards them.
It stopped immediately upon nearing Jade City.
"Chairman, we have made a major discovery!"
Ajin on Hunter's back shouted excitedly, "Beneath Death Dune, there are a multitude of tunnels and storerooms, like a vast tomb!"
There really was something under the dune?
He immediately dispatched Red Kestrel, reaching the excavation site along with Hunter and Ajin.
Through the clear footage of the drone's camera, Zhou Yi saw that the area around the dune was riddled with large holes, and nearby were scattered pieces of shells and fragments.
He asked through Red Kestrel, "Did you eliminate all the Antlions here?"
Hunter's barrel-shaped red eyes tightened into two small dots, "Ajin said, since Antlions are harmful creatures that destroy the environment...they damage the farmland soil and also obstruct our excavation of the underground treasures, so I killed them and then ate them. You're not angry with me, are you?"
It was actually a good thing.
Death Dune was now passable.
Zhou Yi noticed a particularly deep hole under the dune.
The hole was deep, with a long corridor underneath fixed by piled stones, and several small storerooms built with stones and earth. Although the craftsmanship was crude and narrow, it was not hard to see that this was only a part of the underground construction.
There were lots of feathers and chicken bones in the underground workings, clearly used to ward off Antlions to avoid impact from such creatures.
The storerooms were stockpiled with lots of twigs, dry grass, dung, and dry mushrooms.
The more Zhou Yi watched, the more surprised he became.
Could there be another group of new humans living under the dune?
"Keep digging deeper."
Zhou Yi called in 10 Hammerhead Soldiers who were skilled engineers, adept at demolition, digging, and drilling.
With professional engineers joining in, the underground excavation sped up.
The Samurai Crabs used their pincers to dig through the sand and accumulated snow, revealing the simple underground structures bit by bit.
From what was unearthed, there were 5 underground corridors, 17 storerooms, two places filled with dry grass, looking like nurseries, and a broad space like an underground conference room, with tunnels that continued all the way to the Oasis Side.
However, the residents inside had vanished without a trace.
Yet some scattered traces remained underground.
The most noticeable was a kind of small, granular black substance, which almost filled three of the storerooms.
Ajin jumped in, picked up a pellet to sniff it, tasted it, then spat it out.
He raised his head and waved at Red Kestrel, "Chairman, this is sand rat droppings, I'm absolutely sure. This place must be an underground city built by sand rats!"
Zhou Yi felt something was off.
An intricate Underground City built beneath a dune, complete with specialized toilets, storerooms, nurseries, and a network of underground tunnels—it was all too well put together.
What was the deal with these rats?
"Red Kestrel, fetch me detailed information on the sand rats."