Chapter 52: The Tattered Pages of the Old Archives
The War Zone Archives of Panshi City was located on the inner side of the military district, housed within a massive, solid building made entirely of reinforced concrete. The exterior walls were coated with a psychic-insulating layer to protect the vast amount of old battlefield records stored inside, preventing damage to the paper archives from Sea of Consciousness fluctuations.
The guards at the entrance verified the three convalescent soldiers' identification documents and confirmed their approval records before allowing them to enter.
The lighting inside the hall was dim. Rows of towering metal filing cabinets stretched endlessly down the corridors. The air was filled with the mixed scent of old paper, dust, and a faint trace of disinfectant. A civilian staff member in charge of archive management led them to the section storing the catastrophe records for the Black Mountain Rift sector.
"During the early stages of the twenty-five-year catastrophe, many records were hastily handwritten. Communication was intermittent at the beginning of the rift outbreaks, so a lot of materials are incomplete. You may only consult the original copies; copying or taking them away is strictly prohibited, and you must not damage them," the civilian staff member instructed before turning and leaving.
The three split up, each beginning to browse through the dossiers.
Old Chen searched for beast tide battle reports from the past decade; Su Qing focused on reviewing the psychic signal monitoring records from various large-scale beast tides; Lin Yan directed his attention to the oldest archives from the first few years of the catastrophe.
During the first ten years after the catastrophe, humanity knew nothing about the scaled beasts. All records were hastily written by frontline soldiers and researchers in desperate situations. Much of the handwriting was sloppy, and the yellowed pages were brittle. Some pages were stained with water and blood, leaving the text incomplete.
Lin Yan turned the pages slowly. Most of the content consisted of routine casualty statistics, rift expansion records, and physical descriptions of the scaled beasts, which did not differ much from the war zone's public information.
When he flipped to a copy left behind by a rift exploration team from twenty-one years ago, a piece of crossed-out handwritten text caught his eye.
This record came from an exploration team that had ventured deep to the edge of the Grand Rift. The entire team eventually lost contact, and only this single document was transmitted back to the bastion in advance.
【... The scaled beasts' movements are highly unified, not a result of herd instinct. On multiple occasions, it has been observed that the beast swarm will collectively halt without any external stimuli, as if receiving a command. The exploration team hypothesizes the existence of some form of psychic medium for remote control. The team leader disagrees, annotating: "Herd instinct of biological swarms; over-interpretation. Delete this section of the record." ...】
This text had been heavily smeared with black ink, leaving only a portion of the characters visible. Had one not looked closely, it would have been impossible to discover. Back then, the head of the exploration team had directly judged it as an overactive imagination caused by the on-site personnel under extreme pressure, crossed it out, and never entered it into the official war zone database.
Lin Yan gently ran his fingertips over the yellowed paper, his heart sinking slightly.
As early as twenty-one years ago, someone had noticed the signs of artificial coordination in the scaled beasts' movements. However, this hypothesis was drowned out by the massive volume of battle reports, dismissed as an illusion produced by on-site personnel under high-pressure environments, archived and sealed, and completely ignored.
"Come over and take a look," Lin Yan said in a hushed voice, waving Old Chen and Su Qing over.
The two put down the dossiers in their hands and leaned in to carefully read the remaining text on the tattered page.
After reading it, Su Qing's breath hitched slightly. "It's exactly the same as what we saw on the Black Mountain battlefield. The beast swarm's synchronized charge experiences a brief, collective stutter once the mastermind's computing power falls short. What the exploration team saw back then was the exact same phenomenon."
Old Chen frowned deeply. "It's a pity the record is incomplete. The exploration team lost contact afterward and left no further evidence. Moreover, it's merely a textual hypothesis without instrumental monitoring data to support it. It still can't be reported as solid proof."
Lin Yan continued to read through the appendix of this archive.
The appendix included a few hand-drawn sketches depicting a massive tunnel discovered on the rock walls deep within the rift. The tunnel was not formed by natural geological processes; it bore obvious signs of artificial excavation. In the corner of the sketch, a small note read: "The inner walls of the tunnel show signs of polishing, not formed by water flow or biological gnawing."
Artificial excavation.
The massive tunnels underground could absolutely not have been dug by scaled beasts. Scaled beasts only possessed brute strength; they lacked the capacity for construction and engineering.
"An intelligent race capable of building tunnels exists beneath the rift," Lin Yan stated the conclusion in a low voice. "The scaled beasts are war weapons cultivated and controlled by them. The twenty-five-year catastrophe is not a case of scaled beasts accidentally pouring out from the rift. It is an active invasion launched by an alien race from underground."
Su Qing clenched her fists. "But after twenty-five years, the mainstream consensus among the high commands of all six war zones is still that the scaled beasts are native alien beasts from underground. This archive has been sitting here all along, completely ignored."
"Because the evidence is fragmented," Lin Yan said slowly as he closed the dossier. "A fragmented exploration record, without live specimens, without video, without direct observation. Any report submitted would be categorized as speculative conjecture. The high command will not overturn twenty-five years of catastrophe cognition and mobilize all resources to explore underground based solely on a vague piece of text."
Old Chen sighed. "Even if we report it now, the most likely outcome is that it will be filed away, marked as a conjecture pending verification. They might even think that our Sea of Consciousness was damaged during the Black Mountain battle, causing us to subjectively exaggerate the battlefield phenomena."
The three stood silently among the archive shelves. The archive was quiet, with only the occasional sound of footsteps echoing from afar.
They had found indirect evidence, but they still lacked decisive physical proof. To confirm the existence of the underground alien race, they had to venture deep into the rift, see the enemy with their own eyes, and obtain undeniable evidence.
"Keep this archive in mind," Lin Yan said as he returned the dossier to its original place. "Do not mention it to outsiders. Once the news spreads, it will easily cause unnecessary trouble. Let's continue searching for more clues."
For the rest of the time, the three continued to browse through other old dossiers.
They found several other scattered records that vaguely mentioned an inexplicable synchronicity in the beast swarm's movements. All of them had been judged as misjudgments and were sealed away and buried. These scattered clues were insignificant on their own, but when pieced together, the faint outline of a hidden truth slowly emerged.
As closing time approached, the civilian staff member came to remind them to leave. The three packed up their things and walked out of the archive.
The sunlight outside was somewhat dazzling. Panshi City was bustling with people. Most civilians, and even most warriors, only knew that there were scaled beasts underground and that the rifts were dangerous. They were entirely unaware that behind this catastrophe lay a complete underground civilization.
"What's our next step?" Su Qing asked.
"Heal our wounds and complete the Sea of Consciousness re-examination," Lin Yan said, his gaze fixed on the massive city wall in the distance. "We wait for the next mission opportunity. Only by entering the rift zone for reconnaissance will we have a chance to obtain solid proof."
At the same time, deep underground in the Lizardmen nest.
Several slender psychic exploration threads had quietly extended into Panshi City, locking onto the sanatorium area where Lin Yan was staying. The Lizardmen priests continuously monitored Lin Yan's Sea of Consciousness fluctuations. They saw Lin Yan go to the archives to look up old materials, vaguely sensing that this human was getting closer to the truth.
Cold psychic communication flowed through the nest.
The priests discussed that they could not let this human continue to gather clues. They planned to arrange a small-scale ambush at a rift. The next time Lin Yan went out on a mission, they would silently eliminate him. They could not launch a large-scale beast tide to assault the bastion city; the cost would be too high. A single, precise assassination was all that was needed.
An assassination trap targeting Lin Yan had begun to be quietly laid out deep underground.
End of Chapter.
The guards at the entrance verified the three convalescent soldiers' identification documents and confirmed their approval records before allowing them to enter.
The lighting inside the hall was dim. Rows of towering metal filing cabinets stretched endlessly down the corridors. The air was filled with the mixed scent of old paper, dust, and a faint trace of disinfectant. A civilian staff member in charge of archive management led them to the section storing the catastrophe records for the Black Mountain Rift sector.
"During the early stages of the twenty-five-year catastrophe, many records were hastily handwritten. Communication was intermittent at the beginning of the rift outbreaks, so a lot of materials are incomplete. You may only consult the original copies; copying or taking them away is strictly prohibited, and you must not damage them," the civilian staff member instructed before turning and leaving.
The three split up, each beginning to browse through the dossiers.
Old Chen searched for beast tide battle reports from the past decade; Su Qing focused on reviewing the psychic signal monitoring records from various large-scale beast tides; Lin Yan directed his attention to the oldest archives from the first few years of the catastrophe.
During the first ten years after the catastrophe, humanity knew nothing about the scaled beasts. All records were hastily written by frontline soldiers and researchers in desperate situations. Much of the handwriting was sloppy, and the yellowed pages were brittle. Some pages were stained with water and blood, leaving the text incomplete.
Lin Yan turned the pages slowly. Most of the content consisted of routine casualty statistics, rift expansion records, and physical descriptions of the scaled beasts, which did not differ much from the war zone's public information.
When he flipped to a copy left behind by a rift exploration team from twenty-one years ago, a piece of crossed-out handwritten text caught his eye.
This record came from an exploration team that had ventured deep to the edge of the Grand Rift. The entire team eventually lost contact, and only this single document was transmitted back to the bastion in advance.
【... The scaled beasts' movements are highly unified, not a result of herd instinct. On multiple occasions, it has been observed that the beast swarm will collectively halt without any external stimuli, as if receiving a command. The exploration team hypothesizes the existence of some form of psychic medium for remote control. The team leader disagrees, annotating: "Herd instinct of biological swarms; over-interpretation. Delete this section of the record." ...】
This text had been heavily smeared with black ink, leaving only a portion of the characters visible. Had one not looked closely, it would have been impossible to discover. Back then, the head of the exploration team had directly judged it as an overactive imagination caused by the on-site personnel under extreme pressure, crossed it out, and never entered it into the official war zone database.
Lin Yan gently ran his fingertips over the yellowed paper, his heart sinking slightly.
As early as twenty-one years ago, someone had noticed the signs of artificial coordination in the scaled beasts' movements. However, this hypothesis was drowned out by the massive volume of battle reports, dismissed as an illusion produced by on-site personnel under high-pressure environments, archived and sealed, and completely ignored.
"Come over and take a look," Lin Yan said in a hushed voice, waving Old Chen and Su Qing over.
The two put down the dossiers in their hands and leaned in to carefully read the remaining text on the tattered page.
After reading it, Su Qing's breath hitched slightly. "It's exactly the same as what we saw on the Black Mountain battlefield. The beast swarm's synchronized charge experiences a brief, collective stutter once the mastermind's computing power falls short. What the exploration team saw back then was the exact same phenomenon."
Old Chen frowned deeply. "It's a pity the record is incomplete. The exploration team lost contact afterward and left no further evidence. Moreover, it's merely a textual hypothesis without instrumental monitoring data to support it. It still can't be reported as solid proof."
Lin Yan continued to read through the appendix of this archive.
The appendix included a few hand-drawn sketches depicting a massive tunnel discovered on the rock walls deep within the rift. The tunnel was not formed by natural geological processes; it bore obvious signs of artificial excavation. In the corner of the sketch, a small note read: "The inner walls of the tunnel show signs of polishing, not formed by water flow or biological gnawing."
Artificial excavation.
The massive tunnels underground could absolutely not have been dug by scaled beasts. Scaled beasts only possessed brute strength; they lacked the capacity for construction and engineering.
"An intelligent race capable of building tunnels exists beneath the rift," Lin Yan stated the conclusion in a low voice. "The scaled beasts are war weapons cultivated and controlled by them. The twenty-five-year catastrophe is not a case of scaled beasts accidentally pouring out from the rift. It is an active invasion launched by an alien race from underground."
Su Qing clenched her fists. "But after twenty-five years, the mainstream consensus among the high commands of all six war zones is still that the scaled beasts are native alien beasts from underground. This archive has been sitting here all along, completely ignored."
"Because the evidence is fragmented," Lin Yan said slowly as he closed the dossier. "A fragmented exploration record, without live specimens, without video, without direct observation. Any report submitted would be categorized as speculative conjecture. The high command will not overturn twenty-five years of catastrophe cognition and mobilize all resources to explore underground based solely on a vague piece of text."
Old Chen sighed. "Even if we report it now, the most likely outcome is that it will be filed away, marked as a conjecture pending verification. They might even think that our Sea of Consciousness was damaged during the Black Mountain battle, causing us to subjectively exaggerate the battlefield phenomena."
The three stood silently among the archive shelves. The archive was quiet, with only the occasional sound of footsteps echoing from afar.
They had found indirect evidence, but they still lacked decisive physical proof. To confirm the existence of the underground alien race, they had to venture deep into the rift, see the enemy with their own eyes, and obtain undeniable evidence.
"Keep this archive in mind," Lin Yan said as he returned the dossier to its original place. "Do not mention it to outsiders. Once the news spreads, it will easily cause unnecessary trouble. Let's continue searching for more clues."
For the rest of the time, the three continued to browse through other old dossiers.
They found several other scattered records that vaguely mentioned an inexplicable synchronicity in the beast swarm's movements. All of them had been judged as misjudgments and were sealed away and buried. These scattered clues were insignificant on their own, but when pieced together, the faint outline of a hidden truth slowly emerged.
As closing time approached, the civilian staff member came to remind them to leave. The three packed up their things and walked out of the archive.
The sunlight outside was somewhat dazzling. Panshi City was bustling with people. Most civilians, and even most warriors, only knew that there were scaled beasts underground and that the rifts were dangerous. They were entirely unaware that behind this catastrophe lay a complete underground civilization.
"What's our next step?" Su Qing asked.
"Heal our wounds and complete the Sea of Consciousness re-examination," Lin Yan said, his gaze fixed on the massive city wall in the distance. "We wait for the next mission opportunity. Only by entering the rift zone for reconnaissance will we have a chance to obtain solid proof."
At the same time, deep underground in the Lizardmen nest.
Several slender psychic exploration threads had quietly extended into Panshi City, locking onto the sanatorium area where Lin Yan was staying. The Lizardmen priests continuously monitored Lin Yan's Sea of Consciousness fluctuations. They saw Lin Yan go to the archives to look up old materials, vaguely sensing that this human was getting closer to the truth.
Cold psychic communication flowed through the nest.
The priests discussed that they could not let this human continue to gather clues. They planned to arrange a small-scale ambush at a rift. The next time Lin Yan went out on a mission, they would silently eliminate him. They could not launch a large-scale beast tide to assault the bastion city; the cost would be too high. A single, precise assassination was all that was needed.
An assassination trap targeting Lin Yan had begun to be quietly laid out deep underground.
End of Chapter.