The situation was quite critical.

There are only three options left for Fan Tong.

One is to use flesh and blood to fight against the rock formations that are collapsing close together, and the other is to climb a pit more than 20 meters deep in five seconds......

Or, cut the rope and fall down.

It only took him a second to make a decision, and he immediately unfastened the lock around his waist.

In fact, he was very correct in his judgment.

The collapsing rock wall didn't give him as long as five seconds, and he counted the maximum of three seconds before and after, and the solid rock formation cut off the light from overhead......

However, at the time, it seemed that it was the best decision.

But only half an hour later, Fan Tong regretted it a little.

The situation he is facing now, except for being able to leave a whole corpse, does not seem to be much better than being crushed on a rope. He had been walking for almost half an hour, and the cave seemed to have no end, and there was no hope in sight.

"...... It's like a labyrinth. ”

Sure enough, I should have been safe at the time, but now it's useless to talk about these things.

There was a gentle tremor on the ground.

Estimating that the place where he fell earlier had been buried by the collapsed rock wall, Fan Tong took a deep breath to calm himself down as much as possible.

In order to make his mood less depressed, he tried to convince himself that it was just a scientific expedition.

"Silty quartzite...... It's not hematite, I didn't expect to be able to find such an interesting thing here,"

"What is this? Biomass-clastic rocks? ”

This is an amazing discovery.

The frustration in his eyes was gradually replaced by a touch of excitement, and Fan Tong used the multi-functional shovel in his hand to carefully knock a little rock cuttings down without damaging the rock mass.

Looking at the treasure in the sample bag, the excitement in his eyes became more and more intense.

“…… It would be nice to have a half-life test here, so that I can determine the age of the sedimentary layers in this area. ”

If it weren't for the fact that the current situation was not optimistic, and there was only a constant noise left in the communicator, he really wanted to share this happiness with the other researchers in the base.

Packing up his tools and samples, he began to continue along the cave.

While doing these things doesn't increase his chances of survival, at least ...... In the unfortunate event that he dies, these valuable research materials will become a valuable scientific research legacy.

Of course, if someone can collect the body for him......

The road ahead is getting harder and harder.

Sometimes he had to go in and out several times to find the real entrance.

During the period, he rested on the road for a while, ate some liquid food, and looked at the few supplies left, Fan Tong's mood couldn't help but be a little low.

Interestingly, however, he noticed a very interesting phenomenon along the way. It stands to reason that Mars' core has cooled, but as he moves deeper into the channel, the temperature around it rises by about 5.

Although the surroundings are still cold, at least there is a hint of comfort.

After recording these bits and pieces of discoveries, Fan Tong, who had taken a short rest, got up and continued to move forward.

The passage ahead was getting narrower and narrower, and it took a lot of effort to squeeze through.

Just as he began to wonder if he had made a mistake, a deep pit about five steps wide suddenly appeared in front of him.

The laser ranging showed that the depth below should be about 10 to 20 meters, which was exactly the same as what he had just encountered.

Stopping at the edge of the pit, a look of embarrassment appeared on Fan Tong's face.

What to do?

Do you go down, or do you want to go back and find another way?

If you continue to go downward, your position may become deeper and deeper, and the hope of someone collecting your body for you will be even more slim.

However, even if you don't grope down, it is unrealistic to expect the people on the other side of the base to dig themselves out of the ground more than 20 meters deep with limited conditions.

Thinking back to the forks in the road he had passed earlier, he couldn't help but feel a tingling in his scalp.

Thinking that the situation could not be worse than it is now, he finally gritted his teeth and made a decision, and with the help of the multi-purpose shovel in his hand, he bravely slid down towards the deep pit in front of him.

Slide down a near-vertical passage.

This time, his feet touched the ground, but he was unexpectedly much more acquainted than before.

Maybe......

Is this the real "bottom"?

Just the moment Fan Tong thought so, and stood up and looked ahead, the whole person suddenly seemed to be stupid, and he was stunned.

Looking at the almost steep corridor in front of him by the light of the flashlight, it took him a long time to digest the shock in his heart, and slowly squeezed a sentence out of his lips.

"it!"

"Here...... Amazing...... It's a bunker! ”

Reddish-brown stone monuments about two meters high stand on both sides of the corridor, connecting the ceiling to the ground like stone pillars standing in the middle of the corridor. The intricate pattern of fruit is exposed on the surface of the stele, and although it has been blurred to the point where it is not clear to see its original face, a trace of carving can still be seen from above.

Everything in front of us can no longer be explained by simple geology.

Either way, it doesn't look like it's natural.

They're like works of art......

A pile of artworks nestled in ancient ruins......

Muttering excited to himself, Fan Tong pointed the flashlight and the camera on his helmet at the row of artifact-like sculptures and pressed the shutter frantically.

If it weren't for the lack of signals, he would have liked to report everything he saw here to the base.

All the discoveries he had made along the way were nothing compared to anything he had discovered here.

There are traces of civilization activity in the underground of Mars!

At least it once existed!

Human civilization is not the only one in the universe!

They are not alone!

He could almost imagine what kind of sensation this news would cause on Earth if it were made public. The excitement of discovering the treasure made him almost want to shout out loud.

"The material, like the sand outside, has basically been weathered into hematite!"

"The totem of the Martian civilization? Or is it some kind of ritual artifact? Or some kind of handicraft ......"

"Wait......"

There was a slight sigh in his mouth, and when he groped for a relatively damaged stone tablet, and tried to knock off the oxide layer on the surface with the multi-purpose shovel he carried, he found that the entire inside of the stone tablet was not completely composed of hematite as he imagined.

Or even the opposite......

The material included is a calcium carbonate mineral which contains almost no iron.

"Calcium carbonate minerals...... No, this is probably some kind of biomass fossil, and it is probably very old, and it looks older than the trilobite fossils on Earth. ”

Muttering to himself, Fan Tong carefully sampled five rock particles of equal size from inside, and placed them in a sample bag for preservation.

“…… I didn't expect to have to make a cameo as an archaeologist one day. ”

With hematite on the outside and biomass fossils on the inside, he deduced that the outer shell of the thing was some kind of iron-based alloy material, which sealed some kind of living creature inside like a coffin.

His instincts told him that this might be a cemetery-like place.

While there are other understandings, this is undoubtedly the most likely.

Tightening the multi-purpose shovel in his hand, Fan Tong continued along the corridor that exuded an ominous aura. Although the guy in his hand does not give him more security, it is better than nothing.

Contrary to what had happened before, the road ahead suddenly widened as he continued deeper into the hallway.

Especially when he stepped into a spacious "hall", he instantly felt a sense of enlightenment.

However, just as he was about to move on, he unexpectedly found that his knees were pressed against an invisible wall, and he could not take another step forward.

Just as he was fumbling in confusion on the invisible wall in front of him, a strange scene suddenly happened.

The sign on the wrist-mounted computer that displayed the signal suddenly changed from a cross to a full grid.

Slightly stunned, noticing the flashing signal light, Fan Tong subconsciously restarted the communication module.

A cacophony of electric currents soon came from the communication channel.

Just as he was looking at the signal on the computer on his wrist in disappointment, estimating that it was probably some kind of naturally occurring electromagnetic wave, an intermittent sound suddenly sounded in his ears without warning.

"Ahem."

“…… Can you hear it? ”

-

(Mathematics is already three stars, don't forget to compare hearts~)