Blue Star, Antarctic Ross Sea, Titan III Combustible Ice Mining Base, Room 038.

Nick slowly put on his freeze-proof suit, and the cold underneath made the Chilean from hot and humid South America deeply uncomfortable.

But that wasn't enough, Nick thought.

He slowly took off the anti-freeze suit to his waist, picked up the rough sweater cover on the silver-gray upright hanger, and after putting on the antifreeze suit, he patted the somewhat wrinkled uniform with satisfaction, and began to prepare the equipment for underground exploration.

"Knock knock" There was a sharp knock on the door. "Okay, no! Nick! A rough voice sounded outside the door, "Don't be like a woman, mother-in-law!" ”。

"It's because you're always in such a hurry that you almost didn't fall to your death last time." Nick muttered quietly. But he picked up the speed and checked and brought all the standard flashlights, hard hats and some zipline tools he needed.

When the door was opened, there was a tall man standing outside the door, about 1.8 meters tall, with a beard. The two hugged each other.

"Tim, have you all the stuff?" Nick asked, frowning.

"Put a hundred hearts, this time it will be absolutely foolproof." , Tim laughed.

It all started last week, when during a routine inspection last week, Tim and Nick discovered an ice cave deep underground, which was routinely required to be explored and reported.

However, because Tim didn't have enough tools, he fell during the downward exploration, fortunately only injured his foot, so the two had to go back to the base to rest first, and then come back to investigate when they were in good condition.

The two of them passed through the induction doors and came to the underground entrance. Before exploring the unknown ice cave, the two had to do a routine inspection of the combustible ice mining machinery underground.

After the twentieth century, human technology advanced by leaps and bounds, and the number of people exploded. But it has also led to a lot of problems, with rapid global temperature increases, melting glaciers at the poles, and rising sea levels. By 2030, the problem has become urgent, so countries around the world have begun to promote the use of clean energy, and combustible ice deserves to be at the top of the list.

As a result, countries have successively established combustible ice mining bases at the poles, and Nick and Tim are the explorers of the mining bases, responsible for inspecting the operation of combustible ice mining machines and detecting combustible ice veins.

After a long hard work, Nick and Tim inspected the 58 mining machines underground, and luckily the machines didn't fail.

After the two of them rendezvous, they rested for a while, and then headed towards the deep underground labyrinth. During their last expedition, they marked and soon found the unknown ice cave.

"Tim, be careful this time." Nick shook the zipline in his hand and tied him around his waist.

"I know, I know, mother-in-law, are you Chileans like this?" Impatiently, Tim nailed the nail into the ice and fastened the buckle.

"You Russian hairy sons are always so impatient", Nick pouted and said, "Go down, be careful".

With that, after dropping a few glow sticks into the hole, Nick jumped into the ice cave with his foot. Not far behind, Tim slid into the ice cave with the help of the ice.

It was a large ice cave, quiet, dark, except for the light of Nick and Tim's flashlight, there was not even a trace of light, and the empty darkness was like a beast that chose to devour people. The two of them slid down slowly, and soon, the two of them reached the bottom in about five minutes.

Nick and Tim unzip their ropes and look around to see nothing but darkness.

"Tim, emergency light source." With that, a dim pillar of light appeared on Tim's hand.

Tim gave Nick a column light source and kept one for himself. Both of them held the emergency light source with their right hands and the flashlight with their left hands, like special police officers with guns, slowly moving forward.

The two walked separately, with Tim to the left and Nick to the right. From time to time, glowsticks were thrown out of his hands, measuring the length and width of the ice cave.

Nick knocked on the ice wall beside him, and his hand hurt for tens of thousands of years. It was all based on his intuition, because the ice wall was almost as hard as steel.

The two fumbled for a while, and just as they were approaching, Nick heard the faint sound of running water.

"Tim! Don't come here, there's underground water. Tim on the other side stopped hearing this and asked, "Are you not mistaken, there will be living water here?" ”

Nick didn't refute it, because it did seem anomalous, and there would be living water under the permafrost? Of course, it was possible, and he could only think of one scenario, that there was an active volcano and magma under this ice cave. Or, the ice cave itself is an active underground crater!

Thinking of this, Nick's hair exploded, but there was no need to worry too much, Nick thought, an active volcano that had been frozen for an unknown number of years would not erupt because of the arrival of the two of them.

"Nick! Come here! I found something! Tim on the other end suddenly shouted, and Nick could only cautiously walk along the glow stick.

In front of him was a large icicle, as tall as two people, probably the width of three people hugging.

"Nick, look, there's something in this icicle," Tim said as he brought his flashlight to the icicle and wiped the ice slag off the top with his hand. "Look, Nick, there's something here. Maybe it's a combustible ice mine. ”

Nick heard this, and also leaned in front of the icicle and shone it with a flashlight, which was indeed frozen in something. Nick thought about it and decided to break open the icicles to see if there was a combustible ice mine inside.

"Take our ice axes, Tim." , Nick commanded.

"You've always told me to do all this tire." Tim had some resentment, but he honestly went to get the ice axe.

The two put on the emergency light source and flashlight and devoted themselves to the mining business. This icicle that has been underground for an unknown number of years is extremely tough, and it took a lot of effort for the two of them to break a third of it, revealing a kick of something frozen inside.

Nick leaned in, "Tim, this seems like a person?" Or some animal?".

Tim was taken aback and said, "Don't scare me, brave Russians won't be scared by Chilean ghosts." Besides, animals taken from such deep underground are even more impossible for humans. ”

Nick pulls out his special lighter, which is a lighter that can be used in sub-zero temperatures, and is widely used for the detection of combustible ice.

Because combustible ice can burn, it is possible to tell if it is a combustible ice mine by testing it with an ignition source, but unfortunately, this frozen object is not.

The two of them had to continue to explore other places, but even more regretfully, there was nothing but the big icicle.

"Since there are no combustible ice mines, let's go." Nick said without emotion.

The expedition yielded nothing, and now he just wanted to go to the base to take a hot bath to cool off his body, and then eat imported Japanese eel noodles.

"Hey, hey, Nick, are you really not going to see what that thing is? We can't go home empty-handed," Tim still remembered what was in the icicle.

Nick sighed, Tim is always like this, I really don't know why a Russian hairy man is so curious. But there was nothing he could do, anyway, the time had been wasted, and he was not afraid of wasting a little more, so the two began to devote themselves to mining again.

With a loud bang, the two finally dug out the contents of the icicles, and the icicles of the fault smashed into the ground, making a sound of ice breaking. At this time, the faint sound of running water was louder, and Nick was about to listen carefully, when Tim distracted him.

Because, that frozen object is really a person.

Nick and Tim leaned over to take a closer look, he was wearing a thin linen suit, I don't know if it was from that era, and it wasn't a modern product anyway. His face was extremely pale, his facial expression was hideous, his arms were forward, his palms were clawed, as if he wanted to grasp something.

"Nick...", Tim subconsciously shouted, he hadn't come back to his senses yet.

"Well, as far as I can tell, this should be an adventurer from the last century, who came to Antarctica to venture out and wanted to find treasure or something. I don't know, I'm guessing. But he must have been buried here after an earthquake, an avalanche or something. With that, he glanced at Tim and saw that he was rubbing the corpse's face with his hands.

"Don't move! Tim, maybe there's a virus on this corpse or something, I don't want to get it. ”

Nick got up and patted the ice slag on his body, "Let's go back, and don't report this matter, I'll take a few days off and act as if nothing happened." It's nothing more than an unremarkable ice cave, and in fact, it is. ”

Tim nodded, after all, more is better than less, and he still wants to go back to drinking vodka!

So the two of them sorted out their belongings and slowly climbed out of the ice cave by ziplining. Nick took one last look at the dark ice cave and shook his head, as if trying to remember something, but nothing.

After the two left, a small hole was broken in the face of the corpse that had been rubbed by Tim, and the black viscous liquid slowly flowed out into the ice that had been smashed by icicles, and below the glacier was a gurgling stream of water, which flowed somewhere.