Updated: 2012-07-08

Zero walks through the cave, his boots stamped on the slime-strewn ground. The mucus of the gold swallowing insect is slippery and greasy, and if you are not careful, you will fall. Therefore, Zero walked very carefully, and at the same time lightened his pace. All underground creatures have been degraded due to the environment, but their sense of hearing is unusually developed. Even the sound of a needle drop will be detected by them, so Zero does not walk fast, for fear of making a sound and being discovered by the bugs.

The cave dug out by the Gold Swallowing Worm was twisted and curved, and Zero silently calculated his steps and came to the conclusion that he had walked nearly a kilometer. However, the cave seemed endless, but Zero didn't pay any attention to it. Quiet underground, dark abyss, he walked alone. It's like this shijie who has woken up and is a complete stranger, although there are many people in the Z7 base, but Zero feels lonely.

After all, there is a gap of nearly half a century between him and those people.

Zero doesn't remember the past, who he is, where he came from, what he did? None of this has an answer, but Zero knows that as long as he goes on, one day he will come close and know the truth.

That's it.

The end of the cave has arrived.

It was the end but it wasn't true, but the passage made a 90-degree turn after reaching this point, extending directly into the dark abyss.

Zero takes out a cold fire, lights it, and throws it down. The firelight swept through the vertical passage, and fist-sized iron beetles immediately scattered in all directions, away from the cold, bright light.

Fortunately, the drop of the vertical passage is only about ten meters. This distance did not let Zero pay attention to it, and the cold smoke and fire continued to burn under the passage, using both hands and feet, and crawling all the way down through some uneven mud surfaces on the passage. By the time his feet touched the ground, the cold smoke was extinguished. Darkness returned to the ground, and soon, a green light lit up, causing the iron beetles that had gathered towards Zero to disperse again.

With a glow stick in his hand, Zero continued along the horizontal passage opened by the Gold Swallowing Worm. The passage is constantly tilting, as if it leads straight to hell.

This time, though, Zero's journey ended quickly.

For he heard something peculiar coming from the quiet underground.

Zizizi――

It's like the sound of alternating current, and it's like the sound of something rubbing against each other. Zero could not be sure, just took out the M500 revolver. This pair of large-caliber murder weapons, if fired at close range, is like the tough shell of a gold swallowing worm, and may not be able to offset the impact of .50 bullets.

The sound is getting closer.

Under the green fluorescence, the channel comes to an end.

At the end is a larger cave, with no end in fluorescence, and Zero estimates in his heart that the radius is about three hundred meters.

The strange sound came from under the cave, with Zero crouching down at the edge. Under the green fluorescence, several huge insect bodies were intertwined, and those strange sounds came from the mucus surface of these insects rubbing against each other. The gold-swallowing worm is like a meat maggot that has been magnified countless times, and it is difficult for people to distinguish the head from the tail. Now several big insects are entangled, and it is even more difficult to distinguish.

Under the fluorescence, the reflection of something slightly stung Zero's eyes. Zero looked at the light source, and at the edge of the cavern, there was a thick layer of copper clay.

Those were the food for the gold swallowing worms, and Zero had a thoughtful expression. The gold-swallowing worm weishenme is going to transport food here? And judging by the amount of copper clay, this food is enough for several gold-swallowing worms to eat for several days, in other words, they have prepared food in advance?

In Zero's mind, he quickly analyzed the things in front of him.

The gold-swallowing insects are intertwined, looking like snakes reproducing offspring. But gold-swallowing insects reproduce asexually and do not need to reproduce their offspring through this behavior at all. Zero didn't know much about the creature, and all he knew was from a chart when Old Jack took over the task.

He couldn't judge, but he didn't want to stay long. The task of reconnaissance may not include the annihilation of the Gold Eater. Zero wouldn't do anything superfluous, but when he turned to leave, something new happened to the insects in the cave below.

One of the largest gold-swallowing insects suddenly poked its head out, and on the big head of the fat white worm, there were two rows of six small crimson eyes. A cross crack appeared in the center of the insect's head, and the fat rolled up, revealing a mouthpiece the size of the head.

Under green light, zero can see clearly. There are three layers of tiny inverted teeth in the mouth, which are these inconspicuous-looking inconspicuous inverted teeth, but they can dig rocks. And now, the target of this mouthpiece is facing his companions.

With a thud, the big worm swallowed its companion into its mouth. I saw that the big worm kept sucking, and just swallowed another worm into its belly piece by piece.

Zero pupil constriction.

What is this? Cannibalism?

Soon, the worm swallowed its companion whole, and its body gained a full circle. Wrinkles are faintly visible under the body of the worm, and it seems that the companion who has been devoured is struggling. The gastric juice of the gold-swallowing insect can melt gold fossils, so how can it tolerate its own kind. Soon, the body of the large insect stabilized. But it seemed to be hungry, so it aimed its mouth at the other bugs.

The sound of sucking and devouring kept coming, and Zero just watched as the big worm devoured the remaining two companions. Eating the same three insects in one go, the body of the gold swallowing insect became extremely huge. It let out a cry of pain, the six red-eyed lights flickered, and the surface of the insect set off waves of flesh. It's like digesting, and it's like excreting something.

The giant insect's body writhed, and its large head began to sink downward, and its body curled up to form a cocoon the size of a small mountain. When the form of the cocoon was completed and stabilized, it trembled slightly like a human heart.

Zero quietly withdrew, the reconnaissance mission was over.

This strange phenomenon of the gold-swallowing insect should belong to a kind of evolution. By devouring other companions, you can perfect your genes and evolve to a higher level of life form. In this era, in order to survive, you must use all means to make yourself stronger. This is true for humans, and it is true for other creatures.

Zero's work has been completed, and whether or not the Gold Eater that has evolved into a new form will threaten the base needs to be evaluated by professionals. That's not Zero's job, how will the base deal with the Gold Swallowing Worm, Zero can't care and doesn't want to care.

By the time I got back to the mine, it was already two hours later. Zero jumps out of the cave and hears a commotion outside. He frowned, it was working time, it didn't seem to be so noisy, things were not simple.

Zero walks into the mine, and Nick, a miner he has been in contact with, is arguing with someone about something. Seeing Zero appear, Nick hurriedly ran over. As he ran, he drew the shape of a cross on his chest and forehead with his fingers.

"Thank goodness you're finally back, sir. ”

Zero nodded and asked succinctly, "What's going on?"

"Lost contact, sir. Nick took a breath and pointed in the direction of the base and said, "Just half an hour ago, we were going to get the first copper mine back to the base." But the gates of the base were locked, and we were able to communicate with the base via radio, but there was no movement at all. Everyone was in a panic and didn't know what was going on inside. ”

"Didn't contact Old Jack?"

"How can it be? After the radio contact did not move, we contacted the boss directly through the internal phone, but no one answered. Nick hesitated, "It's incredible, it's just, it's like the people at the base are all gone." ”

Zero listened, and his face was silent. He left Nick to burrow into the crowd, boarded the minecart, and drove to the entrance to the operation area.

It's just that no one knows that his hand is gently gripping the handguard of the revolver.

The door to the entrance to the work area was closed, and Zero's arrival made the surrounding workers look at him.

Zero jumped out of the minecart and asked, "Who is in charge?" ”

"Me. A middle-aged man broke out of the crowd and raised his hand and said, "Sir, I am the person in charge of the mine operation, you can call me Jetto." ”

"How is the gate in condition. Zero asked, as he walked towards the gate.

Jetto followed Zero's side and reported: "The electronic system is completely out of order, there is no response from inside the base, the electricians are already dealing with it, but the chances of recovery are low." ”

Next to the stainless steel gate, a thin man was crouching on the ground and checking the gate's electronic circuit. Zero came to his side and asked, "Can you open it?"

"No, no response at all. The thin man replied without looking back, and then he saw a zero dressed as a soldier, and immediately jumped up and said respectfully: "Sir, I have done my best." ”

Zero asked, "Can't you turn it on manually?"

"Manual?" said the electrician, patting his head hatefully, "Damn, how did I forget about the manual system." ”

He immediately turned back to a few miners and hurried to the other side of the gate.

It didn't take long to hear the sound of "card", and the door separating the operation area and the base finally opened slowly.

The people near the gate breathed a sigh of relief, but there was a slight pinprick sensation from the skin under the zero clothes.

Dangerous!

From the door, a dangerous smell came.

A crack opened in the door, and a red, viscous liquid slowly flowed out of it. They flowed through the brown ground, past Zero and the others' shoes, and then stopped ten meters outside the door.

The miners couldn't say a word, and right by the door, an arm slid through the crack in the flow of red liquid.

It was just an arm, it had been broken from the root of the shoulder, and the blur of flesh still had Bai Sensen's arm bone pierced out.

"What's going on here?" the head of the mine was dumbfounded, he looked at Zero.

Zero took a deep breath and said quietly, "You stay here, and when I go in, close the door!"

After saying that, Zero One stepped into the bloody water, and with another foot, he had already stepped into the gate of the base.

After a few moments, the door slowly closed.