After testing the oxygen levels in the cavern hole…
Juno pulled a safety rope out of her backpack, secured it to an anchor point, and clipped in her locking carabiner.
“Gear up, everyone.
Get ready to head down.” “Juno, I’ll come down with you,” Rebecca said, setting her pack down as she saw Juno preparing to descend.
Juno shook her head.
“No.
I’m the team leader, and I brought you all here, so I should be the first one down.” While the two were talking, the others finished their preparations as well.
Dan Lee stretched his limbs with a light pack on his back, ready to travel light.
Everyone watched as Juno hooked onto the safety rope and slowly rappelled down, vanishing into the pitch-black opening.
Before long, her voice echoed from below.
“Clear!” Only then did the others hook onto the safety rope one by one and begin their descent.
Dan Lee and Sam were the last to descend.
He took one last look around the surrounding area—*Tsk, what a great place to bury a body.* “Hey, Dan, hurry up and get down here!” Sam called out, and Dan Lee finally gripped the rope, walking his feet down the rock face to slowly slide to the cavern floor.
As he descended, his field of view opened up.
The subterranean cavern was clearly a world of its own, at least five times larger than the entrance above.
Dan Lee was the last to reach the bottom.
He unclipped his safety harness and looked up; sunlight poured down from the hole above, creating a magnificent sight.
You couldn’t see the light from above, but looking up from the bottom, it was clear.
Juno stared at the sunlight streaming through the entrance, taking it as a sign from God that this expedition would go smoothly and safely.
The group took turns examining their surroundings inside the cavern.
Sarah looked around in a circle and was suddenly drawn to a rock—or more accurately, a bloody handprint smeared across it.
It was a dangerous signal.
Perhaps afraid of ruining everyone’s mood, Sarah kept quiet about it.
Just as Sarah tried to step forward for a closer look, a flock of bats suddenly burst out, swarming densely toward the cave entrance.
Sarah’s nerves were already strung tight, and being startled like that made her scream out loud.
Seeing this, Juno hurried over to comfort her.
Holly was still holding her video camera, counting the bats with a look of schadenfreude as if eager for trouble.
This woman was truly insufferable.
Dan Lee glanced around, lowered his head, and summoned a Ghost Card into his hand.
He wasn’t sure what kind of underground monsters were down here, but he figured they couldn’t be too tough, right?
[Containment Target Detected: Traces of Wendigo.] A Wendigo?
Dan Lee was fairly familiar with the concept; he had crammed knowledge on various horror legends a while back, and this creature happened to be among them.
The Wendigo was a legendary human-eating monster, originating from the folklore of the Algonquin Native American tribes in the United States and Canada.
It was widely believed to be a human gradually possessed by an evil spirit, turning into a man-eating monster with monstrous features.
When facing starvation or extreme conditions, they would commit cannibalism against their own kind.
Legend had it that once they consumed enough flesh, they would transform into the embodiment of a bloodthirsty cannibalistic demon—a Wendigo.
Though based on movie depictions, they seemed a bit weak.
Maybe their evolution was incomplete.
Still, putting that aside, its origins definitely sounded more intimidating than a Mutant Cannibal.
Especially in a closed, pitch-black environment like this.
A person’s fear would be amplified endlessly.
Even as calm and brave as Dan Lee was, he couldn’t help feeling a slight chill—along with a burst of excitement.
After all, the more evil and terrifying a creature was, the greater the sense of security it would provide once contained.
Once Sarah calmed down…
Juno led the group to a crevice between the rocks—a narrow opening that was the only path leading further down, barely wide enough for one and a half people.
Juno turned on her helmet headlamp and took the lead to scout the way.
Dan Lee was once again the last to go down.
He glanced at the bloody handprint on the rock wall, then at the pitch-black tunnel entrance.
This place was practically a claustrophobe’s paradise.
Dan Lee hesitated no longer and stepped into the pitch-black tunnel.
Because he had paid to upgrade his equipment, his headlamp was extremely bright, illuminating the path ahead clearly.
The width of the passage was barely enough for a person to spread their arms.
Dan Lee shuffled forward with the team step by step.
Ten minutes later, the space ahead finally opened up.
If the entrance had provided a faint glow earlier, then venturing deep into the rocky crevice meant reaching absolute, pitch-black darkness in the cavern ahead.
Seeing that everyone had caught up, Juno pulled a glow stick from her backpack and snapped it, tossing it out.
The red flare dropped from above, briefly illuminating the pitch-black cavern.
A massive rock chamber appeared before their eyes.
For a moment, everyone felt a thrill of excitement.
Now *this* was a real expedition!
The group split up to inspect the surroundings.
With just one glow stick, it was hard for human eyes to make out the environment.
However, with his enhanced vision, Dan Lee could see everything clearly.
Not only was this cave dark and damp, but the rock walls were also coated in a strange, unknown secretion.
It looked like stalactite drip deposits, only far nastier.
“Dan, look!
There’s a water hollow here!” Sam was curious about everything.
As it was her first expedition, everything felt novel to her.
Sam even reached out to touch the pool of water recessed into the rock.
Dan Lee grabbed her hand.
“Stay behind Professor Beth.
Don’t touch anything, and don’t wander off.” Sam pouted gloomily.
“Oh, fine.” Beth found the scene slightly amusing.
She had expected Dan Lee to act like a child too, but now it seemed he was much more mature than Sam.
Juno and Rebecca got into a brief argument in front of one of the tunnels, which Juno seemingly won, leading everyone into a narrow, gloomy tunnel within a tunnel.
Just as Juno was about to enter, Holly moved fast, squeezing past Juno into the passage first.
“Holly, can’t you drop that competitive attitude of yours for once?” Juno said helplessly.
“If you’re too scared, Juno, just let me scout the path!” Holly’s voice echoed from inside the hole.
Left with no choice, Juno led the others inside.
This time, Dan Lee was fourth in line.
This tunnel was even narrower.
Tiny Sam had a hard time squeezing through, let alone a grown man like Dan Lee.
He practically scraped against the rock walls as he crawled forward.
As he crawled, he suddenly realized he was stuck.
Without hesitation, Dan Lee chose to fuse with the Ghost Card of the Eldest Mutant.
The surge of physical strength allowed him to instantly break free and scramble forward, emerging to meet up with Juno’s group of three.
Unfortunately, someone behind him got stuck too—Sarah, who was bringing up the rear.
Beth, who had already crawled out, crawled back into the tunnel.
Perhaps because Dan Lee had forcibly broken free moments ago, the cave suddenly shuddered, looking as if it were on the verge of collapsing.
Juno and Sam panicked.
Dan Lee, calmly and methodically, pulled out a folding entrenching shovel from his pack.
Gripping the handle with both hands, he braced the shovel against the falling boulder, narrowly supporting the weight just in time for Beth and Sarah to crawl out safely at the final second.
Professor Beth was a good person.
Dan was a human, not a beast—if he could save her, he would.
Besides, the more people there were, the safer it would be in this godforsaken place.
Once again, as long as his life wasn’t directly threatened, he didn’t need to outrun the monster—he just needed to outrun his teammates.
The moment Beth crawled out, she wrapped Dan Lee in a tight hug, burying his head into her ample bosom.
“Good boy, good boy…
thank you!” Dan Lee: ⊙_⊙ He felt like he was suffocating.