Chapter 1398: The Investigation
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Hessiana mentioned that the mysterious dimension was only discovered after a small-scale collapse in the quarry. The mountainous region was an excellent stone production center. The Hessianite Family had been quarrying in the area for half a century, and the various experts that the family hired had explored and mapped every inch of the place, mainly because Hessiana was obsessed with finding gemstones. In theory, if there had been any pits and natural caves in the ground, she would have discovered it long ago. But the collapse of the quarry exposed a crypt that was not supposed to exist.
The crypt was deep. It led all the way to a vast space inside. If the thing had been in the ground from the beginning, Hessiana would have killed her geologists—at least that was what she thought.
The first people who found the cave were two human workers, who under the command of the foreman, went to check out the damage of the equipment and situation of the quarry after the collapse. A new crack in the rock had aroused the curiosity of the two daredevils. No one could fathom why the two decided to venture into the crack instead of report back. Perhaps the few packs of marijuana found in their dorms could explain that. In short, the two adventurous workers got into the crack in the rock and found the cave.
The exit at the end of the cave led to an ancient city.
They may have seen something else in the cave. It could also be some poisonous gas or a radioactive field. The two workers disappeared for a day and a night, and then returned suddenly in the evening the next day. One of them was completely mad, and the other was half-mad and talking gibberish.
The Hessianite Family’s supervisor in the area received the news only one day later. By then, various rumors had spread throughout the quarry. The poor foreman was fired because he did not report the disappearance of the two workers in time. The supervisor contacted the two surviving workers. After fifteen minutes of contact, the news was sent to Hessiana’s desk.
Immediately, the vampire from the upper echelon of the family blocked off the entire mining site.
Before entering the cave, Hao Ren and his men first met with those involved in the incident. They included humans and non-humans. The meeting was held in the mining office. There were five people before Hao Ren. Two of them were locals. They were tall, dark-skinned, and their hair was thick, but they looked unresponsive and talked gibberish. Apparently, they were the two workers who first discovered the cave. There was also an old man dressed in a suit, gray hair, and behaving like an old gentleman. He seemed to be a human, the quarry supervisor. Standing at the rear was a couple of man and woman. Dressed in casual clothes, the man was handsome, and the woman was beautiful, all young and did not look like management personnel. But the reality was, the two of them were the highest-ranking personnel here before the arrival of Hessiana. They were the personnel whom Hessiana had sent to handle the incident earlier.
But now the family matriarch was here. The incident had clearly exceeded the authority of these two special commissioners.
Except for the two workers who had lost the ability to communicate, the three persons who entered the office were highly respectful of Hessiana. They even bowed to Hao Ren and his men as a sign of respect and was especially awestruck by Vivian who looked almost identical to Hessiana. The little bat interrupted their lengthy salutations and asked, “How is the situation in the quarry now?”
The supervisor carefully looked at the male vampire next to him. He was not going to say anything before his superior spoke. The vampire realized this and nodded. “Matriarch, the mine has been sealed off as per your order. But the mental problems of the workers are getting worse. Francisco and David could have been infected with the bacteria in the cave, and the people they contacted were also infected. So before we could eliminate the risk, no one was allowed to leave. But it won’t last long.”
Francisco and David were the names of the two poor workers.
Hessiana pinched her forehead and turned to look at Hao Ren. “Hey, do you have a pen that glows when you click it and erases people’s memory when you wave it in front of people’s eyes?”
“We are a formal functional department that does not engage in these tricks. Would you be responsible when there is a copyright problem?”
“It is killing me,” the little bat smirked. “The supervisor here is inept. News has spread. And what is worse is that I can’t silence people by killing them.”
Hao Ren knew about what the little bat was concerned, and said, “This is easy. After we finish our investigation, we blow up the connection between the alien dimension and the real world, or just blow up the entire alien dimension. By then, you can let anyone come to investigate, and they won’t find anything else except rocks. You may also send men to spread some more sensational stories. When rumors are flying around, no one would believe the original story.”
Hessiana thought that it was a good idea and was delighted. “Brilliant! It sounds like it is not going to leave any trouble behind. Oh, yes, with a little advertisement, maybe I can turn the quarry into a tourist destination, collecting entrance ticket from tourists. Perot, please explore the potential of tourism in this place.”
Perot, the white-haired quarry supervisor, seemed to have long known about the extemporaneous nature of the vampire matriarch. He took the order without any expression on his face. Perot knew that Hessiana might not even remember she had talked about this idea after two days.
Meanwhile, Hao Ren and his men were all awestruck of the business sense of the little bat. But Lorissa, the one-and-a-half-year-old queen, had not a clue about what Hessiana was talking. She was only curious about everything in this place and busy darting around.
Vivian knocked on the table and got the attention of Hessiana. “You could do whatever with the quarry later, but first let us see the two workers.”
The two mentally deranged workers had even lost their mobility and needed to be carried into the office. There was no external injury on their bodies nor damage to their nervous system detected. Something else more complicated might have caused their insanity. The condition of the worker named Francisco was more severe; he could not even talk and was spending most of his time staring at the ceiling. His mouth mumbled in unrecognizable voices, which even the MDT’s translation system could not figure out what the man was saying. The other worker named David was a little better.
A little better here meant that at least his voice is a little louder than Francisco’s, and at least a few words were decipherable.
“Cave… fog… eat… slaughter… monster…”
This was what the MDT was able to figure out at last.
“Their conditions are more serious than before,” the young female vampire said. “These two humans had a strong emotional reaction at first. They yelled and struggled, but slowly became unresponsive and quiet. Their thinking ability is declining dramatically, and they are losing their bodily strength. Drug or magic has no effect on them.”
Vivian frowned as she carefully examined the two workers. “It looks like they are cursed, or suffering from mental trauma. You two must have entered the alien dimension. What could cause their conditions?” she asked the two vampires.
The two young vampires glanced at each other. And then the male vampire said, “We just peeked from the outside because we dared not enter. There was a strange light of red curtain covered the alien dimension. Once stepping inside, a strong sense of crisis hit us, and the magic warning props we carried with us sounded the alarm continuously. But we could not determine where the threat came from. Rose and I did not feel that they were attacked. But after staying in there for a while, dryness and ablation appeared on Rose’s skin while I began to feel weak. So we quickly came back out.”
Hao Ren looked at two young vampires and said, “Are you sure that you have not been attacked during the whole time in there?”
The two vampires nodded repeatedly. Hessiana said, “These two guys are the most honest in my family. Even the least honest guys would not dare to lie in front of me.”
The two vampires nodded even harder this time.
“It seems that there is a problem with the big environment or the energy field that shields the dimension. This energy field may be beyond the exploration of conventional methods, so that it is difficult to detect the harm it causes,” Y’zaks said as he bent down to check on the two victims. “In my hometown, many powerful curses could cause this effect.”
“Will these two people survive?” Hessiana asked. The two humans may have only been inconspicuous members of a small branch of Hessiana’s large family and may have even been ignorant of the existence of the Hessianite Family, but Hessiana still could not help but feel concerned.
“Don’t worry, they’re not going to die,” Hao Ren said with a confident smile. “I don’t know about the others, but have you forgotten that I have a bunch of high-tech medical equipment? I can even raise them from the dead if I want to. Let’s put them into the medical pods later after we explore the alien dimension.”