Silent Ark

Chapter 58: The Sinking Kingdom

Unit-00 entered the columnar building, which resembled an entrance.

aisle.

It is twelve meters wide.

Unit 0 passed through just in time.

It's not "just right".

It's very precise, like someone measured it.

The inner walls of the passage are the same as the surface of the pillars—

Black, seamless.

But the walls were glowing.

There are no lights installed on the surface, so it is most likely that the material itself is emitting light.

It was a cool, white light.

Shen Ruozhi stared at the spectrometer.

"5780K," she said.

Wang Xindong looked up.

"The color temperature is the same as that of sunlight."

The passageway leads straight ahead.

The sonar indicates that the end connects to a larger space.

The sound came from there.

It is no longer an electromagnetic signal from a communication channel.

It is a sound wave.

It is conducted directly through seawater.

The bulkhead of Unit 00 is shaking.

That voice.

Once.

Twice.

Three times.

Same syllables, same rhythm.

Like someone who has been talking for too long, whose tone of voice has become monotonous.

The end of the passage.

Unit-00 entered that space.

Yao Chong's first reaction was not fear.

It's a matter of not being able to sense the scale properly.

The ceiling is forty meters high.

The entrance to the passage is twelve meters high.

It's not for human use.

Shen Qingci noticed it too.

Her hand paused on the control panel for a second, then continued operating.

"Hover".

Unit 0 was stationary in the center of space.

The light shines out.

Inner wall —

Black, glowing, seamless.

But there's something on the wall.

Scratches.

The pattern made of lines covers the entire wall.

From floor to ceiling, from left to right, there is no blank space.

Shen Ruozhi stared at the lines.

"There are no repeating units," she said. "The text repeats—"

Letters, radicals, morphemes.

Each of these lines is unique.

She paused for a moment.

"This isn't writing anything; it's drawing something."

Wang Xindong came over.

"What is being drawn?"

Shen Ruozhi zoomed in on one of the sections.

The arrangement of lines —

It has curvature, density variation, and directionality.

"If I'm not mistaken, they are contour lines on the map," Wang Xindong said.

His voice changed.

"Yes, it's a topographic map, this is a topographic map."

He pointed to different areas of the wall.

"here--

Dense contour lines indicate a mountain range.

here--

Flat, plain.

here--"

His finger stopped on a certain area.

The lines disappeared there.

I stopped drawing halfway through, or rather, the area itself was a blank space.

"There's nothing here," he said.

"Or," Shen Ruozhi said, "there was something, but it's gone now."

The sound continued.

One more time.

Twice.

Three times.

It came from the depths of space.

At the end of the space, there is a door.

It is three times larger than the entrance to the passage.

The door was open.

Behind the door was darkness—

The light shone in, but there was no reflection.

It was the same black color as the surface of the pillar.

The sound came from behind that door.

Liu Pan remained leaning against the worktable.

He opened his eyes.

"Don't go in."

Everyone was looking at him.

"Behind that door—" he said softly, "it's not a standalone building."

"What is that?"

Liu Pan looked at the darkness.

"It's the interior space of the pillar. Don't go in until you understand it clearly. There might be traps or something else inside."

Shen Qingci tapped her finger on the control panel.

"Received, not going in."

She turned Unit Zero around, and the light swept across the interior walls of the space.

The topographic map covered three walls.

The fourth wall —

Different.

There is a door on the fourth wall.

Upon closer inspection, the door is opposite to the main door leading into the pillar.

It's another one.

It appears to be on a human scale.

Two meters high and one meter wide.

Embedded at the base of a 40-meter-high wall, it resembles a hole left for pets like cats and dogs.

The door was open.

There was a corridor behind the door.

There is light at the end of the corridor.

Warm light.

Completely different from the cold white of the walls.

Shen Qingci stared at the door for five seconds.

"The mainstream size of interior doors in human civilization," she said.

"What?"

"That door."

Two meters high and one meter wide.

For humanity—

Or something similar in size to a human—

Yes, it's for use.

She turned to Shen Ruozhi.

"You said it's not any known language."

But if the thing that built this place is two meters tall—”

Shen Ruozhi understood.

"They may not be human."

But perhaps they understand humans.

Shen Qingci placed her hand on the control panel.

"I'm going down."

"you--"

"Unit Zero can't get through that door. Someone needs to walk over."

She is already checking the communication equipment.

I'm alone.

"No," Yao Chong said.

Shen Qingci glanced at him.

It wasn't an argumentative look in their eyes.

It is an assessment.

"Come with me," she said. "Liu Pan, you guys stay on Unit Zero."

Liu Pan remained silent.

He leaned against the worktable, holding the cold coffee cup in both hands, his eyes half-closed.

Shen Qingci glanced at him but didn't say anything more.

She and Yao Chong donned their deep-sea diving armor and exited the cabin through the bottom hatch of Unit Zero.

seawater.

The pressure of seawater at a depth of 4,200 meters is enough to tear many things apart, but in the outer space inside this pillar, the pressure is almost similar to that of shallow sea.

The hydraulic suit's pressurization system was humming.

Shen Qingci walked ahead.

Yao Chong followed behind.

corridor.

Warm light shone through from the end.

The walls are no longer black.

It is grayish-white and has a texture.

Rough, like stone.

But it's not a rock; it looks more like coral or something similar.

Yao Chong's glove bumped against the wall.

smooth.

It's smoother than glass.

But it looks rough.

"Visual camouflage," Shen Qingci said. "It looks like a stone, and it feels—"

She didn't finish speaking.

At the end of the corridor.

light.

It's not a lamp.

It's the surface of the water.

The corridor connects to an airtight cabin—

The seawater ends here.

A transparent partition with completely different pressures on both sides, yet the partition did not deform.

Materials Engineering.

Shen Qingci stood in front of the partition.

The other side of the partition is air.

Dry, warm air.

She could see the door at the other end of the airtight compartment.

The door was open.

Behind the door is—

Footsteps.

Not theirs.

Separate the other side.

Someone walked over.

Yao Chong's first thought was about height.

Two and a half meters.

That person—

Or rather, that thing—

It is 2.5 meters long.

Its size is similar to that of a human.

Two legs, two arms, one head.

But the proportions are wrong.

The limbs are too long and the torso is too short.

The skin was grayish-white.

It wasn't pale, it was that color.

Like marble.

What is it wearing?

It's not clothes.

It is a covering.

Extending from the shoulder to the ankle, it's a one-piece design with no seams.

Dark blue.

It walked to the partition and stopped.

Its eyes—

Yao Chong didn't know if those counted as eyes.

Two dark ovals, without pupils or irises.

But it is watching them.

It opened its mouth.

The same voice.

That voice that was repeated countless times on the communication channel.

Once.

Twice.

Three times.

Then it stopped.

It uses a different pronunciation.

Even slower.

Clearer.

It looks like it's being adjusted.

Fourth time.

Yao Chong understood one syllable.

Not because it speaks human language.

It's because of that syllable—

That is the limit that the human vocal cords can produce.

It is imitating.

It is trying to speak in a way that humans can understand.

Shen Qingci did not back down.

She stood in front of the partition, looking at the two-and-a-half-meter-tall gray-white figure through the transparent material.

She raised her right hand.

Palms facing outwards.

Spread your five fingers.

It looked at her hand.

There was a ten-second silence.

Then it raised its right hand as well.

Palms facing outwards.

Spread your five fingers.

Six fingers.

Shen Qingci's hand did not move.

"Ninth Division," she said into the communicator, her voice flat, "first contact, non-human intelligent entity, survived."

The intention to cooperate has been preliminarily confirmed.

She lowered her hand.

"Requesting instructions."

The communicator picked up static noise from the headquarters of the Ninth Division.

Three seconds later, a voice responded.

"receive.

Do not enter.

Repeat, do not enter.

Reinforcements arrived 47 minutes later.

Shen Qingci turned off the communicator.

She looked at the figure on the other side of the partition.

It also raised its hand.

Six fingers.

I haven't let go.

"Forty-seven minutes," she said softly.

This wasn't directed at the Ninth Division.

It's calculating the time.

There are just over four hours left in the lockout.

Forty-seven minutes.

enough.

but--

Inside Unit 0.

Liu Pan put down his coffee cup.

His eyes were fully open.