Chapter 175 Probe

The probe was thrown into the fissure.

And then there was no response.

Ten seconds after the signal connection with the probe was lost, the data terminal finally couldn't help but speak, "Partner, something's wrong—the signal is completely gone, and all backup connections are ineffective!"

"Is it the signal that disappeared, or the probe itself..." Hao Ren frowned deeply, looking at the dark, deep fissure, a strange feeling rising in his heart, "Could it be that something down there destroyed the probe?"

The data terminal seemed to have forgotten the bickering with Hao Ren just now, and floated to the latter's head, observing the movement in the great fissure, "This is not normal. Although the probe is an inconspicuous little gadget, it's still made by the Empire. Its signal transmission module is very powerful. Almost no mortal civilization has the ability to interfere with its operation. And if it was destroyed... the probe's core should have had the chance to transmit the information of the attack in its last moment!"

"But the fact is that it disappeared silently, just like the stone Lily threw out in the daytime," Vivian's brow also furrowed, "Hao Ren, do you have any more probes?"

"Ah, there are plenty in the dimension," Hao Ren said, taking out a new probe, "Try throwing another one?"

"This time, let the probe fly in slowly," Vivian nodded and said, "Terminal, track it and see where it loses contact."

Hao Ren released another probe. This rhombus-shaped machine, thinner than a little finger, slowly flew towards the fissure under the precise control of the data terminal. When it was about to enter the layer of darkness, its speed even dropped to only a few millimeters per second.

Hao Ren and Vivian both widened their eyes, nervously watching the probe gradually descend, while the data terminal transferred the images observed by the probe to its holographic projection. At present, there was nothing to see on the projection except a rotating dark chaos.

The probe contacted the dark "event horizon" in the fissure and disappeared silently as if it had sunk into a thick ink. Because of its extremely slow speed, it took several seconds for the little thing to completely pass through the "event horizon". As the last bit of silver-white on its surface disappeared into the darkness, the data terminal immediately said, "Signal lost."

"It disappeared after completely passing through that dividing line," Hao Ren immediately turned to the terminal, "A part of it had entered the 'other side' before it disappeared. What kind of images did it transmit back then?"

The data terminal was now checking the last image data transmitted back by the probe frame by frame, "It seems like only a piece of darkness..."

Hao Ren widened his eyes and stared at the screen. The data terminal had already pulled up the last few frames of content, but there was still only darkness on it, as well as faint, chaotic vortexes that could not be distinguished in shape or meaning.

But the data terminal stopped at the last picture, seemingly finding something, "Partner, there seems to be something on this!"

The content of the last frame of the image seemed to be no different from the previous ones, both dark and chaotic intertwined, but the terminal discovered something hidden in the darkness through the comparison of the underlying data. It immediately began to process this picture. After hundreds of strengthenings and filterings, Hao Ren finally saw some shadows of things from those hazy shadows.

"What the hell is this..." he muttered, "It doesn't look like a cave or a canyon..."

"It seems to be a very, very spacious space," Vivian also leaned her head over, "Is the bottom of the rift an open cave?"

"Hiss—ha! !"

"There seems to be something floating in the cave? The one that flew in front of the probe's lens, doesn't it look like a pillar?"

"Puff puff—biubiubiu! Pa pa!"

"I also think it looks like a pillar, but why is it floating in the sky? Is there no gravity in the Great Pit?"

"Hiss hiss..."

"When did this little thing pop out?!"

Hao Ren finally saw the little weakling who was standing on Vivian's head, gesticulating and emphasizing his existence. He was immediately stunned: he was completely immersed in studying the picture returned by the probe just now, and he didn't even notice this little guy!

Even Vivian was shocked. She didn't notice when the little weakling ran out of her body. At this time, she quickly reached out to grab the little guy, "Don't move! This place is dangerous!"

"Hah!" Facing the sudden reaction of the two, the little thing immediately waved its arms and made a threatening cry, and then stumbled in the air, dodging Vivian's grabbing hand, while flying, it kept throwing shadow arrows outwards, "biubiu!"

The little thing's posture in the air was so clumsy, and coupled with having to dodge around, it was about to rush towards the direction of the great fissure. Seeing this situation, Hao Ren quickly reached out to stop it, "Dangerous! Come back!"

However, his reaching out was ultimately a step too slow. The Brownian motion-like flight trajectory of the little weakling was impossible to judge. This little guy, who was usually weak in everything, unbelievably dodged all of Hao Ren's fingers and plunged headfirst into the rift.

At this moment, Hao Ren felt his cold sweat shoot out, "Damn it!"

"Ah!" Vivian was also startled. Although the little weakling was just an evil thought entity, and did nothing but cause trouble at home, the damage it caused was so small, and after spending so much time together, Vivian regarded the little thing as a member of the family. At this time, watching this reckless little guy plunge into the Great Pit like this, she almost felt like her heart was racing, "Weakling!"

The two almost subconsciously rushed towards the fissure, but they abruptly stopped at the last step. Neither of them were impulsive or blind people. At this moment, they soberly thought of one thing: they haven't figured out the nature of this fissure yet. Can rushing in like this really save the little weakling?

Hao Ren released an autonomous machine from his personal space: Considering that the probe had lost its signal after completely entering the dark "event horizon", this may mean that objects without life reactions and magic reactions would not be swallowed before completely falling into the Great Pit. It is even possible that the probe has not been destroyed until now, but has only lost connection for some reason. The autonomous machine has higher intelligence than the probe, and can autonomously judge its actions even if it completely loses contact, so perhaps it can try to retrieve it.

I just hope that the little weakling can hold on for a little longer in the Great Pit.

However, just as Hao Ren was about to release the autonomous machine, an inconspicuous black energy arrow flew out of the surging darkness in the fissure, accompanied by the little weakling's signature voiceover, "biu!"

Hao Ren and Vivian: "..."

In the next second, the little weakling, who should have been swallowed by the Great Pit, flew out of it askew as if nothing had happened. She didn't seem to be hurt at all, and tilted her head when she saw Hao Ren: She seemed to be very curious about what the other party was going to do by suddenly releasing an autonomous machine.

"Actually... fine?" Hao Ren was dumbfounded.

Vivian immediately waved to the little weakling, "Come back!"

This time, the little one obediently flew back and jumped around in Vivian's palm very energetically.

Vivian nervously and carefully checked the condition of the little weakling, and after a moment, she looked up at Hao Ren in surprise, "Really nothing wrong—she doesn't seem to be affected by the Great Pit at all."

"Could it be that this Great Pit is just a scarecrow?" Hao Ren felt incredible, "Or, in fact, it only works on the natives of the Laherheim world, and has no effect on us 'stowaways' from other places?"

Vivian's tone was a little uncertain, "But we lost two probes..."

Hao Ren thought for a while, gritted his teeth and made up his mind, "I'll test it a little bit, you protect me by the side."

Saying that, he leaned down beside the rift, stretched out a hand towards the "event horizon" filled with endless darkness, Vivian was startled by the sight, "What are you doing?!"

"Don't worry, I'll just stretch my hand over to try," Hao Ren explained, "What if this thing is really just a show for us?"

Although he said it easily, he still perked up his spirits and carefully approached the layer of the event horizon with his hand, while paying attention to sensing whether there was any abnormal energy reaction in the rift.

However, just before his hand touched that boundary line, he suddenly felt an abnormal coldness coming from his fingertips and quickly spreading throughout his body.

After the coldness, what followed was a strong sense of weightlessness and dizziness—in that instant, he felt as if he had been suddenly thrown into the sky, and then fell into a bottomless abyss, all kinds of strong illusions came one after another, and the five senses of the real world became chaotic in an instant. He even felt that Vivian standing beside him had turned into a virtual shadow, and the originally solid ground under his body began to slide towards the Great Pit like soft mud...

"Hao Ren! Pull your hand back quickly!"

Vivian's ethereal voice came from the side. Hao Ren tried to concentrate his mind, and while resisting all kinds of chaotic illusions, he tried to pull his hand back.

He was panting, cold sweat running down his forehead, and the arm that had once approached the Great Pit now presented an almost transparent texture as if it were a phantom.

It wasn't until a few seconds later that this arm gradually returned to its original state.

"Damn... I thought my hand was really gone..." Hao Ren watched his arm gradually recover, and all his senses gradually returned to normal from the previous chaotic and crazy state, and then he choked out, "Sure enough, you can't just act recklessly."

Vivian also let out a long breath, "Just now your hand was gradually disappearing, but you didn't make a sound, so I called you."

"I felt like my soul was out of my body just now," Hao Ren said frankly, and then saw the little weakling who had climbed onto Vivian's shoulder and was looking down and fiddling with a strand of Vivian's hair, "I can't resist it... so what's going on with this little guy?"