Super Detective in the Fictional World

The narrow space was unfavorable for the expedition team, but very advantageous for Luke.

Checking the time on his watch, he said, “Everybody, stay as close to me as possible. The ruins are going to start changing.” Everybody immediately did as he said.

There had been a lot of them earlier, but they had been separated when the ruins transformed; chances were the others were already dead.

Nobody wanted to face the black monsters alone; that was just suicide.

As soon as they gathered round, the ruins shook yet again. With a rumble, the passage that the black monsters were in rose up, while their group’s side of the passage dropped, separating the two parties.

Ten seconds later, the ruins stopped moving, and everybody was now in a small space, not far from which was a triangular passage.

Everybody looked at Luke.

But his gaze was shuttered, as if he was pondering something.

A moment later, he said, “Stafford, organize the team and tell everybody not to move too quickly.” Stafford was a little confused, but he didn’t ask any further questions. Everybody now realized that their odds of surviving this and getting out of here were higher if they listened to this young man. Luke signaled to Weyland, and the astute old man stayed at the very back with Stafford and moved slowly.

Since he was sick, nobody found that strange.

Luke waited until Weyland had also entered the triangular passage, before he went back to look at the black monsters that he had killed earlier.

Each creature had a huge spindle-shaped head and a big mouth with many fierce-looking fangs as well as a weird bony tongue.

Its body was like a dinosaur’s. Its leg joints were reversed, and its upper limbs were much shorter but had sharp claws on them.

Judging from what he had seen earlier, this creature had explosive strength in its legs.

What was even more dreadful was the creature’s bony tail, which was extremely agile and had a pointy tip. Luke picked up a random rifle fragment from the ground and struck it against the tail, and there was instantly a two-centimeter cut in the metal.

Throwing the rifle fragment away, Luke examined the tail and saw that it wasn’t damaged at all.

This meant that this tail blade was far more durable than the stainless steel HK416.

Thinking for a moment, Luke got to work.

Several minutes later, the bodies of the three monsters disappeared without a trace, and Luke quickly caught up with the exploration team that wasn’t too far ahead yet.

Seeing Luke, Weyland was perceptive enough not to ask questions, while Stafford simply drew closer and asked in a low voice, “Where to now?”

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Up ahead was a fork in the passage. Mulling over it for a few seconds, Luke said, “The left. We should move quickly.” Saying that, he put Weyland on his back.

The team instantly picked up their pace.

This time, Luke ran at the front.

Several minutes later, the team members were breathing hard behind him and clicking their tongues inwardly.

Luke was very fast, even with Weyland on his back, and the team struggled to keep pace.

They moved swiftly and soon reached a fairly spacious chamber.

Then, the ruins began to tremble again.

As the stone walls rumbled and moved, the way from which they had come was blocked, turning the place into an isolated space.

Luke frowned and put Weyland down.

From experience, there wouldn’t be a way out of here until the ruins transformed again ten minutes later.

“Let’s take a break. We’re safe for now,” he said.

Relieved, everybody sat down.

Since encountering the monsters, everybody had been keyed up. If they weren’t running, they were fighting. They were all exhausted.

The truth was that there were no longer any weaker members in this team; they had either been separated from the rest because of slower reflexes, or had gone missing after the monsters ambushed them.

There was only one woman in the team. The rest were all brawny men.

The woman was called Lex Woods. She was an African American who was the best at extreme sports in the snow, like scaling snowy peaks or glaciers.

She was the safety instructor for this operation. Thanks to her extraordinary stamina, she was the only woman who could keep up with the team.

While the other men were still panting heavily, Lex went over and said in a low voice, “Your name is Luke, right?”

Luke hummed a response and nodded calmly.

He was thinking about their next course of action and didn’t pay much attention to the woman.

If they couldn’t get out, then she was unimportant.

If they did get out, she wouldn’t be able to leave on her own, so she was still unimportant to Luke.

Lex asked him directly, “What are those monsters?”

Luke finally turned his head and looked at her. “I don’t know.”

Lex: “But you seem to have a very good understanding of them.”

Lost for words, Luke waved at Stafford on the side. “Director Stafford, explain to this lady who I am. I need to think about something.”

Stafford promptly half-pulled, half-dragged Lex away.

The woman was upset. “Exactly what are all of you hiding? You tricked everybody into coming here just to die…”

Luke’s expression was calm, but he inwardly ridiculed the woman: Lunatic!

It was fine if she wasn’t going to cheer everybody up, but she could at least keep quiet and rest well to conserve strength for an escape later.

Even the bigshot Weyland was here in the underground ruins. If he tricked everybody into coming here just to die, why would he come himself? To commit suicide?

The only thing smart that Lex did was to keep her voice down instead of making a loud fuss.

If the team members grew suspicious of Luke, they would be the quickest to die.

On the other hand, it would be even easier for Luke to leave the ruins without them dragging him down.

This woman was too simple-minded. Who did she think she was? A white lotus[1]?

Luke snorted and no longer cared about her.

If she still insisted on being suspicious of Luke and hesitated to act later, she would definitely be quick to die.

After thinking for several minutes, Luke walked over to Weyland and asked about the exploration team in a low voice.

Stafford had also dealt with Lex. He went back and on Weyland’s behalf, explained the situation with the exploration team.

In the end, Weyland took off his backpack and took out something from it.

He said in a very low voice, “This is what the exploration team found in the sarcophagus under the sacrificial room. There are three in total, and they’re practically identical, but the other two are in the backpacks of the missing team members.”

Luke picked it up and examined it carefully for a moment, before he returned it to Weyland. “This probably belongs to those humanoid creatures in masks. We may draw trouble to us if we hang on to this. Mr. Weyland, you have to think carefully about this.”

After a brief silence, Weyland nodded. “If they chase us again, I’ll throw this at them.”

Luke nodded. That promise was good enough for him.

[1] Someone who pretends to be innocent and good