Hunter of Mysterious Creature

The entire underground space suddenly became as bright as daylight, causing the three who were accustomed to the darkness to squint their eyes involuntarily.

"Over a hundred years have passed, how can there still be electricity here?" Shino was puzzled, "Has someone been maintaining it, or did those Angsa Hunters repair the power equipment?"

But Shino quickly dismissed his own thought: "No, it can't be those Angsa Hunters. Lighting up such a large district requires at least ten hours just to inspect the circuits; they simply don't have the time to complete this work! Then it must be..."

Shino's eyes widened slightly: "Could there be survivors on the island... descendants of survivors? But if there are survivors, why have they never contacted the Federation? It doesn't make sense!"

"Those who can maintain circuits and lighting equipment aren't necessarily survivors; enigmatic objects can do that too." Sun Hang shook his head, "Or, the lighting equipment itself has become enchanted, which would mean it requires even less maintenance."

"But... but the equipment hasn't detected any wave fluctuations from enigmatic objects!"

"Stop tinkering with that broken machine of yours!" The fisherman complained, "What's that old Xiazhou saying, it's better to have no machine than to believe too much in machines?"

"It's 'it's better to have no books than to believe too much in books'." Sun Hang corrected, "But according to your current saying, it's also correct; equipment isn't a hundred percent reliable. In this situation, I trust my own judgment more."

As they spoke, all the lights in the exercise field brightened. Only then did they see that fixed upon the dome of the rock wall were numerous steel beams and rails. A machine resembling a camera was moving along the rails to position directly above them, its lens symbolically rotated a few times like a mortar before finally aiming at the three of them.

"Multi-functional central dome..." Shino muttered, "I remember the institute's design plans did mention this thing, but due to the technological level at that time, it was never actually manufactured..."

"You're talking about that metal frame up there?" The fisherman asked curiously, "Does it have high technological content?"

"You have to know, that was an era when computers hadn't even been invented yet." Shino said softly.

"So what is this thing? Monitoring?" The fisherman pointed at the lens and asked, "Without computers, where would the recorded images be viewed?"

"No, this is an old-style camera, inside it contains film used to capture photos of the experimental process. It uses thin steel cables and pulleys to control position and lens direction... I've seen the blueprints for this thing; the precision of that motion system surpasses even that of a differential engine." Shino explained.

"Is it manually operated?" The fisherman asked again, "There shouldn't have been automatic equipment back then, right?"

"No, it's automatic... its lens can track living beings within the exercise field throughout, whether they are moving or stationary."

"How does it accomplish that?" The fisherman asked in astonishment.

"Beneath every piece of the floor we're standing on, there's a highly sophisticated mechanical sensing device. When the weight they bear differs from pre-set data, it triggers the mechanism to 'attract' the camera lens installed on the dome." Shino explained.

"Rely solely on mechanical structure?"

"Solely mechanical structure."

"Whoa, I'm starting to get the technological depth of this thing." The fisherman's eyes flashed with a hint of awe, "Such a vast system, just thinking about getting it to run smoothly makes my scalp tingle."

"That's why this thing only exists on design blueprints." Shino stepped back two steps, moving from one piece of the floor to another, the camera lens immediately followed. Not only that, they also heard a slight shutter sound coming from inside the machine.

"Even the design blueprints are incomplete..." Shino hadn't finished speaking when a glint of silver flashed, and the part where the camera and the rail meshed separated, causing the entire heavy camera to fall from above.

Sun Hang dashed forward in an instant and caught the falling camera in mid-air.

"Sss..." Shino drew a sharp breath.

He didn't know why he felt a bit heartache—each piece of this equipment is truly a masterpiece of human industrial art, damaging any part would be regrettable. Though this camera seems simply mounted on the rail, beneath the burdened ground are hundreds of steel wires solely used to control the lens. With Sun Hang's stroke, the possibility of complete repair is already minimal.

"What time is it already, why am I still thinking about this kind of thing?" Shino chuckled self-deprecatingly and stepped forward, "Are you planning to see what photos this camera took? Wait, don't pry the cover open directly! The film will be exposed!"

But Sun Hang didn't heed his advice; he directly used a small liquid metal-shaped knife to pry open the back cover of the camera.

Inside, there was no film at all, only a small roll of yellowed, brittle paper.

"Eh?" Shino exclaimed as he leaned over, "Not film? It's... a paper scroll?"

"What's going on now?" The fisherman was completely bewildered, "Can paper be used as film?"

"Certainly... not." Shino shook his head, "Look, what's on the paper?"

Sun Hang carefully extracted the paper scroll and gently unfolded it.

The paper had a line of text; due to the long years, the ink had somewhat spread but could still barely be recognized as the official language of the Siberian Federation: Russian.

"Do you recognize Russian?" Sun Hang asked the fisherman.

"I speak Russian, but can't write Russian." The fisherman replied somewhat embarrassedly, "In the eyes of those old fellows, I'm just an illiterate ignorant."

After the Siberian Autonomous Region was annexed by Xiazhou Federation, the official language became Chinese, and the writing became Chinese characters. New generation like the fisherman almost grew up in a Chinese environment. The mother tongue of the Siberians back then, as the old generations continue to pass away, is gradually becoming a niche language.

"I understand Russian." Shino said, but Sun Hang noticed a seemingly peculiar expression on his face.

"What does it say on it?"

"...'You have finally returned'."

You have finally returned?

Sun Hang was momentarily stunned.

Was this sentence addressed to him?

This piece of paper has been around for many years already, could the person who wrote this paper and placed it inside this camera have already foreseen that he would enter the ruins of the research institute at this time and dismantle this camera?

How is that possible?!