nycdaug Chapter 64 is a bit strange.
Chapter 64 is a bit strange.
“There’s something wrong with the stone edges.” Marcus looked down and examined them. “Both of them are loose; they’re slippery when you step on them.” He tested the shifted stone edge with his toe. “It’s not natural weathering; the direction of displacement is wrong. It’s like it was…” He paused, “moved by an external force.”
The silence outside the tent returned once again, the same kind of silence found in dense vegetation.
Kenneth looked up. "External force."
"Hmm." Marcus steadied himself on the rock and continued upward, avoiding the two rock ridges. "I can get up there, but I can't set up the equipment. It's too dangerous; a slight tremor could cause me to slip."
"Go up and check the coverage area," Morris said.
Marcus climbed to the top of the rock platform, stood up, looked around, remained silent for about ten seconds, and then said, "The coverage area is the best I've seen all day."
"But it can't be stopped."
"I can't handle it."
Morris put his hands in his pockets. "Get down."
Marcus climbed down more slowly than he had come up, avoiding the two rock edges. He jumped down about half a meter above the ground, landed, clapped his hands, and said, "Someone did some work here before." He added, "Not long ago, no more than a day. The weathered dust on the rock edges hasn't accumulated back up yet."
Ella wrote another line on the whiteboard.
Chen Fei lay prone on a sandstone platform three kilometers away.
He's been here since dawn, without moving an inch.
The night vision effect gradually deactivated after sunrise, but the super vision took over, bringing the edge of the water source closer to a clear and distinguishable level.
He witnessed Marcus climbing the rock platform.
The first stone edge loosened, and Marcus's foot paused.
The second stone edge shifted outwards, and Marcus tilted to the right.
He mentally checked off the two actions.
Then he saw Marcus standing on top of the rocky platform, scanning the area, seeing him come down, seeing him clap his hands, and then seeing five people standing below the rocky platform for a while before walking in another direction.
[Host: Chen Fei]
[Identity: Sub-adult male lion]
[Energy Points: 882↑]
The rock platform has been ruled out.
The noise from the reeds created enough interference for thermal imaging, and the pressure gauge data in that area was all invalid. Kaller found claw marks, but they were left at dawn, half-covered by dew, and lacked sufficient detail to support effective analysis.
Where are they going now?
He followed the direction and saw Kaller leading the way, heading west, pushing inward along the southern edge of the water source.
The gap on the west side.
Chen Fei hadn't made any special arrangements for that direction; he predicted the investigation team would most likely not choose that angle, but Kaller did.
He re-evaluated his predictions.
Kaller is a guide, not a PhD in behavioral science or a data analyst. He follows an experience-based approach, going wherever there are animal tracks or wherever the terrain is easy to traverse, without needing a logical framework.
The terrain at the western gap is relatively flat with slightly lower vegetation density, making it a natural choice for guides.
Chen Fei mentally re-evaluated this point.
He didn't make any arrangements for the gap on the west side, but the gap itself didn't pose a particular risk of exposure. Once the view in that direction was opened, it was just an ordinary wetland on the edge of a water source, with no trace of his activity. The thermal imaging could only capture normal water birds and small animals.
The problem is not with the gap on the west side itself.
The question is how deep they can go once they're in.
He turned his gaze back to Kaller, followed him for a while, and waited until Kaller stopped at the western entrance of the gap, squatted down to look at the ground, then stood up and said something. Morris nodded, and the entire queue narrowed again as they moved in.
Chen Fei's tail tip swept across the surface of the sandstone platform.
Once inside, their field of vision will be fragmented by the dense vegetation. Thermal imaging at that density has an effective range of no more than thirty meters. Pressure gauges need to be pre-installed; temporary deployment will not detect anything.
They would go in, find very little data, go around in a circle, and then come out.
He suppressed this prediction in his mind and did not completely relax.
Kaller is a variable.
The guide's experience has its own set of judgment logic, which is not data or framework, but long-term grassland perception. Sometimes this perception is more accurate than any equipment.
He turned his right ear toward the gap to the west, trying to catch the sounds coming from that area.
Footsteps, the rustling of leaves, the soft thud of Marcus bumping into a bush while carrying his equipment, and the occasional low murmur of Kenneth reading out numbers—flat, still flat.
There were no screams, no equipment alarms, and no sudden acceleration of footsteps.
He kept the tip of his ear in that direction and continued to wait.
Inside the gap on the west side.
Kaller walked at the front, taking very slow steps.
He wasn't walking; he was reading the ground.
Take two steps, stop, look down, and then continue.
Leaf decay layer, trampling marks, hanging marks on plant stems and leaves, ground humidity distribution, and the direction of ripples in shallow water areas of water sources.
All of this information combined will tell him what happened in this area in the last 24 hours, what things were active here, and which direction they went.
He walked about fifty meters and then stopped.
Squat down and look.
Then he looked up, glanced ahead for a while, then looked down again and looked once more.
"What's wrong?" Maurice asked from behind him.
"Something's strange." Kaller pointed to the ground at his feet with his probe. "There are traces of a large animal here, but not today, it's from yesterday, between yesterday afternoon and evening. It was a medium to large-sized feline, and it was acting alone."
"Is it the same one as the reeds over there?" Ella asked.
"The claw marks are all about the same width, but here there's only entry and no exit."
The silence inside the tent reappeared for the third time, right there in the dense vegetation at the western gap.
"It's only going in, not coming out," Kenneth said flatly. "That means it's still inside."
"Or maybe they went out in another direction; I haven't seen any trace of an exit yet." Kaller stood up, switched the probe to his other hand, and said, "Keep going in, and look for the exit as you go."
Morris glanced ahead; the vegetation density continued to increase, and visibility was less than twenty meters. "How far are we from the core area of the water source?"
"About thirty meters," Kaller said.
"continue."
The queue moved again, slower and quieter.
Marcus had already slung the thermal imaging camera over his shoulder, scanning as he walked, with the screen facing upwards. As he walked, he looked down at the screen, and the heat source signals on the screen became very limited in this density of vegetation. Only a few small heat sources appeared intermittently at the edges, disappearing and reappearing. They were small rodents, not what they were looking for.
After walking about twenty meters, Kaller stopped again.