There can't be a Harvest Moon in the RimWorld.

I walked over to him and looked in the direction he was pointing. In another corner of the mine, there was a very abrupt crack and collapse in the mine wall, creating a hideous and terrifying broken mark.

But even more terrifying was an ugly, disc-shaped unidentified object that inexplicably protruded from the ground, more than a meter high and about two meters in diameter, emanating a nauseating stench.

The unidentified object was composed of a slightly transparent, grayish-green gel, through which one could see the corpses of many dead animals, encasing its grotesque appearance. The thing was covered in indescribable tumors, and layers of the unidentified gel hung down to the ground like a burnt-out candle.

I stared in shock at this unknown entity. The torch was burning with difficulty, and the light was getting dimmer, offering only a meager amount of help.

Just then, the Alpha chickens on my shoulders suddenly let out a loud clucking and vigorously flapped their feathers, as if to warn us that something was approaching.

This sudden movement extinguished the faint torch in my hand, leaving only Gotz's torch, which he held in his arms to protect it, thus saving it from disaster.

"Oh no, the rooster crows and the lamp goes out, so it's time to steal the gold..."

Around the corner of the cave, a twisted shadow suddenly appeared, revealing a grotesque forehead and a pitted body, slowly approaching us...

Chapter 547 The Old Popsicle with a Wrong Start

A strange shadow the size of a goat burst out of the deep cave, and the black wind it stirred up swept over us, instantly extinguishing Gots's teetering torch, leaving the entire cave in complete darkness.

"careful!"

Gotz's warning was barely audible before it was drowned out by a powerful shattering sound. A clear rhythmic thud came from the hard rock, indicating that something was rushing towards us.

He leaned forward, forcefully shoving the attacking monster away with his shoulder, then threw out a hand to try and restrain the attacking limbs.

However, what appeared to be the shadowy figure was an enormous, sharp horn. After Gotz grabbed it, another horn of asymmetrical size fell down and instantly pierced Gotz's arm, blooming into a bright red flower of blood on his hand.

I was a fraction of a second too late, and I rushed to rescue Gotz. A sharp scythe flashed from the side with a whooshing sound, striking the monster's horn. After a noticeable recoil, the scythe shattered its gray shell and embedded itself in its limbs.

With the asymmetrical pincers clamping down on Gots' arm destroyed, the monster lost most of its attack methods and was instantly freed by Gots.

In the darkness, the monster was no match for a giant like Gotz. Having lost its advantage in the attack, Gotz threw it away with a burst of strength, and it slammed against the hard wall of the mine. Then, it flipped over and tried to escape into the depths of the cave.

"Gotz!"

I called out to Gots, who was about to continue the pursuit, "How's your hand?"

Gotz took out a flint and tried to light the torch. After two attempts, he lit it skillfully, and the faint light finally allowed us to see again.

He shoved the torch into my hand and showed me his wound.

I noticed that the wound, which was once so deep that the bone was visible, had healed to the point of being barely noticeable. The blood was no longer very bright, and only slightly pink skin could prove that the wound had ever existed.

“Marcus, I’ll go first, you take care of dealing with these strange creatures.”

Gotz, without hesitation, took the lead, relying on the recovery speed granted by his special bloodline, preparing to act as a pathfinder to defend against attacks.

I think his arrangement is a pretty good choice, but his Deep One bloodline isn't very stable. I'm afraid that if he gets injured too much, he'll become ferocious and turn into a fish head stew and eat me...

"Don't worry about me." Seeing my hesitation, Gotz deliberately gave me a reassuring look. "I'll be fine. If anything goes wrong... I'll rely on you to wake me up..."

...That wasn't because I was at ease, but because I wanted you to be at ease!

In this critical moment, we couldn't care less about the mental shock of the insects swarming everywhere. Before the words were even finished, Gotz rushed out, continuing his pursuit of the wounded, fleeing unidentified creature in the narrow mine shaft.

For a moment I thought about calling Gray and Harris in to join us in exploring, but the place is small and too many people might not be a good thing.

My combination with Gotz is perfect for both offense and defense, and with the magical power of the Colonizer System, we are best suited for precise combat in narrow areas.

They had only taken two steps when the same unidentified creature emerged again from the depths of the mine.

This time, illuminated by the torches, we finally saw the monster's true form.

In the shadows, I thought I saw a strange goat, but in reality, this monster had two pincers on its head, one large and one small, like a longhorn beetle, with sharp spikes standing upright on them. Once it bit down, it would pierce into the flesh. Gotz had mistaken it for a unicorn and that's why he was attacked.

The monster has three pairs of eyes of different sizes on each side of its head. They are all made up of densely packed compound eyes, and their irregular shape is unsettling. They are moving as you look.

Its equally irregular head is like a piece of clay that a child has casually kneaded, with sharp edges and covered with fine thorns, making it like a cactus that is impossible to grasp.

Its head is huge and its abdomen is flat. It crawls on its three pairs of legs close to the ground. However, when it reaches its tail, it suddenly curls up, with its pointed tail pointing to the sky, making it look like a mutated venomous scorpion.

"Be careful, it might be poisonous," I warned.

Without a second thought, Gotz rushed forward, his hands outstretched, quickly grasping the large and small pincers. His muscles bulged as he resisted the monster's strength, preventing it from closing its pincers again and severing his hands. At the same time, he used his feet to lift the monster off the ground, preventing it from using its strength to gain leverage.

This monster was completely irregular, its bizarrely pieced-together body seemingly designed for battle. It even rolled up its flat belly, raising ferocious scales that coiled towards Gots's arm, while simultaneously bringing along its dangerous, pointed tail.

Gots reacted incredibly quickly, throwing the monster away in an instant. Unfortunately, its tail also struck Gots' arm at the same time, and an alarming blackish-green color began to spread from his wound. The bloody wound quickly emitted a putrid smell.

But before the poison even began to spread, I saw Gotz's arm undergo even more rapid skin changes. Fine scales and grotesque muscle tissue began to grow, quickly covering the area where the poison was spreading, and conspicuous clusters of bone spurs appeared on his arm.

Gots roared and plunged the bone spike from his elbow into the center of the monster's body, pinning it to the ground in a half-crouching position. The elusive venomous tail still tried to attack, but this time I preemptively severed its wreaking havoc weapon.

"Gotz, you're not afraid of the poison?" I asked.

“It’s a bit tricky,” Gotz pondered. “But I’ve been training with sea snake venom in the previous phase, and I’ve learned to use my bloodline to purify the venom for a short time.”

Purifying poison? You're clearly using magic to defeat magic! This monster bit you and you were unharmed, but now that you've stabbed it, it's the one writhing in agony. It's obvious you're the one who's poisoned!

“Gotz…” I said softly.

Gots was still observing the monster's movements on the ground, seemingly determined not to let go until he was absolutely certain it was dead, so he only gave me a questioning look.

I continued, "Gotz..."

He still didn't pay much attention to me, only asking in a low voice, "Marcus, what's wrong? Don't bother me, I need to deal with it first, then we'll have specimens to study this strange creature."

But I persisted, shouting, "Gotz... let me hear you first..."

"What is it?" Gotz asked me, looking up at me with a helpless expression.

"Hmm... how many monsters like these could you handle?"

"If we don't unleash our bloodlines, there will probably be three. What's wrong?" Gots asked.

I swallowed hard. "That's good. You just deal with those three, and I'll figure out how to handle the remaining ninety-seven. What do you think?"

Gots looked up in astonishment and saw a faint glow emanating from the dark cave, as if countless sinister eyes were lurking in the shadows, casting their gazes in their direction...

…………

The Alpha Gun on my shoulder had shrunk into two balls, and was poised to shrink further into two Colonel Chicken nuggets, trembling and clinging to my neck. Compared to these ridiculously large monsters, the two of them really weren't much different from Original Recipe Chicken.

But we are different. We are the pinnacle of all creation, equivalent to the Colonel's signature spicy chicken burger. We have no reason to give up easily.

Therefore, when the enemy group appeared, my first thought was, how should I write this in my diary? Should I launch a counterattack and write something like "annihilating 100 million enemies and dominating Taiwan"?

Cough cough... In this confined space, even if I had a way to deal with the monster, I wouldn't be able to handle the dense barrage of poison needles; even with Bear Grylls's special ability to help me withstand the poison, it doesn't mean I'd be immune to all poisons. If something goes wrong, it could be disastrous.

Although Gotz can withstand a beating, it's only at the level of an earthworm's division and regeneration. If it were put into a mortar and mashed to pieces, it wouldn't be able to recover.

"Head towards that crack! Let's go in first!"

With the road ahead blocked and the cave entrance too far away, I immediately spotted a crack in the cave wall. Although I didn't know what lay beyond, as long as I could hide inside, at least I wouldn't have to worry about being attacked from both sides by the surging tide of monsters.

Upon hearing this, Gotz knew what to do. He immediately pulled out the bone spur from his elbow, threw the dying monster away, and then we stepped over the mushroom-like pile of unidentified colloids on the ground, preparing to crawl into the crack in the cave wall.

But before turning to burrow, we had to repel the pursuing enemies. So I wielded my arm armor weapon, while Gotz used his sharp woodcutter's axe, relentlessly attacking the monsters surging up from the ground, our cold metal clashing against their hard shells, shattering them into countless foul-smelling droplets…

In the dim light against the cave wall, holding a torch in one hand, I suddenly noticed a strange cloud floating in front of my eyes, occasionally obstructing my view.

But when I looked closely, I finally realized that these weren't just clouds on my eyes, but rather information interfaces displayed by some colonist system!

Animal Name: Cave-dwelling Broadleaf

Animal description: A genetically modified medium-sized insect, about the size of a sheep. The cave-dwelling cricket is a mid-level member of the insect hive system. It is highly aggressive, and its pincers, besides being used in combat, are also responsible for most of the tasks.

Daily nutritional requirement: 0.4

Meat yield: 72

Toxin sensitivity: 0%

Trainability: Intermediate

Movement speed: 3.65 grids/second

Wildness: 95%

Armor - Weapon: 18.0%

Armor - Blunt Weapons: 18.0%

Melee damage per second: 2.13

Melee Armor Penetration: 10%

Melee block chance: 10%

Remote interception probability: 5%

I stared at the interface in disbelief, speechless with astonishment at the information revealed in the introduction.

If such a monster is a genetically modified insect, then the appearance of the cave-dwelling broadworm is not a natural phenomenon; there must be other factors behind it. Is it man-made or caused by other factors?

Cave-walking bugs continuously emerge from the depths of the mine, suggesting a larger underground nest that commands its combat-savvy insects to drive out the intruders and defend its dark territory beneath the surface.

The problem is that we may have been wrong all along. These worms buried deep underground didn't suddenly appear, nor did they inexplicably spread from Twin Town, wreak havoc there, and then move to the Mads Mountains.

In fact, these terrifying insects may have been multiplying underground for a long time, connecting all directions through the cave network and creating their unknown underground empire, until their power finally broke through the underground and came to the surface, leaving behind clues of the insect plague...

"Gotz, you hold them off! I'm going in to look for clues!"

At this crucial moment, I decisively betrayed my teammate. Since he didn't have the colonist system to provide information, only I could investigate and gather more information.

I quickly climbed over the opening in the cave wall and crawled into the back of the terracotta wall, where I discovered another place I had never seen before.

The space was about twenty square meters. The brick floor had many cracks, and the bricks were dented and bulged everywhere, indicating that the abundant water seepage from Mount Mades had caused significant damage. This low and oppressive environment reminded me of a tomb, and subsequent discoveries confirmed my feeling.

In the very center of this enclosed room, beneath a slate support pillar, lay an object resembling an overturned gasoline can, its dull metal surface covered with illegible, blurry writing. The steel floor tiles remained sturdy, but the iron handles on either side were noticeably loose.

Item Name: Ancient Cryogenic Hibernation Chamber

Item Description: This cryogenic hibernation chamber looks like it's been here for a long time. Who knows what's inside? It's best not to open it lightly.

Durability: 250/250

Cover effectiveness: 50%

Cryogenic hibernation pods are essential tools for interstellar travel, but the ground beneath this device is extremely unnatural, with ancient brick and steel floors abruptly joined together, creating an indescribably bizarre appearance.

The power supply line of the cryogenic hibernation chamber was broken in a bizarre way. The cables that were originally buried underground were scattered on the brick floor with smooth cuts, and even the metal core wires maintained the same direction of breakage.

The instructions said not to open it, but I saw that the massive steel coffin had already been pushed open a crack. Clearly, someone had tried to escape from here…

...Which shelter is this? Is Old Popsicle here?