Apocalyptic Hoarding Diary

At this moment, it was lying motionless on a flat rock, occasionally swaying its thick tail and stirring up a small clump of muddy sand.

Xu Xiaoyan saw on a science program that the giant salamander is the most vocal of all amphibians, and its call is the origin of the word "salamander" in its name.

I just didn't expect that in the enclosed environment of a cave, the screams would sound so much like human voices, and so eerie.

Realizing it was a false alarm, her tense body immediately relaxed, she took the crossbow off her shoulder, and moved her finger away from the trigger guard.

Xu Xiaoyan squatted down and shone the flashlight on the giant salamander again. The giant salamander was startled by the bright light and slowly moved to the side.

It hid behind a rock, only its flat head and two small eyes showing, which reflected two tiny, sparkling points of light in the sunlight.

It seemed completely indifferent to Xu Xiaoyan's existence, or rather, it had no idea what "fear" was.

Xu Xiaoyan stared at the giant salamander for a long time, the corners of her mouth unconsciously curving slightly. Then, with a thought, the precision crossbow disappeared from her hand.

She shone her flashlight on it and watched as the giant salamander slowly crawled out from behind the rock, returned to its original spot, and lay there motionless.

It occasionally let out a small, baby-like cry, but this time, Xu Xiaoyan didn't find it creepy at all; she even found it kind of cute.

It's probably not exactly cute, but it just feels like being in this secluded cave.

Having a living creature by your side, even a giant salamander that can't speak, is a comforting thing.

Xu Xiaoyan reached into her spatial storage and took out her watch, turning on the screen. It was exactly three o'clock in the afternoon, and at this time, it was still very hot outside.

The temperature inside the cave was like two different worlds from the outside. She rested there for a while, and the sweat on her body had completely dried.

I even felt a little cold and wanted to take a thin blanket out of the room and put it on.

But after hesitating for a moment, I decided against it. I'd be moving around a bit later, and it would be too much trouble to keep putting on and taking off my clothes.

She leaned against the stone wall and closed her eyes for a while, but her mind didn't truly quiet down.

The giant salamander is an amphibian with very high requirements for water quality. The fact that it can survive in the pools of the cave indicates that the water here is alive, flowing, and constantly replenished.

Moreover, giant salamanders need food, and there should be fish, shrimp, or other small aquatic organisms in the pond to support the survival of such a large individual.

Since there are giant salamanders here, could there be other ponds or underground rivers elsewhere? Once this thought popped into my head, I couldn't suppress it any longer.

She opened her eyes, picked up the flashlight, and swept the beam of light around the depths of the passage.

The cave passage split into three directions in front of her: one was the way she came, leading to the exit of the sinkhole, and the other was the entrance to the cave.

There was also a dark, endless passage that continued deeper into the darkness.

The passage was narrower than the one she had come in through, and the opening was only about 1.5 meters high, requiring one to bend over to walk in.

When the beam of the flashlight shone in, you could see that the cave walls were wet and reflected the light, and there was a stronger smell in the air, a smell that was damp and mineral.

Where does that passage lead? She didn't know, but her curiosity had been piqued.

Since it's hot outside, she has plenty of time to spend in the cave. Instead of sitting here waiting for the sun to set, she might as well go in and explore.

Let's see how deep this cave is and what's hidden inside.

After thinking it over, she used her watch to pinpoint her current location. She raised her wrist and tapped the watch screen a few times to bring up the location and tagging recording function.

It spun around on the screen a few times, then displayed coordinates.

When Hsu Hsiao-yen typed "giant salamander pond" into the tag bar, she couldn't help but laugh as she wrote those four words.

The name is quite casual, but it's very intuitive. If I go into the cave again in the future, I'll know where I am just by seeing this label.

She confirmed the save, and her watch emitted a soft "beep" to indicate that the location and tag had been successfully recorded.

The watch's "track back" function will automatically record the path she has taken. As long as she doesn't delete the path, she can follow the arrows to return to the location of the pond.

With this feature in hand, she felt much more at ease.

After thinking for a moment, Xu Xiaoyan took out a red marker from her spatial storage, intending to make a mark.

She stood up, walked to the fork in the path, and on the flattest spot on the rock face, neatly wrote a large character "徐" (Xu), with an arrow below pointing towards the pool.

Not satisfied with that, he added the character for "water" next to the arrow.

In case she forgets the meaning of the sign later, seeing the word "water" will tell her that she can find a water source this way. She doesn't want to get lost in the cave.

It's always better to be prepared. Caves are different from the surface. On the surface, if you get lost, you can look at the sun, the stars, or landmarks.

Inside the cave, the rocks, cave walls, stalactites, and stalagmites are all similar.

Taking the wrong turn can lead you deeper and deeper into a maze, with each turn leading to further detours until you can no longer find your way back.

She had heard many stories about cave exploration, and how some people got lost in caves for dozens of hours because they didn't mark their spots.

Ultimately, she became dehydrated, suffered from hypothermia, and exhausted. By the time the rescue team found her, it was too late. She didn't want to be the protagonist in that kind of story.

So every time she walked a certain distance, she would draw a mark on the rock face, not finding it troublesome or too many. She would rather make ten extra marks than miss one crucial one.

Xu Xiaoyan walked in that narrow passage for about twenty minutes with her back bent. It was more like half walking and half crawling than "walking". Sometimes she had to squat down and inch her way through particularly low places.

The beam of the flashlight swayed back and forth in the narrow space. Her knees were starting to ache, and her back was feeling slightly uncomfortable from being bent over for so long.

The rock walls on both sides were damp, with a thin layer of moss growing in some places. Water droplets kept falling from above, landing on her hair, shoulders, and the back of her hands.

She would draw a mark on the rock face with a red marker every so often.

Sometimes it's an arrow, sometimes it's just a red dot, as long as she can recognize that it's a mark she made.

The tracking function on the watch was always on, and the green indicator light flashed regularly, recording every bend and fork in the road she had passed.

After walking for more than twenty minutes, she began to wonder if the passage had any end.

If it weren't for the beam of the flashlight and the path recording on her watch, she would almost think she had been going around in circles.