I, Stone Golem, only want to forge.

Chapter 124 The Unfinished Project

Murphy initially thought he was lucky to have run into a businessman who knew the inside story of the ruins.

But then it looked at a few platinum-level urgent cases, flipped through the commission labels on the transparent covers, and realized that it had nothing to do with luck.

These platinum-level and even higher titanium-level commissions, looking around, are almost entirely commissions from heritage merchants.

The signature column for the client did not contain personal names, but rather abbreviations of various business names. Some were marked with an iron stamp, while others were simply marked with a symbol.

But upon closer inspection, it makes sense.

Those heritage dealers make their living by reselling these things; that's their livelihood.

So, if a repair shop is entrusted to someone else in a place like this, wouldn't it naturally be mainly run by businessmen?

On the contrary, it is relatively rare to see cases like the female orc who repaired things purely out of personal feelings.

Murphy didn't pay much attention to the intricacies of the matter.

It repairs these things precisely to level up.

It wouldn't be bad to be able to learn about the ruins along the way, but the priority is always to level up first and take on the commission for that light calibrator.

So Murphy spent some more time choosing an urgent repair request from a heritage merchant in the Platinum District.

This item is a bit more complicated than the stuff in the Gold Zone.

Two of the runes were worn down to almost a smooth surface, making it impossible to discern the original patterns.

It took Murphy several minutes to confirm the original rune types and arrangement.

The repair itself was done in the same old way. After the engraving was finished, it checked the energy conduction of the runes again to make sure there were no problems before putting the disc back into the tray and casually pressing the button to indicate that the repair was complete.

This time, the client responded with surprising speed.

Less than a minute after Murphy pressed the button, the shadow on the rocky ground in front of him suddenly twisted without warning.

Immediately afterwards, a figure seemed to emerge from the shadows and stand in front of Murphy.

The newcomer wore a dark robe with the hood pulled low, black gloves, and a smooth mask without any facial features.

Almost no skin was exposed on her entire body; even her neck was completely covered by a high collar.

It's impossible to tell whether it's male or female, old or young.

After the heritage merchant stood still, there was no small talk, no self-introduction, and not even a nod.

He reached out and picked up the metal disc that Murphy had just repaired from the tray, examining it carefully over and over for a while.

A moment later, the merchant from the ruins put the items back into his robe.

Then he took out a metal card with a special pattern engraved on it from his pocket and handed it forward.

"This is my estimated deposit; you can use this to withdraw money from banks of all races."

The heritage dealer's voice was extremely neutral, making it impossible to distinguish between men, women, and children. "If you sell it for a high price, the rest will be given to you as compensation. If you sell it for a low price, the remaining deposit is yours and you don't need to return it."

The relic merchant seemed to be in a hurry. As soon as he finished speaking, he took a half step back, leaned his body slightly backward, and the shadow under his feet began to twist slightly again, obviously intending to sneak back into the shadows and disappear along the way he came.

"I have something to ask you."

Murphy spoke up to stop him.

The heritage merchant stopped.

The shadow beneath his feet quieted down, returning to the ground as an ordinary black shadow.

"I need money."

"I don't need the payment." Murphy handed the metal sheet back. "Just answer my questions."

"Okay, go ahead and ask."

The heritage dealer was quite straightforward and didn't try to haggle at all.

"What's the situation with that site on the middle reaches of the Kulun River?"

Murphy asked directly.

"Oh, over there."

The relics merchant tilted his head slightly, as if reminiscing.

He was probably a little surprised that Murphy would ask this question.

"That's an unfinished project over there; it looks like it's a—have you heard of a space program?"

He deliberately slowed down his speech when he said the words "space engineering," as if testing whether Murphy could understand.

"Send something up into the sky?" Murphy asked.

The Relics Merchant nodded and explained in more detail: "Yes, that relic is something like that. It's just that it seems to have only been half completed before it stopped. I don't know exactly what was originally intended to be sent to the sky."

I've been down there a few times, but I've never dared to go too deep.

If you'd like, for an extra fee, I can take you to see it in person right now.

"Now?"

Murphy confirmed.

"Yes, right now."

The relics merchant said, "However, you can only take a look from afar; you can't go any deeper."

There seems to be a special substance inside, but I can't say for sure what it is. However, many organisms inside and around the ruins have mutated because of this substance.

Even animals that were already dead came back to life after coming into contact with this substance.

One can only say that this heritage dealer is frighteningly dedicated.

Their professional ethics are as stable as a dwarf's height, unchanging.

"Is this enough?"

Murphy thought for a moment, then took out the gift card the lizard man had given him and handed it over.

The relic merchant took the card and pulled out a small box from his robe. It was no bigger than the palm of his hand, with a dark metallic exterior and fine runes engraved on its surface.

He opened the box, gently placed the silver card on it, and the box closed with a soft hum.

After a moment, the lid popped open automatically, and he took out the card and returned it to Murphy.

"There's a lot of money inside."

The relics merchant said, his tone unusually tinged with approval, "Take about a third of it. Please prepare accordingly, and I'll take you there now."

Murphy put the card away and asked, "How do I get there?"

"Please stay still."

The relics merchant pointed to the ground. "See the shadow under your feet?"

Upon hearing this, Murphy looked down at his feet.

The shadow suddenly began to writhe unnaturally, then spread in all directions like spilled ink.

In the blink of an eye, it turned into a vast, dark pool.

A subtle feeling of weightlessness rose from the soles of my feet.

The Relic Merchant and Murphy both fell into the shadows.

From the outside, it looks like two people were swallowed up by their shadows on the ground.

Then the shadow quickly shrank back to its normal size, as if nothing had happened.

In the very first second of darkness, Murphy curiously activated his spiritual insight.

The surrounding darkness seemed to writhe, slowly contracting and expanding like a living thing, with layers of darker shades flowing around it.

What surprised it even more was that this darkness inexplicably exuded a sense of life.

"What kind of creature's body are we inside?"

Murphy asked.

From the darkness ahead came the somewhat surprised voice of the Relics Merchant: "You're not as clever as a stone man."

After he finished speaking, he didn't seem to want to hide anything and casually explained, "We are indeed inside a biological organism, or rather, more like an internal product of biotechnology."

You can certainly consider this a legacy from the last era, only this one is rather special.

Our race was lucky to have inherited it; other races weren't so fortunate.

Murphy then speculated, "Are these creatures traveling through some kind of subspace?"

This time, the relics merchant remained silent for several seconds.

After a moment, she spoke again cautiously, "You weren't born in the last era, were you?"

"No, it doesn't."

Murphy's answer was brief: "I know a little about it."

"Judging from what you're saying, it doesn't sound like you only have some understanding."

The Relic Merchant didn't pursue the matter further, but brought the topic back on track, "This can also be considered a type of subspace travel, similar to a cold wave, except that the medium for my method is shadow, while the medium for the cold wave is cold wind."

Whether the relic merchant was deliberately testing him or genuinely believed Murphy to be someone similar to himself, possessing some kind of ancient legacy, remains unclear.

He blurted out a concept that seemed to touch upon the very essence of the cold wave, quite naturally.

Upon hearing this, Murphy's mind raced.

Subspace, medium, cold wave.

According to the Relic Merchants, their current movement relies on a biotechnology that has always existed in the Warp.

The entrance and passage to this subspace exist through shadows.

Shadows are its medium; just as a boat needs water to move, this biotechnology also needs shadows to move.

Let's rewrite that logic.

What about a cold wave?

Is the chilling cold wave really just about the biting wind?

Or is the cold wind merely a medium, just as the shadow is the medium of this subspace? Is the cold wind also a medium of some kind of subspace?

If that's the case, then when the cold wave hits...

Does this mean that a subspace is using the cold wind as a conduit to reach the real world?

And in that subspace, are there also creatures similar to what they are currently riding in?

Even something larger, more terrifying, or more aggressive than it?

After this idea popped into his head, Murphy suddenly felt that the name "Cold Wave" was actually quite fitting.

It's not just a cold wind, but a "tide" that's invading the world.

Using the cold wind as water and subspace as a waterway, it brings about a kind of indescribable existence.

Before Murphy could delve any deeper into this line of thought, the surrounding darkness suddenly began to recede.

The two suddenly appeared in front of a large pit.

After Murphy stood still, his first feeling was that the sense of space had suddenly expanded.

Everything in front of it was so large that it momentarily gave it the illusion that it had shrunk.

It raised its head and carefully examined the place in front of it, which the female orc called the "ruins".

This is a huge pit, so big that you can't see the other side from this side.

The pit is irregularly shaped, with layers of sand and rock collapsing downwards at the edges, forming natural steps.

The depths of the pit are pitch black, with the bottom almost invisible.

After staring at the darkness for a few seconds, Murphy had the strange feeling that the darkness was also staring back at him.

It turned its gaze back and carefully examined the edge of the pit.

Beneath those layers of sand and rock, buried by wind and sand, there are occasionally a few exposed metal surfaces.

In some places, a curved section of pipe was exposed, its diameter large enough for several people to walk side by side:

Occasionally, one can also see a large expanse of flat metal panels, on which one can still faintly see a few lines of numbers that have completely faded.

Then, Murphy's gaze fell on something at the edge of the pit. To his surprise, it wasn't a tentacle, but rather an arm.

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