Illumi looked at the illustration above, his pupils trembling.
"Mobius strip."
Below the text on the last page of the journal was an illustration of two circles, one upright and one inverted, joined together. It was precisely the special symbol on Illumi's arm the Mobius strip.
The difference was that below this Mobius strip illustration, there was also an open book drawn; but the book contained neither text nor illustrations, but a pool of black liquid.
And in that black liquid, something Illumi had never seen before floated. It seemed to be some kind of creature, or another symbol.
Illumi memorized everything in the journal, closed it, and handed it to a Retriever to store in a supply backpack.
After finishing, Illumi then shifted his attention to the walls of the ruins. The peculiar ancient grooved inscriptions were all being recorded by his cybernetic helmet, to be studied in depth upon returning to the company.
"Use the laser device to remove the longevity food [Nitro Rice] from their heads. Not too much, just three portions."
Illumi instructed the Retrievers to begin their actions. Although these creatures appeared harmless, no one could be sure if they harbored some terrifying ability like the Hell Bells.
And even though the V5 organization had labeled the things on their heads as longevity food, he wouldn't completely believe it. The best approach was to take them back for research.
As for why only three portions were needed, it was because one portion would be used as research material, and the other two as spare material.
As for Beyond and his team, Illumi couldn't care less. If they wanted it, they could get it themselves.
"Guguwu~"
Six Retrievers surrounded four of the peculiar creatures. In their panicked expressions, a black cylindrical laser device appeared from the exoskeleton human-assistive prosthetics worn by the Retrievers.
"Shhh..."
The black cylinder automatically aimed at the antler-like structures with flowers growing on their heads. Six crimson laser beams flashed by in quick succession, and the biological tissue on their heads directly fell to the ground.
The Retrievers picked up the fallen [Nitro Rice] and stood up to leave.
The four peculiar creatures stood bewildered. Yellow liquid, thick as honey, which seemed to be their blood, began to flow from the severed antler spots on the heads of three of them.
The yellow blood dripped down their snow-white, clean fur until it fell onto the grass.
"Guguwu~?"
The only peculiar creature that was not injured looked at its three companions whose head tissues had been severed, tilted its head, and chirped.
But strangely, even with their antler-like structures severed, these peculiar creatures showed no reaction, still calmly lowering their heads to eat grass.
"Do they not feel pain, or is the tissue on their heads a part that can be discarded?"
Illumi crossed his arms, looking at them with some curiosity.
"Illumi, did you get the stuff?"
At this moment, Beyond's voice sounded again inside Illumi's helmet. Illumi looked at the scene and replied.
"I got it. If you want some, get it yourself."
After Illumi finished speaking, he directly ended their communication, then turned and walked deeper into the forest, with the others following closely behind.
Ten minutes later, Beyond and his team, along with four ordinary people, arrived at the ruins.
They saw the snow-white, clean peculiar creatures, and they also saw the thousand-year-old ruins here.
However, they didn't know that an exploration log had originally been left here.
"Beyond, these creatures that look like elk, the things on their heads are our target—the longevity food [Nitro Rice]!"
Natalie looked at the biological tissue on the heads of the peculiar creatures, her face revealing excitement. Her gaze swept across the scene, and she saw three peculiar creatures with "bloody" heads.
"Those three must be the targets Illumi and his team chose. It seems these creatures aren't dangerous."
Beyond also saw that these creatures showed no panic even when injured.
Beyond guessed that it was probably because Illumi and his team hadn't caused any harm to these creatures.
"Great!"
Heracles shouted, a excited smile spreading across his tired face. He ran to one of the peculiar creatures, squatted down, and stroked the antler-like biological tissue on its head, saying as he stroked it.
"So much longevity food! If we take it all back, maybe we can directly breed them in the human world."
Heracles's expression was incredibly excited. The moment he saw these creatures, he thought it would be great if he could take them all back directly.
Even taking just two, one male and one female, would be good.
"Don't be silly. Whether we can even go back is a question. And you still want to take these things back?"
Shepherd scoffed as he passed Heracles. He walked to a creature that had no antlers and was eating grass with its head down. He squatted down and took out a petri dish from his backpack.
"The yellow liquid on these creatures seems to be their blood. It's best to collect it for research."
Shepherd collected the yellow liquid from their heads into a petri dish, preparing to take it back for research.
Of course, that's if they could safely return to the human world.
"Ah~!"
Suddenly, a cry of pain attracted the attention of Beyond's group, and also the attention of these peculiar creatures. They all looked up at a female human among the group.
Gina, the physicist, was seen kneeling painfully on the grass, one hand supporting herself on the ground, the other clutching her abdomen, crying out in pain.
"Gina!? What's wrong with you!?"
Tessa immediately squatted down, placed a hand on Gina's shoulder, her expression worried.
"It hurts so much! My stomach hurts so much! It's like something is biting my intestines..."
"Ahhh~!!!"
Gina gasped, screaming continuously, fine beads of sweat constantly seeping from her forehead, her face pale.
"Help me, help her sit against the wall."
Tessa looked up and said to Isaac, who was panicking beside Gina. The two quickly helped up Gina, who was too weak to move, and walked towards the ruins' wall to sit against it.
Rather than "helped," it was more like "dragged."
Tessa and Isaac each held one of Gina's arms, dragging her to sit against the ruins' wall.
"What's wrong with her?"
Beyond's group gathered around Gina and the other two. Natalie asked with a frown.
"I don't know, but her condition is not right."
Tessa's face was grim. Gina was now speechless, her eyes rolling back, her whole body trembling uncontrollably. She was unresponsive to everything around her.
"Rip..."
Tessa directly stripped off Gina's outer jacket, then pulled down the zipper of her inner layer, leaving Gina with only her last layer of camouflage t-shirt.
Tessa focused, scanning Gina's trembling body from top to bottom. Her gaze fixed on Gina's already bulging abdomen.
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