Mermaid Reef

Northern Caucasus Mountains, 1960.

Between the rolling hills, you can see a large area of ​​highland meadows.

The green field is vast, and the gray-white stones are scattered on the hillside. It is difficult to distinguish whether they are herdsmen's sheep or rocks.

There is obvious snow accumulation on the leeward side of the higher peak, and the strong wind blows up a thin ice mist, which quickly melts on the fingertips as soon as it is picked up by the hand, leaving only a little cold water droplet.

Juan couldn't help but shrink his neck and pull the collar of his clothes a little higher.

"Hurry up, hurry up."

An impatient urging came from behind.

Juan lowered his head and walked quickly to a Russian at the front of the line.

This man was in his fifties, with rough skin and a tall build. His face was full of anger, and he forcibly held back his anger.

He looked back at Juan and said in a low voice, "I'm sorry, Juan, I didn't think..."

"Mr. Terekin, it's not your fault."

Juan shook his head, he suspected that his luck was as black as mud.

Look at what has happened in the past two years!

Get a great job, join Dr. Mara's team as they excavate the former pirate capital of Port Royal, and then are forced into a time-travel escape.

Resigned and left Jamaica, depressed, decided to go to the Apennine Peninsula to visit the ruins of Pompeii... It was so unlucky, the town that rested halfway was affected by the power of evil gods, and lost memory for half a month, fighting wits and courage with the air, making jokes Not to mention, I tossed myself exhausted.

After using a compass to witness the splendor of Pompeii in Rome, the relaxing journey is over, and Juan returns to reality and must face a real and cruel problem.

He ran out of savings and needed to find a job.

Originally, this was not a difficult task. As an excellent surveyor and field survival expert, Juan can receive several sincere job invitations every year. In addition to the scientific expedition team, some privately funded adventure treasure hunting teams offer remuneration Also very rich.

However, treasure hunting adventure teams are often involved in disputes over the theft of cultural relics and destruction of relics, and Juan would refuse such invitations.

Juan's moral character is not so noble, he chose this way only for a very simple reason: fear of death.

Is it news that treasure hunters cannibalism?No, this plot in novels and movies is almost worn out.

Not to mention precious cultural relics and rare treasures, even a box of gold may cause a fight.

Especially those privately funded adventure teams often have to smuggle and go deep into the dense forest to find some unimaginable things, sometimes it is a rare flower, sometimes it is a pagan indigenous tribe, it is said that it can prolong life, but basically It's all nonsense to fool the rich and powerful.

After getting in touch with the mystery, Juan understood that it might not be nonsense, but the power left by the evil god or the evil god's family.

This made Juan more determined to throw such invitations into the trash.

You can't get into a well-paid job, so what about a formal scientific research team?

Juan did not dare to go either.

He kept in touch with his colleagues and knew that in just half a year, seven or eight scientific expedition teams had accidents.

These teams all have a common feature, funded by a certain country's government, to explore a certain natural wonder or temple ruins.

Juan is not an ordinary person who is ignorant and ignorant. In connection with the blood moon vision last year, he immediately thought of the reason: the governments of various countries are trying to find the mystery, eradicate or use this power.

But human fear comes from the unknown.

Hans said in his dream that this kind of fear will not be eliminated with the increase of knowledge, but a wider and more unimaginable world will be discovered. Human greed cannot be turned into a boat to carry humans forward, and it will only be driven by endless The sea of ​​darkness completely swallowed it.

Human civilization has been groping in ignorance for thousands of years, which is not enough, it needs tens of thousands of years or even 10,000+ years to develop slowly.

Just like those huge dominating creatures lying in the strata, the group needs to live on the earth long enough to evolve and evolve...until the human body and will can barely bear this power.

Certainly not now, just to die.

So Juan searched for a long time, and finally through the relationship with the introducer, he became an assistant to a famous archaeologist.

This Mr. Terekin is Russian and works as a professor in a French university.

Teaching students will never be in danger!

As a result, within the second week of Juan's arrival, the accident happened.

A group of people broke into Terekin's house, killed the maids who tried to yell, and kidnapped them by force.

They were blindfolded and packed into a black car.

The anesthetic gas made them lose consciousness, and when they regained consciousness, they were already on an international freighter and held separately.

The freighter crossed the Black Sea, entered the Caspian Sea through the canal, and finally arrived in West Asia.

Now, as soon as they got off the helicopter, they were driven to a tent on the hillside by heavily armed soldiers.

The tent was huge and empty inside.

A cold-looking Eastern European came over, and the soldiers who escorted them here saluted. This Eastern European spoke Russian, and Juan didn't know what he was talking about.

Suddenly, a wooden barn was pressed against Juan's forehead.

Professor Terekin hurried over and stopped him loudly.

Juan didn't move.

This kind of thing happened once two days ago. They had just disembarked and were still blindfolded, and Juan was almost killed.

Afterwards, Terekin told Juan that someone was asking why a Latino was brought over.

As for the reason why Juan survived, it was also very simple. Professor Telegin told these people on the night of his kidnapping that Juan was an excellent field surveyor.

Without this sentence, Juan would have been lying in the police station as a dead body with the unfortunate maid.

Another narrow escape, Juan watched as the Eastern European drew up his weapon.

Soon he and Professor Terekin were left alone in the tent.

"Now you should tell me what happened." Juan asked in a low voice.

With a tired face, Terekin said with disappointment: "A month ago, I rejected a job from my motherland. I knew there might be dangers in it, because my friends and students disappeared here. I'm sorry, that It's not simply missing..."

Juan chose to interrupt him and confessed directly: "I know, you are a mystic."

"you……"

Professor Terekin was startled.

Juan watched him silently. As an assistant, of course he had seen the bookshelves in Professor Terekin's house.

Juan didn't care about it before, because archaeologists like to study symbols and ancient characters.But Professor Terekin is different, he does know some occult knowledge.

Juan almost wanted to resign when he discovered the secret, but his dry wallet stopped him.

Now it seems that it is better to resign and beg!

Juan sighed secretly, and then said cryptically: "I encountered some unscientific things in Jamaica, so I left Dr. Mara's team..."

Professor Terekin understood, and the expression on his face became even more bitter. He lowered his voice and said, "Since this is the case, it is easy to explain. This is Mount Arabiaka in Georgia. There are many caves on this mountain. Basically every cave Herdsmen know the location. But last year, a hole suddenly appeared on the mountain, and people living in distant towns heard strange noises at night. It was very scary, like a giant snoring."

"and then?"

"At first there were sheep missing, then it was herders."

Juan couldn't help but said: "The evil gods don't eat people, maybe they are the relatives of the evil gods."

Professor Terekin nodded carelessly, and said worriedly: "No one found the body. At first, it was speculated that the missing person might have slipped and fell into a cave and was trapped, but after searching around, he couldn't find it. Instead, he found that the strange sound came from the newly appeared The cave, my friend is also an occultist, the last telegram he sent me said that there is 'something' deep in the cave, the interior of the cave is very complicated, and there are sideways."

Juan got it.

Just like a space race, two superpowers compete in various fields. If you put in one point of strength, I will score three points.

The Americans have set up a secret department, and the Soviets will also set up a secret agency.

At this time, no matter whether it is an alien or a legendary monster, they only have one idea, that is to catch the living body before the enemy, and then drag it back to study.

This has led to a lot of attention being paid to the mysterious caves found in Georgia.

——Several groups of people may have been sent to investigate, but they couldn't find the way, or they didn't come back at all.

Juan has a headache.

He wanted to wash away his bad luck.

***

There was a faint light in the tent.

Juan's shadow shone on the tent cloth, and reflected the patrolling soldiers and heavy weapon brackets in the camp, as if surrounded by a group of ghosts.

"Wait, what's that sound?" Juan asked suddenly.

He heard an intermittent noise coming from the tent next door.

Terekin listened carefully for a few seconds: "It seems to be a ghost radio station."

"what?"

Juan is not a radio enthusiast, and deliberately stays away from mystery, so he doesn't know this station.

"It's a mysterious radio station that appeared after the blood moon incident last year. Some people can't hear the voice inside, while others can, and some voices can even make people hallucinate." Professor Terekin stood up, opened the tent carefully, and guarded the The soldiers at the gate ordered him to go back.

Taking advantage of this opportunity, Juan has already found the source of the sound, which is a trailer in the distance.

The trailer is painted in camouflage colors, with a tall antenna on the outside and a horn in the front.

"what is this?"

Juan looked puzzled.

Then he felt a slight tremor in the ground.

Terekin turned pale.

"Om-"

A strange sound suddenly appeared on the mountain opposite the trailer, like a dull rolling thunder.

Juan hurriedly closed his eyes, and stretched out his hand to hold down Professor Terekin again.

Even though it was night, Juan didn't want to lose his life in a daze.

Professor Terekin was trembling incessantly.

Juan looked at him in surprise.

Terekin smiled wryly: "I am a mystic who has never been in contact with mysterious power."

Juan: "..."