Chapter 616 - Unique
Hao Xuan stared at his hand that had white bones showing in a few places, his right eye twitching like crazy. Waves of prickly pain ran up his arm and towards his brain stem, which he could feel much more intensely right now for whatever reason.
"Warning! Hazardous Materials Detected!" a second later the warning came.
Hao Xuan grit his teeth with such strength that it sounded like a grindstone churning in his mouth.
"Really?! Hazardous materials? I had no idea! Where is it?! Tell me where this "hazardous material" is so I can maybe not PUT MY FUCKING HAND THROUGH IT?!"
*Beep*Beep*
Two beeps sounded one after the other and Baracus spoke up with newfound fervor.
"It is illogical to blame me for your own mistakes."
"You robot piece of shit!"
"Technically, I'm just an AI as of this moment. Robotics is another branch entirely which I have yet to step into. But please do not feel bad about differentiating between the two, your "human limitations" are known to be quite..."restricting" in more ways than one."
If this were a cartoon, Hao Xuan would have already popped several blood vessels due to the sheer anger and annoyance he was feeling right now. But due to his superior physique and him not being a cartoon character, 'Twas not meant to be.
"I swear to god, I will make a body for you and put you in there just so I can strangle you whenever you pull stunts like this, mark my words!" he said through gritted teeth, "Close this damn wound!"
Baracus chose not to respond and silently guided the nanites to Hao Xuan's hand where they got to work, repairing the damaged tissues and sterilizing the open wound.
Pain receptors were naturally blocked during this process which allowed Hao Xuan to keep his sanity and re-examine the space in front of him.
From where he was standing, there were only white clouds in front of him. And the reason he could see their color was because there was a lot of 'natural' light here.
Hao Xuan took a step forward and stood at the edge of the rock formation, peering downwards. The ground was not visible through the several layers of clouds so he picked up a small pebble from nearby and dropped it, listening for the sound of it hitting the ground.
One second, two, three...before he realized, about a minute had passed at which point he stopped counting and focused all his senses. Sometime later a barely audible 'plop' sound came into his ears.
"....how deep is that?" Hao Xuan mumbled with a stupefied expression.
He was just keeping track of time which he failed at too. Thankfully, Baracus quickly spoke up, saving Hao Xuan from the trouble of recalling the mathematical formulas he had learned almost a decade ago.
"If the gravitational acceleration is the same as at the surface, the distance to the ground should be approximately 7,162 meters."
"?!"
That was a stupendously large drop, and this far underground? Considering even the white 'fumes' he just touched ate away at his flesh in less than a second, jumping in blind was not a good idea.
"Can you use one of your gadgets to find out how big this space is exactly? Or see what is down there?" Hao Xuan pinned his hopes on the entity he just threatened with physical assault.
"Of course, unless there are restrictions placed around the space that prohibit such measures, it is far too easy to undertake something this straightforward."
Before Hao Xuan could say or do anything, he felt the nanites congregating in his chest. He unbuttoned the shirt and saw millions of tiny lights surrounding his heart in a circle. They pulsed with his every heartbeat getting brighter and brighter, building up to something.
"O-Oi, what are you-" as usual, before Hao Xuan could finish his query an inaudible soundwave exploded out of his body.
His shirt was shred to bits and all the clouds in front of him were pushed back as well.
Hao Xuan staggered back, what little was left of his shirt fell to the ground "Can you fucking warn me for god sakes? I could have taken it off....Woah!" he started complaining and cursing but stopped midway upon taking another look at the space.
The clouds had been cleared up enough for him to be able to clearly see everything that was down there, and boy was there so much to see.
Hao Xuan was standing on the edge from where he could see an entirely different world down there. He could see a huge mass of land surrounded by a shimmering body of green and blue liquid. The landmass was covered in lush green vegetation but it was so big that its end wasn't visible, but that was partially due to the enormous mountain that blocked the majority of his vision.
A single mountain stood in the center of the landmass, reaching all the way to the top and piercing the clouds.
Baracus's voice came into his ears along with a series of notifications on the top left of his vision.
"Multiple lifeforms detected!"
"Atmosphere detected!"
"Unique biological strains detected!"
"Multiple energy sources detected!"