Chapter 682: Chapter 426: A Lonelier Wait【7400-word Super Large Chapter】_1

Hammersley Ridge is located in the southwest of the Australian continent, bordering the ocean, covering a vast area and stretching for 260 kilometers.

The mountain range is crisscrossed with tall peaks and deep ravines.

Over a thousand years ago, this place used to be an essential iron ore base, providing more than 80% of Aukland’s iron ore.

At that time, the vegetation in Hammersley Ridge was sparse, with only some tenacious meadows struggling to grow.

But now, although the landscape remains unchanged, the vegetation has changed dramatically.

The upper part of the mountains is covered with thick vines that reach hundreds of meters in length.

The vines are like dragons, the broad leaves resembling fans, the stems with diameters ranging from one meter to several meters in width.

Fine roots are densely poking into the ground from different parts of the vines, like centipede legs.

The vines intertwine with each other, covering the peaks, dominating the ecosystem.

This is a plant that Harrison Clark had never seen in the 21st century. It’s likely a new species that appeared due to some dominant mutations after climate change.

The middle part of the mountain range is mainly occupied by extremely stout trees.

The tree roots are exceptionally thick, even the thinnest requiring dozens of people to encircle, with diameters reaching hundreds of meters and heights ranging from hundreds to thousands of meters.

The tree canopies expand like umbrellas, layer upon layer, overlapping like broccoli piled up in a basket, making it nearly impossible to see the traces of ravines from the top down.

If it weren’t for the fact that Harrison could scan the terrain through the spaceship’s detection equipment, he might have mistaken the tree canopy as flat ground to land on.

Considering Morrowind No.1 had no protective shield and might be damaged if forced to stop directly inside the ravine, he first stopped at the top of the mountain. He then put on his new combat suit, picked up a knife and a fission shotgun, and wore a backpack before stepping out of the ship.

The backpack contains a microwave oven-sized metal box.

The box is a mini biological battery power supply that Harrison completed with great effort, mainly for powering his “toy” gravitational wave scanner, as well as a fist-sized mini-computing server.

He first enjoyed a synthesized quark meal, then pressed the button on the side of the metal box behind him. With the sound of metallic clicking, two arm-thick mechanical arms sprang out from the box, extending more than a meter upward.

A 17-inch LCD screen hung in between the two mechanical arms.

With a click, the mechanical hinge holding the screen bent once, then a second time, positioning the screen at an angle about half a meter in front of Harrison’s eyes, making him look like Adonis with a scholar’s box on his back.

Harrison pressed a few buttons on the screen, and soon, a 50-meter diameter spherical space appeared in the display, the scanner’s imaging readout.

The wearable portable integrated detection-assist device was declared a successful development!

Oh, no, just a successful assembly.

But that’s not all, he turned around, and a large metal box was being lowered by Morrowind No.1’s mechanical arm.

Opening the box, it was filled with colorful metal constructs – wearable equipment he had assembled in his spare time.

Putting them on one by one, within five minutes, he transformed into a punk-style mechanical warrior.

Harrison briefly tested the jet engines on both sides of his waist, hovering slightly in the air.

Great, with the support of the auxiliary artificial intelligence algorithm, his flight was stable, and changing direction and speeding up was very responsive.

Once ready, he walked down the slope, diving into the dense, indescribable jungle.

The deeper he went, the darker the sunlight in the forest.

Even though it was noon, the sunlight couldn’t penetrate the foliage.

No wonder these trees grow so tall; they wouldn’t even get a sip of sunlight if they didn’t reach higher.

The ecological environment in the forest is complex; apart from tall trees, the ground is also covered with countless large and small plants.

Some are as tall as ordinary trees, while others are variously shaped shrubs.

These low shrubs tendrils that hardly get any sunlight do not have large leaves.

As for their source of nourishment?

One look at the branching of the tendrils and it’s clear – they all grow onto the giant trees.

If not for the visible breaking of the tree barks where the tendrils puncture them, Harrison would have mistaken these small plants for the roots of the giant trees.

Besides the vegetation, the valley is also home to a diverse and varied range of animals.

There are giant wolves with eyes that can’t fully open, relying on ultrasonic location. There are black bears with natural luminous pupils like two large flashlights on their heads. And there are black-scaled snakes that move swiftly on the ground, almost as fast as mice.

These animals are highly aggressive and rushed straight at Harrison as soon as they detected his presence.

Harrison was grateful for his wearable equipment, which allowed him to fly over the threats. Otherwise, he would have had to kill his way through, exhausting himself, let alone searching for any traces of humanity in the valley.

He also lamented the loss of the high-precision gravitational wave detector.

While he had the parts, his skills were limited, and he simply couldn’t repair it.

Otherwise, relying on the performance of the Galaxy Battle Armor from the previous timeline, he could have floated in the air, scanned the area, and then comfortably waited for Star to analyze the results.

Half a day later, the sky outside was gradually darkening. But for him, there was no difference, as he had already reached the bottom of the valley, where the world was pitch black and nothing could be seen.