Shiller quickly jumped onto Professor Dale, rummaged through his pocket for the map, spread it on the ground, then pointed with his paw to the place where he marked the mountains, and then pointed towards the front.
Professor Dale's eyes widened, he said, "You saw the mountains? Over there? How is that possible, the mountains are supposed to be..."
He paused for a moment, then said, "Could it be that we went the wrong way? But how is that possible? We clearly followed the compass."
Shiller shook his head, clearly these direction-finding tools were no longer reliable. It might be the blizzard's influence, or maybe there's something wrong with the magnetic field here, but vision may not be reliable either; perhaps it is just a mirage.
The situation they are facing now is: moving forward might lead to nothing, turning back could also lead them further away. Physical strength is limited, and if they don't find a way out before supplies run out, they are doomed. This is when the leader needs to make an accurate judgment.
"I am thinking about something," Professor Dale said, "if we are lost, can the sailors find their way out?"
It was obvious that Professor Dale wasn't having a burst of goodwill, worrying about others when he couldn't ensure his own safety; it was just part of his thought process.
"The sailors might be trapped too," Professor Dale said, "it's just that they might be encountering such a situation for the first time. From my understanding of Bob, they might choose to keep moving forward."
"And if the blizzard misdirects the equipment in opposite directions, we're moving west, and they're moving east, then they should be able to see the entrance of the valley. Among the sailors Bob took, those who climbed the mountain with us, if they saw the entrance of the valley, they would definitely feel that it's not right and know they've gone the wrong way, so they would return to the base."
"When we set off, the sailors had already been traveling for a day. From the base to the valley and back to the base actually takes only a little more than half a day. That means, if they really went the wrong way, we could wait for the returning sailors."
"But what if they sensed something was wrong and instead of returning to the base to report, they headed straight for the ship?" Professor Dexter asked.
He obviously had no good feelings about these sailors and could only speculate on the worst-case scenario for them. Professor Dale thought for a moment and said, "They shouldn't. Because if they realize they've gone the wrong way, they'd understand that the direction-finding equipment is no longer functional. Without direction-finding equipment, they can't accurately find the ship. Even if it's to replace the equipment, they would come back."
"Or could it be..." Dexter's student David paused for a moment, "they were attacked in the storm, and that's why they couldn't return."
"If there's something that could attack humans in the blizzard, they could have attacked us when we hadn't built the door a couple of days ago," Professor Dale said, "spotting a moving team in the blizzard and finding our base would be just as difficult. If some monsters had such sensitive senses, they wouldn't ignore a base with open doors."
They no longer avoided terms like monsters, as everyone present now understood that this blizzard was abnormal, fundamentally not a natural phenomenon, thus the existence of monsters was not impossible; escaping in fear was meaningless.
"The only possibility is that we haven't actually gone the wrong way, it's just that something is obscuring our senses, preventing us from finding the entrance of the valley," Professor Dale said, "You must have heard that when walking in the snow for a long time, one might get snow blindness. Although we have trained and all have polarized glasses, if there is a mysticism influence, our vision could still be disturbed."
Little Superman tilted his head, not quite understanding what was happening, but he still tried to think. The black mountain he saw was ahead, so moving forward should be correct, and there might be no need to find the entrance of the valley, right?
Shiller actually thought the same way, he was well aware that the black peak wasn't actually the highest peak of the South Pole, it was most likely a mystical phenomenon, not necessarily existing in the real geographical mountains, while the last time they explored was clearly a real mountain, previous experiences did not apply to the black mountain.
But Shiller was not sure if Professor Dale wanted to go to that black mountain, or maybe he just wanted to explore nearby, so he pointed to the black mountain on the map again and looked up at Professor Dale.
This time Professor Dale didn't understand him, he picked him up and stared into his eyes, Shiller let out a cry, climbed onto his shoulder, and pointed his paw in the direction of the black mountain.
"You mean we go in that direction?" Professor Dale had no choice but to begin using the exhaustive method, and all the students were looking at Shiller hopefully, they really hoped these magical cats could determine the direction.
Shiller shook his head again and pointed to Professor Dale himself.
"You mean I can determine the direction?"
Shiller shook his head again and pointed in the opposite direction.
Professor Dale thought in silence for a long time, then said, "You mean, it's my decision which direction to go?"
Shiller nodded and then shook his head, reluctantly, he jumped onto the snow and started writing with the mechanical arm. Although the mechanical arm was very flexible, it was still quite laborious to write, so Shiller only wrote one word plus a symbol: "Mountain?"
Professor Dale suddenly understood, he said, "Are you asking if I want to go to that mountain?"
Shiller nodded vigorously, and Professor Dale thought briefly and said, "I do want to go, but can I really go?"
Shiller also paused for a moment. In the original story, they went by plane, so the distance might be quite far. Walking would not be easy, but heading in that direction should lead to some discoveries.
Shiller looked up at him and nodded slightly. Professor Dale didn't hesitate much and said, "Then let's go."
They no longer paid attention to the entrance of the valley, but walked in the direction Little Superman saw the mountain. With a clear goal, the psychological pressure wasn't as strong, even though the blizzard was still obscuring their vision and they couldn't see the outline of the mountain. Still, it seemed like everyone believed the mountain was there.
After walking for more than an hour, although they still couldn't see the mountain's outline, there were faint strange shadows in the distance. They looked like buildings but were quite small, somewhat resembling Inuit houses.
Walking in that direction, as they got closer, everyone gradually became somewhat uneasy because those things were very orderly. They weren't naturally formed mounds or hills but resembled some kind of structures.
This was an area no one had ever set foot in before. Surviving here was already very difficult, so there couldn't be any indigenous people or buildings. The animals here also didn't have the ability to construct nests of this scale, so the closer they got, the more terrifying it became.
Those orderly protrusions finally revealed their true form in the eyes of the people: they were one pentagram after another standing upright in the snow.
Upon seeing the specific shape, everyone's heart tightened. In this era where religion was prevalent, everyone knew that an inverted pentagram represented a demon. Some young students began trembling.
Professor Dale's breathing became slightly rapid, but not out of fear. He had anticipated what they might encounter here; he was just a bit nervous and even somewhat excited. The unknown world was opening its door to him.
"Let's put down the equipment first," he said, "and set up a temporary camp here."
"Here?" The students were a bit hesitant. They were already very close to those pentagrams. Although the terrain here was higher, allowing a full view, the distance was so short that if a monster really came out, there would be no time to run.
"Right here," Professor Dale insisted, "set up the tents first, then we'll go over and take a look."
Dexter silently went to work. He was always silent and diligent. It didn't take long before he had set up the tents and started a fire. With the fire, everyone felt inexplicably courageous. The students were figuring out how to make torches, thinking that if any monsters appeared, they might be afraid of fire, as creatures living in year-round cold might be.
After a brief rest, Professor Dale prepared to set off, but Dexter suddenly spoke, "Put out all the fires."
Some geology students were puzzled. Professor Dexter explained, "If we bring back some biological samples, we must ensure that they remain in a state of extreme cold, without thawing. Otherwise, if the ancient bacteria and viruses escape..."
The students hurriedly put out the fire, even stomping it all down, afraid there might be any embers left. They were terrified of melting the ice that stored ancient viruses, knowing that humans do not have antibodies for those ancient viruses and bacteria. If they were spread, they would become the sinners of all humankind.
The group hurried towards the pentagrams, descending a small slope and arriving in front of them, realizing how large they really were, no wonder they were visible on the horizon. Strangely, the outer layer seemed to be loose snow and ice. They chipped at it with ice axes, finding the outer layer was ordinary ice, but the inner part was ancient ice layers, which were too hard to dig through, requiring equipment.
They also brought a super drill, although it was a portable one. This drill could be handheld or set up. Considering safety, Professor Dale decided to set up the drill on top of the pentagram, letting it slowly drill downwards.
They climbed up to set up the equipment while the kittens stayed below. Shiller looked inside the ice layer but couldn't see anything. He knew what lay within, but he didn't intervene rashly. As always, in such an environment, the tribes that grow up will find their own way out. There is no Savior here, nor is one needed.
Shiller had already prevented the worst-case scenario, and how to deal with these mysterious exists is up to humans to decide. Fortunately, without the rash Reck, they now have options.
With the sharp whirring sound of the drill, a series of exclamations came from above, followed by Professor Dexter's angry roar: "Stop! Stop now!!"
"God!!" Even the usually unemotional Professor Dale was filled with surprise in his voice, "What is that?!... What is that?!!"
"Come up! Quickly come up!" A student poked his head down and shouted, "Cats! Come up quickly! You won't believe what's in here!!"
"Are they... are they human?"
"No, that's impossible, humans don't look like this!"
"Could they be aliens?!"
"It's possible they're aliens. We've dug up aliens!"
Accompanied by the students' exclamations, the twisted and bizarre figures inside the ice layer revealed their true forms. It was a huge monster, seven feet tall, with a barrel-like bloated body. There were several pairs of eyes on the head of the pentagram, and below were starfish-like tentacle limbs, quietly staying in the ancient ice layer, like a specimen frozen in time.