The man snatched the head, his heart wild with joy. He prepared to force Daechir to reveal the location of the treasure right now, lest there be complications later. "What are you doing?" Daechir cried out, seeing the man holding an iron rod to her head.
"Speak! Where is the gold hidden here? If you don't tell me, I'll smash your head."
"This isn't what we agreed on!"
"I don't want to wait anymore. I want the gold now," the man screamed, waving the iron rod in his hand. "Dad, you..." Before Sonita could finish, her mother covered her mouth. "Don't talk. Let your father handle it." Daechir now only had one eye left. It wouldn't be easy for the man to kill her, but destroying her only remaining eye was certainly possible. "I told you, only a robot can pass through that place. I wasn't lying. The passage is narrow and five kilometers long, you can only crawl through. Are you sure you can do it?"
"Don't try to trick me. If it's five kilometers, how could that girl get the gold coins so quickly?" the man said, pointing a finger at Yurina.
"She's a robot. It's entirely possible for her," Daechir explained.
"Then take us there. We'll judge for ourselves whether we can pass through."
Daechir fell silent for a moment, then nodded in agreement. Yurina said nothing and led the way. When they arrived at the main hall of the passages, she stopped and said, "Qiqi, you take command from here."
"We'll go through passage number nine," Daechir said.
After walking for two kilometers, they came to the large stone door again. Seeing the words "Trespassers Will Be Killed," the man looked down at the head in his hands and asked, "Is this the way in?"
"If you want to die, you can go in this way."
"Dad, check if there are any mechanisms on those words. Maybe someone wrote this deliberately to scare people," Sonita reminded him.
Daechir was shocked to hear this; it seemed this little girl was indeed very clever. The man followed his daughter's advice and actually went to try.
When he touched the character for "killed," he found it was a bit loose. With a hard pull, the entire character came off, revealing a red button inside. Just as he was about to press it, Daechir urgently shouted, "Don't press it!"
"Why?" the man couldn't help but ask.
"If you press it, all of us will die here. Please believe me, this is not the entrance at all."
The man immediately became indecisive and turned to ask, "Sonita, what do you think? Is she lying to us?"
The moment the man had removed the character, Yurina had already run far away. Sonita became vigilant. "Let's not try it. It might really be dangerous."
Daechir secretly breathed a sigh of relief. She wasn't bluffing. If the red button was pressed, a giant boulder from above would fall, crushing everyone in front of the stone door into meat patties. This button was designed to punish those who thought they were clever. Following her directions, they turned right and walked another two hundred steps. "Stop! It's around here. Look carefully, on the left wall at a height of about one meter, there's a drawing of a parrot wearing a straw hat. Press it lightly three times in a row, and the entrance will open." A moment later, Kit exclaimed in pleasant surprise, "Look, is this the pattern?"
"Try pressing it!" the man said.
"One, two, three!" Kit counted as he pressed, as if afraid of making a mistake. With a clang, a very narrow entrance appeared on the wall not far away. "Is this the hole? It's so small," Kit asked.
"Yes, this is it. Once you pass through this tunnel, you will reach the gold warehouse," Daechir replied.
"I just went in through here to get the gold coins!" Yurina further confirmed. She wanted to trick the man into going in. As long as this thorn in her side was gone, the others posed no great threat to her.
"Dad, let this woman go in first. We'll follow behind so there won't be any danger."
"Alright, you go in first," the man roared at Yurina.
Yurina hadn't expected her words to bring trouble upon herself. She now had plenty of energy; if she fought back, she wouldn't necessarily lose, but it could result in mutual injury. It seemed she could only endure it. She glanced at Daechir, made a face at her, then got down on her stomach and crawled forward. The man handed the head to his wife. "You all wait outside. If by any chance I don't come back, leave this place immediately."
"Dad, be careful," Sonita said with a worried expression.
"I want to go in too!" Kit said, scrambling to follow behind Yurina. Daechir wanted to stop him, but on second thought, she decided against it. These people had come here, and sooner or later, they would be executed. Yurina stopped up ahead to wait for them and called back, "Can you guys hurry up? You're slower than a girl like me."
After crawling for over five hundred meters, Kit was panting heavily. The man had already caught up to his rear. "Hurry up, don't block the way."
"Let me rest a bit. How much farther is it?"
Fearing they would give up, Yurina lied, "Just hang in there, we're almost there!"
"Five kilometers so quickly?" The man grew suspicious. "Are you sure you're not lying?"
"Do you want to give up halfway? Suit yourself." Yurina said and continued crawling forward.
Kit and the man had no choice but to follow. One after the other, they crawled for another seven hundred meters. "Why aren't we there yet?" This time it was the man who asked.
"Almost there!" Yurina replied.
"How many times have you said that? How much farther is it really?" the man said angrily.
"If you have the energy to complain, why don't you keep crawling?" It was pitch black in the tunnel, and Kit was beginning to regret it. He wanted to crawl back, but the hole was too narrow, making it almost impossible to turn around. He could only keep moving forward. It was only now that he believed Daechir hadn't been lying; this passage was not meant for humans to pass through. The man, however, found it increasingly difficult to breathe. Just then, a series of laughs suddenly echoed through the tunnel. Yurina's voice said, "You two can take your time crawling here. I'm leaving now. Good luck to you both."
"Don't go!" Kit cried out. But Yurina left without looking back. She was going to seal the entrance ahead, trapping the two men to die in the tunnel. An hour and a half later, she finally crawled out. Even as a robot, she was exhausted; she must have used up at least half an energy sphere. She rested for ten minutes, moved a rock to block the entrance, and packed it tight with sand and dirt. After doing all this, she returned to the corridor with the graffiti and then walked out of the large stone door. The two men in the tunnel, seeing Yurina leave, hurriedly crawled for another three hundred meters. Kit, in the lead, heard a thud as his head slammed hard against a wall. The man behind him asked, "Why did you stop?"
"It seems like there's no way forward. It's a dead end."
"That's impossible. If there's no way, how did that girl get out?"
"I'm not lying to you. There's really no path. I even hit my head on the wall."
"Why would this happen? Is there a fork in the road here?" the man muttered to himself.
Kit didn't hear clearly and asked, "What did you say?"
The man gave an irrelevant answer, "It seems we've been tricked. That damned woman, I'll definitely kill her when I get out."
"What do we do now?"
"We can only retreat and then find another exit!"
"Okay, let's go back." The two were talking at cross-purposes, their understanding completely different. The man wanted to find another exit to continue forward, while Kit wanted to return the way they came. Between money and life, he chose the latter.