17 Mysterious Signal

8 hours later.

Miles kept his stamina and energy under control for the last couple of hours. The Blizzard Wolves were determined to kill him and weren't giving up. They cut more than a hundred trees and forced Miles to enter the inner area of the Insect Kingdom, making it harder for him to survive.

From the outer area of the forest, where most low-tier beasts lived, Miles had stepped foot into more dangerous territories. The inner zone consisted of more territorial middle-tier insects with some high-tier monsters residing as well. On his way, Miles passed by monsters of all shapes and sizes. His presence then became noticed. They attacked him with each passing. However, before they could do so, they got blasted into smithereens by ice spikes. All of them ended up dead, thanks to the collective strength that the wolves had displayed.

A silver lining existed. That is, the wolves wanted Miles dead by their doing. Any other beasts that dare to attack would be pierced with holes.

Miles didn't know whether to laugh or cry, but the path he was taking forced him to the borders of the inner area.

The inner area of this forest is considered uncharted.

When a group of cartographers were reported to have not returned, stronghold officials gathered a search party to investigate the last known location of the missing mappers. They scour high and low, but in the end, no remains nor personal items were found. The higher officials waited for their return of findings. None came back. Thus, beyond the last known site became officially unexplored, which was suspected to be connected to the mountains of F-Circle and were considered highly dangerous.

Miles was about to enter the uncharted lands thanks to wolves driving him.

"What are we going to do? If we were to enter the uncharted zone, we would have no hope. I would rather fight against wolves and die." Miles had enough running.

"Calm down. We still have hope if we enter it. Fighting against them will be certain death." Coin appeased him and was searching the database he had about the place. After all, he was a 'Portal World encyclopedia. "There are some strange phenomena that have happened here before, but there is no clue. Everyone stepped inside and died before they could send a message."

"That put my mind at rest, gee, thanks, Coin." Miles rolled his eyes.

"You're welcome, Miles. Anytime." Coin replied.

"I was being sarcastic. I even rolled my eyes." Miles rebuked.

"I know. I like to tease you." Coin ruthlessly answered back.

Miles jumped to another treetop when the one he was standing on started to fall. He quickly leaped to another, and was close to being a smoosh to the ground.

The deeper he gets, the darker the forest goes. The trees were getting higher and higher.

Miles didn't know how much further he could go, but chances were getting slim. This part of the forest wasn't a joke. Even though it was still in G-Circle, if people have died, it only means powerful monsters are living here.

Miles looked all around himself to find a safer location. If not, a solid object. A steep mountain or big piece of rock would prevent wolves from climbing and would give him a rest. Even though he was more durable than his peers thanks to the Strengthening Serum, he was feeling exhausted after eight hours of chase.

However, the wolves were obstinate. They chased him without a break. If one wolf gets tired, they would switch shifts and continue to pierce through trees.

Not long after, Miles was deep inside the uncharted zone. He could see a mountain from afar and sprinted in that direction. At least, he could manage to arrive at the foot of it, a place where he could rest.

When he was close to the mountain, the wolves suddenly stopped chasing.

Miles looked down and saw the wolves snarling at him and looking at the mountain dreadingly.

He hoped for them to go away, but they kept their distance while snarling at him. They weren't targeting the tree either. As if they were sour of him moving forward towards the mountaintop.

"You don't want me to go to the mountain?" Miles asked the wolves with a shout.

"Awoooooo, woh-oh-oh-oh-" They howled back at him.

"What is there that makes you so dreadful?" Miles pondered.

"We should go and take a look." Coin said to his earpiece.

"Are you out of your mind?" Miles didn't know what to say, "Even these damned wolves are afraid to go there. We should be as far as we can from that cursed mountain."

"I am receiving a strange signal, from a cache perhaps, with a foreign system up there." Coin said with uncertainty.

"Are we going to be safe? You know even Form-Rank hunters died there. I think it is all related to that mountain." Miles asked to be sure.

"Positive. I am sure it will be safe." Coin answered.

"How are you so sure?" Miles asked, he trusted Coin more than anything, but he was acting mysterious right now.

"The signal has the same language as me." Coin finally spilled the beans.

"What!?" Miles got dumbfounded.

It was a simple sentence, but the meaning was a giant boulder fell on top of Miles.

What surprised Miles the most was encountering the language he was searching for a long time. It was this mysterious language that allowed Coin and Miles to meet in the first place. Coin was a unique existence, and its coding language had no match in the records. At the time, even Mother AI or the head scientist couldn't figure out where this language came from. Miles never thought to see it here.

Miles tried to create a face recognition system before, but he wasn't able to create one. He then chose to hack into the minor government facility. At the time, he realized although Coin was lacking in hardware, the language had its advantages against one in the facility.

It was at that moment that they finally found a clue about this mysterious language.

"What does the signal say?" Miles asked.

"Come, my child."