Time passed by second by second, and in nearly half an hour, Te Ye had almost circled the base of the iceberg.
Karl's hands were already somewhat stiff from the cold.
Just as Te Ye himself was beginning to doubt if it was an illusion, he rounded to the leeward side of the iceberg.
The ice surface here was no longer jagged protrusions or deep fissures.
Instead, it was… an indescribably flat area.
This “wall” was seven to eight meters high and over ten meters wide, embedded within the massive iceberg.
Its surface was covered with thick, opaque snow and ice, but the edges were remarkably straight, forming a stark contrast with the surrounding naturally formed ice walls.
“Karl! Zoom in! Focus on this spot!”
Te Ye’s voice suddenly rose, filled with unbelievable excitement and tension.
He ignored his frozen fingers and began to vigorously clear the loose snow and thin surface ice from this “wall surface.”
As he worked, a smoother, slightly darker “wall surface” was exposed.
This was definitely not naturally formed ice! It had a cold, hard metallic luster, yet it wasn't pure metal.
Most importantly, in the lower-central part of the “wall surface,” a large, slightly concave circular area was faintly visible, seemingly surrounded by some unidentifiable geometric patterns half-hidden by ice and snow.
“My goodness…”
Karl gasped, the camera lens firmly locked onto that “wall.”
“What the heck????????”
“A door???? A door in the iceberg????”
“These lines… they’re too regular! Definitely not natural!”
“It’s special effects, right? I don’t believe it!”
“Quick, call the people from the camp! Streamer, be careful!”
“Prehistoric civilization? Alien base? Is the live stream about to witness history?!”
The live stream chat was instantly flooded with question marks and exclamation points, and the number of viewers surged exponentially.
Te Ye’s heart pounded, his adrenaline soaring.
He turned back towards the camp and shouted, “Hey! Guys! Come over here! Quick! Drop what you’re doing! Bring your gear! We’ve found something incredible!”
His shouts echoed across the vast, empty ice plain.
The team members, busy working or on alert in the camp, all looked up. Seeing Te Ye and Karl excitedly waving their arms and pointing towards the iceberg, they immediately realized the seriousness of the situation.
Billy and Mike quickly grabbed their weapons and, with the other team members, ran towards them.
A few minutes later.
A dozen people gathered in front of this massive “door” embedded deep within the iceberg. Beams of powerful flashlights swept back and forth across the cold “door panel,” and everyone’s faces were filled with shock and disbelief. The cold wind seemed to have lessened, leaving only heavy breathing and heartbeats in the surroundings.
“What… what in the world is this thing?”
Mike murmured, his fingers lightly touching the cold surface. The sensation was strange, like both metal and some kind of extremely hard amorphous Materials.
“I don’t know, but it’s definitely not something left by an Antarctic research station,” Billy said, examining the edges. “It’s completely embedded in the ice. Looking at the age of this ice… My God, how long has this thing been here?”
Te Ye took a deep breath, suppressing the turbulent waves in his heart.
He faced the camera, his voice filled with an unprecedented seriousness and excitement: “Friends in the live stream, do you see this? This is absolutely not a natural creation! We may have… discovered an entrance that has been frozen for countless ages… a secret hidden beneath the glacier!”
He turned his gaze to the massive “door,” particularly the concave circular area in the center.
He reached out, mimicking what he’d seen in movies, and tried to feel around the indentation, looking for any protruding switches or holes.
No reaction.
He then tried to push the door with force.
The door didn’t budge, as if it were one with the iceberg.
“Damn it, is it just decoration?”
Te Ye was a bit impatient. He couldn’t help but strike the “door panel” around the indentation with his thickly gloved fist a few times, following a rhythmic pattern he thought might be significant.
“Thud… thud-thud… thud…”
The sound was muffled, yet exceptionally clear on the silent ice plain.
Just as he finished his last knock and pulled his hand back—
Buzz… click… click-clack-click-clack…
A low, faint, but incredibly clear mechanical whirring sound, as if coming from the deepest part of the iceberg, or perhaps from inside this massive “door”!
Immediately after, a faint blue glow suddenly lit up along the seams of that tightly sealed, massive “door panel,” which had been perfectly integrated with the iceberg!
The blue light flowed like it was alive, outlining the clear contours of the door frame.
Then, accompanied by a heavy, ancient-sounding grinding noise, that massive “door” actually began to slowly move inward!
Between the door and the ice wall, a deep, absolutely dark fissure was rapidly widening!
The cold wind picked up ice crystals from the ground and howled as it poured through that crack, making a wailing sound like ghosts.
An indescribable smell, a mixture of extreme cold, ancient dust, and a strange metallic scent, emanated from within.
“It’s opening!!!” Te Ye exclaimed, his voice changing pitch.
“!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”
“Oh my goodness!!!! It’s opening, it’s opening!!!”
“Amazing special effects!!!! (But I know it’s not!)”
“Holy crap, holy crap, holy crap! What’s inside?!”
“Streamer, run! It’s dangerous!”
“The signal’s going to be lost! There’s definitely no signal inside!”
“A historic moment!!! Go in and see!”
The live stream chat went completely wild, the server almost crashing from the overload.
Billy and Mike and the others reacted extremely quickly, chambers clicking as they loaded their guns the moment the door began to open.
A dozen gun barrels were uniformly aimed at the widening dark fissure, and strong flashlight beams eagerly shot in, trying to dispel the darkness that seemed to swallow everything.
The cameraman, Karl, instinctively kept his lens firmly focused on the entrance.
The fissure grew larger and larger, eventually forming a dark passage wide enough for several people to enter side by side.
The space behind the door seemed exceptionally vast; the flashlight beams shot into it like a stone sinking into the sea.
Only a few meters around the entrance could be illuminated—the ground seemed to be some kind of metal grating, covered with thick dust and ice crystals.
Further inside lay absolute, heart-pounding darkness.
The cold wind howled as it poured in, but brought no echo.
It was like an abyss leading to the Earth's Core or another world.
Te Ye stood at the very front, his heart pounding so hard it felt like it would leap out of his throat. He held a powerful flashlight in one hand and gripped his pistol tightly in the other, his knuckles white from the effort.
He looked back at his equally tense team members, then at the camera, his face a mixture of immense fear and uncontrollable desire to explore.
“Guys…” His voice was dry from tension, yet carried a resolute determination, “Are you ready? Let’s see… what in the world is hidden behind this door!”