Alien Relic Hunter.

Chapter 272 Closed Loop (4000 words chapter)
The three people who followed also came up, and when they saw the explosives and detonators, they also showed expressions similar to those of Ke Lan and the other three.

"Is this ice passage a closed loop? We made a circle inside?" Qin Zhao guessed.

"Impossible... This ice road is very straight, and I can hardly feel its curvature... If it is a circular structure, it will be a long distance to go around, and we are walking now The distance traveled is only a few hundred meters." Layton shook his head again and again, "And, if it is a closed loop, then where did the underwater channel we came out go?"

"No, Layton, I think what she said makes sense." Ke Lan walked to the crack and squatted down, "The underwater passage appeared out of thin air, and it is normal for it to disappear out of thin air. As for this ice passage Whether it is straight or curved, there is actually a very simple way to verify it.”

As he said that, Ke Lan turned on the laser sight on the front of the pistol, and a red laser shot out towards the front of the ice road... But what surprised everyone was: the laser that was supposed to go in a straight line turned out to be within tens of meters The outside bent to one side strangely, and finally a circular light spot was reflected on the ice surface on that side.

"In fact, this ice road is a circle, but our senses are distorted by some imperceptible force... The weirdness I felt just now should come from here." Ke Lan said.

At Ke Lan's suggestion, everyone walked a little further, and as expected, the section of ice road covered by egg cases reappeared, and they also found traces that Layton had cut with a circular saw.

"The same goes for going backwards." Ke Lan said, "This ice road is not long, but it has no end."

"So, we just came out of the nine stone chambers, and we were trapped again." The hound took a deep breath, and tugged at the harness belt on his body a little irritably.

"No, there is a third way."

"You mean..." the hound gasped, "isn't this too crazy? Are you sure?"

"What else? Let's continue to circle in this ice passage?" Ke Lan said, "I think that hand... is one of the clues left by the designer of the ruins. Under the ice is the A real outlet."

"But... but, what if... I mean, if, if we bump into that hand, that monster... we're going to die, what... how about...?" Martin strained He shook his head and said, his word order was quite chaotic, and his fear was palpable.

Ke Lan looked forward, and the ice road extended into the shadows that were hard to reach. The darkness seemed endless, but they all knew that as long as they walked forward, they would return to this origin again in a short time.

"But we have only one way to go." Ke Lan said.

Among the nine stone chambers, the stone platform and the people caught in the nightmare are the introduction of the first clue. Following this introduction, Ke Lan and the hunting dog discovered the secret of the stone chamber's moving track, and obtained the "double-moon internal eclipse" key. The first clue... And in this circular ice passage, the hand under the ice and the cracked ice surface are obviously the introduction of the second clue.

Even if there is no exit below, there must be clues related to the exit.

In the old era, a famous Russian playwright said a famous saying: "If the script of the first act says that there is a gun hanging on the wall, then in the following plots, this gun will definitely be used by others." strike."

…Otherwise, it wouldn’t make any sense for this gun to be written.

Judging from the design of the nine stone chambers, Ke Lan has roughly figured out the idea of ​​the "designer of the secret chamber" - the other party pursues the ultimate introduction, and everything that appears in the environment is indispensable in the decryption process important factors, and the facts are indeed as he judged: in short, everything that appears in the secret room must be "useful", which naturally includes the one that is sealed under the ice. palm.

The only thing that breaks this logic is the egg cases of those red meat worms, those things...

No, not right!Ke Lan suddenly shuddered, those egg cases were also a part of the secret room... An hourglass hanging upside down couldn't help but appear in Ke Lan's head... These egg cases...they are timers!When the countdown is over, the bugs in the egg case will be hatched, and the entire circular ice passage will be "cleaned up"!
Thinking of this, Ke Lan immediately raised his head to look at Layton, and asked, "What is the temperature in the ice tunnel now? Is it hotter than before?"

"Hey, Ke Lan, don't tell me that I haven't noticed it yet. The temperature seems to have risen a lot compared to before. I thought it was because our clothes were dry..." Layton said, glancing at the clothes on his body. An instrument for measuring temperature, "When I first came out of the underwater channel, I remember it was minus four degrees Celsius... Tsk, it has actually become minus two degrees Celsius now? It has risen by a full six degrees? Huh? It has risen by another degree, and it has changed. It's three degrees Celsius..."

"Sure enough!" Ke Lan gritted his teeth and told everyone what he had just guessed.

For a moment, everyone's faces turned ugly again.

"...It seems that this is the only way to go." The hound sighed, "When the temperature rises to a certain level, and the worms in the egg cases hatch... Those Alpha people who designed this ruin are really him. Mom is not a thing, now it’s all right, even starving to death has become a luxury.”

"It's best for everyone to be mentally prepared. I guess, except for the stone room at the starting point, there should be a time limit for each of the next 'levels'." Ke Lan said, "We can't go on like this any longer. You have to act now!"

……

The team went back to where the rift was.

Even though the frightening hand had disappeared, it made the darkness under the ice deeper, and an indescribable oppressive atmosphere spread in the team.

According to Ke Lan's request, Layton first removed the explosive detonator set on the crack, and then used the nino alloy circular saw to expand the crack on the ice surface little by little—compared to sticking between egg cases. Those ice balls were much harder, and a series of sparks burst out the moment the blade touched the ice surface. At the same time, a harsh noise like fingernails scraping a blackboard at high speed filled the ice road.

Ke Lan stared at the cracks on the ice, watching the circular saw digging into it little by little—if it was a saw blade made of other materials, those blades would have been scrapped long ago.

Layton put two more energy-filled crystals into the engine, and immediately the circular saw became faster, and the sparks shot out even splashed onto the top wall of the ice tunnel.

Several tripods were disassembled from Layton's mechanical arm, and each tripod has a suction cup at the end, which is firmly attached to the ground, while his other hand is firmly grasping the mechanical arm. A pull ring on the upper end of the arm, press the circular saw down firmly.

Hearing the sound of the blades rubbing against the ice, the hound felt irritated for no reason. He scolded and pulled out two balls of cotton wool from the damaged part of the winter clothing, and stuffed them into his ears.

The vibration of the tooth blade was transmitted along the ice surface, and even the people standing on the ice felt this tremor, but at this moment, Layton's wrist suddenly sank, and the tremor disappeared without a trace... …

"I've sawed through...there's nothing under the ice!" Leighton shouted.

He said again: "The piece of broken ice that I sawed off fell, and there is a passage underneath... It's a shaft drilled in the ice!"

"So... that thing was clinging to the wall of this shaft before, and then fell down again?" The hound dug out the cotton wool in his ears, "Is that right... If this thing can really stay Free movement in ice denser than steel is fucking unscientific."

Not only the hounds, but other people in the team, including Ke Lan, felt some of the pressure in their hearts relieved after hearing the news: Although in the ruins of the Alpha civilization, many things cannot be grasped by humans at all. It can be explained by scientific principles, but when a seemingly weird thing suddenly becomes in line with scientific theory, it can still bring a little comfort to people-at least, this thing must obey the most basic laws of physics, then It means that the "means" extended based on these basic physical laws can have an effect on this thing.

If it is really a monster that can walk freely through the ice layer that is denser than steel, then Ke Lan and the others can almost lose all the guns in their hands—they can ignore these solid ice, that bit of alloy What kind of threat can the warhead of the material pose to it?

"In this case, the same should be true for that big eyeball." Layton nodded and said, "There should be a specially reserved space for it to move in the ice layer, just like the track under a mobile surveillance camera."

"There are extremely complicated structures inside these ice layers, and they are not as solid as we imagined at first..." Ke Lan glanced at the bowl-sized ice cave that Layton sawed open, and pondered.

This time, their conversation did not avoid Qin Zhao and Martin. After hearing what Layton said, the former immediately grasped the key word in it and asked, "Big eyeball? What? Eyeballs?"

"It's better that you don't know about this." The hound pouted, "You little girl seems to be quite courageous, but I'm worried that another rookie will be scared to death."

Qin Zhao couldn't help but glanced at Martin, and the latter trembled like a frightened bird: "What, what?"

"Nothing." Ke Lan shrugged and said to Qin Zhao: "If you want to know the things we mentioned, you can consider jumping to our hunting group. Of course, the premise is that we can leave here alive."

"Your hunting group?" Qin Zhao was taken aback for a moment. In her impression, Ke Lan's team should be composed of a group of senior hunters with free identities, and there is no such thing in the exploration records of the A-087 ruins. Speaking of the hunting group they belonged to, could it be that they have been recruited by a certain hunting group during this period of time?
"The hunting group we formed ourselves is consortium-level, which is a level higher than Polaris." The hunting dog said with some pride, "Of course, it has not yet officially entered the file, and is currently performing qualification certification tasks."

"Qualification certification task? Is that why you come to the bottomless sinkhole?" Qin Zhao asked again.

"Yes, well, let's not talk about this for now, time is running out, Layton, can you measure the depth of the shaft with a laser range finder?" Ke Lan said.

"Well, I'm measuring." Layton said, and a crimson laser shot downward at an angle completely perpendicular to the ice surface... However, Layton's expression became weird after a while.

"What's going on?" Ke Lan asked.

"Sh... the laser seems to have been swallowed." Layton replied hesitantly, even he himself was a little confused about what happened.

"The laser was swallowed?" The Hound rubbed his huge hooked nose vigorously. "You mean there's a black hole underneath? How is that possible?"

"It doesn't have to be a black hole," Ke Lan shook his head, "Maybe there is some device that can interfere with light, or in other words, what is interfered is not light, but our senses—like this 'seemingly straight' The same as the circular ice tunnel."

"Then what should we do? We don't even know how deep it is, so why don't we just jump in?" The hound said anxiously. He turned his head and glanced at the direction where the ice passage was close to the egg case concentration area.

"Layton, how many degrees has the temperature risen?" Ke Lan asked.

"Six degrees above zero," Layton replied.

"Lee...the average temperature in that place is eight to eleven degrees Celsius, and the temperature in the mine is relatively higher, about fifteen degrees Celsius... Now this temperature should be very close to the temperature required for the hatching of those bugs, and we can't wait." There are so many, let’s expand the gap first.”

As he said that, Ke Lan pulled out a folding ice ax from his body, inserted the front end of the ice ax into a crack, and began to strike with the handle of the pistol as a hammer.

As for Layton, he simply pushed the circular saw outward along the previously cut rift, expanding it as much as possible.

"Oh, don't worry, it's better to fall to death than to be eaten by bugs anyway." The hound groped in the equipment bag for a while, took out a hatchet, and hammered the ice surface one after another.

Although these ice cubes are as hard as iron, the fine cracks inside them are constantly increasing. Finally, when the hound swung the hand ax five times and smashed it down, only a "click" was heard, and those fine lines suddenly spread When it opened, the originally translucent ice layer was suddenly covered with white cracks, and it became like a piece of tempered glass that had been hit hard.

"Dangerous, step back!"

Ke Lan yelled, and he pulled the hound quickly back out of the range of the crack. On the other side, Layton also put away the support in time, and he jumped back a big step.

With a "wow", the shattered ice fell into the deep well, and a circular wellhead with a diameter of about two meters appeared in front of everyone.

(End of this chapter)