Alien Relic Hunter.

Chapter 421 Assessment: Investigation Task (4000-word chapter)
"Assessment? What type of assessment?" Ke Lan asked. Although he was extremely unwilling in his heart, he still failed to say the word "rejection".

"One should live from the heart and follow one's own heart..." Ke Lan could only comfort herself in this way.

"The membership assessment is divided into five stages. In one stage, you must complete the tasks assigned to you by the crew." The other party replied.

"Task?"

"Yes, the first mission is an exploration mission. After completing it, as a phased reward, you will be awarded the rank of major general of the field force and the authority corresponding to the rank." After the other party mentioned the rank, Ke Lan remembered that in the After returning from the glacier ruins, Lieutenant General Maginot had a reason to save them and added them to the military.From a certain point of view, Ke Lan and others are actually active soldiers on the ark, but they don't need to perform any duties, and there is no direct commander who issues orders to them.

Because the sense of existence of this military status is so weak, Ke Lan almost forgot all about it.

But now, he only needs to complete one exploration mission, and he can be directly promoted from private to major general. Is it the legendary "rocket" promotion?

Ke Lan even felt that using "rocket" to describe this speed was a bit too slow, and it should be a "jump" promotion.

Jump directly from a soldier to a general... Even if he is a bare-bones commander who doesn't have any troops under him, but the corresponding authority is real, and he is a major general of the field troops. In this way, Ke Lan can almost be on an equal footing with Maginot.

This is the default rule of the Ark military - although the military rank is the same, the general of the field force has more "gold content". The authority and treatment of a major general of the field force are basically the same as that of the lieutenant general of the garrison force.

"This task won't be very difficult, right? To be honest... I've only seen this kind of promotion speed posthumously awarded to the dead... and only those heroes who sacrificed their lives for the survival of the Ark and mankind can be promoted from within a day. Will the little soldier become a general? The content of this mission is not to ask me to be that kind of hero, is it? I think it’s okay for me to be a bear. As for the hero, it’s really..." Mingming was very nervous, but Ke Lan shot a series of The nonsense words - but it's strange to say that when he entered this state, his mentality suddenly became calm.

Anyway, if it's a big deal, it's just a fart, and it's understandable to be bad, right?
"A week ago, the Ark's garrison base in the 'Molten Mine Area' lost contact with us. We sent eleven batches of reconnaissance drones, but due to the interference of high-intensity ionizing radiation in the mining area, none of the drones could succeed. Enter the target area. Then, we sent two more elite teams into the mining area, but there was no news."

Molten Mining Area, the place name Ke Lan is no stranger - if there are any things in the Alpha civilization that have had a huge impact on human beings' current technological development and daily life, then the two things of energy crystals and Nino alloys should do their part. Rank one, two or two.

As large as the ark itself, various cutting-edge warships; as small as the means of transportation used by ordinary people when traveling, and the guns touched during military training... These two things can be seen almost everywhere. With the continuous increase of "total mining", Energy crystals and Nino alloys have almost completely integrated into the history of human civilization.

And the status of this molten mine area among the main production areas of Nino alloy is at the same level as that of the skeleton of Leviathan.

This is the largest mining area of ​​the Alpha civilization on this planet. Although this mining area, which is equivalent to a small European country on Earth, has only a dilapidated ruin, there are still a large number of smelting facilities that can still operate. and Nino alloys stored in warehouses that have not been shipped out of the mining area.

Almost [-]% of the Nino Alloy currently held by humans comes from the "Molten Mine Area".

According to the buildings, equipment, astonishing reserves of finished Nino alloys left in the mining area and a large amount of rough ore, experts speculate that this is the place where Alpha civilization smelted Nino alloys. Master the formula and smelting technology of Nino Alloy.

This mining area has always been a place frequently visited by relic hunters, exploration teams of various consortiums, and metallurgical experts—unlike Leviathan, which requires miners to mine manually, the finished Nino alloys in the mining area are stacked in batches in warehouses Here, as long as hunters or exploration teams can find a warehouse in the magma, gravel and ruins that has not sunk deep into the ground, it is easy to get rich overnight.

Of course, this place is far more dangerous than Leviathan's Skeleton. If you accidentally fall into the magma or step on a dark pit, it will be difficult to leave even a complete corpse.

As for those metallurgical experts, they are more interested in the building wreckage and smelting equipment left by the Alpha civilization. At least more than 200 people's expert teams are stationed here. They have built a "metallurgical research station" here, specializing in Research the formula and smelting method of Nino Alloy.

At the same time, these experts often hire relic hunters who come here to explore, and go into the depths of the mining area together, trying to find some valuable clues from the relics that are closer to the central area.

Coincidentally, the map "End of the World" that Ze Luo randomly picked up in the game just now was designed based on this "Molten Mining Area".

"Is this going to ask me to find someone?"

"Yes, but other than that, the drone has captured traces of 'heretical sects' and 'exiles' on the outskirts of the mining area. If encounters occur with them, the exploration mission will automatically be transformed into an extermination mission." The other party said, "as Support, we will send an additional elite team and a DAS field agent team to go to the mission area with you."

"Wait... If I remember correctly, in addition to those researchers and logistics personnel, there are at least two thousand regular troops in the garrison base in the Molten Mine Area, right? In addition to mobile relic hunters and mercenaries Bing, the armed forces in that place are at least more than 3000 people, and these 3000 people have been wiped out, let me take this few people, isn’t that delivering food?”

"It is not yet possible to determine whether there are survivors, or it may be that the communication has been cut off and the base is intact-according to our speculation, the chance of survivors in the mining area is 100%."

"The problem is, there is no news that the people outside have gone in, and the people inside have never come out? If something happens, why don't these thousands of people concentrate their efforts and try to escape from the mining area? Even if they are not aware of the problem, the daily What about the team that transported the minerals? No one was able to get out of it, which already shows the seriousness of the problem!"

"I think you shouldn't send me there, but you should send a fleet directly!" Ke Lan continued.

"If you can confirm that there are a large number of enemy units in the molten mine area, we will send a fleet there, but before that, the content of the assessment task will not be changed."

"..."

"There is one more thing I need to tell you. A week ago, a strong earthquake above magnitude [-] was detected in the core area of ​​the Molten Mining Area. The connection between the stationed base and the Ark was cut off after that. Based on the information we currently have, Heretic sects do not have weapons that can cause the same destructive power, and the reason why their traces appear on the outskirts of the mining area, their purpose should be consistent with your mission here."

"You mean... the earthquake caused the rift in the molten mine area to extend, and then a rift spread to the location of the garrison base, and the whole base fell into the magma?" Ke Lan couldn't help thinking "Shard East" and "Shard West" in "End of the World" - This area was originally a city named "Capitol City", but a strong earthquake completely destroyed the city, and a huge earthquake appeared because of the strong earthquake. The Great Rift Valley divided the Capitol City into two "fragments" on the east and west, and the buildings in the rift valley all fell into the magma underground.

The unfinished building that Ze Luo killed was not actually an unfinished building. A four-storey small building, half of the small building fell into the lava river, and the other half stood on the edge of the cliff.

"I can't be sure, but the loss of contact must be directly related to the earthquake, so it is necessary to send someone to investigate." The other party said.

"But... the site selection of the garrison base should be very rigorous, right? Even if the earthquake zone cannot be avoided, it should not be built in a place where surface cracks will spread? For geologists, it must be located in such a large area. It shouldn’t be a problem to find a few safe places in a mining area, right?”

"It is currently impossible to confirm whether the garrison base has been damaged, but the communication has not been restored so far, which can prove that they should be in trouble and urgently need Ark's assistance."

"Okay... when will we leave?" Ke Lan sighed, and the other party showed that he didn't have the right to refuse, but if the stationed base encountered a natural disaster instead of a man-made disaster, things might not be so bad...at least Ke Lan didn't have to I am worried that after entering the mining area, I will run into a heretic sect army composed of thousands of erosion seeds.

"The leader of the DAS special agent team should have arrived at your headquarters building." At the same time as this sentence jumped out on the screen, a hound's voice came from outside the office: "Ke Lan, the front desk called to say that there is a security guard." The agents of the bureau are looking for you, and the documents have been confirmed, should we let her come up, or should you go down to see her?"

"Let her wait for me in the reception room." Ke Lan replied, after all, Ze Luo is still here, if she is asked to come up, she might notice something special about this girl.

Ke Lan turned around and found that his computer screen had returned to normal, but there was a new folder on the desktop.He clicked on the folder and found that it was full of information related to this operation, including the map of the molten fire mine area, the information of the stationed base, the list of people who lost contact, and the monitoring data of the earthquake, etc. It can be said that it is necessary to As detailed as possible, it is almost equivalent to opening up to him all the things related to the Molten Mine in the Ark archives.

"It saves me the cost of asking that profiteer to buy information..." Ke Lan stood up muttering, and told Ze Luo, "Just stay here, don't wander around until I come back", then opened the door and left go out.

……

When Ke Lan walked into the reception room on the second floor, the woman sitting on the sofa immediately stood up and extended her hand towards Ke Lan.

"Mr. Ke Lan, hello, I am the leader of the third DAS field agent team, Aya Breya, agent number DAS1152."

She was a slender woman, aged between 25 and 30, wearing a beige sweater and a pair of scrubbed skinny jeans, her blond hair cut to chin length, her face With a gentle and friendly smile on his face—if Ke Lan hadn’t known her identity, he would have been unable to connect such a woman with the image of a “big sister next door” with a murderous DAS agent .

The two held hands briefly and then separated. Although Aya's dress was completely different from the agent in Ke Lan's impression, in her palm, Ke Lan still touched a few places where only people who often use firearms would have calluses.

"Hello." Ke Lan nodded to her, "What would you like to drink? Is coffee okay?"

Back then, when Ke Lan dealt with DAS agents for the first time, the unbeaten investigator gave them coffee, but at that time Ke Lan didn’t have the mind to drink it at all, and those cups of coffee were also used in the later fights. Among them, it was sprinkled all over the place.

"Okay, please put more non-dairy creamer and sugar." Aya said with a smile. Her reaction made Ke Lan feel a little relieved. Since there is still time to drink coffee, there should be no time limit for this assessment task. So nervous that they don't even have time to prepare.

"Mr. Ke Lan, I actually knew you a long time ago." For some reason, Aya suddenly said such a nonsensical sentence.

"It's very early? Does it mean that I beat up the investigators of your Security Bureau on the transport plane?" Ke Lan's mouth moved, and a wry smile was pulled out. He put the coffee in front of her and said self-deprecatingly, " My brain circuit is relatively simple, and I don’t like to waste my words on things I can do. In addition, I have a bad temper, so I should have caused a lot of trouble for your security bureau at that time, right?”

"No, not that time, I mean the incident in the East Ninth District." Aya shook her head, "Victoria, she is my senior sister and one of my most respected seniors... When she died in the line of duty, you should be there next to her?"

[PS Thanks to Aunt Yanzhiye for the 6000 starting point coin reward, here I wish the old auntie’s wedding goes smoothly; thank Xu Ditai for the 500 starting point coin reward; thank Zhengyi Zuo Daxian for the 100 starting point coin reward. 】

(End of this chapter)