Alien Relic Hunter.

Chapter 435 Inscriptions and Distress Signals (4000-word chapter)
"Let me take a look." Layton took the piece of leftover material, stared at the octagonal hole for a few seconds, then shook his head, "The so-called 'rough processing' is actually to use a high-power laser cutting machine to Irregular-shaped Nino alloy ingots are cut into alloy bricks that are easy to transport... In terms of the physical properties of Nino alloy, it is difficult for ordinary tools to stay on it except for those heavy equipment and ultra-high temperature furnaces on the ark. left traces."

"For example, have you seen this Nino alloy bolt on my mechanical arm? It is necessary to refine the machine to achieve this precision...and this octagonal hole is as accurate as this bolt of mine." Layton continued, "If it is said that this is a material recovered from scrap parts, then it is still It makes sense, but the question is...was this thing cut from an ingot?"

"Could it be the traces left by the Alpha civilization when it processed Nino alloy? With their forging equipment, it shouldn't be difficult to do it." Ke Lan speculated.

"This should be."

However, when Ke Lan picked up another long piece of leftover material, he found that there was still a string of clear inscriptions on it—this is neither the writing used by humans, nor the writing of Alpha civilization... "Look at this ...This text, I don't think it looks like the text of the Alpha civilization!"

Hearing what Ke Lan said, the facial expressions of Hound, Ivan and the others suddenly changed slightly, and they immediately surrounded them, focusing their attention on the leftover material lying in Ke Lan's palm.

"Do you think these characters don't look like the characters of the Alpha civilization?" The hound gave Ke Lan a meaningful look. Among the few people present, except for the agents in Valentina and Aya Breya's group , They all know Ke Lan's ability.Now that Ke Lan has said so, it can only show that the inscription on this leftover material is neither the text of human civilization, nor the common alpha text in the ruins.

"Is it a relic of a third-party civilization? Besides us and the Alpha civilization, has another civilization appeared on this planet?" Ivan said.

"I don't think these Nino alloys are all smelted by the Alpha people. These inscriptions should be inseparable from them. I prefer that this is a kind of ciphertext or an ancient text that is rarely used... just like the early days of human civilization. Like the ancient oracle bone inscriptions and cuneiform inscriptions, these inscriptions are very different from the inscriptions we use now, and most people, except those who specialize in the study of ancient inscriptions, cannot distinguish their meanings." The hound shook his head, "Ke Lan , have you studied that ancient text?"

"I read a few related papers when I was bored." Ke Lan said with a wry smile, "I don't know more than twenty ancient characters of human civilization, let alone the ancient characters of Alpha civilization."

Ke Lan paused suddenly, and then said to the others in an almost joking tone: "But I always feel that these words do not belong to the Alpha civilization."

He bit the accent on the word "feel" a little, but if he didn't deliberately distinguish it, it would be difficult to detect the hidden meaning in Ke Lan's words.

Ke Lan once explained to the Hound and others how to read Alpha characters—unlike human characters, the characters of Alpha civilization cannot be translated directly with human language logic. Whether it is language or characters, these information carriers seem to be A very special method like encryption, only a specific "decoder" can read the meaning.

And the information instilled into Ke Lan's mind is the "decoder" for these words.

It's a pity that so far, Ke Lan can only "use" this "decoder", but cannot decipher its working principle.

The difference in difficulty between these two things is like the streets full of magic apprentices and great magisters whose names can be recorded in history in fantasy novels.

The former only needs to wave the wand and say a specific spell to release the spell; while the latter needs to create new spells by studying the origin of the world, the essence of magic power, the sequence of elements, and the phases and reactions of different elements ...

Everyone can use a mobile phone, but there are very few people who can make a mobile phone.

With this "decoder", Ke Lan can "read" the text of Alpha Civilization no matter how it changes, but this time, the "decoder" did not show any response to this string of inscriptions.

Although the characters of human civilization have undergone earth-shaking changes in appearance during the course of thousands of years of development, their core logic has not changed much. Almost all ancient characters can be translated into modern characters without hindrance. The meanings are basically the same - and the ancient texts of Alpha civilization should be the same, but in Ke Lan's eyes, the difference between this series of inscriptions and Alpha texts is as huge as the difference between Alpha texts and human texts .

This difference is too great to be explained by ancient text or cipher text. This is a completely different and brand-new language system—Ivan’s guess is not wrong. This string of inscriptions comes from a third-party civilization!

But the question is—why do the characters of the third-party civilization appear on the creations of the Alpha civilization?
Could it be that there was any intersection between these two civilizations?
Ke Lan has already talked about this, and those who know it naturally understand that these characters do not belong to the Alpha civilization. Only the agents of the Security Bureau are still working hard to check the files, trying to find similar texts from the vast sea of ​​Alpha text rubbings. character of.

"These things don't help our mission, right?" Aya Breya glanced at her subordinates who were staring at the screen, feeling a little speechless, "Even if this is a clue related to the new civilization, we are now It should also be put aside and the task should be completed first.”

"You're right." Ke Lan nodded, but when an agent subconsciously wanted to take the box of leftovers, he moved a step differently and stood in front of the other party, "If I I remember correctly, the things found in the wilderness, except for important documents and technological equipment, belong to the discoverers, right? Even if the Security Bureau wants it, they have to spend credits to buy it, right?"

"That string of inscriptions, isn't it an important document?" Aya asked.

"Forget it. But don't forget, I'm still the commander of this reconnaissance team. I'll take care of the exploration gains temporarily. That's okay, right? As for how to divide the loot, we should put this matter aside and wait until the mission is completed." , Let’s talk after returning to the ark?” Ke Lan quickly returned to her what Aya Breya had just said.

"Team leader...According to the regulations, it seems to be really like this..." The agent turned his head, glanced at Aya, and suddenly found that his immediate boss, who was usually known for his good temper, had an expression on his face at this time. It is said that it is difficult to see the extreme, and it feels like it will go crazy afterward.

"...Okay." Aya Breya stared at Ke Lan for more than ten seconds, then gritted her teeth and nodded vigorously, "You are right. But next time, please don't use 'split' I don't like that word."

Both of them returned to each other what the other had just said, but there was a big difference in momentum.

"If you don't count the spoils, then this thing should be calculated at the standard purchase price? It's all ours—" the hound rubbed his hands, "Hey, if this is really a third-party civilized text, this But it’s the first time I found out that the purchase price must be used as a unit of 'billion', right?"

"The value of this thing will be judged by the people in the research institute, and it has nothing to do with me." Aya snorted coldly, and walked away with the weapon in hand.

"Continue to search the area around here, and pay more attention to your feet. Although the cargo compartment of the truck fell into the rift, there may be something scattered on the ground when the truck overturned. Keep your eyes bright and don't accidentally step on the value. Billion baby!" The hound yelled in the team channel—just when Aya Breya walked away, Ke Lan deliberately cut into the one-on-one communication channel and said a word to him—

"I think this string of inscriptions has an inevitable connection with the earthquake."

"Where did you see that?" the hound asked immediately.

"Intuition... Every time I have such a strong intuition, the things I sense are very accurate. I can't be sure if it's pure luck, or because of the small movements that the stone tablet made in my head " Ke Lan replied.

The hound wanted to ask some more questions, but Ke Lan had already switched the communication channel back, so he had no choice but to give up.

But he didn't doubt one thing - Ke Lan's intuition was indeed accurate.

But he couldn't figure out why this string of inscriptions could be linked to this earthquake...

Scraps like this cut from the billet may have been lying in this box a few months ago, and the driver just needed a chance to bring them back to the Ark for sale—if the scraps were an earthquake It was hot out of the oven that day, and there was probably a slight relationship between the two things before, but it was clearly written in the truck's mission record that this batch of Nino alloy had been "roughly processed" half a year ago. It belongs to the "inventory" that has been accumulated in the stationed base and has not had time to be transported away.

"I can't figure it out..." The hound patted his helmet, but at this moment, there was a faint "beep" sound in his ear.

His first reaction was that he had broken his helmet... After two seconds, the hound realized that the "beep" sound was a general distress signal on the ark.

"A distress signal! I received a distress signal! This direction!" The hound immediately yelled in the team's communication channel. He turned around in a circle, and after confirming the direction from which the distress signal was sent, he quickly walked over there. ran over.

"The special agent team stays where it is, and the others follow. Ivan, prepare for rescue. There may be someone alive this time!" Ke Lan said. He also received this weak distress signal after running more than ten meters away. The chances of survival for those who sent the distress signal are not optimistic, but at least this is the first distress signal they have received since entering the molten fire mine area.

"Valentina, occupy the commanding heights, Akira Asano and Layton, you are in charge of the left and right wings, Zoligetu and Ivan follow me - and the old dog, come back to me, this is a general distress signal, except for those at the base In addition to being used by survivors, people from heretic sects will also use it."

"I know!" The hound replied. After running nearly a hundred meters in the direction of the distress signal, he lay down behind a stone half as high as a person, and began to observe the situation ahead with the scope on the gun.

"Drop the drone, pay attention to the height, don't exceed 50 meters, otherwise it will be locked by the air defense system in the mining area." Ke Lan squatted down behind the boulder and said to Layton.

"Understood." A drone with three pairs of horizontal rotors flew out of the backpack behind Layton—in addition to the mechanical snake, he also carried several different unmanned detection equipment.Although the remote control radius in the Molten Mine Zone is only a pitiful 200 meters, it is completely enough for a reconnaissance team of this size.

At least, in terms of safety and concealment, drones are much better than traditional "meat detectives".

Directly ahead is a "hilly area". Of course, the hills here do not refer to the hills in the conventional sense, but the special landform where two rock plates collide and squeeze each other, and the junction is undulating in waves.

The originally flat ground is now like a "swimming ring" squeezed out of a fat man's stomach, layers of folds are piled up, and there are cracks emitting high-temperature gas and toxic fumes everywhere between the folds. If you are not careful, you will slip into the abyss filled with magma.

"The source of the signal... is right here, hidden behind a certain fold..." the hound murmured, "The survivors... I look forward to it."

[PS Thank you for the 500 starting coins rewarded by Xiean. 】

[The concept descriptions in the recent chapters of PPS may be a bit confusing. This is limited by the fact that the author himself is ignorant (has suffered from lack of education) and his professional level is extremely low, so he cannot use that kind of very precise and academic words to describe a whole A brand-new language that is completely different from human language logic, resulting in some "concepts" giving people a very vague feeling.There are also such problems in the early chapters of this book, which I really can't solve (after all, it is too difficult to describe something that does not exist in reality, even if it is a creature in the Cthulhu mythology, They are all changed and pieced together based on the creatures that exist in reality.), for the sake of easy reading, everyone just treats this thing as a kind of magic——

Although my original intention was to move the language of Alpha civilization closer to machine language, but considering that with the current level of human technology, deciphering machine language may be more convenient than deciphering natural language, so I gave up. 】

(End of this chapter)