Alien Relic Hunter.

Chapter 653 The Fifth Seat Ke Lan

This is Ke Lan's first time entering the "central core area" of the Ark.

In terms of the number of institutions and the strength of the defense, this place is no less than the core area of ​​any S-level ruins.

Not to mention ordinary Ark residents, even senior officers of the garrison, heads of major consortiums, and even members of the United Parliamentary Group are prohibited from entering the central core area without permission.

Ark’s statement to the public is that the central core area houses a large number of sophisticated equipment related to the daily operation of the ark. In order to ensure that it will not be damaged by people with intentions, the entire central core area must be kept “unmanned” at all times, and all cleaning and maintenance operations must be done. It is completed by the mechanical unit directly controlled by the core mastermind.

Under the guidance of mechanical servants, Ke Lan walked through a corridor that was [-] meters long and made of obsidian, and a door carved entirely of black crystal appeared in front of him.

This door seems to be made of a whole block of black crystal, rather than being spliced ​​out of small pieces of material. At least, there are no traces of splicing on its surface at all.

"It's really extravagant..." Ke Lan said in a low voice, half sighing and half ironic.

"This door comes from an A-level relic, which can withstand the direct bombardment of the cruiser's plasma main gun." Demeter's voice came from the crack of the door, "Since we are here, don't stand at the door, come in."

The mechanical servants stepped aside—Ke Lan quickly figured out what they meant: Except for the members of the Undead Crew, other people or machines are not qualified to open this door.

He let out a laugh in his heart. To put it nicely, this is called a full sense of ritual, and to put it bluntly, it is formalism... I didn't expect that the undead crew would be so pedantic in such trivial matters.

This is probably the commonality of the ruling class...

Ke Lan exhaled slowly, stretched out his hand and pushed open the cold and heavy door.

At the back is a room the size of a football field. In the middle of the room is a long table with 24 chairs—very similar to the round table Ke Lan saw in the ancient bronze city tower. The biggest difference is that the chairs are not wooden carved Gothic high-back chairs, but thick metal chairs full of mechanical feeling.

Most of the chairs "sit" with a faint blue holographic projection, and only three chairs are empty—the chief "fool", the fifth seat "pope" and the No.15 seat "devil".

"Find your seat, and then, take your seat." The person who spoke was the "Tower" Poseidon at seat No.16, a seat beside him was empty, and a demon pattern was engraved on the back of the chair.

This voice was the old male voice that had appeared in the call before. Ke Lan nodded slightly at his projection, found the fifth "Pope" seat, and sat down.

On his left is the fourth "King" Zeus. The holographic projection is a bearded man wearing a crown, leaning against the back of the chair, posing a posture of closing his eyes and resting his mind—using holographic projection to pose this shape, Ke Lan didn't even want to look at him directly, and Ke Lan suddenly understood that his neighbor probably didn't like him as a newcomer. He probably voted against the resolution on his joining the Undead Crew Club. ticket.

On the other side, there is a young woman with charming eyebrows and a charming smile. Her appearance combines almost all the characteristics of Eastern and Western beauties. With a three-dimensional sense, those amorous peach blossom eyes are looking at Ke Lan with a smile—even Ke Lan, who thinks he has a strong immunity to beautiful women, can't help but be born when he sees this face. A strange feeling.

This is just a blue translucent holographic projection. If it is a real person or a realistic CG picture, the visual impact may be even better.

The Undead Crew, the sixth seat, "The Lover", Aphrodite.

Just when Ke Lan's eyes moved to the other members of the crew, the chair behind him suddenly made a clear and crisp mechanical clamping sound, and then, a set of restraints similar to torture instruments had been put on his body. hands and feet.

"Don't be nervous, this is one of the necessary procedures of the Human Council. We need to scan your body information and record it." Demeter explained to Ke Lan.

A small device suspended in mid-air slowly floated in front of Ke Lan, a red light shot out from the lens at the front of the device, swept Ke Lan from head to toe, and then fell into the shadows again.

The restraint on Ke Lan's body was also released, and he retracted into the chair.

"Although a vote has been made before this, everyone still needs to confirm again now." Demeter said, "Whether to accept Ke Lan to join us and become the fifth member of the Undead Crew Club--new' pope'."

Beams of light lit up in front of these projections one after another, green for approval and red for opposition—Ke Lan noticed that there was also a green light on the empty No.15 seat.

This is the result of the previous vote... Ke Lan looked around, and as expected, there was a red light on his left and a green light on his right... As for "Queen" Demeter, "Tower" Poseidon, "Justice" "Themis and "The World" Hermaphrodites, the four members of the Undead Crew Club who had crossed paths with Ke Lan, all voted for it.

"'The Fool' abstained, 'The Pope' was absent, 'Tower' was the proposer of this resolution, his votes in favor were not counted, and there were a total of nineteen votes left, twelve in favor and seven against... So, congratulations— —” Demeter looked at Ke Lan, “Now you are one of us.”

"Do you need me to give a thank you speech?" Ke Lan joked casually.

"No need." Demeter said, "Now, let's start voting on another proposal - 'disclose all the true information of the members within the crew club'."

Regarding this resolution, it is not the first time that the crew members have voted for this resolution. The red and green beams of light once again appeared in front of everyone, but what makes Ke Lan a little strange is that the "lover" who just voted in favor Aphrodite voted against this time.

Just like what Poseidon said to Ke Lan in the call before, among the eighteen beams of light, the red and green colors accounted for exactly half, nine votes to nine votes.

Except for the zeroth seat "The Fool" who abstained from voting and the No.15 seat "Demon" who died, there was only one vote in Ke Lan's hand that hadn't been cast.

柯岚扫视了一圈全场，投赞成票的九人是第三席“女皇”德墨忒尔、第七席“战车”阿瑞斯、第八席“力量”赫拉克勒斯、第十席“命运之轮”命运三女神、No.11席“正义”弥忒斯、No.12席“倒吊人”普罗米修斯、No.13席“死神”哈迪斯、No.17席“星星”潘多拉以及No.20一席“世界”赫马佛洛狄忒斯。

The number 16 seat "Tower" Poseidon is also a vote in favor, but as the proposer of the resolution, his votes are not included in the statistics.

Those who voted against were the first seat "Magician" Hermes, the second seat "Priest" Persephone, the fourth seat "King" Zeus, and the sixth seat "Lover" Aphrodite , the ninth seat "Hermit" Cronus, No.14 seat "Temperance" Iris, No.18 seat "Moon" Artemis, No.19 seat "Sun" Apollo and No.20 seat "Judgment" Osiris.

In Ke Lan's mind, he naturally divided the members of the Undead Crew Club into two camps based on the voting results.

"One vote left, the fifth 'pope'." Demeter looked at Ke Lan.

Not only her, but all the members of the undead crew present here focused their attention on Ke Lan.

He is the most crucial vote, enough to decide the result.

"I agree with the proposal." As soon as the words fell, a green light rose in front of Ke Lan.

This is basically an ending without any suspense. Whether it is those who voted for or those who voted against, they all know what Ke Lan's choice will be... Maybe it is because of this that those in the opposing camp look at him. Most of Ke Lan's eyes are relatively...indifferent.

"Then the result will come out—" Demeter stopped in the middle of her words, and her elegant face showed a very rare look of horror.

At some point, a red light representing "opposition" lit up in front of the seat zero of "The Fool".

The final vote — ten votes to ten — invalidated the proposal.

"It's impossible." The horror on Demeter's face was fleeting, and he shook his head stiffly with a straight face and frowning.

"How is that impossible?" Ke Lan muttered in a low voice. Although the zeroth seat "Fool" has always chosen to "abstain", it does not mean that they have completely given up the right to vote. At this time, they jumped out to equalize the votes again. , is not surprising.

But in this way, Ke Lan's conjecture was further verified - before returning to the ark, Ke Lan connected the person who pretended to be an intelligence dealer with the zero seat "The Fool", and now the "Fool" took the initiative to vote against it Tickets, perhaps to keep this secret?

But Ke Lan immediately discovered that, except for Demeter, the expressions on the faces of the members of the Undead Crew Club—no matter what camp they were from—was somewhat strange.

"You don't know, 'The Fool'... It's been a long time since I attended the internal meeting of the crew." Demeter said.

"When was the last time 'The Fool' voted?" Ke Lan couldn't help asking.

"Seventy-one years ago...the Ark decided to descend to Alpha Star at the internal discussion meeting." Poseidon murmured.

"You can also understand that he has been silent for 71 years...or, in other words, has been asleep for 71 years." Demeter whispered.

"Is it possible that he has been missing for 71 years... or that he has already died?" Ke Lan narrowed his eyes, "The person who is voting against now is not the 'fool' you know ?”

"No, 'The Fool' is not dead." This time, it was the second "priestess" Persephone who spoke, "If it detects that the life signal of 'The Fool' disappears, the core brain of the Ark will enter a locked state instantly , the remaining 21 crew members must issue orders at the same time before it can be restarted."

"Then is it possible that this voting device has been tampered with?" Ke Lan asked again, "Even Pan can be poisoned and killed without anyone knowing it. It shouldn't be difficult to modify a voting device?"

"Impossible." Demeter shook her head. Then she looked at the empty chief seat behind the red light, and asked in a deep voice, "Are you... awake?"

No one answered.

Only the red light hovered in front of the seat, like a ray of candlelight in the dark.

"This is the end of the matter, I think, there is nothing to say." No.19 Seat "Sun" Apollo said, "I still have things to do, so I won't accompany you."

After speaking, his holographic projection suddenly went out.

As Apollo left, members of the opposition also disappeared at the table one by one, leaving only Persephone staying where she was, looking at Demeter and Poseidon with a half-smile: "If you want Who of us has more secrets, probably no one can compare to 'The Fool'? To be honest, I am not surprised that he would make such a choice."

After speaking, her holographic image also disappeared.

"It's true that Cheng Yaojin was killed halfway." Ke Lan said, "But I have to say, I think the 'priestess' is right at all... This guy must have more secrets than everyone here, even There may be more secrets than yours combined. This is like someone proposing to publicize the private property of all citizens. Then I am equivalent to an abject pauper. Everyone here probably has a house and a car middle class...and this guy should be the richest man in the world."

"..."

"Perhaps, next time you should add an item in the proposal, 'share the real information of everyone except the zeroth seat', I think he might not vote against it." Ke Lan said again.

"There's no point in arguing about this now." Demeter shook her head, "As a new member of the crew, there is an important job to be entrusted to you."

"What job?"

"Disaster relief and reconstruction of the damaged area of ​​the ark." Demeter said.

"A rookie like me will be in charge of such a big matter? Can you rest assured?" Ke Lan was a little surprised.

"You are the only crew member among us who can appear in the public eye in real body. It will be much more convenient for you to handle many things. Rest assured, the United Parliamentary Group and the military will fully cooperate with your work. In addition, if You can contact me or Poseidon at any time if you need to use the resources of the crew association," Demeter said.

"How do I feel that I am no different from before when I became a full-time employee? To put it bluntly, I am still a stinky part-time job." Ke Lan complained.

"No, you can choose to refuse." Demeter said, "If you don't want to take this job, we will choose another person... In addition, you still have the same authority as us, and you want to use these You don't need permission from anyone."

"If I want to shoot some MPs, can I?"

"can."

【PS Thank you stdc for the 100 starting coins. 】

(End of this chapter)