Alien Relic Hunter.

Chapter 857
"The hive capital?" Ke Lan and 33 looked at each other, and they both saw a hint of surprise in each other's eyes.

The word hive capital, the first time they heard it, was from the mouth of the corroded wreck on the high-speed support ship "Genoa" - after that, both Ke Lan and 33 believed that the hive capital referred to by the corroded , is the Tongtian Tower standing in the "eye of the storm of dense fog" in the core area of ​​the gray fog forest.

But now, the inscription on the round gate made of a large amount of Nino alloy told them that their guess was wrong.

Tongtian Tower is not a "hest capital", this "hest capital" refers to something else.

"Could it be that 'Erosion' has been to this place before he was alive? But he is not a symbiont, how can he understand the alpha characters on this door?" 33 muttered.

"People who have been eroded can often hear some weird whispers, which are irresistible... Whether you block your ears, or simply knock yourself out, the whispers will also appear in your dreams..." Ke Lan explained , part of this information comes from the memory fragments unlocked deep in his mind, and part of it is his own personal experience, "Most of these whispers are meaningless whispers, but there are also some 'taboo knowledge', these knowledge It is both precious and dangerous...there may also be methods of interpreting the language and characters of the Alpha civilization."

"Damn it!" 33 cursed in a low voice, "When I had a dream last time, I also dreamed that there was a voice whispering in my ear, but I couldn't see that voice no matter how I turned my head in the dream. The person who spoke, I can't catch it with my hand... As for what "it" said, I forgot it after waking up-the only thing I haven't forgotten is that I can be sure that in my dream, "it" Every word I said, I could hear clearly at that time."

33 knocked on the top of the helmet a little irritably, and smacked his lips: "Tsk, that feeling, as if you know that there is an itchy spot on your back, but you can't scratch it no matter how hard you reach out, it's uncomfortable. I'm going to die."

"I understand this feeling." Ke Lan nodded. If he wanted to say it was uncomfortable, there were so many memory fragments sealed in his head... Many things can make Ke Lan feel familiar, but he just can't remember it. is the most uncomfortable.

If it were a patient with severe obsessive-compulsive disorder, he would have been forced to death long ago.

Fortunately, Ke Lan is gradually getting used to this feeling now.

"Don't think about those things. Sometimes, forgetting is the best means of protection." Ke Lan said, "At least, you haven't grown strange tentacles or anything like that yet."

"That's true." 33 pointed to the round metal door on the ground, "By the way, behind this door is... that hive capital?"

"It should be." Ke Lan nodded, and what made him even more puzzled was the "corrosion" and how they arrived at the city under the sea... The 3000 meters of "City Under the Sea" is so terrifying, but it is also enough to crush a large living person into a meatloaf. Ordinary vehicles cannot dive to this depth at all.

If the crew on the "Genoa" and "Shaojiang Kai" can use the resources on the battleship to piece together and modify some deep-diving equipment, then the situation of the 776 special team makes Ke Lan even more puzzled.

According to normal logic, the 776 special team should have been sent to the uninhabited island by the teleportation device triggered after the blasting mission. There is no problem in itself, but the problem lies in Collins' diary.

On the second page of No.20 of the diary, there is a sketch of the undersea city "Giant Eye Stone Pillar"...and with the equipment carried by the 776 special team, they could not dive to this depth no matter what.

No... not necessarily...

Ke Lan thought about it carefully and came up with three possibilities.

The first possibility, which is also the one with the highest probability, is that all members of the 776 special team have been polluted by him like the crew on the crashed warship, and the "forbidden knowledge" they have acquired may contain With the image of the city under the sea.

For example, I dreamed of this stone pillar in a nightmare, and then drew it down in my diary based on my memory.

With the mental state of Sergeant Collins when he was writing his diary, he shouldn't be surprised by anything in his diary.

The second possibility, the probability is not as high as the first one, but it is not low—Sergeant Collins, or someone in the 776 special team was contaminated by the cells of the erosive seed, or the erosive degree exceeded the critical value, and became a certain It is a kind of erosion mutant or erosion that retains part of its sanity. With the physical strength and ability of this monster, it should still be possible to dive to a depth of several hundred meters underwater.

As for the third possibility, the probability is the lowest, but Ke Lan can't rule it out...especially after going through that type of "environmental replacement" mechanism.

Maybe, when Heroone, Collins and the others came to this undersea city "City No. [-]", the ruins of this city were not yet "undersea city".

Ke Lan felt that her imagination could be bolder. For example, the sea platform carrying the underwater city is actually a man-made lifting platform, which can make the city sink into the bottom of the sea or float it out of the sea. ...Maybe, other people came here when the city surfaced.

"This door... To be honest, I have explored so many ruins, and this is the first time I have seen such a large-scale door made of pure Nino alloy." 33 sighed.

"We also saw such a door in the glacier ruins. The style is similar, but the size is much smaller than the one in front of us." Ke Lan recalled, "There are also a lot of Alpha Civilization characters engraved on it..."

"Writings of Alpha Civilization?" Ever since he knew that Ke Lan could read these words, which are like a bible to ordinary people, 33 has a very high sensitivity to such clues, "On that door, there are some what?"

"I can't remember." Ke Lan shook his head. "At that time, I hadn't acquired the ability to interpret Alpha characters. Moreover, after seeing those characters, I had severe hallucinations in my head, accompanied by a strong headache. , so I didn’t write down any of the words engraved on that door.”

"However, it's not entirely true to say that those hallucinations are true, because during the next exploration process, I saw something that appeared in the hallucinations - the high platform used to place the 'sarcophagus'." Ke Lan continued.

"It's a pity. If we can decipher the writing on that door, we might get some valuable clues." 33 sighed.

"The situation at that time did not allow us to make rubbings on the door. Both the old dog and Layton only took photos, but the cameras were damaged in subsequent accidents, and the photos could not be preserved. As for the 'original' of the door , before several groups of explorers could disassemble it and transport it back to the ark, the glacier ruins collapsed, revealing the bottomless tiankeng hidden underground. And the door also fell into the abyss under the tiankeng , can never be found.”

The change Ke Lan mentioned naturally refers to the fact that the warship that rescued them was attacked by a heretic sect. Although everyone in the team finally returned to the ark safely, most of the equipment they originally carried was with the warship. It turned into fly ash under the death ray cannon.

"From this point of view, we still have to bite the bullet and cross the river by feeling the stones." 33 shrugged.

"Crossing the river by feeling the stones", this is definitely not a happy thing for relic hunters.In high-level ruins, what you touch is often not a stone, but a sharp dagger, or a bomb that is about to detonate, or even something more bizarre and deadly.

"Since the eclipse knows that there is something in the 'hive capital', and thinks that we came to the foggy forest for that thing, it means that it must have entered. Hruni and the others have also entered with a high probability." The hive capital'. Even if they can return fully, then with our configuration, there shouldn't be much danger." Ke Lan said.

"Back in full body...I don't think so." 33 shook his head, "Maybe they came to this place before, so they became like that."

"Then how about I go in by myself and you stay outside?" Ke Lan glanced at 33, "I can ask Ze Luo to create a space for you to isolate the sea water, at least to ensure that you can stay in it for a week."

"What about in a week? If you don't come back, am I going to die here? Rather than staying here, I'd rather go in with you." 33 smiled, shook his head and said, "To be honest, I don't even care about life and death anymore." Care, do you think I'm still afraid of this kind of thing?"

"Okay, let's go together." Ke Lan nodded, and set his sights on the gate that was seamlessly connected with the surrounding ground.

"But I really have something to ask you." 33 said suddenly, "If... I mean, if I become a monster, please help me like you helped Mo Jue, one last time."

Ke Lan turned his head, gave him a fixed look, and then said, "Okay."

"I can't guarantee whether I can still be rational in that situation, so I'll say hello to you first, so that you won't be able to do it." 33 smiled again, "Okay, let's think of a way to get rid of it." How do you open this door? By the way, how did you open the similar Nino alloy door that you found in the glacier ruins?"

"That door has a 'self-service' activation device, which can be opened by putting energy crystals into the groove." Ke Lan said.

"Tsk..." After hearing the seven words of the self-service activation device, 33 showed a comprehensible expression.

This kind of mechanism of "putting energy crystals as 'tolls' and opening the passage" is not uncommon in the remains of Alpha civilization. Although this kind of mechanism does not pose a threat, it can be regarded as a kind of "dangerous harbinger".

Even if the gate made of pure Nino alloy is very thick, it takes a lot of strength to move it, even if the device in the ruins has been idle for many years, and the energy stored in it has been consumed seriously, but it is only for opening the gate. Can't use so many energy crystals - in the crystals used by hunters to open the door, only a small part of the energy is really used to open the door, and most of the energy is used to activate "others" agency".

This is equivalent to digging one hole after another for myself, and then jumping into it without hesitation.

Hunters know this in their hearts, but in the vast majority of cases, they have no choice.

"But there is no groove on the door for crystallization." 33 walked around the edge of the hive capital's door and said.

This door is really big, the diameter alone is more than 20 meters, as for the thickness, according to 33's detection, the diameter is even larger.

"Rather than a door, I think this thing is shaped more like a plug." 33 said.

With such a large volume and mass of Nino alloy, it is completely impossible to use violent means to open it. Even Ze Luo's space ability cannot be used... What's more, the movement caused by violent means of opening the door will definitely not be small. The guy in the abyss hatch was alarmed, and that would be a lot of fun.

"Why don't you try to dig a tunnel and bypass this door?" 33 suddenly thought.

He stepped on the ground on the edge of the door and said, "Although the ground is also very hard, rocks are easier to dig than Nino alloy, right?"

"It's a way, but it's a bad idea, and the priority can be moved back a little bit." Ke Lan commented, "I don't think Alpha people are so stupid that they can't think about this kind of problem."

"It makes sense." 33 crossed his arms, "Then can you think of another way? You don't need the best or the middle way. It's okay to have a lower way than my worst way."

"Wait a minute, let me try." Ke Lan said.

He remembered the liquid door he encountered when chasing Dr. Renee, took a deep breath, and then said to the people in front of him in Alpha language: "Open the door."

"Hive Gate" didn't respond.

"Open, open, open the hole, open for me, open the door for sesame, let me in, let me be healthy—" Ke Lan changed the words several times in a row, but the "door of the hive capital" did not change at all.

"What are you doing?" 33 asked Ke Lan with a weird look.

The language of Alpha Civilization is not spoken by mouth, so 33 naturally doesn't know about Ke Lan's attempt just now.

"Thinking." Ke Lan smiled faintly, trying to suppress the embarrassment in his heart as much as possible.

"Have you thought of a way?"

"not yet."

[PS Hahaha, when I was filling the hole today, I would like to round up the previous setting bugs. When I first started writing this book, many of the initial settings were actually not perfect. After all, the opening of the hole was relatively hasty, basically I made a rough outline, filled in a bunch of messy inspirations, and started writing. Many details were filled in later while writing.In addition to the core settings, many changes have been made in many places, so many pits may be filled in more far-fetched.

Some readers complained about the glacier ruins before. It was unreasonable to use so much energy to crystallize a door. I didn’t think about it at that time, because I just thought of this kind of bridge. It's just to lead to the setting of energy crystals, but now that I think about it, if there is a chance to fix this small bug, the overall look and feel is still very good.I just don’t know if the readers who complained at that time continued to read it later, and I don’t know if he can read this chapter. 】

(End of this chapter)