Alien Relic Hunter.

Chapter 864 Nieto
"Can you see me?!" Ke Lan only felt the hairs on his back stand on end, and subconsciously assumed a defensive posture.

But soon, he realized that what he was talking to himself was not the little girl he saw with only the upper body in black and straight, but the... that lump of rotten flesh in the real world.

It's just that under Ze Luo's "sense of immediate vision", his perception of the surrounding environment has changed... In his eyes, the "rotten meat" mentioned by 33 mouths is the one who called himself "Nieto" little girl.

"After the Era of Calamity, you are the first humans to enter the Hive City," Nieto said.

"Era of Calamity... wait a minute, you said yes to 'human beings'! You mean, before the Era of Calamity, there were other 'human beings' who came here? Or is it the one who built this hive city? 'Human'?" Ke Lan asked hurriedly.

"I can't answer your question," Nieto said.

"Why? Is it because my authority level is not enough?" Ke Lan tried his best to sink himself... Since this manager named Nieto is willing to communicate with himself, it means that it (she?) may not have Treat yourself as an intruder.Ke Lan didn't want the negotiation to break down because of saying something wrong... Even if that were the case, at least enough information must be obtained before that.

"No, it's just that the information is too dangerous, and it may trigger the advent of the Calamity Era." Nieto said calmly, "That's something that the person who created me didn't want to see."

"Does that information refer to 'forbidden knowledge'? The Calamity Era... Could it be that the erosion of all the people living in this hive city has broken through the critical point?" Ke Lan cautiously tested.

"You are trying to get in touch with something extremely dangerous." Nieto warned, "Stop immediately, otherwise, according to my underlying logic program, I will enforce amnestics on you and expel you from the hive."

"Okay, okay...don't mention this." Ke Lan quickly compromised, "Then talk about something else... Are the two of us really the 'humans' who came here for the first time after the 'Era of Calamity'? "

"That's right." Nieto replied simply.

She is a bit like Ze Luo. During the conversation, she never showed any emotion, just like a computer program with beautiful girl stickers...Of course, from the perspective of 33, the black long straight beautiful girl will have to be replaced with a wriggling lump of rotten flesh.

"In several decades, there should be at least a group of 'humans' who have come to this place." Ke Lan said, "They should be the first 'humans' who came here after the Calamity Era, right?"

It is not known whether Heruni and others entered the hive capital Kelan, but the corroded wreck encountered by 33 on the "Genoa" must have entered the "hive capital", and it mentioned the word "hive capital" more than once , also mentioning "things in the hive".

Logically speaking, the survivors on the two crashed battleships should be the "first batch".

"No record." Nieto's answer was short and cold.

"There is no record... Is it because you were in hibernation at that time? Or was the memory related to it deleted?"

"After I resumed operation in the 65th year of the Quiet Era, I have not been dormant, and my memory has not been deleted at all." Nieto explained... It seems that as long as it does not involve those "forbidden knowledge" , she will know everything about Ke Lan... This is good news for Ke Lan, as long as he doesn't step on the thunder, he can ask a lot of what he wants to know from this "Nieto", who is highly suspected of being a biological computer thing.

"The Era of Tranquility? How many years is it now?" Ke Lan asked again.

"Now is the 660 year of the Quiet Era."

Even if some things cannot be asked directly, some information fragments can be obtained by tapping around, and then put these information fragments together to restore the truth of what happened that year... Although the center of the puzzle is likely to be blank, the edge The corner is there, and the missing content can be guessed by guessing.

Judging from the information currently available, this hive has experienced at least three periods-the "Ice Age" that existed as a refuge, the "Era of Calamity" when super-eclipse or other disasters broke out on a large scale, and the "Era of Disaster". The "Quiet Era" after the Era of Evil.

The people who used to live in this hive capital obviously either died in the "Era of Calamity" or left this place, and the manager "Nieto" in front of him should also be in the "Era of Calamity" From the appearance of that black long straight girl to the current lump of rotten meat, she has been sleeping for a long time and did not wake up until the first thousand and sixty-five years of the Tranquil Era.

and many more?

If she passed out in a "coma" in the Calamity Era, why would she know that she "woke up" in "the first thousand and sixty-five years of the Quiet Era"?

In "The Era of Tranquility", those who created her and this Hive City obviously no longer exist, so who came up with the name "Era of Tranquility"?

Could there be other intelligent things here? "Nieto" just claimed to be the manager of the second layer of the Hive City, so there should be similar intelligent biological computers as managers in the other layers of the Hive City, right?Those guys told her?

But in any case, at least one piece of very important information was held by Ke Lan, that is, 54 more than 7000 years have passed since the end of the Calamity Era... This age is even older than that of the research institute. Those experts estimated that the Alpha civilization disappeared on this planet much longer.

In other words, the construction time of this hive city is likely to be earlier than the remains of the Alpha Civilization on the surface... I just don’t know if the Alpha Civilization already existed during the Ice Age, or the one with the same name as this planet The civilization of China is actually the "latecomer"?
Ke Lan really wanted to ask "Nieto" this question directly, but he also knew that these questions would most likely directly touch the opponent's minefield... If Nieto loses the patience to talk because of this, the loss outweighs the gain.

Ke Lan felt that he would try again from another direction.

"There used to be a man named Hruni, has he been here?"

"Heruni... He did come here and took some important things from here." Nieto replied, "But he and his companions did not enter the second floor, they were only on the first floor." After staying for three days, I left."

"Then how do you say that we are the first humans to enter the 'hive capital' after the Calamity Era? Isn't the 'first floor' of the hive capital not counted within the scope of the hive capital?" Ke Lan asked.

The slums on the Ark, no matter how dilapidated and poor the infrastructure, are part of the Ark with numbers and records, even if they are located in the corners, filled with toxic gases and waste, and are not suitable for human habitation at all. Unmanned blocks all have a corresponding block name of "direction + serial number".Only those transfer stations and various bases built on the wilderness will be counted as areas other than the ark.

But the first floor of the "Hive Capital" that the lifting platform passed just now obviously belongs to the former.

Structurally, they are also completely integrated.

"Of course the first layer of the Hive City belongs to the Hive City." Nieto said, "But when they entered the Hive City, they were no longer 'human beings'."

"..." This answer was a little out of Ke Lan's expectation. He originally thought that only individuals whose erosion level broke through the critical value and turned into corroded corpses were not considered human beings. Will be expelled from "human status"... But the problem is, the degree of erosion of himself should be much deeper than that of Heluni and others. Why does Nieto still regard himself as a "human being"?

He Luni's group, at least after they returned to the "Shaojiang Reform", they still maintained their human appearance and rationality for a long time... If they were not human at that time, then Ke Lan would not be able to never mind.

What exactly is Nieto's definition of "human being"?
"Before the Calamity Era, how many people...humans were there in this hive?"

"A total of 20 million." Nieto replied.

20 million 33 million?It seems that the degree of congestion in the hive capital is more serious than Ke Lan and 20 imagined. Unless there are many floors underneath, it is absolutely impossible to cram [-] million people in the space of the first and second floors.

But in this way, another problem will arise.

It is known that the Hive City has a very strict class system, and people without sufficient levels of authority cannot enter classes with higher numbers... But any social structure, as long as there are classes, it must be a triangle—— The top of the triangle symbolizes the people with the highest rank and the most authority in this social structure, and the number of people in this group is the least; while at the bottom of the triangle, the number of people at the bottom must be the largest... This is a rule that cannot be violated. Even in the swarm.

There can never be more rulers than ruled.

Even if there are third, fourth, fifth or even more floors behind, even if the space of these floors is larger than that of the first and second floors, the number of people living in these floors cannot be larger than that of the first floor. Layers and second floors for more.

Ke Lan's sociology knowledge only comes from some e-books he read when he was bored, but these simple truths can be understood by individuals... The vast majority of wealth and power in a society will only be controlled by a small group at the top. In the hands of a handful of people, unless this society has reached the true meaning of G (anti-harmony) C-ownership (know everything) righteousness.

But hive society is clearly not.

It is not even comparable to the Earth of the old era.

Not to mention many, the first two or two floors must account for at least half of the total population.

Ke Lan had a hard time imagining what it would be like to cram 60 million people into the two layers of hive capital... At this moment, he suddenly felt that the illegal buildings growing like cancer cells in the first layer of hive capital were not exaggerated at all.

Not only is it not exaggerating, it's even a little... not enough.

"In the late period of the Calamity Era... No, I mean the middle period of the Calamity Era, how many people are left in the hive capital?" Ke Lan asked another question.

This question is very sensitive, and there is a high probability that it is testing on the edge of Nieto's "minefield", but as long as Nieto is willing to answer this question, it will be worthwhile for Ke Lan to win such a chance.

"Zero," Nieto said.

Although he was mentally prepared, Ke Lan couldn't help but gasped.

20 million people, all died in the early days of the Calamity Era?
For the rest of the Calamity Era, a group of monsters lingered in the Hive City...or were they fighting each other?

"The Calamity Era...how many years?"

"Four years and nine months."

It was much shorter than Ke Lan expected.

If a large-scale outbreak of "super-erosion" really occurred in the hive and spread in a way similar to meme infection, this time is not short-you know, most people's resistance to erosion The ability is not strong, they may be "infected" just by seeing the mutated "compatriots", or even knowing that this thing exists from news reports, and then the eroded individuals will be infected when they see other people being killed. After being "infected", it will in turn deepen your erosion... It's like "cross-infection" in medical terms...

Judging from the population density of the first and second floors of the hive capital, once such a thing breaks out, there is a high probability that the situation will completely get out of control before the managers know about it.

Not to mention blocking news and isolating, even if the corrupted individual is directly executed, it is too late.

The entire nest is like a big sponge that has absorbed water, and the erosion meme is a drop of super-high concentration ink. When this drop of ink falls on the sponge, the black color that symbolizes infection will spread all over every part of the sponge in an instant. a corner...

Unless, the manager of the hive capital can choose a strong man to cut off his wrist at the first moment of the incident, and directly "erase" the first and second floors of the hive capital just like the undead crew would destroy the East Ninth District module. The "big and powerful" who live in higher-ranked classes.

But judging from the integrity of the first and second floors, either they did not issue such orders, or the memes had spread to the upper echelons of the hive capital before they were issued.

It took just over a year for Heroone and the others to be corroded from being corroded. If Heroone was excluded, the rest of the crew would only persist for a few months.

This nest can last for four years and September, which in itself can be said to be a miracle.

"In the early days of the Calamity Era, how did the last 'humans' in the Hive Capital disappear? Did they become monsters, or did they escape from here?" Ke Lan continued to push the question forward, constantly testing Nieto's bottom line.

"No one can leave the hive in the Calamity Era." Nieto said, "The managers of every floor, including me, were out of control at that time."

"Why..." Ke Lan originally wanted to ask why he lost control, but after thinking about it, this question would definitely step into a minefield, so he could only swallow the second half of the sentence, "Then before the calamity era Things, can you tell me? That information shouldn’t be dangerous, right?”

(End of this chapter)