Alien Relic Hunter

Inside the Ark, West Fifth District, "Liverpool" Electrical Street.

Although this street is named "Electronic Street", anyone familiar with it knows that it is actually an "underground black market" with an extremely profound background. Many shops that look small, old, and messy have a lot of "goods" that are legally prohibited from being bought and sold deep in the warehouses. Some of these items come from the military's standard equipment, and some are relics from the Alpha civilization. .

Generally speaking, Ark's underground black markets are built in areas with lower serial numbers. The West Fifth District is already considered a quite prosperous "quasi-rich area", and the security level is higher than that of blocks with two-digit serial numbers. I don't know how much... As the opposite of Ark's order, "grey areas" like the black market should not appear in this kind of place.

But "Liverpool Electrical Street" just breaks this common sense - between rows of tall buildings, this "shabby little street" existing in the cracks of the bustling business district looks out of place with everything around it, just like an old It is the same as those "urban villages" on Epoch Earth that have not had time to be demolished due to various reasons.

"Why do we come here?" Soap whispered. "If you want weapons, you should go to Atlanta in the West 10th District. There are more supplies and a richer variety."

The "Atlanta" Soap talks about is also an underground black market, located in a tower-shaped building in the West 10th District. "Atlanta Flea Exchange Market" is its official name on the surface, but privately, mercenaries and relic hunters are more I like to call it "Armed Nation".

The part above the ground of "Atlanta" is a second-hand trade market that operates according to rules, but after the three underground floors, it instantly turns into an arms market filled with the smell of gun oil and gunpowder, with all kinds of legal, illegal, and civilian products. Military-standard weapons, or heavy weapons whose power standards exceed the limits of Ark, can all be found here. For people in these special professions, this place is equivalent to the "Hailan Home" of the equipment industry - even many new models of firearms that have not been officially released or installed in the army will flow here through some inexplicable channels. Stealing the "listing".

As for "Liverpool Electrical Street", arms trading rarely occurs - after all, in the West Fifth District, arms trading is still too sensitive and easily resisted by local residents... Most of the people who can live in the West Fifth District are There are some people with strong backgrounds, and there are some people who are not easy to offend. Therefore, most of the goods traded in "Liverpool Electrical Street", even illegal items, are not dangerous.

But this refers to danger in the "narrow sense".

The clown found a small shop that didn't even have a signboard. He casually pulled away the garbage piled at the door and walked straight into the depths.

Soap turned his head and looked at the high-rise buildings not far away. Those pale roots were already wrapped around these expensive buildings. The roots that were originally not much thicker than hair had grown to be thicker than Soap's thigh. The thickest taproots are more than one meter in diameter, running across the building like a giant python.

"Fortunately, at least there are no such ghosts on this street." Soap muttered and followed the clown in.

Noir and Ulrich stayed outside to watch, while Clown and Soap walked through the shop and walked all the way to the warehouse door on the back street.

"What are you looking for?" Soap couldn't help but ask again.

"A communications device," the clown replied.

"Communication device? Isn't the communication device useless here?"

"A communication device produced by Alpha Civilization, which can break through the signal shielding field of the Ark." The clown explained, "This set of 'relics' once sold for a high price of 16 million credits, but after the auction ended But he disappeared unexpectedly... The accidental disappearance was actually just a cover, a show played by the seller to cooperate with the auction house in order to ensure the safety of the things."

"Then this thing ended up here?" Soap turned around and glanced at the dilapidated shop, "Sixteen million... If all the items in this store are added up, including the store and land, I'm afraid it won't even be a fraction of this number. None?"

"There are many treasures buried in those piles of things that you think are garbage. Just one piece is enough for an ordinary person to have enough food and clothing for a lifetime." The clown said casually.

"Really or not?" Soap glanced at the piles of garbage in the clown's mouth with some greed, swallowed, and suppressed the desire to go back and search - in fact, he knew very well, Under the premise of the collapse of civilized society, no matter how valuable something is, if it is of no use to you, it is just a piece of garbage.

There is a saying circulating in the investment field called "Antiques in prosperous times and gold in troubled times". It is only in times of peace and prosperity that art collections such as antiques have higher room for appreciation. However, in times of war, hard currency such as gold is the most valuable thing. ...As for now, it can no longer be described as troubled times. It's almost "the end of the world".

Gold is not only currency, but also a precious industrial material. However, without processing methods, gold in the end of the world is not as useful as food, weapons and medicine: it can neither be eaten nor used to treat injuries and diseases. It's not good for making weapons - gold is too flexible, and the blade made of it can't even penetrate nylon fabrics with a slightly higher denier number.

"Found it." The clown rummaged around in the warehouse, and then pushed out a piece of equipment covered by an oilcloth from a corner.

Soap stepped forward, lifted the oilcloth, and a machine similar to a precision lathe appeared in front of him.

"What is this? Is it used to process equipment?" Soap looked confused. "Are you planning to make a communication device yourself?"

"No, this is the communication device I was talking about." The clown said, "It is powerful enough to penetrate the shielding field of the Ark and send messages to people outside."

"Are you planning to tell the people at Mukah Fortress about the situation here?" Soap said suddenly.

"Time is running out. In twelve hours at most, the root system of that thing will penetrate the bottom of the Ark and penetrate into the earth of Alpha Star. By then, everything will be too late." The clown said, "I have already calculated Zeus would do this, but what I didn't expect was that his plan would be implemented so smoothly and quickly...the other members of the Immortal Crew, their erosion was far greater than I expected."

"What exactly is the degree of erosion? You mentioned this word more than once..." Soap asked, "Does it refer to the degree to which someone's brain is brainwashed by that god? Can I understand it this way?"

"Absolutely." The clown glanced at Soap and said a very rare joke, "You don't look very smart, but you are quite savvy at this time."

"..."

Su Soap was at a loss for words and stared for a long time before asking: "Speaking of which, if we spread the news, does that mean our mission is completed? We should be able to find a way to grease the soles of our feet and escape, right?"

"You can choose to leave, but I still have to go to the core area." The clown said, "I must do everything possible to buy time for the other person..."

Looking at the clown busy around the communication equipment, Soap gritted his teeth and said: "Forget it, damn it, without you here, we can't leave the Ark alive... Or if we think more clearly, even if we can Escape to the wilderness. If you fail, we will still have a few days to live... Anyway, we are all going to die, so why not give it a last try! Even if you die, at least you can leave your name in history."

"Don't you care about your posthumous name?" the clown asked.

"It's all death. Then I would rather be called a hero than be a deserter who is ridiculed, especially since this deserter didn't manage to escape alive... Damn Zeus, damn monster, damn Damn gods, I really want to shove the barrel of the gun down their throats!" Soap said bitterly.

"I have to tell you first, even if you die, there is a high probability that no one will remember you. If you want to be a hero, you will only be an unknown hero." The clown opened a cover on the side of the communication device, revealing a user interface To place the grooves for energy crystals.

"You'd better stop pouring cold water on me. While my mind is racing now, if there's anything you want me to do, tell me immediately... If I calm down, I might change my mind," Soap said.

"Go and break the safes in several stores around here," the clown said.

"What?" Soap picked his ears, and he almost thought he heard wrongly, "You...are you going to rob the treasury of these stores?"

"The shops here don't use bearer credit cards as currency at all. Their transactions are either barter, or they use equivalent precious metals or energy crystals as hard currency. Among them, energy crystals are the most valuable, so There are usually some high-quality energy crystals hidden in the safes of these stores. I need you to collect all these crystals. The more the better, the higher the quality the better."

"Okay...wait a minute, this thing is activated by crystal? Then when we send information to the outside world, won't it be detected by Zeus?" The clown said with a frown.

"Yes, and because the signal strength is very strong, almost the entire Ark can detect our position... It's like lighting a torch in a dark night." The clown said truthfully, "Moreover, breaking through the shielding field, sending The information process needs to last ten to fifteen minutes, and during this time, it cannot be interrupted... We have to stay here for fifteen minutes to block any living creatures that want to approach this device."

"...Okay, I understand." Soap took a deep breath, nodded vigorously, turned around and walked out.

Ten minutes later, he returned to the warehouse with a large bag of energy crystals on his back. He took out the crystals from the backpack one by one and placed them on the ground.

"Damn...these shops are really rich. I have never even touched energy crystals of this level before." Soap cursed while taking it.

"Aren't you afraid?" The clown asked, "You may die in the battle later."

"Afraid, scared to death, so I have to say a few more words while I'm still alive, but I won't have the chance to say it after I die." Soap muttered, "Do you remember the giraffe? That guy...he It’s probably cool now, but do you know how I met him?”

"How did we meet?" The clown did not stop working. As long as it did not affect the progress of the task, he did not mind listening to other people's stories.

"At that time...hey, forget it, let's not talk about it. I guess there won't be enough time to finish it." Soap waved his hands a little irritably, "I'd better wait until I die to go to hell to talk to my old friend about some things. …I’m not a good person, and I will definitely go to hell when I die.”

"Don't you believe in God?" the clown asked.

"It's just an analogy... If you tell me that after death, everything disappears and there is nothing, then I would find it a bit abstract... To be honest, I don't know what it is like after death. You said , do humans have such a thing as a soul?”

"It depends on how you define 'soul'." The clown said, "Human consciousness, under certain conditions, can exist alone without the body. If you accept this statement, then the 'soul' exists. "

"Then after I die, will my soul still wander around the world like a lonely ghost?"

"No... What Zeus wants to sacrifice to that god is not only the bodies of all humans, but more importantly, their souls." The clown shook his head, "Human bodies, even if they are hundreds of millions or trillions, are not worth it. To that god, they are just insignificant organic matter. But human souls are the nourishment that He needs most."

"Damn, you can't even let go of the soul..." Soap squeezed his fist hard, "It seems that this time, there is really no way out. Are you planning to activate this device now? Then I'll go outside Go and guard it for you?"

"Yeah." The clown nodded.

"Don't worry, Noir, I've already told him that he will defend until the last moment... As for Urich, I don't know if he understands what he said." Soap picked up the gun and Walk towards the door of the store.

"In three minutes, our position will be exposed." The clown said softly, and Soap, who was gradually walking away, did not hear the second half of his words, "This is the torch lit in the dark night...the flame The light emitted will illuminate everyone who is dormant in the darkness and unwilling to give in. And you are the ones holding the torch. You will burn out together with the torch and become the first light to guide others. "

He filled the energy crystal into the groove and then gently pressed the start button.