Zhou Lin

December 7, morning.

After the metal spire was dug out, the excavators were ordered out of service; workers picked up shovels and began irritating manual operations.

They carefully scraped the dirt away from the spire, widening the pit in all directions to expose as much of the spire's surface as possible.

The professor was holding the analyzer and his own I-PEN, crawling around on the dug-out metal wall and looking around, looking excited and focused.

Before I knew it, the whole morning passed by.

At meal time, the workers who had been taking turns to rest were all complaining, but the professor, who had never rested at all, was still in high spirits.

Solid can understand his state of mind - when a person devotes himself wholeheartedly to something, the strength of the mind can support the body beyond its due limits.

To put it more distantly, Pheidippits ran back to the Central Square of Athens from the Marathon Plains in one breath is a good example; to put it more recently, it is also true that many teenagers were able to work in Internet cafes for several days and nights without sleep or food. Something happened.

Compared with these examples, Rodrigo is nothing.

During lunch, the three leaders, Solid, Rodrigo and Jimenez, sat together again and discussed their findings this morning and their next plans.

When the "excavation mission" has reached this stage, it is naturally time for the professor to show his performance; as the saying goes, there are specialties in the field, in terms of archeology, Rodrigo must have the final say, and Solid can only stand from the perspective of a security consultant Give him advice.

However, Rodrigo seemed to be too invested in the situation at hand. He spent the entire meal giving the other two people a history lesson about the "Olmec Civilization" with saliva and excitement. The two were confused and didn't know whether to laugh or cry.

In the end, seeing that it was already half past one in the afternoon, Solid finally couldn't help but interrupt the professor and asked him what he planned to do in the afternoon.

At this time, Rodrigo realized belatedly that his "lecture addiction" had been acting for too long and he had forgotten the real thing...

After a brief thought, Rodrigo decided that the next step was to use an excavator to "attack" from the top.

Not to mention what they observed after "expanding the pit", they deduced based on the size of those South American "small pyramids" found in the Paraiso ruins in Peru... The base of this pyramid is estimated to be as big as several football fields. If you want to completely dig it out from the ground, you may have to dig a canyon for several miles around, which is obviously unrealistic.

Of course, if you really want to dig like this, it is not impossible, but it must be reported to the federal high-level and approved, and more than ten times more manpower and machinery can be mobilized than now before it can be implemented.

With the current manpower and material resources of the excavation team, there are only two options at this stage: one is to leave it alone, call it a day and wait until contact with the outside world is made; the other is to open a hole directly from the top of the spire, and then from Enter the opening to explore the interior of the pyramid.

Of course Rodrigo would choose the latter, which is normal - as an ambitious archaeologist, he could not choose to wait in the face of such an unprecedented discovery.

The archeology industry is similar to many scientific research industries. If you want to succeed, you must dare to take risks. If you wait for opportunities, or do everything in a disciplined manner...then your results will most likely be lost to those who are not as talented as you but have the resources. More people than you steal, Goebbels and Edison back then are good examples.

So, at two o'clock in the afternoon, the excavation work resumed.

The first thing the workers did was to bring a "pure alloy drill bit" from the cargo hold of the aircraft. They originally brought it just in case (such as digging a hard mineral vein), but they didn't expect it to be real this time. Came in handy.

After the drill bit was installed, the operator of the excavator drove the "Camera" back to the spire, adjusted the machine's output power to the maximum, and began drilling the black metal wall.

The moment the drill bit touched the metal wall, many people covered their ears, but a few seconds later, they were surprised to find that the harsh sound of metal friction did not sound as they imagined. On the contrary... there was no sound at all from the drill bit. Even the engine sound of the excavator itself disappeared.

Seeing the little sparks bursting out between the drill bit and the metal wall, and the cyan light constantly flowing on the black metal wall, Solid had a vague premonition of ominousness.

"Stop..." After a moment, Solid suddenly shouted, "Stop!" This was the second time he shouted.

But...it's still too late.

Just as his roar sounded, the metal wall also changed. The cyan stream of light converged on the hole drilled by the drill bit. A force of recoil suddenly erupted, ejecting the excavator, which weighed close to a tank. Fly into the sky.

The operator in the cockpit was shaken to pieces at the moment of the impact. Part of the meat paste was stuck on the glass of the cockpit, and the other part was sprinkled from the air along with blood like rain...

Phew—bang!

A few seconds later, the excavator drew an arc in mid-air and fell to the open space in the distance, shattering into pieces.

Everyone who saw this scene was stunned. After a while, a woman's scream broke the silence, followed by a burst of noise.

Soon several workers were muttering words like "curse" with horrified expressions; the entourage around Jimenez was fine, but the female companion he brought...except for "Mandala", They all entered a state of hysteria, and they began to ask why help had not arrived yet, crying that they wanted to leave this hellish place as soon as possible.

Even the soldiers brought by Solid began to look at each other and whisper. At this moment, although they still stood firm and did not panic like the general public, the germs of fear and uneasiness had clearly sprouted in their hearts.

"Everyone...give it to...I..." Before the situation became more chaotic, Solid decisively implemented an effective measure. He turned the external volume of the armor mask to the maximum and shouted loudly, "...shut it down. Mouth!"

The sound of shouting was like the first burst of spring thunder, immediately attracting everyone's attention and interrupting their random thoughts and nonsense.

"Don't mess up, it's just an accident." After the crowd calmed down, Solid readjusted the volume and continued, "This is not a curse, but science... The spiers in front of us have defensive functions, and those cyan The stream of light is by no means magic, but a power source is supplying energy to the metal wall."

"How did you know?"

"I think you also guessed, right?"

"If you knew, why didn't you tell me earlier? Only after the person died?"

"Yes, you are lying, right? You are explaining it as science to trick us into digging, right? We won't be fooled!"

The rhetoric about the "curse" has preconceivedly influenced workers' thinking, so much so that it is difficult for them to be convinced by such rhetoric without evidence...even if this rhetoric is much more reliable than the so-called curse theory.

"No, you don't need to dig anymore." Unexpectedly, Solid immediately said, "We, the federal army, will handle the rest of the matter here. Others can call it a day and go back to the camp to rest."

It stands to reason that since he has said this, the workers should have nothing to fight about, but...

"Hey! Can you please explain it clearly? Why isn't this a curse?"

"I don't want to be in a camp so close to a cursed site!"

"It's already the third day, why hasn't the rescue arrived yet? Have you ever contacted the outside world? Why do you always avoid us in a sneaky way when we talk?"

"The plane crash the day before yesterday was also very strange. Why did the wings disappear? Is this also a curse?"

"Yes! What is going on? Please tell me clearly! What do you want to do by tricking us here?"

The problems accumulated over the past few days have finally erupted, and factors of confusion and distrust have spread among the crowd, and the cause of all this is just a bizarre death that happened in front of everyone.

In this wild land, the collapse of civilization and order seems so easy, or in other words... these two things are inherently more fragile than people generally think.

"I have already said that this is science, not a curse. What happened just now was just an accident caused by our insufficient understanding of the target and our lack of timely..." Faced with the questioning, Solid remained calm and composed. Stand in front of the workers and respond calmly.

But his answer was met with another round of accusations.

These people...have already defined Solid as a villain in their hearts, and the anomalies that occurred as a curse, and they take it for granted that these things they subjectively believe are used as factual basis to debate.

Solid knows that it is impossible to communicate with such people - you can convince someone who is open-minded and willing to accept and consider various different voices, but you cannot convince someone who thinks that his own standards and opinions are objective facts , and use this as a basis to refute all voices that differ from your own.

Of course, these two types of people are not absolute. Each of us will become the latter at some point in our lives...either because of arrogance given by knowledge and experience, or because of blind obedience caused by the guidance of public opinion, or because of Because you are just a pretender who thinks you are right and doesn't realize it.

No matter what...Solid won't waste words with this kind of person, he has his own way.

boom--

The sudden gunshot interrupted the shouting of those people and triggered another scream.

In the shocked and horrified eyes of everyone, a worker who shouted the loudest fell to Solid's gun.

However, he did not die, but was shot in the leg. The bullet passed through the leg and made a bloody hole in his muscle.

"What are you doing!" Two seconds later, Rodrigo pushed aside the crowd and rushed forward, saying to Solid, "Solid! Are you crazy? How could you..."

"While performing the mission, he deceived the public and disobeyed orders. If he were a soldier under my command, he would have been shot three times by me by now." Solid interrupted coldly.

"But they are not your soldiers, they are just civilians!" After Rodrigo yelled this, he turned his head and shouted at the people next to him, "Why are you still standing there? Get the first aid kit!"

"'Civilian'..." Solid said those two words again, then raised his eyes to look at Jimenez standing in the distance.

At this moment, Jimenez is looking here with a half-smiling expression, as if he is watching a good show.

"It's about time you explained the matter clearly, right?" Solid raised his voice and said to him, "Otherwise, the professor would really think that these workers are unrelated people you found randomly in the local area."

"Huh?" Rodrigo heard this and turned to look at Jimenez, "What do you mean?"

"Okay, I admit, these workers are also mine, okay?" Jimenez responded with a smile.

"What..." Rodrigo's mind was still a little confused, "But...but when they were at the airport..."

"I said something bad about me in front of you, right? Haha..." Jimenez laughed, "Of course I acted it out to you on purpose."

Solid also said to the professor at this time: "You are too naive, professor... This is South America. If Jimenez really invites a group of third-party excavators there, if there are a few of them mixed in, he will be assassinated." What should his killer do? He will definitely avoid this avoidable risk, otherwise he would not be alive today."

"Then there's no need to hide it from me, right?" Rodrigo thought.

"Because most of these people are transferred from his marijuana cultivation farm...and everyone who will work there has a criminal record. If you, an outsider who doesn't understand the rules, know about it, you will report it in the report afterwards." It’s not very good to write.” After Solid said this, he said to Jimenez, “Am I right? Jimenez.”

Upon hearing this, Jimenez shrugged his shoulders and spread his hands, acquiescing, and said to Rodrigo: "Professor, I'm sorry."

After saying that, without waiting for Rodrigo to respond, he said to Solid: "By the way...sir, when did you find out that these workers are also my people?"

"I've known it from the beginning." Solid replied, "Although the identity information you submitted is complete and no problems can be found in the database, I am more cautious... I know very well that with the With your local power, it is not difficult to ask the police to help you change the identity information of some people in the database... Therefore, before taking action, I went to check the copies of the paper identity documents filed by these people when they first became adults. No, To my surprise...their identification information was all true, only the photos had been replaced."

"Haha...you are really a difficult guy..." Jimenez laughed.

"To each other." Solid said, "Now that everyone has spoken out, can you please stop this meaningless commotion and... 'test' against me?"

Jimenez thought for a few seconds, and an imperceptible gloom flashed in his eyes. Then he put on a smile and said, "Did you all hear that? Stop hindering the chief's work. People say this is science. If anyone mentions the curse again... I will be unhappy."

His words are more effective than the gun in Solid's hand...

When Jimenez finished speaking, the workers dispersed one after another, and the wounded man who had been injured in the thigh was quickly carried into the tent by others; his injury from a single gunshot wound to the thigh would not be possible on the 21st. It might still have been fatal in the 20th century, but in 2218, a quick-healing spray and a shot of concentrated disinfectant tonic should be fine.

After a while, Solid ordered his soldiers to return to the camp and stand by. Jimenez also sent his men away... Only the two of them and the professor were left around the spire.

"Okay, my secret is no longer a secret." Jimenez said to Solid, "Sir, shouldn't you also share with us what you know?"

If he asks this question, it means that he already knows or guesses something.

Solid didn't hesitate and quickly continued: "Your female companion has already told you... about the fact that I am an ability user."

"Uh-huh." Jimenez responded, gesturing for the other person to continue.

"Then I'll tell you straight." Solid added, "Yes, I am an ability user, and I think I have a chance to break the defense of this spire."

"Heh... I'll just say it." Jimenez said with a smile, "A person as reliable as you, sir, must have some confidence before he can tell my workers, 'You don't need to dig anymore. That's what I said."

"Solid, do you really have a way to penetrate that metal wall?" Rodrigo on the side was too lazy to care about the intrigue between the other two. He was more concerned about the ruins than those.

"It's just an idea. To be sure, it's about 40%." Solid said as he opened the mask and breastplate and walked out of the armor.

"Forty percent is enough!" Rodrigo quickly added, "Us archaeologists usually dare to form a team after hearing some local legends or picking up a leak in Panjiayuan. As long as we are 20% sure, we can Dare to trick...er...get sponsorship!"

Solid did not answer his question, but followed what he had just said: "According to my observation, in addition to its super hardness, the outer wall of this spire also has the characteristic of 'gradually increasing its own defense to adapt to external pressure.' , there is also a function of 'absorbing sound and kinetic energy and counterattacking when it accumulates to a certain level'... You have also seen the effect.

"But even with this kind of perfect defense, in the first few seconds when the drill bit drilled, a hole was drilled out of the metal wall. This shows that... its defense mechanism is 'late-attack'. The defense coming from behind is bound to have a certain reaction time. If you can use a quick and powerful attack to instantly destroy its structure before it reacts, you should be able to create a gap...

"The traces we saw before seemed to have been 'paved up'. It was probably left by someone in the past who used the method I mentioned to open up the gap."

What he said was reasonable, and both Rodrigo and Jimenez thought it was feasible.

"I understand what you mean..." Jimenez looked at Solid with a suspicious look, raised his eyebrows and said, "But are you sure that the power of your moves is stronger than the impact of a pure alloy drill?"

When he asked this question, Solid had already reached the side of the pit and backed away a distance, as if he was about to take a run.

"You'll know after you try it." Solid said, looking down at his right hand, and then clenched his fist...