Alien Relic Hunter

Ke Lan pushed the switch upward with force, and suddenly, a rumbling sound came from inside the two water pumps, which were as tall as one person. It was the sound made by the high-speed rotation of the centrifugal pump blades.

Two water pumping pipes made of high-strength polymer are fixed with brackets. One end is directly inserted into the blood pool, and the other end extends into a wastewater pool in the base. That pool was originally used to store crystallized ore after secondary refining. There are also complete protective measures at the bottom, around and outside of the pool for the radioactive wastewater produced.

The plasma Ke Lan in the blood pool has undergone preliminary testing and is corrosive to a certain extent, but it is far less perverted than those monster acids. It will not be used for water pipes and wastewater pools that have undergone anti-corrosion treatment. No matter what damage is caused, the only problem is that there are a lot of agglomerated scabs in the plasma, which will wear the blades of the pump and easily cause pipe blockage.

Ke Lan had to stop the water pump almost every five minutes or so, and then go up to clear the pipe despite the radiation.

After dredging it back and forth four times, the water level in the waste pool has reached the warning line, but the height of the blood pool has only dropped by less than half a meter...

"The capacity of this blood pool... isn't quite right..."

Just when Ke Lan stepped forward to clear the pipe for the fifth time, he finally saw the exposed roots underneath the giant cocoon.

Although I had been mentally prepared for a long time, when I saw the roots of the giant cocoon, an unspeakable fear still surged up from the bottom of my heart...

Countless thick tentacles are entangled together, twisted and weird, their tops are connected to the bottom of the giant cocoon, and their lower ends are soaked in blood as thick as magma. These tentacles have a deep red skin that is almost dark brown. , there are many tiny crystal particles scattered on it... And looking through the gaps in these tentacles, you can vaguely see many human limbs slowly squirming in them... folded thighs, palms with missing fingers. , the eyeballs were squeezed out... Ke Lan even saw a bra with black lace that was soaked in blood...

"Are these the collected corpses...?"

Ke Lan also noticed that these limbs were not only squirming with the tentacles, but also seemed to be sinking slowly... The black lace bra just now was still about four or five centimeters above the water, but now it is almost sinking. Entered under the blood pool.

For some reason, Ke Lan suddenly thought of the image of chewed food passing through the esophagus when humans swallow...

At this moment, Leiton's voice suddenly came from the earphones: "Ke Lan, the communication device has been fixed. Ivan also found four injured survivors. Unfortunately, Liao Zilang was not found... Now I'm here Everything is ready, but...do we really want to send a distress signal to the Mitsui Consortium?"

"Send it, send it now. Send a distress signal according to the standard format. The additional information is Emergency 039. If you want to sign it... use Manstein's ID." Ke Lan said.

The meaning of "Emergency 039" refers to "suffering an organized attack by a large number of indigenous creatures, and the emergence of new species with huge threats that have never been recorded in the archives." According to the regulations of Ark, if any individual If or the organization receives a distress message mentioning "Emergency 039", it must report it to the Ark headquarters as soon as possible, and rescue the rescue target to the greatest extent within its capabilities.

"No... wait a minute, change 'Emergency 039' to 'Emergency 000'. Don't use Manstein's ID, use mine." Ke Lan stared at the blood pool and said slowly.

"000? Are you sure...?" Layton's voice in the earphones seemed a little hesitant.

"Yes, just charge 000 rounds. I will bear all the responsibilities." Ke Lan made up his mind.

"Emergency 000" does not specifically refer to a special time. It has only one meaning, and that is "an event that directly threatens the Ark and is serious enough to possibly lead to the genocide of mankind has occurred."

In the few years since humans first landed on Alpha Planet, "Emergency 000" has occurred a total of 46 times, and each time it was resolved only after humans paid a huge price. In the past twenty years, it can be called "Emergency 000". Events called "Emergency 000" have never happened before.

On Earth, the penalty for lying about a fire alarm is only five to ten days of detention and a fine of several hundred dollars, but on the Ark, the consequences of lying about "Emergency 000" are enough to make the person involved spend the rest of his life in jail... ...This still refers to the case where the circumstances are relatively minor and the losses are relatively small...If it causes major losses, even direct gunfire on the spot would not be an exaggeration.

"What if..." Layton still hesitated.

"I said, I will bear all the responsibilities." Ke Lan emphasized again, "If possible, I even hope that Ark can fly over and directly use its main gun to shoot the big guy at his feet."

"Did you find something there?" Layton asked nervously.

"Those monsters... seem to be performing some kind of strange sacrificial ritual. They use human corpses and themselves as sacrifices..."

"Sacrifice ceremony?" The hound's voice also appeared in the communication channel.

"Hmm... very similar... I suspect they are trying to awaken this ancient beast."

"Ke Lan, what on earth did you see?!"

"I saw it..." Before Ke Lan could finish his words, a buzzer suddenly sounded in his ears without warning. He felt as if his whole body was floating and flying into the air...

"...?"

He wanted to stretch out his hand, but found that he had lost the feeling of his arm... Not only the arm, he couldn't even feel his body. He was like an unsheathed soul, a pure ball of The conscious body is constantly floating towards the sky.

"What's the matter?"

Ke Lan only felt waves of sleepiness coming over his brain. He was even deprived of the ability to think, and the vision in front of him gradually began to become turbid.

"Could it be...a hallucination? In this case...triggered?"

"What are the triggering conditions...?"

He vaguely remembered that he was talking to Layton and Hound just now. He turned around and saw something coming out of the blood pool...

It seemed to be a long, jet-black crystal...

When Ke Lan's diffuse consciousness gathered again, he saw a creature that looked like a giant whale hovering in the air directly below. It was so huge that it was like an island floating in the air...

"...Leviathan! This is...Leviathan!"

But why do you appear here?

Ke Lan looked around and saw nothing. Then he lowered his head and glanced at the place where his body should have been -

Also empty.

Although his thinking has returned to normal, he is still in that "conscious body" state.

"Is this... one of the memory fragments hidden deep in my head? Text, sound, video... has it finally been upgraded to a VR image?"

Ke Lan tried to close the distance between him and Leviathan. As soon as this thought occurred, he found himself instantly appearing on Leviathan's back, less than ten meters away from this ancient beast.

At this time, Leviathan's body was not covered with the rock formations hundreds of meters away... Instead, it was covered with large swaths of earthy gray scales. Between the scales, there were a large number of long strips of inky black. crystal.