Alien Relic Hunter

"This mission is actually a private job that Ryan took. The company didn't know about it... They may have thought that Ryan and I were on vacation... That bastard Ryan, he seems to have signed a separate agreement with his employer, and we took The money is a bit more than that of the Buffalo Mercenary Group, but because of this, we have to do more things than those of the Buffalo Mercenaries."

"Isn't it the professional code of your profession to do things for money?" Ke Lan said.

"I know, I didn't mean it... I just... I just regret a little bit why I listened to Ryan and came to this damn place to perform this damn mission... Damn Ryan... Oh, he's dead... ...Damn it!" the mercenary said bitterly.

"It's useless for you to complain about this. It's better to tell us everything you know. Only if we find a way out can you return to the Ark alive. Although you may go to jail for a few years... or you may be directly exiled, that is better than dying in It's better here." Ke Lan said, "Continue to talk about what happened after you entered the water."

"After we put on the equipment, we started to dive... But Ryan, myself, and another Buffalo man, we didn't know where to go at all, so we just followed the two exiles... Let me think about it... I should have swam to the southwest for about a hundred meters. As for the depth, I remember checking the depth gauge halfway and it was thirty-seven meters. Then I dived some distance further, but it should be It won’t be more than fifty meters deep.”

He took a breath and continued: "At that location... there was a closed stone door on the rock wall, but the leading exile just fumbled on the stone door, and the door opened... Then we walked along the path behind the door. I can’t remember how far I walked as I walked further into the passage. At that time, my consciousness seemed to be in a trance, until I surfaced..."

"Trance?" Ke Lan repeated the word. As someone who has personally experienced those nightmares, he naturally understands why the mercenary's consciousness is in a trance - obviously, this is also related to mental attacks, and this should be a relic. A defensive method... But the problem is that after the mercenary was mentally attacked, it is difficult to say whether the things he saw were real or illusory...

"That cave is very big, almost as big as here." The mercenary said, "But there is no water in it, and the location should be higher than the lake... Because after we surfaced, we still walked a long flight of stone steps. Go into that cave."

Ke Lan looked toward the southwest, but he could only see a stone wall covered with fluorescent fungi. As for the stone gates, passages and steps mentioned by the mercenaries, he could only rely on his imagination to complete them.

There are complex architectural structures inside the mountain, which they already knew before coming to the Tiankeng... It was for this reason that Ke Lan felt that it was a real one when he was in the nine stone chambers. World - after all, with the technology of Alpha Civilization, it is easy to build such a mechanism. He subconsciously associated the nine stone chambers with the mechanical structures found in the ice, completely unaware that they were just The illusory dream world.

"The shape of the cave... how can I put it... is very similar... very much like a big funnel..." the mercenary said.

"Funnel? You mean... similar to a stepped auditorium? It's lower in the middle and higher around it?" Ke Lan tried to describe the appearance of the cave he imagined.

"Yes, yes! That's what it looks like. I originally wanted to say a staircase auditorium, but I didn't think of the word for a while, so I used a funnel to describe it..." The mercenary nodded repeatedly, "At the lowest point in the center of the cave. , there is a platform, and the jar is placed on the platform... By the way, the platform is very regular, and there are some obvious cutting marks on the edges. It seems that it is not naturally formed. "

"Of course it's not a natural formation," the hound couldn't help but interjected, "In my opinion, this underground lake and this seemingly natural erosion cave are all the work of the Alpha people - this area does not belong to karst. Landform, how could such a large volume of natural water appear inside the mountain!"

"What is karst landform?" The mercenary asked after being stunned.

Unlike relic hunters who need to master a lot of knowledge and various special skills, the entry requirements for mercenaries are extremely low. To put it a bit exaggerated, anyone who can pull a trigger can become a mercenary. There is no such thing as an entry examination in this industry, and the quality of employees is also uneven. And like this guy in front of you, obviously I have almost forgotten all the things taught in compulsory education in Ark.

“Karst landform refers to the general term for surface and underground forms formed by soluble rocks eroded by water. It mainly refers to caves, underground rivers and dark lakes. Karst landforms are generally located in areas with higher temperatures and abundant flowing water resources. The geological composition is dominated by calcium carbonate rock layers... and the area where this glacier is located is called periglacial landform, or permafrost landform. Although ice and snow can also erode rocks, the eroded appearance is still very different from karst landform. Ke Lan explained, "Moreover, the most critical point is that fresh water is formed after the melting of glaciers, and this is a saltwater lake."

"That's wrong... I remember I accidentally choked on a sip of water in that passage. It was fresh water... not salty!" the mercenary said in shock.

"Then you have another taste?" The hound took a coat that was laid on the stone and squeezed the mercenary's head hard. The water squeezed out immediately dripped on the mercenary's face, and the mercenary stuck out his tongue. I went to lick it and immediately spit it out with a grimace.

"It's really weird. You've been staying by the lake for so long, and you don't even know whether the lake is salty or light?" the hound complained.

"No, old dog, you can't blame him." Ke Lan seemed to have thought of something, stretched out his hand and patted the hound's leg, indicating him to sit down first, "He just said... before walking through that passage , symptoms of trance occurred.”

"You mean... he was also in a dream at that time? So the lake water he tasted was light? Doesn't that mean that the funnel cave is also an illusion and does not exist at all?"

"Maybe the cave is an illusion, and the jar is real... After all, the people who stayed on the shore were not mentally attacked." Ke Lan analyzed, "We can try to change our thinking: Is there a possibility... that The place where the jar is located can only be reached while half asleep?"