Alien Relic Hunter

"Hiss... I always feel a little scared when you say that..." Layton muttered in a low voice, "Is this Alpha civilization really so scary? Will you fall into a trance just by looking at some characters?"

"I don't know... the technological development level of Alpha Civilization is still a mystery." Ke Lan replied, "But I think there are some things that may not come from Alpha Civilization itself."

If nothing else, let’s just say that the holy word is like a “magic curse”. Its principles and functions have completely subverted all known physical rules. This is similar to the miracles in the religious classics of the old era. If it weren’t for Ke If Lan had experienced it personally, he would never believe such a thing.

Even with the technological level of Alpha Civilization, it would be difficult to give a reasonable explanation for this - the sight that swept over him, the majestic sense of oppression, and the indescribable feeling... Fear... Ke Lan doesn't think Alpha civilization has such an ability. It definitely comes from a higher-level creature.

That is what Alpha people call "god".

It is difficult for Ke Lan to imagine what kind of existence this is. Maybe he is the universe itself, or maybe he is an observer independent of this dimension - he looks at the civilizations in this universe, just like human beings It's the same as watching a bacterial community multiply in a petri dish.

"You said it's the god that the Alpha people believe in? I remember that the 'true god' that the heretic sects always talk about is the same thing, right? Does this god really exist?" Layton asked.

"Exists. But God is just a proxy name. This should be just a creature that is so powerful that we can hardly imagine it. It cannot be confused with the omnipotent supernatural body in religious concepts... Of course, from our perspective, He It’s pretty much omnipotent.”

"Isn't that the same as a god? In the old era, Shintoism believed in Amaterasu, Buddhism believed in Sakyamuni, and Christianity believed in Jehovah... But in my opinion, if the god believed by the Alpha people really exists, it is not Are they much more powerful than these gods that humans believe in?"

"If you think gods in religious concepts are weak, that's just because the vision of the people who 'created' these gods has been limited by the times and technological levels... For example, do you think you are a god?" Ke Lan said .

"Are you kidding? I'm just an ordinary person. What's the point of comparing you to me?" Layton couldn't help but smile and said, "Did you stay up late reading novels about cultivating immortals before setting off?"

"But in the eyes of a group of ants, you are a god." Ke Lan still maintained a serious tone, "Ants can't understand human behavior, just like we can't understand the existence of gods... Suppose one day, you are at your job I saw a swarm of ants in the room. The ants climbed onto your table and formed several strange shapes. What would you do?"

"...Well, if there really are such ants...I would probably be a little curious and see what they do next..."

"Then what if the shapes of these ants are human words, and the content of the words is to pray for food, how would you respond?"

"Then...it depends on my mood. If I'm in a good mood, I might give them some biscuit crumbs...If I'm in a bad mood, let alone food, I'll probably slap all these ants to death... ..." At this point, Layton was stunned, "So...it seems like that's really what happened..."

"Anyway, both options are just a piece of cake for you, but for the ants, the former is a gift prayed for through a 'ritual', while the latter is a punishment from heaven for offending the gods...their essence is both It's the same." Ke Lan said, "I am an atheist. In my opinion, the so-called gods are actually just existences that are so powerful that lower civilizations cannot understand them."

"But no matter what this god is, it looks at us like ants... Oh, maybe even worse than ants." Layton said, "When I think about this, I feel a deep sense of powerlessness... Just the things left on this Alpha star are already beyond the reach of humans. When I think about the existence of Alpha civilization that even they have to worship, I feel that we are too insignificant... You said , will this 'god' accidentally sneeze one day and destroy the entire Alpha Star?"

"Who knows, maybe this world will be destroyed in the next second. Then I don't have to worry about whether we will be trapped in this ruins." Ke Lan said, "Why are you turning around to look again? What’s on the wall? Didn’t I tell you not to look at the words? Just stare straight ahead."

"Alas..." Leighton sighed dejectedly, "The more you say you can't read it, the more I can't help but care about it... There are these words carved on both sides of the passage, above and below. If I'm not careful, I will..." If I catch a glimpse of them... there's nothing I can do about it."

Ke Lan thought for a moment and said: "How about this? Change the position and let Asano Akira take the vanguard position. You follow him, turn off the lights, and just stare at Asano Akira's back... If that doesn't work, just put your hands on his shoulders and close your eyes completely."

"...That's okay." Layton nodded, closed his eyes, turned sideways, and let Asano Akira come to the front.

Perhaps because of the influence of the writing on the wall, the mercenary described that they spent a long time in this passage... But in fact, the actual length of this passage is only one More than 100 meters, and there is a rather steep slope. Going up this steep slope, Ke Lan and the other three quickly emerged from the water.

The last part of the passage is indeed a set of stone steps. The mercenary was right about this. The height difference between each step of these stone steps is nearly one meter. It is obviously not built for the human body.

Ke Lan and the others could not climb up the steps like normal stairs. They had to use their hands and feet to climb up bit by bit. After climbing a full 103 steps, they finally entered the "funnel-shaped cave" .

"A total of one hundred and three levels... The height from the water is 96.46 meters. No radiation dose exceeding the dangerous value has been detected in the environment, and the temperature is basically the same as the outside..." Layton thought silently, these data may be They would not be used in the following actions, but Layton still recorded them one by one. This is a habit that a professional relic hunter must develop.

"This cave is indeed very big." Ke Lan said - just as he had judged in advance, the cave was dry at the moment, there was no water at the bottom, and there was no such pale pink flesh.

The location they came out of was almost halfway up the slope. At the bottom of the cave, there was a circular stone platform about fifty meters in diameter, with an empty base fixed in the middle of the stone platform.

Ke Lan did not focus all his attention on the stone platform, but paid more attention to the surroundings and top of the cave - the most valuable thing in the cave is undoubtedly the jar, and that jar has been hired The soldiers took it away. Although Ke Lan was a little curious about the contents of the jar, his main purpose was to find a way out of the ruins.

There are also a large number of stalactites hanging from the top of this cave. Under the guidance of the flashlight beam, Ke Lan's sight swept through the gaps between each bamboo-shaped stone pillar. He could only see black or gray-white rocks... Even though this cave was dug by the Alfa people, there are no traces of human processing at all in the structure of the cave itself.

Except for the lowest stone platform.

"Asano, can you hear the sound of the wind? It's the sound of... air flowing through cracks in rocks or small holes." Ke Lan asked Asano Akira.

Akira Asano shook his head and said, "It's very quiet here...and very dry."

Not only was there no sound of wind, but there was also no sound of water - although this was a cave, the humidity was very low. The stalactites hanging on the top of the cave had long stopped growing, and there were no water droplets that dissolved a large amount of mineral salts from them. dripping from the tip.

"Yeah, it's too dry here..." Layton squatted down and covered the ground with his normal palm, "There is almost no moisture in these sandstones. I even suspected that the guy told lies - —If this cave was really almost filled, even if the tide has receded, these rocks should still be moist, and they will not be able to recover to such a dry level in a short period of time."

"It's possible that what he saw was an illusion." Ke Lan pondered, "It's also possible... that it really dried up."

"It is impossible for water to evaporate so quickly in a closed environment, not to mention, the humidity in the air is wrong." Layton said.

"Standing water can be drained by drainage devices, and humidity can also be adjusted by ventilation systems... But whether it is drainage or ventilation, there must be a pipeline leading to the outside world. As long as we can find this pipeline, we will have a chance to get out of here. "

Ke Lan carefully walked down the slope, then jumped onto the platform.

He remembered that the mercenary said that water gushes out from the base, so there must be a pipe connecting the outside to the base.

Ke Lan carefully observed the base in front of him.

The base is a flat circular cone with a trapezoidal cross-section. The whole body shows a purple-red color similar to pure copper. However, Ke Lan's alloy dagger could not leave any trace on it. It can be seen that this metal material is definitely not pure copper. Its hardness is much higher than that of pure copper.

"Leighton, can you tell what kind of material this is?" Ke Lan called over Leighton who was studying the stone platform. Leighton was still better than Ke Lan in materials science.

"Isn't this just copper? It seems to be quite pure..." Layton glanced at it and immediately came to a conclusion.

"Can you take a closer look?"

"What else could it be if it wasn't copper?" A probe protruded from Layton's robotic arm. When the tip of the probe touched the base, it was bent directly, and there was still no trace left on the base. Leave no trace.

"Hey...it's really not copper...the hardness of this thing is okay, but I don't know how flexible it is. If the physical properties are excellent, it might be a substitute for Nino alloy, but I don't know if the formula is complicated or not. Can human craftsmanship produce..."

As soon as he mentioned this, Layton became excited instantly. He once again took out the circular saw made of Nino alloy, slightly ground off some metal powder from the base, and then pointed the welding gun at the powder - " "Flame reaction" can be used to test the presence of some metals and compounds, and is a very commonly used test method in chemical laboratories.

The flame from the welding gun swept over the metal powder. Ke Lan noticed that a flash of green flashed inside the flame. Although it was only for a moment, both he and Layton captured this change.

"Only green... does contain copper elements." Leighton frowned, "But... none of the known copper alloys have such strength. Moreover, if it is a copper alloy, it should not appear as pure copper. Color... I’m a little confused..."

"Don't think about it yet." Ke Lan interrupted Layton's soliloquy, "Can you find a way to cut this base open? That guy said that water gushes out from the base, so what should be inside? There is a pipeline connected to the outside world.”

Layton tapped the shell of the base with his mechanical finger, and suddenly a dull sound came: "This shell is very thick, at least seven or eight centimeters, and it cannot be cut with a welding gun or a circular saw."

Leighton stretched out the circular saw, and Ke Lan saw that there were very obvious signs of wear on the teeth of the circular saw, and the rotating shaft in the middle was also slightly deformed - just to remove the metal powder, the circular saw was just It was only in contact with the base shell for a few seconds, and it was damaged to this extent. If it continued to cut, the entire saw would probably be scrapped.

As for the welding torch, even if all the fuel they carry is put into it, it will only be a drop in the bucket.

"Layton, are you carrying an endoscope?" Ke Lan asked. This is a sophisticated detection equipment that is widely used in medicine and industry. There are many finger-thickness parts on the surface of this base. holes. If a pair of endoscopes can be inserted through these holes, the internal structure of the base can also be explored.

However, Leighton shook his head: "That thing is usually only used when inspecting precision components. Nowadays, the equipment is modular. Whether it is repair or replacement, the entire module is operated. , you can’t use that kind of sophisticated testing equipment at all... In other words, even if you can use an endoscope to detect internal faults in parts, there is absolutely no way to repair them in actual combat situations... So I will never bring this thing. On the body."

The smallest detection equipment on Layton's body is the camera that was used as a periscope before, but this camera cannot fit into such a small hole.

"I also left my pair of medical endoscopes at home... Just like you, endoscopes are not needed for emergency surgeries, and surgeries that require endoscopes cannot be performed under emergency conditions." Ke Lan sighed, "In this case, we can only try some local methods."

The so-called homespun method is to put a few pieces of fingernail-sized lenses on the iron wire with glue, then put the iron wire into the small hole, use a flashlight to illuminate it, and use the reflection between the lenses to peek inside the base. Case……