Alien Relic Hunter

"Assessment? What type of assessment is it?" Ke Lan asked. Although he was unwilling in his heart, he still could not say the word "rejection".

"When a person lives in this world, he should follow his heart and follow his own heart..." Ke Lan could only comfort himself in this way.

"The entrance examination is divided into five stages. In one stage, you must complete the tasks assigned to you by the crew." The other party replied.

"Task?"

"Yes, the first mission is an exploration mission. After completion, as a phased reward, you will obtain the rank of Major General of the field force and the authority corresponding to the military rank." After the other party mentioned the military rank, Ke Lan remembered that in After returning from the glacier ruins, Lieutenant General Maginot added them all to military status in order to have a reason to protect them. From a certain point of view, Ke Lan and others are actually active soldiers on the Ark, but they do not need to perform any duties, and there is no direct commander to issue orders to them.

Because the existence of this military status was so weak, Ke Lan almost forgot about it.

But now, he only needs to complete one exploration mission, and he can be directly promoted from private to major general. Is this the legendary "rocket-style" promotion?

Ke Lan even felt that using "rocket" to describe this speed was a bit too slow. It should be a "leap-type" promotion.

He jumped directly from a soldier to a general... Even though he was a mere commander without any troops under his command, the corresponding authority was real, and he was also a major general in the field troops. In this way, Ke Lan could almost be equal to Maginot.

This is the tacit rule of the Ark military - although the military ranks are the same, generals in the field force have more "gold content". The authority and treatment of a major general in the field force are basically the same as those of a lieutenant general in the garrison.

"Isn't this mission very difficult? To be honest... I have only seen promotions at this speed posthumously given to dead people... Only those heroes who sacrificed their lives for the Ark and the survival of mankind can rise from the ranks in one day. The soldier turns into a general, right? The content of this mission is not to ask me to be that kind of hero, right? I think it's okay for me to be a bear, but as for a hero, it's really..." Ke Lan was obviously very nervous, but he typed a series of words He was talking nonsense - but strangely enough, when he entered this state, his mentality suddenly became calmer.

Anyway, the worst case scenario would be to burp the fart, so there’s nothing wrong with showing it off, right?

"A week ago, Ark's base in the 'Molten Mine' lost contact with us. We sent out eleven batches of reconnaissance drones, but due to the interference of high-intensity ionizing radiation in the mining area, none of the drones could succeed. Enter the target area. Subsequently, we sent two more elite teams into the mining area, but there was no news from either of them."

Ke Lan is no stranger to the name of the molten mine area - if there are any things from the Alpha Civilization that have had a huge impact on mankind's current technological development and daily life, then energy crystals and Nino Alloy are the two most important things. There are two people in the row, one and two.

As large as the Ark itself, various cutting-edge warships; as small as the means of transportation used by people for daily travel, and the guns touched during military training... These two things can be seen almost everywhere. With the continuous increase of "total mining volume", Energy crystals and Nino alloys have been almost completely integrated into the history of human civilization.

And this molten ore area's status among the major Nino alloy producing areas is on the same level as Leviathan's Skeleton.

This is the largest mining area of ​​the Alpha civilization on the planet. Although this mining area is equivalent to a small European country on Earth, only a dilapidated ruins are left, but there are still a large number of operational smelting facilities left. and nino alloys stored in warehouses and not shipped out of the mine.

Almost 60% of the Nino alloy currently held by humans comes from the "molten mine area".

Based on the buildings and equipment left in the mining area, as well as the astonishing reserves of finished Nino alloy and massive amounts of rough ore, experts speculate that this is where the Alpha civilization smelted Nino alloy. As long as the secrets of this ruins can be discovered, it should be possible Master the formula and smelting technology of Nino alloy.

This mining area has always been a place frequently visited by relic hunters, exploration teams from various consortiums, and metallurgical experts. Unlike Leviathan, which requires miners to dig manually, the finished Nino alloys in the mining area are piled in batches in warehouses. , as long as hunters or exploration teams can find a warehouse that has not sunk into the depths of the earth among the magma, gravel and ruins, it will be easy to get rich overnight.

Of course, the danger level of this place is much higher than that of Leviathan's skeleton. If you accidentally fall into the lava or step into a dark pit, it will be difficult to leave a complete corpse.

As for the metallurgical experts, they are more interested in the building debris and smelting equipment left by the Alpha civilization. There is at least a team of more than 200 experts stationed here. They have built a "Metallurgical Research Station" here. Research the formula and smelting method of Nino alloy.

At the same time, these experts often hire relic hunters who come here to explore and go into the depths of the mining area in an attempt to find some valuable clues from the relics closer to the central area.

Coincidentally, the map "End of the World" that Ze Luo randomly found in the game just now was designed based on this "Molten Mine Area".

"Are you planning to let me find someone?"

"Yes, but in addition, the drone captured the traces of the 'heretic sect' and the 'exile' outside the mining area. If there is an encounter with them, the exploration mission will automatically transform into an eradication mission." The other party said, "As a For support, we will send an additional elite team and a D.A.S field agent team to go to the mission area with you."

"Wait a minute... If I remember correctly, in addition to the researchers and logistics personnel, there are at least two thousand regular troops in the garrison base in the molten mine area, right? In addition to the mobile relic hunters and mercenaries Soldiers, the armed forces in that place are at least 3,000 people, and these 3,000 people have been killed. If you ask me to take only these people, isn't that just sending food?"

"It is still unclear whether there are survivors. It is also possible that the communication has been cut off and the base is intact. According to our speculation, the probability of there being survivors in the mining area is 100%."

"The problem is, you have no news about the people outside, and the people inside have never come out? If something happens, why don't these thousands of people concentrate their efforts and try to escape from the mining area? Even if they are not aware of the problem, then the daily What about the team transporting minerals? No one can get out of it, which already shows the seriousness of the problem!"

"I think you shouldn't send me there, but you should send a fleet directly there!" Ke Lan continued.

"If you can confirm that there are a large number of enemy units in the molten mine area, we will send a fleet there, but before that, the content of the assessment mission will not be changed in any way."

"..."

"There is one more thing I need to tell you. A week ago, a strong earthquake of magnitude 8 or above was detected in the core area of ​​the Molten Mine. The connection between the garrison base and Ark was cut off after that. Based on the information we currently have, The heretical sect does not have weapons that can cause the same destructive power, and the reason why their traces appear outside the mining area should be consistent with your mission here."

"You mean...the earthquake caused the rift valley in the lava mining area to extend, and then a rift valley spread to the location of the garrison base, and the entire base fell into the magma?" Ke Lan couldn't help but think of it. The "Fragment East" and "Fragment West" in "The End of the World" - this area was originally a city called "Capitol City", but a strong earthquake completely destroyed the city, and a line appeared due to the strong earthquake. The Great Rift Valley divided the Capitol City into two "fragments" in the east and west, and all the buildings in the rift zone fell into the magma underground.

The unfinished building where Ze Luo went on a killing spree was not actually an unfinished building, it was just the conventional name of the players. It was originally a intact building in the Capitol City, but the cracked ground tore it apart. A four-story building, half of the building fell into the lava river, and the other half was perched on the edge of the cliff.

"It's impossible to be sure, but the interruption of contact must be directly related to the earthquake, so people need to be sent to investigate." The other party said.

"But... the site selection of the garrison base should be very rigorous, right? Even if it cannot avoid the earthquake zone, it should not be built in a place where surface fissures will spread, right? For geologists, it is necessary to build in such a large area It shouldn’t be a problem to find a few safe places in a mining area, right?”

"It is currently impossible to confirm whether the garrison base has been damaged, but communications have not been restored yet, which proves that they are in trouble and are in urgent need of Ark's assistance."

"Okay... When will we set off?" Ke Lan sighed. The other party showed that he did not give him the right to refuse, but if the garrison base suffered a natural disaster rather than a man-made disaster, things might not be that bad... At least Ke Lan wouldn't have to. He was worried that after entering the mining area, he would encounter a heretical sect force composed of thousands of erosion seeds.

"The leader of the D.A.S. special agent team should have arrived at your headquarters building." At the same time as this sentence popped up on the screen, a hound shouted from outside the office: "Ke Lan, the front desk called to say that there is a security guard An agent from the bureau is looking for you, and your ID has been confirmed. Should you ask her to come up, or should you go down to see her?"

"Ask her to wait for me in the reception room." Ke Lan responded. After all, Ze Luo is still here. If she were to come up, she would probably notice something special about this girl.

Ke Lan turned around and found that his computer screen had returned to normal, except that there was a new folder on the desktop. He opened the folder and found that it was full of information related to this operation, including the map of the molten mine area, information on the garrison base, the list of missing personnel, earthquake monitoring data, etc. It could be said that it was necessary to As detailed as possible, it was almost equivalent to opening up to him all the things related to the molten mine area in the Ark archives.

"It saves you the expense of asking that profiteer for information..." Ke Lan muttered and stood up. He told Ze Luo, "Just stay here and don't wander around until I come back." Then he opened the door and left. go out.

…

When Ke Lan walked into the reception room on the second floor, the woman sitting on the sofa immediately stood up and stretched out her hand towards Ke Lan.

"Hello, Mr. Ke Lan, I am the leader of the D.A.S. third field agent team, Aya Breya, agent number DAS1152."

This is a slender woman who appears to be between 25 and 30 years old. She is wearing a beige sweater and a pair of frosted tight jeans. Her blond hair is cut to the same length as her chin, and her face is There was a gentle and friendly smile on her face - if Ke Lan had not already known her identity, he would never have been able to connect such a "big sister next door" woman with a murderous DAS agent. .

The two held hands briefly and then separated. Although Aya's dress was completely different from the agent in Ke Lan's impression, Ke Lan still touched a few places in her palm that only people who often use firearms would have. of calluses.

"Hello." Ke Lan nodded to her, "What would you like to drink? Can I have coffee?"

I think back when Ke Lan first dealt with DAS agents, the investigator who wanted to be beaten gave them coffee, but Ke Lan had no intention of drinking it at that time, and those few cups of coffee were also used in the subsequent fights. Among them, it was scattered all over the ground.

"Okay, please put more non-dairy creamer and sugar." Aya said with a smile. Her reaction made Ke Lan feel a little relieved. Since there is still time to drink coffee, there should be no time limit for this assessment task. They were so nervous that they didn't even have time to prepare.

"Mr. Ke Lan, actually I've known you a long time ago." For some reason, Aya suddenly said such a meaningless thing.

"Very early? Do you mean that I beat up your security bureau's investigator on the transport plane?" Ke Lan's lips moved and a wry smile appeared. He put the coffee in front of her and said self-deprecatingly, " My brain circuit is relatively simple, I don’t like to waste my words on things that I can do, and I also have a bad temper. I must have caused a lot of trouble for your security bureau at that time, right?”

"No, it's not that time, I'm talking about the East Ninth District incident." Aya shook her head, "Victoria, she is my senior sister and one of my most respected seniors... When she died in the line of duty, you should have been there Next to her?"

[P.S. I would like to thank Aunt Ye Yan for her 6,000 starting coin reward, and hereby wish her a smooth wedding; thank Xu Ditai for her 500 starting coin reward; and thank Zhengdao Zuo Daxian for his 100 starting coin reward. 】