Alien Relic Hunter

As Ke Lan expected, Aya's superiors agreed to this seemingly outrageous request without too much hesitation, and agreed to reduce the original investigation team of nearly a hundred people to a dozen people.

After this request was met, the rest of the matter went much smoother. After a short meeting with everyone in the hunting group, the list of participants for this mission was finalized.

In addition to the initial six-person group of Ke Lan, Hound, Layton, Akira Asano, Ivan, and Zhuoligetu, Valentina also participated in this operation. In order to give full play to her strength, Layton and the staff of the logistics team worked overtime to create a "Valkyrie One Molten Mine Ver" for her.

Although it still uses the Phoenix prototype skeleton developed by the Yip Consortium, this new mecha has completely abandoned its flashy humanoid appearance. After obtaining some of the prototype design drawings provided by Ye Yan, Layton radically transformed the machine body into a four-legged walking all-terrain mecha. The idea of ​​​​changing it was based on the beast-shaped mecha that we encountered in the mecha competition.

For concealment, the original eye-catching black, white and orange paint was changed to a mixture of earthy yellow and gray to form a desert camouflage. Not only that, Layton also added on the outer armor according to the appearance of the magma flowing from the rock crevices. There are many irregular stripes in black and red.

From a distance, this mecha looks like a steel behemoth that has just climbed up from the lava river.

"In order to reduce weight and reduce the chance of being discovered by detection devices, I replaced 80% of the alloy armor with a shell made of reinforced carbon fiber material. Never use it except for the armor directly in front of the cockpit. Any part of the body must be hard-received by an attack with an equivalent vertical penetration of more than thirty millimeters." Layton warned Valkyrie.

"Got it." Valkyrie nodded. The equivalent penetration depth is thirty millimeters, which means that the external armor of this mecha cannot even prevent direct fire from a 0.5-inch caliber heavy machine gun, but as a result The price paid is that the entire machine body is twice as heavy as before, and its speed and flexibility are even different - as long as it misses, the enemy's attack is meaningless.

As for Ze Luo, Ke Lan sent her to Zofia and asked Zofia to take care of her. In order to explain the origin of Ze Luo, Ke Lan spent a lot of words to convince Zofia that this seemingly Some "weird" girls are the descendants of sick village residents. Their parents died soon after they were born. He took her back to the Ark out of pity for her.

"Her body has undergone some very special mutations, and she is naturally immune to radiation, so she has not contracted those diseases. It is best not to let her be seen by outsiders, lest the institute comes to ask for her." Ke Lan told Zuo Fei Ya said, "Also, this girl has lived in a distorted environment since she was a child. She has a relatively withdrawn personality and cannot communicate with others normally. Her only hobby is reading books, all kinds of books."

"Well, I will take good care of her." Zofia nodded, "This is the first time you have asked me. Of course I will not let you down."

"First time? I haven't--"

"The previous few times, in your opinion, were transactions, right?" Zofia squinted her eyes slightly, put her elbows on the desk, and tilted her head to look at him.

"You can't say that...after all, after all...I always feel that I owe too many favors to others, and I'm afraid I won't be able to repay them in the future." Ke Lan scratched his hair and reluctantly found an excuse.

"Do you like to calculate everything so clearly?" Zofia stood up and walked out from behind the desk, "Then why are you willing to beg me this time? Is she important to you?"

"How should I put it... She is indeed very important to me, but not as important as you think." Ke Lan explained quickly.

Zofia's ability to observe people's emotions is very good. Ke Lan only occasionally glanced at Ze Luo sitting on the sofa with the corner of his eye. Zofia realized that this girl had full weight in his heart and how important she was. , even no less than those teammates who have gone through life and death with Ke Lan many times.

"What kind of importance is that?" Zofia walked up to Ke Lan, stretched out her hand, put a pair of forearms as white as lotus roots on Ke Lan's shoulders, gently wrapped her arms around his neck, and opened her eyes Looking directly at him through the plain lenses, he said in a volume that only the two of them could hear: "If your explanation doesn't satisfy me, I will be jealous."

"She... is actually a very dangerous biological weapon." Ke Lan paused and said in a deep voice.

This time, he told the truth, but he did not tell Zofia clearly what level of "danger" Ze Luo had reached.

"If it gets out of control, it may cause a disaster, so I keep her with me all the time." Ke Lan continued.

"Then you can rest assured and let me take care of her?"

"Because you are the most trustworthy among the people I know, that's why I decided to entrust her to you. As far as the current situation is concerned, her safety is still very high, as long as she is not exposed to too strong external pressure. If you are stimulated, you will remain in this state." Ke Lan originally wanted to say, "Except for the hounds and others, you are the most trustworthy among the rest." But after thinking about it, saying this seemed too straight. Some, so the prefix was deleted.

"Then you must remember to come back alive and take her away. I don't like to keep a time bomb with me all the time, even if the chance of her exploding is almost zero." Zofia said with a smile.

"Don't set a flag for me. What you said suddenly gave me some bad premonitions." Ke Lan couldn't help but reveal a wry smile.

"How about we get married before you come back?... Anyway, as long as you are involved, no matter how small a thing is, it will turn into a big event. I am used to it." Zofia said in a half-joking tone, " In fact, it’s not just me, the friends around you should also feel this way, right?”

"..."

"But the fact that they are still willing to stay with you means that they are willing to share the risk with you..." Zofia let go of Ke Lan and took a step back, "I am willing too, so I will help you take care of this. The child's - even if you tell me, she is a dangerous item that may get out of control at any time."

"...Thank you." Ke Lan was stunned for a few seconds, and then he said a slightly stiff "thank you".

"It's too harsh. Don't say the word 'thank you' to me in the future. I don't like hearing it." Zofia pretended to be angry and said, "But if you come back alive, I will forgive you."

…

[P.S. Thanks to ztx117 for the 1,500 starting coins. 】