Alien Relic Hunter

"So... you just brought it back to the ark?"

"This is a very precious research sample. Neither the Undead Crew Association nor the Research Institute can ignore it... Rather than throwing it into the abyss of the sea, it is better to control it..."

"Control it?" Ke Lan interrupted Schroeder directly, "Can you control it?"

"..." Schroeder did not reply. He knew very well that there was no point in continuing to argue on this issue - the matter had already happened. What they had to do was to handle the current situation as well as possible and reduce the loss to the lowest possible level. "lowest".

This is originally the job of the crisis management department - to wipe the butt of those research geeks who have no idea.

While Ke Lan was communicating with the headquarters, he and Asano Akira did not stop. Finally, after running wildly for nearly fifteen minutes, the pure white biological laboratory building of the institute appeared in their sight. .

Of course, this pure white color is only for the laboratory building itself, and does not include those things currently wrapped around the outside of the building.

"I finally know why the experimental building and underground ice storage lost power..." Ke Lan murmured.

At this moment, the outside of the entire experimental building was wrapped in tangled branches and vines. The thinnest of these vines were as thick as a human thigh, and the thickest were so thick that even two or three people could not hug them together. They broke apart immediately. The walls and floors of the experimental building were broken, the solid concrete was easily crushed, and the exposed steel bars were bent into strange angles under the huge force - if these vines were removed at this time, The entire fragmented experimental building will inevitably collapse into ruins in an instant.

Even the parking lot in front of the experimental building was lifted up by the roots of tree vines, not to mention the power supply lines buried underground. Looking in along the cracked cracks in the ground, you can even vaguely see it. A layer of metal sealing board—under this sealing board is the underground icehouse where a large number of dangerous specimens are sealed.

It was obvious that there had been a fight in front of the laboratory building. Ke Lan saw at least twenty corpses wearing Crisis Management Department uniforms... As for the corpses of researchers wearing white coats, there were even more bodies. They were spread almost from the entrance to the laboratory building to the steps. Lowest level.

Most of these researchers were shot by Crisis Management Department operators, but from the corpses, less than one-tenth of them were infected. On the contrary, almost all of the operators who fired the shots died from the disease. “Memetic contagion.”

Without Schroeder's explanation, Ke Lan guessed that these people were the first people to enter the contaminated area. At that time, the contaminated area had not expanded to the entire institute headquarters, just the block where the biological laboratory building was located. In order to To block the route of infection, they had to shoot those who broke the rules and rushed out of the laboratory building... At that time, no one knew that this "terrible virus" was actually transmitted through looking at each other...

"Command Headquarters, I have arrived at the experimental building, but the entrance to the experimental building is blocked by a kind of vine plant... These plants have almost wrapped the entire building into a huge vine cocoon. "

"Vine plants?" In less than two seconds, Schroeder said to Ke Lan, "We have searched the collection directory of the underground icehouse, and there is only one kind of vine plant called 'Corroded Blood Vine'. The plant, like the six-winged gray mosquito, is only found in the gray mud swamp area. Its sap is like bright red blood and is extremely corrosive, so it was given such a name."

"But the ordinary 'corroding blood vines' are definitely not this thick... Moreover, at the ends of these vines, there are bloody eyeballs hanging down... It seems that apart from animals,' Memes can also infect plants." Ke Lan took a photo of the rotting blood vines wrapped around the experimental building, and then manually coded the eyeballs. After confirming that there were no omissions, he sent the photo back to the commander. department.

"The rotten blood vines that grow in normal environments are actually only as thick as a finger..." Schroeder quickly replied, "Although these rotten blood vines have mutated, some of its original characteristics should not disappear. You guys Don’t be careless.”

"Original characteristics? Are you talking about those corrosive juices?" Ke Lan glanced at the power armor on his body, "Didn't those guys from the Equipment Department praise this suit of armor so much before? Is it possible that even Can’t you hold the sap from this vine?”

"The juice of the rotten blood corroded vine has a particularly strong corrosive effect on metals. Its juice contains an active substance named 'B159' by the institute. From a microscopic perspective, this active substance can replace the electrons of metal atoms. , causing the metal to be oxidized in a very short period of time..."

"Wouldn't it be enough to add a layer of anti-oxidation coating?" Ke Lan said immediately, "To put it simply, it's just a matter of spraying the protective paint."

"In addition to 'B159', the juice itself will ablate all the materials it comes into contact with, and the effect of the anti-oxidation coating is not ideal." Schroeder said, "With the thickness of your armor, the corrosion of this juice can be at most Hold on for twenty minutes."

"Okay, can this thing be burned?" Ke Lan thought for a moment. If these corroded blood vines can be burned, then the experimental building will collapse. Anyway, the real target should have gone underground by now. The icehouse is gone, a pile of ruins made of concrete fragments, which is much easier to deal with than this mutated plant.

"It's difficult...the juice of the Corrupted Blood Corrosion Vine can burn anything it touches. If it was afraid of fire, it would have been burned away by its own juice...In fact, the people at the institute used the Corrupted Blood Corrosion Vine to The purpose of bringing it back from the mortar swamp is to study its fireproof properties and use it to develop new fireproof materials. As for the corrosive sap and the active substances in it, it is secondary."

"Then do you have any good ideas?" Ke Lan asked, "It can't be chopped, and it can't be burned. We can't just stare at the door."

"You can only break in forcefully," Schroeder said, "Break in with the energy shield... Although the rotten blood corroded vine is not afraid of fire, the energy shield can still burn it, along with the juice in the vine. ."

"What you said is the same as what you didn't say."

The shield generators equipped with the power armors of Ke Lan and Asano Akira have a maximum duration of five minutes, and the cooling time is ten minutes. In other words, including the time to resist with the armor, the most they can do is to survive the corrosive blood erosion. Under the erosion of vines for thirty-five minutes

First turn on the shield for five minutes, then cool down and resist for ten minutes; after the shield has cooled down, turn it on for another five minutes; then enter the cooling time of ten minutes for the second time and continue to resist. By this time, the armor has almost been eroded; After the third five-minute shield duration expires, he and Asano Akira will directly lose all means of protection and be directly exposed to those highly corrosive substances.

The biological laboratory building of the institute has a total of thirty-six floors, with each floor covering an area of ​​more than 3,000 square meters. Even if all the things in the laboratory building, including personnel and equipment, are emptied, leaving only the walls and corridors, the entire building will be completely destroyed. Thirty-five minutes is not enough time to walk through it all.

Although Ke Lan doesn't really need to check every room in the laboratory building, given the current situation, it will only take more time.

In addition to the rotting blood vines blocking the way, no one can say for sure what else is waiting for them in the experimental building - but one thing is certain, since the "memetic subject" will let those pretenders delay them pace, then it is impossible for it to give up its "home position" such as the experimental building.

Ke Lan can predict that the next step will be an extremely difficult battle.

To be precise, there are countless, almost non-stop, extremely difficult... battles.

"Professor Smith's laboratory is located in Area A on the 11th floor, Biochemistry Laboratory No. 9, which is also the birthplace of 'memetic infection'. Your fusion experiment of cloned tissue and Seed of Erosion cells was conducted in this laboratory. It’s going on here,” Schroeder said.

"Actually, I don't think I need to go to the laboratory. It might be easier to go directly to the underground ice storage." Ke Lan raised his head and looked at the nearly two hundred meters high building.

"But if you want to go to the underground icehouse, you have to go to the top floor of the laboratory building first... Professor Smith's laboratory is just a drop-in," Schroeder said.

"To go to the underground icehouse, you have to run to the 36th floor first? What kind of genius design is this?" Ke Lan was stunned for a moment and couldn't help but complain... If the architect who designed the laboratory and underground icehouse now If he were standing in front of him, he felt that he would just throw his big pussy over...

"This is also for safety reasons. The shell of the entire underground icehouse is made of twenty-five-meter-thick alloy. Only the elevator on the top floor can go down directly to the inside of the icehouse...even if there is something to be delivered before. When going to the icehouse, it is first transported to the top floor by helicopter, and then taken in the elevator..." Schroeder explained.

"Then can't I just dig the elevator shaft on the first floor?"

"The walls of the elevator shaft are four meters thick, and the Nino alloy content reaches 19%. Even if the entire experimental building is blasted into powder with artillery, the elevator shaft will not be damaged."

"Fuck... psycho..." Ke Lan said cursingly. He found that since he started dealing with these guys from the institute, his temper has become closer and closer to that of the hound guy.

Of course, if the hound had been the person involved, he would have raised his rifle butt and shouted that he would shoot the researchers one by one.

"There is no way around this. In addition, Professor Smith's laboratory may be able to find some important clues. This information may be helpful in dealing with the 'meme' subject..."

"Fart." Ke Lan objected, "Don't forget, our opponent is an intelligent creature. Since it knows how to send monsters to intercept us, it will definitely clean up the scene. Even if the information you mentioned is true, it will definitely It has also been cleared.”

"But this is our only chance. I think it is still necessary to try. Checking the laboratory will not waste too much time..."

Before Schroeder finished speaking, Ke Lan interrupted him: "I suddenly thought of a way to save time."

"any solution?"

"Since the target is the laboratory on the eleventh floor and the elevator shaft on the top floor, there is no need for me to enter the laboratory building. I can just climb up from the outer wall... Isn't this much simpler than walking through a narrow and dangerous corridor?"

"..." Schroeder was stunned, and the experts in the countermeasures team were also stunned. This was obviously a very simple idea that even a child could think of, but they, a group of academic elites with an average IQ of over 190, But this route was completely ignored.

Almost everyone is thinking about how to enter the building and how to face the interception of the mutated indigenous creatures in the building - they have been thinking about how to get through this maze full of monsters in the shortest time, but they are completely unaware. If you just want to reach the exit of the maze, you only need to walk half a circle around the outer edge of the maze.

Even Ke Lan fell into this misunderstanding at the beginning. It wasn't until Schroeder said that before sending specimens to the icehouse that they were sent to the top floor by helicopter, he realized that to enter the elevator shaft, he would not be able to enter the elevator shaft at all. No need to enter the building.

"Theoretically... this... this is indeed the fastest and safest route..." Schroeder said unnaturally.

"Then let's stop talking nonsense." After Ke Lan finished speaking, he raised his arm, pointed the grapple gun at a seemingly intact outer wall between the eighth and ninth floors, and pulled the trigger.

The sharp claws were instantly nailed into the concrete. Ke Lan tugged the cable a few times to make sure it was not loose, then started the engine of the rotating shaft and began to retract the cable.

He himself stepped on the outer wall and began to walk up step by step following the tightened cable.

But just when Ke Lan reached a height of ten meters, the corroded blood vines around him suddenly moved! Several vines as thick as a water tank let go of the wall, swung it in a large circle in mid-air, and then whipped it towards Ke Lan who was stepping on the wall; while the smaller vines were pulled along the wall. It spread quickly along the wall and quickly wrapped around Ke Lan's legs!

"I knew this would come." A slightly sarcastic smile appeared on Ke Lan's face, and he cut the cable directly. The fixed hook that he used to use the shotgun once again ejected from his footsteps and grabbed the wall... …Then, directly increase the power of the energy shield to the maximum!

The dozens of vines turned into fly ash the moment they came into contact with the energy shield. Even the concrete wall in front of Ke Lan was vaporized and nearly half a meter of layer was lost. Ke Lan, who lost his support, immediately began to fall. ——

"Whoosh——"

The second hook flew out, and Ke Lan, who had just fallen less than three meters, flew up again. Without the obstruction of the vines, he jumped directly to the outer window of the eleventh floor and smashed the bulletproof glass with one punch. He opened the window and jumped into the corridor.