Alien Relic Hunter

"It seems to have a very precise crystal structure inside. I suspect it may be a creation of Alpha civilization, but we don't have the corresponding testing equipment, and my scalpel can't dissect something of this size."

"Crystal Circuit Structure" is one of the alien technologies discovered by humans from the ruins of Alpha Civilization. Prior to this, human semiconductor material technology could only produce nanometer-level chips. Limited by the purity of single crystal silicon and the accuracy of laser etching technology, one nanometer was already the minimum limit of the circuit gap, but Alpha Civilization The crystal circuit structure created is to directly use single atoms to bombard the interior of the high-purity crystal, and then use Nino alloy to fill the tiny channels created by the bombardment of the atoms. The performance of crystal circuit chips manufactured by this technology can even reach more than a thousand times that of one-nanometer chips of the same volume.

This cutting-edge technology is obviously not something that Ke Lan and others can crack. Even if it is the most well-equipped semiconductor laboratory on the Ark, it will take at least half a year to analyze a new crystal circuit structure.

"This kind of problem should be a headache for researchers." Ivan reluctantly put the remains of the insect into a test tube made of explosion-proof glass. In any case, this can be regarded as a rather precious trophy. If they had followed the original exploration plan, I'm afraid the credits that all of them could earn together wouldn't be able to exceed the value of this bug.

"What is certain at present is that this bug... is an 'artificial object' - regardless of whether the person who made it can be considered a 'human being', this thing is definitely not a natural creature. Then, we must face the second That’s a question.” Ke Lan muttered.

The hound's expression seemed a little depressed. He glanced at Asano Akira, then turned to Ke Lan and said, "What's the problem? If it's an academic discussion, I think it's better to skip it. Now I just want to know how to leave this ghost." Place. Damn, if I had known things would turn out like this, I might as well have taken over the cleaning task in the northern mining area. At least those monsters are not so evil."

"No... this question is very important. Since this thing is a man-made object, then we have to know its mode of action - whether this thing is autonomous or remote-controlled. If it is the latter, then who is the 'person' who controls it? Who? Where is it now? And what is its purpose."

As soon as these words came out, several other people suddenly felt a chill on their backs, and even the hairs on their necks stood up, as if something in the darkness was watching them...

"Brother Ke Lan, the question you asked is... a bit scary." Zhuo Ligetu swallowed and touched the hand ax stuck in his waist as if to be brave.

"If it's a remote control type, who do you think is controlling it?" Ivan frowned, "Alpha?"

Humans have been stationed on Alpha Planet for fifty years. Millions of drones have scanned almost the entire planet's surface during these fifty years, but they have never found any trace of Alpha people's activities. Not only that. , while exploring the ruins of the Alpha civilization, so far no body of an Alpha person has been found.

Human beings, who were originally outsiders, have now become the only intelligent creatures on this planet...

Scholars have been arguing about the disappearance of Alpha Civilization from fifty years ago until now. There are currently two most mainstream theories, one is the war theory, and the other is the immigration theory. However, both theories have loopholes that cannot be ignored.

War theory holds that a large-scale world war destroyed the entire civilization. It was precisely because of the war that the planet was filled with radiation, and many ruins on the surface did show signs of destruction—— But the flaw in the war theory is that not a single Alpha human body can be found on the entire planet. Whether it is soldiers killed in battle or civilians hiding in shelters, they seem to have evaporated out of thin air, leaving not even a trace of bones. Down.

The immigration theory is also not very tenable. From a human perspective, apart from the radiation on the surface and the highly toxic ocean, Alpha is a planet that is quite suitable for intelligent creatures to survive. It has a structure similar to that of the Earth. Gravity, rotation period and revolution period, the oxygen content in the atmosphere is not low, and the temperature is in the range of minus 75 degrees Celsius to above zero 20 degrees Celsius... There is no reason for any civilization to completely abandon such a pleasant area. The place to live, not to mention, there are still a lot of resources left here that have not been taken away.

If there are still Alpha people remaining on this planet, this news alone is enough to cause earth-shaking changes in the entire human society.

Although the contact between human beings and extraterrestrial intelligent civilizations has only existed in literary and artistic works and scientific hypotheses since its birth, the result of the contact is completely foreseeable - there is a high probability of war.

Judging from the current level of exploration of Alpha Civilization, once humans and Alpha Civilization go to war, the winning rate is infinitely close to zero.

"Impossible! If the Alphas were still alive, we would have been destroyed long ago!" Layton said decisively.

"What if they are in a dormant state? Or are they subject to some restrictions... Or, let's boldly assume that this planet is just a testing ground for the Alpha people, and we humans are just a group of guinea pigs that mistakenly entered here. ..." Ivan said while tapping the glass test tube with his fingers.

"Now is not the time to discuss this - let's vote to decide whether to continue exploring the depths of the ruins or return to the cave to wait for rescue. The minority obeys the majority. Come on." The hound's breathing was a little rapid. As a senior hunter , Fear is an emotion that should not appear at any time, and the best way to eliminate fear is to face the fear and force yourself to make a decision.

The results of the voting came out quickly. All six people chose the former. They didn't carry many supplies with them. There was actually not much difference between waiting for rescue and waiting to die.

…

Continuing forward, with the cold green light of the fluorescent sticks, the six people continued in the narrow passage for almost half an hour. Finally, with a low cry from Layton, who was in the van, the front suddenly became clear.

This is an oval underground hall, almost as big as two football fields. A pillar as thick as two people hugging each other stands in the center of the hall, reaching up to the nearly 100-meter-high dome.

The floor of the hall is paved with polished dark gray stone slabs, and the gaps between the stone slabs are filled with a black substance similar to clay.

There are four entrances and exits connecting the hall, which are located exactly at the four vertices of the oval, and the opening that Ke Lan and the others came out of is one of the two long axis endpoints.

The hound's eyes were immediately attracted to the pillar in the middle of the hall. After seeing clearly the material of the pillar, he couldn't help but exclaimed: "Good guy...this entire pillar...is made of Nino alloy." ! It’s an A-level relic after all!”

"There seems to be an embossment of Alpha characters on that pillar..." Ivan narrowed his eyes and wanted to take a closer look, but was held back by Ke Lan.

"Be careful on the floor, there is a trap."

"Mechanism? How did you tell?" The hound was a little confused, but he still obediently took back the foot he just extended.

"I once saw a similar hall in a C-level ruins. It also had a pillar in the middle, four doors, and the ground was paved with two meters square stone floors. There were also this kind of hall between each floor. It’s called ‘vinyl’ filling, but the hall is much smaller than this one.”

"What is the mechanism?"

"In addition to the nine floors at each entrance being safe, if you step on the wrong floor on the other floors, traps will be triggered." Ke Lan said, "As for the types of traps, there are many types, and the most common ones are The gravity trap, including the triggered one, will instantly add a hundred times gravity to the nine surrounding floors, crushing people to death."

"Then how did you crack this mechanism at that time?" Layton asked. Even after undergoing the fourth level of biochemical transformation, he would never be able to withstand the pressure of a hundred times his own weight.

"We couldn't crack it. We chose to take a detour after three hunters died." Ke Lan shook his head.