Alien Relic Hunter

"Forget it, everyone has his own ambitions, and there is no need to force others." Hound said, "We were not the same before. If it hadn't been for that crash, we might still be loners now."

"That's true..." Leiton touched his forehead, "After all, among the few of us, only Zhuoligetu has experience of forming a team with him. We haven't been together for a long time, and we know everything about him completely. It’s out of the question, if someone readily agrees to join the gang, we will be suspicious.”

"That guy Thirty-Three seems to be easy to get along with, but actually it's very difficult to gain his trust." Hound shook his head, "His and I have similar experiences. We have both experienced betrayal and betrayal... Although from above From a human perspective, this is called a 'strategic sacrifice', a price that must be paid for the sake of the overall situation... But only when you truly become the 'price' itself, the abandoned child, can you experience it personally. Such despair."

"Let's not talk about it for now. Let's prepare quickly. We will set off at ten o'clock tomorrow morning." Ke Lan said, "The destination is the area marked as 'Block No. 1'. I based on the quality of each transmission. Calculated based on the energy required by the unit, this 'Block 1' consumes the least energy, so logically speaking, it should be closest to the core power room."

"Stop talking about it logically. Anything related to Alpha civilization cannot be logically explained, at least not according to our logic... let alone this thing is -" The hound stopped here. As members of the molten mine reconnaissance team, they all knew that this ancient warship was probably not a creation of the Alpha civilization, but rather came from a third civilization whose technological level was far superior to the Alpha civilization.

However, this matter is regarded as a top secret and is not allowed to be disclosed to anyone. Even the hunters who participated in the "Aguna Kotor" exploration operation have no right to know.

"Regardless of whether Block 1 is the closest area, at least the energy we need to go back and forth is the least, and the transmission process is also the shortest... For the first exploration, we don't seek merit, but seek no faults. Our initial goal is to be first Find out the general condition of this ancient warship and lay the foundation for subsequent exploration operations," Ke Lan said.

"So how much information is currently available about this 'Block 1'?" Hound asked.

"zero."

"Zero? Haven't you already obtained the authority to control the console? Isn't there even a diagram of the internal structure of the battleship?" Hound said in shock.

"I only know the general structure of the battleship's interior, but the details of the left, right, and internal conditions of each cabin are completely unknown..."

"In other words, this 'Block 1'... may be empty, or it may be filled with hot magma, or it may even be filled with the corpses of Alphas?" Hound's question He propped his elbows on the coffee table and tapped the glass table top with the nails of his index fingers. "In the worst case scenario, maybe we were just teleported in and were wiped out on the spot?"

"So, we need to send the drone in first." Ke Lan said.

"But the signal from the drone can't be sent back, right?"

"You can let the drone record the captured images and collected environmental data, set up an automatic cruise program, and when the time is up, I will open the transmission channel..."

"What if the drone can't come back?" Hound asked, staring closely at Ke Lan.

"Then there is only one way." Ke Lan paused and continued, "Under a heavy reward, there must be a brave man."

Ke Lan would not just tie people up and throw them in like those lunatics at the institute... But in that case, if the exploration operation was to continue, someone would have to risk their lives to conduct a "flesh investigation." Ke Lan believes that as long as the reward amount is high enough, someone will "voluntarily" come forward.

This is a gamble, and the bet is the bettor's own life... But since ancient times, there have never been a few people who exchange their lives for money, not to mention that this is not a certain death situation.

He doesn't need to do anything. As long as he can come back alive after entering the transmission channel, he can get generous rewards... Even a dying, terminally ill, or even disabled old man can do this kind of thing. There are almost no barriers. To say the least, even if he fails to come back, his family will have a better life.

In the old era, this kind of thing would usually be done by well-trained special dogs, but in this era, a dog's life is worth far more than a human life. Even among the powerful class on the Ark, a pure-blooded pet dog can be regarded as a rare "luxury".

This is ironic, but it is also an indisputable fact.

…

The next day, morning, nine forty-five.

All the hunters who had finished their rest gathered in the open space in front of the base. One hundred meters directly in front of them was the energy supply array of the core power room. Those thick and square crystal pillars were emitting a faint green fluorescence. .

Everyone is wearing protective clothing - if you want to carry out large-scale teleportation, if you rely solely on energy crystals to pile up, the number of crystals required will be an astronomical number, and Ke Lan can only use the power of "Aguna Kotor" again. The side effect of using an energy supply array to provide energy for the transmission device is that the radiation intensity in the entire power room will increase to hundreds of times its original value.

"Although I've seen it in photos before, the feeling of being there is still different...it's so shocking." The ghost owl of the Gray Bird Hunting Group looked at the crystal pillars in the pit and exclaimed. A sigh.

"Of course, humans in the old era would also feel incredible if they saw a Himalaya made of 24K pure gold." Hound said.

On the Ark, energy crystals can be said to be stronger currency than credits and precious metals, so the metaphor of a hunting dog is not problematic at all.

"All the energy crystals in other S-class ruins are not more than one-tenth of those here, right?" Ghost Owl continued, "I'm really curious about the origin of this battleship."

"The purpose of our gathering here today is for this matter." Ke Lan said, "We can start."

"Yes." Layton, who was sitting cross-legged on the ground, nodded, connected the robotic arm to the drone's controller, and at the same time typed quickly on the keyboard with his other hand.

The four drones placed in front of him floated into the air one after another - these four drones were provided by the Ye Group. In addition to the propeller blades and emergency thrusters that most drones will be equipped with, In addition, these four drones are also equipped with miniature anti-gravity devices and energy shield generators. The configuration can only be described as "luxury".

Four drones formed a diamond formation in the air, and the four energy shields were opened directly. At the same time, Ke Lan also opened the transmission channel to "Block 1".

A group of black mist appeared directly in front of the drone queue - the transmission channel of "Yagunaktor" is very different from the "portal gates" described in science fiction works. It does not have a fixed The shape does not have an obvious boundary, and the phenomenon that can be observed with the naked eye is just an opaque black fog.

After entering the range of the black mist, the person or object being transported will not disappear immediately, but will gradually become transparent like a frozen afterimage, and finally completely merge with the black mist.

When viewed from the perspective of the person being transported, the moment they enter the black fog, the field of vision will turn into pitch black... Not only the field of vision will be dark, but other senses will also be completely disabled, and the whole person will seem to have only a wisp left. Consciousness drifts in the darkness, and everything will return to normal until it reaches the transmission destination.

"After debugging, the drone status is normal, and the automatic cruise program has been designed. It is set to return immediately, 600 seconds, 1200 seconds and 1800 seconds after arriving at the destination. If there is a deviation in the position of the return channel, no one will If you have the opportunity to patrol near the original coordinates, as long as the offset distance is not too outrageous, you will most likely be able to crash into it."

"Okay, I will keep the passage open." Ke Lan responded, "Come in."

As soon as Ke Lan finished speaking, Layton pressed the Enter key on the keyboard, the "automatic cruise program" was activated, and the four drones flew smoothly into the black fog.

"Based on the energy consumption required for transmission, the transmission process should only take a few seconds. If everything goes well, we will soon see the first drone returning home." Ke Lan said to others.

"I hope so." The hound nodded, but the expression on his face was solemn, and he stared at the black mist not far away without blinking.

Thirty seconds passed quickly, and there was no movement in the black fog - the thing that worried everyone still happened: the first drone failed to return in time.

"I knew this wouldn't go so smoothly." Hound sighed, "Compared to the fact that we were able to be teleported directly to the core power room at that time, we really hit the jackpot."

Ke Lan really wanted to tell the Hound that they were able to successfully enter the core power room, most likely because of the Prophet's intention... But there were so many people at the moment that he couldn't say this directly, so he could only acquiesce to the Hound's statement.

"Don't worry, maybe it's just that the exit at the other end of the transmission channel has shifted. This kind of situation has happened before." Ke Lan said in a deep voice, "Wait a moment."

Everyone stopped talking, but the atmosphere became much more solemn invisibly.

Ke Lan and others waited for more than ten minutes. When it was time for the second drone to return, the first drone still did not come back.

"The chance of the drone coming back is already very slim." Ghost Owl said with a frown, "It's time to consider a backup plan."

"Actually, there are many reasons why the drone cannot come back, and it is not necessarily destroyed." Layton said, "For example, that place has extremely strong electromagnetic interference, which is strong enough to affect the inside of the aircraft through the energy shield. navigation device..."

"What you said is the same as what you said in vain." Hound rolled his eyes at Leighton and said, "How strong is the electromagnetic interference that can penetrate even energy shields? Converted into radiation, I'm afraid even the Even protective clothing can’t stop it.”

"I'm just talking about one of the situations... It's not the only one." Layton muttered.

"Wait thirty minutes, if no drone returns, then activate the backup plan." Ke Lan said... In fact, before the drone set off, he already had a strong premonition. This sounds a bit The "less humane" backup plan will definitely be used in the end.

Even if the initial exploration of this "Block No. 1" goes smoothly, there will be "Block No. 2", "Block No. 3", etc.... so-called "unexpected situations" will happen sooner or later.

After all, this is an S-class relic.

Among the existing S-class ruins, a lot of sacrifices were made in the early exploration stage. It is not an exaggeration to say that they were made with human lives... It is simply a fantasy to explore S-class ruins without dying.

"I have a suggestion." Ghost Owl suddenly said, "It's a meat detective anyway, whoever you send...it's all the same, right?"

"What do you mean?" Thirty-three glanced at him and asked.

"Everyone who is doing this is a professional relic hunter, so we might as well speak more clearly." Ghost Owl said, "Meat detection is a life-threatening job to be honest, with no technical content. We don't need to Precious hunters are wasted on this. My suggestion is - this candidate is selected from among the logistics staff. Even if he does not come back alive, it is not a loss to us."

Although his words made people feel a little uncomfortable, Ke Lan and the others really couldn't refute him - indeed, it is indeed the most "cost-effective" to let less important and easily supplemented logistics personnel serve as meat detectives. "method.

The selection process was very short - when Ke Lan proposed that those who served as meat detectives would receive six million credits regardless of whether they came back alive or not, a group of people almost fought over their heads... Six million for one life, no matter what. Whether it is on the Ark or in the wilderness, it is already considered a "high price".

Looking at this group of guys who signed up enthusiastically, Ke Lan couldn't help but think of an old saying.

"The wages of avarice is death."

In the end, Ke Lan chose two people from the logistics staff photographed by Ye's consortium.

Both of these men are middle-aged men in their forties and are responsible for errands at the base. Based on their salary levels, it would take them thirty years of not eating or drinking to save six million credits.

This is considered a monthly salary that increased to more than 10,000 and nearly 20,000 per month after taking on special tasks. If they had not been able to come to "Yagunaktor", their monthly income would have been only three to four thousand or six hundred. Wan is simply money that you will never make in a lifetime.

The two selected faces were flushed with excitement at first, especially after seeing a long string of zeros starting with six in their accounts, the excitement reached its peak... However, , it was not until the hunters put heavy protective equipment on them that the two of them realized that this was a mission from which they might not be able to come back, and their originally flushed faces instantly turned pale.

[P.S. Thanks to book friend 20190120204241646 for the 200 starting coins. 】