Alien Relic Hunter

Caught off guard, the "Blue Fortress" failed to dodge this swift and precise attack. The energy shield that was hastily opened was instantly penetrated. The entire battleship disintegrated in the air, and the disintegrated hull fragments were enveloped in a thick Smoke and explosions fell from the sky like a rain of fire.

Fortunately, the command headquarters on the "Blue Fortress" has been transferred in advance, and this flagship is actually just an "empty shell" in name only.

…

After Ke Lan learned the news, his first reaction was - "The goal of the super giant erosion seed is to drive the troops who were on standby into the ruins!"

In other words, the ruins of the Ancient Copper City were a trap specially set for them... This was almost a certainty.

"But, if the heretic sect wanted to let these troops enter the ruins, they wouldn't have to deploy this corrosive seed on the frontal battlefield from the beginning?" Layton asked puzzledly, "Isn't this approach superfluous? What if the field army didn't have it? Should we choose to take a roundabout route instead of retreating?”

"Perhaps for them, there is no 'retreat' option." Thirty-three said, "I think the biggest doubt about this matter is... why the undead crew member you are talking about is so eager to launch this war."

"Can I communicate directly with the people of the Undead Crew Association?" Ivan looked at Ke Lan with questioning eyes.

"Let me try."

Ke Lan took out his mobile phone, but at this time, there was no signal in the signal bar next to the battery icon in the upper right corner of the screen. There were only a few lines of small words that kept flashing: "This machine is currently no longer in the service area."

"Leiton, help me connect my mobile phone to the command network for this battle." Ke Lan said.

"Wait a moment." Layton said and started to get busy. In less than a minute, a simple signal transceiver composed of several metal antennas and a chip appeared in his hand.

This thing is equivalent to a wireless router, which can connect to standard communication equipment within ten meters of the surrounding area. This saves Ke Lan the trouble of running into the cockpit of the mecha to make calls.

Ke Lan's mobile phone was connected to the military network of this combat operation. The mining base and the communication tower built in the White Ridge Mountains were used as transfer base stations, directly connected to Ark's public communication network.

Ke Lan originally wanted to call Pan directly to ask for details, but when he saw that the information dealer with the ID ACMS_0420 on his social software happened to be online, he suddenly had a strange idea in his heart.

As if by mistake, Ke Lan edited a message and sent it to the information dealer.

"Do you know the news about the three major fleets of the Field Corps and the Air Force besieging the ruins of the Ancient Bronze City?"

"I know." Almost as soon as Ke Lan pressed the send button, the other party gave a reply... Considering the delay in the network signal transmission process, Ke Lan even suspected that the other party sent this answer at the same time that he had raised it. before the question.

This guy feels like a ghost lurking on the Internet.

This time the information dealer's answer was very brief, without any delay or emoticons. It was not at all like his previous style.

Could this guy have been snatched away? Ke Lan complained in his mind, then edited another message and sent it.

"Do you know why the people above are so eager to attack?"

"I know." He replied instantly.

"What's the price of this information?" Ke Lan asked habitually. Although he knew very little about this information dealer, he was still aware of the characteristic of "no profit, no early start", and the other party also said it during the chat. I laughed at myself for not having any special hobbies except money.

"It's free this time." The information dealer's answer surprised Ke Lan. "The reason why the undead crew members are rushing to launch an attack is because this is a decisive battle - a decisive battle between Ark and the heretical sect. I can tell you clearly, The prophet’s true body is within the ruins of the Ancient Bronze City.”

Seeing these lines of words displayed on the screen, Ke Lan's breath couldn't help but suffocate. The next second, his fingers quickly tapped on the virtual keyboard:

"Where did you get this information?"

Ke Lan was not too surprised when the intelligence dealer mentioned the Immortal Crew Association - although the existence of the Immortal Crew Association is regarded as the highest level secret of Ark, compared with the information this guy can get , on the contrary, it seems a bit commonplace.

"Have you forgotten the rules? When buying information from me, you are not allowed to inquire about the source - even if it is free information."

"Okay." Ke Lan thought for a while and changed the question.

"Are you a member of the Undead Crew?"

This time, the other party didn't reply immediately. Ke Lan waited for a full minute before getting an ambiguous answer.

"You can say yes, you can say no."

"Can the Riddler crawl?"

"I don't want to be the Riddler, but that's the fact... If you insist on having an accurate answer, then just pretend that I am." The information dealer replied.

What does it mean to pretend that you are... Ke Lan frowned and subconsciously asked a useless question: "Why did you never say it?"

It wasn't until he sent this message that he realized that he seemed to be asking nonsense.

"Because you never asked." The other party's answer was as meaningless as Ke Lan's question.

"Then which member are you? What's your code name?"

"I don't have a seat or a code name. If you have to think that people with a serial number are considered members of the Immortal Crew Association, then under this premise, I am not a member of the Immortal Crew Association."

"Under what conditions can you be considered a member of the crew association?"

"When calculated according to authority." The other party replied, "For example, regarding the delivery of the living armor to you, those named guys have the right to vote, and I also have my vote. Of course, in most cases, I will abstain from voting... I prefer to be an observer rather than a participant in the event."

"Do the other members of the Undead Crew know about your existence?"

"Some know, some don't." Another ambiguous answer, "You should know that the information resources among the members of the Immortal Crew Association are not completely equal... Just like ordinary people, everyone has their own It’s my own little secret, and I exist in the ‘secret’ of some of them.”

"Okay, let's not talk about it for now. Now that you said it, this is a decisive battle between the heretic sect and Ark, but now it's clear that the other party deliberately put Ark's main force into the ruins... This is no longer a conspiracy. , is a naked conspiracy...it just has the words 'This is a trap' written on your face. Aren't you still planning to suspend the combat operation?"

"How to stop it, let the troops withdraw from the ruins, and then face the monster guarding outside?"

"Can't we just let the airship transport people out?"

"With the capacity of the combat fleet, it will take at least four days to transport these hundreds of thousands of people. Do you think it will be in time?" ACMS_0420 asked.

"Then you just watch these hundreds of thousands of people buried in the ruins?" If this was a face-to-face conversation, Ke Lan even wanted to grab the other party's collar and question him, "This is what the field corps can do." The main force mobilized is a group of warriors with the most combat experience among humans. If they all die here...who else can compete with the monster army of the heretical sect in the future?"

"But as long as the heretical sect can be eradicated in one fell swoop, then their sacrifice will be completely worth it." The intelligence dealer replied, "Have you ever heard of an idiom called 'taking advantage of the enemy's strategy?"

"Do you know the heretical sect's plan?"

"I don't know. If I knew, I would definitely not let this combat plan be implemented. But since things are irreversible, we can only resort to tricks."

"What kind of tricks do you know how to use?"

"Assault the control core of the Ancient Copper City ruins and occupy the central tower - since the heretical sect has set the Ancient Copper City ruins as a trap, then for this trap to be effective, it must be related to the ruins themselves. If you can successfully seize the ruins With control, all problems will naturally be solved.”

"us?"

"Yes, you." The intelligence dealer sent a smiley expression, "As a special operations team, this is your top priority. As for the hundreds of thousands of troops, they are just to attract firepower for you. "

"Last question, what's your relationship with Pan?" Ke Lan asked. He always felt that in terms of being mean, this information dealer was on par with Pan... If he hadn't said that he didn't have a seat or a code name, Ke Lan would have wanted both. I thought it was one of Pan's vests.

"Pan knows about my existence. He likes to imitate my way of talking and acting, that's all." The other person said.

"So, your qualifications are older than Pan's?" The qualifications Ke Lan mentioned here did not refer to the order of seats in the Undead Crew Club, but to the time when he joined the Undead Crew Club - he had already You know, the seat number actually doesn't have much meaning, otherwise, the "Pope" of Chiron's fifth seat would never be able to inherit it.

"I guess I joined two or three hundred years earlier than him." The information dealer said lightly.

"How much information can you tell me about the Undead Crew Association?"

"This part of the information is not for sale and needs to be unlocked by completing various tasks, and depending on the degree of completion of the tasks, the unlocked information will be different," the intelligence dealer said.

"Where are you going to play the main RPG?"

"I don't have any objection to how you want to understand it. But your main mission right now is to take down the high tower located in the middle of the ruins of the Ancient Bronze City - I can basically confirm that the prophet's true body is hiding in this high tower. ."

"How are you sure?"

"Because if he wants to completely control the ruins of an Alpha civilization, only his true body can do it... Just like Yagunaktor, he once tried to use a substitute to activate the console, but ultimately failed."

"So, I am the only one who can seize control of the ruins from the prophet, right?" Ke Lan quickly saw another layer of meaning hidden between the lines of the other party's words.

"Yes, so your small team is the key to this battle. The hundreds of thousands of troops above are just a foil."

…

"What's going on, Ke Lan?" Layton poked his head out of the cockpit, "You didn't call anyone from the Undead Crew Club? Instead, you used social software to chat with people? Uh, you have to know how to use a military network To log into civilian social software... This is illegal, and if someone finds out, they may immediately cut off our network."

"I'm communicating with a guy who claims to be a member of the Immortal Crew Association," Ke Lan said.

"'Claims to be'? So is he real or fake?"

"I can't be sure...but judging from the information he provided me, his identity is very likely to be true." Ke Lan said, "I have conducted many 'transactions' with him. Before his identity was revealed to me, I always felt that there were many unexplainable doubts about him. But if he is really a member of the Immortal Crew Club, then these doubts will be explained."

"But if he is an enemy, it would be terrible." Thirty-three added.

"Then what should we do now? Withdraw from the war zone?" Layton asked again, "We have to hurry up and make a decision... I always feel that if we run too late, we might not be able to escape."

"No, we can't withdraw." Ke Lan looked up at the Blasphemer mecha, "Valentina, turn on the machine's engine power to the maximum. We must enter the core control of the Ancient Bronze City ruins as quickly as possible. district."

"No way?" Hearing what Ke Lan said, Leiton was stunned for a moment, "We all know that the ruins of the Bronze City are a trap, why do we still jump in?"

"Mr. Ghost Owl's previous analogy is correct. The Bronze City can indeed be regarded as a large formation, a large formation that can kill people... But the more complex this kind of formation is, the less likely it is to be perfect. As long as the formation eye can be found, , it can be cracked... And the formation of the ancient copper city ruins is on the central tower of the core control area." Ke Lan said, "If we retreat now, then the hundreds of thousands of field troops who entered the ruins will be able to crack it... It’s really all in vain, with so much vitality lost, the strength gap between Ark and the heretical sect will only become more and more obvious.”

"When the nest is overturned, there are no eggs left." Ivan said softly.

"The core control area that cannot be conquered by hundreds of thousands of people can be conquered by just a few more of us?" Layton said with a grimace, "I admit that in this team, except for me, you are all great people. Each one is stronger than the other, but no matter how strong a person is, there is a limit... Can we accomplish what hundreds of thousands of people cannot accomplish?"

"What we need is not power, but a key." Ke Lan looked around the team, paused, and then said in a deep voice, "I am the key."

[P.S. Thanks to the reading giraffe, soap is of great use, and yiw55 for the reward of 1,500 starting coins; thank you for the 100 starting coins for the reward of Flicker of Nirvana. 】