Alien Relic Hunter

Ke Lan walked to the "Walker" mecha and directly removed the hatch cover that had been squeezed out of shape by countless vines with his hands.

A pale skeleton lay crooked in the cockpit, and a large number of wood fibers growing randomly almost completely filled the small space in the cockpit.

Obviously, this pilot was also "eaten" by Wuqi Mu.

Ke Lan used an engineer shovel to split the wooden fibers and took out the pilot's belongings wrapped inside - an FMG submachine gun folded into a suitcase style, an EDC emergency bag (note: EDC: every day carry, every day carry) The things I carry with me every day later extended to the meaning of "survival gadgets that I carry with me" (survival maniacs should be very clear about this.) and a paper notebook.

Perhaps because he was thinking about Mo Jue's father's portable notebook, Ke Lan felt inexplicably excited when he saw this notebook with an artificial leather cover and the emblem of the Field Service Corps stenciled on the front.

He quickly looked through the notebook, but the content inside made him disappointed - the "Walker" pilot stopped taking notes on the second day after entering the gray fog forest, and on the first day The content is so short that it does not even last two hundred words.

"This damn forest, these damn fogs."

"Isn't it time for this fog to dissipate?"

"I got lost again, why did I get lost again!!"

"The Walker that opened the way actually disappeared. Such a big target actually disappeared so quietly from under the eyes of others? This is really a ghost!"

"The company is going to choose another machine to be the pioneer. I don't want to be chosen. I always feel it's safer to stay on the flank of the formation."

On the first day after entering the gray mist forest, the pilot only wrote five paragraphs in his notes, and after that, he wrote nothing.

The FMG folding submachine gun used as the pilot's self-defense weapon was still in a folded state, and the bullets in the magazine were full. This meant that at least the pilot had not encountered a situation that required him to get off the plane to fight.

However, Valentina discovered that the "Walker" mecha's cannon ammunition had been all used up, the rocket launcher nest was also empty, and the mecha fighting dagger blade used for close combat was also full of gaps. The front, There are obvious claw marks and acid etching marks on the side and back armor. The two legs are not even original at all, but were removed from another machine body and replaced.

All this shows that this walker mecha has experienced a very fierce battle - but because this armored force was originally chased into the gray mist forest by indigenous creatures dozens of times its own size, where did this battle take place? Before entering the forest or after entering the forest, it is difficult to judge.

At least according to the pilot's notes, before entering the forest, their entire unit had been fighting and escaping, but on the first day after entering the forest, there was no fighting.

Immediately afterwards, Ke Lan opened the EDC emergency bag again. Most of the tools inside were still there. There were also two unopened energy bars stuffed in the mezzanine that had melted into a mushy state - at least from the pilot's perspective. From a personal point of view, he has not yet run out of ammunition and food.

As for the toxins in the fog, the cockpit of the Walker mecha is fully sealed. Under the dual protection of air filters and oxygen generators, a Walker mecha can last at least a month in a toxic environment. …So, what was the cause of the pilot’s death?

"There are still unused energy crystals inserted in the power furnace." Valentina said to Ke Lan, "The main body of the mecha has not been damaged. Give me two hours and I can make this mecha again. Get moving.”

"That's strange... There was no ammunition and food, there was enough oxygen, the gun was not used, and there were no bullet casings in the cockpit to rule out suicide... Then how did the pilot die? Could it be that the cockpit was destroyed while sleeping? The tree vines were secretly pried open and then strangled to death? That's not right. People need to sleep, but machines don't. The energy of the Walker mecha has not been exhausted. If the cockpit is pried open by external forces, the alarm will definitely be enough to wake people from sleep. The pilot's death..." Ke Lan eliminated the pilot's death methods one by one, but in the end, he found that there was no one left - except for unreliable things like sudden illness. Apart from the way of death, I couldn't find a reasonable explanation.

Ivan's autopsy also found no clues - there were no residual toxins or radiation in the bones. Like the golden retriever's corpse, the bones had multiple fractures, but it was impossible to determine whether the fractures occurred before death or after death.

On the other side, Thirty-three and Mo Jue inspected the "Type 906" light tank together - from the model of this tank, we can know that this is a tank that was officially launched in 906 of the new era. The light tanks that have been deployed in the army have been retired for a long time. Except for a small amount of them remaining in military museums and the warehouses of some powerful collectors, people born in Ke Lan's era can only see them in pictures and videos. Time for it.

The tank only had two rounds left, the smoke grenades were almost empty, and the machine gun on the top of the turret disappeared, leaving only a severely twisted metal base.

Due to the use of a large number of automated and intelligent equipment, the standard crew of the Type 906 light tank only requires two people: a driver and a commander who also serves as the gunner. As for the machine gun on the roof, it is generally used for collaborative operations or riding. Tanks are operated by infantrymen.

But inside this 906 tank, Thirty-three actually found fifteen remains!

The identity of the deceased can be determined based on the uniforms on these remains. Except for the driver and commander, the others were all infantrymen of this unit. The remains of these people were huddled in the small and crowded carriage, close to each other...

"It's stuffed like a sardine can," Mo Jue said.

Ke Lan shook his head and said: "I feel more like the black slaves who were stuffed in the cabin of the slave ship in the fifteenth century of the old era."

The interior space of the Type 906 light tank is very small, with a height of only 1.4 meters. A slightly taller person can touch their head while sitting, and the area can only accommodate four to five people at most... these fifteen The remains were stacked and stuffed in a curled-up position, like books on a bookshelf...

"It's possible that these people were already corpses when they were moved in." Ivan thought for a while and said.

"This is the only possibility. You can't even move in this position. It won't be long before the people in the carriage die of suffocation. This tank should be specially used to store corpses." Ke Lan said, "But... …There’s a question that I can’t figure out.”

"What's the problem?" Ivan looked at Ke Lan with questioning eyes.

"According to the records in the Ark archives and the diary of the Walker mecha pilot, this unit crashed into the gray fog forest when they were chased in a panic. In that case, the survivors It is impossible for the soldiers to have time to collect the bodies of their fallen comrades. As for the seriously wounded, they probably cannot keep up with the high-speed moving troops... It is excessive to abandon the bodies of comrades and the seriously wounded, but in order to allow more Many people survived, so the commander was forced to make that decision." Ke Lan frowned.

"Is there any problem with this?" Mo Jue didn't react for a while.

"When this unit entered the gray mist forest, they probably did not bring corpses or seriously injured people with them. In other words, these people died in the gray mist forest." Ivan said with a solemn expression - obviously , he had already understood the hidden meaning in Ke Lan's words.

"What do you mean?" Mo Jue still didn't react.

"Your team has lost so many people in the Gray Mist Forest. No matter whether these people are dead or alive... But from the 'status definition', they are all 'missing', right? Have you seen them?" Did your companion die in your sight - I mean, in this forest." Seeing that Mo Jue still didn't understand, Ke Lan could only sigh and explain to her in detail.

"This..." Mo Jue was stunned for a moment, "It seems...it seems like there really isn't one. Although we all say that this is a 'man-eating forest', and although corpses can be seen everywhere in this forest,...but it has never It has never really shown its fangs in front of us..."

"Could it be that after these soldiers disappeared and died, the bodies were discovered by the survivors and then buried?" Thirty-three said, "After all, this army has 1,500 people. If there are too many people, it will be difficult to find The possibility of a missing person’s body would also be much greater.”

"The possibility is a little higher, but not that big." Ivan shook his head, "Judging from the total area of ​​the Gray Mist Forest, let alone 1,500 people, even if it is 15,000 people, It's just a drop in the ocean. Fifteen hundred people, if lined up normally, would not even occupy a football field... And judging from the corpses that have been discovered, they are obviously scattered very far apart. If one or two corpses can be found, It's reasonable...Fifteen bodies, I think it's unlikely."

But before Ivan could perform autopsies on the fifteen remains one by one, Ze Luo suddenly stepped forward, pulled Ke Lan's sleeve, and said, "There is another body that we didn't find."

"There is one more... Are you saying that including the pilot of the Walker, there is a seventeenth corpse here?" Ke Lan was slightly startled and subconsciously turned his attention to the piles of bones being moved from the tank compartment. The white bones that came out—could it be that one of the bones had been scattered and mixed in with the bones of other deceased people?

Ivan on the side had the same idea as Ke Lan. He carefully counted the bones piled on the ground, and then shook his head: "There are fifteen bones, yes. I counted the skulls, pelvises, thigh bones, etc. Each type of skeleton with obvious characteristics is the number of fifteen people, and there are no extra ones.”

"Under the car." Ze Luo said again.

"Under the car?" Ke Lan and Thirty-three looked at each other. The latter immediately waved his hand, and more than a dozen black flying blades turned into mini excavators, frantically digging up the soil that buried the tank chassis.

Fifteen minutes later, Ivan picked up the seventeenth skeleton from directly under the tank and between the two tracks, along with a pile of severely rotted clothes and belongings.

However, after Mo Jue saw the crossbody bag that was so rotten that even the strap was broken, he let out a low cry of surprise.

"What's wrong? Could it be that this corpse is also someone you know?" Thirty-three asked.

"He...he is what you are looking for...Uncle Hong." Mo Jue nodded stiffly, "I remember this satchel very clearly. It was a birthday gift his daughter bought him. He once told me …Because I have never given my father any gifts, so this incident left a deep impression on me.”

"Tsk, you really can't find anything after trying hard to find it. It took no effort at all..." Ke Lan asked Ivan to put "Uncle Hong"'s cracked skull back together, and then scanned the facial bones.

He had also scanned the previous golden retriever. The man's original name was "Drich Safin". He was a mercenary with no experience of serving in the regular army. Moreover, after his contract with the PMC he belonged to expired, he quit the profession and became a mercenary. A "vagrant".

However, from the entry and exit records of the Ark every few months, we can know that he joined Mo Jue's father's "lumberjack" team at that time... But why did this person become one of the core members who had the right to know the "secret"? First, there are no clues at all from his personal files and resume.

As the red laser swept across the assembled facial bones, a calm and confident face appeared on the screen. Mo Jue, who was staring at the screen closely, nodded immediately: "Yes, this is Uncle Hong!"

"But the file shows that this person's name is Wu Feng...and, like Golden Retriever, he has no military service experience." Ke Lan muttered.

"Perhaps their service experience has been erased?" Thirty-three said solemnly, "If it is a special team that performs special tasks, it is normal that there is no information about them in the archives."

[P.S. Thanks to Master Nobita for the 2134 starting coins. (This guy just collected 10,000 fan points and was successfully promoted to the 84th helmsman of this street novel.) Thanks to the reading Giraffe and Soap Youda for the 1,500 starting coins. (These two reward together every time, and the amount is the same, but apart from the reward news, I have almost never seen these two talking in the comment area. What is the relationship between you two? I really Very curious...) Thanks to Mask丨for the 100 starting coins for the confession reward. (The last one should be a new reader, but he is very active in this chapter. I often see it in the background refresh, and it looks familiar. Also, I want to mention to everyone, I don’t know how many people are still reading it. Recently, The subscription data is actually quite bleak... but compared with subscriptions, it is mainly single-machine coding that makes people feel lonely.

There are not many people talking in the comment area or this chapter. I actually like everyone to complain and comment. If I see it, I will reply. I will like and comment on the wonderful comments, of course, except for the harsh ones...)]

[P.P.S. I came back from rafting yesterday so tired that I couldn’t even get out of bed...so I didn’t send an extra single chapter request for leave. I hope everyone can forgive me. 】