Alien Relic Hunter

"Our time is still very tight." Ke Lan nodded to Thirty-Three, "Now the connection between the 'Shaojiang Kai' and the forest has most likely been restored."

"I feel like we are being led by this forest... This feeling is too uncomfortable." Thirty-three frowned, "If this continues, we will always be one step behind it."

But complaints are complaints, and the three of them could only rush towards the crash site of the "Shaojiang Kai" frigate non-stop. Unfortunately, by the time they arrived, the AI ​​host of the "Shaojiang Kai" frigate had also been given to Kirito. Destroyed.

Without AI assistance, even if the remaining functions of the entire battleship were intact, they would not be able to start it... Even if they could barely get the main engine to start, it would be impossible to coordinate the tens of thousands of controls on the entire battleship with manual operation alone. Balance between devices.

This is different from driving. When driving, you only need to take care of the steering wheel, brakes and accelerator. For manual transmission cars, you only need to add a clutch. But a big thing like a battleship must adopt fully intelligent operation because of its high complexity... Once the intelligent program crashes, it means the failure of the entire operating system.

It is precisely for this reason that in this era of highly developed intelligent control technology, the proportion of fully autonomous vehicles on the Ark still does not exceed 50%... not only due to the consideration of the vehicle's operating feel, but also Most of it is because car buyers do not trust fully autonomous driving systems.

This is a shortcut, but when something goes wrong with this shortcut, those who choose the shortcut may have to spend twice as much time and energy to reach the destination as those who take the main road.

It's good to be able to reach the end... Some people may be trapped forever on this "shortcut" that can no longer be called a shortcut.

"Try to see if you can fly the fighter jet in the hangar?" Thirty-three suggested, "That thing is fully manual, so it should be fine."

But Ke Lan shook his head: "The fighter jet can be flown, but the structure of the fighter jet itself is too fragile... If it flies within the canopy, it is almost the same as suicide. Moreover, the target of the fighter jet is too small, and it is difficult for Valentin to fly. Na or others have noticed that even if we pass by them, we may miss each other."

Thirty-three couldn't help but fell into silence.

The reason why Ke Lan decided to look for other people lost in the forest in the first place was because the battleship itself was large enough and eye-catching, and it could make a wide range of noise even in the thick fog.

This is like finding a needle in a haystack. There is a big difference between fishing by hand and fishing with a high-power electromagnet.

"You are right, we can no longer be led by this forest, otherwise we will always slow it down." Ke Lan said, "Abandon the original plan and head directly to the core area."

"Alas." Thirty-three sighed, "That's what you say... But how do you find the direction to the core of the forest? There is thick fog everywhere outside. As long as we leave the blank area created by Ze Luo, You can't even tell the difference between east, west and north... By the way, did you find any clues in the central control computer of the 'Shaojiang Reform'?"

"No." Ke Lan still shook his head. "Hruni was worried that latecomers would be contaminated by the 'forbidden knowledge', so he deleted all the data involving key information... only leaving some less important things. Although By piecing together here and there, we can guess part of what happened to them that year, but there is no information about the core area of ​​the forest."

But even so, Mo Jue was still eroded, and the danger of that information was evident.

"I guess just hearing a few words about the place is enough to turn someone into a monster... But we still have to go to that place. It's really like the old man hanged himself - it's so boring." Thirty-three complained.

"We only know a little bit of information about the core area of ​​the forest...or rather, two words: 'hive'. This was obtained from the mouth of the corpse you encountered," Ke Lan said.

"Hmm... if we analyze it literally... the meaning of 'hive'... a nest? A city? Is the Gray Mist Forest a monster's nest? Or is it a city composed of a large number of nests? No matter how you explain it , but it feels like something is wrong." Thirty-three muttered.

"Is there a possibility that this word comes from the language of Alpha civilization?" Ke Lan put forward a hypothesis, "Because the skeleton communicated with us in Chinese, not Alpha language, so he mentioned 'Hive' is probably a 'foreign word' transformed from its original meaning in the Alpha language, rather than a literal translation, and it may not even be a free translation."

"Then don't you speak the language of Alpha civilization? In their language, what does the word 'hive' mean?" Thirty-three asked immediately.

"City...city..." Ke Lan tried to translate this Chinese word into the pronunciation of Alpha Civilization and read it, but no corresponding memory fragments emerged in his mind.

Ke Lan shook his head and said: "The language of Alpha civilization does have corresponding combinations of characters and syllables... but I can't understand the meaning of this word at all."

"How could this happen? Doesn't it mean that the language of Alpha civilization can directly communicate at the conscious level? You can read this word, so why can't you understand its meaning?" Thirty-three asked in confusion.

"How to put it... it's like the name of a certain city in China in the old era. A foreigner who is proficient in Chinese but has never been to China. After he comes into contact with the name of this city, he can understand every word in the name. The words can also be read with standard pronunciation, but if you don't tell him that the name represents a city, then he will be completely unaware of the meaning behind these characters. Although the language logic of Alpha civilization It is very different from human language, but this point is consistent - 'hive', this is a noun that refers to a specific thing, but before I saw this thing with my own eyes, I was completely in a Without knowing anything, it is impossible to obtain more information through the term itself." Ke Lan explained helplessly.

"Let's not talk about this for now. You should still think about how to get to the core of the forest." Thirty-three said.

At this time, the three of them had already walked out of the wreckage of the "Shaojiang Kai" frigate and came to the open space outside. However, in places that were not separated by space barriers, all they could see was a thick gray fog as thick as substance. Like an ocean filled with gray ink.

"Find someone to lead the way." Ke Lan said.

"Looking for someone...Who are you looking for?" Thirty-three was stunned for a moment, then looked at the single rescue cabin standing next to Ke Lan, and couldn't help but opened his mouth slightly, "The person you said is leading the way...should it be?" Could it be...this guy?"

"Well, that's right." Ke Lan pushed open the door of the rescue cabin, took out the remains that were still bound by the space barrier, and placed them on the ground. "Think about it, assuming he has regained freedom of movement now. With his ability, where will he escape?"

"'Genoa'? No, no, the wreckage of that battleship can't stop you and Ze Luo at all, and all his 'companions' on the bridge have been killed by Mo Jue... As for the others in the forest, There is no place to provide him with shelter, so there is only one place..." Thirty-three's eyes lit up, and his tone became a little excited, "The core area of ​​the Gray Mist Forest! He has a lot of There is a high probability that he will run in this direction!"

"His primary purpose is very clear, which is to keep us in this place forever. But he obviously cannot do this with his own strength. So, leading us into the core of the Gray Mist Forest is the only way to achieve this purpose. . Therefore, even if he knew that the purpose of us letting him go was to use him to lead the way, he would still take us to the core area - to the most dangerous place in the entire forest - this is a conspiracy. "Ke Lan turned to Ze Luo and said, "Let him go."

The space force that suppressed the corpse so that it could not move suddenly disappeared. The corpse that had been lying on the ground suddenly jumped up and ran wildly in one direction on all fours.

"Get in the car and chase." Ke Lan said.

Thirty-three finally understood why Ke Lan dragged a "Bobcat X6" all-terrain assault vehicle from the vehicle library when he got off the "Shaojiang Kai" frigate - this all-terrain assault vehicle was originally It was equipped for the marines on the ship, but during the entire combat process, except for intra-ship combat, there was no opportunity for the marines to play, so the vehicle could only be stored in the vehicle library and collect dust.

"Thankfully, this thing that has been parked for more than ten years can still be started..." Thirty-three jumped onto the back seat of the assault vehicle and reached out to grab the steel frame of the roof.

"It was scrapped a long time ago, but Ze Luo repaired it again... It took us several hours to remove rust, clean dust, and replace aging parts. For her, it only takes minutes. ." Ke Lan, who was sitting in the driver's seat, said without looking back. He stepped on the accelerator, and the all-terrain assault vehicle immediately jumped out from the spot, chasing closely behind the wreckage.

"This girl's abilities are so perverted." Thirty-three couldn't help but sigh. Although his ability to manipulate Nino Alloy is somewhat similar, he has no way to deal with things that are not made of Nino Alloy. The difference is more than one or two points.

"Be careful, this road is not easy to drive." Ke Lan said.

This area is right next to the site where the "Shaojiang Kai" frigate crashed for the second time. The entire ground was turned over as if it had been plowed. The four wheels of this assault vehicle had a pitiful amount of time to touch the ground at the same time. , rather than driving on the ground, it would be more appropriate to say that it is jumping close to the ground.

It’s no wonder that many games with this type of vehicle call this type of vehicle a “bouncer”…

Fortunately, the shock absorption performance of this "Lynx X6" all-terrain assault vehicle is very superior. Not only is the suspension system equipped with long-distance shock absorber springs, but it also uses a magnetic levitation cockpit that is rare on ground vehicles. With Luo's assistance, Ke Lan's experience sitting in the driver's seat was no different from driving Miss Soma's luxury hovercar on a flat road. But Thirty-Three, who was lying in the back seat, felt a little uncomfortable. Although he was not shaken to pieces, you could feel what he was feeling at this time from his pale face.

Thirty-three finally understood that Ke Lan's words of "hold on tight" were only for him... As for Ze Luo, this "floating" was above the roof of the car, with his feet and the frame of the car always maintaining ten centimeters. The Sanwu girl who has never changed the distance will definitely not feel the bumps.

Ze Luo's space power was also exerted on Thirty-three, but most of her power was used to isolate the fog and track the corpses. The remaining power was used to stabilize herself and Ke Lan's bodies. , as for the part of the power that can be left to Thirty-Three... it is really pitiful.

It was just enough to keep Thirty-Three from knocking the compressed dry food he had eaten not long ago out of his stomach.

The "Lynx" series of all-terrain assault vehicles are still in service in the Ark Field Corps. Although the latest model has been released as the "Z7plus", "X6" like this one can still be seen in many camps of rapid reaction forces - except Apart from its relatively weak armor, this vehicle has almost no shortcomings. Whether it is passability, speed or structural stability, it can meet the daily mission needs of the field corps. On such a bad road surface, Ke Lan could drive this car to more than 120 yards, and it seemed to have the potential to continue to accelerate.

The top of the giant tire with a diameter of 1.2 meters is even higher than the roof of the cockpit. The four tires are now like four springs, supporting the entire car to jump forward on the cracked ground. With.

However, the body's highly enhanced body's crawling speed was far more than 120 yards. He almost crawled into the thick fog several times. It was only because Ze Luo used the power of space to temporarily restrict his movements that he could Let Ke Lan not lose his target.

"This direction... um... really... really... leads to the core area of ​​the forest...?" Thirty-three, who was lying on the back seat, said with great difficulty. When he mentioned "the core area" The all-terrain assault vehicle hit the ground so hard that he almost bit off the tip of his tongue.

"I'm not sure, I can only give it a try." Ke Lan said, "But if this path is wrong, I think my subconscious will remind me."

"Subconscious? You... you... have never been to the Gray Mist Forest. How can your subconscious... know whether this path is right... or wrong? Ouch!" Thirty-three's tongue did not escape in the end. Pass a tribulation.

"Maybe I've been here before." Ke Lan whispered.