Alien Relic Hunter

"Can you see me?!" Ke Lan felt the hairs on his back stand on end and subconsciously put on a defensive posture.

But soon, he realized that what he was talking to was not the long, straight black girl with only the upper body he saw, but... that piece of rotten flesh in the real world.

It's just that under Ze Luo's "sense of immediate vision", his understanding of the surrounding environment has changed... In his eyes, "that piece of rotten meat" in Thirty-three's mouth is the man who claims to be "Nirvana" The little girl who asked for help.

"After the Era of Disaster, you are the first humans to enter the hive." Nieto said.

"Era of Calamity...Wait a minute, you said it was 'human'! You mean, before the Era of Calamity, there were other 'human beings' who came here? Or do you mean that the one who built this hive is 'Human'?" Ke Lan asked hurriedly.

"I can't answer your question," Nieto said.

"Why? Is it because my authority level is not enough?" Ke Lan tried his best to calm down... Since this manager named Nieto is willing to communicate with him, it means that it (she?) may not have Treat yourself as an intruder. Ke Lan didn't want the negotiation to break down because he said something wrong... Even then, he had to at least get enough information before that.

"No, it's just that the information is too dangerous and may trigger another era of disaster." Nieto said calmly, "That's something the person who created me didn't want to see."

"Does that information refer to 'forbidden knowledge'? The Era of Disaster...could it be that the erosion level of the people living in this hive city has exceeded the critical point?" Ke Lan probed cautiously.

"You are trying to come into contact with something extremely dangerous." Nieto warned, "Stop immediately, otherwise, according to my underlying logic program, I will forcefully perform memory erasure procedures on you and expel you from the nest."

"Okay, okay... let's not mention this." Ke Lan quickly compromised, "Let's talk about something else... Are the two of us really the first 'human beings' to come here after the 'Era of Disaster'? "

"That's right." Nieto answered simply.

She is a bit similar to Ze Luo. During the conversation, no emotion was shown from beginning to end, just like a computer program with beautiful girl stickers... Of course, from Thirty-Three's perspective, Hei Chang The pictures of straight pretty girls have to be replaced with a squirming mass of rotten flesh.

"In the past few decades, at least a group of 'human beings' should have visited this place." Ke Lan said, "They should be the first 'human beings' to come here after the Era of Disaster, right?"

It is unknown whether Hruni and others entered the Hive City of Ke Lan, but the corpse that Thirty-three encountered on the "Genoa" later must have entered the "Hive City", and it mentioned the "Hive City" more than once This term also refers to "things in the hive".

Logically speaking, the survivors on the two crashed battleships should be the "first batch".

"No record." Nieto's answer was short and cold.

"There is no record... is it because you were in hibernation at that time? Or was the memory related to it deleted?"

"After I resumed operation in the 1065th year of the Quiet Era, I have not been dormant, and my memory has not been deleted at all." Nieto explained... It seems that as long as it does not involve those "taboos" "Knowledge", she will tell Ke Lan everything... This is good news for Ke Lan. As long as he doesn't step on the thunder, he can ask a lot of things he wants from "Nieto" who is highly suspected of being a biological computer. Something to know.

"The Quiet Era? What era and year is it now?" Ke Lan asked again.

"This is the 547,661st year of the Quiet Era."

Even if there are some things that cannot be asked directly, you can still get some pieces of information by making insinuations, and then piece these pieces of information together to restore the truth of what happened that year... Although the center of the puzzle is most likely blank, the edges are Now that the corner is there, the missing content can be figured out by just guessing.

Judging from the information currently available, this hive city has experienced at least three periods - the "Ice Age" when it existed as a refuge, the "Disaster Era" when super erosion or other large-scale disasters broke out, and the "Disaster Era". The "Quiet Era" after the "Era of Disaster".

The people who once lived in this hive obviously either died in the "Era of Disaster" or left this place, and the manager "Nieto" in front of him should also be in the "Era of Disaster" From the appearance of that beautiful girl with long black hair to the current piece of rotten flesh, she also slept for a long time and did not wake up until the 1065th year of the Quiet Era.

etc?

If she "comatose" during the Era of Calamity, then why would she know that the time she "awakened" was "the 1,065th year of the Quiet Era"?

In the "Quiet Era", those who created her and this hive obviously no longer exist, so who came up with the name "Quiet Era"?

Are there other intelligent things here? "Nieto" just claimed that he is the manager of the second level of the hive city, so there should be similar intelligent biological computers as managers in other levels of the hive city, right? Did those guys tell her?

But no matter what, there is at least one very important piece of information that Ke Lan holds in his hands, that is, more than 547,000 years have passed since the end of the Era of Disaster... At this age, it is even older than the research The experts at the institute estimate that the Alpha civilization will disappear on this planet much longer.

In other words, this hive city was most likely built earlier than the remains of the Alpha civilization on the surface... I just don’t know whether the Alpha civilization already existed during the Ice Age, or whether it was the one with the same name as this planet. Are the civilizations of China actually the “latecomers”?

Ke Lan really wanted to ask "Nieto" this directly, but he also knew that these questions would most likely directly touch the other party's minefield... If Nieto lost his patience for dialogue, it would be more of a loss than a gain.

Ke Lan thought to try again from another direction.

"There once was a man named Hruni. Did he come here?"

"Hruni...he did come here and took away some important things from here." Nieto replied, "But he and his companions did not enter the second level. They were only on the first level. I stayed for three days and then left.”

"Then how do you say that we are the first humans to enter the 'hive' after the Era of Disaster? Isn't the 'first level' of the hive included in the scope of the hive?" Ke Lan asked.

The slums on the Ark, no matter how dilapidated and poor the infrastructure, are still a numbered and recorded part of the Ark, even the kind that is located in the corner, full of toxic gases and waste, and is not suitable for human habitation at all. Unmanned blocks have corresponding block names of "direction + sequence number". Only those transfer stations and various bases built in the wilderness will be counted as areas outside the Ark.

But the first floor of the "Hood City" that the lifting platform just passed clearly belongs to the former.

Structurally, they are also completely integrated.

"Of course the first level of the hive city belongs to the hive city," Nieto said, "but when they entered the hive city, they were no longer 'human'."

"..." This answer was a little beyond Ke Lan's expectation. He originally thought that only individuals whose erosion level exceeded the critical value and turned into corroded corpses were not considered human beings. Unexpectedly, among the managers of the hive city, just suffering from erosion would be considered a human being. He will be expelled from his "human status"... But the problem is that his degree of erosion should be much deeper than that of Hruni and others. Why does Nieto still regard himself as a "human being"?

Hruni's group, at least after they returned to "Shaojiang Kai", they still maintained their human appearance and rationality for a long time... If they couldn't be considered human at that time, then Ke Lan couldn't be considered a human being. never mind.

What exactly is Nieto’s definition of “human”?

"How many people were there in this hive before the Era of Disaster...human beings?"

"A total of 120 million," Nieto replied.

One hundred and twenty million? It seems that the overcrowding in the hive city is more serious than Ke Lan and Sansan imagined. Unless there are many floors below, it is absolutely impossible to cram 120 million people into the first and second floors alone. human.

But in this case, another problem will arise.

It is known that there is a very strict class system within the hive city, and people without sufficient authority levels cannot enter higher-numbered classes... But any social structure, as long as there are classes, it must be a triangle—— The top of the triangle symbolizes the people with the highest rank and the greatest authority in the social structure. This group of people has the smallest number; while the bottom of the triangle, the number of people at the bottom must be the largest... This is a rule that cannot be violated. Even among the swarms of insects.

There can never be more rulers than the ruled.

Even if there are third, fourth, fifth or even more floors behind, even if the space of these floors is larger than the first and second floors, the number of people living in these floors cannot be greater than that of the first floor. layer and more on the second layer.

Ke Lan's sociological knowledge only comes from some e-books he read when he was bored, but these simple truths can be understood by an individual... The vast majority of wealth and power in a society will only be controlled by a small group at the top. In the hands of a small group of people, unless this society has reached the true meaning of G (preventing harmony) C (everyone understands).

But hive society is obviously not.

It is not even comparable to the Earth of the old era.

Not to mention too many, the first two or two floors must account for at least half of the total population.

It was hard for Ke Lan to imagine what it would be like to have 60 million people crammed into these two levels of hive city... At this time, he suddenly felt that the illegal buildings growing like cancer cells in the first level hive city were not an exaggeration at all.

Not only is it not an exaggeration, it is even a bit... insufficient.

"Then in the later period of the Era of Disaster... no, I mean in the middle period of the Era of Disaster, how many people are left in the hive?" Ke Lan asked another question.

This question is very sensitive, and there is a high probability that it is testing the edge of Nieto's "minefield". But as long as Nieto is willing to answer this question, the gains will be worth letting Ke Lan take the risk.

"Zero," Nieto said.

Although he was mentally prepared, Ke Lan couldn't help but take a breath of air.

One hundred and twenty million people, all died in the early days of the Era of Disaster?

During the rest of the Calamity Era, it was just a group of monsters lingering in the hive...or were they fighting each other?

"How long is the Era of Disaster...?"

"Four years and nine months."

It was much shorter than Ke Lan expected.

If a large-scale outbreak of "super-erosion" really occurred in the hive city and spread in a manner similar to memetic contagion, this time would not be short - you must know that the vast majority of people are resistant to erosion. Their abilities are not very strong. They may be "infected" just by seeing their mutated "compatriots", or even just knowing about the existence of this thing from news reports. Then the infected individuals will see other people being infected. After you become "infected" yourself, it will in turn deepen your own erosion... It's like "cross-infection" in medical terms...

Judging from the density of the population on the first and second floors of the hive city, once something like this breaks out, the situation will most likely get completely out of control before the managers know about it.

Not to mention blocking information and isolating them, even if they directly execute the affected individuals, it would still be too late.

The entire nest is like a big sponge filled with water, and the erosion meme is a drop of extremely concentrated ink. When this drop of ink falls on the sponge, the black color that symbolizes infection will instantly spread all over the sponge. A corner...

Unless, the managers of the hive city can choose to cut off the heroes' wrists at the first moment of the incident, just like the undead crew destroying the East 9th District module, directly "erasing" the first and second floors of the hive city, then maybe they can still save The "powerful people" who live in a higher class.

But judging from the intact first and second floors, either they did not issue such an order, or the meme had already spread to the upper levels of the hive before it was issued.

It only took more than a year from the time Hruni and the others were eroded to the point where they were all reduced to corpses. If Hruni was excluded, the rest of the crew would only have lasted a few months.

This nest can last for four years and nine months, which can be said to be a miracle in itself.

"In the early days of the Era of Disaster, how did the last 'human' disappear in the hive? Did he become a monster, or did he escape from here?" Ke Lan continued to push the question forward, constantly testing Nieto's bottom line.

"No one can leave the hive during the Era of Disaster." Nieto said. "Managers at every level, including me, were out of control at that time."

"Why..." Ke Lan originally wanted to ask why he lost control, but then he thought, this question would definitely step into a minefield, so he could only swallow the second half of the sentence, "Then before the Era of Disaster? Can you tell me what happened? That information shouldn't be dangerous, right?"