Alien Relic Hunter

"This is... the core mastermind on the Ark?" Chi Hanfeng's eyes widened with shock on his face.

Although none of them had actually come into contact with the legendary "core master brain", Ke Lan described the shape of the core master brain to the members of the Hunting God Hunting Group, and it was exactly the same as the giant brain in the vat in front of them.

Most of the residents on the Ark are aware of the existence of the Core Master Brain, but in the imagination of most of them, the Core Master Brain is an electronic computer that integrates the latest cutting-edge technology of mankind - a neatly arranged array of silicon crystal chips, Intricate cables and optical fibers, coupled with heavy heat dissipation and power supply devices...these elements are accumulated together to form the image of the core mastermind in the minds of most Ark residents.

Only a very small number of people know that the core mastermind is actually a "living thing".

"So, the reaction of life that Valentina saw outside...is actually this thing?" A thoughtful look appeared on Zhuoligetu's face, but he did not put down his shield because of this, and his body remained Alert posture.

Chi Hanfeng's breathing was still very rapid, but the hound behaved relatively calmly. He walked over and patted Chi Hanfeng on the shoulder and said, "Actually, the main body of Ark's core mastermind was originally dug out of the Alpha ruins... …”

"What? The core mastermind of Ark was dug out from the ruins of Alpha Civilization?" Ghost Owl, as a well-informed old hunter, did not show much shock when he saw the giant brain in the tank. But when Chi Hanfeng called out "core mastermind", his expression became more exciting, and when the hound said, "the core mastermind was actually dug out of the ruins of the Alpha civilization," his expression became peaceful with Chi. Han Feng is no different.

"This is impossible..." Ghost Owl continued, shaking his head vigorously as he spoke, "The core mastermind is the most important part of the Ark. It is the core control hub that existed when the Ark was built, as early as more than 900 years ago. It already exists, how could it be excavated from the ruins!"

"The core mastermind in the interstellar drifting era did use 100% human civilization technology, but after landing on Alpha Planet, everything changed... just like the alien technology discovered in the ruins was widely used by the residents of the Ark. Just like daily life, the core master brain has also undergone substantial transformation...haven't you noticed that every time the core master brain is shut down for maintenance, the performance will be greatly improved?" Hound explained, "Well, even though I am a big boss, You can't feel this change, but in Ke Lan's eyes, who often deal with computing and the Internet, these changes are simply obvious. Ke Lan told me that with human software and hardware technology, it is It’s impossible to achieve that level of improvement.”

The hound paused and continued: "Since the hardware and software are not good enough, we can only rely on wetware."

"Wetware" is a concept that has existed in the old era. It refers to the part of the computer system other than the software and hardware. It generally refers to the operator of the system, that is, standing in front of the screen and using a keyboard, mouse or other input device. "people".

The word "wet" in "wetware" actually means "organism".

Today, when cyborg technology is extremely advanced, the meaning of "wetware" has naturally extended to the biological tissue that is "loaded" into the computer system. If human body modification is to install machinery into the human body, then "wetware" "It's just the opposite... For example, if the cyborgization of a modified person is less than 50%, then it can be regarded as installing those artificial parts on the human body, and if the cyborg If the degree of transformation exceeds 50%, or even higher, it is actually equivalent to putting a person into a machine, and the modified human body parts can be regarded as wet parts of "it".

The "living CPUs" sealed inside mass-produced Blasphemers are also a type of wetware.

Concepts such as "biocomputer" and "brain-computer interface" that often appear in science fiction works can all be classified as "wetware".

"But, but, if something as vital as the core mastermind uses the technology of the Alpha civilization...if something goes wrong, the consequences will be disastrous..." Ghost Owl muttered.

"I don't know what those people from the Immortal Crew are thinking. Maybe they have done corresponding experiments elsewhere?" The hound curled his lips and spat on the ground. The spit had just hit the ground. , a disc-shaped machine like a sweeping robot drove over from the corner, cleaning the contaminated floor until it was as bright as new in just a few seconds.

"Sure enough, this kind of 'computer room' where biocomputers are placed has very high requirements for cleanliness..." Chi Hanfeng said.

"Hmph... Speaking of dirty things, we living people here are the ones who should be cleared out the most. I don't know what is going on in this brain, but there is no movement at all." The hound sneered.

"To be honest, I still have some doubts...Have you really seen the core mastermind of Ark?" Ghost Owl couldn't help but asked again, "If...this is another 'mastermind', the one on Ark From which ruins was the mastermind dug out?"

"Ruins A-063 'Ring City'." Hound said in a deep voice, "This is Ke Lan's guess, but after hearing his reasons, I basically agree with his judgment."

"Ring City..." Ghost Owl knows much more about the famous ruins on Alpha Planet than Thirty-Three, especially this is an A-level ruins. After hearing the name, he quickly fell into deep thought. middle.

Compared to Thirty-Three, who only knew a brief introduction to the ruins of the Ringed City, Ghost Owl knew even more than Ke Lan...

"What's wrong? What do you know...about that 'ringed city'?" The hound noticed something was wrong on his face and immediately asked.

"Ring City... A team of hunters under me went there, and after they came back, Ark signed a confidentiality agreement with them. The hunting group headquarters also granted them a six-month long vacation... But as far as I know, Things didn't go very well for these hunters afterwards," Ghost Owl recalled.

"Why is it not good? Tell me in detail." Hearing that Ghost Owl's people had been to the Ringed City, the Hound immediately became interested - after all, the things under the Ringed City are likely to be the same as the tank in front of them now. Mesocerebrum, it’s the same kind of thing.

"That was a team of ten people. Not counting the two logistics personnel who were in charge of supporting outside the ruins, there were a total of eight people who entered the ring city. Two of them were damaged inside the ruins, and only six of them returned to the Ark alive." Ghost Owl. He continued, "When I first came back, I realized that something was not right with them, but I could see that they were trying their best to hide it and wanted to be as normal as possible... I also knew that Ark signed a contract with them. I signed a confidentiality agreement and the consequences of breach of contract are very serious, so I didn’t ask any more questions and just asked the hunters from other teams to keep an eye on them and help me keep an eye on the six of them."

"and after?"

"Two people took their share of the reward to the high-end commercial district of the South Fourth District and spent wildly like they vented... This was nothing at first. Hunters often do this to relieve stress, especially those who have no family or relatives. A single hunter... But after they both spent all their money, they jumped directly from the tallest building in the South Fourth District and fell into two blurry puddles of meat on the road."

"The behavior of the third man was similar to the two men, except that his way of venting his anger was visiting the red light district... After three days and three nights of madness, he cut the neck of the girl who was accompanying him on the bed, and then turned the tip of the knife, He stabbed it into his own mouth and went straight to his brain."

"The fourth man left the ark and disappeared into the wilderness. The fifth man kept himself shut up at home and never went out again. According to his neighbors, from the next day he acted like crazy and was alone. The man was talking to himself, sometimes wailing and sometimes laughing wildly. On the sixth day, there was suddenly no sound. There was no movement until the ninth day. The neighbor felt something was wrong and called the police. When the security department personnel pried open his residence, When I arrived, I discovered that he had committed suicide by taking the sedatives distributed by the hunting group... Logically speaking, the amount of this kind of medicine distributed is strictly controlled, and the amount that a single person can receive is not at all It can cause death, and the shelf life of this medicine is very short, so it is impossible to save it... I also went to the crime scene at that time, and I found that the sedatives of several other people in the team were given to him, and the sedatives he took were for six people. dose."

When the ghost owl said this, he sighed, with a sad look on his face.

These hunters who he personally trained have a good relationship with him, and the relationship between the two parties is also a teacher and a father. Seeing these juniors die unexpectedly, Ghost Owl does not feel comfortable at all.

"What about the last hunter? What happened to him? Is he also dead? Or is he like the fourth man... missing?" Chi Hanfeng asked.

Although the fourth hunter is not dead, disappearing alone in the wilderness is actually not much different from death... Unless he has contacted the exiles in a certain settlement in advance, the extreme environment in the wilderness alone It is deadly enough to fight with indigenous creatures, let alone those exiles who hunt their own kind as prey.

"He's not dead, he joined a heretical sect." Ghost Owl shook his head, "I only saw him on the wanted list online... But with the subsequent numerous crackdowns, it's probably more likely to be a disaster. After that, I was full of curiosity about the things in the ring city, but I never had the courage to explore it myself. I could only find ways to use money and connections to find out information about this ruins... I discovered that all the hunters who had been to that ruins had signed extremely strict confidentiality contracts with Ark. Not only that, these hunters ended up the same as them, either committing suicide, disappearing, or simply being admitted to a mental hospital... At first, I thought that this was a method used by Ark's senior management to silence people. It wasn't until I managed to enter a mental hospital and was contacted by a former hunter who had returned from the ring city that I realized the terrifying power of that ruins. place."

"Ke Lan once bought information related to the Ringed City from a powerful intelligence dealer. He said that there is a huge 'brain' hidden underground in the Ringed City... Well, it's what we see now, floating in the tank. This thing inside. It’s just that the giant brain under the ring city seems to be out of control, has broken through the constraints of the culture vat, and is growing like cancer cells, almost filling the entire underground space.”

The hound took a breath and continued: "The ruins of the ring city have never been closed to the outside world, but every hunter who enters must sign a confidentiality agreement... I don't know where the intelligence dealer got the information, but that But the man revealed a crucial piece of information to Ke Lan: The mission of those hunters was actually very simple. They only needed to cut off some of the surviving 'brain cells', put them in a freezer and bring them to the ground. Get a handsome reward.”

"So that's it...that crazy hunter kept saying that what he brought out was the demon's body tissue...could this be what he was referring to?" Ghost Owl murmured.

Chi Hanfeng on the side heard this and immediately frowned: "But this kind of work can be completely done by machines, right? Letting the ruin hunters do it is not only inefficient, but also requires a lot of remuneration... Moreover, according to According to Ghost Owl's description, these relic hunters basically don't die well. It can be said that they use people as disposable consumables... If you want to talk about using cheap manpower to replace expensive machinery in some mines that are difficult to mine with machinery, I It's understandable, but training a relic hunter is much more difficult than training a miner, right? Isn't this... too 'wasteful'?"

"It's just like the bottomless sinkhole... Those hunting groups knew that letting people go down to mine stone tablets would make people crazy, but they still sent a large number of temporary workers and rookies..."

The hound was interrupted by the ghost owl in the middle of his words: "No, it's different. I know about the bottomless sinkhole. It's true that the people who were sent to mine the stone tablets at that time were all newcomers, but the exploration requirements of the ring city are It is very strict and is implemented in accordance with the standard A-level ruins. If a hunter with junior qualifications proposes to explore the ring city, he will be directly rejected by the ruins exploration association. If he explores privately, it is a felony."

"Damn... If I had known earlier, we should have gone to the Ringed City first... By the way, you have been in contact with the hunter who was imprisoned in a mental hospital. Did he say anything to you?" The hound looked at the ghost owl, asked.

"What he said was very confusing, and the preface and the follower were inconsistent...but there was one sentence that he repeated many times." Ghost Owl said, "He said that those things are alive. This sentence was exchanged in just a few minutes. Here, he said it at least twenty times."

"Those things are alive..." The hound touched the bridge of his nose, "This sentence may seem crucial, but in fact it is of no use... We all know that the giant brain in this tank is alive, and the Ark official also requires them to Do the tissue cells that are brought out have to be in a 'living state'? If they are dead, Ark probably won't pay, right?"

"To be honest, old dog, what I'm most worried about now is whether we will follow in the footsteps of those ruin hunters..." Chi Hanfeng touched the hound's arm, looked at the giant brain in the tank and whispered, "Those hunters will Suicide and going crazy are obviously related to things..."