Alien Relic Hunter

Chapter 273 The Master of the Hand (4000-word chapter)
Layton drove a nail anchor into the top wall directly above the shaft, and then threw the downhill rope with the counterweight hanging on it into the shaft.

Accompanied by the "swish" sound of friction between the ropes, it didn't take long for the finger-thick downhill rope to collapse straight. Layton tried to lift it, and then shook his head at Ke Lan—this 200-meter-long The rappelling cables have not been able to touch the bottom of the ice road.

"Although it can be extended in the future...but all the remaining ropes we have are only 300 meters long. If the depth of this shaft exceeds 500 meters, we can only climb down a little bit." Layton Said, "Although the diameter of the wellhead is quite spacious, you can wear an exoskeleton to go down, but the exoskeleton without thrusters, in terms of safety..."

"That's the only way to go." Ke Lan said, "Distribute the equipment, and then we will go down."

Ke Lan and the others brought down a total of six powered exoskeletons, but two of them were severely damaged, one was slightly damaged, and only half of them were still able to perform full climbing functions.

Although Layton dismantled one of the severely damaged exoskeletons to repair the other two, in the end, only four intact exoskeletons were obtained and one was partially functional, which could barely be counted as "half". of defective products.

"Six people, four and a half exoskeletons, how do you plan to divide them?" The hound's eyes swept over each of them, and then stopped on Ke Lan.

"My mechanical prosthetic body also has a part of rock climbing ability, so I can just use that 'half body'." Layton said first.

"The big guy is the vanguard, and he uses defective products, so he must not be able to bring people. Now there are four exoskeletons and five people left. In addition, we still have three guys who can't move." The hound continued, "Ke Lan, as the leader of the hunting group, you can assign this matter."

"Yeah." Ke Lan nodded, pointing to Martin who was huddled in the corner, "First of all, because Martin is 'infected', he can't have direct contact with other people, so he got an exoskeleton."

"Now there are three exoskeletons left, four who can move, and three who can't. Zhuoligetu's own exoskeleton is enlarged, and it should be able to carry two people. Then the old dog and I Bring one." After speaking, Ke Lan turned to Qin Zhao, "Whoever you want to bring, choose one yourself."

Qin Zhao looked at the hunting dog, then at the tall and burly Zhuoligetu, and finally pointed to Ke Lan, and said, "Let me go with you."

"Tsk, sure enough, a young boy with a pretty face is more marketable in the eyes of a little girl." The hound couldn't help complaining, and then tied the body bag containing Cao Feng on his back, "Oh, little sister, When you grow up, you will realize the charm of a mature old man like me."

"Come on, it's just you?" Layton smacked his lips, "I didn't notice the charm, but I saw that your head is getting more and more bald."

The ridicule is all ridicule, and everyone put on the equipment quickly. As for Qin Zhao, he fixed himself on Ke Lan's back bracket in a back-to-back manner-although it seems ambiguous to say it, in fact, the relationship between the two There is no physical contact. The hard exoskeleton covers almost [-]% of Ke Lan's back. He can only feel the cold metal parts. As for the warm and fragrant nephrite, it is a joke at all.

It's just... due to the angle, Qin Zhao's long ponytail stuck on the back of his head just fell into the back of Ke Lan's collar, and the girl's hair would sweep across the back of Ke Lan's neck from time to time. With a thick layer of lining, Ke Lan thought that some bug had fallen into it, and when he tried his hand, he just caught the opponent's ponytail.

It was only after Qin Zhao let out a cry of pain that Ke Lan realized what he had caught in his hand. He quickly let go of his hand and said "sorry" to the girl behind him.

However, Qin Zhao's reaction surprised Ke Lan and the others: She took out a jackknife from her pocket, opened it, held her ponytail with one hand, raised the knife with the other hand, and directly cut her long ponytail. Qi Gen cut it off, and stuffed it back into his pocket together with the jackknife.

The hunting dog froze for a moment, then gave Qin Zhao a thumbs-up, and said, "Hey, girl, just relying on your knife, our hunting group will order you."

"Uh..." Now, instead of being Qin Zhao, he felt a little embarrassed, "I just think long hair is really a burden..."

"I've seen a lot of girls," the hound suddenly showed a look of disdain, "I used to know a female secretary, and I heard that she climbed up through connections, but I don't know what went wrong. Assigned to the field force... Good guy, half of the carry-on luggage is filled with underwear and underwear, and the other half is filled with cosmetics and hair conditioners. I left all the self-defense weapons assigned in the dormitory because the secretary does not need them. Participating in battles... Damn, that kind of woman annoys me when I see it."

"Then... what happened to that secretary?" Qin Zhao couldn't help asking.

"Dead." The hound shrugged. "That army suffered a defeat and was almost wiped out by a large group of indigenous creatures. When retreating in a hurry, she accidentally fell off the off-road vehicle. Logically speaking, Wearing the standard armor, you can't die if you fall, but that girl's beautiful long golden curly hair was caught in the tank track... half of her brain was crushed, and the red and white were scattered all over the floor. "

"vomit……"

As soon as the hound finished speaking, Martin couldn't help retching. He glanced at the others in embarrassment, trying to move his exoskeleton, but because of an operation error, he staggered and fell to the ground.

"Don't touch the red trigger!" Layton immediately reprimanded sharply, "It's the emergency release lock used to release the knee support joints, and it's used to let you escape when the exoskeleton gets stuck in the terrain!"

"Holding, I'm sorry... I accidentally bumped into it." Martin said to Layton quickly.

"It's useless for you to say sorry to me. If something went wrong, it's you who died... But if it hurts other people because of you, then it's useless for you to say sorry, understand?" After finishing speaking, Layton looked at Glancing at the thermometer, "Ke Lan, it's risen by another degree, there's no time."

"Well, I see." Ke Lan nodded, "All ready, if you have any questions, let's go down now."

As a pioneer, Layton was the first to enter the shaft. He hung the buckle at his waist on the downhill rope, supported the walls of the shaft on both sides with the claws of the exoskeleton and the mechanical arms, and started at a slow pace. The ground speed slid towards the bottom of the well.

Behind him is Ke Lan with Qin Zhao.

Following Layton's example, Ke Lan stretched out the arms of the exoskeleton to the sides and pressed against the well wall to control the speed of descent. Qin Zhao, who was back to back with him, was holding a The steel pipe temporarily refitted by Layton—this steel pipe was originally a part of the cutting frame, but Layton cut it off, but kept the two blasting bolts at the end. If Ke Lan's exoskeleton fails, it will The steel pipe in Qin Zhao's hand was used as the last resort.

With only one steel pipe, it may be difficult for two people to hang on the wall of the well, but it is completely sufficient as a "brake" for deceleration.

Even if Ke Lan and the others did not choose the fastest gear, the speed of rappelling was still much faster than that of climbing. In less than 5 minutes, Layton had already reached the position of 200 meters deep. the end.

"The structure below is still the same, without any changes." Layton directed the searchlight downward. For some reason, within this shaft, the light of the searchlight can only illuminate a distance of about 50 meters at most - if it is placed on the ground On the other hand, this intensity of light can easily pierce the night for several kilometers, but here, the dark and gloomy ice seems to have the ability to swallow light, and no matter how bright the lights are, they can't shine very far.

"Continue to descend." Ke Lan said.

Layton connected another 200 meters long rope, but this time, after dropping the counterweight, he heard a muffled "boom".

This muffled sound could not help but lift everyone's spirits!
"I calculated the falling time, and the bottom of the well is about 150 meters away from our current position." Ke Lan said, he pointed the laser transmitter down, but the red laser could not penetrate the dense darkness below, It gave people the illusion that this shaft seemed to be bottomless.

"Then it adds up to 350 meters? I thought it would be several thousand meters deep, but that's all." The hound's voice came from above.

"In this shaft, any lights can't shine very far, so there is such an illusion." Ke Lan explained, but as soon as he said this, he felt something was wrong—— In the ice passage, their perception was disturbed, and they regarded the ring-shaped ice passage connecting the head and the tail as a straight passage. If there were no markers such as cracks and egg cases, they might have walked in it without realizing it... and In this shaft, what is disturbed becomes light.

Why did the designers of the ruins create such disturbance?

Are they simply trying to make their escape more difficult, or are they trying to conduct some kind of test?Ke Lan doesn't know, but the only thing that is certain is that the mechanism of this ruin has power they can't resist. They can only act according to the ideas of the designer of the ruin, and they can't resist it at all.

Then another question arises: what is the purpose of the ruins designer to create these secret rooms?
This is definitely not the so-called "escape room" entertainment facilities on the Ark. To be precise, this should be part of the entire biological weapons laboratory, but why is there such a thing in the laboratory with a lot of puzzles? What about the Chamber of Secrets?
Ke Lan couldn't help thinking of something called a hamster box. In the hamster box, even if the hamster successfully passed through all the mazes, it couldn't escape from the box...

Ke Lan suddenly felt a trace of despair.

Even if they can solve every puzzle smoothly all the way, will they be able to escape from this ruin?No matter what angle you look at, it is impossible for the designer of this ruin to lead them to the real exit...

The other end of the channel will always be the next "experimental area".

But Ke Lan knows that, as the leader of the team, he must not say these negative guesses now—the mood of the people is already very low, and the hound teased Qin Zhao before for the purpose of adjusting the atmosphere. Let me tell you now, if you continue to go on, there may not be a way out, I am afraid that the whole team will fall into despair.

Ke Lan raised his head, looked at the hound directly above, and smiled wryly in the darkness.

A human spirit like a hound must have already guessed something, but he also kept silent about it. As a field force officer who has commanded many battles, he understands the importance of morale better than Ke Lan sex.

Everyone continued to slide down along the downhill rope... Finally, the soles of their shoes stepped on the solid ground again.

That's right, the ground...not the ice.

To Ke Lan's surprise, the end of the shaft turned out to be a man-made cave. There is no black ice here, only square rock pillars neatly arranged in the cave, supporting a 20-meter-high rock cave. Flatten the dome.

"What kind of place is this?" The hound held up a flashlight and looked around, "Why do I think... this place looks like the elevated floor at the bottom of a modern building."

"I think it's more like an underground garage." Layton took over the conversation and said, "By the way, Ke Lan, does the Alpha civilization have the concept of a private car?"

"I don't know if there are private cars, but their vehicle should be a shuttle-shaped aircraft that can travel between buildings at will." Ke Lan replied, "A hunter has found these aircraft in the ruins."

"Of course I know that kind of aircraft. Many small anti-gravity devices that are currently on the market are still disassembled from these aircraft, but I wonder if this aircraft should not be parked underground?" Layton said.

"This place..." Ke Lan squatted down, stretched out a finger and rubbed it on the ground, "It's like a battlefield...or an arena..."

"Why?" The hound's nose twitched slightly. "I can smell neither gunpowder smoke nor blood. Why do you think so?"

"It's just a feeling. I don't know why. Seeing these neatly arranged columns, I can't help but think of the ancient Roman Colosseum on Earth." Ke Lan said.

At this moment, out of the corner of his eye, he saw a black figure flashing behind a stone pillar, and Layton set up his machine gun at a very fast speed, aiming at the stone pillar.

"Did you see clearly? What is it?" Ke Lan asked immediately.

"No." Layton shook his head, "but it seems to be in human form."

Human form... After Layton said this, everyone in the team couldn't help but think of the palm that disappeared under the ice.

Could this black shadow be the owner of that palm?

(End of this chapter)