Alien Relic Hunter

Chapter 288 Funnel Cave
"Hiss... I always feel a little creepy when you say that..." Layton muttered in a low voice, "Is this Alpha civilization really so terrifying? Just looking at some characters will make you fall into a trance?"

"I don't know... the level of technological development of Alpha civilization is still a mystery." Ke Lan replied, "But I think there are some things that may not come from Alpha civilization itself."

Among other things, let’s just say that the principle and function of the holy words like “magic spells” have completely subverted all known physical laws. This is similar to the miracles in the religious books of the old era. If Lan had experienced it himself, he would never believe such a thing.

Even with the technological level of the Alpha civilization, it would be difficult to give a reasonable explanation for this—the sight that swept across him, the majestic sense of oppression, and the indescribable Fear... Ke Lan doesn't think that the Alpha civilization has such an ability, it definitely comes from a higher-level creature.

It is also the "god" in the population of Alpha.

It is difficult for Ke Lan to imagine what kind of existence this is. Maybe he is the universe itself, or maybe he is an observer independent of this dimension—he looks at the civilization in this universe, just like human beings It's like watching a colony of bacteria multiply in a Petri dish.

"You said it was the god that the Alpha people believed in? I remember that the 'true god' that the gods of heresy sects always chanted is the same thing, right? Does this god really exist?" Layton asked.

"Existence. But God is just a pronoun. This should be just a creature so powerful that we can't imagine it, and it cannot be confused with the omnipotent supernatural body in religious concepts...Of course, from our point of view, He It’s almost impossible.”

"Isn't that equal to being a god? In the old era, Shintoism believed in Amaterasu, Buddhism believed in Sakyamuni, and Christianity believed in Yahweh... But in my opinion, if the god believed by the Alpha people really exists, it is not necessary Is it much more powerful than the gods these humans believe in?"

"You think the gods are weak in the concept of religion, it's just because the vision of those who 'created' these gods is limited by the age and technological level... For example, do you think you are a god?" Ke Lan said .

"Are you kidding? I'm just an ordinary person. What's the point of comparing me?" Layton couldn't help laughing and said, "Did you stay up all night reading Xiuxian novels before you set off?"

"But in the eyes of a group of ants, you are a god." Ke Lan still maintained a serious tone, "Ants can't understand human behavior, just like we can't understand the existence of gods... Suppose one day, you are in your work. I saw a group of ants in the room, and this group of ants crawled to your table and made some strange shapes, what would you do?"

"...Uh, if there are such ants... I might be a little curious and see what they do next..."

"Then if the shapes these ants pose are some human words, and the content of the words is to pray for food, how will you respond?"

"Well...it depends on my mood. If I'm in a good mood, I might give them some biscuit crumbs... If I'm in a bad mood, let alone food, I'll probably slap all these ants to death... ..." At this point, Layton was stunned for a moment, "So...it seems to be the case..."

"Anyway, the two options are just a matter of effort for you, but for the ants, the former is a gift obtained through a 'ritual' prayer, and the latter is a punishment from the gods... the essence of which is different. It's the same." Ke Lan said, "I'm an atheist, and in my opinion, the so-called gods are actually just existences that are so powerful that lower-level civilizations can't understand them."

"But no matter what this god is, it looks at us like it looks at ants... Oh, maybe even worse than ants." Layton said, "When I think about this, I feel a deep sense of powerlessness... The things left on this Alpha planet alone are beyond the reach of human beings. When I think that there are existences above the Alpha civilization that even they have to worship, I feel that we are too small... you say , Will this 'God' accidentally sneezed one day and destroy the entire Alpha Star?"

"Who knows, maybe the world will be destroyed in the next second, so I don't have to worry about whether we will be trapped in this ruin." Ke Lan said, "Why did you turn your head to look at the ruins again? Something on the wall? Didn’t I tell you not to read those words, just stare straight ahead.”

"Oh..." Layton sighed a little depressed, "The more you say you can't read it, the more I can't help but pay attention... These words are engraved everywhere on the sides, top, and bottom of the passage. Will catch a glimpse of them... I can't help it."

Ke Lan thought for a moment, and said: "How about this, change the position, let Asano Akira be the vanguard, you follow behind him, turn off the lights, and just keep your eyes on Asano Akira's back... If it doesn't work, put your hands on his shoulders and close your eyes completely."

"...That's fine." Layton nodded, closed his eyes, turned sideways, and let Asano Akira come to the front.

Perhaps because of the influence of the writing on the wall, in the mercenary's description, they spent a long time in this passage... But in fact, the actual length of this passage is only more than 100 meters, and has a rather steep slope. Along this steep slope, the three of Ke Lan quickly drilled out of the water.

The last part of the passage was indeed a section of stone steps. The mercenary was right about this. The height difference between each of these stone steps was nearly one meter, and they were obviously not built for humans.

Ke Lan and the others can't climb up the stairs like normal stairs. They have to use their hands and feet to climb up little by little. After climbing a full [-] steps, they finally entered the "funnel-shaped cave" .

"A total of one hundred and three levels... the height from the water surface is 96 meters, no radiation dose exceeding the dangerous value has been detected in the environment, and the temperature is basically the same as the outside..." Layton meditated, these data may be in the next However, Layton still recorded them one by one. This is a habit that a professional relic hunter must develop.

"This cave is indeed very big." Ke Lan said - just as he had predicted in advance, the cave is dry at the moment, there is no water under it, and there is no pale pink meat paste.

They came out almost on the "halfway" of the slope, and at the bottom of the cave, there was a circular stone platform with a diameter of about 50 meters, and an empty pedestal was fixed in the middle of the stone platform.

Ke Lan did not focus all his attention on the stone platform, but paid more attention to the surrounding and top of the cave - the most valuable thing in this cave is undoubtedly the jar, and that jar has been hired The soldiers took it away. Although Ke Lan was a little curious about the contents of the jar, his main purpose was to find a way out of the ruins.

There are also a large number of stalactites hanging on the top of this cave. Under the guidance of the beam of the flashlight, Ke Lan's sight swept across the gaps between each bamboo-shaped stone pillar, and he could only see black or off-white rocks... Even if the cave was excavated by the Alfa people, from the structure of the cave itself, there is no trace of artificial processing at all.

Except for the stone platform at the lowest point.

"Asano, can you hear the sound of the wind? It's that... the sound of air flowing through cracks in rocks or small holes." Ke Lan asked Akira Asano.

Akira Asano shook his head and said, "It's very quiet here...and, very dry."

Not only is there no sound of wind, but there is also no sound of water—although this is a cave, the humidity is very low. The stalactites hanging on the top of the cave have long stopped growing, and there is no water droplet that dissolves a large amount of mineral salt from them. dripping from the tip.

"Yeah, it's too dry here..." Layton squatted down and covered the ground with his normal palm, "There is almost no water in these sandstones, I even suspect that guy is telling lies— ——If this cave was really almost filled, even if the tide has receded, these rocks should still remain wet, and they will not recover to such a dry level in a short period of time."

"It's possible that what he saw was a hallucination." Ke Lan pondered, "It's also possible...that it really dried up."

"It's impossible for water to evaporate so quickly in a closed environment, not to mention the humidity in the air is not right," Layton said.

"The accumulated water can be drained by the drainage device, and the humidity can also be adjusted by the ventilation system... But whether it is drainage or ventilation, there must be a pipeline leading to the outside world. As long as we can find this pipeline, we have the opportunity to leave here. "

Ke Lan walked down the slope carefully, then jumped onto the platform.

He remembered that the mercenary said that the water gushed out from the base, so there must be a pipe in the base that connects to the outside world.

Ke Lan carefully observed the pedestal in front of him.

The base is a flat circular platform with a trapezoidal cross-section, and the whole body presents a purple-red color similar to pure copper, but Ke Lan's alloy dagger can't leave any traces on it, which shows that this metal material is definitely not pure copper. Its hardness is far above that of pure copper.

"Layton, can you tell what kind of material this is?" Ke Lan called over to Layton who was studying the stone platform. Layton's attainments in material science are still stronger than Ke Lan's.

"Isn't this thing just copper? It seems that the purity is quite high..." Layton glanced at it and immediately came to a conclusion.

"You take a closer look?"

"What else can it be if it's not copper?" A probe protruded from Layton's mechanical arm. When the tip of the probe touched the base, it was directly bent, and there was still no trace left on the base. leave no trace.

"Hey...it's really not copper...the hardness of this thing is okay, but I don't know how flexible it is. If it has excellent physical properties, it might be a substitute for Nino alloy, but I don't know if the formula is complicated or not. Can human craftsmanship produce..."

As soon as he mentioned this, Layton became energetic in an instant. He took out the circular saw made of Nino alloy again, slightly ground some metal powder from the base, and then aimed the welding torch at the powder—” "Flame reaction" can be used to test the existence of some metals and compounds, and is a very commonly used test method in chemical laboratories.

The flame from the torch swept across the metal powder, and Ke Lan noticed that a touch of green flashed inside the flame. Although it was only for a moment, both he and Layton captured this change.

"Only green...does contain copper." Layton frowned, "but...all known copper alloys do not have such strength. Moreover, if it is a copper alloy, it should not show the appearance of pure copper." The color... I'm a little confused..."

"Don't think about it yet." Ke Lan interrupted Layton's self-talk, "Can you find a way to cut this base? The guy said that water gushes out of the base, so the inside should be There is a pipeline that connects to the outside world."

Layton tapped the shell of the base with his mechanical fingers, and there was a dull sound: "This shell is very thick, at least seven or eight centimeters, no matter whether it is a welding torch or a circular saw, it cannot be cut."

Layton stretched out the circular saw, and Ke Lan saw that there were obvious wear marks on the blades of the circular saw, and the rotating shaft in the middle was also slightly deformed—in order to remove the metal powder just now, the circular saw only It was only in contact with the base shell for a few seconds, and it suffered such a degree of damage. If it continued to cut, the entire saw would probably be scrapped.

As for the welding torches, even with all the fuel they carried, it would be a drop in the bucket.

"Layton, do you have an endoscope with you?" Ke Lan asked. This is a sophisticated detection device that is widely used in medicine and industry. If there is a pair of endoscopes that can be inserted through these small holes, it can also detect the internal structure of the base.

However, Layton shook his head: "That thing is generally only used when overhauling precision components. Now the equipment is modularized. Whether it is maintenance or replacement, the entire module is operated. , I can’t use that kind of sophisticated testing equipment at all... Or, even if I can use an endoscope to detect the faults inside the parts, there is no way to repair them in actual combat... So I never bring this thing On the body."

The smallest detection device on Layton's body was the camera that was used as a periscope before, but this camera couldn't fit into such a small hole at all.

"My pair of medical endoscopes are also left at home... Just like you, emergency operations don't use endoscopes at all, and operations that require endoscopes can't be done under emergency conditions." Ke Lan sighed, "In this case, I can only try a simple method."

The so-called simple method is to glue a few fingernail-sized lenses on the iron wire, then insert the iron wire into the small hole, and use the reflection between the lenses to peek inside the base while lighting it with a flashlight. Case……

(End of this chapter)