Alien Relic Hunter

Chapter 560 Underground Ice Storage (Extended Chapter)

Ke Lan just stood at the head of the elevator shaft, and the armor's external temperature sensor was already sending out low temperature warnings.

The surrounding air temperature has dropped to minus 25 degrees, and a thin layer of hoarfrost has condensed on the metal elevator shaft wall. If someone directly touches it with their hands at this time, the entire hand will probably be firmly " "sticky" to the well wall, at least one layer of skin must be torn off.

According to the information provided by Schroeder, the normal temperature of the first and second floors of the underground ice storage is minus [-] degrees, and the third and fourth floors are even lower, about minus [-] degrees... But now The entire underground ice storage has been cut off for several hours, and Ke Lan is standing at the mouth of the well several hundred meters above the ground. The temperature here should not be so low.

This can only explain one thing... The fifth floor of the underground ice storage has been opened.

All these cold air escaped from the fifth floor.

"It's still a step too late." Ke Lan sighed, "I hope I don't see a dragon egg full of eyes."

"Are we going down?" Akira Asano asked.

"It's all here, even if it's too late, we can only make a last-ditch effort." Ke Lan said, "That thing should not have fully integrated with Yinglong's egg, otherwise we wouldn't have the chance to stand here and talk... …I’ll go down first, and you follow me, keeping a reaction distance of 20 meters to 30 meters from me. If I call you from below to run quickly, just run yourself and don’t look back.”

"Then what do you do?" Asano Akira asked immediately.

"I still have a hole card in my hand, but this hole card is very unstable, and it may involve you... If you come to save me, it will be a kind of shackle for me."

After Ke Lan finished speaking, he took out a pair of claws and fixed it on the edge of the wellhead, then stepped on the frosted well wall and began to slide slowly into the depths of the elevator shaft.

After Ke Lan slid down for a certain distance, Akira Asano lowered a cable and began to descend.

With the decrease in height, the reading of the temperature sensor is increasing rapidly - of course, there is a negative sign in front of this reading.

When Ke Lan's feet finally stepped on the ground, the surrounding temperature had become more than 60 degrees below zero.

He is wearing a set of general-purpose power armor, because there is no plan to enter the deep underground ice storage before departure, so there is no additional temperature insulation layer inside the armor, and the temperature control device that comes with the armor can no longer let the The temperature inside the armor was maintained at around [-] degrees, and a bitter chill continuously penetrated into the interior of the armor from the outside until it penetrated the bone marrow.

"It's so cold..." Ke Lan glanced at the working status of the thermostat. At this time, it was already operating at maximum power. He could even hear the rumble of the pump blades at the back waist, but the temperature inside the armor remained the same. There was no way to get back to a positive number, and there was no way to drive out the cold air that had invaded.

Ke Lan only felt that his blood seemed to be frozen.

In this environment, if you stay for 10 minutes, you will get frostbite, and it is not uncommon to lose a few fingers and toes.

Although with the current medical technology, it only takes a few months to replant a severed limb, not to mention that Ke Lan still has a self-recovery ability far beyond ordinary people, but if he loses his limbs in the next battle If it is perceptual, then the problem will be big...

After thinking about it for a while, Ke Lan removed the power armor reactor on his chest, removed the radiation shield inside the reactor, and then put it back in. This operation is no different from suicide for ordinary people , but for Ke Lan, the threat of radiation is far less than hypothermia.

Soon, the inside of the armor became warm again. This was the residual heat from the reaction furnace, and along with the residual heat, there was also a lethal amount of radiation.

But for some reason, Ke Lan not only didn't feel uncomfortable, but also felt that his strength seemed to have grown a little bit, and his head, which was a little dazed from the cold, also woke up.

"Could it be...I can still directly absorb radiation energy now?" He said to himself, but at this time he didn't have the time to verify whether it was an illusion. Taking advantage of his body's recovery to its peak, Ke Lan hurriedly asked go forward.

There is only one passage at the entrance of the underground ice storage. On the left side of the passage is Area A, on the right is Area B, and behind it there are more than a dozen partitions such as Area C and Area D—the number of "collections" on the first floor of the ice storage and The types are the most, and the actual area is also divided into the most partitions among the five floors. As for the entrance to the next floor, it is located at the end of this passage.

If the entire underground ice store is separated from the ark, you can see that its shape is similar to an upside-down pyramid, and the further you go down, the smaller the area.

And at the tip of the pyramid, it is connected to this vertical secret passage - it is like picking up a pyramid-shaped pendulum body, and the pendulum rope connected to the top naturally hangs down under the action of gravity. Similarly, this "swinging rope" sank all the way to the cooling pool of the Ark's main reactor, and the sealed metal container tied to the end of the "swinging rope" was soaked in liquid nitrogen at minus [-] degrees Celsius.

The eggs of the prehistoric "Yinglong" were sealed in this metal container.

"Damn it, it's really exciting just thinking about it." Ke Lanjiang rubbed his gauntlets, wiped off the hoarfrost on them, and looked at the scene on both sides as he walked.

The partition walls on the first floor of the ice store are made of opaque and low-temperature-resistant special glass. Walking in the passage, Ke Lan suddenly felt like he was back in the glacier ruins.

I think behind these opaque glass, there should be a collection similar to that kind of meat... I just don’t know if there are big eyeballs that can move freely in the ice layer and spliced ​​​​human limbs. The centipede monster...

Most of the collection warehouses have not been opened, but when Ke Lan walked to the G area, there was a hole in the glass wall that was big enough for people to pass through, and the shattered glass particles were scattered all over the place.

The living specimens of the gray mosquito were sealed in the G area, so Ke Lan was not surprised - he would be surprised if all the partitions were intact.

He probed into Area G. Most of the samples sealed here are samples of insect creatures, and at least half of the samples have broken free from their original storage containers. They have all been infected by memes without exception. There was a mutation, but it seemed that the only one that survived and escaped before the icehouse cooled down again was the gray six-winged mosquito.

Ke Lan didn't stop here and continued to walk forward.

Asano Akira followed from behind, keeping a distance of 30 to [-] meters from him.

It seems that thanks to the cold air escaping from the fifth floor, the temperature of the power-off underground icehouse dropped to tens of degrees below zero again. Ke Lan and Asano Akira did not encounter any enemies along the way—even after some indigenous creatures woke up It ran out of the containment device, and now it has turned into a motionless ice sculpture.

Without the protective container, the life of these creatures had already disappeared from their bodies the moment they were frozen, and even if the temperature rose again, they would never wake up again.

"The research institute has suffered a heavy loss this time. Not only have so many people been lost, but there are not even a few items left in the underground ice storage..." Ke Lan couldn't help but think of an old story he had seen on the Internet. Story: It was the year when the Ark had just landed on Alpha Planet. In that era of extremely unstable prices, a businessman used all his savings and loans to purchase a batch of rare medicines, and all of them were deposited in rent at a high price. In the cold storage below.

He originally wanted to wait until the price rose to make a big profit, but just two days later, in order to clean up a group of native creatures that were approaching, the Ark executives used the Ark's main cannon three times in a day. The stable voltage caused power outages in several areas of the ship. Although the power outage lasted only a few hours, all the expensive medicines had already deteriorated and turned into worthless garbage...

The businessman, who dreamed of getting rich, ended his life with a pistol.

"Anyway, the loss is so heavy, why not launch the West Second District into the sky and set off a big firework just like dealing with the East Ninth District, it's okay..." Ke Lan wanted to say, "It's clean and neat", but He changed his mind, Zelo could survive in that situation, not to mention this "intelligent" meme subject, so he had to swallow the following words.

The underground ice storage, the second floor, is still unimpeded.

The third layer, still the same.

Fourth floor...

Finally, when Ke Lan was about to reach the entrance of the secret passage, he finally ran into the blocker.

Those are two type B mutants wandering in the passage.

Creatures like the Seed of Corrosion can even survive for a period of time in the vacuum of the universe, and the low temperature of tens of degrees below zero is not a problem for them at all.

It's just that they are nothing to Akira Asano at all-ke Lan didn't even see the movement of Akira Asano when he stopped using the knife, and the "core" of the two B-type mutants It had already been gouged out by the blade and cut in half in mid-air.

The low temperature in the ice bank did not seem to have any effect on Akira Asano.

"It's easy to cut." Ke Lan gave Akira Asano a thumbs-up, then stepped over the two mutant corpses that had begun to degrade themselves, and walked straight towards the secret passage.

There is no elevator in the secret passage, but a straight ladder inlaid on the passage wall. If you want to enter the fifth floor of the ice store, you can only climb down the ladder little by little.

Of course, Ke Lan would not choose such a time-wasting method. Just like in the elevator shaft, after fixing the hook rope, he jumped down directly and started sliding at high speed against the passage wall.

His speed was not much slower than a free fall, but it had been falling for nearly half a minute before the sensor of the power armor issued an alarm that it was about to bottom out.

The reverse buffer thruster ignited, and Ke Lan's speed suddenly slowed down, and then landed firmly on the ground.

This is a hall about the size of a football field. The floor, walls, and walls are all made of metal. On the ground in the middle of the hall, an extremely exaggerated opening was torn open by violence.

Ke Lan walked to the edge of the gap, adjusted the angle of the searchlight on his head, and looked inside.

Although the thick white ice fog blocked most of his vision, he still saw a huge egg, imprisoned by a large number of metal frames, and filled with various pipelines.

This is Yinglong's egg... In the temperature of two hundred degrees below zero, it is still beating rhythmically, just like a strong and powerful heart.

At this moment, Akira Asano pulled out his knife suddenly, pointed the blade at the corner of the hall, and shouted in a low voice: "There is something (anti-harmony) hidden there."

"It's in this hall?" Ke Lan was taken aback, raised his head, and looked in the direction Akira Asano was facing——

A little boy who looked about ten years old slowly came out of the shadows. He was barefoot, hairless, and wrapped in a white coat that didn't fit at all and was stained with blood.

I don't know why, but Ke Lan always feels that this little boy's face is very familiar, but he can't remember where he saw it...

It can't be, is it in a dream?
"Who are you?" Ke Lan asked.

"Who are you?" The other party also asked.

"...What are you?" Ke Lan changed the question... He knew that the other party was absolutely, yes, no, yes, human.

"What are you?" The little boy is like a mirror, a repeater, a valley that only returns echoes - he looked at Ke Lan with those dark and clear eyes, and repeated Ke Lan's question his words.

"Why do you want to learn how to speak from me?" Ke Lan couldn't help frowning.

"Why do you want to imitate me?" The other party also frowned... Although his eyebrows were bald, there were no eyebrows at all.

"Grass Nima." Ke Lan suddenly said a dirty word.

"Cao Nima." Not to be outdone, the other party immediately responded.

"I'm stupid x." Just when Akira Asano thought that the two of them were going to start a repeat-style scolding battle, Ke Lan suddenly changed the subject and came up with a move of "hurt the enemy a thousand, hurt yourself a thousand" trick.

But this time, the other party didn't repeat his words, and suddenly burst out laughing.

"Damn, there's something wrong with this guy." Ke Lan cursed in a low voice. He didn't mind calling himself a fool, as long as this meaningless conversation could be ended, it wouldn't hurt to suffer a little verbally.

Besides, just recklessly entering the fifth floor of the ice storage, from a certain point of view, Ke Lan also felt that he was really stupid.

"Ask you again, what the hell are you?" Ke Lan stared at the little boy, and put his hand on the grip of the shotgun, "I don't have time to play that kind of boring game with you, if you continue to play dumb or Silence, I will directly choose to shoot."

"What am I... Don't you already know it in your heart?" The little boy stopped laughing and asked Ke Lan.

"You are the subject of the 'meme'?"

"No... I'm you," said the little boy.

I am you.

These three words immediately startled Ke Lan. He finally understood why he saw the little boy's face so familiar but couldn't remember where he saw it... The appearance of this little boy was clearly very similar to his own. Years are exactly the same!
he is me...

From a biological point of view, the little boy did not lie. Lin Qiming said that the "meme" was born because Professor Smith injected the cells of the seed of erosion into his cloned tissue...

If the little boy had grown from that piece of cloned tissue, he was indeed a clone of himself.

A Kelan clone carrying a high-dangerity level "meme".

"I am you..." The little boy repeated again, and after he finished speaking, he stretched his hands to his chin, his nails pierced directly into the tender flesh, and the blood instantly stained his ten fingers.

Ke Lan didn't know why the other party suddenly started to harm himself. He raised his gun, stared at the little boy vigilantly, and took a half step back.

The little boy began to let out a sharp scream, and the expression on his face was distorted due to the pain... But the movements under his hands did not stop at all, his fingers had been completely inserted under the skin, bit by bit his face... Forcibly... tore it off...

Then, he crumpled the bloody mass into a ball, threw it on the ground, and crushed it with one foot.

"You... hiss... this is... a part of you... hiss... I am you, but I don't want to be you!" The little boy pointed at the lump on the ground and shouted to Ke Lan.

"Even if you tear your face off, the clone is still a clone." Ke Lan said each word, "Your actions are meaningless."

He didn't know what the other party was going crazy, but if the other party was willing to communicate, Ke Lan still felt it was worth trying.

Of course, the premise is not to delay more time.

"No, it's not a face, it's a part of the body... You are a body... In the body, there are other people's things."

"What body? What is someone else's thing? You speak clearly!" Ke Lan's heart skipped a beat, and he seemed to feel that he had caught something.

"I am you, but you are not yourself!" the little boy shouted hoarsely.

(End of this chapter)