Alien Relic Hunter

Chapter 97 The Reservoir

The rate of sea water gushing out became faster and faster, and in some places it even shot out directly.

5 minutes later, when Ke Lan ran to the fork closest to the dead end, the sea water had already reached the middle of the calf—not only the dead end was seeping water, but also the entire underground labyrinth, and even the entire cave. The sea water keeps pouring in!

The luminous ore that Ke Lan pryed off was like opening a main valve. According to the current flow rate, the entire cave would be completely filled with seawater rushing in frantically for at most half an hour.

"You shouldn't pry that unlucky thing..." Ke Lan wanted to give himself a big ear. Before, he pulled out a stalagmite on the ground because of his cheap hands, and almost explained his life. Who knows it hasn't been a day yet. Actually, for similar reasons, I let myself fall into a dead place again...

He trudged through the knee-deep sea water with difficulty, trying to recall the scene when he had just pried off the ore. Ke Lan vaguely remembered that before he started, he seemed to have considered the possibility of the existence of the stone pillar, but it seemed that he was in his heart. There was a voice urging him to do so...

"It's weird..."

Ke Lan is very aware of his character. Although he sometimes makes some gambler-like choices, when he is not forced into a desperate situation, he has always been very cautious - and it is precisely because of this cautiousness that he makes him I was able to escape from many exploratory missions.

It stands to reason that after suffering such a loss just now, I shouldn't have made such a reckless behavior...

Is it because the "nearly infinite" fork in the road has worn away his patience?But this statement seems a bit far-fetched...

The more Ke Lan thought about it, the more strange it became. He felt like a puppet manipulated by an invisible hand just now. He almost subconsciously pulled out the dagger and walked towards the stone pillar.

Is it because that giant eye staring at him makes him too uncomfortable?Or some kind of psychological suggestion from the heart?

Moreover, I don't know why, subconsciously, Ke Lan always felt that the glowing ore was very important...

Looking at the ore still in his arms, Ke Lan pouted helplessly... If this thing is some kind of treasure, why didn't he feel that way in the underwater city before?
In that place, even if you pry off the "eyes" of all the stone pillars, it will be fine, anyway, the sea is full of water...

"Hey... Am I making excuses for the stupid things I committed?"

The water level has reached the height of the thigh, and this depth has brought great obstacles to Ke Lan's actions. He no longer has the mind to think about these things. If he died here, then everything would be meaningless.

He stuffed the ore into his backpack, kicked his feet on the ground, and threw himself directly into the water—at this time, swimming was much faster than running.

Ke Lan rowed his arms desperately, and at the same time his feet hit the water frantically—crawling is the fastest among several common swimming postures. One more point.

"Strange...almost...it should be at the next...fork in the road, right?"

Just when Ke Lan was thinking about it, the water suddenly turned sharply and threw him down!

"This is?!"

Ke Lan, who was a little dizzy from the fall, got up from the water with his hands and feet. He suddenly found that he was standing in a shallow pool. There was a hole about three meters square directly above the pool. It keeps pouring out of it.

And he himself just fell out of this hole just now.

At this time, Ke Lan noticed that there was always a strong suction under his feet. He pointed the flashlight at the bottom of the pool, and saw that there was actually a metal filter screen covered with small holes, and the sea water entering the pool penetrated Through this filter, it fell to the space below the pool - and it is for this reason that although seawater is always being injected, the water level of this pool has never risen.

Ke Lan raised his head, raised his flashlight and looked around. At this moment, although he was still in the cave, the walls of the cave were full of traces of artificial transformation. A large number of alloy plates covered more than half of the entire cave. , a substance similar to metal foam is filled between the alloy plates, and countless load-bearing columns and load-bearing beams form a frame with a very complex structure, supporting this channel that not only leads to nowhere.

The rumbling sound of water came from overhead, Ke Lan knew that the cave above was submerged by sea water, and that the vertical hole should be a "discharge port" for emergency.

"This underground labyrinth...could it be really the drainage system of the Alpha people?" Ke Lan walked out of the pool and looked at the seawater that kept hitting the metal filter net. Didn't find it when passing by?Was it because it was closed at that time, or was the path that he took when he turned back "again" modified?

But if this cave is really a drainage system, with the technology of Alpha Civilization, it is easy to change the channel to modify the path of the water flow... As for the numerous forks, it must be part of this system.

"If there are water pipes above, then this should be a dedicated access for maintenance?" Ke Lan walked around the pool, and soon found a metal sign nailed to the ground on the edge of the pool.

The sign was badly worn and covered in rust, but luckily the writing was barely legible.

"It's Alpha..." Ke Lan tried to express it in human language, "No. [-]... Reservoir... When a disaster happens... Special use... Don't... Overload?"

Reservoir No. [-] is easy to understand. It should refer to the huge water storage space under this metal filter, but what does "special use in the event of a disaster" mean?
You mean this is a pool of life-saving water?
What can be poured in are seawater with highly toxic and radiation, what use can this thing... Besides, this is an island, although freshwater resources may be very tight, but the seawater is not inexhaustible?

There is also "don't overload", but Ke Lan feels that his translation is not very correct. The last few characters have many meanings in this context, and overloading is only one of them... In addition, there are " Overheating," "out of range," "explosion," and hundreds of other definitions.

The reason why the language of the Alpha civilization is difficult to translate into human language is this. If it is just a simple text carrier, this language is extremely obscure and difficult to understand, but if it is converted into information and stored in the mind, it will be difficult to understand. It will become something that can only be understood and indescribable... and "overload" should be the closest word to the original meaning that Ke Lan can find in human language.

But here, don't overload it is not this pool, but another thing that is not mentioned in the text.Although Ke Lan didn't know what it was, it was clear that if the thing was "overloaded", a "disaster" would happen immediately.

"Could it be that this pool is the coolant for 'that thing'? It doesn't seem to be a problem to explain that?"

(End of this chapter)