Alien Relic Hunter

Noah's Ark, inside the mezzanine structure, underground labyrinth.

After passing through a total of forty-six passages that were constantly changing positions, Clown, Soap, and Noir finally stopped.

You can rest here temporarily for twenty minutes. There will be no changes in this area within twenty minutes. The clown said.

The three of them basically never stopped along the way, and battles with mutant creatures living in the underground labyrinth also broke out from time to time. Even if the clown could help the two recover their physical strength, the mental fatigue could not be eliminated... The two From the beginning, I eagerly asked the clown about various things, to the point where I am too lazy to say a word to the monster no matter how abstract it is. Only three hours have passed.

Soap numbly filled the empty magazine with bullets one after another, while Noir silently took out an energy bar, tore open the aluminum foil package, chewed and looked around - this place was different from the previous one. The passage is completely different, it is a room with multiple layers of partitions. The wall is entirely made of metal, with yellow and black warning stripes and a trefoil-shaped radiation hazard sign printed on the edge of the entrance.

Soap took out the straw of the water bag, took a few sips of water, and then asked: Where is this place?

The early maintenance of Ark's reactors and power furnaces relied on manpower. This is a place for maintenance personnel to store equipment. The clown replied, But later, fully automatic robots that are not afraid of radiation replaced human maintenance, and the robots only need one machine A charging pile was enough in the library, and this place was abandoned. Later, during several major module renovations, this place was separated separately, sunk into the structural layer, and became part of the underground labyrinth.

The clown walked to a wall with an obvious gap, grabbed the raised handle on the wall and pulled hard, and a cabinet hidden inside the wall was pulled out.

This is an equipment cabinet. Most of the grids are empty. There are only a few grids with worn-out old-fashioned protective clothing. A single piece of this type of protective clothing weighs more than one hundred kilograms and cannot be put on or taken off by one person. , the radiation protection ability can only be said to be barely adequate... As early as the interstellar drifting era, this type of protective clothing has been eliminated.

No wonder all these equipment were abandoned here and no one went to recycle them.

We need to bypass a main reactor on the road ahead. The radiation concentration in the surrounding area will be very high. You'd better put on protective clothing. The clown said.

Soap and Noir walked to the equipment cabinet and gestured in front of the hanging protective clothing - these protective clothing are all adjustable in size, and there is no problem of inappropriate sizes, but the rusty metal There is a question mark as to whether components and seriously aged fabrics still have radiation protection capabilities.

This thing looks very heavy. Soap muttered, picking up the sleeve of a protective suit and weighing it. The mobility is not very good. It is difficult to walk with this thing on, let alone open it. The gun and the fight...the fingers of this protective glove can't even fit into the trigger guard.

You don't need to fight. If you encounter mutant creatures, I will deal with them. The clown said.

Okay, I know you are very strong...but to be honest, the most dangerous factor along the way is not the mutant creatures, but the damn underground maze itself. Soap said.

Like the previous situation where they relied on ziplines to move, they encountered it more than once. Several times, Soap and Noir lost their feet and fell into the abyss. Thanks to the clown's timely action, he used his tentacles to fish them back, so that neither of them ended up falling to death. fate.

If you put on these heavy protective suits, let alone move like parkour, you can't even jump... Unless the road behind is as flat as the ground, otherwise putting on this thing is the same as stuffing yourself into There is no difference in a soft coffin.

Noir did not speak, but walked to the other end of the room, unscrewed the valve of the airtight door, and pushed open a small gap that could only fit a finger through.

The next second, he felt an obvious stinging sensation on his soapy skin, and Noir immediately closed the door.

He glanced down at the screen of the multi-function watch, shook his head at the soap, and said: The radiation intensity has greatly exceeded the danger threshold. According to calculations, if you enter this environment, it only takes fifteen to thirty minutes to be fatal. , even taking anti-radiation drugs is useless.”

Is the radiation from Ark's main reactor so strong? Soap was stunned for a moment, In my impression, these reactors...

Before he finished speaking, he suddenly slapped his thigh: Damn it, I forgot about that group of lunatics. In order to promote the mutation of these monsters in the underground labyrinth, they removed all the protective barriers... Damn it, This is equivalent to directly exposing part of the underground labyrinth to a strong radiation area...

Noir looked at the clown and asked: What is the depth of the radiation zone? Is it possible to get around it?

It can't be bypassed. If we go around, we need to plan a new route. As for the depth of the radiation zone, it is about one kilometer, but the road is not very easy to walk. At the speed we were traveling at just now, it would take half an hour to get through. time. the clown said.

Half an hour... Noir calculated, Even if you take anti-radiation drugs, you won't be able to last this long... Even if you don't die, it will induce acute radiation sickness, but if you wear these protective suits, you won't be able to walk this way. past……

Okay now, we don't even have a chance to go back home now, haha. Soap shrugged and laughed self-deprecatingly, The passage we just walked through has been disrupted and scattered. The only one who remembers the rules of the underground maze is the clown, and he only remembers the change rules of this road within this specified period of time... From the beginning, this is a road of no return.

Joker, there is one thing I want to confirm with you again. Noir said.

you say.

Although the two of us are not important in your plan, as a 'drug' that can slow down your erosion, it is definitely better to live than to die, right. Noir said, At least, we are useful to you Otherwise, you wouldn’t have saved us so many times.”

Yes.

Then if I need you to take the two of us out of the radiation zone, can you do it? Noir asked again.

Two people together, plus protective clothing and equipment, weigh almost one ton. The clown thought for a moment before nodding, It should be possible, but I can't guarantee that when encountering a stronger monster , we can still ensure your safety.”

It doesn't matter, as long as you can move us. If you encounter a powerful monster, you can throw us aside. We will find a way to protect ourselves.

Can.

After receiving the clown's assurance, Soap and Noir each chose a protective suit of decent quality and put it on - the design of this protective suit was similar to the space suit of the old era, the only difference was that There is no jetpack that allows astronauts to move in a zero-gravity environment, nor is there a powered exoskeleton built into the outboard suit.

This protective suit weighing more than 100 kilograms completely requires the wearer's own strength to hold it up and drive it to walk. In a gravity environment, this is undoubtedly a very stupid design.

This thing should be used with a powered exoskeleton. Soap complained to Noir while putting it on, Look at the lining of the protective suit, there are fixed locks reserved for connecting to the exoskeleton. , but here there are only protective suits and no exoskeleton.”

Powered exoskeletons are much more valuable than these old-fashioned protective suits. They must have been taken away by others. Noir said, Also, even if they leave you a complete set of exoskeletons, after so many years, The motor has long since aged to the point of being useless.”

That's right... Damn it, it's a pity that my exoskeleton was overloaded and burned out when I was escaping... Otherwise, I wouldn't be in such a mess now.

The two helped each other, and it took them ten minutes to put on the protective clothing. After checking the seal for the last time, Noir moved step by step to the airtight door and pushed the door open again.

Two tentacles as thick as arms extended silently from under the clown's cloak and wrapped around Noir and Soap's bodies. The two suddenly felt their bodies lighten up, and their walking became much easier.

I will try my best to preserve your maximum ability to move independently while reducing your burden. If you want to be more relaxed, I can connect the tentacles to your spine and directly read your nerve signals. In this way, These two tentacles can be turned into a 'powered exoskeleton' controlled by your nerve signals, and you can use it to make various movements.

No, let's avoid it. Soap waved his hands repeatedly, Although... although I am not so disgusted with these things growing on your body, if you want them to enter my body, then I will never accept it... ...Unless I die, you can do whatever you want with my body then, and I have no objection to eating it all. But not now, absolutely not.

Well, that's it, that's good. Noir said, Letting the tentacles enter the body will cause us to be corroded, right? Just like the four soldiers who were eaten by you.

No, corrosion will not spread through direct contact. The clown said, But since you are unwilling, I won't force it.

Connected by the two tentacles, the three people passed through the air-tight door back and forth like Siamese people - behind the air-tight door is a plank road spiraling downwards surrounding a huge cylinder. One side of the plank road One side is directly welded to the cylinder, and the other side is a cliff without any guardrails. In addition, the width of the plank road is less than two meters... Just walking on it will make people's hearts beat faster.

To be honest, I really don't like this kind of terrain. Soap wanted to reach out to touch the gun hanging on his back, but found that the range of movement of the arm of this protective suit did not support such a large movement at all. He had already I rotated my joints to the limit, but still couldn't reach the backpack behind me.

The backpacks on this kind of protective clothing are all for companions. Noir helped Soap take off the gun and handed it to him.

Soap took the gun and awkwardly pulled the bolt to load it - in order to solve the problem that the fingers of the protective gloves could not pass through the trigger guard, he had just sawed off the trigger guard. Although it was easy to misfire, at least he fired. No need to take off your gloves when doing it.

These gloves are screwed to the cuffs, and it would take several minutes to take them off alone.

Soap held the grip with one hand and placed the other hand across his chest. He placed the handguard on his forearm and aimed the muzzle of the gun diagonally upward - at the position where he aimed, there was a huge moth attached to the cylinder. The surface of the body is motionless.

I don't know if this moth is dead or alive. Soap said softly, If it is alive, then we are very lucky to bump into such a big guy as soon as we go out.

The wings of this moth are in a folded state, but the length of the body is already more than twenty meters. If calculated according to the proportion of ordinary moths, its wingspan is estimated to be more than fifty meters after unfolding, even among the indigenous people. The creature's body shape is obviously several times larger than that of Earth's creatures, so it can be regarded as a giant creature.

Although this underground space is wide, the various steel structure support columns, constantly moving passages, and various pipes extending from the ground almost completely fill this space. Such a huge moth wants to be like this How can it ensure that it does not hit those pillars and pipes when flying in such places?

On the folded wings of the moth, there are intimidating patterns that resemble eyes... But in Soap's view, the size of this guy alone is enough to be intimidating, and the existence of this pattern is simply superfluous.

It should be... alive, right? Noir murmured, If it's a corpse, the wings shouldn't be so brightly colored, right? It looks like a processed specimen... But, if it's alive , why does it not react at all when we shine a tactical flashlight on it? As for moths, no matter what kind they are, they should be creatures that are very sensitive to light, right?

It's dormant. Try not to disturb it. The clown reminded, I know it. It has been attached to this waste pipe and has not moved for at least thirty years. This waste pipe is used to store reactors. Nuclear waste, it relies on absorbing the radiation escaping from it.

Can it survive just by absorbing radiation? Then it doesn't need to eat? Soap asked curiously.

Of course it needs to eat. The phosphorus powder on its wings can emit a special smell to attract other creatures to come closer... Rather than being an animal, its habits are more like a plant called a pitcher plant.