Alien Relic Hunter

Although the morale of the team was very low, no one raised any objection to the team leader's order. After briefly disposing of the survivor and Roni's body, everyone continued to move towards the Ark.

Hey... clown. During the march, Soap quietly leaned to the clown's side and asked in a low voice, By the way, are you not infected? You just had the most contact with that survivor.

I said this symptom is not spread by direct contact, the clown said, tugging at the scarf that covered his face.

Only then did Soap notice that the clown's movements were a little weird. The expressions in his eyes changed several times in just a few seconds, and then he asked in a lower voice: Are you already infected, are you afraid of being abandoned or... I was being 'processed', so I didn't want to say anything.

Let me say it one last time, those symptoms are not spread by direct contact. Believe it or not. The clown's tone became a little colder. These symptoms are spread through a medium similar to 'memes'. As for This 'meme' is what it is. This is the top secret officially recognized by Ark. Anyone who knows about this must sign the highest level confidentiality agreement. You can ask the captain of the Spear Team if he is willing I don’t mind if I tell you at the risk of leaking the secret.”

But, if you are not infected, why do you cover yourself so tightly? Soap said quietly in a voice that only the two of them could hear. One of his hands had already reached under the hem of his clothes and stuck it on On the pistol holster on the outside of the thigh, It's night now, and you can't even see the moonlight. There's no way your skin will be burned... As for the light from the lighting equipment, it shouldn't cause any harm to you. , otherwise, you should be dressed like this in the lobby of the Trigger Bar. As for hiding your appearance, that is even more nonsense. Giraffe and I have seen your face in the Trigger Bar. Except for us, no one has seen your face. There are at least a dozen people, and the identity must be verified before entering and exiting the Mukah base. It is absolutely impossible for the guards to let a person with a covered head and face pass.

... The clown didn't answer his words, which made Soap more convinced that his guess was correct, but it made him even more nervous - being so close to a highly contagious mutant, and having to It is absolutely impossible to expose the opponent's disguise without a big heart.

If it were the giraffe guy, he would have been calling people by now, Soap thought secretly.

Your body has mutated, right? Soap said, It's just that your mutation speed is not as fast as that of the survivor and the female medical soldier... Is my guess correct?

Totally wrong. The clown glanced at him out of the corner of his eye. If I was infected by the survivor, why did I cover up my body in the first place? Your conclusion is not valid at all.

Uh... Soap was stunned. He thought about it carefully and realized that what the other party said was indeed correct... Before meeting this survivor, the guy named Joker had already wrapped himself up from head to toe. , but at that time he probably didn’t know that he would meet this survivor, nor did he know about the infection...

If it could be predicted, wouldn't it be a prophet? If he could foresee it, he should not operate on the survivor and hide as far away as possible.

Soap was a little frustrated inside, but at the same time he breathed a sigh of relief - the clown was wrapped so tightly that not an inch of his body was exposed. Even when he just operated on the survivor, he used all his fingers to operate the scalpel accurately. He took off his tactical tactical gloves, but he immediately put on a pair of medical nitrile gloves. Logically speaking, he did not have any direct physical contact with the survivor.

On the other hand, the female medical soldier named Roni was rough in operation and even got the blood of survivors on her wrist... It was not a surprise that she would be infected.

But for some reason, even if this misunderstanding was resolved, Soap always felt that the clown in front of him seemed to be different from the intelligence dealer he had seen in the Trigger Bar.

No...it should be my misunderstanding, misunderstanding...

The white hair, pale skin without a trace of blood, and the eyes under the sunglasses are exactly the same as the guy in the Trigger Bar who exchanged information for drinks. If this is another person, it can only be That intelligence dealer's twin.

Soap deliberately slowed down, a few steps behind the clown, and observed the clown's figure and body outline from behind... Although the clown's outfit was completely different from when he was in the Trigger Bar, his body shape was still right. of.

The misunderstanding must be my misunderstanding. Soap said silently in his heart.

As long as he thought about this matter carefully, the more he thought about it, the more he realized that this idea was wrong. But when he put his attention elsewhere and allowed his thoughts to race around in his head like a wild horse, he felt that it was wrong. I can sense that there seems to be something not quite right about the clown.

Is it because of the abilities he showed? Or is it his weird outfit? Or is it the unknown origin black card in his hand?

None of this seemed to be enough reason to doubt him.

Soap returned to normal traveling speed, followed, and asked: I'm sorry, I was thinking too much just now. What happened just now made me a little nervous. When I think about it carefully, you are wrapped up better than anyone else. Yan Shi, you have no direct contact with the survivor at all. If you want to say that you are infected, other people are more likely to be infected than you.

Yeah. The clown nodded, Just think about it. This mission is very dangerous, and we shouldn't be suspicious of each other.

It's true. Soap repeatedly echoed, I'm not suspicious. I'm just a little curious. There's no sun now. Why do you have to cover it up so tightly? Ah, I don't mean anything else. I'm just curious. Don't you feel bored like this? ?

I don't think so, the clown said. As long as I am outdoors, no matter day or night, I will cover every inch of my skin. It has become a habit. There was a night operation before, and I did not take protective measures. As a result, my teammates did not remind me. Multiple flash bombs were thrown in succession, and I almost lost my eyesight permanently.

Oh...that's it. I understand, I understand. Soap nodded repeatedly, It's really unethical to push people. It's clear that there are people with albinism in the team, but they still use flash bombs without warning in advance.

The most vulnerable thing for people with albinism is not their skin, but their eyes. Generally, patients with mild albinism can go out on sunny days if they wear sun protection. The only thing they need to pay attention to is to protect their eyes and wear sunglasses, and do not look directly at the sun. The strong light that a flash of light can release in an instant is much stronger than the bright light of looking directly at the sun. Even if you close your eyes and cover your eyes with your hands, the strong light will penetrate through your fingers and pass through your eyelids. , piercing the eyes.

He was just a temporary teammate, but those flash bombs failed to save his life. The next second, his head was chewed off by the indigenous creatures that rushed towards him. The clown said casually.

What a death! With a teammate like this, I wish he would sacrifice himself to the heavens as soon as possible. Zao Yao responded.

What followed was some useless chatting. The two of them chatted one after another, and the team finally arrived directly under the Ark at the scheduled time.

Except for the sentries and scouts, the captain of the spear team gathered everyone together, took out a tablet, and displayed a drawing on the screen.

This is the structural diagram of areas 9 to 21 of the external frame on the west side of the Ark, which is what is above our heads now. Since we cannot enter the Ark from the conventional entrance, we can only choose unconventional passages. The squad leader said.

After getting close to the Ark, they determined that the Ark was not completely wrapped in a fleshy carpet, but that part of the structure was still exposed.

The general shape of the Ark is a disc-shaped flying saucer, thick in the middle and thin at the edges. It relies on tens of thousands of support columns and an equally astonishing number of anti-gravity devices to suspended above the ground.

The center of the Ark is only a dozen meters away from the ground, while the edge is hundreds of meters or even thousands of meters away from the ground. The area underneath is called the shade area, which means that it is under the shadow of the Ark all year round. area covered.

The fleshy fungi only covered the upper part of the ark, and about one-third of the bottom of the ark was exposed. Those fleshy fungi hung down to the ground in the shaded area like the aerial roots of a big banyan tree... But because The Ark is very large and seems to have dense aerial roots. In fact, the distance between each root is more than ten meters, allowing everyone to walk through it.

Moreover, during the process of traveling, these roots did not produce any stress reaction - they did not seem to have any ability to seek enemies, or they might only react to energy crystals.

I have checked and found that all personnel passages, cargo passages and vehicle entrances and exits have been blocked. Although these fleshy carpets have been quiet so far, I think it is better not to interact with them unless absolutely necessary. There was no direct contact.

Yes, I don't want to touch those things even if I die. The giraffe nodded hurriedly.

Not only him, many people in the team still believe that these fleshy carpets are a mutated corrosive species that will be infected as long as they come into direct contact, and the survivor and Roni died from this. kind of infection.

There are two routes now. The team leader marked the two routes on the drawing in red, They are the W193A maintenance channel and the W257C maintenance channel. These two maintenance channels are for each large-scale maintenance. There is a built-in electric lift used by maintenance personnel to enter the inside of the frame, but we cannot confirm whether the power supply is normal. If the circuit is cut off, we can only climb up with bare hands.

It's better to prepare for the worst. The transport plane pilot crossed his arms and said with a frown, The power supply lines used by these two channels should be the same. If the power is cut off, they should both be cut off. There is not much difference. .

There are still differences, the team leader said. The length of the inspection channel W193A is 400 meters, and the length of the inspection channel W257C is 650 meters. If we choose the latter, we need to climb an extra 250 meters, but The exit of the latter is located near the power plant in the West 12th District, less than a kilometer away from the nearest public communication terminal. The exit of the first channel is at the edge of the outer frame, which is a 'no man's land', The nearest public communication terminal takes nearly half an hour even by car.”

I choose the second passage. Soap said immediately, I would rather climb an extra two hundred meters in the elevator shaft, and I don't want to walk that far inside the Ark. Now that the outer frame has almost completely collapsed, who knows what is there? what.

I would also choose the second option, the transport plane pilot said. The longer the route, the more variables may occur. The top priority is to get in touch with the survivors on the Ark immediately to find out the situation.

The team leader looked at the others, and it was clear from their expressions that everyone had the same idea - choose the longer passage but closer to the mission target.

Then choose W257C.

The entrance to channel W257C is a full 180 meters away from the ground. During maintenance, maintenance personnel will take a suspended platform or elevator to reach the entrance. But now the team does not have such conditions, so they can only use another An emergency measure.

The so-called emergency means is to aim the laser transmitter at the receiving device next to the entrance and input the emergency command, so that the hatch at the entrance will automatically open and a roll of ladder will be thrown out.

A one-hundred-eighty-meter-long suspended ladder... Tsk, if it shakes, it will be quite painful. Zao Zao glanced at the ladder hanging down from the cabin door and couldn't help but feel a little uneasy.

Although the bottom of the ladder can be nailed to the ground, the length and texture of the ladder mean that the stability of this thing will not be very high.

The scout team will go up first. After entering the maintenance channel, they will check the power supply first. If there is still power, lower the elevator. If there is no power, then they will have to climb up one by one.

The emergency opening device uses a built-in power supply. This power supply is fine for opening the door, but it is far from enough to drive the lift.

The two scouts climbed up carefully. Under the constant shaking of the ladder, they climbed very slowly, but fortunately they managed to get into the maintenance channel without any danger and successfully lowered the elevator.

Huh, is this the only good news since we started taking action? Standing on the stable elevator, Soap sighed, To be honest, I have already prepared to climb the 180-meter ladder first, and then climb the six-meter ladder. The 150-meter tunnel is ready.

That's right. The giraffe nodded, You can't be unlucky all the time, right?