The rate at which sea water gushed out became faster and faster, and in some places it even shot out directly.

Five minutes later, when Ke Lan ran to the fork in the road closest to the dead end, the sea water had already reached the middle of her calves - not only was water seeping into the dead end, but the entire underground maze and even the entire cave were constantly flooded with sea water!

The piece of glowing ore that Ke Lan pried off was like opening a main valve. At the current flow rate, the entire cave would be completely filled with the madly rushing seawater in half an hour at most.

"I shouldn't have tried to pry open that unlucky thing..." Ke Lan wanted to give himself a big slap in the face. Previously, he had almost lost his life because he pulled out a stalagmite on the ground. Who would have thought that within a day, he would fall into a deadly situation again for a similar reason...

He trudged through the knee-deep seawater, trying to recall the scene when he had just pried the ore off. Ke Lan vaguely remembered that before he took action, he seemed to have considered the possibility that the stone pillar had a mechanism, but it seemed that there was a voice in his heart urging him to do so...

"How strange..."

Ke Lan is very clear about his own character. Although he sometimes makes some gambler-like decisions, he is always very cautious unless he is forced into a desperate situation. It is precisely because of this caution that he has been able to escape unscathed from many exploration missions.

Logically speaking, after suffering such a loss just now, I shouldn't do such a rash thing...

Could it be that the "nearly infinite" crossroads had worn out his patience? But this statement seemed a bit far-fetched...

The more Ke Lan thought about it, the weirder it seemed to him. He felt like a puppet being manipulated by invisible hands. He almost subconsciously drew out the dagger and walked towards the stone pillar.

Was it because the giant eye staring at him made him feel too uncomfortable? Or was it some kind of psychological suggestion from within?

Moreover, for some reason, Ke Lan subconsciously felt that the glowing ore was very important...

Looking at the ore still in his arms, Ke Lan curled his lips helplessly... If this thing is a treasure, why didn't he have that feeling when he was in the underwater city before?

In that place, it would not matter even if you pried out the "eyes" of all the stone pillars, since the sea was full of water anyway...

"Ah... am I making excuses for the stupid things I did?"

The water level has reached thigh height. This depth has greatly hindered Ke Lan's movements. He no longer has the mind to think about these things. If he dies here, everything will be meaningless.

He stuffed the ore into his backpack, pushed off the ground with his feet, and dived directly into the water - at this time, swimming is much faster than running.

Ke Lan paddled his arms desperately and kicked the water with his feet frantically - the crawl stroke is the fastest of several commonly used swimming styles. At this time, every extra second he can gain will increase his chances of survival.

"Strange... We're almost at the next... fork in the road, right?"

Just as Ke Lan was thinking this, the water flow suddenly turned sharply downward, throwing him heavily down!

"This is?!"

Ke Lan, who was a little dizzy from the fall, climbed out of the water using his hands and feet. He was shocked to find that he was standing in a shallow pool. There was a hole about three meters square right above the pool, and black sea water was constantly pouring out of it.

And he himself had just fallen out of this hole.

At this time, Ke Lan noticed that there was a strong suction force coming from under his feet. He pointed the flashlight at the bottom of the pool, and saw that there was a metal filter covered with small holes. The seawater entering the pool passed through the filter and fell into the space below the pool. And it was precisely for this reason that although seawater was constantly being injected, the water level of the pool had never risen.

Ke Lan raised his head, held up the flashlight and looked around. Although he was still in the cave, the walls of the cave were full of traces of artificial modification - a large number of alloy plates covered more than half of the area of ​​the entire cave, and the space between the alloy plates was filled with a substance similar to metal foam. Countless load-bearing columns and load-bearing beams formed an extremely complex framework, supporting this passage that led to nowhere.

The rumbling sound of water came from above his head. Ke Lan knew that above was the cave flooded by sea water, and that vertical hole should be a "flood discharge outlet" used for emergency.

"This underground maze... Could it really be the Alpha people's drainage system?" Ke Lan walked out of the pool and looked at the seawater that kept hitting the metal filter. He was a little confused: Since there is such a flood discharge outlet here, why didn't I find it when I passed by before? Was it because it was closed at that time, or was the path I took when I turned back "once again" modified?

However, if this cave is really a drainage system, with the technology of the Alpha civilization, it would be easy to change the channel to modify the path of the water flow... As for the numerous forks in the road, they must also be part of this system.

"If there is a water pipe above, then this should be a special maintenance passage?" Ke Lan walked around the pool and soon found a metal sign nailed to the ground at the edge of the pool.

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

"It's Alpha text..." Ke Lan tried to express it in human language, "No. 3... reservoir... for use in times of disaster... do not... overload it?"

Reservoir No. 3 is easy to understand. It should refer to the huge water storage space under the metal filter, but what does "specially used in times of disasters" mean?

Does this mean this is a pool of life-saving water?

But what they poured in was poisonous and radioactive seawater. What use could it be... Besides, this is an island. Although fresh water resources may be scarce, isn't seawater inexhaustible?

There is also "Do not overload", but Ke Lan feels that his translation is not quite right. The last few characters have many meanings in this context, and overload is just one of them... In addition, there are hundreds of interpretations such as "overheating", "out of range", "explosion", etc.

This is why the language of the Alpha civilization is difficult to translate into human language. 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 become something that can only be understood but not expressed in words... and "overload" should be the word that Ke Lan can find in human language that is closest to the original meaning.

But here, the thing that must not be overloaded is not this pool, but another thing that is not mentioned in the text. Although Ke Lan doesn't know what it is, it is obvious that if that thing is "overloaded", a "disaster" will occur immediately.

"Could it be that this pool is the coolant prepared for 'that thing'? There seems to be no problem with this explanation."