Volume 1 Glacial Relics Chapter 12 Frozen Meat
At this point, out of the temporary team of seven hunters, only Ke Lan and Layton were still moving forward.
"This rate of casualties is too outrageous..." Layton muttered as he counted on his fingers, "First a pilot died upon landing, then the poisoner was killed by bugs not long after leaving the crash site, then Zhuoligetu was seriously injured and disabled, Asano's whereabouts are unknown, and now I don't know if Lao Gou and the doctor can make it... Sigh... To be honest, I also explored an A- level ruins a year ago, and although more than a dozen hunters died that time, this was a month's casualty data, with an average of less than one person a day. In my opinion, it wouldn't be an exaggeration to rate this damn place as SS-level."
"There are currently no SS-level ruins... SS-level is the data ceiling set by the official. Now the most dangerous ruins are only S-level. Unless we can find a group of lively Alpha aliens here, then maybe there is still hope." Ke Lan said.
"Hey, if there really are any, I'll have to beat them up first. They'll be sent to the lab table for dissection anyway, so it might be more comfortable for them to die in my hands." Layton said unhappily.
Hearing this big cyborg say this, Ke Lan couldn't help but curl her lips: "You look like you haven't read any relevant research literature."
"Huh? What do you mean?"
"Although we have never seen a living Alpha alien, nor have we found their remains on this planet, we can still infer their body shape and some of their living habits based on the scale of the ruins." Ke Lan replied, "The most widely accepted theory is that the average height of an Alpha alien is about 2.5 to 3 meters, and they may have four or more arms - of course, they may also be tentacles. They are very powerful. An adult Alpha alien is roughly equivalent to an Earthling who has undergone level 8 biochemical transformation. This refers to pure unequipped melee. If we take into account the Alpha alien's high-tech equipment, we would be very lucky if we could escape alive after encountering them."
Speaking of ancestral graves, Ke Lan couldn't help but think of the Earth, the home of mankind. At this time, the Earth is probably about to be swallowed by the sun, which has turned into a red giant, right? Not to mention green smoke, there is even a possibility of solar prominence...
"Level 8 cyborg? So strong?" Layton himself was a cyborg, so he knew that the more advanced the cyborg surgery was, the more difficult and risky it would be. With the current level of technology, the success rate of a level 7 cyborg surgery was only about 20%. Once it failed, the person being cyborg would either die or be crippled... As for level 8 and level 9 surgeries, those who could succeed were basically the chosen ones...
"This is just a conservative estimate." After Ke Lan finished speaking, he suddenly shuddered for no apparent reason.
"You felt it too?" Layton asked.
"Hmm... This passage seems to be getting colder and colder." Ke Lan nodded. The A-087 ruins are located in the northern frigid zone of Alpha Star, with an average surface temperature of minus 30 degrees Celsius. Logically, the temperature inside the ruins deep underground should be higher than this number, but now even though Ke Lan is wearing a thick protective suit, he still feels a chill running down his spine.
"The temperature around me is minus 47 degrees Celsius... Damn it... I feel like the lubricating oil in my joints is about to freeze. I should have added more antifreeze..." Layton moved his robotic arm a little impatiently, and the parts at the joints kept making a harsh "clicking" noise.
"Wait... wait..." Ke Lan suddenly stopped and lay down on the wall of the passage.
"What's wrong? If we don't leave now, we're really going to freeze here." Layton turned his head and asked.
"The wall of this passage... I don't know when it stopped being made of rock. Look, the light from my flashlight can penetrate... This is not rock, it's ice! This passage was carved out of the ice!" Ke Lan exclaimed. His flashlight was pressed tightly against the wall. He could see some dim light spreading inside the wall, but because the color of the ice was too dark, the flashlight could only penetrate a distance of less than ten centimeters before it became blurred.
"No wonder it's so cold here!" A pair of sharp steel claws popped out from Layton's fingertips, and he scratched the ice wall hard, but only a few white marks were left, and not even a bit of ice debris could be scraped off.
"This ice is harder than iron!"
"These solid ices have probably been frozen for tens of thousands of years, and under such a high-pressure environment, the density may be higher than that of iron... Hey, there seems to be something in the ice!" Ke Lan grabbed a flashlight and moved on the ice wall. He could vaguely see that there seemed to be something frozen inside the ice wall, but most of the flashlight's light was absorbed by the black ice wall, and he could only see a vague outline.
"Let me do it, this thing of mine is much better than that small flashlight!" Leighton said, raising his robotic arm. Suddenly, the entire passage was as bright as day, and the dazzling light even made Ke Lan squint his eyes.
"What's this?"
"A non-lethal weapon that can blind and stun the enemy. I got the inspiration from the flash shield used by the Ark Riot Police, and I also made some improvements. In addition to strong flash and continuous flash, it can also continuously produce strong light, but the energy consumption is relatively large ." When it comes to this, Layton suddenly became excited. When he was serving in the army, he was an equipment technician in the army. Now he has changed his career to become a hunter, but he still focuses his main energy on this aspect.
"Can the light beam be concentrated? It has to be penetrating enough." Ke Lan glanced at the ice wall. Under the illumination and reflection of the strong light, the originally inky black ice became even deeper and darker, just like a whole piece of obsidian.
"Of course no problem." As soon as Leighton finished speaking, the spreading enhancement had shrunk into a light spot the size of a bowl, but the brightness was countless times stronger. Even with goggles, Ke Lan could not look directly at the light spot with his naked eyes.
"Okay, point the light here." Ke Lan pointed to a position on the ice wall. It was here that he discovered the outline of something inside.
As the mechanical arm moved, the light dissipated within the ice wall. From Ke Lan's angle, he could just see the object frozen inside...
"What is that? The robotic arm is blocking my view, so I can't see it clearly." Leighton asked.
"...It's a piece of meat, the kind of meat we just encountered..."
"What?!" Hearing this, Layton couldn't even lift his mechanical arm steadily. The light suddenly shifted to an angle. This time, both of them saw...
There is not just one piece. Above, below, on the left and right of this piece of meat ... inside this entire ice wall, there are neatly stacked pieces of meat!
