Volume 1 Glacial Relics Chapter 14: Crystals in the Jar
Perhaps the big eyeball was really attracted by the light. When all the lights were turned off, it never appeared again.
Naturally, Ke Lan and the other person would not try to commit suicide again. They only kept the brightness of the flashlights at a level that allowed them to see the road clearly, and they managed to have a safe journey.
After passing through this strange ice path, there is a rectangular stone chamber at the end. The area of the stone chamber is about 100 square meters. There is a metal platform in the middle of the stone chamber. It looks like a table or a bed, but it is empty, with neither bedding nor tableware.
However, there were a lot of traces of chopping on it - not only on this platform, but similar traces were everywhere in the entire stone chamber. Most of the dozen or so pottery jars in the corner were broken, and the blood that had not yet dried was splashed on the wall, which looked particularly creepy.
It is obvious that anyone who is not blind can see that a fierce battle has just taken place here.
Moreover, the traces of battle left at the scene easily made them think of the lone teammate.
"Is it Asano Akira? He's not dead!" Layton exclaimed in a low voice with some excitement. If a strong teammate like Asano Akira could join forces with him, the combat effectiveness of the entire team would instantly increase by several levels!
"It should be him... Apart from the Nino alloy battle blade that can cut through iron like mud, it is difficult for other weapons to leave such deep cuts on this kind of metal table." Ke Lan said as he squatted down, "Also, look at the footprints on the ground... These are left by humans. If I remember correctly, these should be type 105 universal protective boots?"
"It's size 105 shoes." Layton, who had served in the army, nodded. This is one of the standard field equipment of the Ark Force. Many people also like to call this kind of shoes size 105 military boots.
"Then it should be him. The advance teams ahead are all sponsored by big consortiums or families. They are not short of money and use custom-made products. They don't like these standard military boots." Ke Lan said.
"Then how did he get down here..." Leighton looked around the stone chamber. However, except for the passage they came in through, the other three sides were walls, and it didn't look like there were any hidden mechanisms.
"Right above." Ke Lan pointed to the ceiling.
There was a hole with a diameter of more than two meters, and there was a lot of blood around the hole. I just didn't know whether the blood came from Asano Akira or something else.
"Should we go up and look for him?"
"He may not have left through this passage. There must be a third exit in this room." Ke Lan suddenly said.
"Why?" Leighton was confused.
"Imagine that if you were Asano Akira, you jumped down from the hole above and fought a battle in this stone chamber—" Ke Lan pondered for a moment and continued to analyze, "If Asano Akira is still alive, then the results of the battle are nothing more than three: the first is that Asano Akira wins easily; the second is that Asano Akira wins with difficulty and is seriously injured; the third is that Asano Akira is defeated by his opponent and flees in panic."
"So what does this have to do with the third exit?" Layton was even more confused.
Ke Lan: "If it's the first case, as a hunter, do you think Asano Akira will go back the same way, or take the way we came and head to the 'ice storage'?"
"Well... now that you mention it, it's unlikely that he would go back the same way."
"But we didn't run into Asano Akira, and there were no signs of fighting at the ice storage, so he didn't choose this path. Okay, let's analyze the second and third scenarios. These two scenarios can actually be said together. Whether he was seriously injured or fled, the priority would not be to return the same way, because this cave entrance is a vertical passage. If you don't carry any response equipment, it's easy to go down, but it's much more troublesome to go up. But he still didn't choose the passage to the ice storage under that situation. In summary, there is definitely a third exit here."
"But, this stone chamber is in full view. Even if there are any mechanisms, they have probably been chopped into pieces by Asano Akira... I didn't expect this guy to have such a violent fighting style." Layton sighed as he looked at the scarred walls in front of him.
"The mechanism may not be on the wall, let's look for it." Ke Lan said.
"This is the only way. If it doesn't work, just smash everything here. We can always find the exit."
Many laymen on the Ark always like to associate hunters with professions such as explorers and archaeologists in the old era, but in fact, another gray profession in the old era has more similar characteristics to relic hunters.
To put it nicely, that profession is called "Mojin Xiaowei", to put it bluntly, it is a tomb robber...
In the process of exploring the remains of the Alpha civilization, destruction is inevitable... or in other words, most of the remains were destroyed during the excavation process, and only a very small part of them was preserved. But despite this, the humans on the Ark have not yet fully digested this small part.
Less than five minutes later, Layton suddenly shouted, "Ke Lan! We're rich! I finally found this treasure!"
He was holding a clay jar in his hand with the mouth of the jar slightly tilted, revealing crystal clear energy crystals inside, all of which were of quite good quality!
"Half of the remaining intact jars are empty, and the other half are filled with crystals. I estimate there are at least five or six thousand units!" Layton's excitement was beyond words. For him, energy crystals could not only be used to exchange for credits, but also as a life-saving asset - that incredibly heavy mechanical prosthesis was a complete energy-consuming monster. Without the worry of energy consumption, Layton at full power would definitely be considered a terrifying war machine.
"The empty ones should have been taken away by Asano Akira, and these are what he left for us - but what makes me curious is, what did he do with so many energy crystals? He doesn't have any equipment that requires crystals." Ke Lan said.
“Sell it for money!”
"These crystals are indeed of good quality, but if I have to exchange them for credits, I will definitely not choose them. Whether it is the metal bugs that can control human corpses or the blood samples of those deformable pieces of meat, their value is much higher than crystals..."
It's like a thief breaks into a mansion and there are two kinds of treasures in front of him. One is a heavy gold brick, and the other is a work of art that is more valuable but weighs less than one-tenth of the gold brick. Without considering the difficulty of selling the work of art, even a fool knows which choice to make.
