Volume 1 Glacial Relics Chapter 20: The Stone Coffin
"I can't understand how a monster like you who can crack a seventh-level mercury lock could have fallen to become a lone hunter..." Layton's meaning was very straightforward. Although elite hunters like them were much stronger than the cannon fodder of the advance team, as long as Ke Lan could prove that he had the ability to crack a seventh-level mercury lock, there would definitely be a lot of financial groups scrambling to hire him as a consultant. The income would definitely be far better than all the other hunters... And, the most important thing is that he wouldn't have to go through life and death like them, and earn less than a low-level manager in those big financial groups.
The vast majority of people who become hunters do not do so for the thrill of it, but rather out of necessity for a living.
"...I don't know if I can crack the seventh-level mercury lock...maybe I'm just lucky?" Facing Leighton's question, Ke Lan could only smile bitterly. Even he himself didn't know how he cracked the mercury lock. He only remembered that he seemed to have had a dream, but now he couldn't even recall the specific content of the dream.
"With this luck, it would be a shame not to buy a lottery ticket..." Leighton said dimly.
"You idiot, luck is a thing that only those who use it up first will die first. If Ke Lan had used it to buy lottery tickets, we would have all died here today!" The Hound slapped Layton on the forehead. "But then again, if you say that you were lucky enough to crack a first- or second-level mercury lock, I would believe it. But it's really too good to be true that a seventh-level mercury lock can be cracked by luck."
"...Don't dwell on this matter for now. The gate has already been opened. Let's hurry up and do our business." Ke Lan chose to take the initiative to end the topic. He knew in his heart that no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't give a reasonable explanation. It would be better to put this matter aside for now. Anyway, the crisis has been resolved for the time being, and there is not much point in dwelling on it.
"That's right... the baby is more important!"
"Old dog, don't you always say that life is the most important thing? What about earning money but not spending it..." Layton was interrupted by the hound before he finished speaking: "Survival and treasures are not in conflict! The good stuff is in the core area, and the escape route is also in the core area. Why are you so stupid?"
"Damn it... You're always right. Okay, okay, I'm too lazy to argue with you." As Layton said this, he lifted Zhuo Ligetu up with one hand.
"Let me take the lead this time, while I'm lucky now." Ke Lan said.
"Okay, I'll help you clear the battlefield." Asano Akira held the scabbard in his left hand, close to his waist, as if he was ready to draw the sword at any time.
Following behind were Ivan and the hound, holding their pistols in one hand and flashlights in the other, guarding both sides.
"Pay attention, especially to the ground and above your head. The core area of the Alpha ruins is not your own bedroom. There will only be more traps, not fewer." The hound whispered.
The drones and survey robots they carried were all buried in the cargo hold. Otherwise, with the help of those equipment, they would not have been in such a mess along the way. To use the jargon in the industry, this trip was equivalent to "streaking."
This is a big taboo in this line of work - even if you are a novice hunter who is extremely poor, you must purchase all the necessary equipment even if you have to borrow money at high interest rates. If you choose to "run naked", it is no different from suicide.
Of course, they have another choice, which is to join the advance teams organized by large consortiums. They can get a complete set of sophisticated equipment without spending a penny. Moreover, as long as they can survive three pioneering missions, this set of equipment can become the hunter's private property and can be taken away even if they quit the advance team.
Behind the giant gate was an extremely vast space. The Alphas had hollowed out the entire mountain, and they used thirty-two columns over two hundred meters high to support the rock top. The columns were connected by steel cables as thick as a man's arms, and these cables formed a complex symmetrical pattern under the rock top. Directly below this pattern was a platform shaped like a flat-topped pyramid.
"Ke Lan? What's wrong with you? Why don't you move forward?" The hound noticed that Ke Lan, who was walking in front, stopped and asked in confusion.
"This platform... looks so familiar. I... I seem to have been to this place before." Ke Lan said uncertainly.
"How is this possible?! Could it be that you have explored similar ruins before, so you feel a sense of déjà vu?"
"No... I seem to have seen it in a hallucination, but I'm not sure... The related memory is very vague, and my head hurts whenever I think about it." Ke Lan suddenly felt a strong sense of dizziness and staggered. Fortunately, Asano Akira behind him supported him in time and he did not fall.
"Why does this sound so mysterious... Hey, look, there is something on that platform!" The hound suddenly said, pointing to the top of the platform.
Layton squinted and looked up. "It looks like a... box made of stone?"
"What box... that thing is clearly a coffin!" The Hound's voice was trembling a little, "Could there be a corpse of an Alpha alien lying inside?"
The corpse of the Alpha alien, everyone present knew very well what this meant - for fifty years, from the time Noah's Ark landed on Alpha until now, in the past fifty years, humans have not found even a small piece of body tissue belonging to the Alpha alien, and a complete corpse... This is enough to make the name of the discoverer go down in history!
"I feel like I have a heart rate of over-speed." Ivan said. Compared to others, he knew better how valuable the remains of an Alpha alien were. This was a fortune that could not be measured by money... It could even be said that all the discoveries made by mankind in the past fifty years combined were not worth as much as such a body.
But at this moment, Ke Lan suddenly took a few steps back, a look of horror appeared on his face, and he murmured, "Still alive, I can feel it... Still alive!"
"What do you mean you're still alive?" Ivan's face changed and he asked hurriedly.
"The thing in the sarcophagus is still alive!" Ke Lan gasped for breath, staring at the sarcophagus intently , "I don't know why, but I can feel the heartbeat and pulse of that thing——"
"Ke Lan, don't scare me..." The hound's eyes widened, "This place is more than a hundred meters away from the sarcophagus, and we didn't even see what was inside the sarcophagus!"
"No, he is telling the truth. Although I can't feel it, I can hear the sound of a heartbeat coming from inside the sarcophagus, and... it is gradually getting stronger." Asano Akira gently pushed with his left thumb, and the battle blade made of Nino alloy was immediately unsheathed half an inch, and the blade reflected a dangerous cold light.
As soon as Asano Akira finished speaking, a gray-black hand suddenly stretched out from the sarcophagus. The hand was skinny and slender, and under the skin were blood vessels that were twisted and winding like earthworms. It clenched its fists in the air for a few times, and then grabbed the edge of the sarcophagus!
"This thing is trying to crawl out !" The hound shouted, "Everyone, get ready. We can't let it have the chance to activate the mechanism inside the ruins!"
The Hound's idea was very clear. If it was just an Alpha alien who had revived, they could gather the entire team's combat power and perhaps have a chance to kill him. But if the control of the ruins fell into the hands of this Alpha alien, then everyone present would become a lamb to be slaughtered...
However, to everyone's surprise, the thing that crawled out of the sarcophagus was not the Alpha alien that they had imagined, but... the pilot who had died in the crash!
"How could it be him?!" Ivan blurted out subconsciously.
"Damn it... This is really a ghost! The smell of the corpse clearly disappeared in the secret passage, how come it is here again!" The hound shook his head repeatedly.
"Although I don't know how he got into the sarcophagus, at least this is good news," Layton breathed a sigh of relief, "It's just a human corpse controlled by insects. Even without the mechanical arm, I can easily deal with it."
"No, he is different from the previous ones. Don't be careless." Ke Lan's breathing has returned to normal. He held a gun in one hand and a grenade with the safety pulled in the other. "Those controlled by the bugs are all corpses, but it has a heartbeat. It is alive..."
