Volume 1 Glacial Relics Chapter 24 Emergency Exit
At this moment, a rustling sound of friction between rocks came from the top of the cave. Everyone looked up and found that a new passage had appeared right above the platform, and a ray of light was projected down from the passage.
"Exit! Yes, the exit!" The Hound shouted happily, " Finally, I can leave this damn place! All the girls in the North Third District are waiting for me. When I go back, I will pamper you all one by one!"
"All? Are you sure, old dog? You don't even let go of the stuff that costs fifty credit points each time?" Leighton smiled mischievously. When they thought about being able to get out soon, everyone's tense nerves finally relaxed a little.
"Fuck! If you keep barking at me, I won't let you go either!" While Layton was unable to move, the old dog kicked him hard on the butt.
"Just your... toothpick?" Layton said with disdain. "There's an old Chinese saying, 'A tiger in trouble is bullied by a dog.' Just wait. When my injury heals, do you believe I'll hang it on the solar photovoltaic panel for you?"
"Okay... If you want to be gay, wait until we get back to the Ark. I can even sponsor a free anal dilation surgery. But now, let's find a way to leave here ." Ivan interrupted the argument between the two and pointed to the exit above their heads. "There are two seriously injured people who can't move. They are Layton and Zhuoligetu. They can't use the climbing suction cups. We have to go up first and then use ropes to lift them out."
"Also, Lao Gou and Asano Akira's protective suits are lost. It's okay underground, but once they reach the surface, the radiation intensity will become stronger. I'm worried that they won't be able to withstand it." Ke Lan interrupted.
"Then we have no choice but to go out and find a way to get in touch with Ark." Ivan said, "According to the original flight schedule of the transport plane, Ark may not know that we are in trouble yet."
"Is there a radio?" Ke Lan asked.
"There is one set, which was removed from the wreckage of the transport plane, but the power may be a bit low." Hound said as he took out a metal box from his backpack, the outer shell of which had obviously suffered a serious collision. "It is the most basic model, and it is a second-hand product eliminated from other vehicles... Damn the logistics department, they have to save money at this critical moment."
"Just use it as it is." Ke Lan took the metal box. "Well, Ivan and Hound, you stay here to take care of the wounded, and Asano Akira and I will go out to seek help. Whether we succeed or not, we will definitely be back within two hours. If we don't come back..."
Ke Lan didn't continue speaking, but everyone present knew what it would mean if Ke Lan and Asano Akira didn't return within the scheduled time.
If an accident really happened, Ivan and the Hound would have no choice but to leave Layton and Zhuo Ligetu behind and leave on their own... The cruel test that the hunter profession has to face has made these people think extremely rationally. When they are sure that there is no hope, what they need to do is to stop the loss in time - it is better for two people to have a glimmer of hope than for four people to die in the ruins.
"Don't be so pessimistic. I noticed that there is a lot of moss growing in the corners of the cave. We can survive for at least three or four days with that stuff. We won't starve to death." Leighton said, pointing to a fluorescent light in the distance.
But they all knew that any plant or fungus that emitted fluorescence on Alpha contained a high dose of radiation. Eating these things to satisfy hunger was like drinking poison to quench thirst. Layton said this just to comfort them.
"You can't spit out ivory from your dog's mouth. You keep talking depressing words all day long." The hound scolded angrily, "Okay, you guys go quickly... By the way, the mission report seems to mention that there are signs of indigenous creatures in the snowy mountain area. It should be a large reptile. Be careful."
"Yeah." Ke Lan nodded. He had of course read the mission report carefully. Judging from the traces taken by the drones, it should be a subspecies of terrestrial dragon called snow dragon. The name sounds fantastic, but this dragon can neither perform magic nor breathe fire. Its wings are highly degraded, and it can't even fly. The most it can do is glide short distances with the help of the terrain - to put it bluntly, it's just a clumsy lizard that can adapt to low temperature and high radiation environments.
Since the oxygen content in Alpha Centauri's atmosphere is much higher than that of the Earth, the native creatures on this planet are relatively large. Even insects are dozens of times larger than similar species on Earth. Species like the split-jaw worm are already among the smallest native creatures.
However, what is somewhat strange to human biologists is that the brain capacity of the indigenous creatures on Alpha is not much higher than that of the creatures on Earth - logically speaking, in an environment like Alpha, after such a long period of evolution, it is impossible that only one intelligent species like the Alpha civilization was born.
Suppose that the Alpha civilization has destroyed all other intelligent species on this planet. But now tens of thousands of years have passed since the Alpha civilization disappeared. However, according to the investigation and dissection results of biologists, the indigenous creatures wandering on Alpha Star have not evolved at all in these tens of thousands of years.
This conclusion is extremely absurd, but it is indeed the case. It seems that the genetic sequences of all living things on this planet have been completely locked, and everything is frozen tens of thousands of years ago... frozen at the time when the Alpha civilization disappeared.
...The passage at the top of the cave was very short, with the exit less than fifty meters away. The cold wind mixed with snow and hail kept blowing into the passage. Fortunately, the suction of the climbing suction cup was strong enough, so Ke Lan and Asano Akira were able to climb out against the strong wind.
The previous judgment was very accurate. The core area of the A-087 ruins was indeed located in the belly of the snow-capped mountain, and the exit of this passage was just a little above the halfway point of the mountain, about one-third of the distance from the top of the mountain.
"We have to go to the top of the mountain to set up a radio so that the signal can be transmitted far enough." Ke Lan said, trying to take a few steps forward, but soon, the thick snow was above his thighs. In such an environment, it was impossible to move forward.
"It would be great if we had a sled, but... wait, wait a minute, am I seeing right? Isn't that our cargo hold?" Ke Lan complained while looking around, but when his eyes fell on the western hillside, he was completely stunned.
The cargo hold that had been torn from the transport plane was now mostly buried in the snow, with all kinds of equipment scattered all over the ground. A giant lizard with white scales was tearing a supply box made of reinforced engineering plastic with its claws, and behind it, three similar supply boxes had already been dismantled in this violent way, making the ground a mess.
"It's the 'Snow Dragon'!...That guy is stealing our supplies!" Ke Lan was extremely unhappy at the moment. Ever since the plane crash, they had to tighten their belts to get by, and they had to use the few supplies they had carefully. But no one expected that most of the lost supplies had ended up in the stomach of this lizard.
"Is it in that direction?" Asano Akira asked Ke Lan, facing the west hillside. "The sound of the wind and snow is very loud, and I can't hear many small noises clearly."
"Well, it should be a snow dragon that has just reached adulthood, about six meters long. Can you fight in this situation?" Ke Lan looked at Asano Akira with a little concern.
"It will be affected to some extent, but as long as I get close enough, I can hear it." As soon as he finished speaking, Asano Akira suddenly jumped up and ran quickly on the snow.
If Ke Lan hadn't been so sharp-eyed that he noticed that Asano Akira had tied the carbon fiber plate used to support the backpack to the sole of his shoe, he would have almost thought that the light skill "Treading Snow Without Traces" from martial arts novels had reappeared in the martial arts world...
"This big lizard is probably in trouble..."
However, his smile froze the next second - "Asano Akira, be careful! There is a bigger one. It's behind the cargo hold, at your two o'clock direction!"
In a blink of an eye, Asano Akira was caught in the pincer attack of two snow dragons. What was even more fatal was that the second snow dragon spread its wings and suddenly soared into the air.
It's a mutant!
