Volume 1 Glacial Relics Chapter 6: Oval Hall
"It seems to have a very sophisticated crystal structure inside. I suspect it may be a creation of the Alpha civilization, but we don't have the corresponding detection equipment, and my scalpel can't dissect something of this size."
"Crystal Path Structure" is one of the alien technologies discovered by humans from the ruins of Alpha Civilization. Before this, human semiconductor material technology could only produce nano-scale chips. Limited by the purity of single crystal silicon and the accuracy of laser etching technology, one nanometer was already the minimum limit of the circuit gap. However, the crystal path structure created by Alpha Civilization directly uses single atoms to bombard the interior of high-purity crystals, and then uses Nino alloy to fill the tiny channels bombarded by the atoms. The performance of the crystal path chip manufactured by this technology can even reach more than a thousand times that of a nano-scale chip of the same volume.
This cutting-edge technology is obviously not something that Ke Lan and others can crack. Even in the most well-equipped semiconductor laboratory on the Ark, it would take at least half a year to analyze a completely new crystal structure.
"Let the researchers worry about this kind of problem." Ivan reluctantly put the remains of the insect into a test tube made of explosion-proof glass. No matter what, this was a very precious trophy. If they followed the original exploration plan, the credit points that all of them could earn combined would probably not exceed the value of this insect.
"What we can be sure of now is that this bug... is a 'man-made thing' - let's not talk about whether the person who created it can be considered a 'human', but this thing is definitely not a natural creature. So, we have to face the second question." Ke Lan pondered.
The hound looked a little depressed. He glanced at Asano Akira, then turned to Ke Lan and said, "What's the problem? If it's an academic discussion, I think it's better to skip it. I just want to know how to leave this damn place. Damn, if I had known things would turn out like this, I might as well have taken the cleaning mission in the northern mining area. At least those monsters are not so evil."
"No... This question is very important. Since this thing is man-made, we need to know its mode of action - is it autonomous or remote-controlled? If it is the latter, who is the 'person' controlling it? Where is he now? And what is its purpose?"
As soon as these words came out, the other people felt a chill on their backs, and even the hairs on their necks stood up, as if something was watching them in the darkness...
"Brother Ke Lan, the question you asked is... a bit weird and scary." Zhuo Ligetu swallowed his saliva and touched the hand axe at his waist as if to gather courage.
"If it's a remote-controlled model, who do you think is controlling it?" Ivan frowned. "Alpha?"
Humans have been stationed on Alpha for fifty years. Millions drones have swept almost the entire surface of the planet during these fifty years, but have never found any traces of Alpha activities. Not only that, when exploring the remains of Alpha civilization, not even a single Alpha corpse has been found.
Humans, who were originally outsiders, have now become the only intelligent creatures on this planet...
Scholars have been arguing about the disappearance of the Alpha civilization since fifty years ago. There are currently two mainstream theories: the war theory and the immigration theory, but both theories have loopholes that cannot be ignored.
The war theory believes that a large-scale world war destroyed the entire civilization. It was also because of the war that the planet was filled with radiation, and many ruins on the surface did show signs of destruction - but the fatal flaw of the war theory is that not a single body of an Alpha can be found on the entire planet, whether it was soldiers who died in battle or civilians hiding in shelters. They seemed to have evaporated into thin air, without even a bone left.
The immigration theory is also not very tenable. From the human perspective, apart from the radiation on the surface and the highly toxic oceans, Alpha is a planet that is quite suitable for the survival of intelligent life. It has gravity, rotation period and revolution period similar to the Earth. The oxygen content in the atmosphere is not low, and the temperature is between -75 degrees Celsius and +20 degrees Celsius... There is no reason for any civilization to completely abandon such a habitable place, not to mention that there are still a lot of resources left here that have not been taken away.
If there really are still Alphas left on this planet, this news alone would be enough to bring about earth-shaking changes in the entire human society.
Although since the birth of mankind, the contact between human beings and extraterrestrial intelligent civilizations has only existed in literary works and scientific hypotheses, the result of this contact is completely predictable - the probability of war is very high.
Judging from the current level of exploration of the Alpha civilization, once humans and Alpha civilization go to war, the chances of winning are infinitely close to zero.
"Impossible! If the Alphas were still alive, we would have been destroyed long ago!" Layton said firmly.
"What if they are in a dormant state? Or are they subject to some restrictions... Or, let's make a bold assumption that this planet is just a testing ground for the Alphas, and we humans are just a group of little white mice who strayed here..." Ivan said as he tapped the glass test tube with his fingers.
"Now is not the time to discuss this - how about this, let's vote and decide whether to continue exploring deeper into the ruins or return to the cave and wait for rescue. The minority shall obey the majority, come on." The hound's breathing was a little rapid. As a veteran hunter, fear is an emotion that should never appear at any time, and the best way to eliminate fear is to face it and force yourself to make a decision.
The voting results came out quickly, and all six people chose the former. They didn't carry many supplies with them, and there was actually not much difference between waiting for rescue and waiting to die.
…
Continuing to move forward, with the help of the cold green light of the fluorescent sticks , the six people walked in the narrow passage for about half an hour. Finally, with a low cry from the forward Layton, the road ahead became clear.
This is an oval-shaped underground hall, about the size of two football fields. A pillar as thick as two people can hug stands in the center of the hall, reaching up to the dome that is nearly 100 meters high.
The floor of the hall was paved with polished dark gray slabs, and the gaps between the slabs were filled with a black substance similar to clay.
There are four entrances and exits connected to the hall, which are located at the four vertices of the ellipse, and the entrance through which Ke Lan and his friends came out is one of the two endpoints of the long axis.
The Hound's eyes were immediately attracted by the pillar in the middle of the hall. After seeing the material of the pillar clearly, he couldn't help but exclaimed: "Wow... this whole pillar... is made of Nino alloy! It's worthy of being an A-level relic!"
"There seems to be a relief of Alpha characters on that pillar..." Ivan narrowed his eyes and wanted to move closer to take a look, but was stopped by Ke Lan.
"Be careful with the floor, there's a trap."
"Mechanism? How did you figure that out?" The hound was a little confused, but he still obediently retracted his foot that he had just stretched out.
"I have seen a similar hall in a C-level ruins. It also had a pillar in the middle and four doors. The ground was paved with two-meter square stone floors. There was also something called 'black glue' filling between each floor. However, the scale of that hall was much smaller than this one."
"What is that mechanism?"
"Except for the nine floors at each entrance which are safe, if you step on the wrong floor, the trap will be triggered." Ke Lan said, "As for the types of traps, there are many kinds. The most common one is the gravity trap. Including the one that triggers it, the nine surrounding floors will instantly be added with about a hundred times the gravity, crushing people to death."
"Then how did you crack the mechanism at that time?" Leighton asked. Even though he had undergone level 4 biochemical transformation, he could not withstand the pressure of a hundred times his own weight.
"We failed to crack it. After three hunters died, we chose to take a detour." Ke Lan shook his head.
