Volume 10: Ancient Battleship Chapter 493: Things at the Bottom of the Pit
The dark green light column rising from the bottom of the huge pit gradually became solid, as if it was not an illusory light and shadow, but a solid emerald green jade.
"Is this... is this considered... activated?" Leighton murmured. He suddenly felt that the scene of those giant crystal pillars slowly sinking to the bottom of the pit was very similar to the scene when nuclear fuel rods were inserted into a reactor.
"Probably." The hound raised his head and looked at the light beams reaching up to the dome. "Damn... my eyesight is still not very good. Why do I see only a large green block? The edges between the light beams are completely blurred..."
"It's not your eyes that are at fault." Ivan said, "That's what we saw... those beams of light merged together."
Layton looked down and immediately shouted, "Everyone, put on your helmets and protective gear! The radiation intensity in this space is rising rapidly!"
After he said this, the people whose attention was completely attracted by the green beam of light realized the problem - the parts of their skin exposed to the air felt waves of needle-like tingling, and the pain was constantly increasing.
The Geiger counter also began to beep frantically.
Hound and the others hurriedly put on their helmets and gloves, and then fastened the sealing rings, before they had time to glance at the screen of the Geiger counter, which was emitting a series of "clicking" sounds.
In just a few seconds, the radiation intensity in the power room has risen from the safe value to more than forty times the dangerous index. If you stay in this environment for only a few dozen seconds, the radiation is enough to cause irreversible damage to human genes; if you stay there for five minutes, even if you can get timely medical treatment, you will be left with permanent sequelae; if you stay there for an hour... then you can start to consider your future.
Moreover, the bodies must be handled in special incinerators, and the ashes must be placed in heavy lead boxes.
"This stuff is fucking terrible." While complaining, the Hound injected himself with an anti-radiation pill and a deradiation pill through the injection holes on the power armor.
The anti-radiation and radiation-eliminating drugs they carried were both top-grade. As soon as the drugs entered the blood, a feeling of nausea came over them - this was one of the most obvious side effects of anti-radiation drugs. As for radiation-eliminating drugs, they were equivalent to a super diuretic.
The radioactive urine was quickly excreted from the body. Everyone took down the urine storage tanks hanging behind their waists and disconnected the connecting pipes from the water circulation system.
In order to ensure that there is no shortage of drinking water, all sweat and urine discharged from the human body will be collected and sent to a circulating purification device for a series of treatment processes such as filtration and distillation... However, the urine discharged from the body through radiation-eliminating Ning can never be recycled and can only be discarded.
The radiation intensity in the environment finally stabilized after rising to 485 times the danger level. At this time, the Geiger counters on everyone's bodies no longer made any sound.
There are only two reasons why the Geiger counter is silent. One is that the radiation is too low, and the other is that the radiation is so high that it exceeds the detection threshold...
The working principle of a Geiger counter is to rely on the high-speed particles released by radiation to cause an ionization reaction in the gas sealed in the counter, discharging and outputting a pulse current signal. However, when the radiation is too strong, the entire circuit will simply short-circuit - at this time, the screen reading of a non-professional Geiger counter will return to zero, while some high-end counters equipped with additional alarm chips will display the words "Radiation in the environment has exceeded the measurement limit and is extremely dangerous."
"Huh...Luckily I didn't take off all my equipment, otherwise it would be too late..." The Hound just breathed a sigh of relief, but his whole body tensed up again in an instant, "Oh no! That Ke Lan guy! He hasn't--"
Everyone quickly turned their heads to look at the control console on the side, only to see that Ke Lan, who had his hands on the metal ball, had not moved since the beginning. The dazzling white light emitted from the metal ball climbed up along his hands... At this moment, his entire surface was covered with a thin layer of halo.
"His hands are exposed! He'll get radiation sickness!" Layton shouted at him, "Ke Lan! Can you hear us? Let go! Put on your protective gear!"
However, Ke Lan was completely deaf to his companions' shouts. He stared intently at the metal ball in front of him, and his facial muscles kept twitching slightly.
Naturally, he could hear Layton calling him, but he couldn't respond at all - the moment his hands touched the metal ball, this ancient battleship seemed to be connected to him!
To be precise, he became a part of the battleship... one of the components that made up the battleship!
A huge stream of information poured into his mind like a flood. The strong impact made Ke Lan's consciousness jump back and forth on the edge of collapse. This situation was very similar to what happened after he touched the stone tablet, but that was only a brief moment. Now, his hands seemed to be stuck on the metal ball and he couldn't let go.
Layton and the hound were clearly standing not far away from him, but their shouts sounded as if they were from far away in the horizon.
No, it wasn't his hand that was stuck to the metal ball, but his body that had lost control... Ke Lan wanted to use his brain to send a "lift up" command to his arm, but before the command could be sent along the nerves, it was overwhelmed by the huge amount of information pouring in from the outside world.
In this situation, it became extremely difficult for Ke Lan to even think. He felt that his consciousness was like an apple thrown into a blender, being shattered into pieces by the sharp blades in the high-speed rotation and violent collision.
Moreover, an indescribable feeling of fatigue was constantly coming over him - Ke Lan realized that this console was madly consuming his mental power. Although the consumption speed was slightly slower than "time stop", if it was delayed for another minute or two at most, his mental power would be completely overdrawn.
What's worse is that he has no way to stop this consumption, he can't even activate the time stop...
"This...can't be...a trap...set by the heretical sect...right?"
…
"Something's wrong. Ke Lan... he seems to be trapped." At this time, even Layton realized the problem. "Should we pull him away? But I'm worried..."
"There's no time to think about it. If we don't pull him away, he might die!" The Hound walked to the front of Ke Lan. "The expression on his face looks very painful - Hey! Ke Lan! Can you hear me? We are going to use violence to pull you off this damn thing! If you agree, just blink once. If you don't want us to do this, blink twice in a row. Can you hear me clearly?"
The hound roared at Ke Lan and signaled Layton to get ready.
Ke Lan's face began to twist, the veins on his forehead bulged, his chin trembled uncontrollably, and saliva flowed from the corners of his mouth... If it weren't for the halo covering him, the hound would have almost thought he was having an epileptic seizure...
At this moment, Ke Lan's eyes suddenly moved, and the focus of his sight moved from the metal ball to the hound with difficulty, and then he blinked.
"Pull!" yelled the hound.
Leighton took a big step forward and reached out to grab Ke Lan's arm - but just as he touched Ke Lan's body, he suddenly let out a scream, and the whole person bounced back and fell heavily to the ground.
"What's going on?! Big guy! Are you okay?"
"I'm fine, old dog, please don't touch Ke Lan! It's like there's high voltage electricity on his body. I just felt like I was electrocuted..." Layton climbed up from the ground with some difficulty, and looked at the robotic arm that had come into contact with Ke Lan. He saw that his palm was charred black, and there were slight signs of melting in the palm and finger joints.
"Electric shock? How is that possible? Doesn't the power armor have an insulating layer?" the Hound said in astonishment.
"It's not an ordinary electric shock. Look at my hand." Layton opened the palm of the mechanical arm and showed it to everyone. "His current state...how should I put it? It's like a high-level energy crystal that is in the state of storing or releasing energy. The energy intensity of the halo on his body is estimated to be no weaker than the maximum output power of the ninth-level crystal."
"What did you say?" The Hound looked at Layton's damaged palm, then looked at Ke Lan standing in the halo, "You mean he is now a human-shaped energy crystal? But how can a human body withstand that kind of energy? The maximum output power of a level nine crystal... I'm afraid he would have been reduced to ashes long ago?"
"I don't know, but..." Before Leighton could finish his words, Aya interrupted him: "Let me do it."
"Don't be impulsive! I'm a cyborg. If it were an ordinary person, he wouldn't be able to withstand that blow just now." Leighton hurriedly advised.
"I'm not as weak as you think." Aya glanced at him, put a shield generator on her wrist, then opened the energy shield and walked .
"Don't ! Don't use your shield to fight head-on, otherwise -"
However, Layton's words were still a step too late. When the energy shield in Aya's hand collided with the halo on Ke Lan's body, the shield generator exploded with a "boom". She was also pushed back by the huge impact force, and even flew farther than Layton...
As for Ke Lan, he was still standing there, looking completely different.
"I told you not to open the shield... If energy bodies of different origins collide with each other, there is a high probability that they will explode. Aren't you too reckless?" Layton sighed.
"Is he not dead? How badly injured?" The Hound, who had always been at odds with the Security Bureau agents, asked for the first time.
"...it seems that two ribs are broken...hiss...the tibia is also broken..." Aya's rapid breathing came from the team's communication channel, accompanied by a few groans suppressed in the throat. It seems that she was seriously injured.
"Doctor, please go and help her." The Hound looked at Ivan.
"Yes." Ivan nodded and walked towards Aya, who was dozens of meters away. "Lie on the ground and don't move, in case the broken bones hurt your internal organs... In this situation, you can't take off the power armor. I can only help you with a simple treatment, which may have some impact on your mobility."
"I know." Aya gritted her teeth, took out a painkiller needle from her pocket and injected it.
On the other side, Zhuo Ligetu, Layton and Hound were so anxious that they kept stomping their feet around Ke Lan. They really wanted to rescue Ke Lan, but they couldn't think of an effective way for a while.
"Can you push him away?" The Hound suddenly said, "I mean, use a weapon... Layton, do you have something that can't penetrate the power armor but has great power? Try to push Ke Lan away from it. I know this might hurt him, but it's better than losing his life."
"It's useless." Layton shook his head. "The impact force generated by the explosion of the shield generator just now was enough to push Valkyrie, but did you see Ke Lan move even a little bit?"
"Then what should we do? How about we smash this control console ? This layer of light curtain is only on the metal ball and Ke Lan, but not on this stone pillar. Maybe it will work!" The Hound said again. At this time, he already felt like he was desperate and was trying every possible means.
"This stone pillar is as hard as Nino alloy. If it is solid, it would be impossible to smash such a thick piece of Nino alloy with our equipment."
"What else can we do? Damn it, I'm so anxious!" said the Hound, and kicked the stone pillar fiercely - although he was not bounced away like Layton and Aya, the stone pillar also did not move at all.
But the next second after he kicked it, the glowing metal ball suddenly went out, and Ke Lan's body fell limply to the ground.
Before Layton could reach out his hand, Asano Akira had already appeared behind Ke Lan and caught his body.
"What the hell? These work?" The Hound looked at the extinguished metal ball, then at the back of his feet, "Fuck, I'm so awesome."
"This probably has nothing to do with you..." Layton wanted to complain about the hound, but it was obviously more important to check on Ke Lan's condition now.
"Qianye, how is Ke Lan? He's not... not dead, right?"
"He's not dead." Asano Akira shook his head and helped Ke Lan stand up. "But his mental strength is very weak... so weak that I can't even sense his consciousness..."
"Spiritual power? Are you talking about the energy that you and Marshall need to consume to activate those special abilities? I remember..." Hound glanced at Aya and several other agents in the distance and switched the communication channel to one-on-one mode, "I remember Ke Lan said that he also needs to consume this mental power to activate his abilities."
"Well... his body is fine, it's just that his mental energy is overdrawn." Asano Akira replied.
Before he finished speaking, Ke Lan's eyes suddenly opened, a flash of white fluorescence flashed in his eyes, and he grabbed Asano Akira's wrist and said anxiously: "Quick! Prepare for battle! I just saw... something at the bottom of the pit! They were just trapped before, so they didn't climb up... But now, the thing that trapped them has disappeared!"
