Volume 10: Ancient Battleship Chapter 536: Extraneous Branches
Ke Lan and the other three randomly found an isolated area that wasn't too crowded and sat down on the ground.
As soon as Ke Lan sat down, he felt someone behind him gently pulling his sleeve. He turned around and found that the other person was a well-dressed middle-aged man wearing a pair of thin-rimmed glasses, a neatly dressed suit and tie, and looked very gentle.
If Ke Lan hadn't noticed that the watch on the middle-aged man's wrist was a high-end imitation, he would have classified this middle-aged man as part of the upper class of the Ark.
A suit worth three or four thousand yuan paired with a high-end imitation watch whose original price is estimated to be three hundred thousand yuan... Well, this guy should just be a vain white-collar worker.
To be honest, Ke Lan doesn't like dealing with such people. They are too mercenary and regard interests as more important than anything else. However, they are petty and don't have the tolerance and courage of a superior. They often make enemies with others for a little profit.
But these people are not like the rough guys at the bottom who would tear their faces with others in person. Most of them like to play shady games, such as secretly saying bad things about people behind their backs, tripping them up, etc. In this respect, it is not much different from what the Morgan Consortium did before.
In addition, words like currying favor with the powerful and bullying the weak are also typical labels for this type of people.
To sum it up in three words: not up to standard.
"Little brother, were you also brought in by those soldiers?" the middle-aged man asked with a smile.
"Yeah. What's wrong? Is there something wrong?" Ke Lan tried her best to look confused.
"Uh... that, I just saw that the soldier who brought you in seemed to be very nice to you. Do you know that soldier?"
"I don't know him." Ke Lan shook his head. He just wanted to end this conversation as soon as possible and didn't want to have too much interaction with the other party.
"Then you must be a person of status. Are you the young master of a big family? To be honest, with so many people coming in, this is the first time I see soldiers with such a good attitude." The smile on the middle-aged man's face turned into a flattering smile in the blink of an eye. He pointed to the seams on his shoulder and said, "When we were brought in, we were pushed and pulled like criminals... One young man spoke a little aggressively and was hit hard by the butt of a rifle. Even his teeth were knocked out."
When he said this, his tone was full of pain and resentment. It was obvious that this relatively high-end suit was very valuable to him.
But he did not focus on his torn clothes, but instead emphasized the description of the young man who was subjected to "violent law enforcement"... Ke Lan couldn't help but complain in his heart: This guy... is really a scheming bitch.
"Then I can only tell you that you are completely wrong. I am just an ordinary person. The soldiers' good attitude may be because we are more cooperative, and we just happened to run into a group of soldiers with good tempers."
Seeing Ke Lan say this, the middle-aged man showed obvious disbelief in his eyes, but he did not dwell on this matter. Instead, he cleverly changed the subject: "Then little brother, do you know what happened outside? They brought people here for no reason. This is illegal detention. Even if they are a garrison, they have no right to restrict our personal freedom without a legitimate reason!"
"Didn't you hear what the loudspeaker has been saying - some kind of acute infectious disease has suddenly broken out. For the sake of people's lives and safety, everyone must be quarantined in a centralized location." Ke Lan said, pointing to the two high-power speakers in the mall that were playing on a loop.
"No one would believe such a lowly excuse! The entire ship is under blockade. What kind of infectious disease can seal off the entire Ark? And they're activating the isolation wall. I'd say it's possible that the Alphas have broken in!" The middle-aged man suddenly lowered his voice. "Just now another group of relic hunters said so. They said that there have been major discoveries in the field of relic exploration recently. It's very likely that the Alphas are still alive on this planet, but they're all in collective hibernation. Some time ago, someone activated the alien battleship 'Athor' and woke them up!"
"This imagination is too rich..." Ke Lan couldn't help but curl his lips, "Uncle, which hunter did you hear such alarmist statements from? This is simply spreading rumors. There is a reward for reporting."
"Look, there are a few relic hunters wearing sand-colored camouflage uniforms and sitting together over there. I heard that they are members of a large hunting group." The middle-aged man pointed to a dozen people sitting not far away. They were discussing something nervously, and the group of people who were listening to their discussion nearby all looked nervous.
Ke Lan and Sanshisan looked at each other. They ignored the middle-aged man who wanted to continue the conversation, stood up and walked over, squatting down .
The relic hunters immediately noticed Ke Lan and Sanshisan approaching. Sanshisan was still wearing a casual outfit stained with oil, but it was Ke Lan's combat uniform that caught their interest.
A skinny boy who looked less than 20 years old raised his chin towards Ke Lan and asked, "Hey, you over there, are you a mercenary?"
"No, I'm a hunter, a relic hunter." Ke Lan replied.
"Hah, we're colleagues, nice to meet you." Hearing Ke Lan's answer, a big man nearby moved his butt slightly, making some space in the circle, and motioned for Ke Lan to join the discussion.
"Brother, which hunting group are you from?" the thin boy asked again.
"I didn't join the hunting group. I worked alone."
"Oh... So you're a lone hunter." The skinny boy's eyes flashed with obvious disappointment, but he quickly recovered his original expression and asked Ke Lan with pretended enthusiasm: "Brother, how did you get here?"
"I was shopping and eating with my friends when we suddenly encountered a blockade. We were brought here by a group of soldiers." Ke Lan briefly recounted the story and then got straight to the point. "I just heard from an old man over there, do you guys know the reason for the blockade of the entire ship?"
"Ah... well..." The skinny boy seemed to want to keep the question a secret. He paused for a moment and then said in a very low voice, "Actually, we can't say we know... We just caught a glimpse of it."
"A little rumor? What rumor?" Ke Lan asked immediately.
"Now outside the Ark, not far away there is an ancient warship of the Alpha civilization called 'Aguna Tor'. You should know it, right?" asked the thin boy.
"Of course I know. This is big news. Even those who are not in our line of work know about it." Ke Lan nodded repeatedly. "That is the nineteenth S-level ruins. It's a pity that it is not open to all hunters yet."
"Hey... you don't know, today's incident is related to 'Aguna Kotor'!" The skinny boy said mysteriously.
"What do you mean?"
“I don’t know which bastard actually drove this treasure out from underground… Do you think the Alphas can just watch their own super battleship being stolen?” said the skinny boy. He had no idea that the “bastard” he was talking about was now sitting opposite him.
"Haven't the Alphas disappeared for tens of thousands of years?"
"Tsk, that's all made up by those guys in the research institute to scare us. In fact, the Alphas have been sleeping deep underground on Alpha Planet... They are a very special species, just like cold-blooded animals on Earth who need to hibernate, but they hibernate for tens of thousands of years. If they hadn't been startled by that guy who stole the ship, they would probably have continued to sleep!"
"Hibernation theory?" Ke Lan muttered to himself. This is considered a very classic speculation among the whereabouts of the Alpha civilization. It had many supporters in the early years, but as more and more negative evidence was discovered, this speculation gradually declined in the academic community. Instead, there are many "non-professionals" in the community who firmly believe in it.
"Then what's going on with this blockade of the entire ship?" Ke Lan asked with great interest. He wanted to see how far these people could go in making up a story.
"You probably don't know... We have been abandoned by the top leaders of the Ark!" The thin boy lowered his voice even more. Several of his companions raised their heads and looked around vigilantly in case any soldiers from the garrison approached at this time.
"Abandon?" Ke Lan frowned.
"The Alphas have awakened, and with the power of the Ark, we have no way to contend with them... Those big shots have already prepared to flee. They locked us ordinary people here, actually intending to use us as bait to attract the attention of the Alphas, so as to buy time for them to escape."
"...There is such a thing?" Ke Lan couldn't help but think to himself, these hunters, could there be "five hundred thousand"?
After the "East Nine District Incident" was exposed, the Ark officials once issued an announcement that anyone who found suspected heretic believers or missionaries and successfully reported them could receive a reward of up to 500,000 credit points. Since then, people have called these people "walking 500,000", or "500,000" for short.
But in fact, there are very few examples of successful reporting... First, ordinary people may not have such a strong ability to identify, and second, by the time they realize the true identity of these people, they are often already deeply trapped and unable to extricate themselves.
"Believe it or not... But then again, we relic hunters are not ordinary people who are powerless. I don't think we should just wait to die. What do you think, buddy?" After the skinny boy finished speaking, he stared at Ke Lan with anticipation.
"What are your plans?" Ke Lan was basically certain that even if these people were not members of a heretical sect, they were probably from some extremist organization. In this case, it would be better to conduct a fishing enforcement. "In the current situation, we can't do anything... Weapons and other things were taken away when we came in. Those soldiers all had guns in their hands. We are unarmed. Even if we want to escape from here, we can't do it."
"What if I have a way?" The skinny boy suddenly gave a weird smile.
Could it be that among these "half a million" people there are "containers" of the "seeds of erosion"? No... Since the East 9th District incident, the Ark's official inspections in this regard have become much stricter. It is difficult for "containers" to sneak into the Ark, and they will be detected at the boarding point... Even if they use some special means to avoid this first hurdle, they still have to undergo weekly routine inspections: With the deepening of research, it is no longer necessary to draw blood to detect "containers". The security gates equipped with scanning equipment at various stations, shopping malls, and block entrances can distinguish these parasitized "containers" from the crowd.
If it's not a "container", then there is only one possibility...
Could this guy be a "black-robed bishop"? Ke Lan thought to himself, could it be that his luck was so "good" that he could bump into a "black-robed bishop" even in a random shelter?
He glanced at the soldiers in the distance out of the corner of his eye - the soldiers responsible for maintaining order in this temporary shelter were all from the garrison, there were no agents from the Security Bureau, and these soldiers should have been summoned on short notice, carrying only conventional equipment, let alone heavy firepower and active ammunition, they didn't .
Perhaps they left heavy machine guns, weapons full of visual pressure and lethality, at the garrison in order to avoid causing panic among the people. However, if a heretical sect was involved in this matter, then the situation would be completely different.
This temporary shelter converted from a shopping mall has gathered at least thousands of civilians. If the black-robed bishop uses the "Holy Word" in this place, the consequences will be disastrous.
Ke Lan's eyes swept over these relic hunters one by one without leaving a trace. In his current state, he couldn't tell which one of these people... or which ones were the "real threat".
"What do you mean?" Thirty-Three asked, his tone a little stiff - as a retired soldier, he naturally saw that this group of so-called "relic hunters" were not normal. These people deliberately spread rumors and created panic among the people, and obviously had other motives.
"Who are you?" The skinny boy looked at Ke Lan, "Is this guy with you?"
"Yes, he is my friend." Ke Lan nodded, and gently touched Sanshisan with her elbow at an angle where the other party could not see, suggesting that he should not act rashly.
He needed to test the other party further. If he could confirm the other party's identity, Ke Lan would not mind taking the initiative.
"Oh, this guy seems to have some opinion." The thin boy asked vigilantly.
"Nothing. He is a cautious person who doesn't like to take risks, so he can be a bit annoying sometimes." Ke Lan defended, "Are you planning to escape from here?"
"Not only do we have to escape, we also have to rescue the innocent people here--" said the skinny boy.
