Volume 11: Memetic Crisis Chapter 554: Underground Ice Storage
Ke Lan was just standing at the entrance of the elevator shaft, and the armor's external temperature sensor was already constantly issuing low temperature warnings.
The surrounding air temperature has dropped to minus 25 degrees Celsius, and a thin layer of white frost has condensed on the metal wall of the elevator shaft. If someone touches it directly with their hand at this time, the whole hand will probably be firmly "stuck" to the wall, and at least a layer of skin will be torn off if they pull it off hard.
According to the information provided by Schroeder, the temperature on the first and second floors of the underground ice storage is usually minus 30 degrees Celsius, and the third and fourth floors are even lower, around minus 50 degrees Celsius... But now the entire underground ice storage has been without power for several hours, and Ke Lan is standing at the wellhead several hundred meters above the ground. The temperature here should not be this low.
This can only mean one thing...the fifth floor of the underground ice storage has been opened.
All of this cold air escaped from the fifth floor.
"It's still a step too late." Ke Lan sighed, "I hope I don't see a Yinglong egg covered with eyes."
"Are we going down?" asked Asano Akira.
"We're already here. Even if it's too late, we can only make one last attempt." Ke Lan said, "That thing should not have completely merged with the Yinglong egg, otherwise we wouldn't have the chance to stand here and talk... I'll go down first, you follow me, keeping a reaction distance of about 20 to 30 meters from me. If I shout at you to run quickly from below, just run by yourself and don't look back."
"Then what will you do?" Asano Akira asked immediately.
"I still have a trump card in my hand, but this trump card is very unstable and may affect you as well... If you come to rescue me, it will be a shackle for me."
After Ke Lan finished speaking, he took out a pair of claws and fixed them on the edge of the well. Then he stepped on the frosted well wall and began to slide slowly into the depths of the elevator shaft.
After Ke Lan slid down for a distance, Asano Akiya lowered a cable and began to descend.
As the altitude decreases, the temperature sensor's reading is increasing rapidly - of course, there is a negative sign in front of this reading.
When Ke Lan's feet finally touched solid ground, the temperature around her had dropped to more than sixty degrees below zero.
He was wearing a general-purpose power armor. Because there was no plan to go deep into the underground ice storage before setting off, there was no additional insulation layer inside the armor. The armor's own temperature control device could no longer maintain the temperature inside the armor at around 20 degrees. A biting chill continued to penetrate into the armor from the outside until it penetrated into his bones.
"It's so cold..." Ke Lan took a look at the working status of the thermostat. It was already operating at maximum power. He could even hear the rumbling of the pump blades at his lower back, but the temperature inside the armor still couldn't rise back to a positive number, nor could he drive out the invading cold air.
Ke Lan felt as if his blood was about to freeze.
In such an environment, you will get frostbite if you stay there for twenty minutes, and it is common to lose some fingers and toes.
Although with current medical technology, it only takes a month to replant a severed limb, not to mention that Ke Lan has a self-recovery ability far beyond that of an ordinary person, but if he loses sensation in his hands and feet in the next battle, then it will be a big problem...
After thinking about it, Ke Lan decided to remove the power armor reactor on his chest, dismantle the radiation protection cover inside the reactor and then put it back - this operation is no different from suicide for ordinary people, but for Ke Lan, the threat of radiation is far less than that of hypothermia.
Soon, the inside of the armor became warm again. This was the residual heat escaping from the reactor, and along with the residual heat, there was also a lethal amount of radiation.
But for some reason, Ke Lan not only did not feel uncomfortable, but he felt that his strength seemed to have increased, and his head, which was originally a little dizzy from the cold, also became clear.
"Could it be that... I can now directly absorb radiation energy?" He muttered to himself. However, at this moment he did not have the time to verify whether this was an illusion or not. While his physical condition had recovered to its peak, Ke Lan hurried forward.
There is only one passage to the entrance of the underground ice storage. On the left side of the passage is Area A, on the right side is Area B, and behind it are more than a dozen sections such as Area C and Area D. The first floor of the ice storage has the largest number and variety of "collections", and the actual area divided into sections is also the largest among the five floors. As for the entrance to the next floor, it is located at the end of this passage.
If the entire underground ice storage is separated from the Ark, you can see that its shape is similar to an inverted pyramid, and the area becomes smaller as you go down.
The top of the pyramid is connected to a vertical secret passage - just like a pyramid-shaped pendulum hammer is lifted up, and the pendulum rope connected to the top naturally falls under the action of gravity. This "pendulum rope" sinks into the cooling pool of the Ark's main reactor. The sealed metal container tied to the end of the "pendulum rope" is immersed in liquid nitrogen at minus 200 degrees Celsius.
The eggs of the ancient species "Yinglong" were sealed in this metal container.
"Damn, it's exciting just thinking about it." Ke Lan rubbed his nails and wiped off the white frost on them. He walked while looking at the scenery on both sides.
The partition walls on the first floor of the ice storage are made of special glass that is opaque and resistant to low temperatures. Walking in the passage, Ke Lan suddenly felt like he had returned to the ruins of a glacier.
I think behind these opaque glasses, there should be a collection similar to that piece of meat... I just wonder if there are big eyeballs that can move freely in the ice, or centipede monsters made of human limbs ...
Most of the collection rooms were not opened, but when Ke Lan walked to Area G, a hole large enough for a person to pass through appeared on the glass wall, and shattered glass particles were scattered all over the ground.
The living specimen of the six-winged gray mosquito was sealed in Area G, so Ke Lan was not surprised - if all the partitions were intact, he would find it strange.
He leaned over to take a look inside Area G. Most of the samples sealed here were samples of insect creatures, and at least half of them had broken free from their original storage containers. Without exception, they had all been infected by the memes and mutated. But in the end, it seemed that the only one that had survived and managed to escape before the ice storage cooled down again was the six-winged gray mosquito.
Ke Lan did not stop here and continued to move forward.
Asano Akinori followed him from behind, keeping a distance of twenty to thirty meters from him.
It seemed that thanks to the cold air escaping from the fifth floor, the temperature of the underground ice storage that had been cut off from the power supply dropped to dozens of degrees below zero again . Ke Lan and Asano Akira did not encounter any enemies along the way - even if some indigenous creatures woke up and ran out of the containment device, they have now turned into motionless ice sculptures.
Without the protective container, the life of these creatures disappears from their bodies the moment they are frozen, and they will never wake up even if the temperature rises again.
"The research institute has suffered a heavy loss this time. Not only did they lose so many people, but there are only a few collections left in the underground freezer..." Ke Lan couldn't help but think of an old story she had seen on the Internet: That was when the Ark had just landed on Alpha. In that era of extremely unstable prices, a businessman used all his savings plus loans to purchase a batch of rare medicines, and stored them all in a cold storage that he had rented at a high price.
He wanted to wait until the price went up before selling, and make a lot of money. But two days later, in order to eliminate a group of indigenous creatures that were approaching, the Ark's top management used the Ark's main gun three times in one day. The unstable voltage caused power outages in many areas of the ship. Although the power outage lasted only a few hours, all the expensive medicines had already deteriorated and turned into worthless garbage...
The businessman who dreamed of getting rich ended his life with a pistol .
"Since the losses are so heavy, we might as well just launch West District 2 into the sky to set off a big firework display like we did with East District 9. That would be..." Ke Lan wanted to say "that's neat and tidy", but then he changed his mind and thought that Ze Luo could still survive under such circumstances, let alone this "intelligent" meme subject, so he had to swallow the rest of his words.
The second level of the underground ice storage is still unobstructed.
The third floor is still the same.
The fourth floor...
Finally, when Ke Lan was about to reach the entrance of the secret passage, he finally encountered an interceptor.
Those were two Type B mutants wandering in the passage.
Creatures like the Seed of Erosion can even survive for a period of time in the vacuum environment of the universe. The temperature of dozens of degrees below zero is no problem for them.
However, they were no problem at all for Asano Akira - without using the time stop, Ke Lan didn't even see Asano Akira's knife movement clearly, and the "cores" of the two B-type mutants had been gouged out by the blade and cut in half in mid-air.
The low temperature in the ice storage did not seem to have any effect on Asano Akira.
"Good job." Ke Lan gave Asano Akira a thumbs up, then stepped over two mutant corpses that were beginning to self-degrade and walked straight towards the secret passage.
There is no elevator in the secret passage, but a vertical ladder embedded in the wall of the passage. If you want to enter the fifth floor of the ice storage, you can only climb down the ladder little by little.
Of course, Ke Lan would not choose such a time-wasting method. Just like in the elevator shaft, after fixing the grappling hook, he jumped down directly and began to slide at high speed along the wall of the passage.
His speed was not much slower than free fall, but he kept falling for nearly half a minute before the sensors in his power armor issued an alarm that he was about to hit bottom.
The reverse buffer thrusters ignited, Ke Lan's speed suddenly slowed down, and then he landed steadily on the ground.
This is a hall about the size of a football field. The floor, four walls and walls are all made of metal. In the middle of the hall, there is an extremely exaggerated hole that was violently torn open.
Ke Lan walked to the edge of the crack, adjusted the angle of the searchlight on his head, and looked inside.
Although the thick white ice fog obscured most of his vision, he still saw a huge egg, which was imprisoned by a large number of metal frames and was filled with various tubes and wires.
This is Yinglong's egg... In the temperature of minus two hundred degrees, it is still beating rhythmically, like a strong heart.
At this moment, Asano Akira suddenly drew out his knife, pointed the blade at the corner of the hall, and whispered, "Something (anti-harmony) is hidden there."
"It's in this hall?" Ke Lan was stunned, raised his head, and looked in the direction that Asano Akira was facing -
A little boy who looked about ten years old walked out slowly from the shadows. He was barefoot, had no hair, and was wrapped in a white coat that didn't fit him at all and was stained with blood.
For some reason, Ke Lan always felt that the boy's face was very familiar, but she couldn't remember where she had seen him before...
It can't be that I'm dreaming, right?
"Who are you?" Ke Lan asked.
"Who are you?" the other party asked the same question.
"...What are you?" Ke Lan changed the way he asked... He knew that the other party was definitely not a human.
"What are you?" The little boy was like a mirror, a repeater, a valley that only sent back echoes - he looked at Ke Lan with his dark and clear eyes, repeating what Ke Lan asked him.
"Why are you learning to talk like me?" Ke Lan couldn't help but frowned.
"Why are you imitating me?" The other person also frowned in the same way...even though his brow arch was bare and he had no eyebrows at all.
"Fuck you." Ke Lan suddenly blurted out a swear word.
"Fuck you." The other party was not willing to be outdone and immediately fought back.
"I'm an idiot." Just when Asano Akira thought that the two were going to start a verbal battle, Ke Lan suddenly changed the subject and used a trick of "hurting the enemy by a thousand and hurting yourself by a thousand".
But this time, the other party did not repeat his words, and suddenly burst into laughter.
"Damn, this guy is sick." Ke Lan cursed in a low voice. He didn't mind calling himself an idiot. As long as he could end this meaningless conversation, it wouldn't be a big deal to suffer a little verbal loss.
Besides, from a certain perspective, Ke Lan felt that he was indeed quite stupid to just rush into the fifth floor of the ice storage.
"I'll ask you again, who on earth are you?" Ke Lan stared at the little boy and put his hand on the grip of the shotgun. "I don't have time to play those boring games with you. If you continue to act stupid or keep silent, I will just choose to shoot."
"What am I...don't you already have an idea in your mind?" The little boy stopped laughing and asked Ke Lan.
"Are you the subject of the 'meme'?"
"No...I am you." said the little boy.
I am you.
These three words suddenly startled Ke Lan. He finally understood why the little boy's face looked so familiar to him but he couldn't remember where he had seen him... The little boy looked exactly like himself when he was ten years old!
He is me...
From a biological point of view, the little boy did not lie. Lin Qiming said that the birth of "meme" was because Professor Smith injected the cells of the Seed of Erosion into his own cloned tissue...
If this little boy developed from that cloned tissue, then he is indeed a clone of himself.
A clone of Kelan carrying a high-risk "meme".
"I am you..." the little boy repeated it again. Then he stretched out his hands to his chin. His nails pierced directly into the tender flesh. Blood instantly dyed his ten fingers red.
Ke Lan didn't know why the other party suddenly started to hurt himself. He raised his gun, stared at the little boy vigilantly, and took a half step back.
The little boy began to scream sharply, his face twisted in pain... But his hands did not stop moving at all. His fingers had already completely penetrated under his skin, tearing his face off bit by bit...
Then he rolled the bloody mess into a ball, threw it on the ground, and flattened it with his foot.
"You...hiss...this is...a part of you...hiss...I am you, but I don't want to become you!" The little boy pointed at the thing on the ground and shouted to Ke Lan.
"Even if you tear off your face, a clone is still a clone." Ke Lan said word by word, "Your actions are meaningless."
He didn't know what was wrong with the other party, but if the other party was willing to communicate, Ke Lan still felt it was worth a try.
Of course, the premise is that there is no further delay.
"No, this is not a face, this is part of a body... You are a body... Inside the body, there are other people's things."
"What body? What is filled with other people's things? Explain yourself clearly!" Ke Lan's heart skipped a beat, and vaguely, he seemed to have caught something.
"I am you, but you are not yourself!" the little boy shouted at the top of his lungs.
