Volume 12: Yaguna Kotor Chapter 582 Arrival at Block 1
"There is another possibility, which often appears in the ruins - what they saw may just be an illusion." Ivan added.
"Whether it's an illusion or not, just look at what they capture with the cameras they carry with them! People may have hallucinations, but machines can't!" Layton said.
The video equipment carried by the two volunteers had been removed from their protective suits by the hunters, and the memory card inside had been inserted into the projector.
Soon, an endless plain appeared before everyone's eyes - it was almost the same as the description of the two volunteers. This kind of terrain can be seen everywhere in the wilderness. If there is any feature, it is probably the yellow sandy soil, which is more common in the northern hemisphere of Alpha but relatively rare in the southern hemisphere.
In the distance of the camera, a group of creatures that looked like wolves but were not wolves gathered in twos and threes. They were tearing apart several bloody corpses, and bones with pieces of meat and fascia hanging on them were dragged all over the ground.
"It is indeed a new indigenous creature..." Ivan nodded, "But we cannot rule out that it is a variant of a known species. After all, without a genetic sample, everything is just speculation."
"Wait a minute, pause!" Ke Lan suddenly raised her hand and pointed at a body that had been bitten into a mess in the picture, "Zoom in here."
Thanks to the fact that the video equipment carried by the two volunteers were all high-end products worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, even if the picture was magnified more than ten times, the image quality was still very clear, and even the fine hair on the meat was clearly visible.
"Look at these hairs...the color is dark gray, and the texture and length...are exactly the same as those on these creatures." Ke Lan said.
"Are you trying to say that these guys are...eating each other?" said the Ghost Owl with a frown.
"I just used a computer to analyze the corpses, bones and skeletal structures of these organisms. It can be basically confirmed that the eaters and the food are the same organism," said Ivan.
"This... this is too weird, right? Even a tiger won't eat its own cubs ." The hound murmured.
"Examples of cannibalism are not uncommon in nature, but most of them occur in insects... As for more advanced creatures like mammals, cannibalism generally only occurs in two situations." Ivan said - when it comes to knowledge of biology, he is probably the most knowledgeable among this group of hunters.
"Which two?" the hound asked immediately.
"One is that when the cubs are born, the mother will eat the cubs with congenital defects or diseases. This prevents the disease from spreading to other cubs and allows other cubs to get more milk and food. The mother who becomes weak due to childbirth can also use this to supplement some of her nutrition."
"What about the other situation?"
“Food shortage.”
"The plain at the other end of the transmission channel does look very barren... If, I mean if, the exit of the transmission channel has not shifted, this place is inside 'Aguna Kotor', then I think everything makes sense." First Mate Caroline, who had just "changed jobs" to become a relic hunter, said nervously, "These wolf-like creatures are trapped in this world. They can't leave this wasteland to hunt, so naturally they have to eat each other..."
"Excuse me, this inference is completely untenable." The ghost owl glanced at Caroline and retorted coldly, and the latter's face immediately turned red. "Is there a problem? To say that it is completely untenable...isn't this a bit too absolute?"
"Think about it, how long has 'Aguna Kator' been soaking in the magma pool of the Molten Mine?" Ghost Owl paused and continued, "Let's not talk about the previous tens of thousands of years. Let's start from the moment humans landed on Alpha. You locked a group of carnivores in a closed area with poor food. After 50 years, how many of these creatures do you think will be left?"
"It won't even take fifty years, just five weeks, and this ethnic group will be completely wiped out." Ivan said lightly.
"It can't be such a coincidence that the food in this area ran out at this moment, so we see cannibalism?" the ghost owl continued.
As soon as he finished speaking, Ivan continued: "Any ecological zone that wants to last for more than ten years must have one or more complete and stable circulation chains... Even an ecological box that simulates the real environment in a biological laboratory is difficult to achieve without human interference."
"Alright, alright, you two are singing the same tune. You won't stop until the little girl cries, right?" The Hound glanced at Caroline, whose face kept turning between blue and white, and quickly tried to smooth things over.
"Actually... what First Mate Caroline said makes sense." Ke Lan said, "When the ecological balance is broken by external forces, it is a disaster for the creatures in this ecological system... Although I am not sure how the balance was broken, if we talk about external forces - I accidentally restarted this 'ancient battleship' not long ago, does it count?"
"Of course it counts." Ivan nodded, "Because of this 'accident', you have already wiped out a biological group."
He pointed to a large pit filled with crystal pillars in the distance and continued, "Those mutant lava leeches have lived in the power room for at least hundreds of years... maybe thousands of years, and have bred a large number of offspring. But just because the power array was activated, they were all crushed into dust."
"Similarly, this Block No. 1 may also be affected by the activation of the battleship, causing these creatures to lose their original food source and be forced to kill their own kind and eat their corpses..." Ke Lan pondered.
For the "natives" inside Yagunakotor, the departure of this ancient warship from the lava pool could be equated with a drastic change such as "the sun going out".
"Anyway, why don't we just go over and take a look?" Layton said. "There's no point in talking so much!"
"You are lucky, if other hunters were as reckless as you, they would have died in the ruins before they met us." The hound complained.
"I'm not reckless at all. I'm a practical man. Isn't there a saying that goes 'seeing is believing'? Whether that ghost place is inside the battleship, we will know after we go and take a look - we can teleport back anytime anyway." Leighton said.
"That's right." The Hound turned his head and looked at Ke Lan, "What do you mean? Should we go over there?"
"Well, since we have discovered that there are aggressive creatures in Block 1, we must be prepared to fight them as soon as we land," said Ke Lan.
The two volunteers didn't attract the attention of the wolf-like creatures perhaps because their targets were too small. But if a large group of relic hunters here were teleported over, they would most likely alert these guys who were eating, and a fight would be inevitable.
Although judging from their size, the fighting power of these wolf-like creatures should not be very strong, but after all, they are a group of unknown creatures that have survived in the S-level ruins for who knows how many years, so it is always a good idea to be more careful.
"I'll be the first." Valentina volunteered - a humanoid mecha with a silver-white body and beautiful streamlined outer armor stood at the front of the team.
This machine was not the one that Valentina had been driving before, which was modified from the Valkyrie Zero frame, but a new model that the Ye Group sent to the Zero Fleet a week ago.
According to Ye Yan, this machine does not have a regular number or serial number, only a name - "Augustus".
Just like the unprecedented and unrivalled founding emperor of the Roman Empire, there is only one machine of the same name in the entire world, and it was specially developed by the Ye Group for the "Aguna Tor" exploration mission.
When this machine was being designed, the manufacturing cost and mass production issues were completely ignored, and all indicators were pushed to the maximum - so much so that its skeleton molds were completely "disposable". After the production of this machine and spare parts, they were directly sealed up.
It’s not that the Ye Group doesn’t want to use this set of molds to produce a “castrated version” of the mass-produced machine. You know, no matter how severely it is castrated, at least there is the gimmick of the prototype, and the sales of the mass-produced machine will not be too bad - in fact, it’s not that they don’t want to, but that they simply can’t do mass production.
The design specifications of this machine are not on the same level as other prototypes... The internal mechanical frame alone is forged from 100% pure Nino alloy, and the diameter of the main frame is only 16 millimeters. If it were made of other materials, it would not even be able to withstand the weight of the frame, let alone support the heavy outer armor and internal facilities.
Ke Lan still remembers the painful expression on Ye Yan's face during the video call - although the other party did not reveal the specific cost of "Augustus" to Ke Lan, just thinking about it will tell you that it must be an astronomical figure.
In comparison, the material support provided by the Soma Group seemed rather "meager". Although the total value had certainly exceeded 100 million yuan, most of them were things that could be bought on the market.
"Okay, Valentina's 'Augustus' will be the vanguard, and the rest of us will follow - but if those wolf-like creatures are not very strong, try to keep as many of them alive. Whether we sell them to various research institutions or keep them as rare collections in rich people's homes, I think they should be able to sell for a good price." Ke Lan said - their relic hunters are not an army. To put it bluntly, the word "profit" is the real driving force... and from this video, these unknown creatures are probably the only valuable things in Block No. 1.
"The way you put it makes us feel like real hunters," the hound teased.
"Whether it's a dead thing or a living thing, as long as it's valuable, it's our target." Ghost Owl nodded calmly, "No one can resist money."
Including Ke Lan and his companions, the four groups together have nearly a hundred people. It is naturally impossible for all of these one hundred people to be incorporated into the advance team. Only the strongest and most experienced hunters can take on this important task.
The God Hunting Group sent out Valentina, Ke Lan, Asano Akira and Ivan, while the five of Sanshisan and others were all mobilized. As for the Gray Bird Hunting Group, it was an elite team of ten people, led by Ghost Owl himself.
On the contrary, no one from the Tide Hunters was incorporated into the advance team.
The risks and uncertainties of the initial exploration are very high. It is undoubtedly a very risky behavior to bring a group of newcomers who have never been to the ruins at this time... Even if Ke Lan and his team decide to use the S-level ruins to train their troops, they have to at least wait until they have gained a firm foothold.
"Check your equipment one last time, especially your weapons." Ghost Owl said to the hunters behind him. Ke Lan noticed that the hunters of the Gray Bird Hunting Group were holding two guns in their hands, and one of them looked like a non-lethal firearm used to fire anesthetic bullets.
"The preparations are really comprehensive..." Layton couldn't help but sigh in a low voice. When exploring ruins, things like tranquilizer guns are rarely used, but he didn't expect that the Grey Bird Hunting Group could have one for every ten people. They couldn't have anticipated this situation in advance.
"Go!" Ke Lan gave the order, and Valentina took the lead in driving the "Augustus" into the black fog, and the others immediately followed -
Twenty-one seconds can be considered very short from the perspective of others, but as the person being teleported, he cannot feel the passage of time during the teleportation process... Ke Lan felt that his consciousness had been floating in the darkness for decades before a ball of light suddenly appeared in front of him, and the next second, control of his body returned to him again.
The moment he landed, he immediately opened his energy shield and took a defensive stance.
Not far away, the silver-white "Augustus" was confronting dozens of wolf-like creatures - they did not directly attack the mecha, so Valentina did not choose to take the initiative, but she had single-handedly restrained the entire herd, buying enough time for the people behind to adjust.
"The radiation in this place is very high." Ivan's voice came from behind. He was the third person to arrive at "Block No. 1" after Ke Lan, but he did not immediately focus his attention on those creatures. Instead, he turned on the environmental monitoring equipment.
"The radiation here is more than fifteen times that of the power room... Although it doesn't pose a threat to us, it is rare for these creatures to live in such a high-radiation environment and still grow so 'normal', in a way," Ivan commented.
"Not only is there radiation, the magnetic field is also completely disordered." Valentina's voice came from the headset, "This explains why the previous drone did not return."
