Volume 13 Ancient Bronze City Ruins Chapter 607: Ancient Bronze City Fortress
"More than a hundred city ruins have been discovered on Alpha, but most of them are C- and D-level ruins. There are only a few city ruins that can be rated as B-level... Do you know why the Bronze City Ruins are A-level ruins?" Ghost Owl said slowly with a serious face.
"Why?" Ye Yan in the lower right corner of the screen asked innocently - the Ye family is different from the Grey Bird Hunting Group. As an aristocratic family that has long cooperated with the military, they have been tied to the chariot from the moment this war was finalized.
"Because it's not a city at all, but a fortress." Ghost Owl said word by word.
Every word he uttered was like a powerful drumbeat, striking the hearts of everyone participating in the video conference.
"Fortress?!" Ye Yan couldn't help but exclaimed, "A fortress of the Alpha civilization controlled by a heretical sect, how can we possibly take it down!"
"Although I have heard some news about the ruins of the Ancient Bronze City, this is the first time I have heard of the term fortress." Ke Lan said, "Since you have been to that place, Mr. Ghost Owl, please tell me in detail about your exploration experience that time."
"Yes, yes!" Ye Yan quickly agreed, "The Ye Group is willing to pay you a generous reward in exchange for the information about the Ancient Bronze City Ruins."
"The layout of the buildings in that ruins is very different from other Alpha cities." Ghost Owl said, "I don't know if you have heard of something called ?"
"...Formation? Does it refer to the formation of the army during marching and fighting in ancient times?" The hound couldn't help but ask.
"That is also a kind of formation, but I mean its application in architecture." said Ghost Owl.
"Architecture...Are you talking about something like the Bagua Formation?" Ke Lan asked.
"What Bagua formation? Isn't Tai Chi Bagua the pattern on the national flag of South Goryeo in the old era?" Ye Yan suddenly asked a speechless question.
Ghost Owl: “…”
"Master Ye...you are so embarrassed. You are a descendant of the Huaxia people, but how come you don't even know your ancestors' Tai Chi Bagua?" The Hound complained, trying hard to hold back his laughter.
"What the hell? Tai Chi Bagua is actually something from our Chinese culture? These Koreans are really good at stealing, right? They stole everything, even the national pattern of a country... They stole it from us Chinese?" Ye Yan's face flushed immediately - as a dandy young master who was good at eating, drinking and having fun, he was really not interested in these things from the old era and ancient culture... After all, when flirting with girls, talking about food, art, or even luxury goods can achieve the purpose of pretending to be cool. But if you talk to a girl about these difficult and obscure things from thousands of years ago... I'm afraid that the girl will walk away without interest before you finish talking.
"The 'Bagua Formation' I'm talking about comes from The Romance of the Three Kingdoms, also known as the 'Bagua Diagram'. Zhuge Liang, the prime minister of Shu, once set up such a maze with huge stones in a place called Yufupu, which stopped tens of thousands of pursuing soldiers from Lu Xun of Wu." Ke Lan explained.
"Is it so exaggerated? A few stones can stop an army of tens of thousands of people? Even if it is a maze, it can be filled up with just the number of people." Ye Yan said in astonishment.
"Of course, novels contain a certain amount of exaggeration, but similar formations do exist... In fact, the 'maze' that is very common in the ruins of the Alpha civilization can be completely regarded as the product of the concretization of the 'formation'." Ke Lan continued.
"The ruins of the Ancient Bronze City are a huge maze in themselves." Ghost Owl nodded and continued, "This is a maze specially set up for military purposes. According to the capacity of the city ruins, let alone tens of thousands of soldiers... even if a million people were deployed, they would be trapped to death in it."
"You all should know how the name of the Ancient Bronze City Ruins came about, right?" asked Ghost Owl.
"I know... I just checked the information..." Ye Yan scratched his fleshy double chin a little embarrassedly and said, "It's because all the buildings in the city are made of an alloy with copper as the main component, so it is called the Ancient Bronze City."
"Then have you ever thought about why the buildings in the Bronze City use this alloy... instead of lower-cost earth-stone concrete or high-molecular polymers?" Ghost Owl asked again.
"Perhaps... for , the cost of copper alloy is lower?" Ye Yan asked uncertainly.
"No, although I don't know the correct answer, your statement is definitely wrong." Layton shook his head repeatedly. "Although the copper reserves on Alpha are not poor, they are not rich either... For a civilization that occupies an entire planet, this amount of reserves is barely enough. Important metal resources like copper are definitely more valuable than concrete and plastics that can be synthesized by chemical means."
"Then why do they use copper alloy to build the city?" Ye Yan asked puzzledly.
"Because copper is an excellent conductor." Ghost Owl said, "The entire city... or the entire fortress, is actually a super-large weapon. Every building in the ruins can be turned into a deadly weapon."
"What do you mean? Does it mean that every floor in this city can be electrified and kill anyone who enters?" The Hound raised his eyebrows. "Rather than calling it a fortress, I'm more inclined to say that this thing is an oversized torture device."
"If it was just high voltage electricity, my hunters wouldn't have died." Ghost Owl sighed, "The entire city is not only a conductor... it's also a giant energy shield generator."
"A city-scale energy shield generator?" Layton exclaimed. "Then... how horrible is the energy consumption? If it is not fired as a shield but as a weapon, it should be able to penetrate the Ark with one shot, right?"
"When we were exploring the ruins of the Ancient Bronze City, the defense facilities of this fortress had not yet been activated... But even such a dormant fortress still claimed the lives of nine elite hunters from the Gray Bird Hunting Group." Ghost Owl sighed again, "How about this, I'll post the video recording of the initial exploration. After watching it, you should understand how dangerous this ruin is..."
After a short progress bar, the camera on the ghost owl's side switched to a slightly blurry video image.
This video seems to have been shot using a portable video recording device mounted on a helmet. From the time in the upper right corner, we can tell that it was shot in 941 in the New Era, which is exactly ten years ago.
The person shooting the video is in the position of "center back", located in the middle of the entire team. In front of him are four "vanguards" wearing light powered exoskeletons. About thirty meters in front of the "vanguard" is a lone "scout".
The position of "scout" is the most dangerous in the entire hunter team. Generally speaking, hunters who serve as "scouts" are either "consumables" who are sent out to step on mines, or they are old hands who are brave and careful...and the "scout" of the Gray Bird Hunting Group obviously belongs to the latter.
This is a female hunter with a petite figure. She is wearing a highly elastic combat uniform that fits her body very tightly. The uniform perfectly outlines her body lines. She is very thin, the kind of skinny, and her chest is so flat that she is almost indistinguishable from a man's... However, for a scout, those two piles of fat are unnecessary burdens. Instead, this kind of lean figure is the best.
The smaller the body, the more places it can fit into... and at the same time, the smaller the area affected by various mechanisms.
"This scout's code name is 'Hummingbird'. She is a veteran. Although she is only nineteen years old, she already has six years of experience in ruins exploration..." The voice of the Ghost Owl sounded outside the screen.
"At the age of nineteen, she already has six years of exploration experience? Doesn't that mean she started working as a hunter at the age of thirteen? I remember that one has to be an adult to take the hunter qualification exam, right?" Ye Yan muttered, "It's illegal to use child labor..."
Six years of exploration experience definitely makes her a "senior" in the hound circle. Her exploration experience is even more than half of the people in the God Hunter Group. The exploration experience is not calculated based on the number of years. It does not mean that if you explored a ruin ten years ago and then explored it again ten years later, you will be considered a "ten-year veteran hunter". According to the official recognition standard, only if you explore a ruin of level D or above more than five times in a year will this year be counted as "experience".
"She was indeed an illegal hunter, but at that time she was not a member of the Gray Bird Hunting Group. She was 'bought' by another hunting group..." Ghost Owl explained.
"Bought it... Did you buy it as a scout?" The hound couldn't help asking. The scout in his sentence naturally refers to the first kind of "consumables".
"Yes. But perhaps because of her talent, or perhaps because of luck, she survived four ruins explorations and redeemed her freedom. After that, she worked as an unlicensed 'illegal hunter' in several hunting groups for several years, and all of them were scouts... until she was spotted by the then leader of the Grey Bird Hunting Group during a joint exploration operation, and was recruited by the group at a large sum of money. Of course, she was already an adult by then, and had obtained legal hunter qualifications." Ghost Owl added at the end, as if worried that others would misunderstand the Grey Bird Hunting Group.
"I just checked it online." Ivan interrupted, "The elite relic hunter 'Hummingbird' obtained the hunter qualification certificate in 939 of the New Era. He has been in more than a dozen hunting groups, and the last hunting group he served was the Gray Bird Hunting Group. At that time, he was a very famous 'scout' in the hunter circle, but unfortunately he died in 941 when the Gray Bird Hunting Group was exploring A-009 'Ancient Bronze City Ruins'."
"...in 941, when the Grey Bird Hunting Group was exploring A-009 'Ancient Bronze City Ruins', he unfortunately died?" Ye Yan repeated this sentence, his eyes widening involuntarily, "In other words, it was the one in the video?"
As soon as he finished speaking, a dazzling white light suddenly appeared on the video screen. Ye Yan, Hound and others couldn't help but squint their eyes, while Ke Lan stared at the screen intently.
The camera was shaking violently, and the man carrying the video equipment seemed to have fallen to the ground while backing away. The camera first slammed toward the sky above, then quickly swung down to look straight ahead.
Directly in front of them was the source of the white light that almost blinded everyone.
At that time, a thick energy shield - to be more precise, a dazzling wall of light. This wall of light blocked the entire street. As for the scout "Hummingbird" who was originally standing there, he didn't even have time to scream before he completely disappeared in this wall of light made entirely of energy, leaving no trace.
"She...she she she...is she dead?" Ye Yan was obviously a little frightened, and even his speech began to stutter.
"Yes." Ghost Owl's voice sounded again, "She is dead. Not even a corpse is left. Her entire body and the equipment on her body were all vaporized the moment the light curtain appeared."
The wall of light did not stay where it was, but began to advance along the street. The hunters of the Gray Bird Hunting Group ran away - they reacted quickly, but even so, several hunters at the end of the team were caught up by the wall of light and "swallowed" in one gulp... When the wall of light disappeared and everyone stopped, the man carrying the video equipment turned around and saw that there was only one person left of the four vanguards behind him.
While escaping, a hunter accidentally tripped and fell to the ground - no one helped him because it was too late and saving him would only increase casualties... Although the camera did not show him being caught up by the wall of light, his fate was naturally predictable through the sudden shouting outside the screen.
A wall of light suddenly appeared and disappeared, causing the elite Gray Bird Hunting Group to lose five hunters in an instant.
"The light wall is moving very fast. According to my estimation, it is about eight to ten meters per second. This is very close to the world record of the 100-meter race in the old era." said the Ghost Owl.
"That is to say, without the help of a vehicle, only enhanced humans can outrun this thing?" Layton said.
"Yes. The duration of the light wall is not fixed. Some last only a few seconds, while others last nearly half a minute." said the ghost owl.
"You mean, you encountered the light wall more than once in the ancient bronze city ruins?" Ke Lan asked, "Then do you know what the triggering conditions of this mechanism are?"
"Unfortunately, the triggering conditions are completely unknown." Ghost Owl's tone was very heavy, "I'm not even sure whether the light wall was triggered by us or appeared randomly in the city... Sometimes, multiple light walls will appear at the same time."
