Volume 13 Ancient Bronze City Ruins Chapter 624: The Identity of the Intelligence Dealer
Caught off guard, the "Blue Fortress" failed to dodge this swift and precise attack. The hastily activated energy shield was instantly pierced, and the entire battleship disintegrated in the air. The disintegrated fragments of the hull fell from the sky with thick smoke and explosions, like a rain of fire.
Fortunately, the command center on the "Blue Fortress" had been moved in advance, and this flagship was actually just an "empty shell" in name only.
…
After Ke Lan learned the news, his first reaction was - "The goal of the super giant erosion seed is to drive those troops on standby in place into the ruins !"
In other words , the ruins of the Ancient Bronze City was a trap set specifically for them... This was almost a foregone conclusion.
"But if the heretic sect wanted to allow these troops to enter the ruins, they didn't need to deploy this Seed of Corrosion on the front battlefield in the first place?" Layton asked puzzledly, "Isn't this approach superfluous? What if the field army did not choose to detour, but retreated?"
"Perhaps for them, there is no option of 'retreat'." Thirty-three said, "I think the biggest question in this matter is... why the undead crew member you mentioned would be so eager to start this war."
"Can I communicate directly with the Undead Crew?" Ivan looked at Ke Lan with an inquiring look.
"I'll try."
Ke Lan took out her cell phone, but at this time, there was no signal at all in the signal bar next to the battery icon in the upper right corner of the screen. There were only a few lines of small words flashing continuously: "This phone is currently out of service area."
"Lairton, help me connect my cell phone to the command network for this operation." Ke Lan said.
"Wait a moment." Leighton said as he started to get busy. In less than a minute, a simple signal transceiver consisting of several metal antennas and a chip appeared in his hands.
This thing is equivalent to a wireless router, which can connect to standard communication equipment within a ten-meter radius. This saves Ke Lan the trouble of running to the mecha cockpit to make a phone call.
Ke Lan's cell phone was connected to the military network of this operation, with the mining base and the communication tower built in the White Ridge Mountains as relay base stations, directly connected to the Ark's public communication network.
Ke Lan originally wanted to call Pan directly to find out what was going on, but when he saw that the information dealer with the ID ACMS_0420 was online on his social software, he suddenly had a strange idea.
As if by magic, Ke Lan edited a message and sent it to the intelligence dealer.
"Do you know about the news that the Field Corps and the three fleets of the Air Force are besieging the ruins of the Ancient Bronze City?"
"I know." Almost at the same time when Ke Lan pressed the send button, the other party gave a reply... Considering the delay in network signal transmission, Ke Lan even suspected that the other party sent this answer before he asked the question.
This guy gives people the feeling that he is a ghost lurking on the Internet.
This time the tipster's answer was brief, straightforward and without any emoticons, which was nothing like his usual style.
Could it be that this guy has been possessed by someone else? Ke Lan complained in her heart, and then edited another message and sent it.
"Do you know why the people above are so eager to launch an attack?"
"I know." Still a quick reply.
"How much is this information?" Ke Lan asked habitually. Although he knew very little about this information dealer, he was still clear about his characteristic of "no gain, no early rise". The other party also once ridiculed himself in casual chat that he had no special hobbies except money.
"It's free this time." Ke Lan was a little surprised by the answer from the intelligence dealer. "The reason why the Undead Crew is in a hurry to launch an attack is because this is a decisive battle - a decisive battle between the Ark and the heretical sects. I can tell you clearly that the true body of the prophet is within the ruins of the Ancient Bronze City."
Seeing these lines of words appear on the screen, Ke Lan's breath couldn't help but choke. The next second, his fingers quickly tapped on the virtual keyboard:
"Where did you get this information?"
Ke Lan was not too surprised when the intelligence dealer mentioned the Undead Crew. Although the existence of the Undead Crew was considered the Ark's highest level of secret, it seemed somewhat commonplace compared to the intelligence this guy was able to obtain.
"Have you forgotten the rules? When you buy information from me, you are not allowed to ask about the source - even if it is free information."
"Okay." Ke Lan thought about it and changed the way he asked the question.
"Are you a member of the Undead Crew?"
This time, the other party did not reply immediately. Ke Lan waited for a full minute before getting an ambiguous answer.
"You can say it is, and you can say it is not."
"Riddler, can you please let me crawl?"
"I don't want to be a riddle teller, but this is the fact... If you must have an accurate answer, then just assume that I am it," the information dealer replied.
What do you mean by "I will just assume you are..." Ke Lan frowned and subconsciously asked a meaningless question: "Why didn't you say that?"
It was not until he sent the message that he realized he seemed to have asked a nonsense question.
"Because you never asked." The other party's answer was as meaningless as Ke Lan's question.
"So which member are you? What's your code name?"
"I don't have a seat, and I don't have a code name. If you insist that only people with a serial number can be considered members of the Undead Crew, then under this premise, I am not a member of the Undead Crew."
"Then under what conditions can you be considered a member of the crew association?"
"When it comes to authority," the other party replied, "for example, regarding the delivery of the living armor to you, those guys with names have the power to vote, and I also have my vote. Of course, in most cases, I will choose to abstain from such votes... I prefer to be an observer rather than a participant in the event."
"Do the other members of the Undead Crew know of your existence?"
"Some know, some don't." Another ambiguous answer, "You should know that the information resources of the members of the Undead Crew are not completely equal... Just like ordinary people, everyone has their own little secrets, and I exist in the 'secrets' of some of them."
"Okay, let's not talk about that for now. Since you said that this is a decisive battle between the heretic sect and the Ark, but now the other side has clearly deliberately put the main force of the Ark into the ruins... This is no longer a conspiracy, it is a naked conspiracy... It's just short of writing the five big words "This is a trap" on your face. Don't you plan to stop the combat operation?"
"How do we terminate it? Let the troops withdraw from the ruins and then face the monster guarding outside?"
"Can't we use the airship to transport the people out?"
"With the combat fleet's transport capacity, it will take at least four days to transport these hundreds of thousands of people. Do you think it's in time?" ACMS_0420 asked back.
"So you're just going to watch these hundreds of thousands of people die in the ruins?" If this was a face-to-face conversation, Ke Lan would even want to grab the other person's collar and question him, "These are all the main forces that the Field Corps can mobilize, and they are the most experienced warriors among humans. If they all die here... who will be able to compete with the monster army of the heretic sect in the future?"
"But as long as the heretic sect can be eradicated in one fell swoop, their sacrifice will be completely worth it." The intelligence dealer replied, "Have you ever heard of the idiom called 'turning the tables on the enemy'?"
"Do you know the heretic sect's plan?"
"I don't know. If I knew, I would definitely not allow this battle plan to be carried out. But since things are irreversible, we can only deal with it as it happens."
"How do you counter a move?"
"Assault the control core of the Ancient Bronze City Ruins and occupy the central tower. Since the heretic sect set the Ancient Bronze City Ruins as a trap, then for this trap to work, it must be related to the ruins themselves. If you can successfully seize control of the ruins, all problems will naturally be solved."
"us?"
"Yes, you guys." The intelligence dealer sent a smirking expression, "As a special operations team, this is your primary mission. As for the hundreds of thousands of troops, they are just there to draw fire for you."
"One last question, what is your relationship with Pan?" Ke Lan asked. He always felt that this intelligence dealer was as bad as Pan... If he hadn't said that he had no seat or code name, Ke Lan would have thought that this was Pan's pseudonym.
"Pan knows of my existence, and he likes to imitate the way I speak and act, that's all," the other party said.
"So, your seniority is older than Pan?" The seniority that Ke Lan mentioned here does not refer to the ranking of seats in the Undead Crew Club, but to the time of joining the Undead Crew Club - he has long known that the seat number does not actually have much significance, otherwise, it would never be his turn to inherit the "Pope" of Chiron's fifth seat.
"He only joined the team two or three hundred years earlier than him." The information dealer said lightly.
"So how much information can you tell me about the Undead Crew?"
"This information is not for sale. It needs to be unlocked by completing various tasks. Moreover, the unlocked information will vary depending on the degree of completion of the tasks." said the intelligence dealer.
"Are you playing the RPG main storyline here?"
"I have no objection to your interpretation. However, your main task right now is to capture the tall tower located in the center of the Ancient Bronze City Ruins. I am almost certain that the prophet's true body is hiding on this tall tower."
"How can you be sure?"
"Because in order to fully control the remains of an Alpha civilization, only his real body can do it... Just like Yaguna Kator, he once tried to use a stand-in to activate the control console, but ultimately failed."
"So, the person who can seize control of the ruins from the prophet... is the only one... right?" Ke Lan quickly saw the other party's hidden meaning between the lines.
"Yes, so your team is the key to this battle. And the hundreds of thousands of troops above are just a foil."
…
"What's going on, Ke Lan?" Layton poked his head out of the cockpit. "You didn't call the Undead Crew? Instead, you were chatting with people on social media? Well, you have to know that using the military network to log into civilian social media is illegal. If someone finds out, they might cut off our network immediately."
"I'm communicating with a guy who claims to be a member of the Undead Crew." Ke Lan said.
"'Claims to be'? So is he real or fake?"
"I can't be sure... but judging from the information he provided me, his identity is very likely true." Ke Lan said, "I have conducted many 'transactions' with him. Before he revealed his identity to me, I always felt that there were many inexplicable doubts about him. But if he is really a member of the Undead Crew, then these doubts can be explained."
"But if he is an enemy, that would be terrible." Sanshisan added.
"So what should we do now? Should we withdraw from the war zone?" Layton asked again, "We have to hurry up and make a decision... I always feel that if we run away too late, we might not be able to escape."
"No, we can't retreat." Ke Lan looked up at the Blasphemer mecha, "Valentina, turn the engine power of the mecha to maximum. We must enter the core control area of the Ancient Bronze City Ruins as quickly as possible."
"No way?" Hearing Ke Lan say this, Layton was stunned for a moment, "We all know that the Ancient Bronze City Ruins is a trap, why do we still jump into it?"
"Mr. Gui Xiao's analogy is correct. Ancient Bronze City can indeed be seen as a large formation, a formation that can kill people... But the more complex this formation is, the more impossible it is to be perfect. As long as we can find the core of the formation, we can break it... And the core of the formation in the Ancient Bronze City ruins is on the central tower in the core control area." Ke Lan said, "If we retreat now, then the hundreds of thousands of field troops that entered the ruins will really be wasted. With so many manpower lost, the gap in strength between the Ark and the heretical sects will only become more and more obvious."
"When the nest is overturned, no eggs can remain intact." Ivan said softly.
"Can we capture the core control area that hundreds of thousands of people couldn't capture with a few more of us?" Layton said with a bitter face, "I admit that in this team, except for me, you are all great people, each one is stronger than the other, but no matter how strong a person is, there is a limit... Can we accomplish what hundreds of thousands of people couldn't accomplish?"
"What we need is not power, but a key." Ke Lan looked around at the team members, paused, and then said in a deep voice, "I am the key."
