Volume 13 Ancient Bronze City Ruins Chapter 632: Swamp of Desire
There is air with sufficient oxygen, normal gravity, and suitable temperature. There is no lethal radiation, and there is water that is so pure that it can almost be drunk directly. Such a "good place" is very rare, not to mention within the ruins of Alpha Civilization, even if the scope is expanded to the entire Alpha Planet...
Or rather, it doesn't exist at all.
There is no way such a water source could exist on Alpha.
The most purified natural water source that can be found in the wilderness can only barely meet the standards of industrial grade IV water - the purification standards for industrial water and drinking water are two completely different concepts. Judging from the standards of drinking water, industrial water with grade IV purification level does not even reach the lowest grade I water threshold.
To put it in more understandable terms, even if you use this kind of water to wash a mop, you might find it dirty.
Even exiles who are struggling in the wilderness will not directly drink natural water sources found in the wild unless in extreme circumstances - in any case, some necessary filtration and purification processes are absolutely indispensable... You know, in the wilderness where there is a lack of antibiotics and various electrolyte supplements, minor illnesses like diarrhea can be fatal.
The water that Ke Lan was stepping on was so clear that it seemed as if it had just been released from the most advanced purification pump in the water treatment plant.
Could this water be the Alpha civilization’s reserve drinking water?
Although humans have not yet found the remains or body tissue samples of the Alphas, one thing is certain - they are carbon-based creatures like humans.
One of the biggest commonalities among carbon-based organisms is that they must have water to survive.
…
But when Ke Lan took the 170th step, he suddenly realized that this world... was most likely an imaginary world that existed only in his imagination.
Because the bracelet he placed at the bottom of the pool suddenly disappeared, the next moment, Ke Lan felt as if there was something extra on his left wrist.
He didn't need to look down to know that the smart bracelet was back on his wrist.
He glanced at the time on the screen. It was now 16:55:29 in the evening... and when he took off the bracelet and put it on the ground, the time displayed on the bracelet was 16:56:41.
The timeline of this world seemed to be reset back to the moment he just came in.
It was a pity that there was nothing in the surrounding environment that could be used as a reference, and Ke Lan had no way of knowing whether he had returned to the starting point.
"Is this a dream?"
He couldn't help but think of the "giant octopus" under the bottomless cenote that could only make people fall into multiple dreams.
Ke Lan subconsciously reached out and touched the top of his head.
In order to simulate dreams to such a realistic degree and make people unable to escape from them, it is necessary to establish a "direct connection" with the human nervous system in a physical sense. The method used by the giant octopus to control them is to pierce countless tiny fleshy tentacles into the scalp, penetrate the skull, and directly connect with their cerebral cortex...
But the problem is that there is a "living armor" living in Ke Lan's body. This thing is equivalent to the anti-virus software installed in the computer. If any foreign object from the outside tries to invade Ke Lan's body, the living armor will immediately attack it. Its reaction speed is even faster than Ke Lan's own immune system.
(Of course, the premise is not to confuse the concept of antivirus with those so-called "free antivirus software" or "XX computer manager" and other rogue software.)
An old saying can be used to sum it up well - "There is no room for two tigers in one mountain". If the plot in the bottomless tiankeng happened again, I am afraid that those tentacles would have been strangled and swallowed by the living armor as soon as they penetrated Ke Lan's scalp...
Ke Lan looked around and then at his own hands. He decided to do an experiment.
He pulled out the dagger he carried with him and cut his wrist hard - since this space has a reset ability like "reloading the file", he wanted to see if the wound on his wrist would heal accordingly.
However, the next scene made Ke Lan couldn't help but reveal an awkward smile - the wound healed as soon as the blade left it, not only leaving no scar, but even no blood flowed out.
He even deliberately cut a nearly three centimeters deep cut, but now there is not even a mark left. The skin on his wrist is smooth and white, and the skin quality is so good that it does not seem like the body of a relic hunter.
Since merging with the living armor, Ke Lan's own body recovery ability has reached an almost abnormal level. Fortunately, the undead crew has awarded him a series of privileges, otherwise the routine physical examination every time he enters and leaves the Ark would be enough to cause a small-scale riot.
It can even be said that if Ke Lan was not beheaded or had a pierced heart, he could recover from any injury in a very short time - even if he was cut into human sticks, it would not take half a day for the lost limbs to grow back from the broken ends.
Ke Lan knew very well that compared with the modified humans of the heretical sects who were parasitized by the seeds of erosion... he was actually more worthy of the title of "monster".
"Alas, there is nothing I can do."
Ke Lan sighed, gritted his teeth, and pierced his forearm with the dagger. The sharp tip of the knife immediately came out from the other end of his arm.
He did not pull out the dagger, but left it stuck in the wound to prevent it from healing automatically, and then began to count the seconds in his mind.
When he counted to four hundred and fifty seconds, a fleeting sense of trance appeared in his consciousness, and then the piercing pain in his arm disappeared, and the dagger returned to the scabbard tied to his leg.
The pain just now was like an illusion, as if nothing had ever happened.
"Reset every four hundred and fifty seconds." Ke Lan muttered to himself. He took a deep breath and then rushed at full speed in one direction.
Seven and a half minutes later, when the familiar feeling of trance reappeared, Ke Lan still did not see anything new except the water surface and the chaotic sky.
Even if there is a boundary in this space, at his speed, he will not be able to reach that place before the "timeline" is reset.
The only good news is that the reset function of this space will not reset his memory.
But that's all.
I think the others who entered the tower should be trapped in a similar space like me - although in this space that resets every seven and a half minutes, the trapped people can obtain the "eternal life" that many people dream of. But in such a chaotic space with nothing but water, the so-called eternal life is actually a very horrible torture.
You can't go anywhere, you can't do anything, the only thing you can do is wander on this endless water surface. Every seven and a half minutes, everything except your memory will be reset... It's creepy just to think about it.
The memory will not be reset, which has become the most inhumane setting in this "cage"... The only outcome for people trapped inside, apart from death, is to go completely crazy.
Even the most determined person will gradually lose his mind in this almost eternal torture.
Suicide may be a way to get rid of the problem, but it also faces two problems: First, after the trapped person dies, will he be resurrected with the "timeline reset" after seven and a half minutes? Second, if this space is an illusion created in human consciousness, then if he dies in the illusion, will the person outside the illusion also die?
It cannot be ruled out that "death" may be the only way to break the deadlock, but without trying all the means, Ke Lan will not choose "death".
“I can only try them one by one.”
Ke Lan counted silently in his mind, and when he counted to the 448th second, he decisively pierced his wrist with the dagger again, and then at the 449th second, he activated the "time stop".
Everything around him froze instantly. Even the light escaping from the chaotic sky was pulled into a halo of mist. Ke Lan silently chanted in his heart: "One second... two seconds... three seconds..."
That feeling of trance did not appear, the wound on his arm did not heal, and the dagger inserted in the wound did not return to the scabbard.
But in the next second when Ke Lan ended the pause state, a trance so subtle that it was difficult for ordinary people to detect came as expected - the wound healed, the dagger returned to the sheath, and everything returned to the starting point.
If we don't count the few seconds in the time-stop state, it would be exactly 450 seconds.
"The ability to stop time cannot interfere with the rules of this world... Although from my perspective it can indeed delay the arrival of the reset node, at normal flow rate, it still resets every 450 seconds..."
"Plan A is on hold for now, and Plan B will be implemented first."
Above Ke Lan's head was a chaotic sky without stars, and around him were unknown boundaries that could never be reached. The only thing he could touch was the bottom of the pool where he could stand firmly on solid ground.
If the clue to breaking the deadlock is hidden in this space, ground exploration will obviously be the top priority.
With a thought, the living armor immediately covered Ke Lan's right hand.
"Let me think... the general structure of that thing should be..."
Gradually, the living armor formed a cylindrical device at the front end of Ke Lan's arm... As the details of the device were gradually improved, the front end parts began to rotate, and hundreds of cutter wheels made neat and dense whistling sounds on the cutter disc - he actually simulated a mini "shield machine" based on the image in his memory.
A tunnel boring machine is a large machine used to dig tunnels. The drill bit carried on the "Super Drilling Hamster" previously equipped by the Mole Squad is a type of engineering machinery designed by combining the features of a drilling drill bit and a tunnel boring machine.
However, when this "mini tunnel boring machine" was formed, the seven and a half minute reset time was about to arrive. Ke Lan simply retracted the living armor into his body and silently waited for the reset to come.
When he restored the mini shield machine for the second time, the time used was directly compressed to five seconds. When the hundreds of cutter wheels started to turn, he did not hesitate to press the cutter head of the shield machine vertically onto the bottom of the pool.
Suddenly, water splashed everywhere.
The bottom of the pool is made of a black glassy mineral similar to obsidian, which is not very hard. Along with a large amount of debris spit out from the tail of the shield machine, the front end of the shield machine has drilled to a depth of nearly half a meter in the blink of an eye.
At this rate, Ke Lan could dig down to a depth of at least 100 meters before the next reset.
The surrounding water continuously poured into the vertical shaft. Although it had a certain impact on Ke Lan's excavation work, it at least solved the problem that the shield machine needed fluid as a medium when discharging debris.
The slurry mixture piled up more and more, gradually covering Ke Lan's head. Ke Lan simply used the remaining living armor to prop up a solid protective shield, completely wrapping himself in it - he was not worried about digging too deep and being buried alive by the mixture. After all, as long as seven and a half minutes were up, everything would be reset to the starting point.
Just as Ke Lan expected, not long after, he returned to the surface of the pool from nearly a hundred meters underground, and the deep vertical shaft had completely disappeared.
Naturally, there was no gain from this attempt.
"Huh..." Ke Lan let out a long sigh of frustration and rubbed his cheeks hard, but at this moment, a white light suddenly appeared in front of him.
This sudden change immediately cheered up Ke Lan, but he did not relax his vigilance - the living armor was summoned out in an instant, condensing into a giant shield with an observation window and a spear more than two meters long.
Through the observation window on the shield, Ke Lan discovered that the light source was about fifty meters in front of him. He took a deep breath and moved closer step by step with a huge shield in hand, like a heavy infantryman from the old Roman era.
In the white light were clear yellow metal bars - of course Ke Lan knew what these were. "Gold bars" were synonymous with "wealth" in the old era, the ultimate hard currency that surpassed all other currencies. Even in this era, precious metals like gold, as important and scarce industrial materials, still had extremely high circulation value.
"Why are there gold bars here..." Ke Lan was full of doubts, but soon his doubts turned into astonishment.
The gold bar disappeared, and a body with graceful curves appeared in the white light. Although the face of the owner of this body was hidden in the white light and could not be seen clearly, Ke Lan still recognized her identity.
