Volume 15 Gray Fog Forest Chapter 793: Tracking the Eclipse Corpse
"We are still running out of time." Ke Lan nodded to Thirty-Three, "The connection between Shaojiang Reform and the forest should have been restored by now."
"I feel like we are being led by the nose by this forest... This feeling is too uncomfortable." Thirty-three frowned and said, "If this continues, we will always be one step behind it."
But despite their complaints, the three of them had no choice but to rush to the crash site of the "Shaojiang modified" frigate. Unfortunately, when they arrived, the AI host of the "Shaojiang modified" frigate had already been destroyed by Wu Teng.
Without AI assistance, even if the rest of the functions of the battleship were intact, they would not be able to start it... Even if they could barely start the main engine, it would be impossible to coordinate the balance between the tens of thousands of control devices on the entire battleship by manual operation alone.
This is different from driving a car. To drive a car, you only need to take care of the steering wheel, brakes and accelerator. A manual transmission car can at most add a clutch. But a big thing like a battleship is too complex and must be operated fully intelligently... Once the intelligent program crashes, it means the failure of the entire operating system.
It is also for this reason that in this era of highly developed intelligent control technology, the proportion of fully autonomous vehicles on the Ark still does not exceed 50%...not only due to considerations of the vehicle's operating feel, but more because car buyers do not trust the fully autonomous driving system.
This is a shortcut, but when something goes wrong with this shortcut, the person who chooses the shortcut may have to spend many times more time and energy than the person who takes the main road to reach the destination.
It’s good enough to be able to reach the end... Some people may be trapped forever on this "shortcut" that can no longer be called a shortcut.
"Let's see if we can fly the fighter jet in the hangar?" Thirty-three suggested. "That thing is fully manually operated, so it should be fine."
But Ke Lan shook his head: "We can fly a fighter jet, but the structure of the fighter jet itself is too fragile... Flying in the canopy is almost tantamount to suicide. Moreover, the target of the fighter jet is too small to be noticed by Valentina or others. Even if we pass by them, we may miss each other."
Thirty-three couldn't help but fall into silence.
The reason why Ke Lan decided to look for other people who were lost in the forest at the beginning was because the battleship itself was large enough and conspicuous enough that it could create a large-scale movement even in thick fog.
This is like looking for a needle in a haystack. There is a big difference between looking for it by hand and using a high-power electromagnet.
"You're right. We can't let this forest lead us by the nose anymore. We'll always be one step behind it." Ke Lan said, "Let's abandon our original plan and head directly to the core area."
"Ah." Thirty-three sighed, "That's what you said... but how do you find the direction to the core area of the forest? There's thick fog everywhere outside. As long as we leave the blank area created by Ze Luo, we can't even tell the directions of east, south, west and north... Did you find any clues in the central control computer of the 'Shaojiang Modified'?"
"No." Ke Lan still shook his head. "Hruni was worried that the later generations would be contaminated by the 'forbidden knowledge', so he deleted all the data related to key information... Only some unimportant things were left. Although we can guess some of what happened to them by piecing together, there is no information about the core area of the forest."
But even so, Mo Jue was still corrupted, which shows how dangerous the information was.
"I guess just hearing a few words about the place is enough to turn anyone into a monster...but we have to go to that place anyway. It's like an old man hanging himself - he's tired of living." Thirty-three complained.
"We only know a little bit of information about the core area of the forest... or rather, two words: 'Nest City'. We got this from the mouth of the eroded corpse you met," Ke Lan said.
"Hmm... if we analyze it literally... the meaning of 'hive' is... a nest? A city? Is there a monster's nest in the Gray Mist Forest? Or is it a city made up of a large number of nests? But no matter how I explain it, it feels like something is wrong." Sanshisan muttered.
"Is there a possibility that this word comes from the language of the Alpha civilization?" Ke Lan proposed a hypothesis. "Because the Eclipse Corpse used Chinese when communicating with us, not the Alpha language, the 'Nest City' he mentioned is probably a 'foreign word' converted from the original meaning of the Alpha language, rather than a literal translation, and it may not even be a free translation."
"Then you can speak the language of the Alpha civilization, right? What does the word 'hive' mean in their language?" Thirty-Three asked immediately.
"Nest...city..." Ke Lan tried to translate the Chinese word into the pronunciation of the Alpha civilization and read it again, but no corresponding memory fragments emerged in his mind.
Ke Lan shook her head and said, "The language of the Alpha civilization does have a corresponding combination of characters and syllables...but I simply cannot understand the meaning of this word."
"How could this be? Isn't it said that the language of the Alpha civilization can be used for direct communication at the level of consciousness? If you can read this word, how can you not understand its meaning?" Thirty-Three asked puzzled.
"How should I put it... It's like the name of a city in China in the old era. A foreigner who is proficient in Chinese but has never been to China, after coming into contact with the name of this city, he can understand every word in the name and read it with standard pronunciation, but if you don't tell him that this name represents a city, then he will be completely unaware of the meaning behind these characters. Although the language logic of the Alpha civilization is very different from that of human language, they are consistent in this point - 'Nest City', this is a noun that refers to a specific thing, but before I saw this thing with my own eyes, I was completely in the dark and it was impossible to obtain more information from this noun itself." Ke Lan explained helplessly.
"Let's not talk about this for now. You should think about how to get to the core area of the forest." Thirty-three said.
At this time, the three of them had walked out of the wreckage of the "Shaojiang Modified" frigate and came to the open space outside. However, in the place that was not separated by the space barrier, all they could see was thick gray fog that was as thick as a substance, like an ocean filled with gray ink.
"Find someone to lead the way." Ke Lan said.
"Looking for someone...who?" Sanshisan was stunned for a moment, then looked at the single lifeboat standing next to Ke Lan, and couldn't help but open his mouth slightly, "The person leading the way you mentioned...could it be...this guy?"
"Yes, that's right." Ke Lan pushed open the door of the lifeboat, carried out the corpse that was still bound by the space barrier, and put it on the ground. "Think about it, if he regains the ability to move freely now, where will he escape to?"
"'Genoa'? No, that's not right. The wreckage of that battleship can't stop you and Ze Luo at all. Besides, his 'companions' in the bridge have all been killed by Mo Jue... As for other places in the forest, they can't provide him with shelter either. So, there is only one place..." Sanshisan's eyes lit up, and his tone became a little excited, "The core area of the Gray Mist Forest! There is a high probability that he will run in this direction!"
"His primary goal is very clear, which is to keep us here forever. However, he obviously cannot do this by himself. Then, leading us to the core area of the Gray Mist Forest is the only way to achieve this goal. Therefore, even if he knows that we let him go in order to use him as a guide, he will still take us to the core area - to the most dangerous place in the entire forest - this is an open conspiracy." Ke Lan turned to Ze Luo and said, "Let him go."
The spatial force that had suppressed Erosion Hai and made him unable to move suddenly disappeared. Erosion Hai, who was originally lying on the ground, suddenly jumped up and ran wildly in one direction on all fours.
"Get in the car and chase him." Ke Lan said.
Thirty-three finally understood why Ke Lan dragged a "Lynx X6" all-terrain assault vehicle from the vehicle warehouse when he got off the "Shaojiang Modified" frigate. This all-terrain assault vehicle was originally equipped for the marines on the ship, but during the entire combat process, the marines had no chance to take the field except for combat within the ship, so this vehicle could only be sealed in the vehicle warehouse and gathered dust.
"Luckily this thing that has been parked for more than ten years can still be started..." Thirty-three jumped onto the back seat of the assault vehicle and reached out to grab the steel frame on the roof.
"It had been scrapped a long time ago, but Ze Luo repaired it... Removing rust, cleaning dust, and replacing aging parts would take us several hours, but for her, it was just a matter of minutes." Ke Lan, who was sitting in the driver's seat, said without looking back. He stepped on the accelerator, and the all-terrain assault vehicle immediately jumped out from its original position, chasing closely behind the Erosion Hai.
"This girl's ability is really abnormal." Sanshisan couldn't help but sigh. Although his ability to manipulate Nino alloy was somewhat similar, he had no way to deal with things that were not made of Nino alloy. The difference in restrictions was more than just a little bit.
"Hold on tight, this road is not easy to drive on." Ke Lan said.
This area is right next to the site where the "Shaojiang modified" frigate crashed for the second time. The entire ground looks like it has been plowed and turned over. The time that all four wheels of this assault vehicle are in contact with the ground at the same time is very short. It would be more accurate to say that it is jumping on the ground rather than driving on the ground.
No wonder many games with this type of vehicle call it a "bounce car"...
Fortunately, the "Lynx X6" all-terrain assault vehicle has excellent shock absorption performance. Not only is the suspension system equipped with long-distance shock-absorbing springs, but it also uses a magnetic levitation cockpit that is rarely seen on ground vehicles. With Ze Luo's assistance, Ke Lan's experience sitting in the driver's seat is no different from driving Miss Soma's luxury air-cushion car on a flat road. But Sanshisan, who was lying on the back seat, felt a little uncomfortable. Although he was not shaken to death, his pale face showed how he felt at the moment.
Sanshisan also understood that Ke Lan's words "hold on tight" were only directed at him... As for Ze Luo, this "floating" girl above the roof of the car, with her feet always maintaining a ten-centimeter distance from the car frame, would definitely not feel any bumps.
Ze Luo's spatial power was also applied to Sanshisan, but most of her power was used to isolate the fog and track the Erosion Corpse. The remaining power was used to stabilize herself and Ke Lan's bodies. As for the power left for Sanshisan... it was really pitiful.
It could just barely prevent Sanshisan from dumping out the compressed dry food he had eaten not long ago.
The "Lynx" series of all-terrain assault vehicles are still in service in the Ark Field Corps. Although the latest model has been released, the "X6" can still be seen in many rapid reaction force camps . Except for the relatively weak armor, this vehicle has almost no shortcomings. Whether it is passability, speed or structural stability, it can meet the needs of the field corps' daily tasks. On such a bad road, Ke Lan can drive this car to more than 120 mph, and it seems that there is still potential for further acceleration.
The top of the giant tire, with a diameter of 1.2 meters, is even higher than the roof of the cockpit. The four tires are now like four springs, supporting the entire vehicle as it jumps forward on the cracked ground.
But the crawling speed of the highly reinforced Erosion Corpse was far more than 120 yards per hour. He almost crawled into the thick fog several times. It was only because Ze Luo used the power of space to temporarily restrict his movements that Ke Lan did not lose sight of his target.
"This direction... um... really... really... leads to the core area of the forest...?" Thirty-three, who was lying on the back seat, said with great difficulty. When he said the word "core area", the all-terrain assault vehicle fell heavily to the ground, and he almost bit off the tip of his tongue.
"I'm not sure, I can only give it a try." Ke Lan said, "But if this path is wrong, I think my subconscious mind should remind me."
"Subconscious? You...you...have never been to the Gray Mist Forest. How can your subconscious...know whether this path is right...or wrong? Ouch!" Thirty-three's tongue was ultimately doomed.
"Maybe he has been here." Ke Lan whispered.
