Volume 15 Gray Fog Forest Chapter 794: Squares, Towers, and Inscriptions on Floor Tiles
"When have you been here? In a dream?" Thirty-three couldn't help but complain.
Not only Sanshisan, but even Ke Lan herself who said this was stunned.
He said this almost subconsciously without even thinking it through.
The key point is that Ke Lan's brain did not question the rationality of this sentence. Instead, it was Sanshisan's complaints that made Ke Lan realize the problem.
Have I been to...this place...?
Or rather, in my mind... there is a memory of having been to this place?
If those memory fragments sealed deep in his mind contained content related to the Gray Mist Forest, then why had they not been unlocked since he entered the forest?
Is it because the corresponding activation conditions have not been triggered? Or... the memory fragments related to the Gray Mist Forest have been "sealed" more tightly and cannot be unlocked by activating memory fragments in the past?
"Maybe I'm really dreaming." Ke Lan laughed, stepped on the accelerator to the bottom, and turned the steering wheel to the side.
If this action was performed while driving on flat ground, it would be a standard "Initial D-style" drift, but the problem is that now this "Lynx X6" is in a suspended state.
If this was just an ordinary car, then turning the steering wheel or stepping on the accelerator would not have any effect on the car's moving trajectory when it was suspended in the air. But the problem is that this is a military all-terrain assault vehicle equipped with a jet vector thruster.
The result of the two "buts" combined was that the "Lynx X6" completed a 720-degree turn in the air, throwing the entire car forward fiercely, and smashed heavily on the place less than three meters away from the running corpse with the momentum of a tiger descending from the mountain.
The shock wave when it landed directly splashed the earth and rocks into the air more than ten meters high, and then fell all over Thirty-three's face and body.
As for Ke Lan and Ze Luo, they were protected by the space barrier. Not only were they not covered with gravel and dirt, they were not even spinning or falling to the ground.
"Ahem... Ke Lan... you kid..." Sanshisan, who was almost thrown out, shouted, "Isn't there some personal grudge involved?"
"No, I've wanted to try this for a long time, but I never had the chance." Ke Lan said calmly, "If I did this on the Ark, I'd probably have my driver's license revoked in a matter of minutes."
"Nonsense! With your authority, who dares to revoke your driver's license?" Thirty-three cursed angrily and amusedly, "Even if you can't reveal your true identity to ordinary people, why don't you just show me a driver's license stamped by the Field Corps or the Security Bureau? I guess those guys in the Traffic Control Bureau won't dare to say a word after seeing it!"
"Okay, I'm not kidding you anymore." Ke Lan glanced at the milestone that had just been reset before starting the car. The reading on it showed that they had chased for nearly ten kilometers in just a few minutes - if Erosion's escape route was a straight line, then the core area of the Gray Mist Forest should be not far ahead.
"By the way, this guy shouldn't be playing tricks on us, right? At least I didn't feel it turning a few times..." Thirty-three said, squinting his eyes and staring at the Erosion Corpse that was running like a wild beast in front of him.
"There were only a few small changes in direction, but the overall movement path was basically a straight line." Ze Luo, floating on the roof of the assault vehicle like a ghost, said, "Of course, the premise is that the forest does not disrupt my perception."
"It's hard to say. This damn place can even interfere with the running of a mechanical watch. I find it hard to believe what I see." Thirty-three pursed his lips and said, "Even the numbers on this odometer, I think there's something wrong."
"This is the most troublesome part of the Gray Mist Forest," Ke Lan continued. "Once you've been fooled, it's easy to be paranoid... Being cautious isn't a bad thing, but being overly cautious can easily lead to missing out on many fleeting opportunities. Also, maintaining a state of high mental tension for a long time can be horrifically taxing on a person."
"It would be better if you didn't say it. Now that you say it, I really feel a bit of a headache." Sanshisan held the bicycle frame with the elbow of one arm, and rubbed his temples with the other free hand, rubbing his hair and face, and sweeping off the remaining sand and gravel on his head.
The farther away from the crash site of the "Shaojiang Modified" frigate, the flatter the ground is - but this does not mean that the road conditions have improved. On the contrary, due to the increased density of fog trees, there are more and more places where Ke Lan needs to brake, slow down and make sharp turns, and the overall movement speed has actually slowed down compared to the previous "leap forward".
But Eclipse seemed to be completely unaffected by the terrain, and its speed did not slow down at all. If Ze Luo had not frequently restricted it, Eclipse would have probably left Ke Lan and the others behind long ago.
"This place...is not easy to open." said Thirty-Three.
However, for him, the occasional sudden braking and sharp turns were much more comfortable than the previous bouncing way of moving forward. At least they were all moving on a horizontal plane, and he only needed to withstand the lateral pulling force.
"Do you feel that the fog trees in this area have become thicker?" Ke Lan asked.
"To be honest... I can't really tell." Sanshisan replied a little embarrassedly.
Instead, Ze Luo immediately gave the answer: "Compared to the fog trees at the crash site of the Shaojiang Kai frigate, the average diameter of the fog trees in this area has increased by 6.57 percent."
Just as he finished speaking, the two fog trees that the assault vehicle had just passed by broke silently into two pieces. The upper half of the trunk slid directly down from the mirror-smooth oblique surface and made a loud bang until it fell to the ground.
"The wood density of the Mist Tree has increased by 0.97 percent." Ze Luo said again.
"At least the general direction is correct." Ke Lan nodded, "We are indeed heading deeper into the forest."
Not long after Ke Lan finished saying this, the assault vehicle, under the "leadership" of Erosion, suddenly turned a sharp bend of nearly 90 degrees, and the view ahead suddenly became clear.
Ke Lan couldn't remember how long it had been since he had seen such a wide view. At least after entering the Gray Mist Forest, except for the time when he jumped into the air to fight on the Blasphemer mecha, the limit of his vision had never exceeded 300 meters throughout the entire process.
And right in front of them, the gray fog that was originally so thick that it seemed to be substantial was actually pushed away - what disappeared was not only the thick fog, but also the trunks and supporting roots of the fog-dwelling trees that were everywhere in the gray fog forest.
This is a circular square with a diameter of tens of kilometers. There seems to be a barrier similar to a space barrier at the edge of the square, which prevents the thick fog from spreading into this area. All the fog can only extend upwards, forming a cylindrical "fog cylinder" with a height of more than 10,000 meters.
The ground on the square was not bare soil and stone, but a layer of flat stone bricks. On each brick was densely packed prayers written in the language of the Alpha civilization. Ke Lan only glanced at it and immediately heard bursts of strange chanting in his ears, accompanied by a bloating and pain that seemed to be splitting his head.
"Be careful! Don't look at the words carved on the floor!" Ke Lan warned immediately.
He raised his head and moved his eyes away from the prayers. The chanting sound and the splitting headache disappeared instantly, as if everything that had just happened was just an illusion.
"Damn... Is this what's hidden in the core of the forest? That guy mentioned... 'Nest'?" Thirty-three didn't look at the Alpha words on the floor. He looked up and muttered.
In the center of the square, there is a tower that reaches the sky.
The diameter of the tower is several kilometers, and its height extends to a place that is beyond the reach of Ke Lan and his companions... Compared with the core tower that originally appeared in the ruins of the ancient bronze city, this tower is far superior to that "little thing" that is only two kilometers high in terms of size and momentum.
The entire tower is made of a black material that looks like gold but is not gold, and like stone but is not stone. It has no doors, windows, or any gaps. The diameter of the base of the tower and the highest point that can be seen by the naked eye are almost the same. The surface is smooth, and there is no "decoration" such as any words or totems.
"It seems that this should be the core area of the Gray Fog Forest." Ke Lan said, "This cylindrical 'fog tube' should be the Fog Mountain that people see outside... But I didn't expect that the interior of the Fog Mountain is hollow and there is such a building hidden inside."
"It feels like the eye of a storm, but the center is calm..." Thirty-three took over the conversation, "Everyone thought that the interior of the Fog Mountain was the thickest fog in the entire forest, but who would have thought that this place is so clean that there is not even a trace of fog."
On the other side, Ze Luo had already captured the "leading the way" Shi Hai, but during her capture, the other party did not put up any resistance.
After entering the "eye of the storm", Erosion seemed to become timid, with all four limbs curled up in front of him and trembling constantly.
"He... seems to be afraid of something? Is he afraid of this tall tower?" Thirty-Three frowned and asked in confusion.
"Hey, what's wrong with you?" Ke Lan squatted down and patted Shi Hai's shoulder.
The other party did not attack him, nor did he respond to Ke Lan's questions and actions... It was a pity that Shi Hai's eyes had long been cloudy and it was impossible to distinguish the white from the black, otherwise Ke Lan could at least read some information from the other party's eyes.
"Judging from his current behavior, he should be afraid..." Ke Lan stood up, holding his chin with his hand and thinking, "But the problem is that this kind of action is only shown by humans when they are afraid. I'm not sure if curling up and trembling can be considered as a sign of fear for Shi Hai."
"I think you're overthinking it. Regardless of whether it's the Eclipse Corpse or something else, at least he was once a human, right? I think it's normal for him to have this instinct." Sanshisan said, "I think the first thing we need to figure out is what he's afraid of."
After saying that, Sanshisan turned his head and looked at the tall black tower standing in the center of the square. The meaning in his eyes was obvious.
"Zeluo, untie him." Ke Lan said.
The spatial force that imprisoned Erosion suddenly disappeared, but Erosion did not get up from the ground. Instead, he turned over, facing the direction of the black tower, and knelt on the ground.
"Is this... kneeling down to worship that tower?" Thirty-Three scratched the back of his head and guessed.
Ke Lan did not say anything, but tried to push Erosion towards the black tower, but was met with resistance from the other party - Erosion was only pushed forward less than five centimeters by Ke Lan, but he retreated several meters on his own and retreated to the edge of the square.
Ke Lan stopped Ze Luo from using the power of space to catch Xie Hai back, shook his head, and said, "Don't touch him yet, let's see how he reacts later."
I saw Eshihai slowly retreating to the stone slab at the edge of the square. Behind him was a thick fog like a wall. Just when Sanshisan thought that Eshihai would turn around and escape into the fog in the next second, Eshihai actually bent down and put his cheek against the inscriptions of the prayer words.
Thirty-three, who had been following Eclipse's movements, inevitably noticed the Alpha characters - even though he could not understand the meaning of these "ghostly symbols", when his eyes came into direct contact with the inscriptions, the intense pain that made him want to be relieved by death suddenly surged up!
Thirty-three was caught off guard and immediately held his head and let out a shrill scream. He staggered and fell to the ground like Erosion.
"Thirty-three! Close your eyes!" Ke Lan shouted, "Don't look directly at those inscriptions!"
But Sanshisan didn't seem to hear what Ke Lan said. Although his head was aching excruciatingly, his sight seemed to be "stuck" to the inscriptions on the floor tiles and he couldn't move it away at all.
"Zeluo, cover his eyes!" Ke Lan shouted again.
The moment the vision was blocked, the horrible pain disappeared immediately.
Thirty-three knelt on the ground, breathing heavily, his chest heaving violently... He took a full half minute to catch his breath, and asked with lingering fear: "What on earth are these words on the ground? Why did my head feel like it was going to explode after just one look... The key is that I wanted to look away, but my eyes didn't obey me at all... This is too weird!"
"I didn't see much, but it was basically a prayer to the great god... This kind of prayer can be found in many relics of the Alpha civilization, and the style and wording are almost all from the same template." Ke Lan said, "By the way, when you had a headache just now, did you hear someone chanting something in your ear?"
Thirty-three shook his head: "No."
