Volume 16 Tower of Babel Chapter 828 Destination Coordinates: Zhonghai
"It's called the 'Nuclear Disposal Beacon.'" The Hound continued, "Before, the Undead Crew asked Ke Lan to always carry this thing with him, but after Ke Lan became a formal member of the Undead Crew, he stopped following this requirement. It is said to be related to that 'Great God'."
The Hound looked at the flashing nuclear beacon with some fear and continued, "I always feel that anything related to that 'great god'...can't be a good thing."
"Let's not talk about whether this thing is a good thing or not. It's flashing non-stop. What does it mean?" Zhuo Ligetu muttered.
"Why don't we throw it away... The people from the Undead Crew asked Ke Lan to carry this thing with her, so they definitely had bad intentions!" Layton suggested.
"I think so too." Zhuoligetu nodded in agreement. "It's hard not to be wary of the name beacon. This thing is either used to locate coordinates, or it is a trigger terminal for some kind of transmission device... According to my understanding of beacons, there are roughly only these two explanations. No matter which one it is, for us now, the disadvantages outweigh the advantages."
Although Zhuo Ligetu has well-developed muscles and a relatively honest personality, and looks like the kind of person who can solve problems with brute force without using his brain, he is actually a man with a rough but delicate mind... Otherwise, he would never be able to become a senior elite hunter relying solely on brute force.
"You mean, this thing will send my real-time location coordinates to the Undead Crew, just like the GPS on Earth in the old era?" The Hound frowned, "But the problem is, a creature as big as Yaguna Kator can't hide its whereabouts... As for the transmission device, can such a small piece of stone really transmit an entire army?"
The Hound paused, then continued, " What this thing is exactly what the undead crew wants? They are just waiting for us to throw it overboard. What should we do?"
"How is that possible?" Layton wondered, "If the undead crew wanted this thing, why didn't they just take it away in the first place, but gave it to Ke Lan for safekeeping, and even emphasized that he should carry it with him?"
"Are you stupid? Can't you use reverse thinking?" The Hound rolled his eyes at Layton and said, "The more the undead crew members show that they value this thing, the more Ke Lan will pay attention to its secrets... But if their attitude is completely reversed and they treat it like a worn-out shoe, Ke Lan will not only not value this nuclear beacon, but will treat it as a hot potato..."
“Why do I feel like you’re forcing an explanation, old dog?” Layton grinned, with a look of disbelief on his face. “At that time, Ke Lan was just a worker working hard for the Undead Crew. There was no need for them to be so afraid of Ke Lan. This approach is meaningless… It’s just like taking off your pants to fart. No, to be precise, you took off your pants to fart, but ended up pulling your pants up before the fart came out. If they really wanted this thing, why didn’t they just let Ke Lan hand it over? Ke Lan didn’t want to keep it at that time, did he?”
After hearing what Layton said, the hound's face suddenly turned red, but with his thick skin, his expression immediately returned to normal: "Stop talking nonsense here. According to you, should we throw this stone down now?"
"To be on the safe side, I think it's better to destroy it completely." Layton said, "Although the evacuation was rather hasty, in order to fill the gap in the long-range weapons of the Aguna Kator, I dismantled two heavy cruiser-class main gun plasma cannons from the battleships of the Zero Fleet. I think that can evaporate the stone with that thing."
"Are you sure? This is something that fell out of the black mummy." The Hound raised his eyebrows. "That guy's plasma cannon and hydrogen bomb can't do anything to it... Let's not talk about anything else. Try to use your thick and stupid mechanical arm to see if you can knock a hole in this stone."
"You asked me to try this." Layton raised his mechanical arm. "Let me try it."
The palm at the end of his mechanical arm retracted into the inside of his forearm, and was replaced by a drill made of pure Nino alloy. With a "buzzing" sound, the black drill began to spin rapidly.
Two auxiliary robotic arms separated from the main arm, clamped the still flashing "waste nuclear beacon" with pliers, and fixed it firmly on a horizontal plane. Then, Layton slowly moved the Nino alloy drill bit up.
“Sizzle—sizzle—click—”
A teeth-grinding sound instantly filled the entire command room, and Hound and others immediately covered their ears - the energy shield can block flying sparks and debris, but it cannot block high-decibel noise.
When the dazzling sparks faded away, the drill on Layton's robotic arm slowly stopped.
The "nuclear waste beacon" was intact, but a circle of "shaved" grooves appeared on the Nino alloy drill bit.
"Hiss... Wow." Layton sighed in a low voice, "This thing is actually harder than Nino alloy. If this material can be replicated, even if only a small amount is replicated and used as a processing tool, it can improve the existing mechanical processing level of the Ark by several levels."
"Haha... Alpha Civilization can't even replicate Nino Alloy, and you still want to replicate this thing? I suggest you go to bed quickly, after all, dreams can bring you anything." The Hound sneered mercilessly, "Now you see, the physical strength of this thing is definitely on the same level as that of the black mummy. Even the main gun of a heavy cruiser can't destroy it."
As he spoke, the Hound sighed again: "Alas... I think we should find a way to contact Ke Lan first. In addition, we must find out whether the sudden interruption of communication has anything to do with this stone."
"I do have a suggestion." Zofia said, "Send a plane with this nuclear beacon away from Yaguna Kotor. If the communication between us and Ke Lan is restored after the nuclear beacon is far away from Yaguna Kotor, it means that the beacon is the source of interference. At the same time, we can discuss with Ke Lan how to deal with it. If the communication is not restored, we will make other plans."
"I think this method works, but we must be careful to see if the undead crew will send stealth fighters to follow us...it will be troublesome if our plane carrying the beacon is intercepted or shot down," said the Hound.
"The flying vehicles on the Yaguna Kotor are either escape airships or transport planes, and their speed is not very fast. The fastest and most flexible one is the Ye Group's spindle-shaped shuttle, which is said to be able to reach Mach 15. But that thing is just a prototype. It is not equipped with any armor or shield generators, and its defense is equivalent to zero. No matter how fast it is, it can't be faster than a laser weapon."
"Let the shuttle carry out this mission. Also, send a few armed transport planes as escort. Once encountering the enemy, the shuttle will return immediately, and the armed transport planes will be responsible for cover... Zhuo Ligetu, go contact Major General Alexander and ask him to pick out a few pilots with high enough skills and credibility. As for the specific content of the mission, just tell him that it is a patrol..." said the Hound.
"Major General Alexander won't be suspicious, right?" Zhuoligetu said worriedly, "There's no need for such a configuration for patrol missions..."
"Even if he becomes suspicious, he will cooperate with us." The Hound continued, "Before we contact Ke Lan, let's keep this matter secret from them for the time being."
"Okay, I'll go right away—"
Before Zhuo Ligetu could finish his words, the closed-circuit video phone in the command room rang.
A reserve hunter from the God Hunting Group appeared on the surveillance screen with an anxious look on his face.
The hound was not unfamiliar with this young man named Qi Xiao, and was even very familiar with him. He was the son of one of his former subordinates who had died, and he had a very good relationship with the hound. The two of them even referred to each other as uncle and nephew. As the second batch of "employees" to join the God Hunter Group, everyone's trust in him was second only to the core members of the hunting group.
"Qi Xiao, what happened?" Seeing Qi Xiao's anxious look, Hound couldn't help but have a bad premonition - the task he assigned to Qi Xiao was to guard the control console of Yagunakotor. Looking at his appearance, he was afraid that something might have happened to the console.
"Uncle Nick! The route you originally planned has been changed. Yaguna Tor is now heading in another direction!" Qi Xiao said anxiously.
The Hound hated it when people called his name, but he never said anything when the relatives of his old comrades and subordinates called his name. What's more, now was not the time to dwell on such trivial matters.
"What did you say?!" Hound and Layton looked at each other, then they rushed out the door and ran towards the control console.
…
"The route has indeed been changed, but no signs of intrusion were detected." After Layton made some operations, he shook his head at the hound, "My permissions have been locked, and I can't change the route back. The only one who can do this is..."
"It's just Ke Lan, right?" The Hound frowned.
"That's right... but he has no reason to do that. Moreover, if he can change the route through the console, he can also leave us a message in this way, even with some simple communication signals... But except for the changed route, everything in this control interface has not changed." Layton wiped the sweat from his forehead and said.
"Can you confirm the destination of our new route?" asked the Hound. "Are we heading for the Ark?"
"The target location is not marked, but at least the current flight direction is moving away from the Ark," Layton replied.
"Can we infer the destination based on the movement path?" the hound asked again.
"I'm working on it...but there are several possible outcomes, and the probability of each is about the same..."
"The destination of the new route is Zhonghai." Zofia's voice interrupted. The Hound turned around and saw that the young lady was holding the flashing nuclear beacon in her hand. A faint light curtain appeared on the surface of the beacon.
But if you look closely, you will find that this layer of light curtain is actually an imaging technology similar to holographic projection. The content of the projection is a map of a small half of Alpha Star and an irregular curve that runs across a small half of Alpha Star.
"This line..." Layton looked at the map that appeared on the beacon, then at the virtual screen of the console, and exclaimed, "The first half of this curve matches our navigation trajectory perfectly!"
"So, the route change is caused by this thing?" The hound's eyes widened. "Zhonghai... this stone wants us to go to Zhonghai?"
"Zhonghai...what's there?" Leighton was stunned at first, then turned to look at Zofia, and then his eyes met the hound's.
The first time they came into contact with Zofia Soma was above the Zhonghai Sea... At that time, Zofia was the captain of the icebreaker "Pioneer".
"Underwater city?" the three said in unison.
"After we evacuated that sea area, the underwater city ruins have been sealed off, and no ruins hunters or civilian exploration teams are allowed to enter." Zofia said, "The Security Bureau...or rather, the Undead Crew's direct forces took over the subsequent exploration operations. Even the 'Pioneer' icebreaker was transferred to other sea areas to perform some unimportant scientific research missions."
"I know that." Hound nodded. "After joining the Undead Crew, Ke Lan also checked the relevant files. In fact, those people did not continue to explore the underwater city after taking over. They just laid a large number of mines and sonar devices in that sea area... Oh, by the way, they also built an offshore floating platform not far from the minefield and left a group of people to keep an eye on that sea area. But there was no abnormal data in the report submitted by those people."
"I can't understand why this stone wants us to go to Zhonghai?" Leighton used his electronic equipment to scan the route that appeared on the abandoned nuclear beacon, and after enlarging it, he overlaid it on the 3D map model of Alpha. The end point of the route happened to be the banned sea area.
"Leighton, can you make Yaguna Tor stop?" asked the hound.
"I can't do that. I only have viewing permission but not manipulation permission...'Read-only' files cannot be edited or modified, do you understand what I mean?" Layton shrugged helplessly.
"Then the teleportation device can be used, right? If not... at least let those people go first."
"It's also locked up." Layton sighed, "Yaguna Kator has now become a mobile sky prison, and all of us have become its prisoners."
