Volume 16 Tower of Babel Chapter 846: Lantern Ball
"Great, we got in successfully." Wilson spoke before Yeager had time to ask.
He seemed to be talking to Yeger, but also seemed to be talking to himself.
He pulled out the cyborg prosthetic limb and reached out to grab the emergency escape hatch on top of the cockpit.
"Wait." Yeger stopped him quickly, "If we are still in the water, we will all die if we open the hatch!"
"If we are still in the water, I can't open this hatch." Wilson said without even looking at him, "Unless the airtightness of this cockpit has been compromised, but before that, we are dead."
Because the cockpit was severely deformed, Wilson took a lot of effort to open the emergency escape hatch, but when he pushed the door open, a bright light immediately shone in from outside.
"Is this... the light inside the pyramid?" Yeger said in astonishment. From his angle, looking out of the cabin, he could not see anything.
Wilson ignored Yeager and climbed out of the emergency escape hatch on his own.
"Hey! You haven't even put on your weapon and gas mask!" Yeger reminded quickly.
Wilson still didn't answer, not even a "no need".
Yeger suddenly felt a strong sense of uneasiness. He did not bother to follow the regulations such as "make sure the surrounding environment is safe and normal after an emergency landing in an unknown area before leaving the vehicle". He quickly unlocked the diving suit on his body, unfolded an FMG folding submachine gun, and followed Wilson out of the cockpit.
This is an extremely vast space. The height of the dome is at least one hundred and fifty meters or even more than two hundred meters. In the distance there is a high wall connected to the dome. Both the high wall and the dome appear to be a dull copper color... To be precise, it is more like the color of the oxidized paint surface of a magnificent palace-style building.
The light just seen in the cockpit came from countless light balls floating under the dome. These light balls were not connected to the dome by any cables, and Yeager did not know how the energy needed for their lighting and suspension was supplied - but considering that even human civilization has non-contact energy transmission technology, with the technological level of Alpha civilization, it should not be difficult to achieve this.
Yeager looked back again and saw the dilapidated "Zokog Kai" kneeling on the ground. The external armor had almost all fallen off, the core frame had been severely deformed, and all kinds of horrific scars were spread all over every corner of the machine. This machine was able to bring the two of them here without disintegrating in the water or being crushed into a lump of iron. Yeager felt that with this luck, he would probably win the jackpot if he bought a lottery ticket.
The two mechanical arms of "Zokog Kai" were dragged on the ground. A little further away was a pool that was level with the ground. The pool was very large, occupying almost half of the entire vast space.
Yeger only took a few steps closer to the pool when he felt a stinging pain on his exposed skin - the radiation content in the pool water was not low, and coupled with its inky black color, it was basically confirmed that the pool led directly to the central sea outside the pyramid, and he had just rushed out from the bottom of the pool in a mecha.
The boundary between the pool and the ground is a curve with a large arc. For some reason, after looking around this space where half is sea water and half is dry ground, Yeger subconsciously thought of the Tai Chi pattern used to represent "yin" and "yang" in ancient Chinese Yixue.
But the Alpha civilization should have nothing to do with those things... Yeager scratched his head and turned to look at Wilson.
I saw this tall and strong man standing not far away, with his head slightly tilted up, seeming to be lost in thought as he stared at the light ball on the dome.
"Hey, Wilson." Yeager greeted him, "You just said that after entering the underwater pyramid, you would tell me everything I want to know. Now--"
Before Yeager could finish his words, Wilson raised his hand and signaled him to be quiet.
"What do you mean? You said it yourself—"
Yeger suddenly felt a strong sense of palpitations and he subconsciously jumped back a step. The next moment, several seemingly soft rays of light hit the place where he had stood before.
Yeger's eyes widened. He wanted to ask out loud, but reason made him close his mouth tightly and swallow all his doubts.
These seemingly soft rays actually have extremely terrifying lethality. Although Yegel avoided them, the equipment bag he left on the spot was pierced by one of the rays of light - this equipment bag is made of a bulletproof fabric that is more than ten times stronger than Kevlar fiber. Even the FMG folding submachine gun in Yegel's hand for self-defense cannot penetrate it. In actual application, this equipment bag can even be raised to act as a shield... But now, it has been drilled with a hole from front to back by the soft light.
The equipment bag did not deform, move or burn. The soft light silently melted away the tough bulletproof fabric, and even the metal equipment stuffed inside could not stop it.
If this soft light shines on his body, it is estimated that his body will be pierced... Yeger's back was already wet with cold sweat, and his heart rate instantly soared to more than 170 beats per minute.
Looking along the trajectory of the soft light, the things emitting this soft light are the light balls suspended under the dome - these light balls are not only lighting devices, but also defensive weapons in this underwater ruins!
There are thousands of such light balls in this space. If Yeger is targeted at the same time, he will have no way to escape.
Why wasn't Wilson attacked?
Yeger forced himself to calm down and carefully moved one step to the left, one step, and another step.
The light ball did not attack him again.
"Are these defense devices triggered by sound?" Yeager thought to himself. He suddenly remembered that Wilson, who suddenly became mysterious and seemed to know a lot of unknown things, had not said a word since leaving the cockpit. When he asked him a question just now, the hand gesture he made was also the standard "silence" hand gesture during team combat.
In addition, he was attacked right after he finished speaking, so the sound was most likely the way these light balls were searching for enemies.
Wilson turned slightly to the side, as if he was a little surprised that Yeager dodged the attack. He pulled the corners of his mouth with a smile, then made a gesture.
The gesture means: "It is still dangerous, don't let your guard down."
"Why did this guy say this now?!" Yeger said angrily, "Did he intend to silence me with these things? Otherwise, why didn't he say a word about these things before opening the cockpit?"
Yeager suddenly had an urge to raise his gun and point it at Wilson who was not far away.
However, no matter how impulsive he was, in this completely unfamiliar place, the only person he could rely on was "Wilson", who "seemed to know this place very well".
Yeger wasn't even sure whether this "Wilson" was the fitter recruited by the God Hunter Group... With such skills and knowledge, the best place for him should be to explore those high-level ruins with Ke Lan and others, rather than staying in the engineering department to tighten screws and play with welding guns.
"Maybe... I shouldn't have listened to him just now." He muttered to himself, "I should just speed up in the direction of Yaguna Kator. Maybe I can still go back."
Yeger took a deep breath. He didn't dare to act rashly before he figured out the attack methods of these light balls. Just now, only a few light balls attacked him. Relying on the ability to sense danger honed on the battlefield, he narrowly avoided them. But if more light balls were "activated", he would inevitably have several holes in his body.
The only thing he could do now was to observe "Wilson's" actions carefully... and then imitate him and follow him.
Wilson took out a paper notepad from his shirt pocket. A pencil popped out of his cyborg prosthesis and he began to write and draw on the paper.
"What is he doing? Taking notes... sketching... or calculating?" Yeger was full of doubts, but from this angle he couldn't see what Wilson was writing or drawing on the paper. He didn't dare to ask or come closer, so he could only stand there awkwardly, waiting for Wilson's next move.
Wilson filled more than thirty palm-sized notes with writing, then closed the notepad with satisfaction and strode towards the high wall in the distance.
His steps were reckless, and the hard soles of his work boots made a clattering sound on the metal ground, which was particularly loud in this empty environment.
Yeager immediately wanted to remind him that if he made any sound he would be attacked by the light ball, but when he thought that if he opened his mouth he would have the same effect, he covered his mouth with his hand, staring at Wilson who was getting farther and farther away.
Wilson's footsteps were still loud, but no light balls attacked him.
"What's going on?" Yeger was stunned. "Could it be that my guess is wrong? These light balls don't rely on sound to lock onto their targets?"
He thought for a moment, then took out a spare magazine from his pocket and threw it away.
"Bang!" The magazine made of engineering plastic fell to the ground with a crisp sound, but again, it did not suffer any attack.
"It's not because of the sound! At least not all sounds will attract attacks!"
After figuring this out, Yeager plucked up his courage, stepped forward, and walked faster and faster, until he finally jogged all the way and caught up with Wilson.
Yeager took out a tablet from his arms, wrote a sentence on the screen with his finger, and handed it to Wilson.
"Is it only when you open your mouth and speak that you attract those attacks?"
Wilson glanced at Yeager out of the corner of his eye, nodded, then shook his head.
What does this mean ?
Yeger was a little confused.
First it’s affirmative, then negative… Does this mean “yes, but not completely”?
"Besides speaking, can you tell me what other actions will provoke an attack from the light ball?" Yeger wrote the second sentence on the tablet.
Wilson paused, took the tablet, wrote a few words quickly on it, and then handed the tablet back to Yeager.
On the screen, below Yeger's question, there was a scribbled phrase:
"Anything that would cause them to assume you're human."
Anything that would cause them to believe I was human?
Yeger stared at this sentence for a long time, but couldn't figure it out.
If these defensive devices will attack targets "identified as humans", then why don't walking or even running cause any attacks?
Apart from speaking, any action I am doing now, even including breathing, can be considered as "human" behavior, right?
This is like the automatic defense systems on the Ark. In order to identify illegal intruders, AI can completely lock onto the target through images, temperature, sound, ground pressure... and even changes in heartbeat and air flow after confirming that the other party has no authority. The search mechanism of the Alpha civilization can't be more backward than human civilization, right?
Except for not speaking, I was a completely real person. Could it be that the light bulbs couldn't recognize me?
What if the person who broke into this underwater pyramid was a mute? Wouldn’t these defensive devices be useless?
"I don't understand what it means." Yeager wrote another sentence and handed it to Wilson.
Wilson showed a hint of impatience on his face, but he still took the tablet and wrote his answer.
This time the answer is "human beings in a narrow sense".
Human beings in the narrow sense? What are humans in the narrow sense?
Yeger felt that the mess in his head was not only not untied, but became even more tangled...
While he was thinking hard, the two men had walked to a place about fifty meters away from the high wall. Wilson stopped without warning, and Yeager also stopped immediately when he saw this.
Before he figured out how to "fool" the defense, his best option was to follow suit and do exactly what Wilson did.
Wilson squatted down, unscrewed the cyborg prosthesis with his other hand, then stood upright on the ground and began to back away.
Yeager also retreated with him.
The two of them retreated a full ten meters before stopping.
Wilson took out something that looked like a mini remote control and pressed the button lightly. The cyborg prosthesis standing in place suddenly disintegrated, and a liquid that looked like blood spurted out from it.
Hundreds of soft lights suddenly shot towards the gushing blood!
