Volume 16 Tower of Babel Chapter 854 Administrator
"It seems that I was right. This 'hive' is a large shelter." Thirty-three nodded vigorously, agreeing with some pride.
"What do these characters mean? Can they be translated?" Ke Lan asked, pointing to the inscriptions on the inside of the can.
"The 43rd batch is for use by ground exploration teams only." Ze Luo said.
"Only for the ground exploration team?" Ke Lan quickly imagined a picture: the surface of Alpha was completely covered by ice, and the "people" living on this planet were forced to move into shelters built deep underground. However, after a long time, the environment on the surface did not improve at all, and the various resources in the underground shelters gradually became scarce. In order to prevent the shelter from collapsing, the managers had to form a "ground exploration team" and send people to the surface to collect information and resources... If this is true, this ground exploration team is somewhat similar to the relic hunters on the Ark.
"It seems that this canned food should be considered a special supply, and the production volume will not be too large." Thirty-three thought of the same thing as Ke Lan, "The 43rd batch... It seems that this nest has sent many exploration teams to the ground."
"These cans are not used to store food." Ze Luo said suddenly.
"Why do you say that?" Thirty-three was startled. "How did you know that?"
"My intuition tells me that what's in this can is something very dangerous." Ze Luo said seriously.
"Intuition..." Thirty-three's mouth twitched a few times, "These are just some empty cans. Nothing has ever been put in them. How can you 'feel' that the things inside are dangerous? If there are pre-made fragmentation grooves carved on the surface of the can, it is possible that there are explosives inside... But the problem is that this thing is almost the same as the common food cans on the Ark, right? Except that the pull ring on the lid may be a little different."
Thirty-three thought for a moment, then took out a can of "potato stewed with beef brisket" from his backpack, quickly tore off the label, and shook the can in front of Ze Luo's eyes, saying, "Look at this can. Do you feel any danger?"
"That's not what I meant." Ze Luo shook his head. "It's just that when I stand here, I seem to be able to see...they are filling the cans with something...that makes me feel dangerous."
"You can see... Is this the legendary 'déjà vu'?" Sanshisan immediately shifted his focus to Ke Lan. "If it's convenient, can you tell me about Ze Luo's origins? Maybe she has been to this place before?"
"Even she and I don't know Ze Luo's origins." Ke Lan shook her head. "When her self-awareness awakened, she was already on the ' altar ... As for those in the Arasaka Group who knew her origins, they all died in the East 9th District incident. Even if there are survivors..."
At this point, Ke Lan suddenly uttered a sigh: "Huh... I suddenly thought that the Undead Crew might know Ze Luo's true origin. They sent 'World' to carry out the abandonment of the East 9th District module. Could it be that they wanted to wipe out all the survivors of the Arasaka Group and prevent them from leaking this matter?"
"Did the undead crew never mention the matter of Ze Luo later?" Thirty-Three asked curiously.
"They did, but only once. They seemed to have tacitly agreed to let Ze Luo stay by my side and did not interfere." Ke Lan pondered, "The more I think about it, the more suspicious it becomes... After the East 9th District incident, those people from the Arasaka Group who stayed in other districts also disappeared... Although with their level, it is impossible for them to be exposed to secrets of this level. But judging from this method of cutting the grass and eradicating the roots, it does seem to be the work of the Undead Crew... I once thought that the remnants of the Arasaka Group were purged by the heretical sects."
"Zeluo, I remember that you can establish a mental connection with me, right? Then can you share this 'sense of déjà vu' with me?" Ke Lan asked the "three-no" girl.
"I'll try." After Ze Luo said this, he turned into that black liquid again and attached to Ke Lan's back. Ke Lan could clearly feel countless fine tentacles piercing into his neck, going up along the cervical spine, and then drilling out from the gap under the occipital bone, carefully avoiding the rich blood vessels and nerves in the brain, and then penetrating several layers of ligaments and mucous membranes, all the way to the cerebral cortex.
An electric shock-like feeling spread throughout Ke Lan's limbs and bones. He couldn't help but shiver, and then his scalp began to tingle.
Generally speaking, describing the pain in the brain as being like being pricked by needles is just a metaphor, but now Ke Lan can really feel the sensation of those tentacles piercing the brain... Although Ze Luo has tried his best to avoid important blood vessels and nerves, the abnormality from the brain still caused Ke Lan to experience brief symptoms of facial paralysis.
Fortunately, this strange feeling subsided before Ke Lan was about to burst into tears.
"Hoo...Hoo..." Ke Lan gasped for air. "Spiritual connection... is it so exciting? Why didn't I feel this way the last few times?"
"The previous few times were all shallow connections." Ze Luo's voice rang directly in Ke Lan's brain, "But I just tried, and a shallow connection alone cannot share with you the images I saw and the sounds I heard, so I can only use the deepest connection method. If the connection is not made in the cockpit of the Blasphemer mecha, it will indeed make people feel uncomfortable, and it will also cause irreversible damage to the party with weaker spiritual power among the connecters."
"What does irreversible damage... mean?" Ke Lan subconsciously thought of the connection between himself and Valentina.
"If the spiritual connection is too deep and lasts too long, the one with the weaker spiritual power will lose his or her complete personality. In other words, he or she will 'live forever in the shadow of others,'" Ze Luo explained.
"I think I understand." Ke Lan couldn't help but recall his first encounter with the "Black Skeleton" in the cargo hold No. 9 of the "Pioneer" icebreaker. At that time, Ke Lan, who had not yet fully understood his own abilities, tried to control the "Black Skeleton", but his self-consciousness was almost swallowed up by a "black hole" that suddenly appeared in his mind.
At that time, Ke Lan thought that his consciousness was counter-invaded by the "Black Skeleton" when he invaded it, but combined with the symptoms of brain tingling at the beginning, he should have established a mental connection with the "Black Skeleton" unintentionally at that time.
The black skeleton had obviously lost its self-awareness long ago, so what Ke Lan touched was a "black hole" rather than another conscious entity with which he could communicate.
"Are you ready?" Ze Luo asked.
Ke Lan nodded silently.
A feeling that was difficult to describe in words suddenly spread out, and Ke Lan felt that his vision seemed to become blurred... But when the scene in front of him began to blur to a certain extent, he could vaguely see human-shaped shadows walking in the streets and factories.
This image is very similar to the shadowy figure that Ke Lan had seen in the memory fragments before, but there is a subtle difference between the two: the memory fragments are like short films recorded, in which only things and scenes at a specific time and place can be seen; and the "sense of vision" shared by Ze Luo with Ke Lan is more like giving Ke Lan's eyes the ability to go back in time, allowing him to peek into things that happened tens of thousands of years ago through the barrier of time and space.
The bodies of the workers operating the " capping machines" seemed to have been specially modified. Compared with the figures walking on the street, their shoulders and arms were more than a circle thicker, and the edges and corners were also very stiff, not at all like the roundness that biological limbs should have - just like the cyborg mechanical arm on Layton's body.
The workers work in groups of four. One person fixes the empty cans on the machine, the other two work together to carry a seemingly heavy barrel-shaped container, and the last person uses a long drainage rod to guide the contents of the barrel into the empty cans.
Although he couldn't see clearly what was in the bucket, when the liquid was exposed to the air, Ke Lan felt an inexplicable palpitation - he didn't know whether this feeling came from himself or from Ze Luo, who was spiritually connected to him, but in short, when his sight was separated from the liquid flowing on the drainage stick, he felt as if his whole body was standing on end, and he wanted to turn his sight elsewhere immediately, or simply withdraw from the state of spiritual connection.
Ke Lan forced herself to stare at the workers as they worked, pinching her thighs tightly with both hands. She was unaware even of her nails digging into her flesh through her pants and small stains of blood seeping out.
The workers moved very carefully, as if the liquid they were filling was nitroglycerin... But if it really was nitroglycerin, a flammable and explosive substance, although it would be dangerous, Ke Lan knew that she would never have that feeling.
A batch consists of sixteen cans in total. After filling, they have to go through a screening process. Only qualified ones will be transported to other places by rail trains, while unqualified ones will be left behind and pushed to the basement of the factory on carts.
Ke Lan really wanted to follow the cart into the basement to take a look, but the entrance to the basement in reality had been blocked by molten steel. He could only watch the figure pushing the cart pass through the steel and disappear beneath the ground.
"What did you see?" Sanshisan, who was standing by, saw Ke Lan walking towards the semi-open factory with eyes wide open, and hurriedly followed.
"I don't know what they are filling... but I also feel a hint of danger from it." Ke Lan said with certainty, "After the cans are sealed, there is a 'quality inspection procedure'. Qualified products will be shipped away, and unqualified ones will be sent to this basement... but this basement has been sealed with molten steel, so you can't get in."
"Then it seems that we can only follow another clue." Thirty-three continued, "Can you keep up with the qualified products that were transported away?"
"Yes." Ke Lan turned and walked out. After looking around, he chose a track leading to the distance and quickened his pace.
The two of them traveled through the second floor of the hive for a full half hour before finally reaching an empty square. But just as they walked out of the corner, Thirty-Three slammed on the brakes, and hundreds of black flying blades shot out from the hidden bags on his body at the same time, hovering one meter in front of him.
"What's wrong?" When Ke Lan noticed that Sanshisan was in an attacking posture, a hint of confusion appeared on his face.
"There is a platform in the center of the square. Can you see it?" Sanshisan lowered his voice. "On the platform there is a lump of... a lump of rotten meat... This lump of meat seems to be alive. I can see that it is wriggling slightly."
"A piece of rotten meat?"
However, what Ke Lan saw was a little girl with long straight black hair, pale skin, a slim figure, and an age range of about twelve to fourteen years old.
Unlike the other figures, he could see the face of this little girl clearly, so much so that when Ke Lan saw her for the first time, he almost thought that this little girl existed in the real world, rather than the "déjà vu" shared with him by Ze Luo.
She is so real, so real that she is so out of tune with the foggy world in "Déjà vu".
Ke Lan looked towards the lower body of the little girl - don't get me wrong , he is not a pervert with some strange hobbies, he simply wants to know whether this little girl is a "human" or an "Alpha".
But what disappointed Ke Lan was that the little girl's body was only the upper half, like a bust. Her waist was directly connected to a base, and there were many tubes extending from the base, inserted into her back and ribs. Some mechanical structures similar to powered exoskeletons covered her spine and limbs, and the hard and cold metal restraints tightly pinched her pale limbs.
A black robe was symbolically draped over her shoulders, with the outline of her bony shoulders fully highlighted on the surface of the robe.
A mask with a ventilator and oxygen supply tube was buckled on her face, covering most of her face, with only half of her small and delicate nose bridge and a pair of large eyes with purple pupils exposed. Even so, it can be seen that this little girl is definitely not bad looking. If she could be a few years older, she would definitely be called a beauty that brings disaster to the country and the people - according to normal human aesthetic standards.
"Ke Lan, what did you see?" Thirty-three asked in a low voice.
"A... no, to be precise, half a little girl."
"Half?!" Thirty-three was stunned for a moment, "Could it be that piece of rotten meat?"
"I'm not sure." Ke Lan shook his head. Just when he was about to shift his attention to investigate elsewhere, the little girl suddenly raised her head and met Ke Lan's gaze.
She can see me! Ke Lan's heart started beating wildly - with just a glance, Ke Lan was sure that the other person could see her!
Why? Why can she see herself?!
This is Ze Luo's sense of déjà vu. Logically speaking, it should only be considered as a one-sided peeping by Ke Lan and the others... From the little girl's perspective, Ke Lan is impossible to be observed... Why, why is there such a gaze between her and him that is separated by countless time and space?
Just when Ke Lan was shocked, the other party spoke——
"Hello, I am Nieto, the manager of the second level of the hive."
