Volume 16 Tower of Babel Chapter 863: Upper City
The fighting power of the Tunnel Dwellers themselves was not something to be feared, but Thirty-Three felt that they should still give a certain amount of respect to the thermal weapons invented by this human civilization.
Unlike the Ark immigrants who had been drifting in the universe for nine hundred years, struggling for energy and food, and only began to develop weapons technology after finding Alpha, they arrived on this planet hundreds of thousands of years earlier than the Ark. No one can guarantee to what extent their weapons technology has developed in these hundreds of thousands of years.
Who knows whether those guns that look similar to the firearms of the old era will shoot out bullets, lasers... or even... highly compressed plasma balls?
With their technology, there is every reason to believe that they can create individual weapons that can penetrate space barriers.
"Prioritize dealing with targets holding guns. Killing is allowed." Ke Lan nodded slightly.
"Leave it to me." Thirty-three waved his right hand, and more than a dozen black flying blades shot silently at the tunnel dweller who was holding a weapon that looked like a firearm. The latter also reacted very quickly and raised the muzzle of the gun, aiming at Thirty-three.
Ke Lan suddenly felt a strong sense of crisis. Without even saying a word, he grabbed the backpack behind Sanshisan and pulled him back . The next second, the ground where Sanshisan had been standing collapsed, forming a shallow pit about ten centimeters deep.
Although this pit does not look deep, you have to know that the wall of Channel No. 4 is made of two layers of lead alloy several meters thick with graphite sandwiched between them. In order to resist radiation, its density and quality are very exaggerated. It is possible to "print" a ten-centimeter-deep pit on this material in an instant... If Thirty-three was still standing there, even if he was not crushed into a meat paste on the spot, all the bones in his body would definitely be crushed.
As for the black flying blades shot out by Thirty-three, since his operation was interfered with by Ke Lan, these flying blades lost their balance and completely lost their accuracy. Only three flying blades successfully hit the tunnel dweller, and none of them hit the vital parts.
"What the hell is that?" Thirty-three looked at the shallow pit on the ground with lingering fear, "Did this thing directly penetrate Ze Luo's space barrier?"
"That weapon that looks like a gun can control gravity." Ke Lan said, while dragging Sanshisan back continuously - the tunnel dweller holding the "gravity gun" kept pulling the trigger, constantly creating one "collapse area" after another where the two had stayed.
In the blink of an eye, Ke Lan and Sanshisan had retreated more than fifty meters. This fifty-meter-wide open space was densely packed with pits created by gravity guns. The average height of the entire ground was lowered by dozens of centimeters.
"Can that thing fire so many times in succession? Huh... isn't there... huh... energy consumption or overload issues?" Thirty-Three said breathlessly - the feeling of being dragged at high speed was not pleasant at all. The clothes made of special materials were very tough, and were originally designed to prevent wear and tear during movement, but now the collar almost broke his neck.
"The attack... whoosh... seems to have stopped." Sanshisan said as he touched the red and swollen mark on his neck.
"I didn't see the other party reloading or anything like that. It still held its weapon and aimed at us." Ke Lan said, "It should be a distance issue. Although the weapon is very powerful, its range seems to be its shortcoming."
"If the range is still far, then this weapon is invincible ." Sanshisan covered his neck and shook his head vigorously. "There is no trajectory, no delay, it hits wherever you point it, it cannot be predicted or avoided, and no matter whether it is a physical shield or an energy shield... even an external-level space barrier can't stop it... The larger the mass of the target itself, the greater the lethality of this thing... I even think this thing can kill a thunder beast with one shot."
"The prerequisite is that the user can get within fifty meters of the thunder beast." Ke Lan added.
Weapons that can control gravity are indeed abnormal, but compared to the destructive power of "Joker" that can destroy an entire fleet with a wave of its hand, this gravity gun made by the hive civilization at least has certain limitations.
"If I had known earlier, I should have asked that administrator named Neto what kind of weapons are in the hive city... At least we wouldn't be caught off guard like we are now." Thirty-three said.
"Just stay here and don't move. I'll go and grab that thing." Before he finished speaking, Ke Lan's figure disappeared from the spot.
The body of a level nine enhanced human is extremely strong, and its explosive power and speed are comparable to that of a heavy tank equipped with an eight-cylinder engine, but it is still difficult to escape the attack of the gravity gun - during this charge, Ke Lan only relied on the anti-strike ability of the level nine enhanced body.
Of course, this ability to resist attacks does not mean using the body to resist the gravity gun in the hands of the tunnel dweller, but treating oneself as a human cannonball, using Ze Luo's space slingshot to continuously launch oneself, and changing directions frequently during the movement, so that the tunnel dweller cannot lock on to one's position at all, and cannot predict one's movement trajectory - this movement mode is like a billiard ball bumping around on a table, except that this table is covered with invisible walls everywhere, and every time the "billiard ball" touches these invisible walls, it will accelerate again...
If it was someone with a lower level of enhancement, he would probably have fainted the moment he was shot out as a human cannonball.
The ground that Ke Lan stepped on continued to collapse, but the collapse could not keep up with his "pace". Finally, when there was only a distance of 20 meters between him and the tunnel dweller holding the gravity gun, both of them stopped.
Ke Lan stopped because he no longer needed to dodge, while the latter was locked in a pair of shackles that were invisible to the naked eye.
Not only was the trigger of the gravity gun unable to be pulled, every muscle and bone in the tunnel dweller's body was unable to move. It could only watch as Ke Lan walked up to it and pulled the gravity gun out of its hand.
The shape of this gravity gun is somewhat similar to the "P90" submachine gun of the old era, except that there is no magazine on top. Instead, there is a crystal column sealed in a glass tube, the light of which has become very dim.
The muzzle is not hollow. Looking inside, one can see the complex crystal structure and some designs that Ke Lan cannot understand at all...but the gun itself has almost no intelligence. Not only does it have no display screen and electronic sight, it is not even equipped with an optical sight...The only places on the entire gun that can be operated are only three: the trigger, the safety, and the release button of the energy magazine.
The entire gravity gun is filled with a strong mechanical industrial style. Although its internal structure is far more sophisticated than the most advanced electronic equipment on the Ark, its appearance looks like a creation from the 20th century of the old era.
Even the sights had very retro-styled sights and notches. Ke Lan really didn't know how this tunnel dweller had managed to lock and aim so quickly just now...
He turned the gun over and found a string of badly worn inscriptions on one side of the trigger - fortunately the gun's casing was made of high-purity Nino alloy, otherwise after hundreds of thousands of years, not to mention the inscriptions, even the gun itself would have disintegrated.
The inscription was very simple, with only two pieces of information: "Type 105 Prototype Gravity Gun" and "For use only in Weapon Lab No. 2."
"It's actually a prototype?" Ke Lan couldn't help but exclaim in his heart. Even with such a high-frequency attack just now, the reliability of this gun was not a problem at all... What's more, this is a weapon left over from hundreds of thousands of years ago... This alone is enough to show that the Hive Civilization has an industrial level that is enough to crush the Alpha Civilization.
You know, many weapons unearthed from the ruins of the Alpha civilization are no longer usable, especially this type of individual light weapons, the damage rate is almost 100%, only a very small number can be barely used after repair, and the lifespan is only a few rounds or even one round.
"The stuff is good. I'll take it. Thank you." Ke Lan said to the immobile tunnel dweller, turned off the safety of the gravity gun and stuffed it into the backpack behind him.
At this time, Sanshisan also came over. He took a look at the tunnel dwellers who kept making "hissing" sounds but didn't dare to rush forward, and asked Ke Lan: "What should we do with these tunnel dwellers?"
"Ignore them for now, let's go straight to the upper city."
…
…
After two hours of "long journey", Ke Lan and Sanshisan finally walked out of Channel No. 4, which was used to transport hazardous waste... As for the tunnel dwellers, after following them for a few kilometers, they chose to give up and disappeared into the darkness again.
Compared with the lower city area on the second level, the upper city area on the third level can simply be described as “magnificent” - wide streets, tall and beautiful buildings, manors covering an area of more than ten acres, and retro-style townhouses... Even the rich area on the Ark seems a little dull compared to this level.
What surprised Ke Lan and Sanshisan the most was that, unlike the pitch-black lower city area, the entire upper city area was shrouded in a layer of soft white light like sunlight. This made Ke Lan, who was holding a tactical flashlight in one hand and pushing open the baffle of the entrance with the other, stand there in a daze for a full half a second.
But despite being very curious, Ke Lan still remembered the warning from Nieto, the manager of the Lower City: "Don't look up at the dome."
Can’t look directly at the light source?
Could it be that the glowing thing on the dome has been contaminated by the "disaster", and looking at it for a few seconds will increase the degree of erosion on the human body?
Or is it that the light source itself is harmless, but there is something else dangerous attached to the dome?
Ke Lan really wanted to look up, but he resisted the urge and forced himself to focus his eyes on the ground in front of his feet. He didn't even dare to look horizontally, for fear of seeing the dome in the distance entering his field of vision.
Before you have enough information, it is better not to do anything about some deaths.
The reason why Ke Lan was so unconfident was that after he stepped out of the passage, the spiritual connection between him and Ze Luo was forcibly severed.
Ze Luo told Ke Lan that there was a very special "restriction" in the space of the Upper City. This "restriction" was a bit like the force field on the bridge of the "Genoa". In this area, her abilities would be completely ineffective. Not only could she not use the power of space, but even her perception range was compressed to half a meter around her.
After losing this biggest trump card, Ke Lan once thought about giving up, but after thinking it over again and again, he decided to move on.
It would be difficult to make more discoveries by continuing to stay in the lower city... Even if there were, Administrator Nieto would never let them come into contact with anything related to "forbidden knowledge".
"Be careful, don't look up." Ke Lan repeated the warning to Thirty-Three, then took a deep breath, took out the gravity gun, and walked forward.
Although both are garbage disposal plants, the upper city's garbage disposal plant is even more luxurious than the most luxurious buildings in the lower city. The ground of the open space at the entrance is paved with very smooth granite, rather than the alloy plates with anti-slip patterns on the upper floor. Rows of white Baroque-style stone pillars stand on the two floors of the open space. Every few steps, you can see a statue and an empty flowerbed under the statue.
Walking in this environment, Ke Lan even suspected that this was not a garbage disposal plant at all, but the ruins of a temple on Earth... Those broken and collapsed gorgeous white stone pillars, incomplete statues and decorations that could be called works of art... Ruins of this level are extremely rare even on Earth.
However, considering the technological level of the Hive Civilization, it is not difficult to create these things... It seems that it is not that the Hive is not developed enough, but that the living environment of the Lower Level and the Lower Nest is too poor...
Just as Ke Lan and Sanshisan walked to the entrance of the garbage disposal plant, a pleasant female voice suddenly sounded in the space.
"Welcome to the Upper City. I am the administrator of the Upper City, Nieto."
The sound seemed to come from all directions, and Ke Lan couldn't locate the source of the sound at all... But recalling the warning from "Neto" in the lower city, he did not respond to the voice, but continued to lower his head and walk forward in silence.
"The manager of the Upper City... is also called Nieto?" Thirty-three whispered beside Ke Lan, "Could it be the same consciousness? Speaking of artificial intelligence... is it possible to suffer from schizophrenia?"
"I don't know." Ke Lan shook his head, "But Nieto on the second floor told me not to believe anything the administrator of this floor said... It has been contaminated by the disaster."
"She's lying." The female voice suddenly said, "She is the one who was contaminated by the disaster."
