Volume 16 Tower of Babel Chapter 906 Remaining Oxygen: Five Hours
Unknown waters, underwater city.
Four people and one machine formed a standard reconnaissance and advancement formation, walking slowly on the streets of the underwater city.
The original carpet search plan failed within the first minute of its implementation - 90% of the doors and windows of the buildings in this underwater city were locked. If they were forced to break in, the self-destruct device in the building would be directly triggered. If it wasn't for the Maverick Mech driven by Valentina that broke in , the team would probably have suffered casualties by then.
As for the remaining 10% of buildings with damaged locking systems, everything inside the buildings has been basically corroded by sea water, with only some rotten furniture with only a metal frame still fixed to the ground and walls. A quick glance would tell that these buildings are not worth exploring at all.
Only some inscriptions carved on metal objects or walls seemed to be of some use, but neither the ghost owl who heard the whispers nor the others could decipher the inscriptions written in Alpha script. After entering the underwater city, that strange "revelation" never appeared again. The "magnetic field of illusion" that everyone was most worried about before seemed to not exist at all.
But this did not make the Hounds feel at ease. The previous "revelations", including the smell smelled by the Hounds, the stone pillars scribbled by Chi Hanfeng, and the words "Leave the bed" heard by the Ghost Owl... all showed that there was something wrong with this place. These problems could not disappear for no reason... This kind of metaphysics could only appear in a magical program that had a lot of bugs but could still run stably, and it would never happen in the ruins of the Alpha civilization.
When something is abnormal, there must be something wrong. The absence of any abnormal phenomenon is itself the biggest abnormality.
"This thing should be a road sign, right?" The team came to an intersection. At the intersection of two roads, there was an upside-down stone pillar. The surface of the stone pillar was covered with aquatic plants and a large number of parasites such as corals and barnacles.
Compared with the previous underwater city located under the forbidden sea area and which was extremely clean, this underwater city was much "dirtier"... But this was what the ruins of a city that had been submerged in the sea for tens of thousands of years should look like.
The hound pulled out a dagger, cut through the water plants, and pried off the parasites - the surface of the stone pillar had been corroded and had pits and holes all over it, but fortunately the inscriptions on the stone pillar were all made of Nino alloy, so even if the stone pillar itself was turned into powder, the inscriptions would still remain the same as they were back then.
"Come here and take a look. Can you understand what it means?" The Hound waved to the others.
The other three people immediately surrounded them, staring at the inscriptions for a long time, then looked at each other and shook their heads at the same time.
"Just like the document relics we saw before, we can't understand Alpha language at all." Chi Hanfeng said helplessly, "The whisper that Ghost Owl heard was probably spoken in Alpha language, but it should be limited to specific sentences... If Alpha language can be mastered so easily by us, why would the undead crew go to so much trouble to create a 'symbiont'?"
"I think what Lao Chi said makes sense." Zhuo Ligetu nodded. "Old dog, think about it, those missing soldiers, hunters, etc., only left one sentence of information, and Ke Lan once made an extremely risky attempt - do you remember when the meme crisis broke out, Ke Lan encountered a group of heretical followers in a temporary shelter? There was a black cardinal in that group of followers, and they launched the "Holy Word", which was interrupted by Ke Lan..."
"I remember, Ke Lan said that." The Hound frowned and recalled, "He said that he once leaned close to the other person's ear and said a few words in Alpha language, but the other person only responded to the sentence 'Leave the bed'..."
"The black cardinals cannot understand the Alpha language. The prophet only taught them to imitate the syllables of the 'Holy Word'... They only reacted to this sentence, which means that this sentence is special: perhaps, this is the only Alpha language that ordinary humans can understand."
"Why is it this sentence?" Chi Hanfeng couldn't help asking, "What does it mean?"
"No one knows." The Hound shrugged. "What exactly is implied in this sentence is what Ke Lan has always wanted to understand... But until he set out for the Gray Mist Forest, he didn't find any clues."
"Maybe Ke Lan already knows some clues but didn't tell you?" Ghost Owl said in a low voice.
"Impossible, Ke Lan had no need to hide these things from us... He chose to keep the secret alone in order to prevent us from being put in danger... But later he and we all found out that even if we knew nothing, we couldn't guarantee our safety. With the way the Undead Crew and the heretic sect behave, as long as we are related to them, we will be implicated... Rather than dying inexplicably, it is better for everyone to make things clear. In this way, even if we encounter any problems, we can work together to solve them." The Hound said, "I believe in Ke Lan, he won't hide anything from us."
“It’s hard to say…” Zhuoligetu suddenly shook his head and looked at the old dog deeply. “For some things, not knowing is a kind of protection.”
"I've already told you that even if we didn't know, we couldn't escape this fate... Look, could our current situation be avoided just by not knowing?" There was a hint of annoyance in the hound's tone.
"No, that's not what I meant." Zhuoligetu shook his head. "Before, when Yaguna Kator was confronting the black fleet, didn't Ke Lan remotely connect to Yaguna Kator's control system and hand over the control of the battleship to Layton? At that time, he talked to me briefly in private."
Zhuo Ligetu looks like a burly and rough man, but in fact he is a very careful person with a very high IQ. Among the people who fell into the glacial ruins, Zhuo Ligetu actually had the highest exploration points (personal exploration points are similar to hunting group exploration points, which are composed of the level and number of explorations of the ruins. The higher the points, the higher the qualifications, which is the most important criterion for judging the hunter's personal ranking).
A lone hunter with only strength and no brains could not have completed so many exploration missions alone... If it were in ancient times, Zhuoligetu would definitely be the kind of general who seemed mighty and strong, winning by force, but in fact he was a wise general with a rough but meticulous mind. It's just that his appearance and silent personality would cause misunderstandings among many people who had just gotten to know him... But these people naturally did not include Ke Lan and the others.
"Ke Lan talked to you privately? What did he say to you?" The Hound immediately asked, "Of course, if Ke Lan said something that we can't know, then you don't have to tell us... I believe he must have his reasons for doing so."
"Ke Lan didn't say this explicitly." Zhuoligetu said in a deep voice, "He mainly mentioned to me something called 'forbidden knowledge'..."
"Forbidden knowledge... refers to those things related to the 'God' believed in by the Alpha civilization?" Chi Hanfeng asked with a flash of inspiration.
"That's right." Zhuoligetu nodded. "This thing is just like the 'meme' in the memetic contagion incident. As long as we know the content of this 'forbidden knowledge', we will be corroded by it, and our body and cognition will change... So, for some things, not knowing is a kind of protection."
"If you say so, it's really possible..." The Hound habitually raised his hand to rub the stubble on his chin, but it hit the bottom edge of the helmet of the diving suit with a "bang". After cursing under his breath, he took out his camera and took several photos of the inscriptions embedded on the stone pillar.
Although they couldn't understand these Alpha civilizations, what if they could get in touch with Ke Lan later? What if one of the team members suddenly received some kind of "revelation" and became able to understand these words? Although the probability was very low, it was always right to be fully prepared... maybe there were some crucial clues hidden in these photos.
"Xiao Na, please continue to tell us what happened in the Gray Mist Forest." The Hound said to the Blasphemer Mech, "Although I have heard you tell it once, I always feel that there seem to be many details missing... The whole story seems to be broken up into sections..."
"I feel the same way," Chi Hanfeng agreed. "It's like a script that has been edited very stiffly. In many places, the front and back parts don't match up. It's too jumpy."
"But these are all I remember..." Valentina said, "The environment in the Gray Mist Forest is very strange. I don't know if it's the fog or the trees... They seem to affect our memories. For example, the lumberjack who got lost with us. After he got lost, we completely forgot about the existence of such a person. If Ke Lan hadn't suddenly remembered, none of us would have cared that one person was missing from the team."
Valentina paused and continued, "But even though we later discovered that the lumberjack named Danning had indeed disappeared with Ke Lan's hint, I still had a strong sense of unreality in my mind , as if Danning only existed in my imagination and the entire team had never had this person from the beginning... His disappearance was just my imagination... And the most terrifying thing is that I can't remember any details about this person, his appearance, his clothes, etc. The memories related to him have become extremely vague... As vague as a dream."
"To be honest, I have a bad feeling... I think you're not the only one who got separated from Ke Lan." The hound whispered, "The Gray Mist Forest is too mysterious... I'm afraid that except for Ke Lan and Ze Luo, everyone else has gotten separated now."
"Then..." Hearing what the hound said, Chi Hanfeng's face suddenly became ugly, "If it weren't for Ke Lan and Ze Luo's protection, if other people were teleported to this place, wouldn't they be crushed to death by the water pressure in an instant?"
Valentina was able to survive and find the Hound and their submersible because of the Blasphemer mecha. As for Ivan, Asano Akira and others, with their physical strength, it was impossible for them to withstand the water pressure at the bottom of the sea thousands of meters deep.
"It's bad news, it's bad news..." The hound murmured, "That guy Asano Akira might be able to create a miracle, but Ivan... I'm afraid..."
"No, if Ivan is teleported to the bottom of the sea, he won't necessarily die." Zhuoligetu said, "Don't forget that there are still mutated cells of the Seed of Corrosion in his body. As long as the inhibitor in the prosthesis is damaged, he can survive with the power of the Seed of Corrosion."
"But then, wouldn't he become a 'container'? He would rather die than become a monster." The Hound whispered.
"As long as we are alive, there is always a way." Zhuo Ligetu patted Hound and Chi Hanfeng on the shoulders, "Don't think too much for now. Instead of worrying about them, we should worry about ourselves first... The remaining oxygen generators we have are not enough to search the entire underwater city. If we find nothing else, we can only give up."
"Giving up" was the worst option in their plan. Just as the name implies, they would give up exploring the underwater city and let the Blasphemer mecha float up with everyone. If they were lucky, they might be able to surface, but they always felt that it was impossible to leave this unknown sea so easily... So "giving up" was the worst option. As long as there was a glimmer of hope in other options, they would not choose this worst option.
"Let's keep going forward while there's still plenty of oxygen." The Hound sighed. He glanced at the pressure gauge of the container containing the oxygen generator. The number on it showed that the oxygen generator could last for another six hours... It would take one hour of oxygen to float to the surface from this position, so they would have five hours left to explore.
Five hours, trying to find some clues in this underwater city... is as difficult as climbing to the sky.
"I'm thinking about two things right now. One is that Yaguna Kotor, Ke Lan and the others are safe. The second thing is that the sea is right above us." Chi Hanfeng said.
But at this moment, the Blasphemer Mecha suddenly took a defensive posture, protecting the four people with one arm, and raising the weapon with the other arm, aiming at a building not far away.
"There are signs of life in that building," Valentina said.
