Volume 16 Tower of Babel Chapter 989 Roots
Before Soap and Noir could continue asking questions, a subtle but clear "cracking" sound suddenly came from above their heads, and the next second, a few broken concrete particles fell on their heads and shoulders.
"Hmm?" Soap immediately shone the flashlight upwards, and saw many tiny cracks appearing on the top wall made of reinforced concrete. Some pale roots emerged from the cracks and quickly spread around.
These thin roots look very fragile, as if they would break if pinched with fingers, but as they grow, they burst out with amazing strength and toughness - Soap watched helplessly as a piece of concrete was wrapped by the roots and crushed to pieces.
The concrete used here is high-grade ultra-hard concrete. A 10mm caliber Type 01 rifle can only create a crater a few fists deep on it. To crush it, extremely terrifying force is required... But in front of these pale roots, the concrete is as vulnerable as soft sand.
Even the steel bars wrapped inside the concrete have been completely deformed... This is not caused by the earthquake, but was bent by the pulling of the roots.
"My goodness, is this... a mutated plant?" Soap muttered, "Clown, you just said it's not a monster, what do you mean? I think the scope of monsters should also include plants, right?"
"What I mean is... this thing is not a monster in the underground maze." The clown took two steps back warily. Although one could not see the expression on his face wrapped in the scarf, one could see that his eyes were full of fear through his sunglasses.
"It's not the monster in the underground maze? Do you know this thing?" Noir couldn't help asking, "What should we do now?"
"Like other monsters, lead it to the ground?" Soap took over the conversation. As soon as he finished the first half of the sentence, he immediately shook his head, "No... Plants can't move, so we can't lead them even if we want to..."
"No." It was not the clown who spoke, but Noir. He patted Soap's shoulder seriously , "The fact that its roots appear here means that its body is already on the ground."
The resting place chosen by the four people was only two or three meters deep from the ground. According to the area occupied by the roots, the main body of this "plant" must not be small, and it must be at least ten meters high.
Then most of its trunk must have been exposed above the ground.
"Uh." Soap was slightly startled, then nodded blankly, "No wonder, the clown said this thing is not a monster in the underground maze... So should we just ignore it? Anyway, the more trouble this thing causes, the better it is for us."
"This thing is part of Zeus' plan. To him, this is not a 'trouble'." The clown's voice became extremely cold. "He has spent decades cultivating this thing... Now, the seed has finally sprouted."
"What? Could it be that this plant was planted by that bastard 'Zeus'? What is his purpose?" Soap asked in amazement. At this moment, a few pale roots, as if sensing something, slowly extended to a place less than half a meter in front of him.
Soap naturally would not let these roots touch him, but just as he pulled out the dagger to cut off the roots, the clown grabbed his collar and pulled him back more than ten steps.
"You...what are you doing?" Being dragged out so violently by the clown, Soap was a little confused. "I know that thing can't be touched, but you don't have to be so careful, right?"
The clown didn't say anything, he just took the dagger from Soap's hand and threw it hard at the roots.
The Joker's throwing force was so swift that the tip of the dagger even made a whistling sound as it cut through the air. Soap had no doubt that at this momentum, the dagger would be nailed directly into the metal pipe wall on the opposite side, until only the handle was exposed outside.
However, just as the dagger brushed past those roots, the seemingly extremely fragile white roots shot out at the same time like attacking poisonous snakes, instantly capturing the dagger flying at high speed in the air and wrapping it tightly.
The next second, the dagger made of tungsten alloy and a small amount of nino alloy turned into dozens of metal fragments, which scattered on the ground with a clang.
"Shit... Shit," Soap couldn't help but widen his eyes, "What the hell is this monster?!"
Even though he already knew that the power of these roots was terrifying, he didn't expect the other party to have such a quick reaction and speed... He couldn't help but feel filled with fear - if the clown hadn't pulled him away and let him swing the dagger at him, these roots would probably cut him and the dagger into pieces.
"What on earth is this?" Nuval also took a breath of cold air, subconsciously looked around, and distanced himself from the growing roots. "You seem to know a lot about this thing. Can you tell us some information?"
"I can only tell you that when this 'plant' fully matures, it will turn the Ark... no, all the matter on the entire planet, into its nutrients."
"Hiss... is that so exaggerated?" Soap bared his teeth and said, "Then what is Zeus's purpose? If you say so, then won't he himself become the food for this thing?"
"He doesn't care about this thing. He just wants to dedicate everything to that existence... the 'great god' mentioned by the heretic sect. This 'plant' is the carrier of the sacrificial ceremony. I can even assert that Zeus has merged with it at this time." The clown said, "We are still a step too slow and failed to stop him before that."
"Is this thing really that scary? Is there any way to destroy it?" asked Soap.
"If we want to destroy it, we have to do it as soon as possible... Its growth potential is unlimited. It will first devour everything on the Ark, and then send its roots into the earth of Alpha. While absorbing the substances of this planet as nutrients, it will also drive Alpha out of orbit to collide with and devour other celestial bodies in this galaxy, and its ultimate goal is the stars of this galaxy." The Joker said, "Before it sends its roots into Alpha, humans still have a chance to destroy it... But when its roots penetrate deep into the core of the earth, it will become a part of Alpha... Or in other words, Alpha becomes a part of it. If we want to destroy it, we must destroy the entire Alpha."
Because Subject No. 1197 broke through containment, Ke Lan was unable to see the second half of the second trial procedure... But in the historical documents of the Alpha civilization, the "Crown of Ashes" incident was recorded in detail, engraved on a stone tablet stored in an underground ice storage.
At the beginning, the Alpha civilization did send hundreds of Blasphemer mechas equipped with "annihilation bombs" to the "Ashes" asteroid. According to the estimates of Alpha scientists, as long as fifteen of the one hundred Blasphemer mechas can reach the roots of the "Crown of Ashes", set up the annihilation bombs and detonate them, the Crown of Ashes can be destroyed - as for Ke Lan's trial, it was designed based on this mission.
In fact, the number of Blasphemer mechas that arrived at the roots of the Crown of Ashes far exceeded expectations - a full fifty Blasphemer mechas broke through numerous obstacles, penetrated deep into the roots of the Crown of Ashes, and set annihilation bombs at the target location.
These target locations were also obtained through rigorous calculations - the Alpha Civilization paid a huge price to scan the data of the entire Ash Asteroid and the Crown of Ashes, and established a precise model. These locations where annihilation was set were basically the intersections where the Crown of Ashes' roots were most densely concentrated. If the Crown of Ashes were compared to humans, these places would be equivalent to the heart and aorta... except that the heart and aorta transport blood, while the Crown of Ashes' roots transport energy and matter absorbed from the core of the asteroid.
As long as these places are blown up, the overflowing chaotic energy will cause secondary damage, just like a bomb explosion... The annihilation bomb is just a fuse. The huge energy contained in the Crown of Ashes itself is the big bomb that the Alphas really want to detonate.
Fifty annihilation bombs were successfully detonated at the target location. All the warriors who set the bombs were killed. Just as the scientists had calculated, the Crown of Ashes had its internal energy , resulting in a shocking self-explosion.
The self-destruction lasted for six hours, and the Crown of Ashes was completely turned into "ashes" in the literal sense... However, before the Alphas could start celebrating, a new Crown of Ashes grew out of the big hole left by the previous one.
The two fleets responsible for towing the Ash Asteroid were swallowed up by the suddenly accelerated asteroid in an instant. In just thirty minutes, the newly born Crown of Ash grew to 50% of the size of the destroyed one.
At this time, the Alpha people realized one thing - the Ash Asteroid and the Crown of Ashes were actually the same thing.
In desperation, the Alpha civilization could only activate the backup plan and use star-destroying weapons to completely destroy the entire Ash Asteroid.
Ke Lan didn't know these things, and few people in the Undead Crew knew about them either - the stone tablet was sealed away as a top secret, and the only people who had seen it were The Fool and Zeus, who was responsible for the "handover matters" when the stone tablet was discovered by the Ruins Hunters.
When relic hunters discover valuable relics in the ruins of the Alpha civilization, they have two options: one is to sell them to the Ark official; the other is to sell them to private organizations - of course, the Ark official can also bid with private organizations. If the prices are the same, the official has the right of first purchase.
However, this only refers to ordinary relics. Almost 99% of the "documentary" relics, such as the stone tablets engraved with Alpha characters, have been seized by the authorities, and less than 1% have flowed into the hands of the public through various gray channels.
After the documentary relics are officially purchased, there will be a mysterious "identification procedure" - this identification procedure is only known to the undead crew, and the content is also very simple, which is to let the "symbiont" who has the ability to understand the language of Alpha civilization to make a simple translation of the document content.
Only after it is confirmed that the content of the document does not involve important secrets and will not cause erosion and spread, will it be handed over to the research institute's project team for research. Once a documentary relic is classified as a "dangerous item" or a "core secret", it will be sealed immediately, and even the people in the research institute will not have a chance to take a look at it.
Since this identification procedure requires the use of "human consumables" such as "symbiotes", the entire process must be supervised by members of the Undead Crew in person. When the stone tablet recording the "Crown of Ashes" incident was delivered, the person in charge of supervision that day happened to be Zeus.
"I'm afraid that at that time, Zeus had already come up with this idea in his heart..." The Joker muttered to himself, "Assuming that he had been corrupted at that time... Four years later, in 917 of the New Era... He sent a team to the ruins to retrieve the genetic sample of the Crown of Ashes... His degree of corruption exceeded the critical value, it should be during that time..."
"What are you talking to yourself?" Soap couldn't help asking.
"Nothing." The clown shook his head, "I just think it's a pity."
"What's a pity?"
"My memory is incomplete. There are too many gaps in it. It is difficult for me to recall the entire response plan I made before. I can only implement it step by step according to the steps I remember...but what the final result will be, even I don't know." The clown's tone sounded very strange. He stared at the roots that were still growing and spreading. His lips moved slightly, and he seemed to be muttering something, but Soap and the others could only hear the first few sentences, and the rest of the content was completely unclear.
"Incomplete memory? You lost your memory?" Soap narrowed his eyes and looked the clown up and down. "Is it because of... the sequelae of that power?"
"Amnesia... No, I haven't lost my memory. My memory has been incomplete from the beginning. I just need to let myself know what I should know. Someone else will complete the other parts." The clown said again.
At this moment, a mutant centipede with a body length of more than three meters crawled out from a crack above its head, but before it completely left the crack, it was dragged back by an irresistible force.
As it was dragged back, countless pale roots entangled its body... Before the mutant centipede was dragged into the crack again, its body was reduced to a hollow shell with thousands of holes...
