Volume 2: The Undersea City Chapter 60 Cargo Hold No. 9
"Can I take a look?" Ke Lan asked immediately.
"Of course, but I hope you don't have too high expectations..."
"Why?"
"The reason why the diving chamber is still on the ship is because it is too heavy and the Security Bureau's aircraft cannot carry it. However, they have dismantled all the equipment and lining inside the diving chamber, and all that is left is an iron shell." Caroline answered for Zofia.
"…Even if it's an iron shell, I still want to see it."
"Since you insist, let First Officer Caroline take you there." Zofia handed the key card to Caroline. "I still have to deal with the aftermath of the battle just now, so I will leave you for now."
…
Cargo Hold No. 9 is located at the bottom of the Pioneer Icebreaker. There are completely sealed drainage tanks in front and behind. It can only be reached by a freight elevator. However, what makes Ke Lan speechless is that even this freight elevator has been deactivated. They can only climb down step by step along the elevator shaft...
"It was done by the Security Bureau. Not only did they dismantle the power supply system, they also sealed off the entire cargo hold No. 9. This key card was a backup card that the captain secretly hid." Caroline said.
She has not taken off her power armor until now. Fortunately, in order to transport goods, the elevator shaft was designed to be very spacious. Not to mention the power armor, even a small mecha can pass through it easily.
"Just for such an iron shell?" Ke Lan couldn't help but complain in his heart: These people from the Security Bureau are really too cautious, aren't they?
"That's not all...there are also a lot of rock samples collected from the seabed by robots from the Security Bureau in cargo hold No. 9. But I really don't know what those things are used for. They are heavy and take up a lot of space. I really hope they can send a transport ship over right away to take away all this garbage." Caroline inserted the card into the card slot on the cargo hold door. The three red indicator lights on the side turned green one by one. Amid a harsh sound of metal friction, the heavy hatch slowly rose - fortunately, the group of people from the Security Bureau were not so crazy as to weld the entire cargo hold door shut.
"Didn't they say there was only one diving chamber? What's going on with those rocks?" Ke Lan was a little confused. Just now in the captain's room, Zofia didn't mention these rocks at all. These useless garbage in Caroline's words were actually precious !
"Oh, those rocks were not collected from the seabed in this sea area, and should have nothing to do with the ruins of the underwater city... Of course, if you are interested in these things, feel free to take them. There are a lot of them anyway, and the people from the Security Bureau won't notice if a few pieces are missing." Caroline said as she walked into the cargo hold first.
The space in the cargo hold was about the size of two basketball courts. The air was filled with a strong smell of rust and engine oil, mixed with a hint of the fishy smell unique to the Alpha Star's sea water.
"Have all the seabed rock samples around the underwater city been transported away by the Security Bureau?"
"They didn't take it away," Caroline shrugged. "They didn't get it at all. This ruins is very strange. Robots will have all kinds of problems as long as they get close to it. Sensor failure, engine shutdown, etc. are still relatively minor. Some robots will simply lose signal and cable detachment, and even recovery is impossible... As for the living... Alas, no one can return to the surface alive."
"This is not so strange," Ke Lan explained. "Many Alpha Civilization ruins have abnormal magnetic fields around and inside them. This has a great impact on precision electronic equipment. Otherwise, at least 80% of hunters' jobs would have been taken away by robots."
"Huh? What about the remaining 20%?" Caroline asked with interest.
"Some of the mechanical robots in the ruins cannot be dealt with. After all, they are dead objects, even if there are people controlling them behind the scenes. There is another aspect, which is the cost issue... In many cases, human life is much cheaper than those top-level robots." Ke Lan replied.
"That's true. Otherwise, all the sailors and boatmen on our ship could be replaced by robots, so I wouldn't have to yell at the top of my lungs all day long." Caroline nodded in agreement.
As they chatted, the four of them had walked to the middle of the cargo hold. On one side was the almost completely deformed spherical diving cabin that Ke Lan had seen in the video, and on the other side were dark black rocks piled up like a small mountain.
"Be careful." At this time, Asano Akira suddenly stepped forward and protected Ke Lan.
"What's going on?" Ke Lan frowned slightly, but out of trust in Asano Akira, he also pulled out the pistol stuck in his ribs and turned on the safety.
"Something is moving inside that pile of rocks." Asano Akira had already pushed the blade in his hand three inches out of the sheath.
"How is that possible? The people from the Rock Security Bureau have been screened several times!" Caroline shook her head repeatedly, "This guy... are you too nervous and made a mistake?"
"I heard it." Asano Akira replied.
"Then...did I hear it wrong?" Caroline's smile was a little stiff. She was shocked to find that the three people she brought down had already entered combat status just because of this sentence. Another hunter with Chinese appearance even had an impact grenade in his hand.
"Don't be impulsive... don't use weapons here. If the sealing bulkhead of the drainage tank is damaged, the entire Pioneer will be in big trouble." Caroline advised.
"Ms. Caroline... you'd better put on your helmet." Ke Lan said to Caroline without turning his head, because he noticed that Asano Akira's blade had been unsheathed to five inches, which was the starting move of the improved version of the Iai Slash.
"There 's nothing there!" Caroline's tone was filled with anger. "My power armor has a biological scanning device, and I can't find any signs of life in that pile of rocks!"
"Just because it can't be scanned doesn't mean it's not there." Ke Lan pulled the slide and loaded the bullet.
"But those stones have been checked one by one by the Security Bureau. If there was anything inside, it would have been discovered long ago!" Caroline shouted.
"What if they were careless?" Ke Lan's first thought was the flesh-eating worms. When he first saw the priestess, he could not see anything unusual. As long as the flesh-eating worms parasitic in her body had not yet begun to devour the host's flesh and blood, it would be difficult for outsiders to discover them - in the same way, if there were some inconspicuous little things embedded in the cracks of a rock...
"It's out!" Before Asano Akira finished his words, he rushed forward in one step, with the sword unsheathed, and an arc-shaped crescent formed by the sword light appeared in front of him.
"Clang!" The sound of metal clashing echoed in the cargo hold. A gray-black shadow almost the same color as the rock quickly shrank back after colliding with Asano Akira's blade, and hid behind the pile of rocks.
"What...what is that?!" Caroline looked incredulous.
"It was too fast, I couldn't see it clearly." Ke Lan shook her head.
"It seems... it seems to be a person," Liao Zilang said with some difficulty, "but... but it seems to have only the upper body..."
