Volume 2: The Undersea City Chapter 70: Dark Shadows in the City
Moreover, according to previous intelligence, the ruins of the underwater city were originally built on a small island. Later, the island sank to the bottom of the sea for some unknown reason, and the city of the Alpha civilization was taken down with it. But the city in front of us was obviously not built on land.
The Alpha people's urban architectural style is dominated by polygonal towers that reach into the sky. The towers are interconnected to form a complete urban network. Even if the structures of these towers are stable and the materials used are strong, these buildings cannot withstand the tremendous pressure two kilometers underwater. Unless every gap in the city can be filled with seawater during the sinking process, the buildings in the entire city will be destroyed beyond recognition by the water pressure.
But what Ke Lan saw was a relatively intact underwater city. He couldn't even use words like "ruins" or "wreckage" to describe it, because most of its buildings were extremely intact and there were almost no signs of damage.
Of course, based on this alone, Ke Lan would not come to such a conclusion - the most iconic tower of Alpha City does not exist in this underwater city at all. As far as the eye can see, there are only hemispherical bunker-style buildings, just like giant bowls of different sizes placed on the seabed...
These buildings were designed in this shape from the beginning in order to withstand the huge external water pressure - this is not a land city that sank to the bottom of the sea at all, it was originally built underwater!
But the problem that bothers Ke Lan the most right now is not this, but... where is he?
This is definitely not the "relatively safe area" planned before launching. If there is such an underwater city at a depth of 100 meters, even the micro sonar that Ke Lan carries with him can scan it out, not to mention the big guy on the Pioneer whose power is dozens of times that of the micro sonar.
However, this is definitely not the bottom of the sea - this sea area is hundreds of miles away from the coast, and the shallowest place is thousands of meters deep. If it is at that depth, Ke Lan should feel very difficult to breathe at this moment, and his eyes and ears will also have symptoms such as cloudy vision and hearing loss due to excessive congestion, and he may even faint directly...
But he didn't feel any discomfort now, which meant that this place was definitely not too deep.
"Hmm... This city should be built on a sea platform, but I don't know where the border of the sea platform is..."
A sea platform, also known as an underwater plateau, is a type of underwater highland with a flat top... If the depth here is within three hundred meters, then this sea platform is estimated to be more than one thousand meters above the seabed. Such a behemoth cannot possibly escape human detection.
"It's really... weird..." Ke Lan couldn't help but say out loud Lao Gou's catchphrase.
All of Ke Lan's electronic equipment had broken down, not a single one was spared. Not only that, even purely mechanical devices like the pressure gauge and underwater density gauge had malfunctioned. Otherwise, based on the water pressure and water density data, he would have been able to calculate the approximate depth of his location.
After taking a look at the underwater city so close, Ke Lan gave up the idea of exploring. If he chose to surface now, he might still have a chance to escape from this strange water area...
But at this moment, a dark shadow suddenly flashed by below and flashed into a blind spot of the building where the light of the flare could not reach.
"...It looks like a figure?" Ke Lan's heart skipped a beat. "Could it be... Liao Zilang?"
Ke Lan didn't notice when he disappeared, but if that shadow was him... then why was he there?
If that shadow was him...is he still alive?
From the moment Ke Lan saw the giant eye, the entire test dive operation had completely deviated from the original plan and gradually slid into an unpredictable abyss.
"...Forget it, it's a blessing in disguise. If it's a disaster...if it's a disaster, then screw you." Ke Lan gritted his teeth, picked up the Shark Hunter machine gun in his hand, turned on the safety, and swam towards the city ruins not far away.
Due to the limited range of the flares, they could only illuminate certain areas, and most of the underwater city was still hidden in darkness, so Ke Lan had no way of judging its scale. In short, as far as the eye could see, there were hemispherical buildings everywhere.
The smallest of these buildings has a diameter of about five to six meters, while the largest is over a hundred meters. The surface of the buildings is covered with a thick layer of algae, making it difficult to see the original material of the buildings, and it is impossible to determine the functions and uses of these buildings.
Finally, Ke Lan's feet stepped on the top of a medium-sized hemispherical building, but before he could stand firmly, the algae under his feet suddenly attacked. Several tough seaweeds instantly entangled his ankles and pulled him down with force!
"Even this thing is so aggressive?"
Four pairs of hooks popped out from the front and back ends of the boots and nailed firmly to the roof. At the same time, the propeller thrusters on the feet were pushed outwards, and the sharp blades instantly crushed the entangled seaweed.
More seaweed came up one after another, and the thrusters simply turned into lawn mowers. For a while, algae fragments floated everywhere. The "lawn mower" stopped only when most of the algae on the roof were harvested.
Ke Lan noticed that what attacked her was a kind of black algae shaped like kelp. After being cut, it would emit a large amount of inky black juice. After these inky black juices came into contact with the surface of the diving suit, they would produce a very violent reaction, producing a large number of bubbles and burning black marks on the surface of the diving suit.
"This inky black liquid appears to be extremely corrosive."
Ke Lan retracted the hook, stepped lightly, and floated up again - although these algae could not pose a threat to him, the corrosive juice was very troublesome . If the diving suit was damaged, he might not be able to return to the Pioneer alive.
He adjusted the thruster output to the minimum gear and slowly floated forward. The place where the black shadow had just appeared was not far in front of him. If the largest hemispherical building was used as a landmark, the exact location should be fifty to eighty meters behind the left of the landmark building.
"laugh--"
Another flare was ignited right above the landmark building. A large area that was originally in shadow was illuminated by the strong light, but Ke Lan, who was looking down from above, did not find any trace of the dark shadow.
"Did I see it wrong?"
Just as he was hesitating, the black shadow flashed in his field of vision again, this time, it was farther ahead... The black shadow seemed to be trying hard to escape from the illuminated area.
Ke Lan saw it clearly this time. It was a human-shaped shadow! There was a head on its shoulders, and its torso was connected to its legs and arms. Its size was basically the same as that of a human!
However, at the end of the black shadow's limbs... there were several long and thin unknown objects extending out...
"Could that be... tentacles?" The image of the Seed of Erosion suddenly popped into Ke Lan's mind. That kind of monster could even survive in a vacuum for a while, so the high pressure of the deep sea should not be a big problem for it...
If it really is that kind of monster, should we still chase it?
