Volume 5: Bottomless Sinkhole Chapter 228 Frankness
"Is it possible... that thing has already left your body without you noticing?" Ivan suddenly said.
"No... I can feel its presence, it..." Ke Lan wanted to say that it was hiding in a corner of his body, but then he felt that this statement was not accurate. "It seems to be everywhere, very strange... It seems to have established a wonderful connection with me. I can sense this connection, but I can't locate it specifically..."
As Ke Lan was talking, he suddenly fell silent. After a long while, he slowly uttered a sentence: "It seems to have dissolved into my body."
"It's possible." Ivan frowned and said, "There are many kinds of crystalline substances that can dissolve in blood... Before analyzing the substance, no one can determine its nature. And Manstein swallowed the crystal after it was wrapped in a layer of protective substance, so it makes sense that the crystal could not dissolve in his body."
He unscrewed the wine flask, tilted his head back and took a big gulp, then continued, "As for the contents of the Iron Maiden, you said that the black viscous liquid looked like oil, so let's assume it was some kind of oily substance. Many crystals that can dissolve in water cannot dissolve in oil, the most famous of which is sodium chloride crystals. But this is just a guess... Alas, it would be nice if there were some samples left."
"Then Ke Lan, is there anything wrong with your body?" Natasha, who had been listening to the conversation, suddenly asked, "Logically speaking, when the dose of a certain compound dissolved in the blood reaches a certain level, the human body will have a corresponding reaction. Have you noticed these changes?"
"Physical changes...to be honest, I didn't notice them."
"However, after the crystal entered my body, I unexpectedly gained a very strange ability."
After thinking it over again and again, Ke Lan decided to tell them about this matter.
"Besides that, there is one thing I have not told you..."
Before this, Ke Lan had been hiding the truth for two reasons: first, she was afraid of being seen as an alien by others; second, she was worried that her teammates would suffer misfortune because of these secrets... But now it seems that continuing to hide it will only bring more misunderstandings and troubles.
These teammates are people worthy of my trust, and I have no reason not to trust them.
…
Three hours later, Ke Lan, Ivan and Natasha returned to the safe house, and as soon as they entered the door, they immediately called everyone over.
"All the surveillance equipment in the safe house has been removed. I was worried and asked Layton to check it four or five times. Even the toilet drain was checked." The Hound said solemnly, "Ke Lan, tell me...you have been hiding something from us. What is it?"
"Old dog, let me ask you something first. If I might be a monster, what would you think of me?" Ke Lan said in a deep voice.
"Are you sure you're not kidding?" The Hound frowned and stared.
"No." Ke Lan shook her head slowly.
The two looked at each other for more than ten seconds, and then the hound suddenly burst into laughter: "Haha... Even if you are a monster, so what?"
The hound continued, "There are still cells of the Seed of Erosion lurking in Ivan's body. If the stalagmite fragments on his body are removed, he may lose control at any time and turn into a large group of tentacles. Do you think he is a monster? Seventy percent of Layton's body parts are iron lumps, and there is more oil in the pipes than blood. Do you think he is a monster? And..."
His voice suddenly became a little low: "And Liao Zilang... He crawled out of the wastewater tank alive. His hard skin was so hard that even bullets couldn't penetrate it. Who among us has ever thought of him as a monster?"
He suddenly stretched out a finger and pointed at his head: "Whether it is a human or a monster depends on your own thinking."
…
"I used to think I was a monster." Asano Akira, who was sitting in the corner, said. The sword on his knees suddenly made a sharp sound. "But then I realized that this is just a kind of ability."
"Thank you." Ke Lan was silent for a long time before he uttered these two words.
"Thank you for nothing!" The Hound couldn't help but say, "In fact, I can roughly guess that your secret is most likely related to the Alpha civilization. It is understandable that you choose to hide it... After all, no one would open up to someone they just met."
"Actually, everything started with that plane crash." Ke Lan took out a photo. The thing in the photo was the stone tablet found in the coffin.
"This thing...isn't it the broken stone tablet?" Leighton said.
"Yes... do you still remember how the stone tablet was broken?" Ke Lan raised his head and asked everyone.
"I remember." The Hound rubbed his chin vigorously. "At that time, you and I went down together to move this stone tablet. Then when it was wrapped with anti-oxidation film, it suddenly broke..."
"At that time, I took off my gloves for easier operation." Ke Lan continued what the Hound said, "When my fingers touched the stone tablet, it shattered."
"Yes, you were so scared that you were stunned at that time." The Hound nodded repeatedly.
"Then do you know why you were stunned?"
"Why?"
"The moment the stone tablet shattered... all the inscriptions on it flooded into my mind!" Ke Lan took a deep breath and continued, "It was at that moment that I suddenly understood the language of the Alpha civilization."
Everyone was stunned. Even though they were mentally prepared, this sentence was too much of a shock to them. They were all experienced relic hunters, and no one knew better than them what this sentence meant.
The first person to react from this sluggish state was Hound. He smacked his lips, as if talking to himself or to Ke Lan, "No wonder... No wonder I always had a strange feeling after that - I always felt that you were very radical in your judgment of some things, but things often developed as you expected... Now I understand, since you have mastered the language of Alpha civilization, you can naturally understand some information that we cannot interpret, so it is not surprising that you can make such a judgment."
"Yes, yes, yes," Layton suddenly interrupted, "especially the time with Leviathan. At that time, Ke Lan, you were so determined that Leviathan was still alive and insisted that I send the message 'Emergency 000'... Fortunately, I did it, otherwise, I would be scared just thinking about it."
"This is why I judge that Leviathan is still alive." Ke Lan took out another photo. This was the black stone tablet engraved with "The place where the giant beast that rules the sky sleeps". Ke Lan roughly translated the content on the stone tablet. Although it was impossible to be accurate to every character, the general meaning could still be conveyed into human language, especially the fact that "sleep" is different from "death".
"Alpha language is a very strange language, which is a bit like 'it can only be understood but not expressed in words', especially the characters on this black stone tablet. If translated literally, there will be more than 300 completely different meanings... But for some reason, when I saw these characters for the first time, the only correct meaning appeared in my mind." Ke Lan said, "So, I think this is probably one of the main reasons why humans have not been able to decipher this language so far."
"That's true." Ivan nodded in agreement. "Some people in the academic community once believed that the Alpha people used brain waves instead of sound to communicate, but later, with the discovery of a large number of documents left by the Alpha civilization, the 'brain wave theory' was refuted - compared with brain waves, words as a carrier of information are too backward... For example, just now, the thoughts that flashed through my head in one second, if recorded in words, would probably take up tens of thousands of words, and if converted to computer language, it would take up even more space."
"That is to say, although Ke Lan has mastered the language of the Alpha civilization, he can't teach these things to us like the language teachers in school?" Zhuo Ligetu raised his thick palm and asked in a muffled voice.
"Personally, I think the language of the Alpha civilization cannot be learned. It can only be mastered by people through some kind of 'inheritance' method." Ke Lan said, "Moreover, this language is not spoken with the mouth..."
"Ke Lan, remember, you must keep this a secret, especially from the Security Bureau and the Research Institute... Although your ability is enough to change the course of human history, from my selfish point of view, I don't want you to die because of it." The Hound said, "Besides, even if humans really need a living translator, it doesn't necessarily have to be you - don't forget, besides you, there is another person with similar abilities."
"The founder of that heretical sect..."
"Yes, that guy. Even if this scum was sent to the dissection table for slices, I would only feel happy. Moreover, since there is a second successor, it means that this is not an isolated case. Sooner or later, there will be a third and fourth..."
…
After knowing the truth, although the Hounds showed the expected surprise, Ke Lan could clearly feel that their attitude towards him did not change much - with the exception of Ivan.
The way this guy was looking at him now was as if he had discovered some great treasure. If the Hounds and the others had not been here, he might have come up to him and asked him for some body tissue or something so that he could take it back and study it carefully.
"In addition to this, there is another ability that I just acquired." Seeing that everyone had almost digested the matter, Ke Lan continued.
"Another ability?" The Hound couldn't help curling his lips. "To be honest, I'm a little numb. Even if you tell me that you can spit out a fireball from your mouth, I won't find it strange."
"What about 'Time Stop'?"
"Huh? What did you say?" The hound stretched out a little finger and scratched his ear hard.
Ke Lan did not explain much, but took a deck of cards from the sofa beside him and held it in his hand, then said to Asano Akira: "Asano, there are a total of fifty-four cards in this deck. I will throw them towards the ceiling later, and then when the cards scatter, you will use your knife to cut about half of the cards into pieces. Can you do it?"
"Yes." Asano Akira walked to the table and stood still, reaching out to grasp the handle of the knife.
"Prepare--"
Ke Lan nodded and threw the whole deck of cards into the air.
With a "swish", the sword was unsheathed, and a flash of sword light immediately covered the scattered cards. When the sword was sheathed, Ke Lan had already turned around. The whole process took less than half a second.
"A total of thirty of the fifty-four cards were cut. Six of them were cut into eight pieces, namely the three of spades, the king of spades, the six of diamonds, the ten of diamonds, the king of diamonds, and the ace of clubs. Three of them were cut into six pieces..."
Ke Lan silently reported the suit, size and number of pieces of each shredded card. However, when the hunters picked up the cards from the ground and counted them carefully, they were shocked to find that they were exactly the same as Ke Lan had reported.
It is not difficult to do this, and any biochemically modified can do it. All they have to do is take a photo of the moment Asano Akira puts away his knife, and then use a computer to make statistics - but Hound and the others all know that every part of Ke Lan's body is genuine original goods, and there is no such thing as electronic eyes.
"So, you just wrote down the suit of each shredded card when time stopped?" The Hound asked with some difficulty, looking at the pile of shredded cards on the table. When everyone else focused their attention on the Asano Showa cards, only the Hound was staring at Ke Lan. But from the time Ke Lan threw the cards to the time he turned around, he didn't notice anything unusual. He didn't even know when Ke Lan activated the ability to "stop time."
"Yeah." Ke Lan nodded. "Just like Asano Akira's swordsmanship, I need to consume a lot of mental energy to use this ability. At its peak, it can only last for about five seconds at most... And, when time stops, I can't move myself."
Just when the skill was activated, Ke Lan tried to move his little finger again, but this time, there was no response.
Maybe it was an illusion last time?
"To be honest, I don't know how to organize my words right now..." The Hound rubbed his forehead helplessly, "You know what this means, right? If this matter gets out..."
As he spoke, the Hound suddenly slammed the table hard, and the fragments of the cards were immediately scattered all over the table .
"No matter what, everyone who heard all this today must strictly keep this secret... Ke Lan told us these things, which means he trusts us, and we can't let him down... In addition," he set his eyes on Ke Lan again, "Ke Lan, unless it is necessary, you'd better not use this ability at will... You Chinese have an old saying, 'A man is innocent, but he is responsible for his possession of a treasure', you should have heard of it, right?"
"And there is one thing I must tell you... Never trust Maginot. He is just a puppet, and the person who controls him is not necessarily a good person."
